When Clark and David returned to school, everything looked completely normal. The students in their class had already forgotten the strange incident from earlier, as if it had never happened. None of them remembered being controlled by a supernatural charm, and the entire episode had vanished from their minds.
All they could recall was that an unbelievably beautiful woman had briefly appeared in the classroom and introduced herself as the new teacher, Miss Akins. Beyond that vague memory, everything else was blank.
Meanwhile, far away in Lex Luthor's mansion, the young billionaire slowly woke up behind his desk.
Lex rubbed his temples and frowned deeply. It felt as if a piece of his brain had been surgically removed, leaving behind an unsettling emptiness. The sensation made him uneasy, like a puzzle missing a critical piece.
"What did I forget?" he muttered under his breath.
Fragments of memory flickered through his mind. The only thing he could clearly recall was that a strikingly attractive woman had suddenly appeared in his office.
Further back… further back…
Lex's expression suddenly changed. His eyes darkened as realization began to dawn on him. Without wasting another second, he quickly bent down and opened the hidden safe behind his desk.
It was empty.
The sight made his heart sink. His worst fear had come true—the mysterious wishing stone capable of granting any desire had vanished without a trace.
"Was it that woman?" Lex whispered coldly.
A moment later, however, he frowned again. Something felt off.
His mind seemed sharper than usual, almost as if his intelligence had been enhanced. Complex scientific concepts flowed effortlessly through his thoughts, and new experimental ideas kept surfacing one after another.
"Exoskeleton combat armor… new forms of energy…"
The inspiration arrived so naturally that it felt almost like a gift. It was eerily similar to what he had planned to wish for using the stone, but the problem was obvious.
When had he actually made the wish?
Lex tried desperately to recall the missing moments, but his mind remained blank. No matter how hard he concentrated, there was simply nothing there.
"In the end… what happened here?" he murmured, his brows tightening.
…
Whenever Akins left the people she had charmed, their memories of her would gradually disappear. It was an ability she had relied on for years to survive.
Over the years, she had used that power to seduce countless wealthy men, making them fall hopelessly in love with her before draining them of their fortunes. Afterward, she would disappear without a trace, leaving behind nothing but confusion.
Without the memory-erasing effect of her power, someone would have eventually realized what she was doing. If that had happened, she would have been hunted down and torn apart by furious victims long ago.
Ironically, that same ability had ended up helping David and Clark.
As for the entire class suddenly losing a small piece of their memory, no one thought too deeply about it. In a small town where strange and unexplained events happened regularly, something like that barely registered as unusual.
After the police confirmed there were no neurological drugs or chemicals present in the classroom, the incident was quietly dismissed. The next day, everyone returned to school as if nothing had ever happened.
Summer arrived quickly, bringing with it the long-awaited graduation season.
Soon, the students would leave for different colleges and begin entirely new lives. The approaching separation made everyone more aware of how much they valued their classmates and their time together.
Many students felt reluctant to say goodbye to the familiar campus that had shaped their teenage years.
Naturally, someone smart noticed the opportunity and began selling graduation souvenirs on campus.
"David, aren't you planning to buy a graduation ring to remember the end of high school?" Clark asked while walking beside his brother through the school corridor.
He glanced at David curiously and continued, "The last couple of days you've seemed kind of distracted. What have you been thinking about?"
Clark tilted his head slightly as he studied him.
"Are you getting sentimental because graduation is coming up?"
However, even as he asked the question, Clark felt it sounded a little strange. His brother didn't seem like the type of person who got nostalgic over something like that.
David's thoughts had been interrupted, and he shook his head calmly.
"You mean spending tens or even hundreds of dollars on a ring that probably costs a few dollars to make?" he replied.
He gave Clark a flat look before continuing, "No thanks. The only thing that kind of purchase accomplishes is reminding you, a few years later, how stupid you were. Then you'll feel like slapping your younger self a couple times."
"Well…" Chloe quietly lowered her hand.
She had been wearing a brass ring engraved with the words Smallville High School. A moment ago, she had been planning to ask everyone whether it looked good on her.
Trying to act unaffected, she forced a casual smile.
"Clark, don't listen to him," she said lightly. "As long as we think it's meaningful, that's what matters."
Pete's enthusiasm, however, wasn't dampened in the slightest. He grabbed Clark's arm and eagerly dragged him toward the small stall selling commemorative rings on campus.
After browsing for a moment, Pete chose a polished ebony ring that looked both simple and stylish.
Clark soon found one he liked as well.
Using the pocket money he had saved, he purchased a ring that appeared to be set with a bright red gemstone.
Of course, Clark knew it couldn't possibly be a real ruby.
"Probably plastic… or maybe some kind of synthetic stone," he thought.
Still, when he looked at the words Smallville High School engraved along the inner band, a warm smile spread across his face. Whether the gem was real or fake didn't really matter.
The ring was meant to symbolize a memory.
As soon as Clark slipped it onto his finger, however, something strange happened.
A sudden chill ran down his spine, as if someone had pressed a piece of ice against his back. His entire body trembled slightly, and his eyes widened in surprise.
At the same time, a powerful surge of excitement began rising in his chest.
It felt like…
Clark's thoughts drifted toward darker impulses, emotions that triggered an intense and uncontrollable thrill deep inside him.
"How is it?" Pete asked, curious whether the ring fit properly.
Clark looked at his hand and smiled.
"I've never felt better than I do right now," he said.
It felt as though invisible shackles had suddenly shattered. A strange exhilaration surged through his veins, and his mind had never felt so active and alive.
Clark's smile slowly widened.
"Never," he added quietly.
A faint, unusual glimmer flashed through his eyes.
"David was right," he said thoughtfully. "When people grow up, they sometimes look back and realize how stupid they used to be. Sometimes they even want to slap their younger selves."
He lowered his gaze slightly.
Right now, he felt just as foolish as the person he had once remembered being.
He possessed extraordinary abilities far beyond ordinary people, yet he had spent his life suppressing them. He could easily live a life thousands of times better than the one he was living now.
"I told you it was a good choice," Pete said happily while admiring the ring on his own finger.
Then he suddenly noticed something odd.
The ring had looked incredibly elegant and eye-catching while sitting on the display stand. But once he wore it, the design somehow seemed less noticeable.
Meanwhile, Clark—still riding the wave of excitement—glanced toward David in the distance.
His eyes flickered briefly.
A moment later, the smile slowly faded from his face.
…
It was a rare day off. Even though exams were approaching, neither David nor Clark felt the slightest pressure.
For them, exams were little more than a routine formality.
David didn't feel like asking Clark what he planned to do with his free time. Instead, he simply went on a date with Lana as usual.
Whitney's mysterious disappearance had made Lana somewhat worried, but it hadn't slowed the progress of her growing relationship with Clark.
Ever since encountering Akins, David had been curious about something.
He wanted to know how much the ripple effect of his actions had already changed the timeline.
Taking advantage of a free morning during the holiday, he traveled to Washington and headed straight for the Museum of Natural History.
If his memory was correct, Wonder Woman had been working there since the end of World War I, hiding among ordinary people while living under the identity of Diana Prince.
The Museum of Natural History in Washington stood grand and imposing. Its vast hallways were paved with smooth marble floors that reflected the bright overhead lights.
"Diana Prince?" the receptionist repeated.
She placed the phone down after making several calls and offered an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry," she said gently. "I've double-checked multiple times. There isn't anyone by that name among the museum staff responsible for identifying or restoring artifacts."
"Thank you," David replied politely.
However, his expression looked somewhat surprised as he stepped out of the building.
He spent the rest of the day asking around Washington, trying to confirm the information through other sources.
But the result was always the same.
There was no mysterious woman who used a golden rope to capture criminals. There was no curator named Diana Prince quietly working behind the scenes.
"The ripple effects I caused might be bigger than I thought," David murmured.
Could it be that Wonder Woman had never even left Paradise Island yet?
"Paradise Island…" he whispered softly.
Standing beside the fountain in the city square, David watched a flock of white doves glide across the sky. His gaze drifted toward the horizon as his thoughts deepened.
For the past two days, one question had been lingering in his mind.
Most of the emotional energy he gained—aside from the unique case of Batman—seemed to come from people who possessed extraordinary powers.
"The problem is there simply aren't enough of them," he thought.
Even in a town filled with strange phenomena, he had encountered fewer than ten people with real abilities so far. Combined together, the emotional energy they provided wasn't even one-tenth of what Clark alone could generate.
"Most of the time, my template fusion relies entirely on Clark," David reflected quietly.
Now that his strength had grown stronger, Clark could occasionally generate sixty or seventy emotional points at a time.
"But what if…"
David's eyes suddenly brightened slightly.
"What if the target was an entire race with extraordinary power?"
....
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