Visible from behind, the black silhouette was a tall man with his whole body covered in black metal armor, with back rib cage-like additional armor at his back similar to an exoskeleton. The armor on his upper arms and shoulders was covered with additional armor connected to the armor that forms a high collar on his neck; this armor extended to his left and right upper back, with its center separated by additional armor that resembled the backbone and part of his additional exoskeleton-like armor.

Additional armor covered the armor on his upper arms, extended to the elbows, to the upper part and sides of the forearms, and the backs of the hands and upper part of the fingers. This additional armor could move to follow the movements of this man’s body. This man gripped his arms, causing the additional armor pieces on his upper arm, elbow, and wrist to expand, open, shift, and transform into another shape, followed by additional armor on his right and left upper back. Additional armor pieces on his whole body opened or shifted and reformed the entire armor into a sturdy carved pattern-like shape from many armor pieces connected by sturdy metal joints that could move to follow Black Star’s movements, making its shape more ferocious. This man with unusual black metal armor was the one people called the Black Star. Alex turned to Calahan, who was shocked and still aimed his handgun at Black Star.

“He just pierced through a bulletproof glass. What are you doing?”

Calahan came to his senses and turned to Alex, who was still aiming his handgun toward Black Star.

“I can’t pass up the chance or even the slightest possibility of defeating him.”

Calahan focused back toward Black Star, Alex’s looked at him astonishedly. Alex turned to Black Star while smiling.

“Welcome, we have been waiting for you, Black Star. Before you beat us up, we want to discuss something with you.”

Blackstar replied.

“I’m not here to negotiate.”

Black Star was about to attack them, shocking Calahan and Alex. Alex immediately continued speaking.

“This is about the possibility that if something was wrong in our organization and we’re currently investigating it, we’ll show you the results of our investigation, which might interest you.”

Black Star canceled what he was about to do and looked astonished. On the other hand, Calahan and Alex gasped for breath because, as if they had just avoided death, Calahan then lowered his handgun.

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

The time was 11:00 p.m. The night sky was clear, slightly cloudy, and star-studded. Shady trees waved in the night breeze in a forest, causing their leaves to fall and fly in all directions. Shortly after, a white light shot swiftly from the sky to the ground, momentarily forming a pillar of bright light, and crashed into the middle of this forest. As this light hit the ground surface, it shattered the ground and tore down the surrounding shady trees within a radius of tens of meters in diameter, along with a shock wave and a powerful burst of wind blast that spread throughout the forest.

Amidst the source of the wind energy blast just now, a middle-aged man in his 60s with long white hair, a long white mustache, and a long white beard was kneeling and breathing heavily. This man stood up as he looked around. He was bare-chested, with a stocky but well-proportioned body, and wearing some kind of long, black, wide pants. His expression showed that something was bothering him.

“I must warn them about the catastrophe, or it will be too late.”

The man was finally able to recover his heavy breath.

“Humans… you are not alone in this vast universe…. and what secrets that it’s actually hiding....”

This man looked at the star-studded sky. The surrounding scenery was getting farther and farther away from this man, up to the night sky, until finally showing a view of planet Earth. The surrounding scenery got farther away through the stars and space until it finally showed the Milky Way galaxy. The surrounding scenery got farther away quickly until it finally showed the Milky Way lined up with other galaxies.

Somewhere in the world.

A destroyed city, leaving the remnants of the once-standing skyscrapers. The fire burned everywhere, and the sky was overcast because it was filled with black smoke. A man walked through a destroyed highway with wrecked and burned vehicles scattered everywhere and ruins of buildings around him along the highway. From behind, his face couldn’t be seen; he wore a shabby long-sleeved overcoat, trousers, and tactical boots. He breathed heavily, walking with a limp, and was almost no longer strong enough to walk. He stopped his steps because the ruins of a collapsed skyscraper blocked the highway before him. He looked at the collapsed building before him, then kneeled.

“What exactly happened… anyone… please help….”

Shortly after, he noticed movements from the direction behind him; he immediately stood up and looked alert.

“I have to survive no matter what….”

He ran away to the ruins of the building on his left.

United States 20xx AD

Back to a few hours earlier. The man in a black armored cloak read the black panel hovering before him in astonishment, and the people around him continued discussing and watching the news about Black Star. The black panel before him displayed white text:

[System initiation failure…]

[Please wait…]

The cloaked man looked astonished.

“Failures? I don’t know why this has been happening more frequently lately.”

Shortly after, the white text displayed on the black panel changed:

[Searching for the cause, please wait...]

He looked curious and intended to wait a moment.

[An embedded message found blocking the system process]

[Displaying a message, please wait...]

He read the black panel curiously.

“Message? What else were you trying to tell me exactly?”

Shortly after, the black panel display changed to another white text:

[Beware of...]

[Problem detected. Trying to display another part of the message. Please wait...]

From behind, the cloaked man was crossing his arms.

“Beware of what?”

Shortly after, the white text displayed on the black panel changed.

[M____verse]

From behind, the cloaked man propped his chin with his right hand, which rested on his crossed left hand.

“It seems that there is a missing part from that word; what does that mean….”

Shortly after, the black panel showed another white writing.

[Trying to repair the damaged message, please wait...]

[Message too corrupted to repair, deleting pinned message to fix system failure]

He was surprised and subconsciously spoke in a raised voice.

“Wait a minute, don’t delete it!”

The people around him were surprised and watched him with astonished expressions.

[Message deleted]

The cloaked man appeared to realize something.

“Luckily, I’ve already remembered it. Hopefully, no other messages are deleted.”

[System repaired successfully. Please wait...]

The cloaked man looked astonished.

“Looks like this will take a longer process than before.”

He continued speaking alone without caring about his surroundings, causing the people’s attention around him to be drawn to him with confused expressions. White text displayed on the black panel before him changed:

[System maintenance was in progress. Please wait…]

He crossed his arms.

“It can’t be helped. I guess I’ll have to wait.”

He walked away, leaving behind the crowd of people looking at him with astonished expressions. He continued walking on the sidewalk as he thought.

“What does that warning message mean… I have to find out.”

The cloaked man continued walking.

Shortly after, several fighter jets flew past above the cloaked man and drew the people’s attention around him, which then started panicking and ran away in the same direction he was walking. From the direction behind him, there was a roar of the engine sound, and a gust of wind started to hit strongly and fly light objects around, and his cloak waved forward. From the front direction above him, several fighter jets flew by him from his front direction while firing their missiles and rotary cannons, causing gunshots and explosion sounds that broke the atmosphere. The cloaked man turned around; from the side, he tilted his head slightly upwards, looking toward the sky.

“What the hell is that....”

What the man in the cloak saw in the sky surprised him, even though until a few moments ago, what was happening around him hadn’t caught his attention.

“If it’s like this, I better act.”

The cloaked man took out a black metal mask from behind his cloak and put it on. From the front, his entire face was now covered by a black metal mask with glowing red patterns on the parts of the mask’s eyes. His mask resembled the face part of a mecha covered in several pieces of armor connected together by metal joints and two glowing patterns on the parts of the eyes; the patterns on the eyes parts of this mask were glowed gaps of the thin and sturdy armor pieces that covered and formed this mask; these glowed gaps faintly showed some kind of sturdy machine beneath the armor covering the mask.