Inside the Grayson family dining room, Debbie set down a plate of roast meat.
Nolan sat at the head of the table, calmly cutting into his steak. Across from him, Mark absentmindedly poked at his mashed potatoes with a fork.
"Dad, about what that black-haired guy said…"
"Don't believe strangers." Nolan didn't even look up. "He's just trying to drive a wedge between us."
Debbie came out from the kitchen carrying salad. "What's wrong? Don't like the steak?"
"It's nothing." Nolan smiled at his wife. "Mark just ran into a little trouble during training."
Mark stared at his father's face.
Smart Atoms. His mother's genes. Infinite potential…
Those words kept stabbing through his mind like thorns.
"Dad, can't you just tell me directly—"
The air suddenly turned heavy.
An invisible pressure descended from every direction. The salad bowl slipped from Debbie's hands and shattered on the floor. Mark felt as if his heart were being squeezed tight, making it hard to breathe.
Nolan's pupils contracted sharply.
He shot to his feet so fast the chair behind him flew backward into the liquor cabinet, smashing it apart. His eyes locked onto the dining room entrance.
Levi leaned casually against the doorframe, hands in his pockets, looking as relaxed as a neighbor dropping by for a visit.
"Dinner looks good." Levi glanced at the table before turning toward Nolan with a faint smile. "Too bad I came at the wrong time."
"How did you find this place?" Nolan's voice sank low.
"Find you?" Levi chuckled. "Nolan Grayson—or should I call you Omni-Man? You've spent over twenty years on this planet and thought changing your name, getting married, and having a son would hide that Viltrumite energy signature of yours?"
His gaze shifted to Mark, then Debbie.
"Quite the happy little family."
Nolan clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white.
A few days ago, this man had punched him straight into the planet's core. For the first time in his life, Nolan had experienced true helplessness.
But his wife and son were here.
He couldn't back down.
"What do you want?"
Levi took one step forward.
The pressure intensified. Glasses and plates on the table began trembling violently.
"What I want…" Levi stared directly at Nolan. "You happen to have."
Nolan moved.
His body became a blur as he lunged straight for Levi's throat, the air tearing apart with a piercing shriek.
With thousands of years of combat experience, this strike should have snapped his opponent's neck instantly.
Instead, his hand froze in midair.
Levi hadn't moved at all.
Nolan's wrist was locked in place by an invisible force, utterly immobile.
"You…"
He could feel it.
The force was coming from inside his own body.
His muscles rejected his commands. His bones defied his will. It felt as though something else had seized control of him from within.
"Smart Atoms." Levi's voice remained calm. "The source of Viltrumite power. Every atom is a programmable nanomachine executing specific genetic directives."
He raised a finger and tapped Nolan lightly on the forehead.
"And I just learned how to rewrite those directives."
Nolan's body began trembling violently.
His power was being stripped away bit by bit. The Smart Atoms that granted him godlike strength were being overwritten by commands of a higher authority.
"Impossible!" he roared as energy exploded wildly inside him.
Levi frowned slightly.
The next second, Nolan slammed into the ground, shattering the dining table. Plates and silverware flew everywhere. He tried to stand, but his body felt as heavy as lead. He could only lie there helplessly.
"Dad!" Mark tried to rush forward.
"Don't move."
Levi didn't even turn around.
Mark's body froze in place instantly. The power inside him surged violently, yet a far stronger force suppressed it completely.
Debbie collapsed to the floor, face pale as paper.
She had no idea what was happening. All she saw was her invincible husband lying there like a beaten dog.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Nolan forced the words through gritted teeth.
Levi crouched down to meet his gaze, eyes cold and indifferent.
"I already told you. You have something I need."
He paused briefly.
"How long have you lived? Two thousand years? Three thousand? How much biological energy have your Smart Atoms stored over all that time?"
Nolan's expression changed instantly.
"I need a large amount of energy for a little experiment." Levi smiled faintly. "And you, Nolan Grayson, are the best fuel source I could find."
"Fuel?"
Levi ignored him and turned toward Mark.
"Kid, want to know what your father really is?"
Mark couldn't move, but his eyes could still shift. Fear and confusion filled them as he looked back and forth between Levi and his father.
"Don't listen to him!" Nolan roared. "He's trying to manipulate you!"
"Manipulate?" Levi laughed softly. "Nolan Grayson—or should I say Omni-Man? Advance agent of the Viltrum Empire?"
The words struck like thunder.
Debbie's face turned deathly pale. Mark looked completely lost.
"The Viltrum Empire," Levi said casually, like telling a bedtime story, "is a cosmic empire that has conquered countless planets. Their method is simple: send their strongest warriors to infiltrate target worlds, integrate themselves into society, and when the time is right, conquer the planet from within."
He looked down at Nolan with amusement.
"You spent twenty years on Earth. Got married. Had a son. Played the role of loving husband and father. But your real mission was preparing this planet for imperial invasion."
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"To you, your wife and son were nothing more than… pets."
"Shut up!" Nolan's eyes turned bloodshot as veins bulged across his body.
The energy within him erupted frantically.
It changed nothing.
He remained pinned to the ground, unable to move even a finger.
"N-no… that's not true…" Debbie's voice trembled as tears streamed down her face. "Nolan, tell me he's lying…"
Nolan said nothing.
That silence hurt more than any answer could.
"Dad?" Mark's voice shook too. "Is it true?"
Still, Nolan remained silent.
Levi stood up and dusted off his hands.
"Well then, reunion time's over."
His tone turned colder.
"Nolan, you've lived for thousands of years. Every Smart Atom inside you acts as a miniature energy storage unit. Thousands of years of accumulation… what a fortune."
He crouched again and met Nolan's eyes.
"And I just happen to need that fortune."
Nolan's pupils shrank violently.
At last, he understood.
"You're insane!" he shouted. "You want to drain my energy? That'll kill me!"
"Kill you?" Levi tilted his head slightly, considering it. "Maybe. But that sounds like your problem."
He extended his right hand.
A faint golden glow emerged from his palm.
The power of Alchemy—the ability to reconstruct matter at the molecular level.
"Don't worry. I'll make it hurt as little as possible."
His hand pressed against Nolan's back.
The next instant, Nolan unleashed a bloodcurdling scream.
The pain didn't come from his flesh—it came from something deeper. His life force was being ripped away piece by piece as the Smart Atoms granting his godlike power were forcibly activated, releasing the energy they had stored over thousands of years.
Golden light poured from Nolan's body and flowed into Levi through his arm.
Levi closed his eyes and felt the energy.
Enough.
This energy was sufficient to initiate the reconstruction process for his own Smart Atoms.
His body began changing.
Every cell. Every atom.
Everything was being rewritten—switching from Physical Defense Mode into Energy Accommodation Mode.
The process was agonizing, but Levi's face remained expressionless.
Mark watched everything unfold, feeling his world collapse.
His father—the superhero he had worshiped all his life—was lying there like a dead dog while someone drained him like a battery.
And Mark could do nothing.
Anger. Humiliation. Fear. Despair.
Emotions surged wildly through him. His body began trembling—not from fear, but because something inside him was awakening.
Under the violent emotional stimulation, his Smart Atoms began fluctuating intensely.
Levi sensed it immediately, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
"Interesting."
He looked at Mark with clear appraisal.
"You seem to have more potential than your father."
The energy extraction lasted three full minutes.
To Nolan, those three minutes felt longer than several millennia.
His life force was siphoned away bit by bit as the Smart Atoms inside him were forcibly activated, releasing energy accumulated across countless ages.
He tried to resist. Tried to struggle.
But his body no longer obeyed him.
Levi's control over Smart Atoms was more precise than even Nolan's own.
How was that possible?
He was one of the Viltrum Empire's strongest warriors. He had conquered worlds and exterminated civilizations.
Never once had he imagined ending up like this—drained like a dead battery on the floor of his own home.
The golden light gradually dimmed.
Levi withdrew his hand and stood up, flexing his fingers slightly.
He could feel the Smart Atoms within himself changing. The reprogrammed atoms had begun executing their new directives, transitioning from physical defense units into energy accommodation units.
Reconstruction progress: thirty percent complete.
Not enough.
He looked down at Nolan.
The once-invincible Omni-Man now looked like a corpse with its spine ripped out. Pale skin. Slack muscles. Empty eyes.
He looked at least twenty years older.
But he was still alive.
The Smart Atoms' self-repair systems were still functioning—just painfully slowly. At this rate, it would take months for Nolan to recover fully.
Levi wasn't surprised.
Even after thousands of years, Nolan's energy reserves amounted to only this much. To complete the total reconstruction of his body, Levi would need more fuel.
His gaze shifted toward Mark.
The half-human, half-Viltrumite hybrid's Smart Atoms were fluctuating violently. An instinctive stress response—genetic evolution triggered under extreme emotional pressure.
Interesting.
Levi walked over and crouched before Mark.
Fear, rage, and despair filled the boy's eyes. He wanted to attack this monster in front of him, but the invisible force holding him down made even moving a finger impossible.
"Relax," Levi said calmly. "I'm not interested in you. The energy inside you isn't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."
He stood and looked out into the night sky beyond the window.
"But your father's people are another matter entirely."
Mark's pupils contracted.
He remembered what Nolan had once told him about the Viltrum Empire—the cosmic overlords who conquered countless worlds.
If Levi turned his attention toward the empire's other warriors…
"What are you planning?" Mark asked hoarsely.
Levi didn't answer.
He only smiled faintly.
His figure began fading, gradually blending into the air itself.
"Take care of your mother," his voice echoed from every direction. "And train hard. Next time we meet, I hope you'll at least make me take things seriously."
The moment the words ended, he vanished.
The force restraining Mark disappeared as well.
Mark collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
He looked at his nearly lifeless father lying on the ground. Then at his sobbing mother collapsed in the corner.
An overwhelming sense of helplessness filled him.
Levi was right.
He was too weak.
Too weak to protect his own family.
Mark clenched his fists so hard his nails pierced his palms, blood dripping through his fingers.
Sensing his fury and determination, the Smart Atoms inside his body began activating faster than ever before.
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