That evening, at Peter's home.
"Come on, Dilos, you need to eat more. You're still growing, just like Peter. You need to eat plenty at your age."
A kind old woman, well past fifty but still showing traces of the charm she must have had in her youth, warmly placed a plate of diced potatoes, bacon, and eggs in front of Dilos.
"No, Mrs. Parker, I'm full. Really, I'm not lying."
Peter's aunt, May Parker, left Dilos feeling helpless. Four empty plates were already piled beside him. Practicing Guoshu had given him a hearty appetite, but that didn't mean he could keep stuffing food into his stomach without end. He was starting to feel uncomfortably full.
"Don't be so formal, dear." The warm-hearted old woman was clearly in a good mood. "You're Peter's friend, so just call me Aunt May."
Beside her, an old man with white hair—Ben Parker—beamed at Dilos. "Don't be nervous, young man. Just like May said, you don't have to be so formal. See? Peter doesn't mind at all."
As he spoke, he pointed to Peter beside Dilos. Peter winked at Dilos. "It's fine. I don't mind. Just call them Aunt May and Uncle Ben, like I do."
"Uh..." Dilos looked at their warm expressions. They didn't seem to be pretending, so he could only resign himself to it. "All right, I understand."
"But I'm telling the truth, Aunt May. I'm absolutely, positively, definitely full." Dilos was having a hard time handling the elderly couple's enthusiasm, so he quickly redirected their attention to Peter, who had been watching the show.
"Look, Peter's the one who needs nourishment most. He's younger than me and still at a crucial stage of development. How could that little bit be enough to fill him up?"
"No, no, I'm full."
Peter had been watching from the sidelines, but when Dilos suddenly redirected the couple's attention to him, he didn't react in time. By the time he did, two plates piled with delicious food had appeared in front of him: one of Aunt May's lovingly prepared meals, and the other the diced potatoes, bacon, and eggs Dilos had pushed his way.
"Uh..." Peter rubbed his half-full stomach, then looked at Aunt May's hopeful expression. In the end, he gritted his teeth and smiled. "Okay, okay. I'll eat."
As he started eating, though, he shot Dilos a fierce glare. Dilos was grinning mischievously beside him.
If I could beat you... Peter silently cursed Dilos as he ate the food on his plate.
Seeing Peter's conflicted expression, Dilos couldn't help feeling pleased.
Time passed slowly. Even with the lively atmosphere, the dinner eventually came to an end.
After dinner, Dilos spent some time chatting with Peter's family before saying goodbye and returning to the place he rented.
Lying on his bed, Dilos fell silent for a moment. Though his time with Peter's family had been brief, it reminded him of his family back in Smallville.
He missed home.
Dilos picked up his phone, then put it down. He picked it up again, then set it down. After repeating this several times, he finally resisted the urge to call home.
He still had other things to do. Until he finished them, the less contact he had with his family, the better.
As he thought this, Dilos recalled everything he had seen earlier at Peter's house through the X-Ray Vision in his glasses. The corners of his mouth curled upward.
The X-Ray Vision created using Kryptonian blood was indeed powerful. Combined with Dilos's own keen eyesight, it had let him see straight through Peter's entire house.
Including the basement and the ground beneath it...
Thinking about what he'd seen, Dilos couldn't help laughing.
Through his X-Ray Vision, he had spotted a small notebook buried in the soil beneath the basement. Judging by how deep it was buried and how thick the concrete floor above it was, Dilos could more or less tell that Richard Parker had put the notebook there.
As for how this scientific genius had sealed the object so perfectly in concrete that no flaw was visible, Dilos had no idea.
After all, Richard Parker had been Oscorp's chief scientist. He would have had all sorts of scientific equipment at his disposal to accomplish something like that.
But that wasn't the important part!
By constantly adjusting the strength of his X-Ray Vision, Dilos had read the contents page by page. His excellent memory had let him commit everything to memory, one page at a time.
Much of it was unfamiliar to him, but there was one special symbol he remembered clearly.
The symbol for the decay-rate algorithm!
He had seen it in a scientific book published by Dr. Connors. It was also the key to cross-species gene implantation technology!
If his guess was right, the main reason Dr. Connors hadn't succeeded in cross-species gene implantation was that the decay-rate algorithm formula he had was wrong.
"Since Richard Parker hid this here, it must be the correct decay-rate algorithm... Now that I've found the most crucial piece of the puzzle, how am I supposed to get the rest of the knowledge from Dr. Connors?"
Dilos wondered to himself, already starting to feel troubled.
"Hm?"
As Dilos was thinking, his attention suddenly snapped into focus. Just moments ago, he had felt a sharp gaze watching him.
Damn it, someone's watching me!
Extremely sensitive to other people's gazes, Dilos instinctively unleashed his abilities and focused all his senses on the area around him. His powers weren't as strong as those of metahumans like Professor X, but he had mastered some impressive psychic techniques.
He easily spread out his psychic energy in a web, rapidly covering everything within twenty meters of him.
The next second, the mental light of every living thing within twenty meters appeared in Dilos's mind. He also spotted a mental light radiating intense energy on the roof of the building across from his home. Mixed with surprise and fear, it was quickly moving away.
"Heh..." Dilos sneered. "Since you came here, you're not getting away!"
Before you continue