Lex didn't agree with Dilos right away, but Dilos knew he was tempted. Those words had planted a seed in his mind, just waiting to take root and grow.
Still, Lex wasn't some hotheaded fool who threw caution to the wind. He was a clever, mature young man with a sharp business mind. He remained somewhat rational, telling Dilos that he would keep an eye on things in secret and offer help where appropriate.
"If you can prove your worth, I'll help you with everything I've got. If you can't, I'll pretend none of this ever happened."
Those were Lex's exact words, and they made his position clear.
The process hadn't gone entirely smoothly, but Dilos knew this was the best outcome he could hope for right now.
He couldn't help thinking back to the day before. After he stopped that girl, he'd seen the undisguised expressions in the eyes of the onlookers around them. The sight had weighed heavily on him.
He'd watched those people casually spit out insults like "damn Mutant," "filthy Mutant," and "disgusting, terrifying monster."
Dilos had intended to send the girl straight to prison, but he hesitated, then quickly made his decision. Without a moment's hesitation, he unleashed his now-enhanced mental power, plunging it into the mental energy clusters of the onlookers. He pulled out a small bundle of threadlike matter and destroyed it.
That small bundle of threads was their memory. Grinding it to dust with mental power could make them lose part of their memories. Dilos had figured out this mental technique while recovering.
To be honest, Dilos's mental abilities weren't very powerful, and doing this directly would have been almost impossible. But when he channeled the vital energy in his body into his mind, his mental strength briefly multiplied several times. That enhanced mental ability let him pull it off.
If he could help it, though, Dilos didn't want to use this technique. The price was that his mental and physical strength would become extremely weak for three days. Using it too often could cause permanent damage to his body.
But he had no time to hesitate. He gave Chloe the car keys and told her to go home first, then hoisted the unconscious girl off the ground and took her to the police station.
As for the onlookers, Dilos's earlier actions had only erased their memories of the past few minutes. The effect on them wasn't very serious. At most, they would feel dazed for a few minutes when he wiped their memories.
Once the police watched the street footage and received the bank's report, they would naturally take the girl into custody. The advantage was that, with the police handling the case directly, word wouldn't get out as quickly.
During that time, Dilos called Lex, who was attending a meeting at the fertilizer plant, explained what had happened, and asked him to put in a good word for the girl. As far as Dilos knew, the police around here were more or less under the Luthor family's control. It was best to get the right person involved before the situation blew up.
Dilos felt completely at ease leaving the cleanup to Lex. If Lex couldn't handle it, no one in this town could help him.
In an abandoned factory in Smallville, Dilos brought the girl, who had been released without charge, to the building.
Looking at her, Dilos felt a little wistful. If he remembered correctly, the latest superpowered criminals had all come from Smallville High School, whether they were students or coaches.
That's right. The girl's name was Tina Gray. She attended Smallville High School and was the same age as Dilos.
Tina's face was full of wariness and hatred. Dilos gave her a harmless smile.
"Relax. I don't mean you any harm."
Tina sneered. "You didn't mean me any harm, yet you had me arrested? And now you've brought me to a place like this. What do you want?"
"No, no." Dilos wagged a finger, his smile growing wider. "First, you took on my friend's appearance and robbed a bank. Then, using his face, you threatened the manager with an M500 and made him hand over a hundred thousand dollars from my friend's account. You wanted my friend to pay for what you did, and that won't do. Even though the matter's been settled, you still hurt him and the people involved."
"So what?" Tina looked disdainful. "He's rich, and he's one of the 'vampires' in Luthor Corp. Taking his money..."
"Is perfectly normal?" Dilos cut her off loudly, finishing the thought for her. His expression turned mocking. "Miss Tina Gray, you don't seem to understand your situation. Do you remember how the police caught you? Or do I need to remind you how you got out?"
As she listened to him and felt the chill beneath his words, Tina suddenly grew afraid. Only now did she remember that the man in front of her had knocked her out with a single blow. Even if he had caught her by surprise, there was no denying he was powerful. And somehow, he'd even managed to get her released without charge...
"Do you know how badly the people out there want to catch you, this 'Mutant'?" Dilos's voice sounded calm, but it carried a strange, oppressive chill.
"I was right there. Those onlookers were shouting that they wanted to kill you, you little freak~"
As she recalled what had happened, Tina's eyes flickered. Thinking of her impulsive mistake and what it might have led to, she began to break out in a cold sweat.
But Dilos wasn't finished. He suddenly put on a harmless smile, though to Tina it looked terrifying.
"Tina, you're special. Really, I'm not lying—you're very special. Your ability is incredibly fascinating, especially to someone like me, who's deeply interested in biological genetics..."
With every sentence Dilos spoke, Tina took a step back, and he took one forward. She felt a chill creeping up her spine, freezing her body and making her more and more afraid. She was already planning to run.
But would Dilos let her escape? He casually adjusted his glasses. A lens lined up with the iron door behind Tina, and he fired a powerful electromagnetic wave at full power.
A sharp pop rang out, making Tina jump. She even thought her heart had stopped for a moment. She sprang forward, then instinctively turned back—and saw two patches of flame blazing on the iron door behind her, quickly spreading to cover the whole thing.
Before she could react, she felt a wave of heat at her feet. She screamed and instinctively tried to retreat, but tripped and fell.
She saw two flames, each half her height, suddenly flare up beside her feet, with Dilos standing beyond them. Even someone as slow as Tina could figure out who was responsible. She slumped onto the ground and scrambled backward, terror and tears in her eyes.
"Please, don't kill me." The fear of death made Tina give in. She kept backing away until she couldn't go any farther, trapped by the flames behind her and Dilos pressing forward from the front.
Faced with this dire situation, Tina's voice broke into a terrified sob. "Please, don't kill me. If you spare me, I'll do whatever you want..."
Seeing that she'd had enough, Dilos stopped pressing her. He gave her a harmless smile.
"No problem, Miss Tina. See? If you're willing to cooperate and talk things through, we can still settle this amicably."
Tina didn't answer. She only looked at Dilos timidly through her swollen eyes. He continued:
"Like I said, you're special, Tina. So I need you to do a few things for me, including letting me draw a vial of your blood so I can examine its secrets." Dilos smiled brightly. "But don't worry. You won't be doing this for nothing. I heard your family is a little short on money, so I'll pay you in return."
"Also..." Dilos paused briefly. "I want this to stay between the two of us. I don't want to hear any strange rumors—unless you want to find out whether you can survive in a fire..."
Before you continue