The morning light in New York, stingily penetrating the grimy window of the cheap apartment, cast a few dismal rays onto the floor.
Arthur lay stiffly on the creaking spring bed, a night of tossing and turning bringing no fatigue.
On the contrary, the sense of power deep within his body, nourished by the sun's light, surged ceaselessly.
Arthur slowly sat up, his movements still cautious, as if defusing a bomb.
When his feet touched the cold cement floor, he deliberately slowed the transfer of his body weight, and only after confirming that the floorboards beneath him emitted no dangerous groans did he slowly stand upright. His tall figure cast a shadow in the narrow room.
Walking to the small window, Arthur hesitated, but finally extended a finger, and with the lightest touch, like caressing the most delicate petal, he pushed aside a small, dust-laden slat of the Venetian blind.
"Chila."
A faint metallic scraping sound was exceptionally harsh in the silence. A searing, bright beam of light, sharp with the unique crispness of morning, like a red-hot steel needle, suddenly pierced Arthur's pupils!
"Hiss!"
Arthur gasped, instinctively slamming his eyes shut and stepping back! It wasn't pain, but an instantaneous, intense sense of overload! As if someone had switched on a million-watt searchlight in his brain, his optic nerves were utterly engulfed by a surging torrent of photons in that instant!
Explosive white light and bizarre colored spots lingered in his vision.
Leaning against the wall, his heart pounded—not from fear, but from this sudden physiological change that was completely beyond his comprehension.
"The light... it's too bright," Arthur murmured, his voice dry.
Although he had found sunlight dazzling before, it had never possessed this almost physically assaulting intensity.
He tried to open a slit of his eye again, carefully avoiding the area of direct sunlight, and looked out the window.
This time, it wasn't merely bright.
The world exploded into existence before Arthur's eyes with a whole new level of detail!
The peeling paint on the dilapidated apartment building opposite was no longer a blurry patch of color.
Arthur clearly saw the winding path of every crack, like ravines in the Earth; he saw the dried moss spores deep within the cracks; he saw the minute pores and mineral crystals on the exposed bricks where the plaster had fallen off, their structure as complex as a microscopic universe!
On the street below, an elderly woman out walking her dog early in the morning—every strand of her gray hair was perfectly clear, the split ends and clinging dust particles distinctly visible, and he could even see the skin flakes, finer than sand, accumulated in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, as well as the faint blood vessels in her cloudy eyeballs!
Further away, a fat rat rummaging for food beside a garbage heap—every single hair on its grayish-brown fur was distinct, its rapidly twitching nostrils smeared with grease, and the cunning glint in its small, beady eyes and the contraction of its pupils were all perfectly clear!
Its claws peeled open a rotten apple core, and the segments of the wriggling white maggots inside were visible with perfect clarity!
This wasn't enough!
His vision, like an uncontrolled searchlight, frantically extended further.
From the third-floor window of the building next door, Old John, the landlord, was frying eggs at a greasy stove.
Arthur could see the bulging veins on the back of his age-spotted hand, the process of the sizzling egg whites' edges turning golden-brown in the pan, his greasy scalp beneath his thinning hair, and even the eye boogers accumulated around his slightly narrowed eyes from the cooking smoke!
Old John seemed to be in a bad mood, his lips moving as he cursed something, and Arthur could see the black hole where a molar was missing from his back tooth.
His vision continued to leap and penetrate uncontrollably! A few buildings away, in an apartment with pink curtains, a young couple was passionately kissing on the sofa.
Arthur could see the girl's shy blush and long eyelashes, the excited throbbing pulse in the boy's neck, their intertwined fingers, and even, through their thin clothing, the contours of their tightly pressed bodies and their rising and falling curves!
Arthur could even see the amplitude of their chests rising and falling as they breathed rapidly!
Further! Further! His vision, like light-speed tentacles, frantically seized every detail within sight! The latte art patterns on coffee cups in a café a few streets away, the title of the newspaper an old man was reading on a park bench, water droplets on the whiskers of an orange cat lazily licking its paws on a rooftop several kilometers away.
Everything, whether he wanted to see it or not, no matter the distance, as long as it was within his line of sight, was forcibly crammed into his vision with suffocating, microscopic precision! The sheer volume of information was like the Big Bang, instantly overwhelming his tiny consciousness!
Arthur felt an intense dizziness, a spinning sensation, and uncontrollable nausea; his stomach churned, and his throat tightened. He had to close his eyes again, vigorously rubbing his throbbing temples, which felt as if they were about to explode.
"Stop! Too much! Stop!" he roared in despair internally, but his closed eyelids couldn't block the tsunami of visual information, which was etched onto his retina and cerebral cortex like a brand. "Super Vision," a phrase, slowly emerged from the chaotic thoughts.
When Arthur tried to block out the overly powerful visual information and turn his attention to other senses for a moment of respite, an even more terrifying, more irresistible wave of sound, like trillions of cold, poisoned steel needles simultaneously piercing deep into his eardrums, assaulted him!
Buzz!
The sounds of the world were no longer a layered, distinguishable symphony. It had become a chaotic, violent, illogical, soul-shattering ultimate storm of noise!
The infant's heart-wrenching, seemingly endless cries from the apartment downstairs were so sharp they could pierce his eardrums; the thunderous, phlegm-laden snores of the old man next door sounded like a broken bellows tearing at his ears; the old man's mumbled dream talk, "Money, damn taxes," every syllable clearly audible.
Further away, the brutal, beast-like roar of car engines in the street; the piercing wail of horns urging the car ahead; the dull, continuous rumbling vibration of the subway grinding on tracks deep underground—these were just a few of the most turbulent waves in this raging ocean!
Arthur heard, several walls away, the rustling of a cockroach scurrying quickly across a piece of broken cardboard in a damp corner, the rhythm of its six legs moving alternately clearly discernible.
He heard, several streets away, a homeless man curled up in a cardboard box groaning in pain in his sleep, accompanied by the gurgling of his intestines; he heard, in the direction of Manhattan, the extremely faint sound of a skyscraper's glass curtain wall deforming!
Arthur even heard, he heard the rushing sound of his own blood flowing through his veins, like a turbulent river surging within him.
He heard the powerful thumping sound of his heart muscles contracting to pump blood, each beat like a giant drum pounding in his chest; he heard the hissing sound of air rubbing against the tracheal walls as his lungs inhaled and exhaled!
All Sounds!
Next door, Old John, the landlord, while roughly flipping a fried egg with a spatula, mumbled curses in a Brooklyn accent: "Shit! Eggs went up another five U.S. cents!" His complaints, the sizzling of the egg, and the scraping of the spatula against the bottom of the pan merged into a harsh stream of noise.
The passionate couple a few buildings away—their breathless gasps, the wet sounds of kissing, the rustling of clothes, the creaking of the sofa springs under pressure, and even the low, lustful moans and whispers of love when passion ran high.
These extremely private sounds, like a live broadcast, were forcibly poured into Arthur's ears without any obstruction!
Countless sounds, from the extremely subtle to the deafening, from close at hand to several kilometers away, came with no priority, no distinction of strength, no consideration of privacy or publicness—like countless high-speed rotating, barbed electric saws drilling into the most sensitive nerves in his brain!
Every sound screamed for his attention, every sound tried to drag him into a different sensory abyss!
"Ah!" Arthur let out a low, distorted groan of pain, covering his ears tightly, with all his might, his fingernails even digging into his scalp! But it was useless! The sound wasn't coming from outside; it was directly affecting his auditory nerves!
It was the nerves themselves that were wailing!
Arthur felt his head was like a fragile balloon forcibly stuffed with all the noise generators of New York City, then continuously inflated and pressurized; the blood vessels in his temples throbbed and swelled like angry earthworms. His vision blurred, golden stars exploded before his eyes, and a strong wave of nausea rushed up his throat like a tsunami, his stomach violently spasming!
"Stop! Stop!" Arthur screamed frantically internally, his teeth grinding so hard they almost shattered, veins bulging on his forehead like gnarled tree roots.
He tried to concentrate all his remaining, noise-torn spirit, like a drowning man grasping at a straw, to shut off this damned hearing.
But the surging sound wave was like an unstoppable tide, repeatedly crashing against the fragile dam of his will with even greater force. His mind swung wildly on the brink of collapse, his consciousness torn by countless sounds, almost plunging into complete chaos and madness!
He staggered backward, his back hitting the wall with a dull thud, like an out-of-control cannonball!
The wall groaned under the strain, fine cracks spreading out like a spiderweb from the impact point, plaster dust falling and rising in a cloud in the dim light. But Arthur had no time to notice this insignificant damage.
His overly acute senses were devouring him alive.
He stumbled into the small bathroom and turned on the rusty faucet. Cold tap water streamed down.
Arthur, as if grasping at a lifeline, plunged his entire head into the sink filled with cold water!
The icy cold water enveloped his head, bringing a brief, faint sense of isolation.
Underwater, sounds became muffled and much more distant. The sound of flowing water temporarily dominated, slightly suppressing the other complex noises.
But that only provided a weak suppression, not an elimination.
The sound of water itself was also amplified countless times, roaring like a waterfall in his ears.
Arthur gasped for air, the icy tap water choking his nasal passages, bringing a sharp, stinging pain, but also giving his chaotic mind a moment of respite. He lifted his head, water droplets continuously dripping down his hair and cheeks. The man in the mirror was pale as paper, his eyes bloodshot, his gaze filled with unsettled fear and a type of exhaustion bordering on collapse.
Arthur saw his own disheveled appearance in the mirror, and also… he saw the rusted metal water pipe inside the wall behind the mirror!
The flowing water inside the pipe, the rust particles on the pipe wall, and even another old electrical wire hidden deeper within the bricks… all were clearly reflected on his retina! Like an X-ray image!
X-ray vision, another ability.
Super Vision brought not only microscopic sight but also the ability to penetrate obstacles.
While the sunlight bestowed power, it was also inflicting cruel torture on Arthur! Visual overload, auditory bombardment, and this damned X-ray vision… Arthur felt like a container forcibly crammed with a flood of information, about to burst at any moment!
No! This can't go on! He must control it!
He must find a place to isolate himself from all this! A place without sound, without light interference! He needed quiet! To understand, to adapt to this body rapidly evolving under the Sun.
He must leave this noisy city, like a giant noise generator, immediately!
This thought, like a lighthouse in the darkness, instantly illuminated his chaotic thoughts. Arthur suddenly raised his head, a resolute glint in his bloodshot eyes. Without further hesitation, he quickly grabbed a dark hoodie, pulled up the hood, trying to cover his face as much as possible. He didn't even dare to close the door forcefully, just gently pulling shut the creaking, broken door.
On the streets of Brooklyn in the early morning, pedestrians were sparse. Arthur walked with his head down, his tall figure appearing even more somber under the concealment of his hoodie.
He forced himself to ignore the still-roaring city noise, weakened by the water but still present in his ears, and to ignore the overly clear, almost microscopic details of the street before him. He concentrated all his mental energy on his feet, on the simple act of walking.
With each step, his toes touched the ground as lightly as feathers, feeling the subtle vibrations of the ground layers and their weight-bearing limits. Arthur walked quickly, but his movements were exceptionally light, making no sound, like a huge ghost gliding rapidly through the city's morning light.
Avoiding main roads, he specifically chose the most secluded, most dilapidated back alleys and abandoned railway lines to walk along.
Super Vision, like a high-precision radar, scanned every corner in advance, avoiding all possible surveillance cameras and human figures. Super Hearing, like an invisible net, captured any conversations and movements within several kilometers that might be directed at him.
"Seventh Avenue surveillance camera angle shifted fifteen degrees west…"
"Three hundred meters ahead, there's a homeless man sleeping behind a dumpster, heavy breathing…"
"Police car patrolling one and a half kilometers away, siren off…"
Countless fragments of information flooded his brain, and Arthur had to act like a supercomputer processing massive data, quickly sifting and filtering out useless information, retaining only key points related to his safety and route.
The mental pressure from this high-intensity information processing was almost as great as the previous sensory bombardment, giving Arthur a splitting headache.
But Arthur gritted his teeth and persevered.
Like a gust of wind blending into the city's shadows, Arthur raced towards the direction away from Manhattan.
The tall buildings gradually became shorter and sparser behind him, and the city's clamor slowly receded like a fading tide.
The sounds captured by Super Hearing gradually shifted from the complexity of human society to the more natural noises of the suburbs: the rustling of wind through trees, the continuous low-frequency hum of a distant highway, the chirping of birds, the buzzing wings of insects. Although still noisy, it was considerably quieter than the pervasive, aggressive sound waves of the city.
After a period of rapid travel, Arthur finally arrived at a desolate coastline on the border of New York and New Jersey. This area was far from towns, with only abandoned docks, barren salt marshes, and patches of low-lying shrubs stubbornly growing in the salty sea breeze.
The air was filled with a strong smell of the sea and decaying seaweed.
Arthur ran rapidly again, choosing some mountain paths that no one had walked before, and swam an unknown distance across the sea.
Arthur found what he considered a sufficiently safe and hidden test site: an uninhabited island far from the U.S.
Arthur finally stopped. He took off his hood and took a deep breath of the cold, salty air. The fresh sensation from his expanding lungs slightly alleviated his extreme mental exhaustion. He walked to the center of the hollow and looked around. Huge reefs cast deep shadows. It was hidden enough, open enough, and far enough from human habitation.
He slowly raised his head, facing east. The morning sun had long lost its initial sharpness, becoming warm and bright. Golden light poured down on him without obstruction, like a warm tide, instantly enveloping every inch of his skin.
Arthur could clearly feel that every cell beneath his skin was greedily absorbing the energy from the sun. The dormant power deep within his body, like a giant beast awakening from hibernation, let out a satisfied roar and surged even more powerfully!
The pain and confusion brought by Super Vision and Super Hearing seemed to become more bearable under the continuous nourishment of the sunlight—or perhaps his brain was undergoing some kind of adaptive adjustment?
Arthur closed his eyes, trying to focus his mind entirely on "hearing." Like a child with a complex remote control for the first time, he tried to lower the volume.
The howling of the sea wind… reduce it a little.
The roar of the waves… reduce it a little more.
The Cry of the Seagulls...
The cry of the seagulls... further away...
The rustling of sand crabs crawling in the grit underfoot... ignore it...
He concentrated all his will, as if erecting invisible barriers in his mind, trying to block out the irrelevant, distant sounds, retaining only the key sounds within a few tens of meters around him—for example, whether any boats were approaching?
Were there any helicopters flying overhead?
This was an extremely painful and mentally exhausting process. The fatigue from high mental concentration surged like a tide, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. But Arthur gritted his teeth and persevered. Each successful "block" brought a faint sense of control, countering the omnipresent noise hell.
After an unknown period—perhaps a few minutes, perhaps tens of minutes—when Arthur opened his eyes again, although his ears were still filled with various sounds, the indiscriminately impactful information overload that could drive one mad had finally lessened to a barely tolerable degree.
It was like turning deafening rock music into the background hum of a noisy coffee shop.
He let out a long, silent sigh, a mixture of post-calamity exhaustion and a faint sense of accomplishment.
The initial adaptation of his senses was just the first step. Arthur's gaze became sharp, sweeping like a hawk over the desolate beach and the distant sea. He needed to understand this body more deeply, to know just how far it could go.
Especially those abilities that could lead to devastating consequences.
His gaze involuntarily fell on his outstretched palm. The sunlight shone on his palm, and the blood vessels under his skin were clearly visible. He remembered Superman's heat vision in the comics.
Heat Vision!
As this thought arose, an indescribable tremor came from deep within his eyes, carrying a burning, restless sense of energy! It was as if a dormant volcano lay there, ready to erupt at any moment!
Extremely dangerous!
Arthur's heart suddenly constricted.
He immediately shifted his gaze, looking at a lonely, car-sized black reef standing in the shallow water about fifty meters away. The reef was weathered and pitted, its surface rough. This was it!
He took a deep breath, slowly and cautiously refocusing his gaze on the reef. His mind was highly concentrated, trying to guide the burning energy deep within his eyes.
Initially, nothing happened. Only the sea wind rustled his hair, and the waves crashed against the shore.
He held his breath, concentrating even more. Imagining focusing, imagining releasing—
Buzz!
An extremely faint energy tremor, perceptible only to Arthur himself, came from deep within his eyeballs! Immediately after, the small area of the reef surface where his gaze was focused seemed to twist ever so slightly?
A reaction!
Arthur's spirit was invigorated, but he dared not relax in the slightest. He cautiously maintained this focused state, like fine-tuning with the most precise instrument. He dared not exert force, fearing that a loss of control would unleash not heat vision, but a destructive energy cannon.
The subtle air distortion on the reef surface began to become more obvious. The color of the small, focused area began to change. The deep black rock surface gradually took on a dark red hue, like the edge of a red-hot branding iron!
Heat!
It was indeed releasing heat!
Arthur felt a surge of excitement, but he still firmly controlled the energy output. He clearly "saw" that in the center of the dark red area, the temperature was rapidly rising! In the tiny pores on the rock surface, residual seawater salts instantly vaporized, rising in wisps of almost invisible white steam! The surrounding air was heated, forming a weak upward current.
Maintaining this state, like the most demanding scientist, he quietly observed. The dark red area stabilized at the size of a bowl's mouth, and its color did not continue to deepen.
Heat was continuously being emitted, but it seemed to be confined within a controllable range. He tried to increase the intensity of his will ever so slightly.
Sizzle!
An extremely faint sound, like a red-hot iron block plunged into cold water, rang out!
The dark red center point on the reef surface suddenly caved in, forming a small, finger-sized pit! The edge of the pit instantly melted, turning into glowing orange-red magma! Viscous, bubbling lava slowly flowed down the rough surface of the reef, contacting the cold seawater, emitting an even more intense "sizzle" sound, and sending up large plumes of white steam!
It worked!
Arthur's heart pounded, but he immediately forced down his excitement. He instantly stopped the energy output.
The burning sensation deep within his eyes rapidly receded. On the reef, the orange-red lava quickly cooled and solidified into a small, ugly, glassy black substance, embedded in the reef surface like an unsightly scar.
The destructive power... far exceeded imagination! Just a slight increase in his will could instantly melt rock! And this was just the very first attempt!
Arthur felt a pang of fear, but it was followed by an even stronger desire to explore. He needed to know the limits! He needed to know the upper temperature limit, range, and duration of this Heat Vision! This concerned every future judgment, every action!
He cast his gaze further, to a larger reef about a hundred meters away. This time, he was no longer cautious, but had a clear purpose. His mind was highly concentrated, his will like an invisible wrench, suddenly turning open the energy valve deep within his eyes!
Buzz!
Two scorching beams of light, as thick as chopsticks and condensed like solid rubies, instantly shot out from his pupils! Where the beams passed, the air was instantly ionized, emitting faint crackling sounds! The light left two brief, clear paths in the air, distorted by the high temperature!
Puff!
The beams accurately struck the reef a hundred meters away!
There was no explosion, no loud bang. Only a grating, tearing sound, like a hot knife cutting through butter!
That weathered, incredibly hard sea-eroded reef, at the moment of contact with the beams, was like butter encountering a red-hot dining knife!
The point of contact instantly vaporized and disappeared! The two fiery red beams, like indestructible spears of divine punishment, effortlessly pierced through the entire reef.
On both the front and back sides of the reef, they left two terrifying penetration holes with smooth edges, still emitting smoke and dripping lava! The rock around the holes was instantly heated to an incandescent state, emitting dazzling light, then rapidly cooled and cracked!
The beams flashed and vanished, lasting less than half a second.
Arthur stood rooted to the spot, the lingering red glow in his pupils slowly fading. He breathed slightly, not from physical exertion, but from the fatigue of intense mental concentration and the immense shock in his heart at witnessing such terrifying power.
A hundred meters!
Instant penetration!
Rock like paper!
What if this power were aimed at a skyscraper? At a tank?
He dared not think further.
He must control this power with even greater caution! Ten thousand times more cautious!
When the sun reached its zenith and the sunlight was most intense, Arthur's body's energy sensation was unprecedentedly full. The energy from the sun flowed like surging magma in his blood vessels, and every cell hummed with satisfaction. The burning sensation deep within his eyes became more active than ever, like two volcanoes about to erupt.
It was time. Test the extreme form!
Arthur's gaze, as if substantial, swept across the vast coastline. Finally, it locked onto a low-lying headland, composed of ancient basalt, about ten kilometers from his hollow. The headland, like a sleeping black giant beast, was about a hundred meters high and appeared inconspicuous against the vast backdrop of sea and sky, but it became the target for testing his limits.
"The current limit..." Arthur murmured to himself. He needed to know the purest destructive power this body could unleash. Not for destruction, but for reverence, to define the absolute bottom line that must never be crossed.
He took a deep breath, as if to draw all the air of the ocean into his lungs. His mind was concentrated to an unprecedented degree, like a bowstring drawn to its maximum tension. All his thoughts, all his will, like invisible conduits, forcibly connected and converged into the two dormant volcanoes deep within his eyes!
His will was no longer cautious guidance, but a wild, decisive—release! Maximum output!
Buzz!
An unprecedented, terrifying hum, as if space itself was being torn apart, resonated not through the air, but directly within his skull and in the surrounding space!
Arthur felt his eyeballs ignite instantly! Not pain, but a pure, wild surge of energy! As if two rivers of lava had finally broken free from the constraints of the Earth's crust!
The next second—
Boom!
Two indescribably fiery pillars of light, like the world-ending thunderbolts hurled by deities in myths, violently erupted from his pupils!
These were not chopstick-thin beams, but destructive torrents, nearly a bucket in diameter, condensed to an almost solid state, glowing with dazzling golden-white within their crimson hue! The moment the light pillars appeared, the air was completely ionized and vaporized!
The space along the light's path underwent violent distortion and folding, as if viewing scenery through scalding glass!
Innumerable tiny, leaping electric arcs shot out from the edges of the light pillars, emitting a dense, hair-raising crackling sound!
The terrifying high-temperature radiation instantly melted the sand within tens of meters of Arthur's feet into dark red glass, and the seawater violently boiled, sending up towering white steam clouds!
The speed of the light pillars surpassed the limits of visual capture; almost simultaneously with their emission, they traversed the ten-kilometer spatial distance, like two red-hot, heaven-piercing giant spears, plunging fiercely and precisely into the base of the black basalt headland!
There was no Earth-shattering explosion.
Only a low hum, profound enough to shake the soul, as if the Earth itself was groaning in pain!
At the point of contact, the hard basalt—eroded by millions of years of wind and waves—like an instant superposition of absolute zero and the core temperature of a star, did not even have time to melt. It silently—vaporized—within a billionth of a second.
Immediately after, there was a landslide!
The two bucket-thick light pillars, like the most precise cutting lasers, furiously cut, vaporized, and penetrated forward, upward, and inward along the weakest planes of the headland's rock structure!
Everything in their path—rock, soil, deeply buried mineral veins—instantly turned into incandescent plasma under unimaginably extreme temperatures! The massive rock structure lost its support and, under its own terrifying weight, let out a deafening, terrifying cracking sound, like the beginning of the world!
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The entire hundred-meter-high headland, under Arthur's gaze, like a cake sliced open by an invisible giant axe, slowly and irrevocably began to collapse along the terrifying cut surfaces, flowing with incandescent lava, carved out by the two lava light pillars!
The section of the massive mountain, sliced open, revealed a dazzling and shocking incandescent orange-red—a terrifying sight of rock instantly heated to several thousand degrees Celsius! Molten magma, like viscous blood, poured down the cliff face like a waterfall, carrying destructive high temperatures and a pungent sulfurous odor, furiously injecting into the cold Atlantic Ocean!
Sizzle!
The moment the seawater contacted the magma, what erupted was not the sound of water, but a terrifying hiss of billions of steam particles simultaneously forming and violently expanding! A white, super-hot steam cloud, so dense it blotted out the sky, like a nuclear mushroom cloud, instantly rose, soaring into the sky!
Inside the steam cloud, a terrifying red light flickered, indicating the churning, uncooled magma! The impact, centered on the steam cloud, spread out like an invisible giant ring, sweeping across the sea, raising colossal waves tens of meters high that roared toward the coast!
The entire coastline trembled! The ground beneath his feet was like an enraged beast turning over! Where Arthur stood, gravel bounced like chaff! Countless seabirds perched on distant reefs were terrified by this apocalyptic scene, emitting desperate, mournful cries, fleeing madly like a black storm!
How long did the light beam last? One second? Or even shorter?
When Arthur forcibly cut off his intention and retracted his world-destroying eyes, the two molten light pillars that pierced the sky and Earth instantly vanished. Only the lingering, ionized smell of ozone and the terrifying, burning afterimages on his retina remained.
Before him was a hellish scene.
The part of the cape that once existed, near its base, had completely disappeared, replaced by a bottomless, lava-edged, gigantic lava lake over a hundred meters in diameter! The lava lake was like a gaping wound in the Earth, emitting destructive red light and high temperatures.
The remaining upper half of the mountain, having lost its support, was slowly sliding toward the boiling ocean along the mirror-smooth lava cut, with an Earth-shattering momentum! Each slide triggered more violent tremors and towering waves! Dense steam clouds enveloped several square kilometers of the sea, blotting out the sky and sun, as if the end of the world had come!
Arthur stood frozen, as if petrified. A strong wind carried scalding water vapor and volcanic ash, laden with the smell of sulfurous death, against his face. The reddish glow in his pupils slowly receded, and he felt that the destruction caused by this power was too great; he needed to control himself and not cause such extensive damage.
Is this... the limit of his eyes?
Ten kilometers away, a mountain range melted and a peak shattered, in just... one second?
What if... the target was a city? Ten million lives?
A cold chill instantly shot up his spine to the crown of his head, freezing his blood and thoughts. His stomach churned, and a strong urge to vomit rose in his throat. For the first time, he so clearly realized how... inhuman! How... terrifying! The power contained within his body was!
He staggered back a step, hearing a "crunch" beneath his feet. Looking down, a hard reef where he had unconsciously stepped had been ground into fine stone powder by his power.
How strong am I now? After the awe-inspiring destruction of Heat Vision, this previously overlooked question resurfaced with new urgency. No specific test standards? Then use the most intuitive ones!
His gaze, like a tangible force, swept across the turbulent coastline. Finally, it locked onto an imposing stone mountain inland, about two or three kilometers from the lake.
The mountain was massive, estimated to be five hundred meters high, with steep slopes covered in dark vegetation and exposed gray granite bedrock, like a silent ancient beast crouching on the Earth.
Compared to it, the previous cape, whose base had been melted away, was like a child's sandcastle. The weight of this mountain, by the most conservative estimate, reached an astonishing tens of millions of tons.
"Lift it..." A thought formed crystal clear in Arthur's mind. Not push, not shatter, but... lift it completely from the Earth! He wanted to experience this pure power firsthand!
And he would use it to test the crucial Biological Field! To see how it protected objects he touched from being destroyed by this terrifying power.
He strode towards the stone mountain. His steps were steady; with each step, the ground trembled slightly, leaving clear footprints, and the rocks at the edges of the footprints silently crumbled into powder.
In a few breaths, he had crossed several kilometers and arrived at the foot of this behemoth. Looking up at the towering, tens of millions of tons heavy mass, a sense of insignificance due to its size naturally arose, but strangely, there was no feeling of heaviness or pressure in his heart, only the calm of observing a test subject.
Taking a deep breath, Arthur slowly squatted. He placed his hands, with an almost casual gesture, on the moss-covered and cracked granite mountain base.
The sensation came. Hard, cold, with the weight of the Earth. But the moment his hands touched the rock, that strange, faint electrical current-like feeling reappeared!
Biological Field!
An invisible, resilient, living energy field naturally, like breathing, emanated from every cell of his body! This force field, even before his conscious intention to activate it, automatically spread out, like the gentlest yet toughest invisible membrane, instantly enveloping the small section of rock his hands touched!
Furthermore, this force field, as if alive, spread madly upwards, inwards, and in all directions along the rock's structure, cracks, every inch of its surface, and the roots of every tree attached to it!
Almost the instant Arthur's intention fell, this invisible Biological Field completely and thoroughly enveloped the entire five-hundred-meter-high granite mountain, conservatively estimated to weigh tens of millions of tons!
At this moment, Arthur's feeling was incredibly peculiar. He "felt" that a connection beyond physics had been established between him and this giant mountain. It was no longer a heavy, cold rock behemoth, but more like a... gigantic whole, perfectly enveloped by an invisible force field!
The mountain's unimaginable weight, its complex internal stresses, and any potential fault lines—all factors that would normally cause landslides and earthquakes during physical lifting—were forcibly protected by this magical Biological Field!
It ensured that the mountain's structural integrity would not collapse due to its own gravity or external stresses when moved. However, this force field itself did not reduce the mountain's weight by a single iota! The tens of millions of tons of mass still existed!
An unassuming word escaped Arthur's lips, his voice not loud, even carrying a hint of experimental curiosity.
Immediately after, Arthur's arms began to exert force!
However, just as Arthur's muscle fibers began to contract, and power was just starting to transmit from his core to his arms, even before it was fully applied to the mountain base—
Buzz!
The massive, five-hundred-meter-high mountain, weighing tens of millions of tons, was suddenly lifted into the air as if by an invisible giant cable!
Too fast! Faster than imaginable!
Arthur only felt his arms just beginning to move upwards, and before he could even feel any resistance, the giant mountain was already... off the ground! And it was soaring upwards at a speed far exceeding his expected exertion!
One meter... ten meters... fifty meters... one hundred meters!
The ascent speed was astonishing! Like a rocket launching into the sky! A fierce wind howled around the mountain, kicking up a sky-blotting cloud of dust and broken branches! A colossal shadow instantly covered several square kilometers below!
Actually, Arthur flew up, lifting the mountain with him.
Arthur was stunned. He maintained the posture of lifting his arms, but his movements were frozen. He... he hadn't even exerted any force!
Or rather, the amount of force he had prepared to use, upon truly encountering the mountain, felt like trying to push a thin piece of paper with all his might!
That insignificant intention to exert force, the moment it touched the mountain, was instantly drowned, overwhelmed, and magnified countless times by the torrent of power within his body, like a bottomless abyss!
He looked down at his hands, then at the behemoth already suspended over a hundred meters above the ground. A feeling of extreme absurdity and unreality surged within him.
Light. So light, as if he wasn't lifting a five-hundred-meter-high, tens of millions of tons heavy granite mountain, but a feather! A piece of foam.
Arthur had already simply learned to fly.
He tried to increase his power output ever so slightly, extremely carefully.
Boom!
The mountain and Arthur were violently slammed upwards as if by an invisible giant palm, surging nearly another hundred meters! The speed was so great that it even created a sonic boom-like impact below!
Arthur was completely dumbfounded. He immediately stopped all power output, fearing that with a slight mistake, he would directly throw the mountain into the stratosphere.
He maintained the posture of lifting his arms, but at this moment, it was more like a symbolic gesture. He clearly "felt" that the Biological Field, which enveloped the entire giant mountain, faithfully transmitted the terrifying, real weight of tens of millions of tons.
This weight was like solid lead, pressing heavily on the net formed by the Biological Field. However, when this weight was transmitted through the field to his body... it vanished.
Or rather, it was instantly swallowed without a trace by the boundless, star-like ocean of power within him, like a drop of water falling into the ocean, causing no ripples.
He felt no heaviness, no pressure, as if he were lifting air.
The absolute mass, enough to max out any instrument and shatter any theory, was as light as a feather to his Kryptonian body. His power limit had long since far exceeded the scope this mountain could test.
The Biological Field merely ensured that under his inhuman strength, the mountain could maintain its shape, rather than being crushed into dust or flung into outer space the moment he touched it.
"So, that's how it is," an indescribable realization and a deeper sense of dread arose in Arthur's heart.
The Biological Field was a shield, protecting the fragile things he touched. And his own power was already an immeasurable, incomprehensible abyss. The immense power contained within this body was so vast that a five-hundred-meter mountain seemed insignificant, light as nothing.
A moment later, Arthur collected himself, using his intention to control his muscles ever so slightly, allowing his arms to slowly descend with an almost imperceptible amplitude. He had to control even his smallest power output as if controlling a nuclear button.
Under his control, the enormous mountain settled back into its original position smoothly and silently, precisely re-embedding itself into its base on the Earth. Dust slowly fell, the Biological Field quietly retracted, and the giant mountain still stood majestically, as if it had never been moved, with only the huge swirling dust cloud at its base, stirred by the strong wind, silently narrating the scene that defied physical common sense.
The shock from the power test had not yet subsided when another indescribable feeling quietly emerged from deep within his body.
A lightness, as if freed from invisible shackles, as if the solid ground beneath his feet was no longer a support, but a restraint.
As if the Earth's immense gravity, in the face of the Solar energy surging within his body, was beginning to become... defy-able?
Arthur suddenly looked up, his heart uncontrollably accelerating. An even more incredible, more physics-defying word, with a dizzying allure, surfaced in his mind.
Flight!
One of Superman's most iconic abilities! Defying gravity, soaring through the sky!
This thought spread like wildfire, instantly igniting all his fatigue! He sprang up almost like a projectile, his gaze burning as he looked toward the boundless blue sky and the vast ocean!
It had to be tested. But flight... unlike Heat Vision and strength, it concerned speed.
Arthur forced himself to calm down, looking around, and finally chose a depression. The huge reefs embracing it on three sides formed a relatively enclosed space, like a natural test ground.
The height was limited, so even if he lost control, he wouldn't fly too far off. But true ultimate speed required a vaster space—the boundless sky, or even... outer space.
He walked to the center of the depression, taking a deep breath. This time, he no longer tried to guide energy to his eyes, but instead sank his intention into the core of his body, into the continuously flowing, miniature Sun-like energy source. He tried to feel the omnipresent Earth's gravity. It was like an invisible net, enveloping his body, firmly adhering every cell to the ground.
Then, he concentrated, imagining... breaking free from this net, imagining the surging Solar energy within his body gushing upwards, like a rocket's exhaust, providing upward thrust.
Intention was like a switch.
Buzz!
An invisible force field instantly spread out from him as the center. The gravel and sand beneath his feet were blown away, forming a clear circular area, and Arthur felt his body suddenly lighten.
As if instantly shedding a thousand-pound burden, his feet... seemed to lift slightly off the ground.
He looked down.
Yes, his toes were about one centimeter off the ground, and his entire body, as if freed from the shackles of gravity, was suspended in the air.
Success.
Hovering.
A wave of immense euphoria instantly engulfed him, but the next second, this euphoria turned into panic.
Because he found that he couldn't control this hovering state; his body, like a blown-up balloon, began to drift uncontrollably and extremely slowly upwards! And, the invisible force field seemed to be strengthening!
"Stop! Stop!" Arthur roared internally, trying to retract his intention. But once the lift was activated, it seemed to have its own inertia! The more he tried to control it, the more his body swayed, and the faster his ascent became.
One meter... two meters... He floated upwards like a human hydrogen balloon, swaying toward the top of the depression! He was about to exceed the height of the surrounding reefs, exposing himself to the outside world.
"Damn it," Arthur cursed under his breath. In a moment of urgency, his intention instinctively pressed downwards.
Boom!
His body was violently slammed downwards as if by an invisible giant hammer, plummeting rapidly!
"Not good!" His pupils contracted sharply! The descent speed was too fast! If he fell like this, even if his body was fine, the ground beneath his feet would probably suffer!
At the critical moment, he forcefully steadied his mind, focusing his will on the buffer, imagining that invisible force forming a soft air cushion beneath his feet.
The speed of his descent suddenly slowed!
Thud!
With a muffled sound, Arthur's feet landed heavily on the ground, but his control over his power was just right; he only crushed the loose stones beneath his feet into dust, and the ground did not collapse. He staggered for a moment, then stood firm, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
That was too close! This flying... is ten thousand times harder to control than he imagined! It doesn't require brute force, but an extremely subtle sense of balance, like controlling invisible limbs with his consciousness.
Arthur wiped away sweat, but his eyes grew even more resolute. He didn't back down. If once wasn't enough, then ten times! A hundred times! He had to master it! This wasn't just power; it was his trump card for survival and escaping danger in critical moments!
He focused again, his will sinking in. This time, he no longer pursued height and speed, but concentrated on the most basic 'hovering.' He was like an acrobat learning to walk a tightrope for the first time, carefully adjusting the delicate balance between the internal lift and the Earth's gravity.
Willpower upwards... his body slightly lifted off the ground.
Willpower slightly relaxed... his body slowly descended.
Willpower tilted to the left... his body smoothly shifted half an inch to the left.
Willpower to the right... his body drifted back to the right... He was completely focused, his spirit taut like a drawn bowstring. Sweat soaked through the back of his shirt, and his muscles trembled slightly from the intense tension. Time quietly slipped away in the monotonous and dangerous repetitive practice.
The Sun gradually set in the west, painting the sky and the sea in a magnificent golden-red hue.
In the center of the depression, that tall figure could finally hover steadily about a meter off the ground. His movements no longer swayed like a drunkard's, but showed nascent stability. He slowly, tentatively 'stepped' forward. Not with his feet, but by using his will to propel his body forward.
One meter... two meters... He glided low over the depression as if on an invisible skateboard. His speed wasn't fast, but it was exceptionally steady. He tried turning, tried ascending a little higher, then carefully descended.
An unprecedented sense of freedom, like an electric current, coursed through his entire body! The Earth was beneath his feet, the sky above his head! Although only a few meters high, this feeling of breaking free from the shackles of gravity, of riding the wind, was so novel, so... intoxicating!
He slowly, bit by bit, increased his altitude. Two meters... three meters... five meters... The energy field within his body operated stably, forming a dynamic balance with the pull of the Earth's gravity. He soared over the tops of the encircling reefs, and his vision suddenly opened up!
The afterglow of the setting Sun painted the vast Atlantic Ocean in molten gold. Where the sea met the sky, a magnificent sunset burned. Beneath him, the black reefs, like the spines of a giant beast, appeared and disappeared in the waves. The salty sea breeze blew unhindered across his face, stirring his sweat-soaked hair.
Arthur hovered about ten meters above the sea, looking down at this vast and magnificent scene. The golden light of the setting Sun outlined his chiseled profile, casting deep shadows in his eyes.
Low-altitude hovering and maneuvering were mastered. It was time to test his speed. The true speed, the speed of Superman!
He took a deep breath, his gaze fixed on the boundless sky and sea to the west. His will sank in, no longer suppressed, no longer cautious. Imagining breaking free! Imagining a sprint! Imagining the sky!
Boom!
The energy core within his body erupted like a supernova! An unimaginable thrust burst forth from every cell of his body! The sea surface beneath him was instantly pressed into a huge crater, and a ring of white mist exploded outwards!
Arthur's figure suddenly blurred and vanished from his original spot!
Not an afterimage! It was a true, physical disappearance! His speed had instantly broken through a certain critical point!
Time lost its meaning, space was infinitely compressed.
One moment he was above the reefs, the next, Arthur had appeared high above the sea, tens of kilometers away, with churning deep blue waves beneath him and an even deeper azure sky above.
The air was torn apart by the high speed, forming a long, twisted vacuum corridor behind him, which was then filled by violently rushing air, producing deafening, continuous sonic booms! Boom! Boom! Boom! Like rolling thunder rumbling over the sea!
But this was far from his limit; his will urged him again, accelerating, and accelerating further.
Boom!
His speed surged again, and the surrounding scenery completely transformed into blurred, elongated streaks of color. The blue of the sky and the blue of the sea wildly mixed and swirled at the edges of his vision, and clouds were easily torn apart like cotton candy.
He could even feel the curvature of the Earth subtly bending beneath him.
There were no reference points, only the suffocating sense of pressure and control brought by speed itself.
Arthur concentrated, attempting to turn. With a slight shift of his will, his body, like the most agile bird, carved a sharp, almost right-angled trajectory at super-high speed. The air was forcefully twisted and compressed, emitting an even sharper, more piercing roar.
Accelerating, towards a higher sky, towards a thinner atmosphere.
The Earth rapidly receded beneath him, and the curved outline of the blue planet became clearer and clearer.
Clouds were left behind, like a white velvet blanket. The color of the sky rapidly transitioned from azure to deep blue, then to the almost inky blackness of deep space.
Here, there was no air resistance, and speed could be infinitely increased.
Blazing fast!
Hum!
The surging energy within his body seemed to reach a resonance point; the surrounding space emitted a strange hum and distortion, and the sense of time completely vanished! Arthur felt as if he had merged with light itself.
It was no longer he who was flying, but space itself that was throwing him forward. Before his eyes was no longer the starry sky, but a chaotic, shimmering tunnel of light. His thoughts seemed to stretch and suspend in this absolute speed.
Just as he was about to touch the limits of physical laws, a warning from the depths of his soul suddenly exploded—danger, uncontrollable!
Arthur forcefully cut off his will, like reining in a wild horse galloping at the edge of a cliff.
Boom!
His body violently broke free from that almost light-like state! The immense inertia still carried him forward, and he immediately used his will to create reverse thrust.
Screech!
His body decelerated violently in the near-vacuum of high altitude, rubbing against the extremely thin air and erupting in dazzling flames, like a humanoid meteor. The immense overload caused by the sudden deceleration would have crushed any mortal into a pulp, but for Arthur, it felt like nothing.
He hovered at the edge of low Earth orbit, hundreds of kilometers above the ground. Below, the giant blue planet slowly rotated, with clear outlines of clouds, continents, and oceans.
Above, was the deep, boundless dark universe, with cold starlight dotting it like eternal diamonds. Silence—an absolute, heart-pounding silence—enveloped him. Only the slow, strong beat of his own heart echoed in his ears.
This was... the limit of flight? Near light speed? Or even... beyond? Arthur looked down at his outstretched hands, his fingertips seemingly still retaining that strange tactile sensation of traversing space. This power... vast as the starry sea, and dangerous as the abyss.
The setting sun stretched his shadow long and thin across the azure planet. The sea breeze had long disappeared, only the cold radiation of the universe silently brushed past him.
The power was too strong, so strong that it made him afraid. So strong that it made him feel a chasm, impossible to cross, between himself and the noisy, fragile, human world full of life and fire below. He was like a child holding a nuclear launch button, every step treading on thin ice.
He could easily crush those thugs, and he could instantly destroy half a city. He could hear conspiracies from a thousand miles away, and he could see privacy behind walls. He was omnipotent, yet... out of place.
Just as this immense loneliness and the anxiety of control almost overwhelmed him, a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
Biological Field!
That invisible force field that automatically appeared when lifting a giant mountain, perfectly enveloping and protecting the entire mountain! It was like the toughest, gentlest membrane, isolating the terrifying power from directly damaging fragile objects. If it could envelop external objects... could it then... envelop himself?
Arthur's heart suddenly pounded. This idea carried a strong temptation. He tried, using his will to 'summon' that force field which existed as naturally as breathing. No longer passively waiting for it to activate upon contact with an external object, but actively, consciously guiding it out—like donning an invisible armor, covering his entire body!
Hum... An extremely faint, yet incredibly clear sense of resonance came from deep within his body.
It was as if dormant cells were awakened. An invisible, flexible, living energy field began to emanate from every pore of his skin, like the most precise nanoliquid, rapidly covering and enveloping his entire body—including the ordinary dark hoodie he was wearing!
The force field formed! Like a second skin, clinging to every contour of his body.
Arthur slowly descended to the battered coastline below, standing beside a relatively intact black reef. He looked down at his right hand. With a slight movement of his will, he tried to flex his fingers ever so slightly.
Enveloped by the Biological Field, he clearly 'felt' the contraction and expansion of his muscle fibers, felt the path of power flowing through his tendons and bones. But this power, the moment it touched that invisible force field, seemed to be buffered and restrained by a flexible 'filter'! It was no longer the uncontrollable, raging torrent like a flood beast from before, but had become... controllable!
He held his breath, concentrating on his fingertips. Extremely slowly, extremely carefully... he extended an index finger.
The target was a tiny, nail-sized stone particle slightly protruding from the reef surface.
His will drove an extremely faint force, like a trickle, through the filter of the Biological Field to his fingertip.
His fingertip gently descended.
There was no anticipated sound of rock shattering, no deep finger imprint. His fingertip only very gently, as if caressing a lover's face, touched the surface of that tiny stone particle! He could even clearly 'feel' the rough texture and cold temperature of the stone's surface!
Incredible light burst from Arthur's eyes! He tried to increase his strength slightly, using his fingertip to gently 'push' the stone particle.
The stone particle obediently rolled once, tumbled out of the small indentation on the reef surface, and fell onto the sand nearby. The reef surface remained smooth, without even a single scratch!
Success!
Immense joy and an unprecedented sense of control instantly overwhelmed Arthur! He tried it repeatedly. Clenching his fist, then releasing it. The power, enveloped by the Biological Field, was like a wild horse with reins, becoming docile and easy to command.
He could control the intensity of every muscle's exertion, just like controlling his breathing! He could be as gentle as picking up a feather, or instantly unleash destructive power! And the key to all this lay in this invisible Biological Field that enveloped him!
It was not only a shield protecting external objects, but also a sheath restraining his own terrifying power, a buffer separating the torrent of power from fragile reality. With it, he finally saw a glimmer of hope for living like an ordinary person, finally able to carefully, no longer fearfully, touch this world.
Arthur took one last look at the giant setting sun, which was about to sink to the other side of the planet. Golden light danced in his deep pupils, but this time, that light seemed to hold a faint, brighter hue named hope.
Power was a curse, and also a responsibility. In this perilous Marvel Universe, this Kryptonian body was both a protective umbrella and a sword hanging over his head. But at this moment, he seemed to have found the key to grasping the hilt of the sword and controlling its edge: that invisible force field enveloping himself.
He had to learn to control it, if only to... survive, to live like a human being. To use this sheath to carefully restrain the endless power within his body.
Arthur pulled up his hood, covering himself completely under the double embrace of his hoodie and the Biological Field.
His body tilted slightly forward, his will driving him, and his figure transformed into a stream of light imperceptible to the naked eye, diving towards the huge city below, where lights had just begun to twinkle. This time, his flight path was smooth and precise, without causing any sonic booms or air currents, like a true ghost merging into the night.
Only the cooling embers of lava, the shifted hills, and the brief energy ripples in deep space were left behind on the desolate coastline, silently narrating the arrival of a non-human entity.