Chapter 45: Gul’dan! What Is The Cost!
Erroneous data?
Incompatible?
Ian listened to the prompts in his ear with a face full of bewilderment and confusion; such system feedback truly left him somewhat baffled. Moreover—sure enough, his system was directly ripped from some game, right!
“Feeling the shivers again about my own NPC identity.” Ian hadn’t unlocked a new profession and was greatly disappointed. He pondered if he should go back and try whether Kryptonian Blood could take effect.
Old Man’s blood is hard to get.
Second Brother Jordan’s blood—isn’t that even harder to get? Jordan often gets nosebleeds, and as the saying goes, one drop of gold, ten drops of blood. Ian figured that if worst came to worst, stealing one of Jordan’s nighttime Treasure Tools could also be given a try.
Slowly standing up.
Ian turned back and glanced at Kara.
Completely oblivious to his behavior, the big-hearted Cousin Aunt was still on the communication, “Sewage Treatment Plant discovered LexCorp’s biochemical experiment products; at least two people have already mutated.”
“No need for Hank’s assistance; I’m just requesting D.E.O. support, full isolation measures.” Kara was clearly talking to a national government organization.
If Ian remembered correctly.
Superwoman and the government secret organization DEO do have deep ties. This is an important secret organization dedicated to monitoring, researching, and responding to various supernatural phenomena, alien creatures, and individuals with superpowers appearing on Earth. DEO’s name is actually the English abbreviation for the alien affairs department.
As for Hank.
Full name should be Hank Henshaw, a high-level member of this mysterious organization. This name is actually borrowed from someone else; he and Kara are both aliens.
Martian Manhunter.
His strength is also quite formidable; one punch could probably kill three or five Ians.
“Anyway, no matter in front of whom, I’m just a small fry, an ordinary NPC.” Silently listening to Kara on the phone, his gaze turned back to the mutated green-skinned worker.
“This appearance looks so familiar.” Ian looked at the fangs protruding from the green-skinned worker’s mouth, lost in thought. He always felt that this styling was really just a tiny bit like the orcs in his memory.
Even the lines just now were extremely similar.
“Drink my blood… join us… child!” The green-skinned worker’s eyes fixed dead on Ian, beginning the bewitchment, “This world needs countless warriors to change it!”
“You and I… we will all gain glory! For…” The green-skinned worker’s words weren’t finished when Kara, who had hung up the phone not far away, came up and smashed a fist into his face.
The green-skinned worker’s voice abruptly stopped.
“Roar!!”
An angry roar resounded once more.
But it couldn’t intimidate Kara nor stir any waves in Ian’s heart.
“Don’t tell me you really wanted to drink his blood!” Kara looked at Ian, who seemed full of uncertainty to her, with a warning gaze. Clearly, she had heard the green-skinned worker’s bewitchment of Ian very clearly.
Super Hearing.
Works sometimes, not others.
“Drink his blood? How could I! Cousin Aunt, I have my bottom line too.” Ian looked up, and behind the two holes in the stocking mask, his eyes blinked very seriously.
“The look in your eyes even seemed like you wanted to take a couple bites out of him.” Kara eyed Ian suspiciously. Ian quickly returned the most innocent smile of a sunny boy.
“No, of course not. I was just thinking about how to scientifically prove he’s not human.” Ian said this from the heart, but in Kara’s ears, it made this superhero shudder upon further thought.
“Damn it! You guy, do you really just have psychological issues?” She directly grabbed Ian’s collar and dragged him up. “Someone will come to handle this poor guy’s problem.”
“We need to check if there are any people left in the factory area, ask about the situation… I bet the sewage plant is just a cover; this must be Luthor’s biochemical experiment base.”
Kara’s voice was filled with resolute certainty.
“You mean our world is about to have its own Umbrella Company?” Ian was very surprised; his intuition told him it was definitely not as simple as just biochemical experiments.
“Can you say something I can understand?”
Kara let out a heavy sigh.
She carried the stocking-masked Ian swiftly into the factory building. The sewage plant had now fallen into an eerie silence; the originally busy workers had almost all fled this place.
After entering the factory area, the surrounding lights flickered constantly, occasionally emitting a “sizzle” of electrical current, as if no maintenance personnel had ever serviced them.
“This is a factory area that’s only been newly built for a short time! Unless someone took bribes, how could the equipment be so outdated!” Ian struggled and was put back down on the ground.
He gave Kara a reminder on the details.
“You’re right.” Kara nodded. Her super hearing captured the sound of liquid flowing and faint groans deep in the factory building, but the most obvious heat source came from the direction of the canteen.
“Over there.”
Kara shielded Ian behind her. There were occasional water stains on the ground; stepping on them produced a crisp sound, which stood out especially in this silent environment.
The two hadn’t walked for long.
And then.
【Employee Canteen】 signboard came into view.
Kara suddenly sniffed.
“Did you smell it? The aroma of food… it should be mealtime right now.” Having had her dinner snatched by Ian, she was especially sensitive to the scent of food now.
“I only smell sewage and disinfectant.”
Ian furrowed his brows.
“No, it’s the smell of food; don’t question my super sense of smell.” Kara’s stomach timely let out a “gurgle” sound. She actually felt a bit of eeriness too.
“Strange, in such a disgusting place, the canteen food smells so enticing?” Saying that, Kara directly led Ian into this employee canteen. Kara’s gaze swept over the spacious dining area. Four or five workers in orange work clothes sat quietly at the stainless steel dining tables, heads buried in their meals.
The air was filled with an enticing aroma: the wheat scent of roasted bread, the richness of stewed meat, and the freshness of some herb—at least that’s the scene Kara saw with her eyes.
“A place with such good food definitely can’t just be a sewage treatment plant!” She even felt a bit hungry, but still held back her appetite, preparing to question a few workers.
“This is good food?”
Ian eyed Kara suspiciously.
He felt that his Cousin Aunt’s food preferences were somewhat special.
No longer just peculiar.
But should be called Cthulhu-level food preferences. Ian’s gaze swept over the employees’ dinner plates, which were all filled with green slimy soup and green slimy chunks of meat.
The kind that made one nauseous just looking at it more.
“Roasted ribs, cream thick soup, pan-seared salmon… if this isn’t lavish, what is?” Kara swallowed some saliva, looking at Ian with an extremely puzzled expression.
Is the Clark family’s food even better than this?
“????”
Ian’s pupils contracted a few times upon hearing this. He stared dead at the direction Kara was pointing—there was only one worker holding a bowl of thick soup bubbling with green foam in trembling hands.
And floating on the soup surface were a few black lumps that seemed like meat. At this moment, Ian also realized that the scene he saw was completely different from what Super Vision Kara saw!
Mental interference?
Kara’s eyes were gradually becoming dazed!
“Damn! Even Kryptonians are affected?!”
Ian looked around.
Wanting to search for any possibly existing “Law God”-level powerhouse.
And right at that moment.
A “clang” of metal striking came from behind the serving window. Ian saw a hunched-back, emaciated cook looking at these two uninvited guests with turbid eyes.
“All who see shall share the feast. Feel well the delicacy I made flowing through your bodies; it will grant you strength, let you truly realize how extraordinary you are.”
“Come! Drink this soup containing all my painstaking effort!”
The cook’s voice was hoarse and low, carrying a bewitching tone. He slowly raised the soup spoon, a drop of green liquid dripping from the spoon tip, pulling viscous threads in mid-air.
“????”
Ian was utterly dumbfounded.
He felt completely unwell, couldn’t help but blurt out directly.
“Gul’dan reborn in the DC Universe!?”
Ian’s expression was extremely incredulous.
“Clang!”
And upon hearing Ian’s quip.
The cook’s spoon dropped fiercely; he looked even more incredulous than Ian, his hunched body trembling violently, withered fingers clutching the apron edge tightly.
“Impossible! Impossible! You… how could you know that name? That’s my dreamscape… a world exclusive to me… I wander in it every night!”
“Enlightenment! I gained enlightenment in my dream world!”
“They are in my mind, only in my mind… I know what to do! Oh, yes, you’re my hallucination too; you’re here to remind me to speed up my steps to resist this world, right!” The raving cook was initially full of disbelief, but after picking up the spoon, he suddenly had a realization.
His expression also became abnormally fanatical.
Only.
His eyes grew even more turbid.
“Holy crap!”
Ian felt more and more that something was off as he listened.
He was initially quite confused, simply thinking the other was acting crazy. But as the cook uttered descriptions that were extremely familiar to him, Ian suddenly widened his eyes as if realizing something.
“Damn guy! What level are you! Using the same Golden Finger as me!” He was really almost jumping in anger; perhaps since transmigrating, this was the first time Ian was so furious.
And sure enough.
His bottom-right corner’s Rage Value instantly maxed out.
[ps: Seeking follow-up reading, recommendations, monthly tickets.
Explanation: The dreamscape is actually one of the main line crises of this book. There’s always only the System as the protagonist’s Golden Finger, and the System has an origin too. The outline can go up to 2 million words, so please read with confidence.]
