American comic book: My Father is Superman, am I just an NPC?

Chapter 101 Star Devourer! New Class Unlocked! [8k]

in nothingness.

Jonathan Kent kneels on the shattered starry sky.

His breathing was heavy, and sweat slid down his forehead, only to evaporate into a scarlet mist the moment he fell into darkness. The whispers in his ear sounded like a million ants crawling inside his skull.

It's irresistible.

It is like a carbuncle on the tarsal bone.

To the ear, it felt like a dull pain, like having a rusty scalpel cut open one's skull.

"Get out!"

His roar seemed to illuminate the surroundings, but it could not penetrate the layers of darkness to pull him back to reality from this eerie place.

A sense of helplessness washed over me.

"Someone help me..."

The distressed Jonathan wanted to call for help.

But they received no response.

In the void, only the sound of his own heartbeat echoed.

"Why refuse such an opportunity? Is it because you are unable to awaken the ignorance of a superhuman brain?" The voice mocked. Jonathan gritted his teeth, his nails digging deep into his palms.

“Clark Kent is strong, isn’t he? He’s the all-powerful Superman you all talk about.” The invisible voice suddenly softened, like a kind elder.

however.

As the last note lingered, Jonathan could hear countless drowned souls screaming in his voiceprints, like cries sealed in coral reefs, echoing across billions of years of ocean water.

"Even the strongest life form must eventually die."

The symphony of chaos and madness seemed to explode in Jonathan's ears at that moment.

Accompanied by indescribable noise.

Countless illusory yet incredibly realistic bubbles appeared.

They flickered before Jonathan's eyes, completely filling his body. Jonathan tried to dodge, but a bubble enveloped him, and he seemed to instantly appear in a new world.

What came into Jonathan's view was a scene that filled him with terror.

He saw it.

He saw the kryptonite chains piercing his collarbone, suspending his father, Clark, from the rusted satellite debris. Lex Luthor, dressed in his presidential uniform, slowly and methodically peeled the "S" emblem off his blue suit with a scalpel.

“Look, citizens.”

He pointed at the live stream camera, held up the blood-stained fabric, and spoke with contempt.

"So-called gods are nothing more than bleeding pieces of flesh."

Amidst the roar of mountains and the tsunami of the sea.

Jonathan, standing in the plaza below, tried to rush forward, but was forced to watch as soldiers along the way held his head down. The scene vanished with a roar.

"Did you see it?"

The voice sounded again.

"You are trying to mislead my mind!"

Jonathan turned to run away, but stumbled into another scene: half a Kryptonian crystal stuck in the scorched farmland, and Louise's rotting finger still clutching the alarm button.

A burly, imposing black alien slowly approached, his shadow gradually enveloping the brand-new stroller, and the crying of the brown-haired, blue-eyed baby inside abruptly ceased.

"Ian!"

Jonathan rushed forward.

His hands only held a pile of empty illusions.

He saw a charred mess inside the stroller, and a burly alien holding Clark's agonizing head. Jordan also lay dead in a haystack not far from his mother, Louise.

"It's fake! It's all fake! You can't fool me! Stop!" Jonathan, unwilling to accept this scene, frantically retreated, falling directly into a complex and chaotic scene.

"Why stop? This isn't intimidation, it's fate—countless possible fates." The voice chuckled, colors surged, and more terrifying images flooded Jonathan like a tide.

Superman was pierced through the chest by a huge, monstrous monster and perished completely—he was transformed into War Machine by a terrifying green monster—and even Clark killed his wife Lois with his own hands.

Each scene was more unacceptable to Jonathan than the last.

He fled in all directions.

But there was nowhere to escape.

I was constantly forced to witness more and more scenes.

"Do not……"

Jonathan finally couldn't hold on any longer, and his willpower crumbled as he slumped to the ground. He saw Clark approaching him with bloodshot eyes, as if he were about to twist off his head at any moment.

"These are all possible futures."

The voice reappeared, fleeting and lingering, the chaotic symphony gradually fading away. Jonathan watched as Superman vanished like smoke, everything instantly enveloped in a joyful scene.

The setting sun bathed the Kent family's barn in gold.

In the distance, Sam Lane's Ferrari drove into the driveway, with an extravagant birthday balloon tied to the roof—the words "Happy 100th Birthday to Myself" swaying in the wind.

Grandma Martha sat there with a smile on her face.

“Look at your father, how much has he embezzled this time?”

Clark sat in a rocking chair on the porch, his temples already streaked with gray, but his smile remained warm. A photo album lay open on his lap, Louise leaned on his shoulder, her finger lightly touching a photograph, and the two laughed simultaneously. Meanwhile, in the yard, the adult Jordan and Ian were repairing the talking Hellcat.

It is now painted red and blue, with a crooked "S" logo printed on the hood.

"Could you please not use thermal soldering on screws?"

Jordan is complaining.

"Last time you melted right through the fuel tank!"

His tone was melancholy.

“No, it was your nephew who did it, not me. If you don’t believe me, I’ll beat him up when I get back tonight, and he’ll definitely admit it.” Ian was just like Jonathan remembered.

They habitually try to shift the blame.

They didn't even spare his own son. Suddenly, Hellcat's radio automatically started playing a country song, and the two young men paused for a second before simultaneously looking at Jonathan, who was slumped on the ground.

"What are you standing there for? Come and help us lift this car up."

A smile radiant on her face.

Jonathan rediscovered a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

And just as his thoughts were in disarray.

The voice suddenly came very close to my ear.

"Isn't this the future you want? Now, we can help you achieve that future." The voice was seductive, and Jonathan's pupils contracted slightly.

"This isn't just for you." Its whisper coiled around Jonathan's reason like a venomous snake, as if adding the most important weight, "It's also for your... family."

A person's psychological defenses may crumble in an instant.

After all, the Kent family were all known for their chivalrous nature, and Jonathan lowered his head. Around him, the lights that had struggled to pierce the darkness began to dim, just like the gradually darkening pupils in Jonathan's eyes.

"what should I do?"

The seventeen-year-old boy asked in a low voice.

hoarse voice.

The light that seemed to illuminate the world vanished completely at that moment, but even with his eyes closed, Jonathan could still feel the things emerging in the darkness drawing ever closer to him.

In the void.

Something laughed.

Darkness, like viscous oil, seeped over Jonathan's ankles.

All you need to do is... accept us!

This moment.

Jonathan seemed to see countless eerie shadows before his eyes. He roared, but only sat up in bed, his pajamas soaked with cold sweat and his sheets.

Heart beating wildly.

It felt as if his chest was about to explode.

"What did I dream about?!"

Back in reality, Jonathan couldn't remember what he had seen. He tried desperately to recall, but all he could remember were fragmented pieces, and he couldn't even piece together a complete picture.

"There must be something, there must be something very important." Jonathan's subconscious was frantically reminding him, but everything in the dream seemed to have been forcibly dug out of his memory by some force.

"This is……"

Jonathan frowned and gasped for breath.

He stood up.

I noticed something had fallen from my blanket onto the floor.

"Ok?"

at the same time.

Clark was also suddenly awakened from the sofa on the first floor.

At that moment, his super hearing picked up a sound that shouldn't have been coming from the second floor. It wasn't the "torture-like whispers" from Ian's room, nor was it the disturbing noise of Jordan unconsciously using super speed in his sleep, as he liked to hold onto a sensitive spot. Instead, it was a sticky sound, as if something was being chewed.

"Dong Dong Dong~"

Clark appeared at his eldest son's door in an instant.

He knocked on the door.

“Jonathan, are you alright?” Clark Kent asked his son in the manner of an ordinary father, even though he could see what was happening inside the house if he wanted to.

"I'm fine. I just had a nightmare. I can't remember what it was, but it was probably pretty scary." Jonathan was changing the sheets and clothes in the room.

He still couldn't recall the events of his dream, and even the fragments he remembered upon waking gradually faded. This often happens when people dream, so he didn't have any doubts about it.

“You didn’t peek at me, did you?” Jonathan could picture his father standing in the hallway—his brow furrowed, his super hearing picking up on the subtle changes in his heartbeat, breathing, and blood flow.

"If you don't need it, of course not. Would you like some hot chocolate?"

Clark was still standing outside the door.

“No need, I still need to lose weight. Dad, you surely know that a good physique is important for a football player.” Jonathan walked to his desk.

There lay a book on it that he had just picked up from the ground.

Perhaps Clark really wasn't spying.

Otherwise, Jonathan thought he might be asked what the hell he was looking at on his desk—or perhaps the book was only visible to him?
Jonathan frowned.

"Alright, call me anytime if you need help." The old father's voice was incredibly gentle. His footsteps faded into the distance, and the wooden floorboards creaked softly.

Somewhat deliberate.

Jonathan didn't think much of it; his attention was focused on the mysteriously appearing book. He swore he had never bought such a thing, and the strange patterns on it looked rather eerie.

It is said to be a book.

It looked more like an old leather notebook, rather thin, and completely blank. Jonathan turned on the light and finally made out the name on the cover.

"death Note?"

He read out the crooked handwriting softly, which looked like a child's scribbles or the clumsy strokes of someone who had never learned to write.

"This handwriting is even uglier than Ian's scribbles."

Jonathan grumbled as he released the mysterious notebook. He realized he had misread it earlier; at least the first page of the blank notebook had a line of text.

We can help you conquer death.

The dark red handwriting was still crooked and messy.

The lights suddenly flickered.

next moment.

I can help you conquer death.

The handwriting on the first page seemed to have changed. Jonathan wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, as he had just woken up and his mind was still a bit jumbled.

"Who put it in my room, Jordan or Ian? It's not April Fool's Day yet..." The tranquility of the night enveloped Jonathan's room, broken only by the occasional sound of wind from outside the window.

Under the dim light of the desk lamp, Jonathan sat at his desk, his fingers gently turning the pages of the eerie notebook—he had a feeling of being watched, but when he looked around, he couldn't see anything.

The room was empty, the wardrobe was closed, the curtains were still, and even the shadows lay quietly on the floor. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but the feeling of being watched lingered.

It was as if something was standing right in front of him, yet refusing to be detected by his senses, which made Jonathan feel uneasy. He quickly threw the notebook he had picked up to observe back onto the desk.

"This is weird..."

Jonathan planned to throw the notebook away tomorrow. As he lay back down on the bed, he looked around again to make sure there was no one else in his room.

The feeling of being watched gradually faded, which allowed Jonathan to fall into a deep sleep again—outside the window, the moonlight was broken by the clouds, casting dappled shadows on the wooden desk.

The black notebook lay there quietly.

Countless dark red tentacles slowly extended from it, seemingly out of place in reality, existing only in an invisible world, unobservable and unseen by normal vision.

Information is being sensed and read.

The air in the room began to tremble, the shadows on the walls wriggled like living things, and the wrinkles in the sheets deepened for no reason, but Jonathan simply turned over in his sleep.

This strange phenomenon went unnoticed.

Clark did not appear either.

And right now.

Good night, sweet dreams~

【mit Rosen bedacht ~ [decorated with roses]】

【mit Nglein besteckt ~ [adorned with lilacs]】

【schlupf' unter die Deck~ (to crawl into bed)

outside the window.

Hellcat's radio suddenly started playing the very famous German lullaby.

It did not disturb people's sweet dreams. However...

this moment.

The tentacles that had tentatively emerged from the black notebook seemed startled by the sudden sound and retracted back into the notebook.

It was as if nothing had happened.

The room returned to quiet and peacefulness.

Maybe.

They are afraid of being discovered.

I don't want to be noticed.

The erosion of one world by another must be done silently. Therefore, this nascent force could only cower back in the notebooks used to conceal itself.

Such behavior is clearly very strange.

It's as if some kind of evil, unwilling to be discovered, is using seemingly harmless shells to conceal its darker, deeper, and more sinister nature.

……

Nightmare world.

Marvel Universe.

Ian slowly opened his eyes. He had once again crossed between universes, from the DC Universe he loved to the Marvel Universe, which might love him very much.

"You locked me invincible and still won't stop me from smuggling things across the border. You're such a hopeless crush." ​​Ian's [Law of Unrequited Love] was still in effect. He looked down at the magical book in his hand.

The book's title was distorted the moment it entered this world, changing from "Ian's Magic Book" to "Ian's Most Beloved Magic Book".

It didn't stay with Ian for very long.

However, it seems they've grasped the essence of the technique. Ian, of course, criticizes such blatant plagiarism, but then appropriately encourages the other person to keep trying.

He felt that the change in the book's title might be related to the illusion the Minotaur had when he first experienced smuggling; the idea of ​​having a universe inside one's body was always so easily misunderstood by demons.

"Don't worry, I'm not a dimensional demon... Don't be afraid, I don't usually eat books, in fact, I cherish them the most." Ian reassured him, and two sparkling heart symbols immediately popped up on the book's surface. They bulged out from where the yellow smiley face on the cover's eyeballs were, and Ian used all his strength to press the hearts back down.

"Damn it! Another one with a crush!"

Ian didn't have time to linger over the book in his hands, because when he looked up, he saw Planet Eater—the once towering cosmic being had now completely collapsed.

The sky once again turned the color of countless dark clouds, like a curtain soaked in inferior dye, while the planet devourer, which had been falling at an unusually slow pace, now lay flat on the ground.

The distant rumble of metal breaking echoed continuously.

"Is this someone trying to devour the gods, but accidentally forgot to call me?" Ian sprang into action, leaping dozens of meters high like a nimble rabbit after taking a few steps.

He comforted himself that he was only one level away from perfection, while using the [Ai Victory Method] to pretend he was flying. It wasn't shameful; he remembered that in the DC universe, there was a version of Superman who flew like this at the beginning.

And you know what? It's definitely faster than simply running on the snow or skating on your butt. As long as you're tough enough, you can smash your head into road signs or iron railings on tall buildings, grab them with your hands, and use the momentum to throw yourself forward a distance—that's the essence of Spider-Man.

At that moment, Ian felt that he had become a self-taught genius.

The closer to the city center.

The more Ian saw, the clearer it became.

The planet devourer—once a towering cosmic entity—now appears in its normal post-death state, its massive body stretching across the horizon like a collapsed mountain.

and.

It is being "dismembered".

Ian always felt that few people knew that the Galactus was actually made of flesh and blood, a kind of supercosmic humanoid being, rather than being born with that heavy armor.

Now, countless soldiers and researchers are crawling all over its body like ants.

That's a population of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

There were a lot of them. Ian had never seen so many living people in this world before. They were using laser cutters, quantum strippers, and other high-tech tools to dismantle Galactus's armor piece by piece—tools that even the top scientists in the DC Universe might not be able to name.

"Plasma cutter, supernatural splitting machine..."

As for why Ian recognized some of the tools, it's because, including the names mentioned at the beginning, they were all products of Ian guessing the names just by looking at the objects.

Purely made up.

It contains no academic content.

Anyway, it's a group of scientists who have been "resurrected" and are actually using technological creations to dismember a massive planet devourer, which is really beyond Ian's understanding of technological creations.

"As expected of Tony the Multi-Machine God!"

Ian sighed sincerely. He had already arrived near the area where Galactus had fallen, and it was clear that the guy had the assistance of the [Collectible Corpse Alliance] when he fell. Otherwise, given Galactus's size—its head alone occupied the entire city center—the city and even the surrounding area should have been reduced to ruins.

However, the area destroyed by the planet devourer was not very large.

There is clearly external intervention involved.

"This is still the state my Uncle Tun is in when he's almost starving to death." Ian did a somersault in the air, not a hundred and eighty thousand miles, but definitely a hundred and eighty meters.

He landed on a dilapidated high-rise building on the outskirts of the city center.

Look ahead.

That being, once crowned with nebulae and treading upon galaxies, now lay like a whale with its entrails ripped out in the shattered city. Its silver-purple armor was torn to shreds, revealing pale skin beneath—yes, skin. At the seams of the torn armor, faint blue veins could be seen pulsating slightly.

One research group even set up a makeshift tent and held an academic seminar around a section of exposed nerve endings. Ian thought these guys were the real lunatics.

“Gwen, Gwen, come rate me! How much do I look like Spider-Man?” Ian saw an old acquaintance, so he threw himself into the air and landed straight on Galactus’s head.

at this time.

Gwen, who was holding something in her hand, looked as if she was about to accidentally fall to the ground.

"I got you!"

Ian was overjoyed.

Because he did something that Peter Parker seemed never to be able to do.

“Has Peter Parker been cloned? I can teach him, I guarantee he’ll learn.” Ian grabbed Gwen by the back of the neck and lifted the fallen Gwen back onto Galactus’s head.

"God, how come it's you again... this crazy boy?" Gwen's neck was practically hunched over, slightly startled, but at least her spine wasn't broken.

Ian still won.

"Shouldn't you be Wonder Boy? I saved you, and instead of thanking me, you crowned me the new Spider-Man, and now you're even turning around and calling me crazy?"

Ian's eyes widened.

I feel so wronged.

Gwen patted Ian's hand hard, but the boy didn't let go of the back of her neck. She could feel that his strength seemed to be increasing explosively every time they met.

"Didn't you show me your mental illness certificate yourself?"

Gwen rolled her eyes, speechless.

"Oh, that's right."

Ian immediately stopped feeling aggrieved. Perhaps, according to his theory of relativity, the grievances were mostly transferred to Gwen, who looked utterly hopeless as Ian pinched her like a cat.

"Also, since you didn't save me, is it possible that I just wanted to jump down and die?" It's hard to imagine what kind of mental state Gwen must be in to say something so indifferent to life and death.

Perhaps it's because they prioritize efficiency?
She pointed to several huge square machines not far away, which were continuously "printing" new bodies—flesh, bones, and uniforms were all formed in five seconds.

"Oh fine."

Ian seemed to understand something. He looked at Gwen's hand, where she was wearing a special glove that allowed her to hold a golden Infinity Stone that symbolized mental power.

"You stole it from my Uncle Tun?"

Ian looked around. The Galactus's head was intact, and he couldn't find any place to pry off the gems. The only thing they could explore was the two holes on the face of the Galactus they were standing on.

It's the nostrils.

Even the mouth doesn't count.

Because the Galactus's mouth is tightly closed.

“This is called retrieval… Put me down quickly, energy is limited, resources are limited, this glove won’t last much longer.” Gwen’s glove did indeed show signs of cracking.

"Oh, alright."

Ian isn't the type to make things worse.

He carried Gwen to the edge of Galactus's head, and with a gentle release, Gwen fell and crashed into a shape rarely seen in many versions of Spider-Man stories.

After all, he landed face down.

It doesn't fit the visual design principle of "dying beautifully even in death."

"This thing shouldn't break if it's dropped."

Staff members nearby quickly stepped forward and placed the Mind Gem in a container.

at the same time.

A few seconds later, another machine turned on with a "ding," and a brand new Gwen stepped out, patting off non-existent dust from her uniform and even rubbing the back of her neck, which was no longer uncomfortable.

"No way, have you ever been a superhero? You just mess around with things and make assumptions?" Gwen pointed to the back of her neck. "Have you ever seen a superhero save someone by saving them from here?!"

She was quite helpless.

I feel that Ian needs guidance.

however.

"Anyway, that's how my dad arrested me. He's the most powerful superhero in our area... That's why I imitated him."

Ian's super brain always comes up with the most reasonable excuse for him.

"..."

Gwen opened her mouth, then suddenly found herself speechless. She had seen rich kids compete by having rich parents, buying sports cars, attending prestigious schools, and even using superpowers, but she had never seen the race of "competing by having rich parents" veer into the realm of superheroes.

Superhero dad?
Super second generation?
This touched on a blind spot in Gwen's knowledge.

“I don’t believe your father would teach you to save people like this.” Helpless, Gwen could only judge Ian’s actions based on her professional knowledge, which was definitely not a proper way to save someone.

“You don’t have a biofield, you don’t understand.” Ian simply shook his head at this. “Besides, this isn’t something my father taught me; it’s just that I was deeply influenced by it.”

"Of course, you can also call it childhood trauma. After all, a childhood without childhood trauma is not perfect. Just like if the elderly do not reflect on their children's education, they are more likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. You see, it's a win-win situation. I have a complete childhood, and my father will have a perfect old age."

"I believe that reflecting on my children's education in the future will help them prevent Alzheimer's from time to time..." After wearing the Batman suit, those who have been influenced by Batman are like this, having profound thoughts that others cannot understand. As Ian spoke each word, Gwen's eyes widened more and more.

The logic seems to make sense.

But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

"What nonsense are you talking about..."

Unlike Madison, Gwen was not successfully persuaded by Ian. She simply felt that her language skills were insufficient to refute him, but deep down she knew that there was a big problem with Ian's logic.

As for what the problem is.

We'll have to go back and have Tony analyze it.

Only Tony could clearly tell her what kind of filial son this was, and only Tony's true wisdom could handle this incredibly strange boy.

No.

Sometimes Tony seems to be silenced, but that must be because a lot of Tony's computing power is being used up. Now that some of his computing power has been freed up, he will definitely be able to handle things with ease!

Gwen's heart was filled with unwavering faith in the wise god Tony.

“Tony has already prepared the body you requested. Perhaps you can go find him now.” Gwen didn’t want to be disturbed by Ian, after all, she still needed to guide the last Infinity Stone later.

Nowadays.

The entire universe is about to usher in its most important moment.

If it weren't for what Tony had said earlier, Gwen would have preferred to capture Ian, or at least lure him away temporarily, since she genuinely didn't want any unexpected changes to occur at such a crucial moment.

"Higher than me, higher than you, higher than this base, higher than... everything." To this day, Gwen and Betty still haven't been able to understand the true meaning behind Tony's words.

"Is he a Sentinel? Or an All-Rounder?"

Ian had no interest in dissecting gods; he was more concerned with the power he could acquire. When Gwen mentioned the corpse, his eyes lit up like light bulbs.

"Both."

Gwen pushed a bicycle out of a box next to her. It's hard to imagine that someone with the technological means to dismember a planet devourer would still rely on such a somewhat primitive mode of transportation.

Don't know why.

of course.

Ian is not curious about this at all now.

"Good, good, good! As expected of my mentor, Tony the Machine God!" Ian immediately became excited. His address made Gwen look confused for a moment, wondering if she had missed something.

Hesitant to speak.

In the end, Gwen did not ask any questions.

"wait for me a while."

Even though Omniknight and Sentinel had taken over Ian's brain, he still hadn't forgotten why he came here. Under Gwen's watchful eye, he quickly darted into Galactus's nostril.

after a while.

"What have you been doing?"

A bewildered Gwen saw Ian walk out with a happy expression.

"High-end adventures often involve entering the most primitive caves. Don't ask, the answer is: not suitable for children... young girls." Ian wiped his hands with a tissue.

He just visited the super brain of the planet devourer.

Evaluations are not as good as one's own.

[You have come into contact with an unknown extraordinary substance. A new job template has been unlocked. You can obtain a modified extraordinary job—Entropy Annihilation Lord—by fulfilling the necessary requirements for job acquisition.]

of course.

This is Ian's true purpose.

The results even exceeded Ian's expectations. He mentioned that Galactus's "Rise of the Sentinels" comic hadn't even been released yet, but the class templates were still unlocked incredibly smoothly.

Something's strange?
Ian looked at his career panel.

[Author LV2 [3/20]]

Perhaps it's not so strange.

(End of this chapter)