Raymond’s expression turned even more astonished. Ely’s expression turned curious.

“And now to the real question: why did you tell the observation subjects what we were doing before being ordered by the central command?”

Hardy’s expression turned serious.

“We can’t go on like this and keep doing something without knowing the real reason behind this. The situation will get even more dangerous.”

Raymond’s and Ely’s expressions turned serious. Ely replied.

“If you have made up your mind, I warn you guys again that the place we’re headed for at the end of our journey is something that might even be beyond your imagination.”

Hardy’s expression turned serious; he then looked out of the window.

“Of course, I won’t change my mind.”

Raymond looked at Ely with a curious expression.

“You’re the only person on this plane who’s ever been allowed to go there. May I know what the criteria are?”

Ely smiled.

“I think you guys already know the answer; there are no criteria. Or maybe there is, but they didn’t tell me what the criteria were and just ordered me to go there. Even then, with very limited access.”

Hardy and Raymond appeared to have expected that. Hardy appeared to realize something.

“Okay, that means we have agreed. After meeting a few more subjects, we’ll go there.”

Raymond’s expression turned deadpan.

“More precisely, we forced our way to go there.”

Hardy smiled. Hardy took out the emblem of their organization from inside the pocket behind his jacket, a gold-colored emblem with a globe engraved, the words “G.O.DS” engraved on its surface. Above the globe engraving was a ribbon engraving with the words “Global Organization of Defense” engraved on its surface, while below the globe engraving was another ribbon engraving with the words “Human Division” engraved on its surface. Hardy looked at his emblem with a serious expression; he then looked at the view outside the window, slightly lost in his thoughts.

“It’s time for us to go there….”

Hardy looked back at Raymond and Ely; their expressions turned serious. Hardy resumed speaking.

“To the Gods Headquarters.”

Their plane flew faster through the clouds and disappeared into the darkness of the night sky.

Somewhere on the other side of the world, 20xx AD.

The sky was overcast. A modern military fortress was hidden in the mountains and hills in the wilderness area, shrouded in thick fog with low visibility. Eighty percent of this military fort merges with the mountainous region and the hills around it, revealing only a five-meter-tall massive wall heavily guarded by countless military personnel, with several hangars merging on several sides of several mountains, as well as the plane runways that merge inside these mountains. At a three-level building that merges on one side of one of the mountains, inside was a classic modern style office room, with a person sitting at a wide, glossy, dark brown carved wooden desk, behind him were rows of classic tall windows with glossy dark brown carved wooden frames. From behind, this man wore a shirt, trousers, and loafers. He was staring at the laptop on the desk before him, which displayed news about Black Star, entitled “Hero or Villain?”.

Somewhere on the other side of the world, 20xx AD.

The sky was clear. There was an expansive abandoned three-story building on the bank of a wide river. Inside, the building had been turned into a secret base. From behind, a man wearing a black undershirt, black jeans, and barefoot was doing intensive martial arts training on a punching bag. Near his practice area was a long table with several computers and a row of monitors, in front of a row of tall metal-framed window panes. Shortly after, this man’s attention was diverted to one of the monitors displaying news about Black Star with the headline: “Hero or Villain?”.

Somewhere on the other side of the world, 20xx AD.

In a penthouse, a man was fighting against dozens of men; most of them had fallen in most parts of this building. Because the atmosphere tends to be dark, this man’s face and appearance could not be seen too clearly. He wore a short-sleeved shirt, some sort of bulletproof vest, black trousers, boots, armor-plated gloves, a knee protector, an elbow protector, and some kind of armor resembling the double barrel of a gun along the tops of his forearms. Shortly after, the last man he kicked fell backward and smashed onto a short table; he finally knocked out all his enemies here. This man with a bulletproof vest was out of breath, but his attention was drawn to a TV mounted high on the wall nearby, showing news about Black Star.

Shortly after, a man who had fainted not far beside him began to regain consciousness and took a gun lying nearby. The man in the bulletproof vest noticed that, but he just stood facing that man as if letting him be. His enemy immediately got up and aimed his gun right at the head of the man wearing a bulletproof vest, but something unexpected happened. The man in a bulletproof vest casually tilted his head to the left so that the bullets fired at him missed and hit the wall far from him. The man in a bulletproof vest walked to his enemy, who had just shot his handgun at him, and panicked him. His enemy’s expression turned serious.

“Damn you, maniac!”

His enemy threw away his handgun and ran toward the man in the bulletproof vest, and was about to hit him, but the man in the bulletproof vest avoided it easily and then hit his enemy in the stomach, causing him to bend down, then elbowed his back. His enemy fell, hit the floor hard, and fell unconscious. The man in the bulletproof vest turned to the TV again; he appeared to be interested with the headline news being conveyed, entitled “Hero or Villain?”

In many other parts of the world, people also gather to watch the news on TV, such as at the office, at the station, on their smartphones, at a restaurant, etc. What Black Star was about to do has attracted the world’s attention.

United States, 20xx AD.

The time was 4:30 p.m. The sky this afternoon was clear, with only a few clouds. A man wore a black ankle-length cloak covering his whole body, with a high collar up to his mouth level and a hood that covered the back of his head to the top of his head. On all parts of this cloak, up to the collar and hood parts, there was a thin but very strong black pearl armor formed in such a way and connected by joints that can be widened and narrowed to follow the cloak's movements. On the right front of the cloak collar was a black belt to close the front of the cloak, to make it easier to open the cloak on his body. On the shoulders and upper arms of the cloak parts had additional protective armor pieces with sturdy carvings, and at all the joints of this additional armor could extend in such a way as to follow the cloak's movements.

The cloaked man walked in a shopping district, with the rows of shops and store buildings on the right and left connected by an asphalt road, and the wide sidewalks on the side of the road were busy with pedestrians. Because of his unusual appearance, the cloaked man drew almost everyone’s attention who walked past him. This area had various shops and stores, such as electronics stores, minimarts, restaurants, music shops, cinemas, etc, with high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. He arrived at an intersection with many digital billboard screens, some of which displayed news about Black Star, and Black Star arrived at the Pentagon. The news drawn passersby’s attention, many of whom stopped their steps and stood in their place to watch the news on the digital billboard screens. The cloaked man appeared uninterested in watching the news and kept walking, passing the people standing around him.

Shortly after, dozens of fighter jets were flying low, one after another, across the sky above the city. Everyone’s attention diverted to the sky, some of them taking out their smartphones to record a few more fighter jets flew across the sky. One of the people looked up at these fighter jets with a fearful expression mixed with worry.

“Is all this because of Black Star?”

People were starting to talk about Black Star.

Dozens of other fighter jets continued to fly across the city sky. Everyone looked up at the sky in amazement. The cloaked man walked on the wide sidewalk without paying attention to the sky, passing by the amazed people around him.

Shortly after, he arrived at an electronics store, with many smart TVs of various sizes displayed behind the translucent glass wall before him. All the TVs in this electronics store displayed the news about someone called “Black Star.” In front of this store, the people passing by started to gather because they were interested in news regarding Black Star, which caused the cloaked man to stop by this store and watch the news regarding Black Star, standing among the people here. The cloaked man watched the news on the TVs in the electronic store before him, now entitled “Hero or Villain?”