Inside the second-floor bedroom,
the desk lamp cast Ian's shadow across the wall, twisting it into the shape of some fang-bearing monster. In reality, he was simply sitting cross-legged in his chair, staring at his little laptop.
The computer fan hummed softly as Ian's fingers flew across the keyboard. One browser window after another popped open, all of them news reports about what had happened in Metropolis during the day before.
The Daily Planet, Star Forum, Metro News Express...
Ian wanted to see whether he could personally find some clue about what Superman had run into and what exactly was going to happen to Metropolis.
Come clean to his father Clark?
The thought had crossed his mind earlier, but then he remembered how the female reaper had reappeared, clearly to stop him.
There had to be a special reason behind that. Would Superman's continued involvement lead to an even worse outcome, or would it make death arrive earlier?
"I hate cryptic people."
Thinking it through calmly, Ian knew Clark well enough to understand one thing: even if he flat-out said he knew his old man was Superman, and even if he told Clark he had spoken with a mysterious reaper, his father would absolutely not allow him to participate in any investigation that followed.
After all, in his parents' eyes, he was a patient with a slight mental problem.
And to Superman,
human beings were simply too fragile.
So no matter what happened, his old man would definitely choose to face it alone. He would do everything in his power to keep his family from being dragged into any danger connected to him.
Telling the truth would not earn him father-son teamwork.
If anything, Ian was worried that, given Clark's cautious personality, his father might send him straight to some magically inclined hero for exorcism, screening, and all sorts of safety checks, wasting who knew how many days.
He only had seven days.
Ian had no intention of being hauled off for an exorcism.
He had also considered going to the true master of intelligence, the uncrowned king of Gotham next door, to ask for help.
However,
after turning the idea over for half the day, Ian still gave up on it.
It was not because he was afraid of revealing that he was special.
As long as he did not expose the fact that he was a transmigrator, this world had more special people than anyone could ever count.
At worst, Batman would just add him to a little black book and devise a bunch of contingency plans.
That was treatment every capable special individual got anyway. If everyone got the same treatment, it basically meant there was no difference.
What Ian feared was Batman's attitude.
He had never met the Batman of this world before. He had no way to judge how Batman felt about Superman here.
Maybe Metropolis would be saved because of him.
But whether Superman could be saved or not would then depend entirely on Batman's mood.
After all, Superman had died before because of Batman's schemes.
Ian truly could not afford to gamble on that.
He was not one of those wildly overconfident types who transmigrated somewhere and immediately decided they were heaven's chosen protagonist, that everyone they met would swear loyalty to them on the spot, and that they could control Batman just because they felt like it.
In front of Batman, the greatest mind in the DC Universe, Ian had very little confidence in his own astonishing wisdom.
Maybe only if Batman's tombstone had been rotting for a hundred years would Ian's intelligence finally dare stand up straight.
That was called self-awareness.
And in front of Batman, almost everyone probably had some amount of it.
Batman was not an absolutely good person whose personality leaned toward helping others at all times. Batman was everyone's favorite king only when viewed safely through a screen.
For that reason,
Ian temporarily shelved the option of seeking Batman's help.
He had seven days. Within the first three, he could still try other choices.
For example, Wonder Woman. Surely Wonder Woman had wonderful ways of helping people. Her narrative weight had to be high too, and there were actually quite a few superheroes who were relatively friendly like her.
Ian could even try finding a way through the reapers.
The rule that a person could not die unless the reapers took their soul away had to have loopholes somewhere.
There was also Lucifer at Lux, still troubled over not being able to get the girl God had arranged for him. There might not be no deal to make there either.
Of course, dealing with the King of Hell would require very careful thought.
"As for whether Metropolis gets destroyed or not, that's something superheroes need to worry about... I honestly don't care that much."
Ian's thinking was simple. He only cared about his family.
After all, his whole family was full of people who put family first. In that sense, it was basically a family tradition. Compared to his two brothers, who were destined to become heroes, Ian felt he was far more selfish.
"There's nothing wrong with that."
He kept telling himself that over and over.
Anyone who had ever been a top student would understand. Doing two things at once was basic practice. While thinking all that through, he also kept reading through news online without stopping.
Inside that jungle of data,
Ian searched for any suspicious clue he could find.
[Cherry Blossoms in Metropolis Central Park Bloom Early. Experts warn that unusual seasonal blooms are becoming more common due to climate instability.]
[Subway Line 3 Suddenly Shut Down. Ancient Biological Remains Suspected Underground.]
[Lex Group's New Clean Energy Project Wins Government Support.]
...
One news item after another passed before Ian's eyes. He spun the mouse wheel rapidly, when suddenly one report from that very morning caught his full attention.
[Starlight Airlines Flight 143 Crashes]
[Fury and Shock! Superman Arrives Too Late to Rescue. 12 Dead, 36 Injured, Only 114 Rescued Unharmed. We Have No Choice But to Ask: What Was Superman Doing?]
Below the headline and accusatory article was a shocking photograph. At the very moment the plane hit the ground, a red-and-blue figure in the distance had only just arrived too late.
The photo had been captured with startling clarity, and the tone of the article overflowed with malice. Ian knew at a glance that it had come from media controlled by Lex Group.
He was not surprised by that at all.
If media under Lex Luthor's control ever went a day without criticizing Superman, that would be the truly frightening part.
Of course, this was not some fabricated rumor either.
"A plane crash..."
Ian's eyes narrowed slightly.
He remembered the moment in class that morning when the classroom windows had shaken and a dull explosion had sounded in the distance. At the time, the calm teacher and the smoke outside had already made him complain plenty.
Now it seemed
something really had gone wrong.
Logically speaking, a Superman who kept growing stronger should never fail to make it in time to save a crashing plane. If that had happened, then there could only be one explanation: something had tied his father up and delayed him.
"Maybe I can start investigating from there."
Ian dug around for more information online. On a social media account run by a glamour model called Big Pokéballs, he found a video she had posted.
Well,
the soccer babe's chest really was very impressive.
But the important part was that the paid selfie video she had filmed on a rooftop clearly showed the area where the plane eventually crashed in the background. In that wide-open shot, you could also see the swaying figure in the sky...
Not the obvious distraction.
The one actually wobbling through the air was his father.
That directly confirmed Ian's earlier guess.
"So something definitely happened before that plane exploded!"
Relying on sheer family-driven willpower, Ian forced his attention onto the part that actually mattered.
Under normal circumstances,
Superman would never be flying around unsteadily in the sky. If something like that appeared, then the only explanation was that Superman's condition was off.
Maybe he had only just extricated himself from some extremely troublesome event.
And not only that.
He was already injured.
"Maybe somebody among the survivors noticed whether my old man was hurt."
Ian looked through all the news connected to the crash and focused on the hospital where the wounded had been gathered together. He felt he might be able to get a useful clue from them.
"That's what I'll do."
The old enchanted ID flipped between Ian's fingers.
He already had his plan.
Of course, before that, he first had to survive tonight.
"At least I used Jordan's account to buy the video. Hopefully Mom won't be too hard on my dear brother when she sees the charge notification."
"I'm sure when Jordan gets yelled at, he'll feel an invisible sense of accomplishment. After all, he's getting in trouble for the sake of saving our beloved father."
"Jordan is the real superhero in this family!"
Ian was still doing multiple things at once, continuing to search for clues while opening the paid video in a little window in the lower right corner of the screen and properly watching what he had bought.
There was no helping it.
His soul came from a country famous for diligence and thrift.
How could he possibly do something as shameful as wasting money?
That was an utterly disgraceful act.
Doing three things at once was no problem for him at all.
(End of Chapter)
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