Chapter 60: The Kent Family’s Absurd Daily Life
The cold touch of the laser gun felt incredibly real.
The laser pulse gun from the nightmare world was quietly lying in Ian’s arms, the words “S.H.I.E.L.D. property” on the gun body faintly glowing under the light of the voice-activated desk lamp on his nightstand.
“Not just my scalp tingling, even my goosebumps are getting numb…” Ian was truly greatly surprised. He had tried countless times before, but never brought back anything from that nightmare world.
What was the situation this time?
Had the nightmare started infiltrating and invading the real world? Or was it related to changes in his identity information in the DC universe, from originally being a 【ordinary NPC】 to becoming a 【independent NPC】?
“No, I think that AI Iron Man’s suspicion is greater!”
Ian scratched his slightly messy hair and thought of Gwen, who had been smashed into a meat pie but reappeared completely intact, yet without taking on the same form as Too Milk.
Probably.
Not just Gwen.
That Betty, and the others in the base… all had similar “abilities,” right? Ian thought again of Digital Tony’s remarks. He suspected that everyone in that world was just clones endowed with memories. As for why the reappearing Gwen still remembered Ian, perhaps that memory data had real-time upload characteristics?
This was absolutely a situation Ian hadn’t anticipated, completely different from the “past afterimage” he had imagined. It couldn’t be that the world was originally one that had been purely datafied!
“Sigh, I used super intelligence too many times today. It’s normal that I’m having trouble figuring it out.” Ian couldn’t make sense of it, so he found a reasonable explanation for his own confusion. No matter the situation, he would enter that world again tomorrow night, and Ian believed he would find the answers.
“Now! Back to sleep!”
Ian glanced at the night sky outside the window, cast his confusion aside, hugged the laser gun in his arms, and fell asleep again. Because he had gotten plenty of sleep, he dreamed that he had grown into a 190-meter tall giant.
The next morning.
“Earthlings should have their own plasma spark tower too!”
How to put it—perhaps boys in puberty always dream of bizarre things, so Ian slowly woke up amid his regret over failing to evolve all of humanity like Doctor Lizard.
Looking at the warm laser gun on the bed.
Ian was pensive.
He knew that keeping this thing at home probably wouldn’t fool his parents, and he didn’t have a backpack of the right size to take it to school, so he activated the super intelligence that had slept and woken up with him.
“The most dangerous place is the safest place!” Ian sneaked into his parents’ bedroom and, under the gaze of his “sleeping” father who opened his eyes, hid the laser gun under his parents’ bed.
“…”
Clark quietly watched Ian crawl up from the floor. The moment he lifted his head, he had already locked eyes 100% with him, yet Ian still pretended not to see anything.
“Click~”
The boy’s hand fumbled twice on the nightstand, then slammed something onto Clark’s head, lifted his hand, and gently wiped from top to bottom across Clark’s eyelids.
Just like that.
In the still damn quiet atmosphere, Clark closed his eyelids, “watching” his youngest son tiptoe slowly out of the room.
He didn’t roll over to look at the thing hidden under the bed.
He didn’t even open his eyes.
He just raised his hand to rub his brow, where his blood pressure was surging, and smoothly removed the noise-canceling headphones that Ian had put on his head in a “trying to cover up” and “self-deception” manner.
“Gulp gulp gulp~”
After tidying up a bit, Ian went out to school.
Moments later.
“Thud thud thud~”
The sound of someone coming downstairs rang out. The aroma of fried bacon wafted from the kitchen. Lois was frying eggs and, hearing the familiar footsteps, greeted her eldest son without turning her head.
“Morning, Jonathan.”
She continued busying herself.
“Morning, Mom.” Jonathan rubbed his bleary eyes and walked to the cabinet in the kitchen. He was just about to supplement his nutrition when he opened his little cabinet and froze.
“Where’s my protein powder that I just bought?”
He suspected it was a hallucination from not being fully awake.
He rubbed his eyes again.
“Creatine, arginine, fish oil—all gone?!” Now he discovered more facts he couldn’t accept, his exclamation even carrying a slight tremble.
For a professional athlete, nothing was more devastating first thing in the morning than this.
“Sorry, honey.” Lois’s tone was helpless. She didn’t turn around, her mind flashing to the astonishing scene not long ago of Ian devouring all of Jonathan’s supplements.
“I’ve already given Ian money to buy you new ones tonight.” As a mother who thought she understood her children best, Lois suspected Ian believed this would make him as strong as Clark. It was normal thinking—even if given ten more chances, she would never guess that Ian was actually doing it to gain experience.
No more meds.
Overdoing supplements wasn’t out of the question?
Unfortunately.
Due to his extraordinary liver and kidney function, Ian didn’t get the effects he wanted. This left Jonathan suffering—he felt his strength diminish instantly without the supplements.
“Uh… alright, I’ll borrow some protein powder from a classmate at school to drink.” Jonathan, though puzzled about what this had to do with Ian, remained emotionally stable as the eldest brother.
“Clang clang clang~”
Footsteps sounded on the stairs again.
Clark and Jordan came down one after the other.
“Dad, did you get new glasses? They look cool.” Jonathan noticed the new black-framed glasses on Clark’s face and couldn’t help giving him a thumbs-up for emotional value.
Only.
Clark, who had recently turned mute every morning, remained silent. He stirred his cereal bowl with a fork and gave only a vague “mm” to Jonathan’s praise.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward.
Jonathan didn’t know why his parents’ moods were so gloomy.
“I’ll get the newspaper.”
Jordan slipped out the door and returned moments later holding a package, walking to Clark’s side with a puzzled look. “Here, your package—how is it mailed from Gotham?”
Due to what happened yesterday.
There was still some estrangement between father and son.
“An old friend lives there.”
Clark didn’t want to take it.
But Jordan was very curious.
“What’s this?”
Jordan directly opened the package, which had no address label. Inside were no fun or mysterious items, just several thick books mailed from Clark’s “old friend.”
《How to Teach Children: Earth Is Not for Blowing Up》
《From Bratty Child to Supervillain: Prevention Handbook》
《100 Answers for When Your Child Asks “Why Can’t We Do Human Experiments?”》
《The Parenting Fork from “I Want to Be a Superhero” to “I Want to Rule the World”》
…
Every time Jordan read out a book title.
It made Clark feel like the cereal in his bowl was even harder to chew.
“Seriously, what kind of friend sends you this nonsense? It looks… handwritten? Not a published book?” Jordan was shocked and extremely baffled.
“Crunch~ crunch~”
Clark just chewed his cereal.
Silent.
Watching his wife silently opening a bottle in the kitchen.
If he could get drunk, he’d really want a few drinks too.
