Chapter 43: Eerie Water Plant! Green-skinned Warrior!
The Flash’s encounter with Ian ultimately remained unknown.
High in the sky.
Amid the cold wind.
“What are you doing! Afraid others won’t know you once committed the serious crime of robbery?” After flying to a sufficient height, Kara couldn’t hold back her inner complaint.
Ian had plenty of reasons.
“Come on! I already saw the reporter! Can’t you be a reasonable cousin aunt? I don’t have your magical glasses, so I need some way to protect my privacy and identity!”
“A boy as handsome as me… others would dox me in 2 minutes and know who I am. Then it wouldn’t just be my father; even your real identity would be exposed.”
This was indeed a reason Kara found hard to refute.
“…”
Kara still felt utterly speechless.
“You’re carrying stockings with you?”
She increasingly felt that Ian was more professional than a veteran robber.
However.
“What a joke, I’m not a pervert. How could I carry something like that… I was smart enough to adapt on the spot and rummaged through a passenger’s dropped luggage.”
“To avoid you projecting your own assumptions onto me, cousin aunt, I declare that when I got it, it was still unopened!” Ian yanked the stockings off his head.
He didn’t throw them away.
Instead, he rummaged in his torn pocket again, then directly tied the stockings around his waist. The cousin aunt’s words reminded the youth that carrying some small props was always a good idea.
“We need to fly north.” Pulling out his map, Ian prepared to guide Kara, and this time Kara, who had previously wanted to send Ian straight home, didn’t stop him. Through communication with the reporter among the passengers, she realized Ian might not be delusional or talking nonsense.
“According to my investigation, the sewage plant at this location is the most suspicious. It was only built last year, and right next to the tap water plant. Anyone who’s studied city planning knows that’s highly unreasonable.”
Ian pointed at the map.
“Haven’t you started high school yet? What city management could you have learned?”
Kara looked somewhat skeptical.
Ian was righteous and confident.
“I’ve played Cities: Skylines, understand the value of a five-star mayor!” He wasn’t trying to show off, so after explaining, he pointed at the map again.
“Here, cousin aunt, fly this way.”
He began navigating.
However.
“Touch again, see if there’s really eyes on the back of my head.” Kara was utterly speechless. Though she had a super brain, she wouldn’t normally memorize maps and layouts of other cities.
“No Kryptonian telekinesis?”
Ian frowned.
Kara was completely dumbfounded.
“No… should there be?”
The term Ian mentioned was extremely unfamiliar to her, making her increasingly doubt what knowledge Clark was teaching the children. Could Clark have mutated more powerfully than her after staying on Earth too long?
“Alright, then I’ll hold the map in front of your eyes.” Ian acted while feeling greatly disappointed. Among the aliens, it seemed Ultraman was still superior.
“I didn’t tell you to cover my eyes with the map! Give it here!” Kara had no choice but to snatch the map from Ian’s hands herself to confirm the direction.
“My arms are short.”
Ian replied confidently.
“…”
Kara felt a deep sense of powerlessness again.
Her speed was very fast.
Before Ian could even calculate how much experience points he could gain from jumping from such a height, Kara had already arrived at the sewage plant shown on the map.
“Bang!”
Nearly vertical landing.
Kara landed in front of the rusty large iron door of the sewage treatment plant. Ian smoothly jumped off her back to the ground, skillfully pulling the waist-tied stockings back over his head.
“…”
Kara found this hard to comment on.
She rubbed her temples hard, offered no more pointless admonishment, turned toward the sewage plant, and pushed open the six-meter-high metal door with one hand.
The hinges emitted a piercing groan.
The sound was like some kind of painful wail.
Inside the door, the pungent smell of disinfectant mixed with sewage hit them, making Kara involuntarily wrinkle her super nose. Ian immediately covered his mouth and nose; the muffled voice through the stockings carried astonishment, lower in tone than usual.
“Urgh, this smell is like stewing durian with stinky socks.” He always had some wondrous metaphors that made people feel immersed yet hard to imagine how he came up with them.
A dozen workers in orange work clothes were busy in the factory area. Seeing the suddenly appeared Supergirl and the stockings-headed man, they all stopped their work and cast curious glances.
However.
No one came forward to ask questions; everyone was busy with their own tasks. If not for seeing Superwoman, whom they only saw on television, these diligent workers might not have spared them a glance.
After all, work was far more important than chasing stars, and Superwoman was just so-so in Metropolis.
“How is it?”
Ian spoke up to ask, though it was impossible not to be nervous.
But with the immortality buff, Ian felt eager to try amid the tension. His intuition told him he could definitely level up hard here.
“Let me see.”
Kara raised her hand signaling Ian to wait, her eyes focusing as super vision scanned the entire factory area. Settling tanks, sedimentation tanks, disinfection equipment—everything seemed to be operating normally.
“Nothing wrong.”
Kara retracted her vision and looked at Ian in confusion.
“Not here… but my super intelligence is clearly telling me there’s definitely something wrong here.” Ian frowned and raised his electronic device.
“It’s still a LexCorp property, buffs fully stacked already.” Ian shook the information he’d just searched, but Kara’s first attention was somewhat particular.
“You’re using the same model phone as me!”
Kara’s tone was astonished.
She was about to say this might be the bond of blood.
However.
“I don’t have my own phone yet; this is your phone, cousin aunt… I borrowed it.” Ian blinked, his words freezing Kara’s smile on her face.
“No wonder you patted me twice earlier!”
Kara realized belatedly.
She was utterly speechless at Ian.
Her gaze finally turned to the information on the phone—Metropolis New Concept Sewage Plant, LexCorp wholly-owned subsidiary, will handle 70% of the city’s industrial wastewater for free in the future!
This news made Kara’s eyes flicker too.
LexCorp had always maintained a stable reputation in the superhero circle.
Steadier than Boeing.
“You’re right, Luthor isn’t likely doing real charity. He always has his own schemes and ideas.” Kara thought she should inspect this wastewater plant more carefully.
Regarding this.
Ian deeply agreed.
“Right, right? I even bet that if Luthor taking social responsibility has no conspiracy, I’ll immediately go to neighboring Gotham and hire Joker as my psychiatrist!”
He spoke righteously.
Kara’s expression turned odd upon hearing this.
“Why reward yourself?” It was clear that after half a day’s brief interaction, her view of this nephew was no longer about prejudice.
“？？？？”
Ian’s face flushed red.
Somewhat exasperated.
He was just about to retort fiercely.
“Urgh urgh urgh~”
At that moment, intense retching interrupted their conversation. Not far away, a skinny worker suddenly knelt on the ground, hands clutching his throat, emitting choking “urgh urgh” sounds.
Surrounding colleagues immediately gathered.
“Mike! What’s wrong?”
Friends showed concern.
But worker Mike didn’t respond. He suddenly vomited a mouthful of deep green vomit, splattering “splat” on the concrete ground, the deep green vomit seeming to glow green.
Not only that.
The half-digested food residues sizzled corrosively upon hitting the ground, burning through the hard concrete, continuously emitting wisps of black smoke.
“No!”
The worker who had cared for his friend, and other helpful colleagues nearby, all paled in shock, scattering in panic like ants from a disturbed nest.
“It’s that situation! The one from yesterday! It must be some kind of contagion!” Someone shouted in fear, abandoning work and running straight toward the door.
They truly seemed terrified.
“What’s going on?”
Kara wanted to stop a worker to ask.
But.
“Contagion! A very scary contagion! Even Superman got infected!” The worker only fearfully warned before struggling desperately to get away from the “patient.”
Kara could only let him go helplessly.
“Sir, are you okay?”
Though she didn’t have the plum candy Ian wanted to see, she still said the famous line, while staying vigilant and carefully approaching the kneeling, vomiting worker.
Hearing this.
Worker Mike lifted his head.
“Save me!”
The man’s voice was desperate and hoarse.
His eyeballs had turned murky white, with faint green substance flowing under his skin. The man opened his mouth to say more but only emitted a non-human howl. The man was undergoing extremely rapid mutation, green energy erupting within him—eerie, terrifying.
Carrying strong erosion of biological genes.
“Workers! Never slaves!”
The man roared.
Ian felt the line was familiar.
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