Sometimes, life's ups and downs were too fast.
Ten minutes ago, the Gladiator was full of confidence.
He thought he was the strongest warrior in the universe, and even Ronan, the Accuser, wasn't taken seriously.
Ten minutes later, this pride and honour were like fragile bubbles.
Punctured and disappeared without a trace.
"Why is this happening? Clearly, meeting an opponent who can put up a fight should be a source of joy ..."
Kallark muttered to himself.
He couldn't believe it; he didn't want to believe it.
The Gladiator could accept the fact that he suffered a failure.
Because any warrior would experience setbacks and trials soaked in blood and fire.
Just like forging a sword, it was constantly beaten and quenched.
Repeated countless times to bring out the sharpness.
The only difference between the strong and the weak was to see who could successfully persevere and come out the other side.
So, the Gladiator wasn't afraid of failure.
But he ... couldn't accept that he'd lost so badly!
If the two sides were fighting a fierce battle, fighting each other to the death, blazing through everything….
In the end, Kallark was slightly inferior and was narrowly defeated by his opponent.
It didn't really matter.
But ...
Judging from Luke's actions just now, the Gladiator could feel the gap between himself and the other party.
Not a chasm that he could cross, but a vast galaxy with no visible edge!
'He's too strong!'
It was the kind of power that far exceeded Kallark's perception!
The Gladiator, once proud of his strength and physique for the first time, found that he was weak and powerless.
"Can you stand up?"
Approaching the collapsed Kallark, Luke looked down at him.
He wasn't heavy-handed, and with the strong physique of the Captain of the Imperial Guards, there shouldn't be a severe injury.
At his peak, the Gladiator was at a terrifying level, capable of penetrating deep into the core of the sun and tearing through a black hole.
"Cough cough ..."
Kallark opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something.
The legs supported the charred body, which kept swaying like a child learning to walk.
When his eyes made contact with Luke's, it was as if he had been struck by lightning.
His whole body shook and fell down with a bang.
There was a flash of sorrow in the Gladiator's eyes; he would forever live in the shadow created by the other party from now on.
The man's confidence could never be recovered!
"Ah, that ... shouldn't be."
Luke's mouth twitched.
The Captain of the Shi'ar Imperial Guards was obviously mentally scarred.
He didn't feel like he had done anything excessive, 'Why did Gladiator suffer such a big blow?'
Seeing that the other party couldn't stand up, Luke had no desire to continue the fight.
Once the system had ruled that he had won, he looked up at the Collector.
"Let's congratulate …"
Taneleer Tivan trembled as he picked up the microphone.
There weren't many people left in the spectator stands of the gladiatorial arena.
Apart from the warriors of the Kree Empire, only the Royal Guards of the Shi'ar Empire were left.
In addition to Zod and Faora.
The rest of the crowd had long since fled, scrambling out of the gladiatorial arena.
After all, no one wanted to be the unlucky victim caught in the crossfire.
"According to Ronan's agreement, the stakes belong to the winner, and Knowhere will be responsible for supervising the transfer and handover!"
Seeing that there was no one there, the Collector didn't bother to maintain his poise and simply finalised the rights to the planet.
By definition, as an Elder of the Universe, what big scenes had he not seen before?
But when the Gladiator was defeated, with no room to fight back...
Taneleer Tivan was a little scared. 'When did another terrifying supreme being appear on Earth?'
...
...
The days that followed were devoid of unnecessary twists and turns.
Luke defeated the Captain of the Guards of the Shi'ar Empire, and Zod defeated the Supreme Accuser of the Kree Empire.
They were undoubtedly powerful and succeeded in winning that resource planet.
The Gladiator and Ronan were both sent back to their home planets to recuperate from their injuries.
No one had the courage to say anything else about where the stakes would end up.
Because Luke and Zod weren't only powerful individuals, they also had three fleets parked at the gates of Knowhere.
Finding out about that, the Collector's attitude became welcoming and respectful.
Taneleer Tivan treated them like supreme VIPs, honestly searching for a suitable habitable planet for Zod and graciously granting numerous requests.
It was only at this point that he sort of understood why the Grandmaster had sent these atomic bombs to Knowhere.
Despite cursing in his heart, he still had to put on a good face.
The Collector was generous enough to give Zod several ships full of slaves that were supposed to go to Sakaar.
This made a big change to the Kryptonian General's impression of Taneleer Tivan.
After settling the chores at hand and leaving the task of rebuilding Krypton to Zod...
Luke found a quiet room and started the lucky draw.
As usual, a dazzling mass of light bursts forth, like a spinning wheel with various Superman cards.
"Stop."
Luke's eyes flashed with anticipation.
[Card extraction completed]
[Cyborg Superman]
"Hank Henshaw?"
Luke's lips curled up at the corners. 'The addition of a mechanical control-like, tech-making ability would be nice.'
Cyborg Superman, whose real name was Henry 'Hank' Henshaw, was a human scientist who first appeared as part of LexCorp.
The character was the all-too-common 'genius scientist' from the villain's camp who, together with his wife, went on a scientific research trip on a spacecraft and was accidentally exposed to high levels of solar radiation.
The spaceship crashed, but Hank Henshaw survived -- taking a different form of life.
At the last moment, he uploaded his consciousness to Lex Corp's mainframe and assembled a body with machinery.
This was the earliest version of his origin story, somewhat similar to a mix of Fantastic Four + Ultron.
Of course, given that the two companies have 'borrowed' from each other, it was hard to say who was paying tribute to whom.
The Cyborg Superman story, which was later changed a couple of times, became Hank Henshaw was picked up by Darkseid in Superman Dynasty and modified using Apocalypse's technology.
All in all, this card was characterised by extremely impressive mechanical modifications, as well as capabilities such as Computer Hacking.
When he opened the character panel, the stats had been refreshed.
Host: Luke (Luke Cavill)
Loaded Card: Superdemon, Devastator, Super Kryptonian, Cyborg Superman.
Level: LV4
Ability: .... … ....
A lot of relevant knowledge came out of thin air and entered his mind. Luke closed his eyes and digested it for a while, then slowly exhaled a long breath.
He scanned the technological equipment in the room and the household appliances. Lines of precise data emerged in his eyes.
Not only that, Luke could sense a novel ability that was different.
As long as he felt that he could build something, to some extent, he could ignore the principle and process and directly assemble it.
"I think I can do it ..."
Out of curiosity, Luke casually dismantled a remote control that controlled a smart device and attached it to the long oval communication device.
And then --
Something strange and vibrating took shape.