New Ability to Manipulate Energy

Chapter 43: New Ability to Manipulate Energy

The detached villa, with its cold, minimalist Nordic style, exuded an air of elite aloofness.

Having easily dealt with a few stubborn farmers, Rickman returned home, tossed his car keys onto the coffee table, and headed for the wine cellar to grab a bottle of red wine for a leisurely sip.

Suddenly, a figure reflected on the glass surface of the coffee table behind him—silent, appearing without a sound, standing at his back.

He jolted backward, his hair standing on end.

"Who are you?"

A tall man in blue work clothes like a lumberjack, sturdy brown logging boots on his feet, and a blue hood with only two eyeholes pulled over his head, spoke in a low voice.

"Mr. Rickman, don't be afraid."

"What do you want?"

Seeing the man had no gun, the startled Rickman let out a breath and his face twisted with irritation.

"You used underhanded means to trick farmers into selling their farms and homes without knowing it. That's not fair!"

"Trick? I have no idea what you're talking about."

A flicker of unease passed through Rickman's eyes.

"If you want money, there's no need for this theatrics."

"I don't want your money. I want you to cancel those contracts built on lies that are causing trouble for the farmers."

Clark stepped forward, his tall, sturdy frame radiating a dense, oppressive force.

Rickman feigned fear and stepped back, then lunged forward in a flash, aiming to touch Clark's neck.

Swish!

A blur before his eyes—Rickman grabbed at empty air. Clark was already behind him.

"I know your ability. I figure, as long as I don't have any physical contact with you, you can't activate it."

His father, Jonathan, had been clear-headed at first and refused firmly, but only lost his memory and signed after shaking this man's hand. If he could control others with a single thought, it wouldn't need to be so complicated. It must require physical contact to trigger the ability—just like Sean, who had to touch someone to absorb their body heat.

"If you don't want your ability exposed, you'd better do as I say, Mr. Rickman."

"You... you!"

Turning to see the blue-clad man who had teleported behind him, Rickman's eyes went wide, his voice faltering: "You have an ability too."

"Cancel the contracts, or should I send word about your ability to every newspaper in town?"

Ignoring his shock, Clark borrowed the tactic Fran had once used to threaten him.

"Your choice, Mr. Rickman."

"I... I agree."

A flicker of resentment and calculation passed through his eyes, and after a moment of struggle, Rickman spoke.

In truth, there was no need to overthink it. On one side, his biggest secret exposed, his multi-billion-dollar company's reputation ruined, drowning in suspicious and wary stares. On the other, just a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of factory land, not even built on yet.

"A wise choice. I'll be watching you, Mr. Rickman. If those contracts aren't canceled by sunrise, tomorrow's front pages in this city will have space reserved for you."

With that, Clark vanished in a flash, a gust of wind stirring the curtains, his tall form disappearing from the room like a ghost.

The stunned Rickman stood alone in the room, his face shifting between shades of anger and uncertainty, fists clenched tight.

Suddenly, he noticed where the blue-clad man had stood—on the polished black-gray marble floor, a few small clumps of dirt with bits of grass clinging to them.

Rickman's eyes lit up. He stepped forward, crouched down, and carefully pinched them up.

"Fair? You know who I am, but I don't know who you are. That's not fair either, is it?"

"Hello, is this the Metropolis Geological Survey Bureau?" He pulled out his phone, dialed, and sneered. "I'd like to submit a few soil samples for testing..."

Deep in the forest, David stared at his own hands, feeling the immense power surging within him. He punched a tree as thick as a man's embrace.

Crack!

The several-ton tree snapped under the terrifying force, branches splintering as it crashed between two other trunks and hit the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

David turned and struck another tree. Wood chips flew, and the broken trunk flew sideways several meters before landing.

"Both punches, I used the same strength."

The difference was that the second punch carried the kinetic energy he had absorbed from the first.

This was the Black King's ability—to absorb various forms of energy, convert them into his own power to release at will, or temporarily enhance his strength, speed, and endurance.

The energies he could absorb included, but were not limited to, kinetic energy, thermal energy, electrical energy, and even magical energy, granting him defenses of staggering toughness.

"The upper limit of the Black King's ability is to effortlessly drain a small nuclear reactor—that's a pretty formidable template."

David felt the vast, ocean-like energy surging within him.

And after merging with the Thanos template, his energy absorption ceiling had been greatly raised.

As an Eternal mutant, every drop of blood and every cell in Thanos's body brimmed with cosmic energy, making him a massive energy container in his own right.

"But it seems like, for now, I can mainly absorb kinetic energy."

David tested the newly acquired ability.

Absorbing kinetic energy was as easy as breathing or drinking water.

He fired an energy ray from his hand, igniting the scattered wood on the ground, then thrust his hand into the flames. He found absorbing thermal energy much harder.

"It's like trying to swallow undercooked grains when your throat's parched from days without water—nothing goes down smoothly."

He shook his head.

Whoosh!

"It must be because the template fusion isn't complete enough."

Pulling his hand back from the fire, David's eyes flickered with thought as he took a deep breath and blew out.

A fierce gust of wind extinguished the flames, preventing the fire from spreading and burning down the forest.

Once the fusion level increased, he figured he'd be able to absorb physical-side energies like electrical and thermal energy.

At the final stage of fusion, he should be able to absorb magical energy from the magical side.

"By then, my magic resistance will reach a terrifying level."

"Most superheroes or supervillains don't have any special resistance to magic."

Take Clark, for example—his magic resistance is mediocre compared to his physical resistance, which has led people to joke that his magic resistance is in the negatives.

"The Black King's ability was strong to begin with, but it wasn't without its flaws and shortcomings. After merging with the Thanos template, those flaws have disappeared."

David felt the cosmic energy spontaneously recovering within him, excitement flickering in his eyes.

For instance, if the Black King's internal energy wasn't replenished, it would diminish with each use. Without energy, he was just an ordinary person. To maintain enough kinetic energy and power, he'd have to be beaten up, constantly punch walls, or recharge through methods like electricity.

That was undoubtedly a hassle, but David didn't have that problem.

With his Eternal physique and the ability to spontaneously recover cosmic energy, he could fill his entire body with it.

"Another issue is that nearing the energy absorption limit is extremely dangerous for the Black King."

If he accidentally exceeded the limit, the energy inside him would explode out of control, tearing his body apart at best or annihilating it entirely at worst.

It made him vulnerable to being overloaded on purpose.

But relying on his Eternal physique, an energy overload would at most cause him minor injuries.

"And after merging the two templates, I don't need to use my hands to assist with energy absorption."

When the Black King absorbed energy, it was like other mutants using their abilities—Magneto and Professor X, for example, needed gestures to focus their minds and activate their powers.

But since every cell in David's body could already store energy, he generally didn't need to go through that trouble.

"The fusion of the two templates with my body—one plus one brings benefits far greater than two!"