Chapter 101: Star Eater! New Profession Unlocked! [8k]
In the void.
Jonathan Kent knelt on the shattered galaxy.
His breathing was heavy, sweat trickled down his forehead, but in the instant of falling into darkness, it evaporated into crimson mist, the whispers in his ears like a million ants crawling within his skull.
Impossible to resist.
Like a festering wound.
Heard in his ears, it felt like a dull ache of a rusty scalpel dissecting his skull.
“Get out!”
Under his roar, light seemed to illuminate the surroundings, yet it still couldn’t penetrate the layers of darkness, to pull him from this uncanny place back to reality.
Powerlessness washed over him.
“Someone, help me…”
Jonathan, in pain, wanted to cry for help.
But received no response.
Only the sound of his own heartbeat echoed in the void.
“Why reject such an opportunity, is it because you are too foolish to awaken your superhuman brain?” the voice sneered, Jonathan gritted his teeth, his fingernails digging deeply into his palm.
“Clark Kent is strong, isn’t he? He’s the all-powerful Superman you speak of.” The disembodied voice suddenly became gentle, like a kind elder.
However.
As the tail end of the sentence drew out, Jonathan could hear the screams of countless drowned souls in the vocal tones, like cries sealed in a coral reef, reaching across billions of years of ocean.
“But even the strongest life must eventually die.”
A symphony of chaos and madness seemed to explode in Jonathan’s ears at this moment.
With indescribable noise.
Countless illusory and incredibly realistic bubbles emerged.
They swayed before Jonathan’s eyes, completely filling the space around his body. Jonathan wanted to dodge, but a bubble enveloped him, and he seemed to instantly appear in a new world.
What greeted his eyes was a scene that filled Jonathan with utter terror.
He saw.
He saw Kryptonite Chains piercing his collarbone, suspending his father Clark from corroded satellite debris. Lex Luthor, dressed in a presidential uniform, was meticulously peeling off the “S” emblem from the blue battle suit with a scalpel.
“Behold, citizens.”
He aimed at the live broadcast camera, holding up the bloody fabric with a contemptuous tone.
“So-called deities are merely flesh that can bleed.”
Amidst a groundswell of cheers.
Jonathan, standing in the square below, wanted to rush forward, but was forced to witness it all as soldiers pushed his head down along the way. The scene vanished with his enraged roars.
“See?”
The voice spoke again.
“You’re trying to bewitch my mind!”
Jonathan turned to flee, only to collide with another scene: on the scorched farm land stood a half-broken Kryptonian crystal, Lois’s decaying fingers still clutched the alarm button.
A burly, imposing black alien slowly approached, his shadow creeping towards a brand new baby stroller, where the cries of the brown-haired, blue-eyed infant abruptly stopped.
“Ian!”
Jonathan rushed forward.
His hands only grasped an illusion of emptiness.
He saw the baby stroller was charred black, and in the hands of the burly alien, Clark’s pained head was being held. Jordan also lay dead in a pile of grass not far from his mother, Lois.
“Fake! It’s all fake! You won’t fool me! Stop!” Unwilling to accept this scene, Jonathan retreated frantically, falling directly into a tangled, chaotic scene.
“Why stop? This isn’t a threat, it’s destiny—countless possible destinies.” The voice chuckled, colors swirled, and more terrifying images surged towards Jonathan like a tide.
Superman was pierced through the chest by a giant, grotesque monster, utterly fallen—he was transformed into a war machine by a terrifying green creature—even Clark himself killed his wife, Lois.
Each scene was more unbearable for Jonathan than the last.
He fled in all directions.
But there was nowhere to escape.
Continuously forced to witness more scenes.
“No…”
Jonathan finally couldn’t bear it, his will collapsing, and he slumped to the ground. He saw Clark approaching him with red eyes, as if he would snap his head off in the next moment.
“These are all futures that could happen.”
The voice reappeared, ethereal and constant, the chaotic symphony gradually fading. Jonathan saw the Superman before him dissipate like smoke, and everything was instantly enveloped in a harmonious scene.
The setting sun bathed the Kent family’s barn in gold.
In the distance, Sam Lane’s Ferrari pulled into the driveway, a garish birthday balloon tied to the roof—”Happy 100th Birthday to Myself” flapped in the wind.
Grandma Martha was also smiling, sitting on top.
“Look at your father, how much has he embezzled this time.”
Clark sat in the porch rocker, his temples showing streaks of white, but his smile remained warm. An album lay open on his lap, Lois leaned on his shoulder, her finger gently pointing at a photo, both of them laughing. And in the yard, adult Jordan and Ian were repairing the talking Hellcat.
It was now painted red and blue, with a crooked “S” logo on the hood.
“Can you stop using heat vision to weld screws?”
Jordan complained.
“Last time you melted the fuel tank!”
His tone was resentful.
“No, that was your nephew, not me. If you don’t believe me, I’ll beat him up when I get back tonight, he’ll definitely admit it.” Ian was just like Jonathan remembered.
Habitually passing the buck.
He didn’t even spare his own son. The Hellcat’s radio suddenly started playing country music, and the two young men froze for a second, both looking at Jonathan, who was slumped on the ground.
“What are you staring at? Come help us lift this car.”
With a smile.
Jonathan felt a warm atmosphere again.
And just as his mind was in disarray.
The voice suddenly came close to his ear.
“This is the future you want, isn’t it? Now, we can help you achieve it.” The voice was full of temptation, and Jonathan’s pupils contracted slightly.
“This isn’t just for you.” Its whisper wrapped around Jonathan’s reason like a venomous snake, as if adding the most crucial stake, “It’s for your… family.”
The collapse of psychological defenses might only take an instant.
After all, the Kent family was full of family heroes. Jonathan lowered his head. Around him, the lights that had struggled to pierce the darkness began to extinguish, just as the light in Jonathan’s eyes gradually dimmed.
“What should I do?”
The seventeen-year-old boy asked in a low voice.
His voice was hoarse.
The ray of light that seemed to illuminate the world completely vanished at this moment, but Jonathan, with his eyes closed, could still feel the things that emerged from the darkness approaching him.
In the void.
Something laughed.
Darkness like viscous oil flowed over Jonathan’s ankles.
“You just need to… accept us!”
At this moment.
Jonathan seemed to see countless eerie shadows flash before his eyes. He roared, but only sat up from his bed, cold sweat soaking his pajamas and his bedsheets.
His heart pounded wildly.
It felt like it would explode from his chest.
“What did I dream of!”
Returning to reality, Jonathan couldn’t remember what he had seen. He tried desperately to recall, but only had fragmented pieces, not even enough to form a complete piece of information.
“There must be something, there must be something crucial.” Jonathan’s subconscious was frantically reminding him, but everything in the dream seemed to have been forcibly ripped from his memory by some power.
“This is…”
Jonathan panted heavily, frowning.
He stood up.
And discovered something had fallen from his quilt onto the floor.
“Huh?”
Simultaneously.
Clark also suddenly awoke from the sofa downstairs.
At this moment, his super hearing picked up a sound from the second floor that shouldn’t be there. It wasn’t Ian’s “talking in his sleep” or Jordan’s unconscious super speed causing disturbances while sleeping, but a viscous sound, as if something was being chewed.
“Thump thump thump~”
Clark instantly appeared at his elder son’s door.
He knocked.
“Jonathan, are you alright?” Clark Kent asked in the manner of an ordinary father, inquiring if his son was well, even though he could see what was happening inside if he wished.
“I’m fine, I just had a nightmare, I can’t remember what it was, but it was probably quite scary.” Jonathan was in his room changing his sheets and clothes.
He still couldn’t recall what had happened in the dream, and even the fragments he remembered upon waking were fading. It often happens when people dream, so he didn’t suspect anything.
“You didn’t sneak a peek at me, did you?” Jonathan could imagine his father standing in the hallway—frowning slightly, his super hearing capturing the subtle changes in his heartbeat, breathing, and blood flow.
“If it’s not necessary, then no. Would you like some hot chocolate?”
Clark was still outside the door.
“No thanks, I still need to lose weight. Dad, you definitely know how important good shape is for an American football player.” Jonathan walked over to his desk.
On it lay a book he had just picked up from the floor.
Perhaps Clark really didn’t peek.
Otherwise, Jonathan felt his father would probably ask what the heck he was looking at on his desk—of course, maybe only he could see this book?
Jonathan frowned.
“Alright, if you need any help, just call me.” The old man’s voice was incredibly gentle, and his footsteps gradually faded, the wooden floor creaking slightly.
A bit deliberate.
But Jonathan didn’t think much of it; his attention was focused on the mysteriously appearing book. He swore he hadn’t bought such a thing, and the strange patterns on it looked quite unsettling.
It was said to be a book.
It looked more like an old leather notebook, appearing rather thin, and inside, there were no writings at all. Jonathan turned on the light and could clearly see the name on the cover.
“Death Note?”
He softly read the crooked handwriting, which looked like a child’s doodle, or like someone who hadn’t learned to write drawing with stiff, unpracticed strokes.
“This writing is even worse than Ian’s scribbles.”
Jonathan grumbled, and then released the mysterious notebook. He realized he had misread it earlier; on at least the first page of this blank notebook, there was one line of text.
【We can help you conquer death】
The dark red lettering was still crooked.
The light flickered suddenly.
The next moment.
【I can help you conquer death】
The writing on the first page seemed to have changed. Jonathan wasn’t sure if the change was his imagination; after all, he had just woken up and his mind was still a bit jumbled.
“Who put this in my room? Jordan or Ian? It’s not even April Fool’s Day…” The night’s silence enveloped Jonathan’s room, broken only by the occasional sound of wind from outside.
Under the dim desk lamp, Jonathan sat at his desk, his fingers lightly flipping through the strange notebook—he felt like he was being watched, but looking around, he saw nothing.
The room was empty, the wardrobe was closed, the curtains were still, and even his shadow lay quietly on the floor without any anomaly, but the feeling of being watched persisted.
It was as if something was standing in front of him, yet refusing to be captured by his senses, which made Jonathan feel a bit creeped out, so he quickly threw the notebook he was examining back onto the desk.
“Weird…”
Jonathan decided to throw this notebook away outside tomorrow. Lying back in bed, he scanned his surroundings again, confirming there were no other figures in his room.
The feeling of being watched gradually receded, allowing Jonathan to fall back into a deep sleep—outside, the moonlight was split by clouds, scattering dappled patterns on the wooden desk.
The black notebook lay there quietly.
Countless dark red tendrils began to slowly extend from it, as if out of sync with reality, existing only in an unseen world, imperceptible to normal sight.
Information was being perceived, read.
The air in the entire room began to vibrate, the shadows on the walls writhed like living things, the creases in the bedsheet deepened inexplicably, but Jonathan merely turned over in his sleep.
Unaware of this strange phenomenon.
Clark also did not appear.
And at this very moment.
【Guten Abend, gute Nacht~〔Good evening, good night〕】
【mit Rosen bedacht~〔adorned with roses〕】
【mit Nglein besteckt~〔sprinkled with lilacs〕】
【schlupf’ unter die Deck~〔slip under the covers〕】
Outside the window.
The Hellcat’s radio suddenly began playing a very famous German 《lullaby》.
It did not disturb their sweet dreams.
However.
At this moment.
The tendrils tentatively extended from the black notebook seemed to be startled by this sudden sound and retracted back into the notebook.
As if nothing had happened.
The room returned to quiet and peace.
Perhaps.
They are afraid of being discovered.
They don’t want to be perceived.
The encroachment of one world upon another needs to be silent. Therefore, this nascent power can only retreat into the notebooks it uses for concealment.
Such behavior is clearly very strange.
It’s as if some evil, unwilling to be discovered, is adopting forms that might seem harmless, attempting to hide its more dark and profound—sinister nature.
……
Nightmare World.
Marvel Universe.
Ian slowly opened his eyes. He had once again traversed between universes, moving from the DC universe he loved to the Marvel universe that might love him dearly.
“Lock me into invincibility, but don’t stop me from bringing things over, you obsessive fan,” Ian’s 【Obsessive Fan Law】 was still in effect. He looked down at the magical book in his hand.
The name of this book twisted and changed the moment it entered this world, transforming from the original 【Ian’s Magic Book】 to 【Ian’s Most Beloved Magic Book】.
It hadn’t been with Ian for very long.
But it seemed to have learned the essence. For such blatant imitation, Ian naturally had to criticize it, and then appropriately encourage it to persevere.
He felt that the book’s name change might be related to the Minotaur Demon’s hallucination the first time he experienced smuggling. The idea of having a universe grow inside one’s body always seemed to be easily misunderstood by demons.
“Don’t worry, I’m not a Demon God… Don’t be scared, I don’t usually eat books; in fact, I cherish them the most.” After Ian’s reassurance, two sparkling heart symbols immediately popped out from the book’s surface. They emerged from the eyeball position on the cover’s yellow smiling face, and Ian used all his might to push the hearts back in.
“Damn it! Another obsessive fan!”
Ian had no time to linger with the book in his hand, because when he looked up, he saw the Planet Eater—that once towering cosmic being had completely fallen.
The sky once again became a color of countless dark clouds, like a curtain dyed with inferior pigment, and the Planet Eater, which had been falling at an abnormally slow speed, now lay flat on the ground.
The sound of metal breaking echoed incessantly in the distance.
“Did someone try to feast on a deity but accidentally forget to invite me!” Ian moved quickly, hopping dozens of meters high with every couple of steps like an agile rabbit.
While reassuring himself that he was only one level away from perfection, he pretended to fly using 【Ai’s Victory Method】. This wasn’t embarrassing; he remembered a version of Superman in the DC universe who flew this way at first.
And indeed, it was much faster than simply running on snow or sliding on one’s backside. As long as one’s head was tough enough, those road signs and iron railings on tall buildings could be grabbed with hands after a headbutt to launch oneself further—Spider-Man’s ultimate move was nothing more than this.
At this moment, Ian felt as if he had achieved enlightenment on his own.
The closer he got to the city center.
The clearer Ian saw.
The Planet Eater—that once towering cosmic being, now displayed the normal posture of a deceased entity. Its massive body stretched across the horizon, resembling a collapsed mountain range.
And.
It was being “dismembered.”
Ian had always felt that few people knew the Planet Eater was actually flesh and blood, a type of cosmic-level human-like being, not someone born with that heavy armor.
Now, countless soldiers and researchers swarmed its body like ants.
That was a population of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands.
There were truly a lot of them. Ian had never seen so many living people in this world before. They were using laser cutters, quantum strippers, and other tools that were clearly high-tech, to dismantle the Planet Eater’s armor piece by piece—even the top scientists in the DC universe wouldn’t be able to name these high-tech tools.
“Plasma cutters, supernatural segmentation machines…”
As for why Ian recognized some of the tools, it was naturally because the names of some of them, including the ones mentioned at the beginning, were products of Ian’s guesswork as soon as he opened his mouth.
Pure fabrication.
Completely devoid of scholarly content.
In any case, a group of scientists who had been “resurrected” were using technological creations to dismember the colossal Planet Eater. This truly exceeded Ian’s understanding of technological creations.
“As expected of the God of Ten Thousand Machines, Tony!”
Ian exclaimed from the bottom of his heart. He had already arrived near the area where the Planet Eater had fallen. It was obvious that when this guy fell, the 【Assembled Corpse Alliance】 had assisted. Otherwise, given that the Planet Eater’s head alone occupied the entire city center, this city and its surroundings should have been reduced to ruins.
However, the area destroyed by the Planet Eater was not that large.
External forces had clearly intervened.
“This is probably when my Uncle Devourer was close to starving,” Ian somersaulted in the sky, not ten thousand miles, but definitely a hundred and eighty meters.
He landed on a damaged skyscraper on the outskirts of the city center.
Looking forward.
The being that once had stars in its eyes and galaxies at its feet now lay like a gutted whale in the ruined city. Its silver-purple armor was torn to pieces, revealing pale skin beneath—yes, skin. At the seams of the torn armor, faint bluish veins could be seen pulsing slightly.
A research team had even set up a temporary tent and was holding an academic seminar around an exposed nerve ending. Ian thought these guys were the truly mad ones.
“Gwen, Gwen, come score me! How much do I resemble Spider-Man?” Ian saw an old acquaintance and threw himself into the air, falling directly towards the Planet Eater’s head.
At this moment.
Gwen, holding something in her hand, looked as if she was about to fall to the ground.
“I’ve got you!”
Ian was overjoyed.
Because he had accomplished something that Peter Parker seemed to be forever unable to do.
“Was Peter Parker cloned? I can teach you, guaranteed to work,” Ian directly grabbed Gwen by the scruff of her neck, lifting the falling Gwen back onto the Planet Eater’s head.
“God, why is it you again… you crazy boy appearing,” Gwen’s neck was almost shrunken into a ball, slightly startled, but at least her spine hadn’t broken.
Ian still won.
“Shouldn’t I be the Amazing Boy? I saved you, and instead of thanking me, you call me a madman?”
Ian’s eyes widened.
He felt extremely wronged.
Gwen patted Ian’s hand with all her might, but the boy didn’t let go of her neck. She could feel that with every meeting, the opponent’s strength seemed to be growing exponentially.
“Didn’t you show me your mental illness certificate yourself?”
Gwen, speechless, rolled her eyes.
“Oh, right.”
Ian immediately stopped feeling wronged. Perhaps according to his theory of relativity, the grievance had transferred to Gwen, who was being held like a cat by Ian, with a look of utter despair on her face.
“Also, you didn’t save me. Is it possible that I just wanted to jump down and kill myself?” It was hard to imagine what mental state Gwen was in to say something so dismissive of life.
Perhaps it was a focus on efficiency?
She pointed to several large square machines not far away, which were continuously “printing” new bodies—flesh, bones, and uniforms, all ready in five seconds.
“Oh, okay.”
Ian seemed to understand. He looked at Gwen’s hand, where she wore a special glove that allowed her to tightly grip a golden-yellow Infinity Gem symbolizing mind power.
“Did you steal it from my Uncle Devourer?”
Ian looked around. The Planet Eater’s head was intact, and he couldn’t find any place to pry off the gem. There were two holes on the face of the Star Eater they were standing on that could be explored.
They were nostrils.
The mouth didn’t even count.
Because the Planet Eater’s mouth was tightly closed.
“This is called retrieval… Hurry and put me down. Energy is limited, resources are limited, and this glove can’t last much longer.” The glove in Gwen’s hand did show signs of cracking.
“Oh, oh, okay.”
Ian wasn’t the type to get in the way.
He carried Gwen to the edge of the Star Eater’s head and gently let go, causing Gwen to fall and land in a shape rarely seen in many versions of Spider-Man stories.
After all, she landed face first.
It didn’t fit the visually appealing design of dying beautifully even in death.
“This thing shouldn’t break from a fall.”
Staff members nearby quickly rushed forward and collected the Mind Gem in a container.
At the same time.
A few seconds later, another machine opened with a “ding,” and a brand new Gwen walked out, dusting off nonexistent dust from her uniform and even massaging her neck, which no longer hurt.
“Seriously, have you ever been a superhero? Some of your actions are so reckless and presumptive,” Gwen pointed to the back of her neck. “Have you ever seen a superhero save someone by grabbing them like this?!”
She was very exasperated.
She felt that Ian needed guidance.
However.
“Anyway, when my dad caught me, he grabbed me like this. He’s the most powerful superhero in our place… That’s why I’m imitating him.”
Ian’s Super Brain always provided him with the most reasonable excuses.
“……”
Gwen’s mouth opened, and she suddenly found herself speechless. She had seen second-generation rich kids flaunt their fathers and sports cars, their prestigious schools, and even their superpowers, but she had never seen the “showing off your dad” competition veer into the realm of superheroes.
A superhero dad?
A second-generation superhero?
This touched Gwen’s knowledge blind spot.
“I don’t believe your father would teach you to save people like that.” Helplessly, Gwen could only judge Ian’s actions from her professional standpoint, concluding they were definitely not proper ways to save someone.
“You don’t have a Bio-Electric Field, you wouldn’t understand.” To this, Ian merely shook his head, “Also, my dad didn’t teach me this, I was just deeply influenced by it.”
“Of course, you could also call it a childhood trauma. After all, a childhood without trauma is not perfect. Just as elderly people are prone to dementia if they don’t reflect on their children’s education, they easily fall victim to it—you see, it’s a win-win. I have a complete childhood, and my father will have a perfect old age.”
“I believe that reflecting on children’s education in the future will help him prevent dementia from time to time…” After passing through Batman’s battle suit, those influenced by Batman would possess a foresight incomprehensible to others. As Ian spoke word by word, Gwen’s eyes widened wider and wider.
The logic seemed to have some merit.
But the more she thought about it, the stranger it felt.
“What nonsense are you spouting…”
Gwen was not successfully persuaded by Ian like Madison. She just felt that her ability to organize her thoughts made it difficult to refute, but deep down, she knew that Ian’s logic had major flaws.
As for what those flaws were.
She would have to go back and let Tony analyze it.
Only Tony could clearly tell her what kind of filial son this was, and only Tony’s true wisdom could deal with this extremely sinister boy.
No.
Sometimes Tony seemed to be rendered speechless, but that must have been because Tony’s vast computing power was being occupied. Now that some of that computing power was freed up, he would surely handle it with ease!
Gwen’s heart was filled with unwavering faith in the wise God Tony.
“Tony has already prepared the corpse you wanted. Perhaps you can go find him now.” Gwen didn’t want to be disturbed by Ian, as she still had to retrieve the last Infinity Gem.
Today.
The entire universe would usher in its most important moment.
If not for what Tony had said before, Gwen would have preferred to capture Ian, or at least lure him elsewhere temporarily, as she truly didn’t want any variables to occur during such an important moment.
【Higher than me, higher than you, higher than this base, higher than… everything.】 To this day, neither Gwen nor Betty could fully comprehend the meaning behind Tony’s words.
“Is it Sentry? Or Omni-Man?”
Ian didn’t have a hobby of dissecting deities. He was more concerned about the power he could obtain. Upon hearing Gwen mention a corpse, his eyes immediately lit up like light bulbs.
“Both.”
Gwen pushed a bicycle out of a nearby box. It was hard to imagine that with the technological means to dismember the Planet Eater, they still relied on such a primitive mode of transportation for travel.
It was unclear why.
Of course.
Ian was not curious about this question at all right now.
“Great, great, great! As expected of my Respected Teacher, God of Ten Thousand Machines Tony!” Ian immediately became excited. His address caused Gwen to look bewildered for a moment, wondering if she had missed something.
She wanted to speak but stopped herself.
In the end, Gwen did not ask.
“Wait for me here.”
Although Omni-Man and Sentry occupied Ian’s mind, he had not forgotten why he had come here. Under Gwen’s gaze, he quickly darted into the Planet Eater’s nostril.
After a period of time.
“What were you doing?”
A bewildered Gwen saw Ian walk out with a happy expression.
“High-end exploration often involves entering the most primitive caves. Don’t ask, just know that it’s not suitable for children… or young women.” Ian wiped his hands with a tissue.
He had just been to admire the Planet Eater’s Super Brain.
His evaluation was that it wasn’t as good as his own.
【You have come into contact with an unknown supernatural substance. A new profession template has been unlocked. You can obtain a corrected supernatural profession—Entropy Lord—by meeting the required conditions.】
Of course.
This was Ian’s true objective.
The gains even exceeded Ian’s expectations. He mentioned Star Eater’s 【Sentry Rises】 comic, which hadn’t even been released yet, but the profession template was still unlocked with incredible smoothness.
A bit strange?
Ian looked at his profession panel.
【Writer LV2 (3/20)】
Perhaps it wasn’t that strange after all.
