Luke had always been curious about the key, but unfortunately, it was uncooperative. It was like a loyal and chaste woman who had taken a solemn vow; no matter how he tried to entice it—with electrotherapy, hydrotherapy, cryotherapy, heat therapy, or oil therapy—after eighteen different methods, it remained completely unresponsive.
Luke even wondered if it had lost its power and turned into scrap metal.
Fortunately, two days later, the key began to glow.
A faint, almost imperceptible golden light flowed within the dark brown metal, like countless shimmering light snakes.
Luke tried to engage it again, but it had no effect. He had to call Linda over, thinking to himself: If a man can't do it, surely a woman can!
The result was still the same.
The dull key was like an internet celebrity without makeup, looking increasingly off-putting. The girl held the key, examined it a few times, and then tossed it aside in disgust.
When she was a child, her father often said that the golden key was a sacred object, and only servants with pure hearts were worthy of touching it. This led to a period where Linda dreamed of wearing a long dress, holding the key, standing beneath the throne, and being worshipped by the world.
Now... the dusty key was covered in verdigris, and she felt it was too dirty to even hold.
"The database has no relevant information; you'll have to figure it out yourself."
Luke spread his hands, feeling quite helpless.
"If I could find a way, I wouldn't have called you, Linda. Think carefully, what is the secret of the golden key? Kryptonians must know."
Linda said, speechless, "I was only 12 when I left Krypton. Do you think my father would tell such an important secret to a 12-year-old?"
"What about Zod? As a general, he should know, right!"
The girl pondered for two seconds, then slowly nodded.
Luke rubbed his hands and suggested very sincerely, "Um, how about we capture him again?"
Linda didn't speak, the disgust in her eyes almost solidifying. Luke felt a bit embarrassed, but fortunately, his skin was thick enough that it didn't show.
"Rogue, villain!"
Linda said angrily, "Isn't once enough? You want to fleece him a second time? What do you take Kryptonians for, sheep? I'm telling you, Kryptonians have dignity too. You can defeat them, but you can't strip away their dignity completely."
"In any case, the key is yours. How you handle it is your business, not mine."
"There's one more thing."
Linda gestured, and a robotic guard walked in, carrying two metal boxes.
"The left box contains liquid metal, and the right box contains energy crystals used to power Kryptonian spacecraft. Considering you helped me before, they're yours."
With that, she snorted and turned to leave.
Luke couldn't be bothered with the girl's petty thoughts; his gaze was fixed on the metal boxes.
Liquid metal and energy crystals—he had coveted these two things for a long time.
Liquid metal could not only create super AIs with autonomous evolutionary capabilities but also greatly enhance the data analysis capabilities of the Ghost armor. As for energy crystals, needless to say, a piece the size of a palm could supply half an hour's electricity for a metropolis.
Kryptonian products are always high-quality.
With them, he wouldn't have to worry about the armor's power supply in the short term.
"It's time to upgrade my gear."
Luke clenched his fists, full of anticipation... In the following days, life returned to normal. Linda continued to search the world for survivors, and Luke continued his studies. When he got tired, he would go to the warehouse and repair his armor using parts from the spaceship.
It must be admitted that Kryptonian technology is indeed incredible. Just the mass-energy conversion alone allowed Ghost 1 to make a leap forward.
Mass-energy conversion, as the name suggests, is the transformation between energy and mass.
On Earth, this technology was in the initial conceptual stage, without even basic theories, while Krypton had perfected it to the highest level.
Kryptonian battle suits were a masterpiece of mass-energy conversion.
The seemingly heavy and bulky black battle suit was actually as light as a feather, because it was essentially a mass of energy, a solid armor transformed from energy, which could evolve into various shapes according to the owner's will.
Although its essence was energy, its strength surpassed most metals, capable of defending against various attacks. Earth's firearms could not harm it, and heavy weapons could only damage the outer protective film, and that was it.
In terms of performance alone, the Kryptonian battle suit far surpassed Ghost 1.
It's just a pity that the latter possessed two of the most mysterious metals in this world: Promethium and Amazonian metal.
Promethium is an ultimate hybrid material that can absorb and generate energy, and when applied to other substances, it can also cause structural mutations. Ghost 1's semi-metal, semi-energy charging armor originated from this.
Amazonian metal is even more powerful, a highly pure substance that circulates in different versions of myths and is considered a divine metal in some places.
Amazonian metal has extreme toughness; it can not only resist physical and magical attacks but also release absorbed energy in the form of shockwaves.
Ghost 1's damage reflection ability was constructed based on Amazonian metal as the foundation and Promethium as the framework.
The only regret was that the content of the two metals was too small, leading to many incomplete functions, which was also one of the three major problems that the Ghost armor urgently needed to solve.
Super metals have always existed on Earth, but their scarcity is despairing.
Promethium was not so bad; as a hybrid metal, it was stored in the Red Room laboratory used by the US government to collect alien technology, and Luke naturally took advantage of it.
Amazonian metal, however, was a big problem. Aside from Themyscira, Diana's birthplace, only old Greek aristocrats might have collected it.
Luke searched the world, paying countless prices to obtain a piece of Amazonian metal the size of a pinky finger from a dying old Greek man.
This process cost nearly two billion dollars.
Two billion dollars, five large trucks couldn't hold that many hundred-dollar bills, just for such a small piece of metal.
Was it worth it?
Of course, it was worth it, incredibly so.
Kryptonian technology was tens of thousands of years ahead of Earth's, and its mass-energy conversion battle suit completely crushed Earth's technology. Yet, with only two metals, Luke's modified Ghost 1 could, in adverse situations, achieve victory against superior numbers, taking down nine top Kryptonian soldiers.
With such a record, who would dare say it wasn't worth it!
Thinking of this, Luke suddenly shivered, and many inappropriate thoughts surfaced in his mind.
Wonder Woman Diana's three pieces of equipment: the Bracelets of Submission, the Aegis shield, and the Tiara of Themyscira, were all made of Amazonian metal;
Deathstroke's armor contained Promethium, which could comprehensively enhance his physical functions, greatly increasing his strength and speed;
Hawkman and Hawkgirl's armor was even more powerful, entirely made of Nth metal, an ultimate metal that could defy the laws of physics and possessed many unimaginable magical abilities. If he could get his hands on it...
Suddenly, an extremely terrifying aura descended into the room. Luke looked up, his eyes filled with green light, like a demon from hell.
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