Finally, Lex, who had gained a moment of respite, scrambled up in disarray. He suppressed a strong urge to vomit and took deep breaths of air. Yet, his intense survival instinct hadn't faded, and he continued desperately pounding Clark with the object in his hand.
Feeling the helplessness of this strong body, Lex abruptly flipped Clark over, pinning him to the ground, then fiercely struck Clark's chest and head with the object. Smoke began to rise from every spot it touched, and Clark let out continuous screams.
Eventually, perhaps due to the pain's stimulus, a red glow began to accumulate in his eyes. Clark suddenly exerted strength with both arms, pushing Lex off who was pressing down on him, and let out a fierce scream:
"Uh!!!!!!!"
Two beams of red light pierced through the roof, through the clouds, through the atmosphere, shooting straight into the cosmos. Then, like a kite with a snapped string, they flickered in the daylight and vanished without a trace.
Flying away, Clark seemed like a homeless dog. He couldn't even stabilize his form, staggering and crashing into a building. However, the collapse of buildings that used to happen when Superman touched them didn't occur; instead, Clark himself let out a scream. The building remained motionless while he fell in another direction.
Diana, who had just walked out of the police station not long ago, witnessed all this. She could hardly describe her feelings. Indeed, she shouldn't have investigated the Egyptian relics; she must have fallen under the Curse of the Pharaoh.
Clark had a long dream. In the dream, he returned to his childhood. However, it was no longer like usual, dreaming of those classmates who ridiculed him, or the father who comforted him.
He dreamt of a lamb. It was a lamb born from a ewe in their pen. He was present on the day of its birth, watching with his own eyes as the lamb emerged from its mother's belly. He was both shocked and delighted, but he couldn't explain where this emotion came from.
He visited the pen daily to see it. Back then, he wasn't taller than the pen's gate but always climbed up to sit on it, staring at the lamb. He even gave it a name, but told no one, imagining what it would be like for him to be born from his mother's belly.
However, shortly after, the lamb died. The surroundings were filled with scattered tubes, bottles of veterinary medicine, and his father's sighs.
He stood outside the beast pen's door, gazing at the motionless lamb. Some emotion stirred in his chest. Was it sadness? Fear? Confusion?
No, it wasn't any of those. Because when he got the answer "It's dead, Clark. We couldn't do anything." from his father's mouth, he was extraordinarily angry.
Ignoring his father's cries, he rushed out to the fields, roaring in anger until his voice became hoarse. During this, he heard his parents' calls but didn't want to respond. He felt very angry and just wanted to be alone.
At the end of the dream, when he finally vented his anger, as he trudged back across the field, he suddenly found half of their house had collapsed.
No father, no mother, only a disaster-stricken kitchen, and flashing words constantly before his eyes:
"Kansas State Smoville, Martha Kent."
"Kansas State Smoville, Martha Kent."
"Kansas State Smoville, Martha Kent."
"Uh…"
Clark abruptly sat up in shock, only to find himself in an unfamiliar room. A slight sound came from the door, and he turned his head like a startled beast, staring at it intently, as a tall woman with black hair walked in.
"You're finally awake. The police searching for you found this area. I dealt with them; don't worry, they don't know you're here with me."
Looking at her face, Clark blinked. But she casually sat down and said, "Don't worry, I'm not a bad person. Diana Prince, an employee and private collector at the Metropolitan Museum. I saw you land on the street and brought you back."
"Diana Prince?" Clark repeated the name, saying, "Wonder Woman?"
Diana was also taken aback, then smiled and said, "It's been a long time since anyone called me that. Do you know me?"
Clark looked at her in puzzlement and said, "You haven't entered the Battleworld?"
"Battleworld?" Diana repeated the term, lightly tapping her forehead with a finger, then said, "Sounds somewhat familiar. Wait, isn't that from that scam email…"
Clark understood. Diana had also received the invitation, only she regarded it as a scam. And rightly so, the invitation was too suspicious; had it not been for his confidence in not being tricked, he wouldn't have opened it.
But now, Clark had no time to explain. He moved his arms, trying to prop himself up, but felt a sharp pain in his chest.
"No no no." Diana stopped his movement, then said, "You're not healed yet, don't move around."
"Injured? I'm injured?!" Clark was very surprised, glancing down at his chest.
"Sorry," Diana said, "I know some battlefield first aid but am not a professional surgeon. I don't know what those glass shard-like things inside your chest wound are. I tried to clean your wound, but your skin is as hard as steel; I really couldn't manage."
Clark forced himself to sit up, then looked at his chest. As Diana said, his chest was a bloody mess, seemingly pierced and then scratched by something. He lightly wiped with his hand, finding a layer of green powder sticking to the wound.
Yet at the moment of touching that thing, Clark felt the world spinning. He collapsed again, the back of his head hitting the floor hard. Diana let out a gasp of surprise.
"God, just lie still!" she said, "You're badly injured and can't move around. I'll try to get some surgical tools tomorrow to see if I can clean your wound. Until then, don't move."
"No," Clark said weakly, "My mom has been kidnapped, she's been taken by Lex Luther. I have to save her."
"What??!!"
Diana was initially a bit shocked, but remembering that Lex Luther had previously attempted to kidnap Shiller, although Shiller is also a con artist, that doesn't mean Lex Luther is a good person. The people he found were obviously professional, proving he's done this sort of thing many times before.
"But... why would he target you?" Diana asked.
"I don't know." Clark lay there, his eyes vacant. His lips were cracked, and his forehead was covered in beads of sweat.
He had imagined countless times being injured like a normal person. When injured in the simulation, he knew it would hurt and affect his mobility, but it wasn't real.
But now, he truly felt it. When ordinary people are injured, it's not just pain; there's a weightless dizziness that hits in waves. It seemed like he was lying in bed, but it felt like he was on a roller coaster, and whenever his mind was slightly blurred, he felt like he was constantly falling.
And accompanying this weightless sensation was a feeling of nausea. It felt like something in his stomach was about to come out, but actually, there was nothing. He could only keep swallowing to suppress the nausea, but at the same time, his throat hurt intensely, and every swallow made his throat and nasal cavity burn painfully.
To relieve this pain, he needed to open his mouth to breathe, but soon he felt parched. His lips started to crack, the tip of his tongue went numb, and the presence of his tongue grew stronger, as if his entire mouth was being blocked.
Then, immediately after, his eyelids started to feel heavy. With the power of his eyelids alone, he couldn't keep his eyes open; he needed to strain the muscles above his forehead to barely lift them. But as soon as those muscles tensed, a fine, needle-like pain radiated from his forehead's eye sockets.
At that moment, he suddenly became lucid. But this wasn't a good thing, because after waking up abruptly, he could more clearly feel the pain in other parts of his body.
The left half of his body, more precisely the area of his left scapula and collarbone, emitted extremely intense pain, like something had rolled over it. He felt every bone was shattered, and he couldn't even discern exactly where the pain was.
This pain also traced along his nerves to his head, causing the left side of it to hurt. Because of the unequal cranial pressure, one of his eyeballs was twitching, while the other side would occasionally black out.
Clark genuinely felt like he was going to die. This wasn't just a figure of speech; he no longer held any wishful thinking. He instinctively grasped Diana's hand and weakly said, "Help me... help me... help..."
Diana tugged at her hair and said, "Wait, don't die! I... I can't take you to a hospital. Doctors can't treat you; they'll capture you. But I don't know how to treat you either... Superman! Superman!!!"
When Clark woke up again, he saw only the glaring surgical lamp above and a pair of gray eyes beneath it.
Shiller walked out of the operating room, removed his gloves, and Diana quickly stood up to ask, "How is he? He's not dead, right?"
"Far from it," Shiller smiled at her and said, "I cleaned his wound a bit. But unfortunately, that green powder has already entered his blood circulation. As for how long it will take to metabolize, I don't know."
Diana breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "Thank goodness, as long as he's alive. Just now, I really thought he was going to die."
"Don't worry too much, ma'am; he's much tougher than you think," Shiller said softly.
Diana couldn't help but roll her eyes, then said, "I'm not surprised you managed to run out of the police station, but you were caught by the military and still broke free. You could compete for the strongest con artist of the century."
"I wasn't escaping; I was released," Shiller shook his head and said, "I did deceive you, but there's one part I didn't lie about, and that's my actual connection with the British intelligence agency MI6. They couldn't hold me for too long."
Diana sighed and said, "True, otherwise how could you have borrowed an operating room? Since you didn't cause any serious consequences, I won't hold it against you. What I want to know now is what the heck is going on."
"Which part?"
"All of it," Diana said, folding her arms, "Snake Tail, Superman, Lex Luther, the alien ship, and you."
"Do you think they're connected?"
"Of course," Diana snorted and said, "You can't fool me; these things all happening at the same time is definitely not a coincidence. What's really going on? You better..."
Bang!
There was a loud noise from the operating room. Diana rushed in and saw Clark, his upper body wrapped in bandages, tumbling from the operating table to the ground.
His forehead was bruised and bleeding. But when Diana went to help him, she saw the blood dripping from his jaw onto his hand was pink—mixed with tears.
Diana saw his lips moving. At that moment, she couldn't help but want to cry too.
Clark's eyes were a bit blank, his lips just opening and closing:
"Mom, Mom..."