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

Chapter 99 A Turning Point! The Despicable Superman!
The kitchen was filled with the aroma of toasted bread and stewed beef.

The night is getting darker.

But dinner at the Kent's house did not go well.

It wasn't that Ian's older brother, Jordan Kent, was already carrying out some plan even more outrageous than the most outrageous, but Louise's anger tonight was definitely not just because of the suspicious Clark and her paranoid second son.

The main source of the family conflict was Louise's father, Ian and the other two's maternal grandfather, General Sam Lane, who held considerable power in the country.

Warm yellow light shone on the wooden dining table.

Clark, Louise, Jonathan, Jordan, and Ian sat together, while at the head of the table, gray-haired Sam Lane was being confronted by his daughter's accusations.

"So, you've been studying him all along?" Louise's voice was low, yet sharp as an icicle. "Studying my husband? Like he was some kind of...experiment?"

Such a question.

General Sam looked helpless. Clark sat beside him, his face calm, but his fingertips unconsciously rubbed the rim of his water glass, where a few fine cracks appeared faintly.

Did not say.

But he was clearly also bothered by it. After all, given Superman's control abilities, he could easily catch a live mosquito in his hand and play with it repeatedly without damaging a single hair.

Seeing this, Old Sam quickly moved the stool closer to his daughter.

“Lucy, don’t assume that about me. I’m not researching Clark.” Sam Lane sighed, put down his knife, and placed his hands on the table, folded over each other.

His gaze was steady, yet carried a coldness unique to soldiers. "I did this entirely to protect you and your husband, to protect your most special home on this earth."

His words were earnest and carried a hint of seriousness.

"Protection? What kind of protection is this?" Louise sneered. "Secretly collecting his DNA and analyzing his weaknesses? Do you know what that sounds like?"

"It's like you're all ready to kill my husband! And maybe my sons too!" The woman of the house was furious, and the air at the dining table suddenly became tense.

See this.

The older brother, Jonathan, tried to lighten the mood.

"So, am I the only one still shocked that my dad is actually Superman?" He looked at Ian and Jordan. "Looks like I'm the only one who was kept in the dark until tonight!"

His words immediately drew a response from Jordan, and both of them seemed to want to ease the tension in the family.

"Actually, I only found out today that my dad is Superman. If I hadn't awakened my powers too, I think they would have continued to keep it from me." Jordan showed a rather emotional expression.

"Believe me, Jonathan, knowing is worse than not knowing. I'm starting to regret it now." Jordan recalled the problem that had suddenly come to his senses during his routine.

If my dad were Superman.

So all along.

Wouldn't Clark know everything that happens in this house?

Halfway through the routine, Jordan's underdeveloped super brain was activated in a special way, leaving him in a cold sweat and making a very rare instance of giving up halfway.

"Yeah, that's true. After all, I guess I'm the only one in this family who is the son of a superman but is just an ordinary person. I feel like I'm going to be so angry that I won't be able to sleep tonight."

Jonathan kept picking at his food with his fork, not eating, and sighed heavily, looking preoccupied. Seeing this, Clark wanted to comfort his eldest son but didn't know how to begin.

His eyes held a hint of worry.

After all, he had seen many classmates develop mental health issues due to feelings of imbalance when he was young. If his classmates were like that, Jonathan, as the only ordinary person in his family, was obviously more likely to experience mental imbalance.

“Perhaps I should see a psychologist too?” Jonathan noticed his father’s gaze, gave him a reassuring look, and then looked at Ian with a slightly humorous expression.

"How about I be introduced to your therapist?"

He seemed quite optimistic, and even made a joke about Ian.

“I don’t think it’s that great. Dr. Hannibal is indeed very professional, but if you trigger certain mechanisms of his, the only medicine he might prescribe for you is rosemary, lemongrass, cinnamon powder, and some chopped parsley.” Ian glanced at Clark, who was just staring at his grandfather from time to time.

There was no response to his words.

"..."

Ian was somewhat confused. Logically, Hannibal's affairs should not have been kept from his father. He sensed something was wrong, but he couldn't activate his super brain for the time being.

"You have quite a good sense of humor."

Jonathan thought Ian was trying to lighten the mood, just like him. "I have to thank you for letting it slip, otherwise I don't know when I would have become an insider about this."

He looked at his elderly mother with a wistful gaze.

"Don't blame your mother, she's only thinking about how you're in the crucial period of preparing for the competition," Clark quickly stepped in to smooth things over for Louise, all for the sake of family harmony.

Even Sam temporarily put his own studies aside.

"Don't worry, Dad, I'm not that fragile." Jonathan didn't really blame anyone. Instead, he chuckled and said magnanimously, "I'm just a normal person. This at least lets me know that I'm genuinely talented in football, and not just relying on your super genes?"

have to say.

Jonathan's self-regulation skills are probably quite good.

“It’s so good that you think that way, darling.” Louise quickly praised Jonathan, but because she was still angry, she quickly changed her expression and looked at Ian.

“He better really just let it slip!” Louise knew her youngest son all too well, so she glared at Ian, but Ian pretended not to see it and kept eating.

how to say.

In fact, his exceptional family wisdom is not something that no one can understand.

“Ian is a real smart guy, Lucy. Hiding things isn’t protection, it’s harm.” Old Sam, the grandfather, gave Ian a thumbs-up in praise.

People become better with age.

He certainly knows how to avoid real family conflicts.

"Shut up! I haven't even settled things with you yet! Do you know what protection means? Stop plotting against my husband and children! That's what real protection for your family is!"

Louise's words became somewhat heated again after Sam spoke up. The topic returned to its original point, and Jonathan felt a sense of powerlessness, as if his sacrifice had been in vain.

"Grandpa was definitely wrong."

Jordan didn't know whether he was fanning the flames or trying to mediate.

Ian continued eating.

Silent.

“My dear grandson, you can’t learn from your mother’s immaturity. She should think carefully about whether national institutions would stop researching superhumans even if I didn’t participate.”

“Any country, any organization, any institution, given the opportunity, would want to control the power your father possessed; no one can resist the temptation of such power.”

"That is a power like that of God. Whoever controls this power is qualified to unify the world—even without me, the military and the country will spare no effort in conducting research in this area."

While Sam appeared to be speaking to Jordan, he was actually addressing Clark and Lois: "That's why I have to put myself in that situation."

"Only in this way can I protect you. I will know what the progress of similar research is, what direction it is heading, and I can even intervene to a certain extent."

"This is far more beneficial to your special family than your mother's mindset of pretending that everything will always be fine and that nothing will ever happen."

Old Sam spoke earnestly.

Jordan seemed to understand, but not quite.

However, this wasn't mainly meant for the three little ones at home; whether they understood or not didn't matter. What was most important was that Clark's furrowed brows relaxed a bit.

"Who knows if what you're saying is true? What if you have ulterior motives too?" Louise's tone softened considerably, but she still didn't quite trust her politician father.

“I don’t deny that I am a profit-driven person and I have always hated extraterrestrial species, but that doesn’t mean I would hurt my daughter and her family.”

Old Sam seemed quite open about it. He glanced around at everyone at the table, including Ian, because the story he knew was that Ian was born after Louise and Clark had been on vacation for a year. The information Bruce Wayne had provided was flawless; even the general couldn't find any loopholes.

"Really? I don't believe it?"

Louise, on the other hand, was extremely wary of her elderly father. After all, she had grown up with him since childhood, which was why she and Clark had created the perfect information for Ian back then.

“Lucy, when you reach my age you will understand that the greatest interest in the world is family lineage and the continuation of bloodlines—this is true from every perspective.”

"I hate aliens, but that doesn't mean I hate aliens who can make my descendants stand in the sky." Old Sam explained the conflicted psychology of those who benefit from the system from another perspective. "Grandpa, are you really not going to capture us for research?"

Jordan also had this concern.

"As long as I'm still here, it won't happen."

Old Sam responded earnestly.

"I hope you remember your promise, Sam."

Clark spoke after some internal struggle. After all, he was the research subject being targeted, so only he could ultimately determine the nature of the matter.

"Don't let the children down."

His words essentially declared that he would not pursue the matter further. Clark knew that secretly researching Kryptonian genes was definitely not something the US government was doing alone.

then.

However, many Kryptonian corpses have mysteriously disappeared.

"Don't worry. In fact, if it weren't for what this little guy discovered, I really wouldn't have planned to let you know about this official research. We do indeed want to artificially create a warrior comparable to you."

"However..." Seeing that the atmosphere had eased, Sam was finally able to change the subject. He took out an iron box, an iron box that Ian recognized very well.

“Our experiments have made absolutely no progress, and no finished products will leak out.” As he spoke, Sam opened the iron box, revealing its empty interior.

"what?"

Ian was somewhat surprised.

Clark's expression also showed slight surprise.

"What do you mean?"

He touched the box that Ian had abandoned at the scene where the thieves had tied him up, and asked, "Ian said he heard it with his own ears, that the group said they were from the military."

As soon as these words came out.

Before anyone else could react, Ian's eyes widened as he stared at Clark. He had caught Clark lying again; he had never said such a thing to Clark!
So, who actually heard it with their own ears?
"That's the problem—someone is impersonating the military and trying to sell this drug around the world, when it is not the result of our military's research."

Sam hesitated for a moment, but still leaked the information: "In fact, even the group of people you captured didn't know that they weren't originally working for the military."

As soon as these words came out.

Ian was also a little confused.

Clark frowned even more.

"Lex Luthor."

He suddenly spoke, his eyes deep and thoughtful.

Perhaps it was a special intuition, but the old man was right. Sam nodded slowly, "After my investigation, I did find that this shipment was indeed related to Lex Luthor."

"Based on the several batches of reagents we subsequently raided, many of those medicines contained blood products from Kryptonians. We currently have no way of determining whether they originated from you."

Sam spoke in a deep voice.

This left Ian even more astonished.

He still remembered that those "Simulated Superman Potions" were labeled as 100% free of Kryptonian genes.

Depend on!
At this moment, Ian's mind was racing. He finally realized why the second place Hellcat took him to was Luther's factory in the suburbs.

Because the first raid site was also like that!
“Luther did collect some of my blood, but… you’re saying each bottle contains quite a bit?” Clark glanced at Ian, then frowned and looked at Sam.

"Yes."

Sam nodded.

"The user didn't die?"

Clark's eyes flickered.

"The reason I can still leisurely eat with you here now is, of course, because those potions were unsuccessful—without exception, all the potions we seized can only be described as failures."

“All users will die instantly. Clearly, it’s not a successful product, so I think Lex Luthor is hoping to cast a wide net to find a suitable candidate for the drug.”

Sam did not hide anything.

The official investigation results were stated.

"Perhaps only half-grown Kryptonians who drank those twelve potions will still be alive and kicking?" Sam said, turning to look at Ian. Clark and Louise also looked over with strange expressions.

Jonathan and Jordan didn't know why, but to fit in, they immediately followed suit. In an instant, all eyes were on Ian.

There were clearly only ten!

Ian was taken aback at first.

He immediately gasped. He suspected that his grandfather had spent too many years in the military and his old habits hadn't changed, so he was now taking kickbacks from him, his junior.

"The Twelve Branches, those people have already confessed. Don't worry, I won't ask you to vomit it out; you can keep it to yourself." Sam was very certain of his source.

"But I really only drank ten bottles."

Ian felt quite wronged.

Neither he nor those around him noticed.

A kitten that had tried to enter the dining room to find food secretly retreated back into the living room.

They even found a dark corner to hide in.

"Did Ian drink those terrible drugs that can kill people instantly?" Jordan and Jonathan only then realized what had happened. They weren't good at studying and just thought Ian was incredibly audacious.

They all crowded around to check if Ian had mutated.

"Will Ian be alright?"

Louise was also worried that Ian's pica would have irreversible consequences.

"This one……"

Clark was about to say something.

At this moment, the true super brain on Earth suddenly came into play, and inspirations from the Big Bang to the emergence of civilization on Earth flashed through his mind.

Super intelligent!

It's started!
"Hard to say."

Clark, in a deep voice, silently approached Ian from behind.

“However, I think that’s why he awakened his Kryptonian powers so quickly.” The old father spoke earnestly, gazing at his wife who had shown some doubt about him that evening.

His hands were now pressed on Ian's shoulders, and he emphasized the phrase "Kryptonian ability," as if he were hinting at some information to Louise.

Louise was taken aback at first.

immediately.

It dawned on me.

"..."

Ian didn't dare to say anything.

The old father's hands were large and warm.

He could sense it.

It also strongly implies a warning to oneself to shut up.

(End of this chapter)