"Thud!"
The heavy, bundled straw bales were thrown into the back of the pickup truck.
Clark clapped his hands, letting out a soft breath.
"You're up early today, Clark. Are you fully recovered?"
Jonathan, emerging from the barn, asked in surprise, seeing Clark so full of life helping him move things.
"I'm recovering well, Dad."
Clark said, throwing a heavy bale of straw into the truck bed. "Though I was a bit weak at first, I've fully recovered my previous strength now. If I were still sick, I wouldn't be able to move these things."
"That's good. It's finally over, and luckily, the outcome isn't bad."
Jonathan lifted a bale of straw into the truck and said to Clark, "Your mom and I are going to the medical center for a routine check-up. Do you want a ride to school?"
"No, that's okay. I can take the school bus."
Bending down, Clark continued to move the straw into the truck bed.
"How's Mom feeling now?"
He exhaled and asked Jonathan.
"Not bad."
Jonathan stood in the truck bed, taking the crops Clark handed him. "She's pregnant. I still can't believe it."
"Then…"
Clark walked to the edge of the truck bed, pushed the straw further in, and asked Jonathan with a smile, "When can we share this good news with everyone?"
Closing the truck bed, Jonathan shrugged. "Don't worry, it's a secret everyone can happily share."
"Yeah, this baby is very lucky."
Clark clapped the dust from his hands and replied to his father.
Jonathan walked to the driver's seat, preparing to check the pickup's safety, but as if remembering something, he turned and said to Clark with hesitation, "Son, I don't want you to misunderstand."
Placing a hand on Clark's shoulder, "This child will bring a huge change for us, but it won't affect our feelings for you. Clark, you and Eric, Martha and I have always loved you both."
"I know."
Clark understood what his father wanted to express and nodded.
"That's good then."
Jonathan smiled with relief and turned to walk towards the driver's seat.
"I'm glad everything is back to normal."
He said to Clark while opening the driver's side door.
Meanwhile, in the living room, Martha came out and called to her husband, "Jonathan, we're going to be late, we need to go!"
Eric also accompanied his mother out of the living room.
After bidding farewell to their parents, the two watched the pickup truck drive away.
"Aren't you going to school now?"
Clark bent down, continuing to move the straw at hand into the barn, and asked Eric.
"If I didn't have superpowers, I'd follow the school bus and be at school on time."
Eric glanced at Clark and walked into the living room.
"But once I can traverse 'black holes' to take shortcuts, I don't have to be at school on time."
"Hmm, Chloe's silly joke. I can't believe you still remember that."
Clark shrugged, easily lifted the heavy straw pile, and walked towards the barn.
His "Chloe joke" referred to how Chloe often teased him about "traveling through wormholes" because he would often arrive at school before her, even when he hadn't caught the school bus.
"Oh, right."
Eric stared at his cheap older brother and suddenly asked him, "Clark, do you remember what you did last night?"
"What?"
Clark blinked in confusion, putting down the straw he was holding. "Last night? After dinner, I went back to my room."
He had been busy copying Chloe's study notes lately because he often took time off from school.
"You don't remember where you went?"
"Of course, I remember."
Clark thought for a moment. "I stayed in my room, didn't I?"
"Never mind."
Eric shook his head and turned to walk into the living room.
Last night, he had personally seen Clark walk out as if sleepwalking.
Although he didn't wake him, he watched him wander like a ghost through the farm and wasteland.
Now that Clark didn't know he was sleepwalking, he decided not to tell him and see if he would continue tonight.
He was curious as to why Clark had suddenly started sleepwalking.
Late at night.
Dark clouds obscured the sky, and the hot, humid night grew even thicker and darker.
Clark fell asleep as soon as he lay down.
In his dream, he felt himself vaguely flying.
He flew through the farm and woods, over roads and rivers, and finally arrived at a hidden cave.
The cave was dark and deep, with no end in sight. He slowly moved through the cave, controlling his flight, and finally reached its deepest part.
The deepest part of the cave was illuminated by phosphorescent plants, emitting a faint green glow.
Clark descended from his floating state and found a strange textual pattern carved into the rock wall in front of him.
It looked somewhat similar to the patterns on the spaceship he had seen in the cellar.
In the very center of the pattern was an octagonal opening.
Just as he was wondering, he found a metal fragment suddenly appear in his right hand.
An octagonal silver metal fragment, the key Eric had found that seemed to be able to open the spaceship.
Clark swallowed, slowly extending the octagonal metal fragment in his hand towards the pattern on the wall.
The moment the metal fragment touched the wall, it was sucked in and disappeared.
Immediately, a beam of light erupted from the pattern on the wall, shining directly onto his face.
"Ugh!"
Feeling a sharp pain, Clark reached out to block the blinding, skin-burning light beam.
Whoosh!
The scenery before him suddenly changed, and the image of the rock wall instantly vanished.
What met his eyes was the night, illuminated by dim Yellow Lanterns.
He found himself still holding his hand up, wearing pajamas, barefoot, lying on the damp road.
Beside him was a pitch-black forest, and the light from an old streetlamp dispelled the darkness nearby.
"The cold ground isn't comfortable, is it?"
Just as he was about to get up from the road, Clark heard a familiar voice beside him.
He looked towards the source of the voice and saw Eric standing there, arms crossed, watching him with a playful gaze.
"I… what happened to me?"
Clark rubbed his slightly aching forehead and asked Eric.
"Clearly, you just had a sleepwalking episode, and one that seems quite serious."
Eric looked around. "This is Highway 8, 22 miles from the farm. It looks like the rabbit hole your Alice in Wonderland traveled through was surprisingly long."
No sooner had he spoken than a car appeared from the uphill section of the road.
The car, with its high beams on, seemed not to have seen Eric and Clark lying on the ground, and instantly moved in front of the two.
Eric, possessing a super speed comparable to the speed of sound, grabbed Clark's clothes a tenth of a second before the car hit, pulling him off the road.
Clark only felt a blur before his eyes, and he and Eric appeared together in the woods.
"I… was I sleepwalking just now?"
"It seems so. Or do you suspect I'd be bored enough in the middle of the night to bring you here without clothes on?"
"No…"
Clark scratched his head in confusion. "I remember I just went into a cave. I saw the writing on the cave wall, and I seemed to vaguely understand it. And there was an octagonal pattern on it… Maybe it's related to where we came from."
"Eric, do you know how to get into that cave?"
He asked Eric with a hint of excitement.
Thinking that he might soon uncover the mystery of his origins, Clark was somewhat impatient.
"No, I didn't see you enter any cave."
Eric shook his head. "I just saw you leave the house, walk all the way here, and then suddenly collapse."
"So the cave, the wall carvings, the key, the bright light—that was just something I saw in a dream?"
"Perhaps. Now you'd better go home before your family finds out."
Eric turned to leave.
Yes, he lied to Clark.
Clark had indeed entered a hidden cave while sleepwalking.
If his guess was correct, it should be something related to Krypton.
Ever since Clark came into contact with the spaceship, the Kryptonian genes within his body had gradually begun to awaken.
At the same time, it seemed that the dormant Kryptonian forces were also beginning to act.
Excluding General Zod, who was currently banished to space, no matter how unlikely, this force could only be Superman's father.
But as Eric knew, Krypton had long been destroyed, and Superman's father had also turned to ash with it.
Since he's already dead, don't add so much drama to yourself!
Eric sneered, bent his knees slightly, and prepared to fly away.
But he was quickly called back by Clark, "Eric!"
"What? Do you need me to take you back?"
"No, it's not that."
Clark took a few deep breaths and walked over, saying to his brother, "The cave might hide the answers we've been looking for, the truth about where we came from. Aren't you even a little interested? Or don't you want to know why our birth parents abandoned us?"
"The truth is, I'm not interested at all."
Eric shook his head, his voice cold. "That's your own idea. Don't force it on anyone, especially me."
"It's not forcing."
Clark thought about the writing and patterns in the cave. "I just feel like we can touch the truth."
"That's not the truth I want, Clark, and I have no interest in it whatsoever."
After learning that Superman's immortal biological father seemed to be causing trouble, and with the spaceship inexplicably emitting rays that almost made Martha irrecoverable, after a series of events, he now had no good feelings towards the other party.
He turned to Clark and said coldly, "Clark, if you imagine life to be too beautiful, you'll fall very hard!"
"Of course."
Clark nodded, but retorted, "If you think life is too bad, you'll lose the courage to face it, won't you?"
Clark, growing more agitated with each word, his last sentence even containing a hint of anger, "Why are you afraid of finding the truth!"
Faced with Clark's questioning, Eric did not answer, simply ignoring him and disappearing instantly from the spot.
Leaving Clark behind, somewhat annoyed.
He felt he had been a jerk!
A normal conversation had been ruined by his own rude remarks and irrational behavior.
The next day, evening.
Clark was still out with Chloe for a school activity and hadn't returned from school yet.
Eric returned to the farm early from school and told his parents about Clark's sleepwalking.
"Clark's behavior has indeed been a bit strange these past few days, ever since he learned about the spaceship."
Jonathan sighed, putting down his coffee cup. "And he's been absent-minded. I always thought he hadn't fully recovered."
"Clark is somewhat obsessed with finding the truth."
Eric took a sip of the orange juice his mother had stirred. "And that spaceship seems to be subtly luring him."
Martha looked at her husband with concern and asked her younger son, "Eric, haven't you felt the spaceship's call or anything else?"
"Me?"
Eric put down his cup. "Maybe, maybe not, but who cares?"
To his parents' astonished gazes, Eric casually said, "I'm an Earthling, a native-born Earthling of Smallville. As for that spaceship, who cares where it came from? Who cares what message it wants to convey?"
"This is my home. If it wants to tell me or guide me on what to do, I think it's overthinking it."
Hearing their younger son's words, the couple was somewhat surprised.
But deep down, more gratitude welled up.
Eric was different from Clark. Compared to Clark's confusion about his identity, their younger son placed the family at the farm in the most important position.
Martha even thought of the worst-case scenario, that Clark might leave them, but Eric never would.
Knock! Knock!
As they were talking, they suddenly heard a knock at the door.
"Maybe Clark's back. I'll get it."
Jonathan put down the coffee cup he had been holding and walked towards the door.
"Wait, Dad, I'll get it."
Eric's gaze passed through the door, seeing the presence behind it, and his eyes immediately narrowed, simultaneously stopping his father's movement.
"?"
Although somewhat curious why Eric wanted to open the door himself, he ultimately nodded and stopped.
Eric walked to the door, gently pushed it open, and a beautiful figure appeared before his eyes.
A girl with golden hair and delicate features stood outside, completely unclothed.
"Hello, Eric Kent, I'm Kara Zor-El."
Despite having no clothes on and revealing a figure that would make blood rush, the other party seemed not to care at all, smiling as she introduced herself to Eric.
Kara Zor-El?
Hearing that name, Eric's gaze, which had been fixed on two indescribable objects, immediately shifted.
Supergirl?!
.