Gul'dan! What Is the Price?!

Corrupted data?

Incompatible?

Ian listened to the prompt beside his ear, his face full of bewilderment and confusion. This kind of system feedback was truly baffling. And—sure enough, his system had been ripped straight out of some game, hadn't it?!

"Once again, I tremble in fear at my NPC status." Ian had not unlocked a new class and was deeply disappointed. He figured he could go back and test whether Kryptonian blood would work.

Getting his dad's blood would be difficult.

But wasn't getting his second brother Jordan's blood easy? Jordan got nosebleeds all the time. One drop of gold, ten drops of blood—if worse came to worst, Ian could always steal Jordan's nighttime treasure and give it a try.

Ian slowly got to his feet.

He turned and glanced at Kara.

Completely unaware of what he had been doing, his carefree cousin was still on the phone. "Biochemical test subjects from LexCorp have been discovered at the Sewage Treatment Plant. At least two people have already mutated."

"Hank's assistance won't be necessary. I'm only requesting D.E.O. support... yes, full containment measures." Kara was clearly speaking with a government agency.

If Ian remembered correctly.

Superwoman had indeed been deeply connected to the secret government organization D.E.O. It was an important covert agency dedicated to monitoring, studying, and responding to all sorts of supernatural phenomena, alien lifeforms, and superpowered individuals appearing on Earth. D.E.O. was actually the English abbreviation for the Department of Extranormal Operations.

As for Hank.

His full name should have been Hank Henshaw, and he was one of the higher-ups in that mysterious organization. The name itself had been borrowed from someone else. Like Kara, he was an alien.

The Martian Manhunter.

He was quite powerful too. One punch might be enough to kill three or five Ians.

"No matter who I'm standing in front of, I'm just some insignificant nobody, an ordinary NPC." Ian silently listened to Kara's phone call, then looked once more at the mutated green-skinned worker.

"That look is awfully familiar." Ian studied the fangs protruding from the green-skinned worker's mouth, deep in thought. He felt that the man really did look a little like the Orcs from his memories.

Even the line from earlier had been remarkably similar.

"Drink my blood... join us... child!" The green-skinned worker stared intently at Ian, beginning his temptation. "This world needs countless warriors to change it!"

"You and I... we will both gain glory! For—" Before the green-skinned worker could finish, Kara, who had just ended her call, strode over and punched him in the face.

The green-skinned worker's voice abruptly stopped.

"Roar!!"

The furious roar rang out again.

But it could neither frighten Kara nor stir any ripples in Ian's heart.

"Don't tell me you actually wanted to drink his blood!" Kara shot Ian a warning look. In her eyes, he was full of uncertainty. Clearly, she had heard the green-skinned worker's temptation toward Ian perfectly well.

Super Hearing.

It worked sometimes and failed other times.

"Drink his blood? How could I! Cousin, I have standards too." Ian looked up. Behind the two holes in his pantyhose mask, his eyes blinked with complete sincerity.

"The way you were looking at him, it seemed like you wanted to take a couple bites out of him." Kara looked at Ian suspiciously. Ian hurriedly returned the most simple and honest smile of a sunny young man.

"No, of course not. I was just wondering how I could scientifically prove that he isn't human." Ian said it from the bottom of his heart, but hearing it made Kara, the superhero, think of terrifying possibilities.

"Damn it! Are you really just mentally ill?" She grabbed Ian by the collar and dragged him upright. "Someone will come deal with this poor man's problem."

"We need to check whether there are still people left in the plant and ask about the situation... I'd bet the Sewage Treatment Plant is just a cover. This is definitely Luthor's biochemical research base."

Kara's voice was filled with absolute certainty.

"You mean our world is about to get its own Umbrella Corporation too?" Ian was greatly surprised. His instincts told him that this was probably far more than a simple biochemical experiment.

"Could you say something I can understand?"

Kara let out a heavy sigh.

Carrying Ian by the hood of his pantyhose mask, she quickly headed into the factory building. The Sewage Treatment Plant had fallen into an eerie silence. The previously busy workers had almost all fled the place.

After entering the factory grounds, they found the lights around them flickering constantly. From time to time came a buzzing current, as though no maintenance staff had ever serviced the place.

"This plant was built not long ago! Unless someone was embezzling funds, how could the equipment be this run-down?" Ian struggled until Kara put him back on the ground.

He pointed out the detail to Kara.

"You're right." Kara nodded. Her Super Hearing caught the sound of liquid flowing and faint groans deep within the factory, but the most obvious heat source was coming from the cafeteria.

"Over there."

Kara shielded Ian behind her. There were occasional puddles on the floor, and their footsteps made crisp splashing sounds whenever they stepped in them, unusually conspicuous in the silent surroundings.

The two had not walked long.

When they saw it.

The sign reading [Employee Cafeteria] came into view.

Kara suddenly sniffed.

"Do you smell that? The aroma of food... it should be mealtime right now." Since Ian had stolen her dinner, she was now especially sensitive to the scent of food.

"I only smell sewage and disinfectant."

Ian frowned.

"No, that's definitely the smell of food. Don't question my super sense of smell." Kara's stomach let out a timely growl. She, too, sensed that something was strange.

"Odd. This place is so disgusting, but the cafeteria food smells so tempting?" As she spoke, Kara directly led Ian into the employee cafeteria. Her gaze swept across the spacious dining area. Four or five workers in orange uniforms sat at stainless steel tables, quietly eating with their heads lowered.

An enticing fragrance filled the air: the wheaty aroma of toasted bread, the richness of stewed meat, and the freshness of some herb—at least, that was the scene Kara saw.

"A place with food this good can't possibly be just a Sewage Treatment Plant!" She even felt her mouth watering, though she forcibly restrained her appetite and prepared to question several workers.

"This counts as good food?"

Ian looked at Kara skeptically.

He felt that his cousin's taste in food was somewhat unusual.

No, it was no longer merely unusual.

It should have been called Cthulhu-tier food preferences. Ian's gaze swept over the employees' trays, which were filled with green soup and green chunks of meat.

The kind of nauseating sight that would make someone explode after one more look.

"Grilled ribs, creamy soup, pan-seared salmon... if this isn't a feast, what is?" Kara swallowed and looked at Ian with utter confusion.

Was Clark's family served even better food than this?

"?????"

Ian's pupils contracted immediately upon hearing that. He stared fixedly in the direction Kara was pointing—there was only a worker trembling as he held a bowl of thick soup bubbling green.

Several black chunks that might have been meat floated on the surface. At that moment, Ian realized that what he saw was completely different from what Kara, with her super vision, saw!

Mental interference?

Kara's eyes were gradually turning unfocused!

"Damn it! Even a Kryptonian got hit?!"

Ian looked around.

He wanted to find the possible "archmage"-level powerhouse.

And right then.

A metallic clang sounded from behind the serving window. Ian saw a hunched, skeletal chef looking at the two uninvited guests with cloudy eyes.

"Those who see it get a share. Share in the feast. Feel the delicacy I have made flow through your bodies. It will grant you power and let you truly realize just how extraordinary you are."

"Come! Drink this soup containing my countless efforts!"

The chef's voice was hoarse and low, carrying a seductive quality. He slowly raised his ladle, and a drop of green liquid fell from its tip, trailing a sticky thread through the air.

"?????"

Ian was completely dumbfounded.

He felt awful all over and could not help blurting out.

"Gul'dan reborn in the DC Universe?!"

Ian found it utterly unbelievable.

"Clang!"

Upon hearing Ian's remark.

The chef's ladle suddenly fell to the floor. He looked even more incredulous than Ian. His hunched body began trembling violently, and his withered fingers gripped the edge of his apron tightly.

"Impossible! Impossible! You... how do you know that name? That is my dream... a world belonging only to me... I roam within it every night!"

"Enlightenment! I gained enlightenment in that dream world!"

"They're in my head, only in my head... I know what to do! Oh, right, you're one of my hallucinations too. You're here to remind me that I need to speed up my resistance against this world, aren't you?" At first, the babbling chef looked utterly disbelieving, but after picking up the ladle, he suddenly seemed to reach an epiphany.

His expression became exceptionally fanatical.

However.

His eyes grew increasingly clouded.

"Holy shit!"

The more Ian listened, the more something felt wrong.

At first, he had been confused and simply thought the other man was having a psychotic episode. But as the chef described something Ian found incomparably familiar, Ian suddenly seemed to realize something and his eyes widened.

"You bastard! Who do you think you are, using the same cheat as me?!" He nearly jumped in fury. Perhaps since transmigrating, this was the first time Ian had been so enraged.

Just like that.

The Rage Meter in the lower-right corner instantly filled to the maximum.

〔PS: Please keep reading, please vote, please send monthly tickets.

Let me explain: dreams are actually one of this book's main crises. The system has always been the protagonist's cheat, and it also has an origin. The outline can reach two million words, so please read with confidence.〕