Tel-Kar glanced around the prison, sensing no powerful auras.
He snorted disdainfully and strutted away from the scene, leaving behind a mess and a group of dazed fools.
National City, Food Street.
The entire street now looked as if it had been ravaged by locusts.
In front of seven or eight restaurants, the owners collectively buried their heads in their hands and wept, their cries rising and falling.
Police officers surrounded a small mountain of plates, taking notes, their faces growing increasingly grim.
And at the top of that pile of plates, Tel-Rol was sprawled out, letting out a contented burp.
The feeling of satisfaction in his stomach made him very comfortable.
A blonde figure descended from the sky, landing heavily on the ground.
Kara Zor-El covered her face, feeling her cheeks burning.
"Supergirl!"
A police officer, as if seeing a savior, quickly ran over.
"You're finally here!"
"This person... is he your relative?"
The officer pointed at Tel-Rol on the mountain of plates and asked cautiously.
Kara looked in the direction he was pointing.
Tel-Rol seemed to notice her gaze and even waved at her, flashing a bright, sunny smile.
Kara felt her blood pressure soaring.
She forced out a smile that was uglier than a cry.
"He... he... is Superman's cousin."
"Oh... that works!"
The police officer breathed a sigh of relief and handed her a thick bill book.
"This is his total consumption for the morning.
Would you like to pay by card or..."
Kara looked down at the long string of zeros on the bill.
Her vision went black.
She felt that the money she had might not even be enough to pay for this meal.
She flew forward and grabbed Tel-Rol's ear.
"Get down from there!"
Tel-Rol stumbled as she pulled him, rolling down from the mountain of plates.
He rubbed his ear, looking at the exasperated Kara with a puzzled expression.
"What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? I should be asking you what you're doing!"
Kara pointed at the piled-up empty plates, her voice trembling.
"Do you have any idea how much you've eaten?!"
"Thirty restaurants! You've eaten all their food reserves for the next week!"
Tel-Rol replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "I was hungry."
"If you're hungry, you eat.
What's the problem?"
This question left Kara speechless.
She felt that communicating with this man was like trying to bridge a species-level gap.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
"No problem, it's good to eat when you're hungry."
"But! On Earth, you have to pay for food!"
"Money?"
Tel-Rol tilted his head; he seemed to have heard that word before.
Kara pulled a black credit card from her pocket.
She held the small plastic card and dangled it in front of Tel-Rol's eyes.
"See this? This is money."
"On Earth, you need to use this to exchange for food, or anything else you want."
She tried to instill the basic rules of human society into him in the simplest possible way.
Tel-Rol extended two fingers and took the credit card from her hand.
He brought the card closer to his eyes, examining it from all angles.
"This?"
His blue eyes were full of confusion.
Kara nodded heavily.
"Yes! That's it!"
"It's very important.
You can't break it, and you certainly can't..."
She hadn't finished her sentence.
With a soft "snap," the credit card was easily crushed into fine plastic powder between Tel-Rol's two fingers.
The powder drifted down through his fingers.
Kara's mouth slowly formed an "O" shape.
Tel-Rol brought his fingers to his mouth and blew on them, then looked at Kara seriously.
"This thing isn't strong at all."
"And it's not edible."
He asked with a look of disdain, "Why do you need such a useless thing?"
"I—!"
Kara was trembling with anger, her golden hair almost standing on end.
She felt two scorching beams of light accumulating energy in her eyes.
Just as she was about to lose control of her heat vision and show this lawless man a thing or two, an urgent news flash suddenly interrupted the giant screen on the building next to the street.
"...This is a special report from the Daily Planet."
"An unidentified giant metal robot is rampaging through downtown Metropolis."
"Superman has already arrived at the scene!"
The scene switched.
A huge metal man, over three meters tall, was crashing through the city streets.
Cars were flattened and tossed aside.
A red and blue figure descended from the sky and blocked its path.
It was Clark.
In the news footage, as soon as Superman approached the metal man, his body visibly swayed.
A pained expression appeared on his face.
The metal man seized the opportunity, landing a heavy punch squarely on Superman's chest.
"Boom!"
Superman was sent flying directly, crashing into a nearby building.
The camera quickly zoomed in on the metal man's chest, giving a close-up.
There, embedded was a huge green crystal, the size of a basketball.
That crystal was glowing green.
Kryptonite!
Seeing that green stone, Kara's face instantly turned pale.
"Clark!"
She cried out anxiously.
She immediately realized that her cousin was facing mortal danger.
She turned and yelled at Tel-Rol, who was still oblivious to the situation, "I have to go help him!"
"You! Stay here, don't go anywhere! And don't eat anything else!"
After saying that, she prepared to take off.
Tel-Rol's brows also furrowed.
His "ki" sensing clearly detected the familiar, powerful energy, originating from the same source as him, in the direction of distant Metropolis.
It was rapidly weakening.
Meanwhile, another "can" full of mechanical and radiation energy was acting exceptionally arrogant.
"That glowing broken stone again?"
Tel-Rol's tone was filled with undisguised disdain and annoyance.
"I really don't understand."
"Why do you so-called strong ones always get tripped up by such things?"
Kara, just about to ascend, nearly fell from the sky in anger when she heard this.
She turned back and glared at him.
"That's none of your business!"
She wanted to fly away, but just seeing the image of the Kryptonite on TV made her feel a wave of powerlessness.
In the TV screen, Superman struggled to stand up from the rubble, only to be stomped back down by the metal man.
Tel-Rol watched Clark kneeling on the TV.
Then he looked at Kara beside him, anxious, angry, yet powerless because of a stone.
He completely lost his patience.
"Too much trouble."
He interrupted Kara's impending new round of lecturing with annoyance.
The next second, he transformed into a white streak of light, several times faster than when he went to Belle Reve, and vanished into the sky.
Only a voice echoed above Food Street, "I'll go crush that noisy green light bulb."
"You stay here... and pay the bill."