The Blood of Kryptonians

When Chloe saw Clark arrive, she trotted over to him, her initial worry quickly replaced by intense curiosity. For instance...

"Clark, you said you took a shortcut to school. Which one? A black hole?"

This question left the simple-minded young Superman completely bewildered, forcing him to bite the bullet and say, "My dad drove me."

However, as Dilos knew, Clark's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, had left town yesterday to pick up supplies. There was no way he could have driven him to school at this hour.

Dilos knew this, and naturally, Chloe, who was always glued to Clark's side, knew it too.

Seeing his younger sister seemingly intent on pressing the issue, Dilos walked over, ruffled her hair, and said, "Don't ask about such trivial things; he wouldn't lie to you. Class is starting soon, let's go."

With that, he pulled his sister away from a visibly conflicted Clark.

"Hey, Dilos."

"Dilos, did you have a good break?"

Along the way, many girls greeted Dilos. Some of the more attractive ones giggled as they watched him, and a few even batted their eyelashes. Dilos, having long since adapted to the open culture of the United States, was unfazed.

Though his skin was fairer and possessed a delicate, soft quality more typical of Easterners compared to others, his features remained masculine and healthy. Combined with his lean, tall physique, neat short golden curls, and the sunny smile he flashed from time to time, he held an extraordinary charm in the eyes of these hormone-fueled adolescent girls.

"They must be wanting to invite you to the homecoming dance," Chloe said with an inexplicable tone. "I've heard them discussing how to pursue you several times. Seriously, Dilos, as one of the two heartthrobs of Smallville High, are you really not planning on finding a girlfriend?"

Dilos rolled his eyes at this. "That stuff is up to fate. Besides, my heart isn't in it right now. You know that once I get my work permit, I'm going to compete for that internship at Osborn Corp. It's the best pharmaceutical company in the country, and there are tons of brilliant biologists working there. It's better for my development to go there."

Seeing Chloe about to say more, Dilos quickly added, "Speaking of the homecoming dance, aren't you planning to ask Clark to be your partner? It's only a few days away."

At the mention of this, Chloe sighed, her dazzling blonde hair seeming to dim a little. "His eyes are only on Lana right now."

"Then you could ask someone else, like Pete Ross. You two have been good friends since you were kids, haven't you?" Dilos still wanted Chloe to give up on the Superman-shaped trouble magnet. But...

"I can't do that," Chloe said, resting her forehead in her hand. "I can feel that Pete has special feelings for me; you know, I think he likes me. But I only see him as a friend, a buddy. If I went to the dance with him, my eyes would just keep wandering back to Clark, and that would hurt him so much we wouldn't even be able to be friends anymore."

As she spoke, Chloe looked at Dilos with a helpless expression. "Don't look at me like that, I can't control these feelings..."

"You're truly hopeless." Dilos twitched his mouth, feeling utterly speechless. Wasn't it said that young people today lacked patience and couldn't commit to relationships? Especially here in the States, where the speed at which both men and women swapped partners was comparable to a woman's menstrual cycle. How was it that the few people he was familiar with were all stuck in years-long cycles of first love and unrequited pining?

Dilos didn't dislike loyalty, persistence, patience, or tolerance in relationships; in fact, he supported and envied them. But in a situation that never yielded results, he would have given up long ago—after all, such feelings were simply too painful.

The day's classes ended quickly, but Dilos didn't take the school bus home with Chloe. The reason was that he had his sights set on Clark, who for once wasn't taking the bus.

Clark Kent, a survivor from Krypton, known on his home planet as Kal-El. His cells possessed the ability to absorb the light and radiation of stars, particularly the yellow spectrum. His Kryptonian body constantly absorbed and stored energy from Earth's yellow sun, granting him incredible power: immense muscular strength, super hearing, X-ray vision, super speed, lung capacity capable of causing natural disasters, invulnerable skin, super healing, and even the ability to defy gravity and fly.

To call such a Kryptonian a god among men on Earth would be no exaggeration! However, it seemed that because Clark was still too young, his abilities were not fully developed. After years of probing and tracking Clark, Dilos had learned that aside from super strength, super speed, and an invulnerable body, the other abilities were nowhere to be seen. Even the powers he currently possessed were limited in intensity.

Yet, such a powerful being was not without weaknesses: the legendary magic and fragments of meteorites from Krypton.

Green Kryptonite could cause Kryptonian cells to decay rapidly, making them more fragile than ordinary humans. Blue Kryptonite could prevent Kryptonians from using their abilities within its radiation range, rendering them as vulnerable as any normal person.

As far as Dilos knew, the meteor shower twelve years ago had been formed by fragments of Krypton after its destruction. Because of this, a massive amount of Kryptonite was buried beneath the town of Smallville.

This meteor disaster had attracted the attention of many scientists and organizations, but unfortunately, to modern scientists, these meteorites were no different from ordinary rocks. They hadn't discovered anything, and the value of the meteorites was deemed no higher than common stone. If not for this, the residents here would have long been driven away by large organizations.

Consequently, for a time, a significant number of the discovered meteorites were used to create fake gemstones. Thus, even though blue Kryptonite was relatively rare, Dilos had still managed to find several pieces.

What was Dilos's goal? It was simple: Kryptonian blood. The opportunity to get this close to Clark to obtain his blood was far too rare. Just thinking about the value of that blood, and what could be achieved if he could use it on himself—the mere thought made his heart beat wildly!

Clark, lost in his own thoughts, never noticed Dilos following him from a distance. About halfway home, he leaned against a bridge to ponder.

According to Dilos's understanding, this lovesick fool was definitely still thinking about Lana. But that didn't matter to Dilos; what mattered was that this was the perfect time to get close to Clark!

"Hey, Clark, what are you thinking about?" Clark, still feeling sad about his crush Lana showing off her relationship with her boyfriend, suddenly heard Dilos's voice.

"Dilos?" Clark looked at him, puzzled. "Didn't you take the school bus home with Chloe?"

"I had some reports to finish, so I was late and had to walk," Dilos shrugged and smiled, his lie sounding perfectly natural.

"What about you? Why the long face?" Dilos raised an eyebrow. "Is it about Lana?"

Clark froze at the mention, then lowered his head, his expression dimming in silent admission.

"Relationships are complicated; they require fate," Dilos said, leaning against the railing like a kind-hearted neighbor. "If you miss out, there's nothing you can do; it just means it wasn't meant to be. Besides, there are plenty of other cute girls with great personalities in the world. You have to learn to let go..."

Dilos kept persuading him, and as if by accident, he placed a hand on Clark's shoulder. Clark looked at Dilos, nodding while his mind wandered as he listened to the rambling. It was clear he wasn't taking any of it in. Watching this guy act like a dazed, lovesick prince, Dilos felt his mouth twitch.

How could my beautiful sister fall for such a goofy idiot? Dilos inwardly mocked him while secretly opening a canister of anesthetic mist toward Clark.

This anesthetic was formulated by Dilos himself and had the effect of numbing the nervous system. He carried blue Kryptonite with him, and within its radiation range, Clark's body was just like a normal person's, allowing him to absorb the mist easily.

However, the anesthetic took a while to take effect. To speed up the process, Dilos used a technique from traditional martial arts to press several acupoints on Clark's shoulder while his hand was resting there, forcing the anesthetic to circulate rapidly.

This anesthetic didn't cause a loss of consciousness; it simply prevented the subject from feeling pain when injured. Of course, while this wouldn't be discovered in the short term, it would inevitably be noticed if it lasted too long. So, as the drug took effect and Clark's eyes were fixed on him, Dilos smoothly slid a large syringe from his sleeve and jabbed it into Clark's exposed arm, beginning to draw blood.

In just a few seconds, the syringe was half-filled with Clark's blood! That was enough; any longer and something might go wrong.

He pulled out the needle and used a bit of martial arts force to vibrate it back into his sleeve, his technique so precise that not even a drop of blood leaked from the puncture.

Dilos then pretended his limbs were stiff and needed a stretch. He quickly stepped three meters away from Clark, who, now outside the range of the blue Kryptonite, rapidly regained his abilities. The recovery was as fast as a rocket, and the small amount of anesthetic was completely neutralized within a second or two.