You Want to Be Superman Too?

Hiss!

On a deserted suburban road, the shriek of tires scraping violently against the ground carried far into the distance.

Amid the faint burnt-rubber smell, the old red pickup truck suddenly drifted around a turn, trying to avoid a figure diving down from above.

In midair, incredible force erupted from the figure's waist as he forcibly twisted his body, trying to grab the roof with five fingers. But he only grazed the edge and still missed.

Screech!

After the piercing sound of metal scraping overhead.

The pickup truck veered off the road. David braked, and Clark got out.

The figure who had done something that would have been no different from suicide for an ordinary person had not landed with his head split open, barely clinging to life. Like an agile flea, he easily twisted his body and landed steadily.

"Gregg?"

Black leather jacket, blond hair slicked back, that familiar profile—before the man had even fully turned around, Clark recognized him and cried out, "Why are you attacking us?!"

Seeing Gregg's abnormal abilities, Clark had a bad feeling and questioned him.

"I heard something happened to your mother. Did you do it?"

"She got in my way. You're next."

Gregg slowly turned around. As though he held every advantage, like a spider facing prey already trapped in its web and unable to escape, he was in no hurry to attack again. He gave a cold sneer.

"Are you insane?!"

Clark could not believe what he had heard. How could someone be this evil? "She's your mother."

"I'm no longer on the same level of life as you."

The formerly timid and withdrawn Gregg now seemed to exude, from every pore, the lofty superiority of an apex predator standing at the top of the food chain and looking down on all other life.

"Now, I'm bound by no morality or rules!"

He spread his arms, his heartfelt contempt washing over them as his voice rose.

"I'm ahead of you, ahead of everyone!"

"You want to be Superman too?"

David withdrew his gaze from the five clear scratches in the paint on the truck's roof. Hearing those words, his voice was cold and mocking.

In front of a Son of Krypton and someone with Eternals blood, he dared claim his level of life surpassed everyone else?

Anger from Gregg +0.18, +0.17...

"David, you're asking to die."

Subjected to such merciless mockery, Gregg flew into a rage.

David remained completely calm.

This guy provided more Emotion Points than Jeremy. Was it because he was stronger?

"Listen, Gregg. You need treatment!"

Clark wanted him to calm down. He could not rule out a mental problem. Maybe there was a way to cure his current cold, crazed state and turn him back into who he used to be.

Whoosh!

"Treatment?

You're the ones who need to be eliminated!"

Gregg moved as fast as a ghost, leaving an afterimage where he stood as he charged David and threw a punch. The force howled through the air.

"David, don't!"

Caught in an unexpected attack, Clark noticed that David's expression seemed even colder than last time and shouted in alarm.

Gregg thought Clark was worried about his brother. Looking at David, who seemed not to have reacted yet, cruelty and ferocity showed in his eyes.

"I'll deal with you first."

Bang!

A second before the blow could land, David stood where he was, as if facing a flying insect. He did not even blink.

The next instant, as though struck by an ancient battering ram, a fist flashed out after Gregg's yet arrived first, smashing into his chest.

Bang, bang, bang.

Gregg flew backward even faster than he had come, instantly crossing the road and crashing heavily into the grass more than ten meters away. His momentum did not stop, and he rolled several more times before coming to a halt.

"Gregg?"

Clark hurriedly looked over, afraid David had killed someone.

By the roadside, David stood expressionlessly. His skin had taken on a purple hue, and markings like ravines in the earth had appeared along his jaw. His imposing presence was overwhelming.

"What bit you?"

Gregg climbed up from the ground in a miserable state. Looking at David's appearance, his eyes were filled with shock and uncertainty.

He had been bitten by a bug carrying meteorite dust, and after his body shed its skin, he had evolved. But David's whole body was purple—what animal had bitten him?

And he had barely been hurt.

David lifted an eyelid, somewhat surprised. It seemed Gregg's body was rather sturdy. He had used too little force.

Looking at him as if he were an idiot, David replied blandly, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Had all these people whose genes had been mutated by Kryptonite also had their brains damaged?

"Your strength isn't enough to hurt me."

Gregg stomped the ground apart, sending dirt flying. His figure shot forward like a cannonball, his punch coming with a violent gale. Before his fist had fully descended, the air could already be felt compressing under the terrifying force, making it hard to breathe.

"Do you know a dung beetle can push something 1,200 times its own weight?!"

Pride flashed through his eyes, while his face was full of murderous intent.

"Stop, Gregg. You've lost your mind."

Clark's body flashed. Moving faster than a space shuttle streaking through the sky, he stepped in front of David, wanting to block the attack for his brother.

But Gregg's strength was far greater than he had imagined.

Bang!

The fist slammed viciously into Clark's face, sending him flying dozens of meters like a meteor.

David glanced at the Son of Krypton who had been punched away, knowing he had suffered again because he had held back.

"Afraid the other person would crash solidly into a steel wall like an ordinary human and be seriously injured, he would end up, just like in the future, frequently getting knocked flying despite becoming God Among Men."

Without stopping for even a moment, Gregg came charging in fiercely. He raised his fist again, about to smash it down like a boulder and pulverize David's head like a watermelon.

Bang!

David turned his head and, seemingly unhurriedly, raised a hand to catch Gregg's fist steadily.

The violent force was like a tiny wave crashing into an immovable mountain cliff, coming to an abrupt stop.

Whoosh!

A white shockwave kicked up dust from the road and spread outward. The hard asphalt road shattered, forming a deep pit several meters across, while chunks of stone shot out like bullets with a crackling rattle.

At the edge of the road, Clark, who had just rushed back, had no choice but to raise a hand to shield his eyes.

"Dung beetle?" David said. "Sorry, I'm not interested in bugs!"

As he spoke, he exerted force with his hand, like a hydraulic press with the strength of hundreds of tons closing down.

"Arghhh!"

With a crisp crack of breaking bones, Gregg's hand was crushed. He let out a miserable scream and could not help falling to his knees.

The shattered bones pierced through flesh, and something warm flowed from his palm.

David casually released him and looked at his bloodstained hand. The blood was red tinged with green and slightly viscous.

"Were you mutated after being bitten by a bug?"

Thinking of what Gregg had said earlier, David frowned, feeling a little disgusted.

"Die!"

Gregg's finger bones had shattered and bent at unnatural angles. The ferocity in his genetic instincts was roused, and he swung his other fist in an attempt to ambush David, but hit nothing.

Whoosh!

David vanished without surprise and appeared behind him.

With reactions far beyond those of an ordinary person, Gregg erupted with astonishing speed. His fist whipped up a violent gale as he swung backward again, and his speed actually came close to David's.

Bang!

"You're pretty fast."

David caught his arm, raising his brows in surprise. With a casual swing, he effortlessly broke Gregg's other intact arm as if snapping a cornstalk.

"Then again, that makes sense. If annoying bugs weren't a little nimble, how would they survive?"

"Ahhh, my arms!"

With both arms crippled, Gregg collapsed to the ground in agony, his face twisted.

"No... impossible. Why did you break my arms so easily?"

After waking up, he had clearly tested his abilities. Like certain beetles with incomparably hard exoskeletons, his bones were as hard as steel. Yet in David's hands, they had been as brittle as thin sticks.

"A bug that foolishly provokes humans should know what usually happens to it!"

Not interested in answering his question, David spoke as he prepared to strike again.

A blur flashed before his eyes. Clark rushed forward and hurriedly stood in front of Gregg, extending a hand to stop him.

"Don't kill him."