David, What's Going On with Your Body?

A figure he knew all too well, yet one who should not have been here.

With the sound of footsteps, David slowly stepped out of the darkness beneath the streetlamp.

"David, what did you say?"

Clark looked at the suddenly appearing David with confusion and astonishment.

"How did you get here? I deliberately took him out of town and came all the way here.

Even by car, there was no way you could have gotten here from school so quickly."

Besides, if he had heard correctly—his brother had told him to kill someone?

"I said, kill him, Clark."

Ignoring his question, David glanced at Jeremy, planted his feet, and repeated himself with a grave expression.

Anger +0.02, killing intent +0.02 from Jeremy...

Unexpectedly, this man could provide Emotion Points too, though pitifully few compared to Clark.

"If you won't do it, I will."

"No, we can't kill people!"

Having been raised under Martha's kind guidance since childhood, Clark was startled. He could hardly believe what he had heard, and the brother before him suddenly felt unfamiliar.

"He's killed more than one person. He's already a madman, someone who deserves to die, isn't he?"

David had heard what had been said earlier.

And just from the way the man looked, he could tell he had completely lost his mind. He had wanted to kill over a hundred people in one go without even blinking.

"We can't take the law into our own hands."

Clark's expression darkened slightly. His voice softened as he refused and made a suggestion.

"There are laws. We can hand him over to the police, and he'll be sentenced and receive the punishment he deserves."

He did not deny that Jeremy deserved the death penalty, but no one should casually place themselves above the law or decide who lived and died.

"You let him see your face."

David stopped wasting words and walked toward Jeremy, who had only just struggled to his feet.

"My face?"

"Do you think an ordinary prison can hold him?

Once he gets out, won't he come after you?"

David was not worried about Clark's tough body, but revenge could also be taken against the people around him. He asked in return.

"What if he follows you back to our home..."

At the mention of their parents, Clark's expression changed. He suddenly remembered something he had forgotten from beginning to end.

He finally understood why his brother had immediately demanded that Jeremy be killed.

Clark touched his face. In his panic, he had forgotten to conceal his identity.

Whoosh!

Jeremy had not been afraid of Clark in the slightest, but as David approached with an icy aura, he inexplicably felt a thread of unease. It was like the difference between a gentle elephant and a deadly lion.

He could see it in David's deathly cold eyes: when David said he would kill him, he was not merely talking.

And could someone who had witnessed his abilities yet still confidently come to kill him be an ordinary person?

Crackle!

Electricity shot toward him. Before Jeremy could raise his hand in a sneak attack, David vanished from the spot without even blinking.

Thanos's abilities did not include Super Speed. His speed was only close to the speed of sound.

But that was enough.

"To eliminate any future trouble, your death sentence can only be carried out early."

David appeared before the startled Jeremy along with his voice. With one hand, he effortlessly seized his throat and lifted him into the air as if he were a chick.

As though his neck were clamped in iron pincers, Jeremy could barely breathe. His face turned blue-purple as his legs kicked weakly in midair.

"You... what kind of monster are you?"

Looking at David's now-purple skin, he widened his eyes in terror. He struggled to clutch David's hand with both hands, activating his ability with all his strength under the fear of death.

"Let... let me go!"

Crackle!

The terrifying current struck David's hand. It only reduced half his sleeve to ash, unable to shake his slender, steel-like body in the slightest.

"David, your appearance?"

Torn between his parents and killing someone, Clark had already been caught in a dilemma. Seeing his brother's appearance suddenly change, he froze in shock and opened his mouth.

"How did you become like this?"

"You're not the only one with secrets, Clark."

David replied, glancing at Clark.

He could snap Jeremy's neck at any moment, but he deliberately did not. He had a suspicion.

Clark quickly realized that this was not what mattered right now.

He left an afterimage where he stood and rushed over, grabbing David's wrist.

"Put him down, brother."

He hurriedly tried to stop David.

But to his astonishment, no matter how hard he tried, he could not pry David's hand open.

From exerting enough force to make an ordinary person let go, to enough force to bend a steel rod as thick as an arm, the road beneath his feet cracked under the strain as he pushed off.

David's body remained utterly motionless, like an unshakable mountain.

"How are you doing this? Are you really David?"

Startled, Clark did not dare keep increasing his strength, afraid of hurting the brother who had suddenly become so mysterious to him.

"Listen, David, you can't kill him.

Some lines, once crossed, can never be uncrossed. If Dad and Mom were here, they wouldn't agree with what you're doing either."

Then his expression turned serious. Staring into his brother's eyes, he earnestly asked him to put the man down.

Clark deeply regretted not thinking everything through.

But he did not want his brother to pay for cleaning up this mess with murder.

"Think about what Dad and Mom would think if they found out about this, David."

One second, two seconds... the two stared at each other.

"Fine. I won't kill him."

At the mention of their parents, David's attitude seemed to soften, and he lowered Jeremy.

"However, I'm going to take a precaution just in case."

Bang!

After speaking, he slapped Jeremy on the back of the head. He did not use much strength in this blow.

It felt as though the back of his head had been struck hard by a baseball bat. Before he could react, Jeremy fell stiffly onto the cold, hard road, closed his eyes, and lay motionless.

"Did you kill him anyway?"

Clark hurriedly checked on him. Jeremy was still breathing, but no matter how Clark called to him, he would not wake up.

"To keep him from doing evil again, I turned him into a vegetative patient."

"What?"

Hearing his brother say it so casually, Clark looked up in disbelief. "David, you..."

"Are you going to say this is taking the law into our own hands too, and that this isn't allowed either?"

David immediately raised an eyebrow and shot back.

"I..."

Truthfully, Clark did think so.

Turning someone into a vegetative patient to prevent retaliation was far too cruel.

But this incident had happened because of his own carelessness, and his brother had listened to him and spared the man's life. Was he still going to criticize and lecture his brother?

Clark was left speechless.

"This ends here. Take him somewhere that can treat him. Don't get involved in this matter again."

David glanced at the freshly made vegetative patient on the ground and turned to leave.

Fear +0.04, anger +0.03, hatred +0.004 from Jeremy...

Emotion Points flowed in continuously.

"As expected, although vegetative patients can't wake up, their brains still retain consciousness."

This was more beneficial to him than killing Jeremy.

"I left him at the entrance to the town hospital."

Carrying Jeremy over his shoulder, Clark vanished from the spot. In less than a second or two, before David had gone far, he returned, his voice heavy.

"Now we should return to school, in case anyone notices we disappeared."

David glanced at Clark, who had just left so fast that only a blurry trail of motion had been visible, and said.

"My strength and defense definitely surpass Clark's at this point, but in terms of speed, Clark has quite an advantage over me."

He was a little curious. Without using Kryptonite, he wondered who would win if he fought the current Clark.

"David, what's going on with your body?"

Catching up to his brother, Clark wore a complicated expression. He had a string of questions he wanted to ask. David had suddenly revealed too much today, and Clark abruptly realized that perhaps he did not know his brother very well at all.