Chapter 51: Homecoming! Lurking Shadow!
Black and white faded away.
Color flowed back into this world.
【Status Weight has increased】
Suddenly.
Ian heard the system’s prompt.
However, before he could check the personal panel that his iron bro had listed for him, a gust of wind came, and Superman was already standing within arm’s reach of him.
“Ah! My loving father!”
Ian quickly smiled.
He hoped Superman wouldn’t hit a smiling child.
“Where’s the thing?” Clark had no intention of making a move. He frowned with an unusually serious expression. He had only seen the black orb that was rushing toward Ian in his line of sight disappear completely in an instant.
“The big shot just came and took the black orb.” Ian answered honestly. His tone was still a bit incredulous; the “Nine-Turn Golden Pill” that was at his mouth was gone just like that.
Of course.
【Death Resistance】 brought an immortal body that was pretty good too. He had finally renewed to a long-term experience card. Ian was in a great mood, but the next moment his good mood was gone.
“I suspect he ate the thing!” Kara also turned into a gust of wind and approached. She extended the steel maiden’s hands, gripping his chin with one hand while directly prying open his mouth with the other.
The movements were as practiced as checking a cat that stole snacks.
“Mmmph—!!” Ian struggled wildly, but unfortunately his strength was no match for Kara’s. He could only let Kara reach into his mouth to retaliate against him.
Yes.
Retaliation.
Women, their vindictiveness was just that strong. Even though she had been “fighting side by side” with Ian just moments ago, now she was full of resentment toward him. Ian felt like he had worried for nothing about his cousin aunt’s forehead earlier.
He hadn’t even used his cousin aunt’s forehead to smash hard.
He had only smashed it fiercely.
“The big shot really took it!” Ian raised his hand and poked at Kara’s eye, finally getting her to let go of him. Of course, he also felt that his cousin aunt’s eyeball was a steel eyeball.
“…”
Ian looked at his slightly aching finger and was speechless.
“Old man?”
He looked up and found the silent Superman also scrutinizing his body up and down, just like using super vision to observe whether Ian had swallowed that black orb.
As the saying goes, no one knows a son better than the father.
Clark had seen Ian attempt to chew an evil spirit raw—he didn’t even know that Ian had already chewed half of it in the world of souls, but he still firmly believed in Ian’s pica symptoms.
“There’s indeed none.”
Clark inspected carefully for a while and only found a strand of green energy in Ian’s body, which was the effect of 【Fel Energy Corruption】, but it seemed to be well suppressed by Ian’s body. Although the youngest son wasn’t completely fine, at least he hadn’t become the host of the strange black orb, which made Clark breathe a slight sigh of relief.
“Big shot, huh?”
This wasn’t the first time Clark had heard Ian mention such a title. His eyes flickered as he raised his arm, rolled up the sleeve of his battle robe, and looked at his arm that had somehow returned to normal.
Then.
The old father silently felt carefully again.
He ultimately chose to believe Ian.
“What big shot?”
Kara rubbed her eye that Ian had poked, her face full of confusion. She clearly hadn’t been able to sense the world’s previous stagnation like Clark had.
Cousin aunt was so weak.
She needed more practice.
Ian thought silently in his heart. Kara was still frowning and looking around, but found nothing. She looked suspiciously at Superman, who just shook his head slightly to indicate she didn’t need to dwell on it.
“Between us father and son, we need to be open and honest. Of course, first we need to go back—don’t let your mother worry too much.” Clark spoke seriously to Ian first.
Then.
“Thank you for your help today.”
He also found it awkward to call Kara cousin sister.
“No problem.”
Kara waved her hand, a schadenfreude smile curling at her lips: “Between family, helping each other is only natural. Just give this kid a good beating for me when you get back.”
As expected.
Women’s vindictiveness had no limit. Ian felt extremely wronged. He hadn’t even used Kara’s face to smash things; he used the back of her head and forehead. Wasn’t that enough respect for his cousin aunt?
“I still need to go back and write a manuscript for the boss. I’m heading out first.” Kara declined Clark’s dinner invitation and prepared to leave. Hearing her words, Ian also planned to mend their aunt-nephew relationship.
“I’m great at writing manuscripts. Don’t believe me? Ask my dad. Do you need me to write one for you?” Ian looked at Clark, but Clark’s expression was indescribable.
Kara’s expression was also strange.
“You should first think about how to explain your issues to your dad.” With that, she immediately turned into a gust of wind and vanished directly from the already ruined restaurant.
Four or five numb workers who had been eating earlier had disappeared.
In place.
Only a puddle of green pus remained.
“All pitiful people.”
Clark looked at the pus, sighing with some pity and sadness.
“Let’s go. We still need to find someone to help deal with the contamination in your body.” After saying that, he adjusted his mood, and Superman directly grabbed Ian by the scruff of the neck.
“Wait, Dad, I—”
Ian’s words weren’t finished.
There was only a “whoosh” sound.
The next second.
The father and son also disappeared from the spot.
……
Time passed who knows how long.
The sky grew darker.
Outside the rusted wire fence, a dozen armed personnel in black tactical gear silently set up a warning line, their gun barrels coldly aimed at the workers trying to return.
“Why won’t you let us in? Planning to deduct our overtime pay?” A worker wearing a safety helmet shouted angrily. He was perhaps the leader among the group of workers.
“Company orders: no one enters today.” The lead mercenary’s tone was stiff. All of these mercenaries’ uniforms were emblazoned with “LexCorp” lettering.
The crowd grew restless, filled with complaints.
“I heard government agency people came before… Could the factory have been sealed by the government?” Some workers worried about unemployment, but they were met only with the mercenaries’ no comment.
“It’s because of the infectious disease! The infectious disease that happened yesterday and today!” A self-proclaimed insider spoke up, his voice worried, as if afraid of being infected from contact himself.
“Government people took away a corpse! It was oozing green thick pus! Definitely a serious infectious disease!” This worker had clearly witnessed the cleanup crew Kara called via telephone. But for some reason, D.E.O. personnel hadn’t sealed the place; instead, LexCorp’s private armed forces were handling the lockdown.
Perhaps because of money power.
Or maybe because of influence over government agencies.
America’s DC universe was like this; it couldn’t produce a president who casually manipulated stock markets and financial trades. Tycoons’ discourse power truly outweighed that of those high officials.
“We demand compensation!”
The workers began their “uprising” movement.
And at that moment. A pitch-black luxury sedan drove up silently, its tires rolling through puddles and splashing mud. The car door opened, and a pair of shiny leather shoes stepped onto the ground.
Lex Luthor stepped out, his gleaming bald head reflecting cold light.
“Rest assured, each of you will receive economic compensation from the company, plus free comprehensive checkups.” Luthor’s single sentence calmed the restless crowd.
Then.
Without looking back, he strode into the sewage plant. He went straight to the wrecked restaurant, his leather shoes crunching on shattered glass.
“Idiots, can’t even seize an opportunity when given one.” Luthor’s gaze swept the surroundings, his tone mocking. He didn’t know who he was cursing. He turned and left the restaurant for other areas.
After passing through several heavy metal doors, he stopped in front of an unassuming machine room.
“Real idiots.”
Seeing no signs of the door being opened, Luthor revealed a confident mocking smile. He signaled his men to unlock it with the key, then entered the seemingly ordinary machine room alone.
Among the outdated machines.
Luthor locked the room door behind him, squatted down, lifted a concealed lead plate from the floor, and descended step by step along the revealed stairs to a lead-sealed secret room.
“Rumble~”
Luthor scanned his iris.
The secret room door opened. In the dim secret room, the air was turbid and damp. The only light source was a flickering red emergency lamp, dyeing the entire room blood-red.
In the center of the room, a man was suspended in mid-air by thick iron chains, arms spread wide like a statue of suffering. His skin was pallid almost to the point of illness, even revealing dark veins.
Like a zombie.
On his low-hanging head, disheveled black hair covered his face and turbid eyes. Luthor went to the side, scooped a bowl of thick green liquid from a metal bucket.
“Come on, continue our game. Drink it down, then… become a more perfect weapon.” Luthor gripped the man’s chin, forcing him to raise that face Ian might find familiar.
The man let out a beast-like angry growl, struggling, the iron chains clanking. Luthor remained unmoved, pressing the bowl to his mouth and pouring in the green liquid.
“That’s it, don’t waste it.”
Luthor whispered.
His tone excited.
He watched the man continuously drink the green thick soup.
Some liquid overflowed from the man’s mouth, flowed down his neck, and eventually dripped onto his chest, staining the battle robe emblazoned with the 【S】 shape letter with filthy color.
Fel Energy.
Surged madly in this man’s body. His flesh and skin began to change.
