Drex Valen had a growing suspicion that dimensional travelers from parallel universes were only going to become more common from this point onward.
And for the first time in a very long while, that thought made him uneasy.
Within the material universe, the physical dimension of reality itself, Drex had absolute confidence in his own strength. Even a fully fed Galactus wouldn't be enough to crush him head-on.
At worst, he'd beat the Devourer of Worlds back into space.
But infinite universes meant infinite possibilities.
Somewhere out there, there were probably enemies so absurdly overpowered they made normal cosmic entities look harmless.
Possibly even stronger than him.
And that was saying something.
Black-hole physiology.
Doomsday-level evolution.
The Space Stone.
The Mind Stone.
The Power Stone.
The Reality Stone.
The Phoenix Force.
The Dragon Force.
Even stacked together, none of it gave Drex true peace of mind anymore.
What worried him even more was uncertainty.
He still wasn't completely sure whether his universe belonged to the continuity tied to Nemesis, the primordial entity formed by the Infinity Stones.
Because of that, he refused to gather all six Infinity Stones in one place.
Technically, Nemesis required the seventh Ego Stone to fully resurrect.
But "technically" wasn't comforting.
Who knew whether assembling the six known Stones alone might already attract unwanted attention?
Some universes even had additional Infinity Stones beyond the standard set.
There was one timeline where Tony Stark literally carried the Mind Stone equivalent inside his brain, a variant called the Intelligence Stone.
Unfortunately, Drex had already scanned Tony thoroughly and confirmed this universe definitely wasn't that one.
As for locating this universe's native Hyperion?
Even the Earth-6666 version had no idea.
Drex, however, already had a solution forming.
If he could isolate Hyperion's genetic signature, then theoretically he could create something similar to the Dragon Radar from Dragon Ball, a tracking device specifically designed to locate Hyperion-level DNA patterns.
Assuming this universe even had one.
"Your Majesty," Hyperion said cautiously, lingering fear still visible in his expression whenever Sentry came up, "wouldn't it be safer to locate Sentry first and kill him before he becomes a threat?"
Drex looked genuinely confused.
"Why would I kill him?"
Hyperion blinked.
To Drex, Sentry sounded incredibly useful.
Outside of Gladiator, there probably weren't many people in the Kryptonian Empire capable of matching Sentry directly in combat.
People loved bringing up Hulk fighting Sentry to a standstill, but that comparison ignored context.
That had been World War Hulk.
And Sentry had spent most of the battle suppressing the Void persona inside himself.
A fully unleashed Sentry without self-restraint?
That was an entirely different monster.
Corrupted Sentry variants had casually massacred Avengers and supervillains alike across multiple universes.
Drex had no intention of throwing away such a potentially valuable asset.
Still, Hyperion's arrival highlighted a serious problem.
The Kryptonian Empire lacked enough manpower to prepare for large-scale incursions from alternate universes.
Drex spent several days thinking about solutions.
Then he created a game.
A game released directly on Earth.
Its advertising slogan was simple:
The world's first fully immersive first-person virtual reality experience. One hundred percent realism.
After Blood Battle to the End became a massive success, Umbrella Corporation's second game announcement instantly caused worldwide hype.
Especially because of that final promise.
One hundred percent realism.
Ferrari was one of the people most excited by it.
Not the car company.
An actual person.
A fourth-generation billionaire heir whose grandfather and father had accumulated enough wealth for him to waste money recklessly for centuries without consequences.
Eventually, Ferrari stopped pretending he had career ambitions.
Life was short.
Might as well enjoy it.
Luxury cars.
Beautiful women.
Extreme sports.
Alcohol.
Drugs.
He'd experienced all of it.
And eventually grown bored of all of it.
Then Blood Battle to the End appeared and completely changed his life.
For the first time, Ferrari experienced genuine competition where money couldn't buy victory.
His aim was terrible.
People blew his head off constantly.
And he loved every second of it.
Now Umbrella Corporation had released a second game.
This time the equipment had changed as well.
Instead of a standard VR device, players received what looked like an enormous metallic capsule resembling a futuristic medical bed.
Shockingly, it was cheap.
Suspiciously cheap.
Of course, Drex never intended to profit from the project anyway.
The moment Ferrari logged in, he discovered the game was a massive interstellar role-playing adventure.
And every player began as an ordinary civilian of one of the Four Great Galactic Empires.
The Kryptonian Empire.
Ferrari looked around his surroundings in astonishment.
"There's still no pay-to-win system?" he muttered. "Classic Drex Valen."
Blood Battle to the End had worked the same way.
No cash advantages.
No purchasable stats.
No premium weapons.
Victory depended entirely on player ability.
Ferrari subconsciously loved that philosophy.
Fair competition.
Suddenly, a Kryptonian soldier approached him.
Above the NPC's head floated a title.
Kryptonian Private First Class
Then a selection menu appeared in front of Ferrari.
Sir, I want to become a soldier!
Sir, I want to become a miner!
Sir, I want to become an engineer!
Sir, I want to become a pilot!
…and dozens more.
"So this is class selection?"
Ferrari hesitated immediately.
He had no idea whether the game allowed character resets.
If not, this choice mattered.
Meanwhile, from Drex Valen and the Black Queen's perspective, millions of freshly cloned Kryptonian bodies had emerged from incubation chambers simultaneously… only to stand motionless in collective silence.
The Black Queen looked skeptical.
"You really think this is going to work?"
Using a video game to trick Earth players into participating in actual interstellar warfare sounded utterly insane.
Drex smiled.
The kind of smile that only made sense to someone familiar with the terror of gamers.
"You'll understand soon enough just how useful and horrifying they are."
He had unleashed the Fourth Calamity.
And eventually, the universe itself would tremble because of it.
As long as enemies had health bars, players would figure out how to kill gods.
As long as there were quests and progress bars, players would obey orders with terrifying efficiency while grinding harder than any professional soldier ever could.
Most importantly, maintaining their bodies and reviving them after death was incredibly cheap.
The players still hadn't realized the truth.
Their in-game avatars weren't customizable because those bodies were literally cloned from their own DNA.
Just a tiny genetic sample was enough.
And for an empire controlling tens of thousands of resource planets, mass-producing clone bodies cost almost nothing.
To ordinary Kryptonian citizens, however, the newcomers just seemed… strange.
You could greet them and receive no response whatsoever.
Yet their work efficiency was absurdly high.
They required almost no supervision.
And in combat?
Completely fearless.
Though admittedly, the Kryptonian Empire rarely needed infantry anymore.
Not when Ultramen existed.
Then the forums exploded.
"Holy crap, look what I found!"
A player uploaded footage from inside the game.
The video showed an Ultraman annihilating an enemy fleet.
The response was immediate.
"What the hell is THAT?"
"Is that a boss?"
"Why does it look so cool?!"
Everyone stared at the towering silver giant in shock.
Ferrari replied excitedly beneath the thread.
"I triggered a hidden mission and witnessed a war firsthand. That giant is called an Ultraman, the ultimate biological weapon created through Kryptonian bioengineering!"
Then he dropped the real bombshell.
"I asked my NPC commander about them."
"He said every Kryptonian citizen has the potential to become an Ultraman."
The forum detonated instantly.
"NO WAY."
"There's definitely gonna be insane requirements."
"Forget max-level classes. I'm grinding Ultraman progression no matter what."
And somewhere far away, Drex Valen watched the chaos unfold with quiet satisfaction.
The galaxy had no idea what was coming.