A Show of Force?

The blonde girl only stared at the hand reaching toward her. She said nothing, and the air grew tense.

Behind the Observation Window, Barbara was ready to press the anesthetic gas button, but Vogelbaum raised a hand, signaling everyone to hold off.

Before long, the blonde girl seemed unable to resist. She slowly reached out, her movements stiff, as though no one had ever taught her how to accept something offered to her.

But she did not take the red block. Instead, she placed her hand over Lin Mo's.

Her hand was small, barely large enough to cover the back of his. Her palm was a little warmer than an ordinary child's.

She pressed down, wrapping her palm around the back of his hand. Lin Mo could feel her grip tightening. Wait, what?

She's giving me a show of force the moment we meet? His little mind raced. The scene reminded him of TV dramas he had watched in his previous life.

Come to think of it, I'm living in a TV show too. That made it seem less strange.

As her grip tightened, the first thing to give way was the red block in Lin Mo's hand.

Crack.

A soft snap.

A crack appeared in the red block between their hands.

The next second, the hard composite plastic shattered. Red fragments slipped between his fingers and scattered across the colorful carpet.

The girl instinctively released his hand and stared at Lin Mo, dazed.

The atmosphere outside the Observation Room turned taut.

"Strength reading rising."

"No damage detected on SOL-0's skin."

"Should we terminate contact?"

"Wait."

Vogelbaum kept watching.

"HL-01 hasn't made any move to attack."

Lin Mo looked down at the fragments. He did not retreat or show any alarm.

From her behavior, he could roughly guess what had happened. She was not trying to intimidate him. She had not crushed the block on purpose; she simply did not know how much strength to use.

Or perhaps she was testing how much force the block could withstand.

She was also testing whether the child who had reached out to her would scream and flee in the next second, just like the caregivers.

The blonde girl looked at the fragments, then at Lin Mo's hand.

His palm was intact. There was no blood, not even a scratch.

For the first time, something clearly changed in her eyes.

Confusion came first, followed by a more cautious urge to test him... and a trace of curiosity.

The girl reached out again. This time, she took hold of Lin Mo's wrist.

Her fingers were so small they could barely wrap halfway around it.

The instant she touched him, Lin Mo could clearly feel her grip slowly growing stronger.

It was not an attack. It felt more like she was checking.

She wanted to know if he really would not break.

Inside the Observation Room, the readings on the monitors jumped rapidly.

"Grip strength exceeds five hundred kilograms."

"Still rising."

"No damage detected."

Barbara quickly asked in a low voice:

"Should we intervene?"

Vogelbaum did not answer. His attention was fixed entirely on the two children.

At the force HL-01 was using, an ordinary adult's wrist bones would already have been crushed. Yet SOL-0's wrist showed no deformation. His choice had been right. Fortunately, Lin Mo's defenses were extraordinary; otherwise, this would have been difficult.

More importantly, no one stopped the girl at once. The door did not open, no caregivers rushed in, and no anesthetic gas was released. That seemed to be what mattered most to her.

Every previous encounter had followed a similar pattern. She reached out, the other person grew frightened, she applied a little force, and they screamed.

Then gas filled the room and made her lose consciousness.

When she woke, that person was gone.

Over time, she had stopped approaching anyone on her own.

Everyone was afraid. Everyone got hurt. Everyone eventually left.

But this time was different. The child she held did not bleed, and no one whisked him away. He was still sitting in front of her.

The blonde girl's grip grew stronger.

Lin Mo felt the pressure on his wrist, but he could bear it. This was nowhere near enough to damage his bones. Fortunately, Steel Body had been the first thing he unlocked.

Watching the blonde girl squeeze harder, he realized that if he never reacted, she would probably draw a conclusion.

This person won't break, so I don't need to hold back. That was not the lesson Lin Mo wanted her to learn.

He was hard to injure, but the other people in this laboratory were not Kryptonians.

Someday, she would leave this place and meet more ordinary people.

If she only learned who she could squeeze and who she could not, without learning to control her strength—or if he failed to form a strong enough bond with her this time—Homelander's tragedy would still happen.

Then I'll have to... Lin Mo looked the girl in the eye and deliberately frowned.

Then he drew a small breath.

"Ow."

Just one word, spoken softly.

But it worked surprisingly well. As if startled, the girl reacted faster than she had to any command.

Her fingers sprang open, freeing Lin Mo's wrist.

The girl did not step back. She only looked down at her own hand, clear hesitation appearing on her face for the first time.

She seemed unable to understand. His hand had not broken or bled, so why did it hurt?

Lin Mo did not wait for her to figure it out. He raised his hand and pointed to where she had gripped him.

"Too hard."

The girl's gaze followed his finger.

Lin Mo offered her his hand again.

"Be gentler, and it won't hurt."

The Observation Room fell silent. Everyone waited to see how HL-01 would respond.

The girl stared at his wrist for a long time. Then she tentatively reached out again.

This time, she moved much more slowly.

But when her fingers touched Lin Mo's skin, she still used enough force to crush an ordinary person's bones.

Lin Mo frowned again and said,

"Still hurts."

The girl let go immediately. She did not get angry.

Nor did she destroy anything around her after failing twice.

She only stared at her hand, as if trying to understand something no one had ever taught her.

Be gentler.

But how gentle was gentle enough?

A moment later, she reached out for a third time.

This time, she touched Lin Mo's skin lightly with just one finger.

Her fingertip stopped the instant it made contact.

She immediately looked up to study Lin Mo's expression.

Lin Mo showed no sign of pain. Instead, he smiled. She really is a good kid. See? She listens.

He turned his hand over and took hers himself.

The blonde girl went rigid.

Her first instinct was not to pull away. She stood perfectly still.

She seemed never to have experienced contact like this. She was not being strapped into a restraint, examined by a caregiver wearing protective gloves, or forced to give up something she was holding.

Another child had simply chosen to hold her hand.

One second.

Two seconds.

Ten seconds.

The girl never tightened her grip.

The researchers in the Observation Room continued reporting the data.

"HL-01's heart rate is falling."

Vogelbaum stared intently at their joined hands.

Over the past year, Vought had tried all kinds of methods to teach HL-01 to control her strength.

Rewards, punishments, verbal commands, physical demonstrations, drug suppression—none had worked well.

She might remember a command for a short while, but she could not truly understand why she needed to hold back.

Clearly, what she needed was a good point of reference. Or perhaps a restraint.

Yet SOL-0 had taken less than a minute.

First, he had shown her that too much force caused pain. Then, by taking her hand, he had shown her that if she was gentle enough, she would not be rejected.

Vogelbaum realized that his approach had been right after all.