"Ugh... Ahhhh!!!!"
A piercing scream suddenly erupted in the hall.
After the yellow needle entered the body.
Hector felt as if he had been struck by hundreds of thousands of volts of high voltage, leaving him completely limp and powerless.
As he lost his balance, his knees slammed heavily onto the ground.
Burning, agonizing!
The excruciating pain, almost beyond his limits, felt like countless red-hot iron needles piercing his brain!
Those deep-seated feelings of humiliation, despair, jealousy, and inferiority.
Torn apart and ripped apart, the bundles of dry firewood bursting forth were completely melted into this dark, yellowish flame.
"In an instant, they all ignited."
"Bang!"
Hector lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground.
The limbs began to writhe and convulse at extremely twisted angles.
Foam mixed with blood gushed from the corners of his mouth.
His ten fingers dug tightly into the crack in the ground.
Amidst the ear-piercing scraping sound, the fingernails snapped and curled, leaving thin trails of blood on the ground.
All that was visible outside the eye sockets were large, pale, rolled-up irises.
But then, in the very next second...
The blood vessels in his eyes began to rupture extensively, and dense yellow veins spread out, turning the pale white area into a horrifying yellow-red.
"Quickly, save them! Cut off the power! Medical team, get up here quickly!"
With a hissing sound of air leaking out, the lead-lined gate, tens of centimeters thick, was urgently raised.
A high-pressure white stream roared out from under the door.
Several soldiers, fully encased in white hazmat suits, rushed in carrying tranquilizers and chains!
But before they could get close to Hector—
"Buzz!!"
An aura, invisible to the naked eye, exploded out of Hector's body without warning.
The two soldiers at the very front didn't utter a single sound.
It was as if he was being blown away by the force of an oncoming blast, flying backwards for more than ten meters.
"Thump!!"
The two men crashed solidly into the thick bulletproof glass, sliding along the glass like mud to the ground, and immediately lost consciousness.
At the same time, all the control screens in the entire hall began to flash a scarlet warning light.
Acrid, acrid smoke billowed from the chassis, and the machines collectively malfunctioned and short-circuited amidst a series of loud bangs.
The scene was deathly silent.
Only the red emergency light above remained, slowly rotating in the dim light, casting dappled shadows.
At this point, Hector's convulsions gradually subsided.
A long time passed.
That originally withered and frail body suddenly underwent a horrifying transformation.
With a crisp, displaced "click" sound from between the cranial folds, Hector's brain... inexplicably swelled outwards, expanding by a large circle!
The taut scalp was stretched open from the inside, thin as a cicada's wing, almost translucent.
And below that swollen, deformed, enormous forehead.
Tens of thousands of thick, dark yellow capillaries and nerves, resembling earthworms, bulged out.
It was pounding violently in sync with the rhythm of my heart!
"Hoo... Hah..."
Heavy, labored breathing slowly rose from the grotesque, mutated body.
Hector squinted, supporting himself on the ground with his two blood-stained hands.
He slowly straightened his body by twisting his contorted joints little by little.
The enormous head was exceptionally heavy, and the slender neck was clearly struggling.
But on that cold face, covered in blood and cold sweat, the cowardly and inferior demeanor had long since vanished.
He slowly raised his eyelids.
A brutal, chilling dark yellow light suddenly burst forth from the depths of those two murky eyes!
That was delicious fear, terror.
It was only after going completely mad that he was able to glimpse some kind of "truth" in the depths of space.
Hector stiffly turned his neck, the yellow light in his eyes flickering slightly with each breath.
His gaze passed over the guards lying unconscious on the ground, then over the flashing red alarm lights, and finally landed on the blood scattered in the pools.
On that page of the Daily Planet stained with blood.
Between the blurry, illegible printed characters, the absurd statement he had just read was clearly printed.
"Hmm..."
Hector struggled to lift a blood-stained finger and press it against his swollen, throbbing temple.
His cracked, blackened lips curled into a sinister grin.
Then, a low, hollow whisper echoed eerily in the chaotic hall:
" Zod..."
" Kansas... farm..."
In the Metropolis, it gets dark earlier than usual in late autumn.
5:40 PM.
Lead-gray clouds hung low over the globe dome of the Daily Planet building.
Office workers leaving get off work and pedestrians formed a dense black dot, surging towards the subway entrance.
Just then, the neon lights on both sides of the street came on, casting hazy, iridescent light in the damp cold.
"Call--"
Lois pulled her beige trench coat tighter around her and strode out of the building's revolving doors.
As usual, she would choose to spend an extra half hour at her workstation organizing reports and files.
However, she had just been yelled at for half an hour in Perry's office today and was really not in the mood to stay.
Soon, she walked to the corridor in front of the building.
The atmosphere was quiet, eerily quiet.
This isn't right.
As an investigative journalist who spends most of her time on the front lines, Lois's intuition is sharper than most people's.
Broadway was bustling with traffic.
But within just twenty meters of her stepping off the building's steps...
Three all-black Chevrolet were gliding slowly along the roadside at a steady idle speed.
The street vendor who sold terrible hot dogs for over a decade is gone.
Instead, there were two men wearing dark jackets with transparent earphone wires tucked behind their ears.
Their gaze wasn't on passersby, nor on the street; it seemed to drift almost imperceptibly towards Lois.
It seems the visitors have ill intentions...
Lois didn't stop walking; instead, she unconsciously slipped her right hand into her trench coat pocket and gripped her phone tightly inside.
Just as she was about to turn into the underground parking garage's auxiliary lane, creating a tracking misalignment.
The two men had already blocked their path from directly in front of them.
Miss Ryan.
As the man on the right spoke, he slightly lifted the hem of his jacket, revealing Glock pistol gleaming coldly at his waist.
In his other hand, he held a badge that marked a special federal department.
Please come with us.
"Wait, I'm a registered reporter for the Daily Planet, protected by the First Amendment."
Lois stopped walking cautiously.
"And which department are you from? My father is Lieutenant General Sam Ryan, and if you don't have an arrest warrant signed by a federal judge—"
"This falls under a special classified category within national security affairs, and other departments have no right to interfere."
The other person abruptly interrupted her, giving her no further chance.
The man on the left quickly stepped forward.
"Click!"
A rough, large hand grabbed Lois's forearm and locked her wrist.
"Please don't cause public panic, Miss Ryan. Cooperate; it's better for everyone."
But before Lois could say anything more, a damp black cloth was suddenly draped over her, covering her nose and mouth.
"Mmm--"
This is... the smell of ether...
The next second, the door of the Chevrolet parked on the side of the road slid open with a "whoosh".
Two agents rushed out from either side and shoved the unconscious Lois into the back seat.
The moment the car door closed, the hustle and bustle of the outside world completely disappeared.
The lights inside the car dimmed instantly.
There is a thick, frosted partition between the front and rear rows.
The car windows were covered with dark black one-way vision film, maximizing their concealment.
The Chevrolet drove north along the underground ring road, turning into the suburbs of the Metropolis.
An abandoned building with a sign that reads " Veterans Affairs Recuperation Center ".