God Among Men or Scum Among Men?

Smallville High School.

As prom day drew nearer, the restless hormones of high school students grew increasingly agitated.

You could feel it from the growing number of couples at the school gate and the number of privately owned cars parked outside.

Clark Kent—the future leader of the Justice League, Superman—walked out through the school gates with a backpack on his shoulders, looking dejected.

He still cared deeply about his defeat in the American football tryouts.

If he had used his powers, he could have won with ease.

But his father had always warned him to use his powers sparingly in front of ordinary people. That was why he had not lifted the seal on his powers, resulting in his defeat and making him the laughingstock of the football team.

In an exceptionally foul mood, Clark had barely taken two steps out of the school gate when he saw the girl he liked standing there, chatting and laughing with her classmates.

As a high school student just beginning to experience love, Clark immediately froze in place at the sight of her.

He stared blankly for two seconds, only walking away resentfully after the girl named Lana was joined by her boyfriend.

His dejected gaze inadvertently fell upon the cover of the books in his arms.

It was his favorite collection of Nietzsche's poetry.

A sentence on the cover left him lost in thought.

"A person can restrain their actions, but not their feelings, because feelings are ever-changing."

Reading the words on the cover, he felt somewhat relieved.

Yeah. He could control his powers, but he could not control how he felt whenever he saw Lana.

Sure enough, feelings were even more elusive and uncontrollable than actions.

"Hey! Clark! The school bus is about to leave! Aren't you getting on?"

A classmate of Clark's leaned out through the school bus window and shouted at him.

"Sorry, I'm coming!"

Clark made an apologetic gesture toward his classmate and rushed toward the school bus.

Under the contemptuous gaze of the impatient bus driver, he finally got on before the bus pulled away.

The moment his feet stepped onto the school bus, he tripped absentmindedly because he had been thinking about Lana, drawing bursts of laughter from the other students.

"Sorry, Mr. Hanks."

Clark apologized to the driver as he hurriedly got to his feet and made his way toward the back of the bus.

At last, he sat beside a somewhat handsome high school student with tousled hair, sharply defined features, and a faintly handsome face.

"Hey, Eric, how was school today? Dad said you were busy with your English report until one in the morning yesterday."

Clark asked him.

"Sorry, Clark, I'm in a bad mood. Maybe you can go play your nerd games with Pete and the others."

Eric, with messy blond hair, propped his head up with one hand and stared expressionlessly at the scenery outside the window as he spoke in an emotionless tone.

Eric, who was actually Zhang Tong, found his nominal older brother Clark inexplicably irritating.

This guy... just because he was the older brother, he was always hovering around him for no reason.

Clark Kent, as the famous "loser" on campus, did you really not know how unwelcome you were?!

If Eric could go back to when he had been a baby, he would definitely do everything in his power to make the Kents acknowledge him as the older brother.

Yes, it had been sixteen years since the Kents had found Zhang Tong and Superman.

The Kents named the foundling Zhang Tong Eric Kent, while Superman was named Clark Kent.

Since the two had both been near the spaceship, the couple subconsciously assumed the two babies were brothers.

And because Zhang Tong had been inside the ship's cabin while Superman had been pushed outside it by Zhang Tong, Jonathan and Martha believed Zhang Tong was the one who had been cherished and protected, so he should be the younger brother.

Thus, Zhang Tong—Eric—tragically became Superman's younger brother.

This year, Eric and Superman had entered high school together.

Clark's Kryptonian powers had begun to awaken.

His strength steadily increased, and his speed had become far greater than that of ordinary people!

Compared to Clark, Eric's changes astonished the Kents even more.

Because the "Homelander template" within Eric had been unlocked to 70%, he possessed immense strength, laser heat vision, X-ray vision, and unparalleled speed. Other than the inability to fly, he had inherited all of Homelander's superpowers.

Of course, their power might not have been as overwhelming as Homelander at his peak.

Even so, the Kents were utterly stunned!

Compared to the insufficiently gifted, honest, and dutiful Clark, they worried more about their taciturn, cold-faced, sharp-tongued, and extraordinarily gifted younger son.

Yes. Because Eric had displayed extraordinary strength and wisdom far beyond his peers from a very young age, Clark—who had always kept a low profile and had only begun awakening his powers recently—had become the embodiment of a lack of talent in their eyes.

If they knew their eldest son was the true "god among men," while their younger son was merely "scum among men" wearing the skin of a Kryptonian, who knew what expressions they would wear.

Still, one thing made Eric very pleased: he could now beat up Superman, whose powers had not fully awakened yet.

And as the younger brother, the other party would absolutely not dare fight back.

"Fine."

Hearing Eric's mockery, Clark said nothing more and began gathering the books that had been scattered across the ground earlier.

Because he understood his younger brother's temperament, he did not get angry.

He only thought Eric must have been criticized by the teacher today for staying up late.

"Hey! Clark, can I ask you something?"

Several ill-intentioned high school students seated near the front of the bus suddenly spoke to Clark.

"What?"

Clark looked up in surprise.

"Could you change clothes next time? Not only are they hopelessly outdated, they smell like cow dung too."

A short, stocky high school student with a freckled face held up a paper bag containing cola in one hand as he spoke to Clark with obvious malice.

The moment he finished speaking, the delinquent students around him burst into laughter.

"Clark's clothes are hopelessly outdated and smell like cow dung because he's a country bumpkin who grew up on a farm. Kent Farm, haha, of course it's the home of cow dung! Clark's parents are farmers who love shoveling cow dung the most!"

The delinquents around them began egging him on, and their words grew increasingly unpleasant.

Anger appeared on Clark's face, but it was immediately replaced by alarm as he looked toward his younger brother seated to his left.

He knew that, in his brother's heart, their parents were absolutely not to be insulted!

Those guys were going to anger Eric!

Sure enough, Eric, who had been sitting expressionlessly like a statue, had scarlet light flickering in his eyes.

The next second!

Boom!

The paper bag in the short, stocky student's hand exploded violently.

Accompanied by a powerful blast wave, the cola that burst from the paper bag splattered everywhere.

The entire bus was filled with fluttering scraps of paper and cola foam spraying through the air.

The driver, who had been driving the school bus across a bridge, jerked in fright and yanked the steering wheel sharply to the left.

The school bus immediately veered left and crashed into the bridge railing.

The poorly maintained railing was smashed to pieces by the speeding school bus!

Boom!

The bus that broke through the railing slammed violently into the water.

A towering splash shot into the sky!