A sharp knock echoed through the quiet house.
Chloe, who had been enjoying a lazy lunch break upstairs, slowly came down the stairs. The faint imprint of her pillow was still visible on her cheek, and her eyes looked half-closed with sleep. When she opened the door and saw Clark standing outside, she blinked in confusion and rubbed her face.
"Clark? What's going on?" she asked drowsily. "Did you come over to hang out?"
"Chloe, is your dad home?" Clark asked quickly, peering past her into the house.
"He's still at the factory," Chloe replied with a small sigh. "I had to make my own lunch today."
Chloe's father worked as a department manager at the fertilizer plant operated by LutherCorp, which kept him extremely busy most days.
"Our family ran into some trouble," Clark said. "I was hoping you might be able to help me."
"Trouble?" Chloe immediately became more alert. She stepped aside and gestured toward the living room. "Come in."
Even though she had no idea what was happening, Chloe never turned down a friend who asked for help.
Once they were seated on the couch, Clark quickly explained everything that had happened with the farm.
"Our family's farm…" he began.
Within a few minutes, he had described the bizarre situation from beginning to end.
"I need information on Mr. Rick Rickman," Clark said finally.
Chloe frowned in disbelief.
"You're telling me someone just shook your dad's hand and convinced him to sell the land your family has worked for generations?"
Her sleepy expression vanished instantly. The moment she heard something mysterious and strange, her curiosity flared to life.
"Wait right here," she said suddenly as she jumped up. "I'll grab my computer."
Her footsteps thundered upstairs.
Clark reached into his pocket and touched the blue hood hidden inside his pants. His plan was simple.
First, confirm whether Rickman was some kind of meteor-mutated individual. Then he would get Rickman's address from Chloe and go straight to confront him.
A few minutes later, Chloe rushed back downstairs carrying her laptop. She dropped onto the couch beside Clark and opened the computer, immediately beginning to search through different databases for information about Rick Rickman.
As she typed rapidly, Chloe suddenly paused.
"By the way," she said while glancing toward the doorway, "why isn't Victor with you?"
She looked puzzled.
The family farm and house were about to be taken away. It was hard to imagine Victor staying out of something that serious.
"Victor…" Clark scratched his head awkwardly.
He did not know how to explain.
The moment Victor agreed to the bet, Clark had instantly used his super speed to race straight to Chloe's house. He had been afraid that wasting even a second might allow Victor to beat him.
As for what Victor was doing now, Clark had absolutely no idea.
…
Outside town, deep within a vast and silent forest.
A blur shot through the air at nearly the speed of sound before suddenly stopping. The abrupt halt created a powerful gust of wind that swept fallen leaves across the forest floor.
Victor stood there alone.
[Thanos Template Integration: 100%]
[Loading New Template]
[New Template Loading… 1%… 3%…]
After confirming that no one was nearby, Victor studied the system notifications floating before his eyes.
He had initially planned to refuse Clark's ridiculous competition. But right at that moment, the fusion of the Thanos template had finally reached completion.
After Clark ran off, Victor immediately came to this deserted forest.
He needed a quiet place to fuse the second template.
"This is the first time two templates are merging," Victor murmured thoughtfully. "I should be careful with this."
He did not want any strange disturbances happening near the farm where his parents could see them.
"So what kind of template will it be this time?" Victor asked himself.
His eyes gleamed with anticipation.
Suddenly, a wave of heat surged through his body.
The temperature inside him rose rapidly. It felt as if molten magma was rushing through his blood vessels while immense cosmic energy surged within every cell of his body.
Crackling sounds echoed faintly from his bones.
Deep inside his body, something powerful was merging together.
His heartbeat accelerated uncontrollably.
Victor lowered his gaze and looked at his hands. The purple tint that had appeared on his skin after gaining overwhelming strength was beginning to fade slightly.
He reached up and touched his chin. The deep grooves that had once marked his jawline were slowly shrinking.
Then—
Crackle!
A ripple of purple energy burst from his hand like a streak of lightning.
A large tree in the distance was struck instantly.
The trunk split open with a terrifying wound more than four inches deep, as if it had been cut by a laser beam. Sparks flew from the damaged wood.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
More ripples of energy shot outward.
Several nearby trees were sliced down in seconds.
The cosmic energy contained within Victor's body roared violently. As the new template continued integrating, the power that had once remained sealed deep within him was breaking through its restraints.
It felt like a raging ocean wave about to smash through a dam.
Something seemed to be swelling inside his chest. The suppressed energy demanded release.
With a low growl, Victor threw a punch.
Buzz!
A concentrated beam of purple cosmic energy burst from his fist.
The destructive wave tore through the forest with a thunderous roar. Towering trees in its path were pierced instantly as the beam traveled hundreds of meters forward.
Every trunk in its path was left with a fist-sized hole burned straight through the center. Bark and wood were reduced to blackened ash.
The destruction spread nearly a mile before Victor quickly gathered the energy back into his body.
…
"Rick Rickman, forty-two years old," Chloe read aloud from the laptop screen.
She had already compiled a large amount of information about Rickman using her customized search programs.
"He attended Smallville High School," she continued. "Graduated from Western Kansas University, and started his career selling agricultural equipment."
Chloe leaned closer to the screen while reading.
"I never realized the guy planning to build a chemical factory in our town was actually a local," she said with a slight frown.
"Apparently he's even an alumnus of our school."
She opened a recently published corporate development report from Rickman Enterprises.
"So this is how he repays his hometown?" she muttered sarcastically.
Clark leaned forward.
"Did you find anything unusual about him?"
"Let me check."
Chloe scrolled through the files.
"After graduation he worked in sales," she said. "His performance was terrible at first. In fact, he was almost fired."
"But in his second year, everything changed."
"He suddenly shot to the top of the sales rankings and held the number one spot for three consecutive years."
Chloe glanced back at Clark.
"He used those bonuses to start his own company and eventually built Rickman Enterprises."
She paused thoughtfully.
"His company's management has always been criticized for being chaotic," Chloe continued. "But despite that, he keeps landing huge deals and building a fortune worth hundreds of millions."
"Does that count as suspicious?"
Clark's expression grew serious.
"If nothing else happened, the year he almost got fired would probably be the same year the meteor shower hit," he said quietly.
Chloe nodded immediately.
"That was 1991," she confirmed without even checking the news.
No one in Smallville would ever forget the year of the meteor storm.
"Where does he live now?" Clark asked.
"That's the last thing I need to know."
He had already stood up from the couch.
"146 Mount Street, Metropolis," Chloe said after checking the screen.
She looked confused by Clark's sudden excitement but answered anyway.
"Thanks, Chloe," Clark said quickly. "Next time I'll treat you to your favorite caramel pudding."
"I have to go."
The moment he heard the address, Clark hurried toward the door.
With Chloe's help, he had skipped the time needed to investigate Rickman himself. Now he was confident he would reach Rickman before Victor did.
"Wait a second!" Chloe suddenly shouted.
Her expression changed as she spotted another piece of news on the webpage. She rushed outside to stop him.
But when she reached the doorway, Clark was already gone.
The empty yard lay silent before her.
When Clark ran at full speed, no one could even see his movement. Unlike Victor, whose speed sometimes left a faint visual trail, Clark moved so quickly that he vanished entirely.
While racing across the landscape, Clark pulled the blue hood from his pocket and slipped it over his head.
His eyes shone with determination.
This time, he was absolutely going to beat his brother.
What Clark did not know was that Victor had not even left yet.
Victor had been planning to let Clark deal with the problem first.
…
Caw!
Dust and smoke drifted through the forest as a dull impact echoed between the trees, startling a flock of birds into flight.
The purple glow gradually faded from Victor's skin.
He clenched his fists with excitement as immense power surged through his body like tidal waves.
Before, he could only sense the cosmic energy inside himself without being able to control it.
Now he raised his hand.
Energy gathered instantly at his fingertips.
Victor pointed toward a dead fallen tree lying in the distance.
A beam of power shot forward.
The concentrated energy struck the wood and erased it completely.
The entire log vanished as if it had never existed. Not even a fragment remained.
A new notification appeared before his eyes.
[New Template Loading Complete — Black King Template Integrated: 30%]
Victor's eyes widened.
"Mutant… Black King?"
Sudden excitement flashed across his face.
Now he finally understood.
The reason he could release energy so freely now was because of this new ability.
"And that's not all," Victor murmured as he examined his body carefully.
"The fusion of two templates… combined with my body…"
"It feels like the result is more than just one plus one."
He clenched his fists again.
A dazzling purple light suddenly burst from his eyes.
....
Join my P*atreon for 100 premium chapters ahead of the public release.
Link: pa*treon.com/MysticVerse (Remove the *)
Free members also get 2 advanced chapters for free.