Chapter 1 The Boom

Boom—

Accompanied by a loud noise, the Queen of Worms’ “Mount Tai Press” landed squarely on Dr. Epileptic.

Judging by appearances, the Queen of Worms was similar in size to a small elephant, weighing perhaps two or three tons at most.

But in reality, she weighed...two hundred and ninety-seven tons.

Her weight alone was greater than the combined weight of the Tin Powder and its passengers. If it weren't for the gravity adjustment system installed in the spacecraft (gravity control was a basic technology of the interstellar colonization era; moreover, most technologically advanced races equipped their spacecraft with systems to address survival imbalances such as gravity, pressure, and oxygen environments for different species; and the Super Union, with Frog-Man and Foil-Man at the helm, naturally possessed all the best technology, so this wasn't a problem), the ship wouldn't have even been able to take off with her on board.

Right now, the Queen of Worms’ nearly three hundred tons of weight came crashing down, and the resulting destruction was entirely predictable…

In an instant, another earthquake-like tremor erupted, and the ground shook for several kilometers around. The fragments of buildings and dust around the point of impact were scattered by a "shockwave," flying everywhere.

"Uh...cough...uh...cough..." A few seconds later, Lucky-Man coughed a few times, brushed the dust off his body, and reminded, "Be careful, Queen of Worms, he won't die from just that."

Although Lucky-Man was standing in a very dangerous position, he was lucky...he wasn't hit by any of the flying debris. As for the shockwave, he could withstand it; after all, he was born on a high-bouncing planet and was at least eight times stronger physically than an Earthling. So, after the impact, he only flew backward a dozen meters and got a face full of dust; nothing else happened.

"I know," the Queen of Worms responded quickly. At this moment, she was in the center of a huge crater, slowly shifting her body. "I'm just holding him down for a moment, so he doesn't escape."

"Don't worry, I won't run..." Unexpectedly, before the Queen of Worms could finish speaking, Dr. Epileptic's cold response came.

Even the Queen of Worms was surprised by this, because...even Toxic-Man himself couldn't recover so quickly after such an attack.

"I'll give you one more chance..." However, the Queen of Worms didn't flinch in the face of this situation. She continued, "If you help us cure Toxic-Man, I can..."

"I don't need you to let me off the hook," Dr. Epileptic interrupted. In the same second, his body reassembled itself on the edge of the crater, transforming from liquid back into human form.

"Then...I have nothing more to say to you," the Queen of Worms said, her tone turning cold.

After speaking, a vortex-like opening appeared on her massive body, and two creatures resembling mosquitoes rapidly flew out.

Although they looked like mosquitoes, they were larger than an adult human, and some details of their bodies were different from mosquitoes. For example...their antennae and mouthparts were all constructed like weapons.

"Only sending two out...is that enough?" Dr. Epileptic looked at the two "soldier insects" with an unhurried attitude.

However, in the next second, the soldier insects gave him a satisfactory answer with their actions...

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

Only two soft sounds were heard, like a breeze passing by.

But Dr. Epileptic's body had already been easily cut open like tofu, divided into several sections in the air.

Since the attacks launched by the two soldier insects were all "slashes," Dr. Epileptic wasn't turned into juice this time, but into chunks...

"To think there would be such spee..." Dr. Epileptic's severed head was just about to make a comment.

As a result, the two insects slashed again and again, cutting his head into dozens of mahjong-tile-sized pieces.

In this case, sending these two insects to deal with Dr. Epileptic...was indeed enough.

Of course, this didn't mean that the Queen of Worms was underestimating the doctor. In fact, it was precisely because she valued her current opponent that she sent out these two "super soldier insects."

…………

Here, let's explain the Queen of Worms' abilities.

First of all, it's not quite accurate to understand her as a "person."

Strictly speaking, rather than saying the Queen of Worms is a living creature, it would be more accurate to say she's like a "complete ecosystem."

The Queen of Worms has a hyperspace within her body. Its exact size is unknown, but what is certain is that...about several billion insects live in this space.

The types, numbers, and abilities of these insects are all controlled by the Queen of Worms. When needed, she can make them rapidly reproduce or create new, specialized varieties in a targeted manner.

The insects themselves don't have the ability to think independently; they basically act on collective consciousness. And the only individual that controls all the insects and acts as the "brain" is the Queen of Worms.

To the creatures inside her, she is like a god; she herself exists in a higher dimension, but she can also communicate directly with those lower-dimensional creatures in some way.

And the Queen of Worms' main ability is to mobilize the insects in her body to fight.

There are insects that are impervious to blades and spears, insects that can withstand tens of thousands of degrees of heat, insects that can move freely at minus two hundred degrees Celsius, insects that feed on radioactive materials, insects that can secrete corrosive liquids, insects that can generate magnetic fields, and so on and so forth.

And the two "super soldier insects" that the Queen of Worms sent out at this moment were extremely mutated species. There are only two of these insects in her body. They are prepared for truly powerful enemies and are similar to "super insects"...The combat capabilities of these two soldier insects are even stronger than those of the Super Union's "Green Meteor" years later, and they are already at the level of a galactic hero.

In addition, the Queen of Worms has another characteristic—super durability.

Ordinary punches and kicks aside, even Mr. Mediocre at full power couldn't pose a fatal threat to her with physical skills.

As for cold weapons...refer to the previous point. The density of that three-hundred-ton body is so high that it almost surpasses all known metallic substances. Even if there were a substance that could cut the Queen of Worms and someone made it into a weapon, probably no one could lift it...Even if they could lift it, the force required to complete the cut would be even greater.

As for hot weapons...from handguns and cannons to lasers and nuclear weapons, either they can't penetrate her outer skin at all, or the energy after penetrating the outer skin is entirely absorbed into the hyperspace in her body and turned into nothing.

In summary, the Queen of Worms is undoubtedly also a hero with great "villain" potential. Like Toxic-Man, she has the full potential to bring great disaster to the entire universe.

As long as she is willing, the endless "army" in her body can help her easily conquer any inhabited planet and destroy the civilization on it.

And facing such an existence...Frog-Man and Foil-Man must be secretly researching and preparing for it. Unfortunately, just as they can't figure out how to deal with Toxic-Man...they also can't find a way to deal with the Queen of Worms.

…………

"This won't do, Queen of Worms," Lucky-Man, who had witnessed this scene, said again. "No matter how many times you destroy him in this way, he will still recover, and...look..."

As Lucky-Man spoke, he pointed to the two super soldier insects.

At this time, the front antennae of the two soldier insects were visibly rotting, and the insect shells on their bodies were gradually changing color and falling off. The surface of the shells was also seeping a lot of strangely colored liquid, which turned into white smoke upon contact with the air.

"Ah...I understand all of this," the Queen of Worms responded calmly. "When I knew that he had abilities similar to Toxic-Man, I was already mentally prepared for this..."

As she spoke, the two soldier insects began to collect the fragments of Dr. Epileptic's body with their mouthparts...and absorbed them into their bodies.

In that instant, Lucky-Man suddenly guessed what the Queen of Worms was going to do. His expression changed drastically, and he asked, "Wait...is this really okay?"

"This is the only way I can think of," the Queen of Worms replied. "Even if foreign creatures are swallowed by me, they will only enter my 'stomach,' which exists in this dimension, and will not enter the hyperspace in my body. But...if I grind him into tiny fragments or liquid, and then let my soldier insects absorb them into their bodies, I can successfully bring them in..."

"But...if you lock him up inside, aren't you in danger?" Lucky-Man asked worriedly.

"I don't know..." the Queen of Worms replied. "However, I've speculated that if Toxic-Man himself were swallowed by me like this...then he should die inside." She paused for half a second, then added, "Because...the speed at which he poisons the insect swarm can't keep up with the speed at which I control their reproduction. In the end, he will die of exhaustion under the constant attack of the swarm."

As she was saying this, the two soldier insects had already absorbed all the fragments of Dr. Epileptic's body and were flying towards the opening on the Queen of Worms' head.

"To put it another way..." the Queen of Worms was still talking to Lucky-Man. "Even if he kills all the insects in my body, it's useless...As I said just now, 'foreign creatures' can't travel back and forth between the hyperspace in my body and this world. Whether entering or exiting, he must rely on the bodies of the soldier insects, but the soldier insects are controlled by me...I won't let him out. If the soldier insects die, he loses the vehicle to get out. Even if I die, it will only cut off the connection between the two spaces, and he still can't leave the hyperspace."

At this point, the two super soldier insects had already flown back and entered the Queen of Worms' body. Although their bodies were already on the verge of disintegration from being corroded by poison when they flew to the entrance...they still managed to fly in.

"Okay...this should allow me to breathe a sigh of relief," the Queen of Worms continued after a few seconds. "Next, it's all up to me."

Lucky-Man muttered, "Um...then...shall we go back to the ship first?"

"Sure," the Queen of Worms replied calmly. "Go back first, then we'll think of a pl..."

However, she stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence.

"Something's wrong..." Suddenly, the Queen of Worms' tone changed, and she muttered to herself, "How could he...this is...Damn it! Get away from me!"

"What? What's wrong?" Lucky-Man didn't leave; instead, he took a few steps forward, wanting to help the Queen of Worms.

His reaction was normal because he had never considered that anything "unexpected" would happen to him.

However, in the next second, something happened that shocked everyone...

Chi—

A beam of light suddenly shot out from the Queen of Worms' body, breaking through the outer skin of her body and hitting Lucky-Man right in the face.

The defenseless Lucky-Man was hit squarely...

Then, one beam, one beam, and another...until hundreds or thousands of beams of light shot out from the Queen of Worms' body.

The Queen of Worms immediately let out a heart-wrenching scream, and her body was gradually swallowed by the beams of light that shot out from the inside...

And Lucky-Man, who was standing next to her...had actually died when the first beam of light hit his head. After that...his body, which had not yet fallen, was pierced by countless beams of light and turned into ashes along with the Queen of Worms.

This wasn't the end...The beams of light that shot out in all directions almost destroyed everything around them, which obviously also included the Tin Powder ship in the air.

Because the beam of light came without warning, the ship's protective shield didn't have time to open, and the hull was already damaged...Fortunately, Foil-Man reacted quickly, immediately opened the protective shield manually, and controlled the ship to make an emergency landing.

Calling it an emergency landing...was almost like "falling down." Fortunately, it was only a few hundred meters high, and the engine's levitation power still played a role to some extent, so the hull didn't break apart. As for the heroes in the ship...even the weakest member of the headquarters was fine, and the others were naturally unharmed.

"Tch...This guy really can copy other people's abilities..." Frog-Man muttered in a deep voice as he got up from the ground. "The beam of light just now was Thousand-Eyes-Man's energy wave..."

As a person who is very efficient in speaking and doing things, he didn't waste time asking, "Is everyone okay?" Instead, he directly stated a very bad conclusion.

However, compared to the news that everyone was about to hear, this sentence wasn't the worst...

"Everyone..." Dr. Eternity's voice quickly rang out as well. "I think I must let you know...Just now, the Queen of Worms and Lucky-Man are both dead. In addition...the fall just now damaged the 'chamber' that contained Toxic-Man..."

"I'm going!" Before the doctor could finish speaking, Captain Crap-Star jumped up from the ground in a panic and stumbled towards the rear cabin to save people.

"No need..." But Dr. Eternity stopped the captain and said, "In the damaged 'chamber'...there is only a little bit of residual life energy left. Toxic-Man is also already..."