A Lie, Over and Over Again

"This was Metropolis."

Lynn stood on the street, his face expressionless. The bandages covering his wounds had already been removed. After two days of healing, his skin had mostly recovered. Aside from slight variations in pigmentation, he looked completely normal.

His hair still had not grown back, though, so he wore a baseball cap.

As one of the world's most famous major cities, Metropolis never lacked young people like Lynn, who came here to offer up their light and heat.

They studied hard, worked desperately, burned through the best years of their lives, and exhausted every ounce of passion and every strand of hair through day-and-night labor.

Then, once a new batch of young people arrived, they were swept out the door and returned sadly to where they had come from.

Who cared? Didn't they say there would always be someone who was eighteen?

That fresh blood would never run out.

Lynn did not particularly like big cities. He had always felt that the claim that cities made life better was a ridiculous lie.

Human development simply required people to gather in cities—because of land, supplies, productivity...

Anyway, never because people actually needed it or liked it.

From that perspective, Lynn thought Superman might feel the same way. Didn't he always see himself as the son of a Kansas farmer?

"Maybe after we meet, I should start by getting close to him through that angle."

Hmm... I absolutely can't piss off Superman. He was a truly ruthless figure, probably the most dangerous one on the side of justice. Lynn had better keep him happy.

Lynn was not familiar with Metropolis. In fact, he was not familiar with any city. Even when delivering food in Gotham, he had to memorize maps and turn on eight hundred navigation apps just to make a living.

Finding Superman's home was definitely impossible, but Lynn remembered the name of the newspaper where Superman worked.

Before coming here, Lynn had already figured out what he needed to do. But he was not sure whether there was a problem with the current timeline, because Batman seemed far too young. He had only been back in Gotham for a little over three years.

Even though Lynn did not know much about most DC matters, he knew that the Batmen in the movies had all seemed to range from middle-aged to elderly. Ben Affleck's version of Batman had practically been near the end of his career.

That was precisely why Lynn thought Superman's adoptive father might still be alive during this period.

That was how he came up with the idea of becoming the guiding light who saved Superman's life.

Although Superman was an alien with great love, and his love for Earth surpassed his recognition of bloodline, there was still a timeline where he turned evil.

Relying solely on that girlfriend Lynn personally considered unreliable as an anchor was still far too risky.

"So, we have to eliminate every possibility of Superman turning evil in advance. Every possibility!"

Lynn raised a hand and hailed a taxi. He could not find the Daily Planet, but the driver could.

"Ninety-five dollars? Why don't you just rob me?!"

"Sir, you may refuse to pay. Then I will get out from this side, walk over to you, and loudly argue with you in front of everyone. That might continue..."

"Fine, fine, fine! Here, take it!"

The first loss Lynn suffered since coming to this world came at the hands of a taxi driver.

That hurt him a little.

"Fuck, and they call themselves protectors of the people. The citizens of Metropolis really aren't worth it.

"Still, they're pretty polite."

If this had been Gotham, a driver who dared overcharge you would dare drive you straight to some slaughterhouse and arrange a complimentary foreign-object removal surgery.

After all, one look was enough to tell he was an outsider. Those were the kind of people taxi drivers loved to overcharge.

"I never expected two cities so close together to have such different customs. No wonder one raised Batman, while the other raised Iron Man. Pah! Superman!"

The Daily Planet. One of the most powerful media outlets in this world. Lynn did not know much about its standing within the industry, but it dared to pay Superman an intern's salary, make him buy coffee, deliver photocopies, and frantically conduct street interviews.

Based on that alone, Lynn acknowledged the Daily Planet's status.

Over the past few days, whenever Lynn saw Clark Kent's busy figure from afar, occasionally getting cursed out by that white-bearded buzz-cut editor, he kept worrying that Superman might get so upset that he would slam the desk and split Earth in half.

Batman defeating Superman—what did that amount to? It had all been preparation in advance, various tricks and gadgets, plus Kryptonite.

Look at this editor. If the coffee temperature was wrong, he looked like he wanted to hit Clark directly.

Now that was the bearing of a cosmic emperor, commanding the winds and clouds!

Superman had only just arrived to intern, which was good news. But Lynn was not sure whether Superman's father was still alive at this point, because according to the pitifully little information about Superman Lynn had picked up from the movies, the guy seemed to have left that farm only after his father died.

"This is going to be hard..."

However, also in the movies, before Superman came to work at the Daily Planet, General Zod had apparently already come to Earth looking for someone.

If that had really happened, Lynn would not have failed to know about it.

"So there's still hope!"

Superman's strength had always been shrouded in mystery. He was like a gold mine that could never be exhausted. Lynn did not dare get too close to Superman, did not dare stare at him, and did not even dare let the little kitty speak.

If he remembered correctly, Superman possessed an enormous number of enhanced physical abilities, including super vision and super hearing. If he said the wrong thing and Superman heard it...

Superman definitely would not kill him, but getting close to him afterward would become much harder. It would take far more trouble.

So, Lynn had come to the Daily Planet mainly to haggle over placing ads in the newspaper. His demands were not high, but he did not want to pay too much. Lynn acted so convincingly that even he believed it himself.

Thus, without spending a cent less, Lynn left a line of text and a phone number in the Daily Planet's ad section, charged by the word.

[Ji Ni Tai Mei, I really have to thank you.]

If he was going to act, he had to see it through. Since he was already here, he might as well look for some peers.

Now that Superman's location had been confirmed, everything else would be easy.

Lynn spent some money to find a dealer who traded personal information. After beating him up, Lynn robbed his money back and made another thousand or so on top of it. He also learned Clark Kent's family information.

See? When true experts investigated something, they often used only the simplest methods.

Thus, one day later, Lynn rented a small crop-dusting plane, had an accident at precisely the right moment, landed in Clark Kent's field at precisely the right moment, and broke his leg at precisely the right moment.

The entire plan went incomparably smoothly. The hardest part had been breaking his leg.

The little kitty had gotten a bit too excited while swinging the hammer and hit him a few extra times. His leg had been shattered a little too badly.

Uh, I replied in the related works section to that reader who asked about the timeline. Maybe everyone did not see it, so I'll briefly explain it here.

For characters who have appeared in movies, I'll prioritize using some movie settings. They're more intuitive, easier for everyone to look up, and leave a deeper impression.

As for the timeline, I'll make some minor adjustments. Nothing too important—just changing the entry point of an event, the way someone appears, the protagonist or supporting character, and so on. It won't affect the reading experience.

Suggestions are welcome. I've always been willing to revise my work for readers.

P.S.: Please vote! Recommendation votes are fine—they're really useful!