Got Famous (1st Update)

Ever since reaching an agreement with Tina, Dilos's life had returned to its former rhythm. Yet, whenever he recalled that scene, a sense of intellectual superiority often washed over him.

For instance, before intimidating Tina, he had already unleashed his abilities upon her, using subtle suggestions and hypnosis. Otherwise, given that Tina was a reckless, fearless super-powered novice, making her back down so easily would not have been simple.

Of course, his formidable heat vision also played a part in her submission. However, his heat vision was not as powerful as one might imagine; the reason that iron door had been incinerated was that he had added some "extra ingredients" to it. Without that, no matter how advanced his glasses were, they could not have melted an entire iron door.

Because the technology and materials of these glasses were somewhat lacking, if he had truly pushed the power of his heat vision to the level required to instantly melt an iron door, the super-glasses would have exploded from the inability to withstand such energy.

Following their previous conversation, Lex also noticed that the meteorites in this town were not as useless as he had imagined. Based on the data Dilos had gathered from Chloe's Wall of Weird, it was essentially confirmed that these extraterrestrial meteorites could grant humans superpowers.

This was especially true after learning about Tina, a poor girl born with osteogenesis imperfecta who, by all accounts, should not have lived past the age of three. However, after being exposed to radiation from the meteorites during the meteor shower disaster when she was three, her condition improved, and she gained the ability to deform her bones and skin, allowing her to transform into the likeness of others, even mimicking their voices perfectly.

Only Dilos could identify Tina after her transformation. Lex had always been curious about how Dilos managed this, but Dilos would only offer a cryptic smile and leave him with the words, "You'll know when the time comes."

Furthermore, Tina possessed strength and durability far beyond that of an ordinary person, with an arm-strength output reaching one ton. She could take a direct punch from a professional boxer without feeling a thing, making her the strongest woman—or perhaps the toughest tomboy—Dilos had met so far.

This also indirectly highlighted just how great Dilos's own strength was, even though he had utilized internal force to strike her weak points.

After the incident with Tina, Lex became completely convinced of Dilos's theories regarding the meteorites. He immediately sent men in secret to search Smallville for remaining fragments, storing them in his private experimental warehouse.

Beyond that, Dilos had used the same method as before to secretly draw several vials of blood from the good boy, Clark. Looking at those vials, he felt a lingering sense of satisfaction. Of course, he dared not overdo it; these few vials were enough to last him a long time, and any further recklessness would only arouse Clark's suspicion.

During this period, through several unintentional probes and secret observations using a needle-camera, Dilos also discovered that Clark had changed. The latter's abilities had grown stronger at some point, and he had developed new powers. Ultimately, through various means, Dilos determined that at this stage, Clark seemed to have developed all his abilities, save for super-hearing and flight. Because of this, Dilos reduced his contact with Clark to prevent his own hidden secrets from being discovered.

Dilos spent his ordinary days studying, practicing martial arts, and researching the blood of Tina and Clark. However, after more than three months, this peaceful routine was shattered.

Dilos had become famous—extremely famous. The reason was that two months prior, he had submitted a manuscript to a publishing house under Lex's private name. Given their friendship, Dilos had secured a very favorable contract.

Lex did not know much about the publishing industry, so he did not think much of the novel Dilos had written. Nevertheless, he stipulated in the contract that the better the book sold, the higher the percentage of profits Dilos would receive.

As Dilos expected, the novel received rave reviews shortly after its publication. Even Lex had not anticipated this, and his merchant instincts prompted him to act quickly. With Lex's help, various media outlets scrambled to promote the work. In just two months, sales reached tens of millions of copies, and the numbers continued to climb.

Dilos subsequently won the American Book Award, the Children's Book Award, and even the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone became an overnight bestseller across Europe and America.

Dilos had not deliberately concealed his identity when signing the contract, so when the publisher asked if he was willing to disclose his information to the public, he agreed without a second thought.

Are you kidding? Whether in his past life or the present, a well-known brand always attracts a massive wave of consumers immediately. Those without a reputation have to put in several or even dozens of times the effort to achieve the same results, and sometimes there is no guaranteed return.

Once a person is famous, everything they do succeeds. While this saying is an exaggeration, it is not without truth. For his future development, the first thing he had to do was become famous!

To date, Dilos had already earned twenty million dollars from the work alone. And this was not the end, as the book was still in the midst of a sales frenzy.

Having tasted success, who would complain about being too famous? Dilos only hoped his reputation would grow even larger. With Lex's help, newspapers and television stations were soon reporting frantically on Dilos and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Dilos's name echoed throughout Europe and America in a short time, and his fame in Asia was trending toward similar heights.

When Dilos's photo (without glasses) appeared on television, everyone in town who knew him was stunned. Some were shocked, some were happy for him, some were jealous, and others were already thinking about how to get close to him.

The next day, as Dilos drove Chloe to school, many people pointed and whispered as they saw him. On the way to the classroom, those who knew him even slightly were much more enthusiastic. Even those he wasn't familiar with greeted him warmly.

Male Student A: "My god, Dilos, how did you do it?"

Male Student B: "Dilos, you are so cool."

Female Student A: "Dilos, I can't believe you're so literary."

Female Student B: "Dilos, my family is throwing a party the day after tomorrow. You'll come, right?"

Despite responding to his classmates' enthusiasm with a polite, practiced smile, Dilos was overjoyed inside. The warmth of his classmates and the praise in the news satisfied his vanity perfectly.

From this work alone, he had earned a massive amount of money, easily solving his family's financial problems and providing the capital to start his own company in the future.

Inside Chloe's Torch Newspaper Office.

"From today on, I am a rich man. As expected, for a genius like me, everything is easy." Dilos sighed with a touch of arrogance. Unlike when he was outside, his face was full of smugness.

"Can you tone it down?" Chloe rolled her eyes, feeling helpless at her cousin's nose, which was practically pointing at the sky. However, seeing Dilos so happy was a rare sight, so she decided to let it go.

At first, she had been quite unhappy that her cousin had written such an incredible novel without telling her. It wasn't until Dilos appeared on TV and in the papers that she realized he had pulled off such a major feat.

Although Dilos later explained that he wanted to surprise her and her father, she still felt a little sullen.

Why?

Because of Dilos's fame, the identities of Chloe and Gabe as his family had been dug up by reporters, and they had become famous as well. Chloe, in particular, having spent the most time with Dilos and possessing a sweet, cute appearance, had been harassed by the media during this time.

Think about it: she, Chloe, aspired to be the queen of journalism. By rights, she should be the one reporting on others, not the other way around. Although they hadn't managed to dig up anything scandalous, it still annoyed her.

"Alright, little Chloe, don't dwell on it~" Dilos found her sullen expression both amusing and helpless. As the cousin who grew up with her, he naturally knew what she was thinking.

"Just treat this as a stepping stone for your own future path to fame. Once you become famous, things like this won't be rare." Dilos reached out to stroke Chloe's smooth, beautiful hair in comfort, only to have his hand slapped away by a grumpy Chloe.

Watching Chloe throw a tantrum like a child, Dilos couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Let's go, Chloe." Dilos draped his jacket over her shoulders and smiled. "It's time to buy you a nice car. What do you think about a BMW X6M?"

Chloe bared her teeth in a playful grimace, and the lingering gloom in her heart vanished.