"Haha…"
"Relax. I'm kidding. You can call me Freeborn."
After scaring Rex so badly he was practically trembling, Jovian put on a gentle smile and spoke to everyone in a mild tone.
"So the big F on your chest means freedom?!" Eve asked, pointing at the huge letter on Jovian's suit.
"You can look at it that way…" Jovian glanced down at the F and raised an eyebrow. It was hard for him to explain what the F really meant. He couldn't exactly tell a bunch of teenage superheroes that the F on his chest didn't stand for freedom—it stood for F*ck.
"So that means this F might have other meanings?!" Eve's curiosity immediately flared.
"I never said that. That's your own theory. Anyway, it's a perfectly respectable F."
Jovian successfully sparked Eve's curiosity about him. If you wanted to win a woman over, the first step was to hook her curiosity—make her think about you constantly. And in the "hook her curiosity" department, Jovian had clearly succeeded.
"Alright, enough joking. Robot—your name is Robot, right? What's the deal with those aliens?"
"That was the Flaxans—an alien species that exists in a universe dimension completely different from ours. Based on the tanks they left behind, their time flow is drastically different from ours. In theory, even if we ignored them, in three to five minutes their cells would automatically age and decay until they couldn't move anymore."
The moment the conversation hit his specialty, Robot immediately began explaining.
"What does that prove?" Rex blurted. "Are you saying that even if we did nothing—if our 'hero' didn't blow up half a street to beat them—they'd basically commit suicide anyway? Then doesn't that mean our 'hero' did all that for nothing?!"
Now that Jovian had let him off the hook, Rex started running his mouth again—classic "forgetting the pain the second it stops."
"Rex," Robot couldn't help correcting him. "In reality, Freeborn saved us. Without Freeborn, we likely would've been killed before the Flaxans decayed."
"I know, I know. Of course I know!" Rex hurriedly found an excuse for his yapping. "I'm praising Freeborn for being insanely strong—like, he can casually demolish a street."
"…"
Jovian heard the stream of garbage coming out of Rex's mouth and couldn't be bothered to respond. He'd find an opportunity later for Rex to have a little "accident," so he could go chatter to his heart's content in hell.
"For these Flaxan attacks, what countermeasures do we have?" Jovian ignored Rex and continued questioning Robot, using the tone of a leader talking to a subordinate.
"I analyzed their teleportation energy. When the Flaxans attack again, an alarm will sound. It's meant to warn us. Um… it should give us a few minutes' notice. Probably."
Robot stared at his device as he spoke, sounding not entirely confident.
"Robot… you don't have an actual name?" Jovian frowned. "I keep calling you 'Robot,' and it just sounds… weird."
"I am Robot. Everyone calls me Robot."
Robot couldn't understand what Jovian meant. Since the day he was "born," people had called him Robot.
"Listen—'Robot' isn't a name. The thing that sweeps my floor at home is called a robot. Are you telling me you think you and that thing are the same?"
"Since everyone calls you Robot, that means you don't have a name, right?"
"Good. Starting today, your name is Jack. Robot Jack."
Jovian said it like an order. There was no deeper meaning—he just felt like calling him Robot was awkward, and besides, Freeborn didn't need a reason to rename someone. If he wanted to decide what you were called, then that's what you were called.
"Actually… I don't really care about names." Robot hesitated. "But I'll accept Jack for now."
Jovian was right—Robot clearly wasn't the same as the little cleaning gadget back at home.
"When the warning goes off, remember to call me. I don't care how many show up—leave it to me. I have a one-and-done solution…"
"Oh, right. You need my number, don't you?" Jovian said, turning to Eve.
After Jovian and Mark left the teen team, they went to that five-pointed government building and checked in on their parents.
After two days, Nolan's body was basically healed. He was still lying in the hospital bed, but only to adjust his condition so he could return in peak form.
After chatting with Debbie for a while, Jovian took Mark home again.
Nothing happened overnight. The next morning, as soon as the sun came up, Jovian and Mark headed to school together again, preparing to endure another boring, painfully long day.
At noon, as a certified foodie, Jovian finally had the best mood of the entire day as he walked into the cafeteria with Mark. Jovian filled two full trays with food…
The tall, broad-shouldered Jovian ate more than twice what most people could.
"Hey!"
"Mark—and Jovian…"
Mark's sidekick, Francis, spotted them and immediately walked over. (TN: Not sure if it's William (cuz his middle name is Francis)
"Crunch, crunch…"
Jovian kept shoveling food into his mouth, ignoring Mark's sidekick completely.
"Francis…" Mark, who was still thinking about how he was supposed to get stronger, also seemed pretty uninterested in talking.
"Hey, Mark, stop staring." Francis followed Mark's vacant gaze and happened to see Eve eating while scrolling on her phone. He instantly misunderstood. "I get it—Eve's great and all, but don't forget you just started talking to Amber. And besides… compared to Eve, you're honestly way too average."
"Francis, I wasn't staring at Eve. I was thinking," Mark's face reddened as he kept explaining. He glanced at Jovian beside him, too—because he felt like Jovian might also be interested in Eve. Mark had already decided: if Jovian liked Eve, then he'd back off. Jovian had already given him so much in so many ways, and Mark wanted to do at least one thing for his brother…
"Beep-beep-beep-beep…"
Right as Mark was explaining, Eve's phone started ringing in the distance.
"Damn it…"
Eve looked at the message on her phone, her pretty eyebrows lifting slightly.
She raised her head and met Mark's eyes. She blinked lightly, signaling that it was time to move.
"Jovian… looks like those Flaxans are back," Mark said quietly to his brother, who was still focused on eating.
"…"
Jovian swallowed the sausage in his mouth, then chugged the entire bottle of milk in one go.
"Mark, you should know this: the thing I hate most in this life is people interrupting me while I'm eating."
Jovian crushed the plastic milk bottle into a tight wad with one hand, stood up, and left, following behind Eve.
"My God—are my eyes broken?!" Francis stared at the bottle in shock. "Jovian just crushed a hard plastic milk bottle into a ball?! That's thick plastic!"
"Uh…" Mark's eyelids twitched as he looked at the mangled bottle. "Maybe because my brother is really angry right now."
"Anyway, I've gotta go. See you…"
Mark knew better than anyone: Jovian hated being interrupted while he ate. If someone did interrupt him, that usually meant someone was about to have a really bad day.
"…"
Francis stared at the crushed bottle, then looked down at his own bottle. He grabbed it with both hands and squeezed as hard as he could.
"Liar…"
"Everyone gets angry—so why can't I crush a milk bottle?!" he yelled.
Only when both his hands were red did Francis finally give up and toss the bottle away in frustration…
"…"
Mark, on his way out of the cafeteria, heard Francis shouting and shook his head.
All he could think was: in this world… people really aren't the same.