Chapter 28: Has anyone watched the manga or anime of the Lord of Fate?

Or perhaps they shouldn't be called creatures.

Even Eria himself found it difficult to judge what exactly was tethered to the ends of his chains. They were more like extensions of the chains themselves, growing out from them. The ends of those silver-white chains were no longer tightly coiled; instead, they had transformed into bizarre, linear organisms. These creatures lunged fiercely at the kangaroos running rampant through the streets, easily knocking their opponents to the ground without any need for Eria’s direct control.

Eria avoided looking at the nearby kangaroos, lest he make this already surreal scene even more absurd. He stared thoughtfully at the center of the battlefield, realizing that the animal leading the linear creatures in their massive counterattack was, in fact, a "dog." Like all two-dimensional creatures in stories, it could only be seen in its entirety from a specific angle; otherwise, it was just a straight line that was easy to overlook.

However, its artistic style differed from the other messy, shapeless linear creatures—it was significantly more refined. If the other linear creatures looked like randomly generated abstract paintings, this linear dog appeared to be a meticulously crafted work of art. More importantly, it possessed three heads, each with bristling fur and sharp, savage fangs, looking quite menacing.

Yet, it did not kill any of the kangaroos. It merely used movements that seemed incredibly strange to a three-dimensional observer to throw them into a daze before trotting back, wagging its tail, and sitting at Eria’s feet, panting and waiting for something.

Eria looked down at it with hesitation.

The linear Cerberus, finding no sign of its expected reward, gradually grew dejected. It circled Eria twice, its flame-spewing nose sniffing incessantly as if to confirm that Eria was still its master. Once confirmed, it became even more disheartened by its master’s uncharacteristic behavior, turning away listlessly to head back to the battlefield.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Eria refrained from reaching out to pet it—even though he could tell the three-headed dog was hoping for it.

The main reason was that he truly didn't know what there was to pet on a spine that consisted of nothing but a single line. Humans liked petting fluffy, warm little animals, sure, but did this dog possess a single one of those qualities?

In the end, he simply stood motionless, waiting for the chaotic battle to conclude entirely. When not a single kangaroo remained visible on Chinatown’s streets, he tried to extinguish the light on his ring, and the massive Book of Destiny behind him vanished along with it.

During this process, the three heads of the Cerberus scrambled to crowd closer, presumably wanting to rub against Eria’s legs. However, since Eria had already removed the power ring, it had no choice but to vanish, unwillingly, along with the surrounding projections.

Strange. Eria thought to himself. He had never heard of any power ring user capable of manifesting creatures with autonomous capabilities. Was the specialty of that dog derived from the Book of Destiny or from the creature itself?

Once the street riots subsided, the terrified Metropolis citizens hiding in their rooms cautiously poked their heads out. Worried about being swarmed, Eria immediately turned and vanished into an alleyway, though even then, a few brave souls managed to record footage of his battle.

When he returned to the supermarket, he heard an employee excitedly holding up a phone, saying, "It’s the Yellow Lantern—the same superhero who helped Superman save people on the bridge last time! God, it’s lucky he came to Chinatown today. Maybe he lives around here? I wish I could have taken a selfie with him!"

The supermarket owner, adjusting her reading glasses, urged the young child beside her, "Hurry and help me check which department I need to contact for insurance claims on the damaged property! Even if the superhero defeated the kangaroos, my pickled vegetables are gone forever, just like my late husband!"

...

Eria’s ears were bombarded by a mix of languages.

He suddenly realized that this chaotic life might continue for a very long time, or perhaps never end at all, as Superman soon called him: "Eria? May I call you that? I heard the news that you appeared in Chinatown. Thank you for helping to control the situation, but there is still some remaining work here, and perhaps you’d be willing to help. The location is near the Schuster Arena; we’ve discovered the portal used to transport the kangaroos."

**

The heads of the Australian Miracle Factory, along with their secretaries and staff, were, unsurprisingly, arrested.

It was, without a doubt, a case of animal cruelty.

Even if kangaroos outnumbered humans, sending them into battle was inhumane. After consultation with experts, it was decided that these poor kangaroos would not be put down, but would instead be sent back to their homeland once the special agents in their systems had been metabolized and they were confirmed harmless. Grey kangaroos have no fixed breeding season; if the testing and processing took even a little too long, there might be more of them returning than when they first arrived—a never-ending cycle of descendants.

The Australians would be happy, presumably.

But the head of the Miracle Factory, Brian Lynch, was not happy at all. He sat in the interrogation room, covered in cold sweat, his usually shrewd eyes overflowing with panic: "This is a conspiracy! I never imagined something like this would happen!"

"Imagine what?" the police officer asked. "That your kangaroos wouldn't be able to beat Superman and that new superhero? Fair enough, we heard you thought your serum could rival Captain America's."

Snickers could be heard from outside the interrogation room.

This international joke had recently been reported by the media of various countries at the speed of light, becoming so popular that the mere mention of "kangaroos" in public would cause people to burst into laughter. Some Australian patriots considered Brian Lynch a disgrace because his failure in criminal enterprise was so obvious, with abilities far inferior to those imaginative Americans across the ocean. However, they also admitted that this made the damage caused by Lynch less severe, so there was an upside.

Lynch heard the voices mocking him, and more sweat broke out on his forehead. He stammered, "I... I..."

He stuttered for a long time, seemingly wanting to defend himself, yet for various reasons, he held back, his lips merely quivering, looking somewhat unwilling to accept his fate.

Lynch didn't know how to explain it either.

But at the beginning, this laboratory, built with a massive investment, was indeed intended to create super soldiers. He had painstakingly scouted talent from around the world, assembled research teams, and spent heavily on weapons... and he was indeed learning from his predecessors in the industry, hoping to study some unsavory things on similar subjects.

Then, one day, things suddenly seemed to go wrong.

Lynch vaguely remembered that about a year or two ago, a biologist who had graduated from ETH Zurich rushed into his office, shouting excitedly, "We’ve had a major breakthrough!"

Lynch was initially skeptical, as, according to his projections, it would take years to successfully replicate and popularize a miracle achieved by the Americans decades ago, and their lab had only just been established. Harboring the sentiment, "If you dare to fool me, I’ll feed your bodies to the crocodiles," he followed the biologist to the lab and saw the so-called "breakthrough" with his own eyes.

It was a kangaroo.

It was, of course, a kangaroo.

The kangaroo was leisurely munching on a potted plant in the supposedly sterile lab, its triangular head, reminiscent of a bicycle seat, chewing and wriggling constantly. Lynch watched this scene, feeling a sense of intense trance. The biologist’s excited voice took a long time to register in his brain:

"Boss, we were thinking about it all wrong. Why must a super soldier be human? There are only 100,000 people in this city; if 10,000 go missing, it’s incredibly noticeable. But have you thought about how many kangaroos there are in the wild? And what about the crocodiles that lunge at you when you pass by in the morning or evening, or the sharks that tear at you when you walk along the coastline... no one cares if they live in the ocean or if we keep them in fish tanks. And in terms of individual combat power, they are far superior to humans. So, why don't we shift our approach and try making super kangaroos or super sharks?"

Lynch was so angry he laughed, intending to refute him immediately.

But he felt that sense of trance once again.

The kangaroo was pacing in front of him, its thick, powerful tail swinging back and forth, the fur on its spine as lush as a dandelion. A voice whispered in Lynch’s ear: Your subordinate is right. A kangaroo... it is much stronger than a human and far easier to exploit...

The kangaroo in front of him turned its head curiously to look at him, looking at this hairless, upright-walking, strange monkey, seeing his sweat-drenched face, his red-rimmed eyes, and his expression of extreme agony. The biologist beside him also had grotesque veins bulging on his face, yet he wore a peaceful, trance-like smile. After a few seconds, or perhaps a few centuries, Lynch felt a sudden spark of affection for this kangaroo, feeling there was no animal in the world more adorable.

He said, "Good idea. Let’s do it."

Later, Lynch expressed high praise for the research team. No one raised any objections, and the situation drifted off its original track silently and without warning. It is worth mentioning that to ward off animal rights organizations, they never conducted any inhumane experiments on the kangaroos—even though these lunatics had never previously refrained from crime out of fear of the police.

Now.

Lynch thought, drenched in cold sweat. How could I have done such a thing? How could the people around me watch me do this without stopping me?

Even if they were all controlled by some powerful force, what about the clients and buyers?

Had this group of people gone crazy too?

Yet, in front of the police and the judge, he dared not say a word more.

If he admitted that he intended to target humans, he might lead them to the mastermind, but it would also make his own charges much more severe.

The sudden clarity and the unknown, powerful enemy filled Brian Lynch with immense fear. He sat restlessly, panicked, his mind racing with one outrageous guess after another, each making him tremble and unable to control himself.

He bit his trembling lip and thought: There is still a way... there must be a way...

Right! The buyer!

Lynch’s eyes brightened, and he said to the police: "I have a buyer! I suspect he has ties to HYDRA!"

The police officer in charge of his interrogation froze.

Lynch recalled Gale’s words and actions, finding it increasingly plausible: "He’s an American. He bought kangaroos from me to counter the superheroes. Most importantly, he said his lifelong dream was to 'have a row of Captain Americas displayed in his home'! Who but HYDRA would say something like that?"

The police officer’s expression immediately turned serious.

She exchanged a look with her partner and said, "Suspend the interrogation. You two, go notify the person in charge to come over."

**

Gale, through the portal, heard his father’s voice coming from the other side of the Earth.

"The other side is Australia...?"

"That’s right. A small city in the Northern Territory of Australia, home to one of the country’s most important military bases."

"And the kangaroos?"

"Still unclear. Metropolis has doctors ready at all times, but we lack trained veterinarians... It might take another day or two before people know whether these little animals can return to the lives they are meant to lead."