As soon as Chloe left, the entire room fell completely silent. Before long, Dilos started feeling restless. He couldn't move around at all, and for some reason, he was wide awake. He couldn't sleep; every time he closed his eyes, he only felt more alert, and he was in a terrible mood.
Dilos couldn't explain exactly how terrible he felt, but he could always sense that something was wrong. It was as if pain, despair, indifference, anger, and other emotions were all tangled up in his heart. The feeling wouldn't go away, and it struck him as extremely strange.
Could I be developing multiple personalities? A troubling thought suddenly crossed Dilos's mind. As soon as it did, he felt even worse.
"Calm down. Calm down." Dilos told himself that if he panicked now, things would only get more complicated later. He regulated his breathing, trying to calm himself as much as possible.
But it wasn't easy. It took him a good ten minutes to gradually settle down.
Once he had calmed down, the earlier restlessness was gone, but those jumbled emotions hadn't disappeared. On the contrary, Dilos could sense them even more clearly.
Or perhaps he should say he was "reading" those emotions...
Dilos didn't know how he'd come up with that word, but once it entered his mind, he became increasingly certain that he was "reading" emotions.
Then whose emotions were they? Could they belong to the people around his hospital room?
Just as Dilos was thinking this, Chloe came in. The moment she entered, Dilos felt his chest tighten, while a mixture of anxiety and worry washed through his mind.
When Chloe saw Dilos watching her from the hospital bed, she forced a smile. "Don't worry. Lex will be here soon. You'll definitely get better."
As she said this, Dilos felt that mixture of anxiety and worry grow stronger. He looked at Chloe, and his suspicions about his ability became even more certain.
Dilos gave Chloe a smile that said, "Don't worry. I won't overthink it," then turned his attention to considering his ability.
Based on what he'd experienced so far, this seemed to be a mental ability, commonly known as telepathy. He just couldn't understand where it had come from.
Did getting shocked awaken my powers? Or do I have the X-Gene, making me a Mutant? Countless thoughts flashed through Dilos's mind, but in the end, he couldn't figure it out.
Without the right equipment, there was no way to find anything out with the equipment in his room.
But if he couldn't figure it out, he might as well stop thinking about it for now. He should focus on how to control this ability. The constant jumble of emotions swirling through his mind was truly torturous.
With that in mind, Dilos closed his eyes, relaxed, and tried to control his ability.
He had some theories about how it worked. If a mental ability could sense things, then it must respond to changes in the environment, just like the five senses. For instance, his ability was like a signal receiver, specifically tuned to pick up signals from different emotions.
If that was the case, wouldn't it be great if he could choose which emotions to receive?
Thinking this, Dilos concentrated, trying to make it happen.
But after half an hour, he still hadn't made any progress.
Instead, sleepiness gradually crept over him. His injuries were still quite serious, after all, and even just thinking like this was exhausting.
"Forget it. I'll stop thinking about it and get some sleep." This time, Dilos fell asleep with little difficulty. He was probably just too tired. Even the jumble of emotions in his mind couldn't stop him from drifting off.
When Dilos woke again, he found himself in complete darkness. No—not quite complete darkness. Along with the darkness, countless multicolored orbs of light surrounded him.
"What is this?" A wave of confusion rose in Dilos's heart. At the very center of the orbs, he could clearly sense how different they were from one another.
Each orb gave off a unique fluctuation. Yet when the fluctuations washed over Dilos, they entered his body without the slightest resistance, as if sinking into a black hole. At the same time, a look of surprise appeared on his face.
"Emotions?" Dilos muttered to himself, though he was already about ninety percent certain.
These were the emotions of the people—or perhaps the living beings—around him.
Dilos rolled over and looked around at the orbs. For some reason, in this state he could sense his own condition more clearly, and...more comfortably!
Yes, comfortably. It was as if every bit of information in his body was being clearly transmitted to his mind. He also felt that in this state, he might be able to make his body refuse to receive the orbs' fluctuations.
The moment the thought came to him, he acted on it. The result was far smoother than he'd expected.
The orbs' fluctuations bounced off his body as soon as they touched it. He could no longer sense those inexplicable emotions coming from outside.
"Great!" Dilos shouted excitedly. Just then, a warm current suddenly surged from his chest. The darkness and orbs disappeared, replaced by a warmly lit hospital room.
For a moment, Dilos couldn't make sense of what had happened. He stared wide-eyed at his surroundings. Two familiar figures had appeared in the room.
His uncle, Gabe, and Lex Luthor.
"You're awake, Dilos. Are you feeling any better?" The delight on Gabe's face was genuine; Dilos could read happiness coming from him.
Dilos's eyes shifted. He seemed to recall everything that had happened in that darkness. His mind stirred, and, just as he'd expected, the emotions he had been reading vanished—or, rather, he had blocked them out.
It worked!
Dilos was overjoyed. His face lit up in a cheerful smile. "Don't worry, Uncle. I'm doing okay!"
Gabe was taken aback by his answer, but didn't think much of it. As far as he was concerned, it was good enough if Dilos didn't get too downhearted.
At that moment, Lex stepped forward and smiled at him. "We meet again, Dilos."
"Hello, Lex. And thank you."
Dilos smiled too. Privately, he couldn't help using his ability on Lex. The man had saved his life, but given what Dilos knew about him from his previous life, he still felt wary.
"Gabe told me you wanted to return the car, but I want to say that saving my life was the least I could do in return. I've always wanted a chance to repay you, and I'd also like to be your friend, Dilos. I've contacted the best doctors in the country to come treat you. You just need some time, and you'll be able to get back to your normal life. For now, you need to focus on recovering."
Lex hadn't made any promises he couldn't keep, and Dilos understood. He knew the extent of his injuries. If he didn't have the Guoshu technique Tiger-Leopard Thunder Sound, even he would have thought he was done for unless he got his hands on something like the Extremis Virus or a Healing Factor.
"Thank you." This time, Dilos meant it. While using his ability, he'd sensed that Lex's emotions matched his words.
Lex wasn't lying. He didn't feel even the slightest negativity, and he genuinely wanted to be friends with Dilos.
Dilos didn't understand why Lex was being so kind to him just because of this. But he knew that if Lex sincerely wanted to help him, then he should sincerely thank him.
At the same time, Dilos realized he had a problem. He seemed to rely too much on what he'd learned about certain characters from movies and shows in his previous life. That information could serve as a reference, but it couldn't be the only basis for judging what someone was like. He still needed to judge people for himself, because the world he lived in was real.
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