The Bizarre Water Plant! Green-Skinned Warrior!

Ian never did find out what had happened to Flash.

High in the sky.

Amid the biting wind.

"What are you doing?! Are you afraid people won't know you once committed the serious crime of robbery?" Once Kara had flown high enough, she could no longer hold back her complaint.

Ian had a perfectly valid excuse.

"Come on! I saw reporters! Could you be a reasonable grandaunt? I don't have your magic glasses. I need some way to protect my privacy and identity!"

"A handsome boy like me... it would take people two minutes to dig up who I am. Then it wouldn't just be my dad—your real identity might get exposed too."

That was indeed an argument Kara found difficult to refute.

"..."

Still, Kara was utterly speechless.

"You carry stockings around with you?"

She increasingly felt that Ian was more professional than a seasoned robber.

However.

"What are you talking about? I'm not a pervert. Why would I carry something like that around... I was just smart enough to adapt on the fly and rummage through a suitcase one of the passengers dropped."

"When I got it, it was still unopened!"

Ian pulled the stocking off his head.

He did not throw it away.

Instead, he rummaged through the holes in his pocket and tied the stocking around his waist. His grandaunt's words had reminded the boy that it never hurt to carry a few little props around.

"We need to fly north." Pulling out his map, Ian prepared to direct Kara. Kara, who had previously wanted to take him straight home, did not stop him this time. After speaking with the reporter among the passengers, she had realized Ian might not simply be spouting nonsense during some delusional episode.

"According to my investigation, the sewage plant at this location is the most suspicious. It was only built last year, and it's right next to a waterworks. Anyone who's studied urban planning knows that makes no sense."

Ian pointed at the map.

"You haven't even started high school yet. What could you possibly know about city management?"

Kara looked somewhat doubtful.

Ian answered with complete confidence.

"I've played Cities: Skylines. Do you understand the weight carried by a five-star mayor?" He was not trying to show off, so after explaining, he pointed at the map again.

"Here, Grandaunt. Fly this way."

He began navigating.

However.

"Feel around and see whether I've grown eyes on the back of my head." Kara was incredibly exasperated. She might have a Super Brain, but she did not normally memorize the maps and layouts of every city.

"You don't even have Kryptonian telekinesis?"

Ian frowned.

Kara was completely bewildered.

"No... is that something I'm supposed to have?"

She was utterly unfamiliar with the term Ian had mentioned, and she increasingly wondered what exactly Clark had been teaching the children. Had Clark mutated badly after staying on Earth for too long?

"Fine, then I'll hold the map in front of your eyes." Ian acted as he spoke, deeply disappointed. Among aliens, Ultraman still seemed to be superior.

"I said show me the map, not cover my eyes with it! Give it here!" Kara had no choice but to snatch the map from Ian's hand and confirm the direction herself.

She was incredibly fast.

Before Ian could even figure out how much experience he would gain if he jumped from this height, Kara had already reached the sewage plant shown on the map.

Bang!

It was an almost vertical landing.

Kara landed before the sewage treatment plant's rust-covered iron gates. Ian promptly jumped from her back to the ground and skillfully pulled the stocking around his waist over his head again.

"..."

Kara had no words for this.

She vigorously rubbed her temples and did not offer any more pointless advice. Turning toward the sewage plant, she pushed open the six-meter-tall metal gate with one hand.

The hinges let out a piercing groan.

It sounded like some kind of agonized wail.

Inside the gate, the pungent stench of disinfectant mixed with sewage rushed toward them, making Kara wrinkle her nose. Ian immediately covered his mouth and nose, his voice muffled through the stocking: Inside the gate, the pungent stench of disinfectant mixed with sewage rushed toward them, making Kara wrinkle her nose.

Ian immediately covered his mouth and nose.

"Ugh... this smells like stinky socks stewed with durian." He always had strange comparisons that made people feel as if they were right there, while making it impossible to imagine how he had come up with them.

More than a dozen workers in orange uniforms were busy around the plant. When they saw Supergirl and a man with a stocking over his head suddenly appear, they all stopped working and looked over curiously.

However.

No one came over to question them. Everyone remained busy with their work. If they had not seen Superwoman, someone normally only seen on television, these hardworking laborers might not even have glanced at them.

"Well?"

It was impossible not to feel nervous.

Yet because of his immortality buff, Ian was nervous but also eager for action. He had a feeling he would gain several levels here.

"Let me take a look."

Kara raised a hand to signal Ian to wait and focused her eyes, using her super vision to scan the entire plant. Filtration pools, sedimentation tanks, disinfection equipment... everything appeared to be functioning normally.

"There's nothing wrong."

Kara withdrew her gaze and looked at Ian in confusion.

"Isn't this the place... No, that can't be right. My Super Intelligence is clearly telling me there's definitely something wrong here." Ian frowned and raised the electronic device in his hand.

"It's also a LexCorp property. The buffs are already fully stacked." Ian waved the information he had just found, but Kara's immediate focus was somewhat unusual.

"You actually use the same phone as me!"

Kara sounded astonished.

She had been about to say that perhaps this was the bond of blood.

However.

"I don't have my own phone yet. This is your phone, Grandaunt... I borrowed it." Ian blinked, and his words froze Kara's smile on her face.

"So that's why you felt me up twice earlier!"

Kara realized it belatedly.

She was utterly speechless at Ian.

Her eyes finally turned to the information on the phone—Metropolis New Concept Sewage Plant, a wholly owned LexCorp subsidiary, which might provide free treatment for 70% of the city's industrial wastewater in the future!

The news made Kara's eyes flicker as well.

LexCorp had always maintained a remarkably stable reputation among superheroes.

More stable than Boeing, even.

"You're right. Luthor is unlikely to be doing charity for real. Everything he does has its own agenda and purpose." Kara felt that she should inspect the wastewater plant more carefully.

In response.

Ian wholeheartedly agreed.

"Exactly, exactly! I'd even bet that if Luthor takes on social responsibility without some kind of conspiracy, I'll go next door to Gotham and hire Joker as my therapist!"

He said it with righteous conviction.

Kara's expression turned strange when she heard that.

"Why are you rewarding yourself?" It was clear that after half a day together, her issue with this nephew was no longer a matter of prejudice.

"?????"

Ian's face turned bright red.

He was getting a little angry.

Just as he was about to fiercely refute her.

"Ugh, ugh, ugh—"

At that moment, a violent bout of retching interrupted their conversation. Not far away, a gaunt worker suddenly dropped to his knees, clutching his throat with both hands and making choking noises.

The colleagues around him immediately rushed over.

"Mike! What's wrong?"

His friend began asking after him.

But the worker, Mike, did not answer. He suddenly spewed out a mouthful of dark green vomit, which splattered across the concrete with a splat. The dark green vomit seemed to glow with a green fluorescence.

And that was not all.

When the half-digested scraps of food touched the ground, they actually produced sizzling corrosive sounds. Even the hard concrete was burned through, with wisps of black smoke continuously rising.

"No!"

The worker who had been concerned for his friend, along with the other helpful colleagues nearby, were all horrified. Like ants scattering from a disturbed nest, they fled in panic.

"It's that thing! The same thing that happened yesterday! It must be some kind of contagious disease!" someone shouted in terror. They abandoned their work and ran straight toward the gate.

They truly looked frightened out of their wits.

"What's going on?"

Kara wanted to stop a worker and ask.

However.

"A contagious disease! A terrifying contagious disease! Even Superman got infected!" The worker only gave that fearful warning before struggling desperately to get away from the "patient."

Kara could only let him go helplessly.

"Sir, are you all right?"

Though she did not have the Liu Liu Mei Ian wanted to see, she still delivered the famous line. At the same time, she remained alert as she cautiously approached the kneeling, vomiting worker.

At those words.

Mike raised his head.

"Save me!"

The man's voice was desperate and hoarse.

His eyeballs had already turned cloudy white, while something green seemed to flow beneath his skin. The man opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something else, but only let out an inhuman howl. He was mutating with terrifying speed, green energy erupting within him—sinister and horrifying.

It carried an immensely powerful corrosive effect against biological genes.

"Workers! Never be slaves!"

The man roared.

Ian felt that line sounded strangely familiar.