John took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart, and spoke.
"I can."
Steve nodded, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
"I was also planning to talk to you all."
Haven City, a secret underground base.
To prevent any accidents, the authorities had specifically cleared the entire area.
Steve did not see the so-called supreme leader; instead, he was led by John into a special, fully enclosed conference room.
He shrank his size to about two meters and sat casually on an alloy chair.
At this moment, every corner of the conference room was filled with high-tech monitoring equipment.
On the other end of the screens was the highest-level decision-making body of the country.
They sat upright and solemn, staring fixedly at the creature from another world on their screens, cold sweat pouring down their faces.
The footage of the fifty-meter Frost Giant tearing apart the Paranormal domain just now had completely overturned their understanding of reality.
Standing opposite Steve, John felt as if he were facing a prehistoric beast that could erupt and devour him at any moment.
"May I ask... are you natives of this world?"
John cautiously threw out the first question.
Although everyone knew the answer in their hearts, hearing it confirmed in person was still nerve-wracking.
"No."
Steve was concise.
Those two simple words instantly sent waves of shock through all the big figures behind the screens.
As expected! These were true visitors from beyond the heavens!
John took a deep breath and pressed his earpiece, where instructions from his superiors were coming through.
"May I ask, what is your purpose for coming to this world?"
Steve leaned back against the chair, his gaze seemingly piercing through the camera to look directly at those hiding behind the scenes, his tone indifferent.
"Conquest."
"And, the eradication of the supernatural."
Dead silence.
The entire conference room, and even the Command Center on the other end of the screen, instantly fell into a deathly silence.
Conquest?
Was he being that blunt? Not even a hint of diplomatic language?
John felt like he was suffocating, and he hurriedly said,
"Please... please wait a moment."
He stepped out of the conference room, put on an encrypted communication headset, and returned a moment later; for the rest of the conversation, he became a mere mouthpiece.
"Sir..."
John repeated the words of his superior.
"Is there a possibility for negotiation? We can cooperate."
"No."
Steve interrupted ruthlessly.
"My purpose for coming to this world is very clear: to conquer this place and clear out all the supernatural. As for you, you're just incidental."
"The supernatural? Why do you want to purge them?"
"They are useful to us."
Steve said indifferently.
There was silence in the earpiece for a few seconds, followed by an old but majestic voice.
"After all this has been said, what is your attitude?"
Steve stood up, looking down at John from a height, and held up two fingers.
"There are only two paths laid out before you now."
"One, submission."
"Two, war."
The elders behind the screen were stunned; they hadn't expected Steve to be so direct and domineering.
"You are indeed very strong."
The voice came through again, carrying a hint of resentment.
"But with just these few hundred people, wanting to conquer the entire world... I'm afraid that's not enough?"
"Heh."
Steve laughed, his smile carrying a trace of contempt.
"There are two problems with that statement."
"First, we are more than a few hundred people; this is just the vanguard."
"Second, a few hundred people is already enough."
Steve paused, his tone becoming nonchalant.
"Moreover, this world of yours only caught a bit of my interest because of the existence of unique supernatural entities. Our main army is currently attacking other, more powerful worlds. For a broken and weak world like this, I'm just treating it like a dungeon crawl."
Silence.
A long silence.
If what the other party said was true—possessing the ability for cross-realm invasion and fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously—then the level of civilization behind them was simply unimaginable.
"Alright, I'm tired of bickering with you."
Steve waved his hand.
"I'll give you a few days to consider. Whether to live as our vassals or be destroyed along with this broken world, choose for yourselves."
John hurriedly said,
"Thank you for your tolerance, sir. May I know what you need right now?"
"Intelligence."
Steve said.
"Tell me all the locations where supernatural events have occurred, as well as the coordinates where supernatural presences have been sensed. I'm going to collect the cores."
"By the way, do you have a way to extract paranormal cores?"
"Extract cores?"
John was taken aback, then shook his head.
"Apologies, we can currently only seal or destroy them; we don't have a way to extract that kind of pure energy core yet."
Steve thought to himself that it seemed he would still have to rely on his own Research and Development Department to figure out sustainable extraction technology.
"Fine, give me the coordinates."
After obtaining the dense coordinate map, Steve didn't stay a moment longer and left the base directly.
Outside the conference room, several elders watched Steve's departing back, looking at each other.
"What should we do? The other party seems determined, and his strength is unfathomable."
"He is indeed very interested in the supernatural. Those entities that give us headaches and cause countless casualties are like toys in his hands."
"Let's wait and see. First, let's see if his strength is truly as invincible as he says. This world is already broken to this extent; if he can truly end the era of the supernatural, perhaps it would be a form of release."
"Suppress the news for now; don't cause a panic."
Haven City, Old Town area.
Just after leaving the base, Steve directly activated his Spatial Ability and vanished into the void.
He distributed the coordinates to his various zombie clones, letting them act separately, while he himself headed toward one of the coordinates marked as extremely dangerous.
Shuttling at high speed through the Spatial Layers, the surrounding scenery retreated rapidly.
As Steve was thinking about how to farm paranormal cores more efficiently, suddenly—
"Sob... Big brother..."
A sob as thin as a thread of silk rang in his ear without warning.
Immediately after, he felt his left wrist grow heavy, as if it were being gripped tightly by a cold little hand.
"What?!"
Steve came to a sudden halt, his heart filled with horror.
He was currently inside a Spatial Layer!
Previously, Greg was able to enter because Marry felt her clone was nearby and forcibly tore a gap to throw him in to scout the way.
But now, there were no traces of spatial fluctuations around him, and he was moving at high speed, yet he had actually been... caught?!
Steve slowly lowered his head.
He saw that by his left hand, a little girl wearing a tattered white dress was floating in the void.
She was as pretty as a doll and extremely cute, but her large eyes were filled with tears as she pitifully gripped his arm.
"Big brother... can you help me find my mommy?"
The little girl looked up, her voice soft and sweet, carrying a sob.
Steve only felt a chill rising within him.
What the hell is this thing?!
Grabbing someone while completely ignoring spatial barriers?