Psychic Abilities

He-El had already understood what his genes represented. He bit down and crushed a strawberry-flavored Alps candy, the rich sweetness bursting across his tongue. He casually tossed aside the white plastic stick and stopped dwelling on it.

Someone capable of traveling through countless worlds might even go back and add something more someday.

So that meant... the fluctuations in his emotions stemmed from his genes.

Was he about to awaken another superpower?

"Is the genetic serum finished?" He-El guessed and casually asked. If Ciri could not finish it soon, he would do it himself. It was only a simple task, after all.

Especially for the current He-El. His brain was more terrifying in computational ability than Earth's most powerful computers. If he threw himself into research again, his achievements would surpass his previous output by hundreds of thousands of times.

"It's finished. It's quite safe. A researcher volunteered for testing and gained microscopic vision. He kept his eyes wide open all day and went insane from research, not closing them for three days and nights. I'll dissect him after he suddenly dies and take a look."

"He-El, your cells are truly a treasure trove. They're so beneficial to living creatures, so safe, and can even optimize biological genes. It's unprecedented. He-El, your body is just too amazing!" Ciri sighed like a fangirl. He-El really was... he really was... too amazing. I'm crying.

He-El only needed to think about it to understand why his genes were like Tang Sanzang's flesh.

Without rapidly creating powerful superpowered subordinates, how could he rule the universe?

With his mouth?

Of course, he was not saying he absolutely had to rule the universe, but he would certainly need a large number of powerful subordinates to serve him.

Perhaps ruling the universe would merely be a byproduct of becoming powerful.

Even beings like Darkseid and The Father possessed numerous powerful subordinates.

If he did not give them superpowers as a starting point, was he supposed to wait hundreds or thousands of years for them to slowly level up?

"Then make five thousand doses first."

He-El said it casually.

In that instant, he felt that Earth was far too fortunate to have encountered him.

He was about to drag them into the age of superpowers.

Suddenly.

Without any warning, He-El knew it had arrived.

After he spoke, his mind buzzed, as though it had broken through a membrane. The world that had been suppressing and covering him was lifted away. He clearly sensed a new level being born, an indescribable feeling emerging from his mind and letting him understand what had happened.

"Lick, lick, lick... lick, lick, lick..."

"Sleepy... want to sleep... sleepy."

"I have to work overtime again tonight. Damn aliens."

"My leg... sob, sob, sob... my leg. Why wasn't it Amy next door who got amputated?"

"If I kill an alien, I'll become the great hero in everyone's hearts."

"Love you, love you, love you..."

"I wonder if I can get superpowers? I want x-ray vision."

"Mom, Mom, Mom..."

The thoughts of everyone in Anchorage Base flooded into He-El's mind.

Receiving the thoughts of everyone in Anchorage Base only startled He-El slightly. After that, nothing happened.

He had awakened a new superpower.

Telepathy: Receive and enter the thoughts of other sentient beings, and alter them to a certain degree. Unable to control the thoughts of organisms governed by primal instincts.

He-El was quite satisfied with awakening psychic abilities.

At the moment of awakening, his brain had already calculated numerous applications—such as blasting someone's mind into collapse, constructing a Mind Barrier, imprisoning another person's mind, transmitting knowledge through the mind, and other techniques.

Of course, he had never tested them, so he did not know what effects they would have on their targets.

He-El immediately took the initiative to block everyone else out and lightly tested it on Ciri.

"Okay."

After responding to him, Ciri had kept rolling the Alps candy around with her tongue. Her mind had actually produced animal-like thoughts of lick, lick, lick, lick, lick, lick.

Most thoughts in living creatures were actually controlled by bodily instinct. Just like Ciri at this moment—after responding to He-El, she had no other thoughts. She simply wanted to lick the lollipop, and instinctive thoughts of lick, lick, lick emerged.

He-El received those thoughts. While multitasking, another idea surfaced. If the biological field controlled the body and psychic abilities controlled the mind, would that not achieve complete control?

He-El explored and studied it slightly. His gaze fixed on Ciri. With his vision adjusted to an ordinary human level, beneath the fluorescent lights, her eyes were limpid as autumn water, her nose straight, and her facial features sharply defined. Fine down was visible on her beautiful face, making her exceptionally lovely.

Even though her taste in clothing was utterly terrible, her powerful beauty and figure still made anyone believe that Ciri was a gorgeous woman unrestricted by any outfit.

"?"

Noticing He-El staring at her, Ciri tilted her head toward him in confusion, her cheeks puffed out around the Alps candy, and a questioning mark appeared.

It was a real question mark. He-El sensed a huge question mark in Ciri's head, as if it had burst out of her body and rushed straight at him.

He-El found it rather interesting. It let him truly and clearly sense the exact meaning.

He understood that this was based on his own knowledge and experiences, allowing him to receive Ciri's thoughts in their most apparent form and understand them.

But thoughts were fragmented and incoherent. He-El received them in the form of words. It was not only through words; his psychic abilities had only just appeared, so he instinctively received them as words.

"What does He-El want?"

"Don't tell me he has taken a liking to me?"

"Am I suitable even though I'm so ugly?"

"Looks like He-El doesn't have very good taste!"

"He really isn't picky!"

"Since He-El is willing, I'd be happy to have dozens of super children with him."

He-El adjusted slightly and immediately received every thought as a series of images. They were all Ciri's fantasies, including the process and the result of naming the children Number One, Number Two, Number Three after giving birth.

Using his psychic abilities, He-El directly sent the thought of having a watermelon into Ciri's mind, trying to alter what she was currently thinking.

The result was Ciri eating watermelon with several hundred children. Then, in the next moment, her thoughts drifted back to her own body, treating it like a precious treasure and morbidly regarding it as a lollipop.

"The transmitted thought disappears in less than 0.5 seconds."

"It can even produce errors? There's no lingering effect either."

He-El was rather surprised.

He had directly transmitted the thought of having a watermelon, yet once it reached Ciri, it became her eating watermelon with hundreds of children.

What was the reason for that?

The transmission of mental information should have been completely accurate.

Was it because he had not transmitted it forcefully enough, or because it did not fit Ciri's thought patterns, causing Ciri's own thoughts to distort it into what she wanted?

Thoughts sent into someone's mind had to conform to that person's mental patterns and could not differ too greatly. Otherwise, they could easily make the person question their life, even cause mental fragmentation or split personality disorder.

Psychic abilities... were truly a little interesting.

He-El smiled.

He knew that the psychic abilities he wielded required technique, and their power was beyond doubt. What he lacked was an understanding of the subconscious thoughts of living beings and the rapidly shifting nature of thought, as well as a familiarity with human behavior and mentality.

He was not some master psychologist, nor was he so proficient in human nature. Therefore, he had not been able to keep his thoughts lingering in Ciri's mind for long. Moreover, thoughts and human nature were the most changeable things; sustained influence was not so easy.

If he could master the use of thought, hypnosis, guidance, and theory, then in theory, he could plant a Thought Imprint in anyone's mind, allowing them to remain loyal to him while still using their talents for his benefit.

He-El felt that the psychic attacks and psychic defenses he had devised were merely crude things. They were incomplete because he did not understand human thought and nature well enough.

Psychic abilities were the power to toy with thoughts, the power of idealism, the power of gods.

At their ultimate height, they would surely become idealistic abilities that could create things with a thought, bring living beings into existence with a notion, and create worlds simply by wishing for them.

Thought.

This was the most fundamental use of psychic abilities, and also the most difficult and advanced use.

He-El had a clear plan.

He would make gradual progress and first develop a Thought Imprint.

However, He-El did not dare enter Ciri's mind and examine her memories. He was afraid she would not be able to endure it and might die.

Nor could he forcefully stuff thoughts into Ciri's mind. If he directly turned Ciri into an idiot, he would waste a capable, loyal, gifted, and talented subordinate.

Human thoughts were the most mutable. He-El had no intention of researching human thought through his efforts alone. With psychic abilities, the faster and correct path was to gather other people's memories and experiences, integrate all that knowledge, and produce results.

Even with heaven-defying talent, researching alone would always leave gaps beyond one's ability to cover. How could that compare to the collective efforts of the entire Earth, with all kinds of geniuses offering brilliant insights from every possible angle?

He had to find someone without psychic abilities who could nevertheless manipulate other people's lives through psychological wisdom. He would examine that person's use of psychology, psychological suggestion, subconscious control, thought guidance, and every technique for manipulating hearts and minds. He would learn their strengths and incorporate them into his psychic abilities, directly suggesting, hypnotizing, guiding, imprinting, and researching the ultimate mind-control technique from within thoughts themselves: the Thought Imprint!

He-El's super vision and super hearing could see and hear the entire Earth. He searched for a master psychologist with tremendous attainments in psychology.

Without continuing his conversation with Ciri, He-El, having gained a new toy, found his target and flew toward Washington, D.C. once more.