"How are you still alive?" Gregg trembled in pain as he stared at Clark, who was almost completely unscathed aside from some dirt on his clothes.
"Leave it to the law?"
David knew what Clark wanted to say.
"We can't cross that line." Clark looked serious. They couldn't do anything that would disappoint their parents.
"And let him tell everyone in town there are two freak brothers with superhuman strength?"
"I..." Clark hesitated at those words.
He didn't want to bring trouble upon his family, but having David use the same method again?
Absolutely not. Clark instinctively resisted the idea.
Trying to reason with Gregg was too naive, even Clark knew that.
"What do we do?"
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Gregg, who should have been in too much pain to stand, sprang to his feet and fled like the wind, kicking up dust as he ran toward the Forest below the highway.
David narrowed his eyes and locked onto him with his powerful vision. Judging by the way Gregg ran, his arms had completely recovered.
"The tenacity of an insect?"
"Clark, why aren't you chasing him?" He glanced at Clark, who had blocked his view earlier.
Clark came to his senses. Never mind how they would resolve this—if Gregg escaped and retaliated against their parents, it would be a disaster.
This time, he held nothing back. In a blur, he caught up to Gregg, who was moving close to the speed of sound, and blocked his path.
"Gregg, I can't let you leave and hurt anyone else."
Clark could more or less guess why Gregg had attacked him.
They had barely interacted before. Their only recent connection had been Lana.
"How are you so fast?"
As Gregg neared the Forest, his vision blurred, and a figure suddenly appeared in front of him. He slammed on the brakes and stared at Clark in shock.
At the same time, a stone flew out of the raised pocket of his leather jacket.
He turned his head again.
David had already walked over. Somehow, he was now more than thirty feet behind him.
One brother possessed incredible strength, while the other was faster than a rocket.
Gregg suddenly regretted coming to deal with these two rivals before going to find the woman of his dreams and have offspring with her.
Regret from Gregg +0.13, +0.09...
"Mm..."
Suddenly, Clark groaned. His strength seemed to drain away rapidly, and he dropped to his knees, unable to support himself. He glanced at the stone a few yards away.
A green crystal glowed beneath its gray-black outer shell.
"A meteorite like Lana's necklace." His expression darkened.
But it was more than ten times larger than the crystal in Lana's necklace.
"Huh?"
Gregg, who had thought escape was hopeless with enemies in front of and behind him, was surprised to discover that the meteorite—possibly connected to his own mutation—was actually the weakness of Clark, who moved as fast as lightning.
He wanted to pick up the stone and use it against Clark, but remembering David behind him, he quickly abandoned the thought and turned to run.
Fear from Gregg +0.22...
"What a shame."
David picked up a stone from the ground, narrowed his eyes, aimed at Gregg's fleeing back, and threw it with all his strength.
Whoosh!
Accompanied by a piercing sonic boom, the force carried by the stone surpassed that of an anti-materiel sniper round, striking Gregg precisely in the head.
Bang!
Gregg had only just run excitedly into the Forest when his head exploded like a watermelon. The blast wave rustled the leaves, and red and white matter splattered everywhere.
Watching someone get killed right in front of him, Clark's eyes widened as he looked at his brother.
"David?!"
"I had no choice."
No more Emotion Points appeared. Gregg was thoroughly dead. It seemed his regenerative ability wasn't strong enough to bring him back from death. David spread his hands helplessly.
"If he hadn't possessed regenerative abilities, I wouldn't have killed him."
If possible, he would have preferred to create another humanoid Emotion Point generator.
Madness from Jeremy 0.15, hatred 0.11...
David didn't know what it felt like to be conscious while trapped in darkness in a vegetative state, but it had to be awful.
After only two days, Jeremy's emotions had become increasingly extreme and intense, providing him with more and more Emotion Points.
"You killed him, David."
Clark shouted, slightly agitated.
"You could have caught up to him, or moved the meteorite so I could catch him."
He should have been more careful. If he hadn't been affected, he could have stopped David.
Regret from Clark +16, anxiety +15, worry +13...
"And then?"
David asked calmly.
"What would catching him accomplish? Do you have a better way to deal with him?"
As he spoke, he walked over, picked up the meteorite, and turned to leave.
"I'll wait for you to come up with a better solution and tell me, Clark."
"But do you have one?"
As the Kryptonite radiation left, Clark regained his strength. He looked at the headless corpse, his face filled with regret, and clenched his fist.
By the time David drove the car back onto the highway, Clark returned with mud on his hands, looking somewhat dejected.
"What did you do?"
"I buried Gregg deep in the Forest."
"Legally speaking, you destroyed evidence that I killed Gregg. You're an accomplice and would be convicted alongside me." David chuckled.
"Fine."
Clark raised his head and said seriously, "But you're my only brother."
"..."
David shook his head.
"If you hadn't said that with the determined look of a juvenile detention center counselor facing an unrepentant teenage delinquent,
maybe I would have been moved for a second or two."
David hadn't intended to interfere with the genetically mutated Gregg.
But he hadn't expected Gregg to come after them and attack Clark, intending to kill David as well.
As expected, it was probably because of Lana.
"Like an insect driven by powerful instincts, he wanted to defeat every rival competing for a mate."
Since he had regenerative abilities and couldn't become an Emotion Point generator, David had no choice but to kill him. It was a little regrettable.
Previously, after Clark decided that they might not encounter another situation like Jeremy's and that he could keep a close watch on David, his worries about David had gradually become less frequent after that day.
But after David killed Gregg, Clark immediately began worrying again that David was heading down a path of corruption, and those worries grew even stronger.
Worry from Clark +19, +20...
Ignoring Clark, who drove in silence, David sat in the passenger seat and casually watched the scenery outside.
After David and Clark drove away.
In the Forest, a White Giant Wolf with beautiful, satin-like fur slowly emerged. It gazed in the direction they had gone, confusion faintly visible in its eyes, as if pondering something.
On the way back, they secretly touched up the car's paint, then used Clark's astonishing lung capacity and mouth to speed up the drying process.
Clark decided not to tell their parents about this for now. He didn't want them to worry.
Dealing with Gregg hadn't taken David much time.
They loaded up a truck full of fruit and returned to the market. Less than an hour had passed.
Lex was still there, using the excuse that he wanted to learn about Smallville's fruit and vegetable business to chat with Jonathan and Martha.
Martha thought that if Lex decided to enter the fruit and vegetable purchasing business, it might be good news for the town's residents who ran farms and orchards. So, unlike her husband, she didn't keep him at arm's length.
"Hi."
David greeted Chloe and Pete, who were helping out.
The fruit stand wasn't busy, so there wasn't really much for them to do.
"Lex, are my family's fruits really that fascinating?"
Seeing that Lex still hadn't left, Clark smiled and made a joke.
Lex studied Clark's somewhat gloomy expression, then looked at David, who appeared as relaxed as if he had just returned from an outing, before turning back to Clark.
"What happened, Clark?"
He lowered his voice and asked tentatively.
"You look like you've run into a difficult problem."
A trace of unease flickered through Clark's eyes. "It's nothing."
"Clark, I was a little mischievous when I was young."
Seeing a chance to build rapport, Lex's eyes flashed as he smiled.
"So I was often called into the counseling office. To keep people from seeing through my thoughts, I learned a bit about psychology..."
"Mr. Luthor, my son has a few adolescent troubles. He can solve them himself."
Noticing the two of them, Jonathan walked over, put an arm around Clark's shoulders, and refused. "There's no need to trouble you with counseling him."
"Besides—if you were called into the counseling office, it probably wasn't just because you were mischievous, was it?"
Watching from the side, David knew that Jonathan probably thought Clark was still troubled over the floating incident that morning, so he didn't want Lex probing any further.
"I was only..."
Lex smiled, about to say something else.
Suddenly, several armed police officers pushed through the crowd behind them. They displayed their badges and an arrest warrant. The surrounding crowd immediately scattered, clearing a circle to see what was going on.
"Mr. Lex Luthor, we are officers of the Smallville Police Department.
You are suspected of being involved in a Bank Heist. Please come with us to assist in the investigation."
"A bank robbery?"
Lex froze for a moment.
"Multiple witnesses saw you rob the Town Bank at gunpoint half an hour ago. You took 100,000 US dollars from the bank and may have been wearing body armor beneath your clothes. You were shot twice by the on-duty security guard, yet you still escaped."
The officer said.
"I risked getting shot to rob the Town Bank? And only took 100,000 US dollars?"
At such a critical moment, these officers had interrupted him. Lex wondered if he had heard wrong and laughed in irritation.
"Officer, the factories under my name donate more than 100,000 US dollars every year to the town's schools, police department, fire services, and more."
Jonathan and Martha exchanged frowns.
Robbing a bank?
The surrounding crowd was shocked and puzzled. They had all heard the name Lex Luthor. If anything involving him was likely, buying the bank would have made more sense.
Lex's eyes shifted slightly as he looked at Clark, David, and the others behind him.
"I've been here for the past hour. The Kent family can testify for me."
For a moment, every police officer and bystander turned to look at them.
"I..."
Jonathan was momentarily speechless.
The update was a little late, so I added another thousand words.
Thanks to reader Ordinary Me for the 500 Qidian Coins tip.
Thanks to reader 20220512234609502 for the 200 Qidian Coins tip.
Thanks to reader Haoyu Chenxi for the 100 Qidian Coins tip.
Before you continue