The night wind howled.
Ian's hair was blown into a complete mess.
He was just glad he was not British. Otherwise, with his hair taking a beating from wind this sharp, his odds of going bald young would probably jump from eighty percent to ninety.
"Are you sure you don't need someone to deal with the... issue inside your body?" Clark was flying with one hand gripping Ian by the back of the collar. This was already the fifth time he had stopped Ian from trying to flip around and ride on his back.
To be fair, Clark had not refused at first. It had seemed like a good chance to show some fatherly affection. But after realizing Ian would absolutely try to yank his hair, Clark had decided holding him in one hand was the safer option. Maybe a teenage boy did not have to worry about baldness, but a Kryptonian in his forties had a little less confidence.
"Seriously, I don't!"
Ian looked at the [Blood Curse] debuff on his status panel and felt incredibly relieved. Even though Lady Death had taken that shattered world away, his negative status had not been wiped clean like his father's.
[You are suffering from Fel Corruption. EXP +1]
What a beautiful sound.
It was practically the kind of VIP treatment that only existed in games where one hit got you ninety-nine levels. This was basically no different from turning on auto-leveling while idle.
"I think you do need it... your body is already starting to get contaminated." Superman looked down at his youngest son. Ian's skin had indeed started turning green.
He was very clearly suffering from severe fel corruption.
Ian, however, did not care.
"Enduring a curse like this strengthens my mind and trains my superpowers!" Ian activated [Regenerative Surge], and his skin immediately returned to a healthy pink.
In the blink of an eye, all the green tint on the surface of his body faded away.
The flesh and blood eroded by fel energy were healed.
As for the price, it was nothing more than a bit of body fat. Ian felt a little hungry and suddenly missed that all-purpose super tonic from before. If only he could take a few sips of that stuff anytime he wanted.
It was basically like a mana potion in a game.
"It trains your mind and your superpowers?" Clark was not surprised that Ian could control the erosion from the strange energy. He had already discovered Ian's unusual traits when he had secretly followed him before.
"Yep, exactly... this is a form of training from the big shot!" Ian started waving a banner of nonsense around. He liked telling little lies from time to time, and right now he was doing it to preserve his precious debuff.
Clark fell silent for a moment.
He did not keep pressing the issue. Mostly because he genuinely did not understand Ian's bizarre abilities, and he was worried his interference might disrupt Ian's "growth."
"If you start feeling uncomfortable, you tell me immediately." After weighing it for a moment, Clark ultimately gave in. He knew the energy inside Ian was not the same thing that had infected him before.
"Don't worry. If anything feels wrong, I'll definitely come to you first, Dad. I really am scared of dying." Ian nodded quickly.
That was the truth.
For years, he had lived in fear that his life might end at any moment.
But things were different now.
[Death Resistance] gave him a level of peace of mind he had never felt before.
And besides...
[Name: Ian Kent]
[Ordinary Class: Student Lv.7 (78/640)]
[Extraordinary Class: Berserker Lv.3 (4/40)]
[World Recognition: Independent NPC]
The change in his panel was another thing Ian found deeply satisfying. His [World Recognition] had changed. He had gone from [Ordinary NPC] to [Independent NPC].
That was obviously the reward Lady Death had mentioned, something granted by "Them."
Sure, it still had the letters NPC in it, but Ian firmly believed he was now a character with his own "plotline." Yes, he was no longer the kind of tragic disposable offering who got sacrificed the moment things went wrong. At the very least, it would now take two or three wrong turns before he got sacrificed.
The effect of [Death Resistance] made him extremely hard to kill too.
Unless it was some truly special event, ordinary disasters would probably never reach him. This was the stable life Ian had dreamed of for fourteen anxious years.
If he had gotten this earlier, would he really have ended up with even these tiny, mostly harmless psychological issues?
"Praise Lady Death!"
Ian prayed silently in his heart.
He could feel that every time he prayed, he formed some vague connection with a mysterious will. And just like that, he now immediately sensed a very speechless kind of emotion from the other side.
"Oh, right, Dad, what's for dinner tonight?" Because he had used [Regenerative Surge], Ian's stomach was growling. He looked down at the streets below as they drew closer, full of anticipation.
"The same nutritionally questionable white-people food you always complain about," Clark replied. Then, after a brief pause, he added, "When we get home, don't say anything that might scare your mother."
"She's been feeling a lot of tightness in her chest lately. She's not in great shape."
Clearly, Clark was very worried Ian might go home and say something outrageous enough to send Lois, an ordinary human, into an emotional spiral.
"No problem!"
Ian patted his father's steel-like chest and made his promise.
"..."
Superman could only feel helpless.
Soon enough, he brought Ian home.
In the dining room, warm yellow light spilled over the wooden table. Lois came out of the kitchen carrying a plate of freshly cooked eggs. Clark had already changed back into a sweater and put on his glasses.
"Where are the old boys?"
Ian did not see his gamer brothers in the living room.
"They have social lives too, so they aren't coming home for dinner tonight." Lois served Ian a few fried eggs, then brought out a big bowl of mashed potatoes loaded with cream and sugar.
"By that, you mean Jonathan went out with a girl, while Jordan is wandering around town like a drifter pretending he's also out with a girl, right?"
Ian knew his two brothers too well. Not worried in the slightest about getting diabetes this young, he immediately piled a large helping of creamy mashed potatoes onto his plate.
"Yes..."
Lois nodded helplessly.
She knew her three sons very well too.
Which was exactly why she was highly suspicious of Ian's earlier recap.
"Let me go over what you just told me again."
"So you're saying a goddess who has lived for who-knows-how-many billions of years is so hopelessly in love with you that, because she couldn't bear to see you sad, she was willing to risk losing her divine status just to guide you into stopping a crisis that might have affected your father?"
Honestly, it was not hard to understand why Lois's expression was getting stranger and stranger.
To her, this sounded like the kind of plot that would only appear in one of Ian's brain-melting romance novels. Ever since reading his work, Lois felt like she had been steadily losing brain cells.
"Yes. I helped her solve a huge problem too, and she didn't even have the nerve to thank me for it." Ian had been holding onto that grievance ever since they were still back at the wastewater plant.
He really could not let it go.
(End of Chapter)
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