After comparing the two, the difference was obvious.
Ian had his answer.
Compared to the nightmare world he entered every night, his own goofy system was clearly the one that had his back the most.
It asked for nothing in return.
It gave him no missions.
All it did was help him, quietly and selflessly.
It silently recorded every bit of Ian's growth. At least, that was how Ian chose to see it. In his mind, experience points were simply a record of his personal growth. And that was enough to move him a little.
"Why did you go from pale to actually shaking?" the mysterious woman asked, tilting her head slightly. Her black eyes were full of confusion as she studied the rapid changes in Ian's expression.
"Low blood sugar. I'm starving. I urgently need a kind soul to feed me."
Ian's eyes drifted back to the black sphere in her hand.
He really wanted to know what he would get if he ate it.
A new class?
A ridiculous amount of experience?
The moment that magic pill goes down, fate belongs to me.
Ian was full of anticipation.
Unfortunately, the mysterious woman had no intention of indulging him.
"You're not getting this. It needs to be handled properly." She lightly tapped the surface of the black sphere with one fingertip, and a dark red nebula immediately churned to life inside it.
"What if I just touch it?"
Ian tried to negotiate.
"I promise I won't put it in my mouth."
His promise earned absolutely no trust.
"Your father was right. You really do have pica, don't you?" The woman lifted her free hand to her forehead. She clearly did not find Ian's "sincere" expression persuasive in the slightest.
"But it's my loot."
Ian kept trying to argue. He genuinely could not let go of the temptation of compatible data. He did not know exactly what that meant, but his super intuition told him it would definitely be good for him.
"My loot?" The mysterious woman gave Ian a look, as if she had never seen a lifeform this bold in front of her before. "I've been watching all of you the entire time."
"That is very obviously your father's loot."
She mercilessly pointed out the truth. Ian had gotten some screen time, sure, but not much, and he had not played any truly decisive role.
"Huh?"
Ian almost wanted to say that was just how Ordinary NPCs were. No matter how emotional their scenes got, the one who actually changed everything was never going to be them. If anyone was to blame, it was the people who had set that kind of narrative tone for worlds like the DC universe in the first place.
"You look like you want to say something."
The woman caught the hesitation on his face.
"Well, my dad's stuff is basically my stuff, right? At minimum I should get a third of it. Then if I go talk Jonathan and Jordan into helping me out, the other two-thirds would probably end up mine too."
In the end, Ian decided to continue reasoning with her.
And honestly, from his point of view, that was perfectly reasonable.
The mysterious woman opened her mouth, then seemed to realize she had no response.
The atmosphere got a little awkward.
A moment later, she sighed.
"This is not a toy, and it isn't some source of power. Now that it has already left the material world, I cannot allow it to return. It would poison our world." Her voice sounded tired, deeply tired. "Don't worry. Your contribution will not go unrewarded. We will compensate you generously."
"If you want power, we can give you power."
To her credit, even if she could not read Ian's mind, her instincts were sharp. She had seen right through why he wanted to swallow a fragment from another universe.
And so this one, one of the embodiments of the highest cosmic laws, gave Ian her promise.
"Great, great. Let's do it. Show me what you've got."
Ian happened to be the kind of person who knew how to be satisfied, at least when he had no better option. He was pretty sure he would find other fragments eventually, and next time maybe he could swallow one before a cosmic big shot noticed.
Right now, what he wanted was an undying curse.
"..."
The mysterious woman looked at Ian standing there with his arms spread wide like he was waiting to receive some divine blessing, and it occurred to her that in the last thousand years, she had probably not been speechless this many times combined.
She stared at him for a long moment.
Ian showed no sign whatsoever of lowering his arms.
[Death Rejection: For the rest of your life, you will be completely immune to death. Even if you are reduced to neutrinos, you will not truly die. It seems She really does not want to see you every day.]
Then, with a sigh, the woman touched Ian lightly between the brows.
The temporary curse in Ian's status screen instantly turned into a permanent condition.
"So I really can't die now? Does that make me immortal too?"
Ian immediately got greedy again. His satisfaction worked on a very conditional basis. He was only satisfied when he absolutely had to be.
"Trust me, that would not be a reward. Some rules do not exist merely to restrain."
The woman shook her head, rejecting Ian's suggestion.
"Okay."
Ian blinked.
Then he decided to be satisfied again.
In the end, he had still gotten what he wanted. The DC universe now truly had its own Deadpool. Ian was convinced he would be way more popular than Marvel's Deadpool ever was.
"This is just a small personal reward from me. As for our reward to you, you'll feel it in your future life."
The mysterious woman sounded like she was about to turn and leave.
Ian did not want to lose the chance to dig up more information.
"Wait. About world fusion, can you explain that a little? No special reason. I'm just curious. You know, I'm a very studious person at school."
The attempt at sounding innocent was not especially convincing.
At least, not enough to matter.
Still, the mysterious woman did not seem suspicious.
"Other universes are currently becoming compatible with ours. But that kind of compatibility is difficult for anyone to notice, because it is not a violent invasion. The things within a universe will not sense it at all."
"Everything continues operating in a way that seems reasonable. Even we have trouble detecting it. It's like different colors of ink mixing into clear water. The more similar the colors are, the harder they are to distinguish once they merge."
There was a heavy note in her voice.
At that moment, Ian felt like he finally understood why becoming Death Knight's Chosen had not increased his World Recognition, his so-called status weight.
The Death Knight was an outside integrator too.
"So... is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Ian asked carefully, probing for information. Even if he had a "legal identity," he still felt like he needed to stay prepared.
Just in case.
What if all the cosmic heavyweights in the DC universe were dead set on wiping out every outside element?
"Some are good. Some are bad. There are too few detectable cases, so even we still cannot judge which are good and which are bad."
"Of course they have an effect. Think of salt dissolving into water. You can't see the grains anymore, but the water is still salty. The only thing we can guarantee is that the world's operation will not be too severely affected by it."
"After all, in this kind of fusion, all universes are really seeking is survival."
Her tone suggested she was relatively tolerant of this kind of universal fusion.
She, or they, only seemed especially hostile toward the invasive fragments of shattered universes.
For Ian, that was probably very good news.
"Anything else you want to ask?"
This cosmic being was clearly different from the first time they had met. This time, she was being patient. Genuinely patient.
And there was a reason for that.
"If you discover anything similar, tell me. I will always be listening for your prayers. I think... you already know who I am, don't you?"
The meaning in her gaze was unmistakable.
"..."
Ian very obviously felt a little guilty.
"If even you can't detect something, how would I? I'm just Superman's son. And an adopted one at that."
He tried to cover his discomfort with self-deprecating humor.
She saw right through it.
"Yes. Adopted. That may be exactly why you are special. Kryptonians are nowhere near this unusual."
Her voice was soft, almost as soft as a feather brushing across skin.
She raised the black sphere again.
As if examining it.
"Because of the rules, we cannot directly touch things like this. Your father's first operation helped us discover it, but getting it to reveal itself again became a problem."
"That is why I needed someone to assist me. And the reason I chose you... is because I had no other choice."
Her words left Ian feeling more confused than enlightened.
"What does that even mean? Help me out here. Do the reading-comprehension part for me."
Ian blinked up at her, hoping she would not start talking in riddles again. Riddle people deserved bad endings the second they stepped outside Gotham.
"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask? I'm waiting for you to figure it out yourself and tell me why."
She smiled faintly, as if she was not actually desperate for the answer.
Her figure began to fade.
The black sphere in her hand started disappearing with her.
"The fact that you can block my omniscience is already a miracle in itself. And the fact that you can interact with me like this has nothing to do with the favor of that old man attached to you."
Miss Death kept fading away.
"I am the embodiment of law. Not every life has the right to look directly at me and remember me. Little one, think carefully. What kind of existence are you?"
Her final words lingered in the air, full of meaning.
Then the black-and-white world faded.
And the world began moving again.
(End of Chapter)
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