American comic book: My Father is Superman, am I just an NPC?

Chapter 235 Darkseid's Plot

Earth.

In a forgotten corner.

The area around an altar, naturally formed from black rock and hidden deep in the mountains, looked eerie, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur mixed with old blood.

The rough rock face was carved with twisted runes, full of blasphemous messages against heaven and God, which seemed to writhe like living things in the flickering torchlight.

A dozen figures clad in tattered black robes were prostrate on the cold ground, chanting ancient and difficult prayers in a low voice, their voices fervent and hoarse, creating an unsettling resonance—these were the most loyal and secretive followers of the Three Palaces Demon.

Unlike those low-level demon worshippers who only create chaos, they seek something deeper, namely the dark knowledge and power belonging to the true form of that dimensional demon god.

"Aba aba aba~ Kabuda~"

This group of people is clearly performing some kind of ritual.

There are words in his mouth.

Sudden--

At the center of the altar, the eerie green demonic fire that had been burning calmly suddenly surged! The flames were no longer flickering erratically, but instead twisted and coalesced wildly as if they had gained life and will!
"what happened?"

"what's the situation!"

"Has the Great Sovereign answered us?" The believers' chanting stopped abruptly, and everyone looked up in fear and excitement at the strange flames.

The eerie green flames intertwined and swirled in the air, eventually outlining an incredibly clear human figure made of pure magical energy—the figure of a boy, with crystal-clear details, even capturing a certain expression that would make anyone's blood pressure soar and get angry.

The image is clearly of Ian.

Sangu Ma's drawing skills look really good. Perhaps even after he loses his job as the Demon King in Hell, he could still apply for jobs like those for art students who failed their college entrance exams.

Of course, Sangu is completely unaware of this yet. It is using its power to reach into the dimension of reality and convey its will to its believers on Earth.

San Gong Mo was indeed very angry.

He was going to carry out his revenge plan overnight.

Through the believers' rituals, a grand, cold will, filled with endless rage and majesty, resounded directly deep within the souls of all believers.

That was the voice of their supreme ruler—the Three Palaces Demon!
"find him!"

"Find everything about this boy! His real name! His hidden bloodline! His physical and mental weaknesses! Everything he cares about and cherishes!"

“Offer his information to me! I will grant you… the true power of the abyss!” Clearly, even Sangu Mako didn’t quite believe that Ian, who looked like that, could really be the son of Superman.

He felt that Ian must have another identity, such as the son of a demon conceived on earth by some demon king through Superman's wife. It would be hard for someone who wasn't born from hell to be so monstrous.

In order to conceal her weakness, the will of the Three Palace Demon did not linger in the human world for long.

After conveying this unquestionable divine decree, the outline of "Ian" formed by demonic fire suddenly exploded, turning into countless green sparks that dissipated into the air, leaving only the still eerily burning flames on the altar, the even stronger smell of sulfur in the air, and a sense of oppression that had not dissipated even after being watched by a supreme being.

"!!!"

The believers fell into a deathly silence, then erupted into an even more fervent shout!
They slammed their foreheads against the cold ground with a dull thud, expressing their absolute obedience to the divine oracle and their ecstatic joy at the impending blessing.

"As you so wish! Great Lord of the Third Palace!"

“We will dig three feet into the ground and present you with all the information about this blasphemer!”

"For the glory of the abyss!"

Mad vows echoed through the cave. These venomous snakes, lurking in the shadows of human society, had begun to flick their tongues, their target the "God of Light," who was still completely unaware of this.

Ian Kent.

……

at the same time.

Deep beneath Gotham City.

Bat cave.

In stark contrast to the classical luxury of the manor above, this is a realm of cold technology and absolute order.

In the very heart of this special bat cave, and in one of the most heavily guarded areas, lies the medical intensive care unit, which boasts the highest level of security.

There is no other reason.

Batman, carrying Superman on his back, has hidden many outsiders here.

Inside the medical room, stark white operating lights illuminated several advanced medical pods arranged side-by-side, resembling coffins. The pods were constructed of reinforced glass and some kind of dark metal, with faint data light bands flowing across their surfaces. Inside, they were filled with life-sustaining nutrient solutions and sophisticated monitoring probes.

Two "high-profile" figures were sleeping in one of the medical pods.

One is Lex Luthor, a bald, pale-faced man who has been in a coma since being usurped by another Luthor from the multiverse. He has been "reclaimed" by Batman and is now under close surveillance.

Bruce Wayne's research on Lex Luthor has been quite successful; secretly, he will soon master the incredible technology of locking onto other Lex Luthor counterparts in the multiverse through a single counterpart. And Batman clearly intends to use this technology for more than just locking onto other Lex Luthor counterparts.

Besides Lex Luthor, another figure sleeping there is Injustice Superman, who was recently pregnant with "Calabash Brothers." He is also placed here in a state of power suppression and frozen consciousness.

only.

Despite Batman freezing Injustice's bodily functions at Injustice's request, leaving him with only the bare minimum of vital signs, Injustice's pregnancy symptoms remained unaffected. His swollen belly meant that, who knew, would soon lead to childbirth.

Batman had no choice.

The only thing to do is to take advantage of this opportunity to study the genes of Kryptonians through Injustice Superman, as well as the life forms that were born into Injustice Superman's body because of Ian.

Whether driven by curiosity or a risk assessment, Batman had to do this discreetly, which is why he built the Batcave in such a hidden location.

Today, there is a new "resident" here.

Inside the third medical pod lay the unconscious Raven, Rachel Ross.

The pain and exhaustion from her battle with the Three Palace Demons still lingered on her pale face, and her dark blue hooded robe had been replaced with a standard hospital gown.

original.

The raven's slumber resembles Sleeping Beauty.

However, at this moment, the soul gem on her forehead, which symbolized her half-demon bloodline and was also one of her sources of power, began to emit an extremely faint yet more active dark red light than usual—this was clearly because her father, Sangumo's, large-scale activities in the human world had triggered a slight resonance of the power of the same bloodline within Raven.

In the past...

Raven can use this to judge Trigon's movements and glean his conspiracies and intentions, but today she has indeed been injected with an unknown amount of tranquilizers by Batman.

The drowsiness continued.

He showed no signs of waking up.

Around the medical pod, in addition to the robots collecting genes, dozens of sensors were constantly scanning her vital signs, energy fluctuations, and the status of the Soul Stone. Any abnormal data would immediately trigger an alarm, directly connecting to Batman's control panel and the receiver he carried.

"Drip drop~"

Just then, the reading on a high-precision energy fluctuation monitor next to the medical pod suddenly jumped! The pointer veered towards a red area representing "high-dimensional interference" and "unknown dark energy"!

however.

The alarm system is about to activate!

A piercing buzzing sound had already formed at the circuit level, preparing to reverberate throughout the medical area via speakers and send a top-priority warning to Batman.

The next instant! An invisible and intangible force, yet carrying absolute suppressive power, descended silently like the deepest night, instantly enveloping the entire medical intensive care unit! The impending buzzing sound was as if an invisible hand had choked it, forcibly suppressing it!
All the abnormal data streams on the monitoring screens seemed to have been forcibly overwritten and reset by some higher level of authority, instantly restoring stable green normal values!
All of this happened so fast and so secretly that even the most sophisticated quantum-level sensors inside the medical pod failed to record the momentary disturbance.

"Zizzizi~"

Within this artificially created illusion of "normality," a shadow that appears to be pure and seemingly composed of the densest shadows suddenly appears out of nowhere.

He silently solidified beside the raven's medical bay.

The shadowy figure had no specific form; only a vague, majestic outline, like a mountain, and a pair of destructive eyes that could be clearly perceived even in the darkness.

Those eyes, burning with a destructive crimson light, were Darkseid's facial features!
Of course, as the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, twice shy, this dark figure is not Darkseid's "original form" after his rebirth, nor even a complete clone of him in some form.

If one had to describe it, the shadowy figure would be more like a projection of power that had crossed dimensional barriers, merely a shadow containing its essential will.

obviously.

After realizing some of his own problems, Darkseid learned some skills from himself and mastered a method similar to projecting from high to low dimensions.

“The daughter of the Three Palaces Demon.” His scarlet “gaze” swept coldly over the sleeping Raven in the medical pod, finally settling on the slightly glowing soul gem on her forehead.

"She will become the sharpest weapon in my hands."

The dark figure raised a hand made of shadow.

A finger, seemingly formed from the very essence of darkness, slowly touched the raven's forehead, its target the crystal on the raven's forehead that contained extraordinary power!

Although there was no physical contact, the moment the shadowy finger approached the gem, wisps of pure and subtle black smoke were like a living venomous snake.

They flowed from Darkseid's fingertips and silently seeped into the crystal!
The dark red light on the gem flickered violently a few times, as if in resistance, but was quickly suppressed and permeated by the deeper and more essential dark power.

The entire process lasted less than three seconds. Then, just as it had appeared, Darkseid's shadow vanished without warning, as if it had never existed.

Inside the medical intensive care unit, all monitoring data remained "normal." Only the gem on the raven's forehead, representing the power and bloodline of the high dimension, seemed to have a faint, almost imperceptible black aura slowly churning within it, but this anomaly quickly vanished like lurking venom.

The gemstone regained its previous slightly more vibrant dark red luster.

It's as if nothing at all happened.

Even the monitoring equipment failed to detect any anomalies—or rather, they did detect them, but the data was forcibly modified by some higher-dimensional force.

There was never anything unusual in the footage.

Even Batman was unaware that anything had happened.

He was even busy worrying about other things.

Inside the Batcave's main control room, Bruce Wayne stared intently at the largest screen in front of him, his brow furrowed and his face darker than the Gotham night sky.

The screen displayed not a crime map of Gotham or a global crisis alert, but the internal forum interface of the "Superhero Popularity Center" on websites around the world, which he had created himself and which was usually ignored, but which became popular after Ian took it.

At this moment, a popular section of this forum has been completely ignited by a post with an extremely sensational title.

[Breaking News! The Dark Knight's True Colors! He'd Sell Out His Comrades for Money?! Pictures and Proof Included!] The poster is none other than Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow!

He was clearly furious.

I started writing short essays about Batman like crazy.

God knows how many skilled writers this billionaire hired. The post was extremely inflammatory, detailing how "God of Light" Enj Tucken "pyrrhically" defeated the devil, only to be stabbed in the back by "Batman" at the last moment, and offering a different interpretation of the event.

Although it was fabricated, it was written with great seriousness and sincerity. In the post, Oliver bitterly accused Batman of betraying him, as well as many of his "trusting" allies and even some misled members of the public. The reason for this was not because Batman thought they were harmful to the earth.

money.

It's still about money.

Batman is actually a money-grubbing guy, and everyone should seriously question Batman's motives and character—Green Arrow fabricated this story with reason and evidence.

Many people are willing to believe it.

"We always thought he was a silent guardian, but we never imagined he was the most deeply hidden predator! That makes sense! Only a fool would think that good people could emerge from Gotham."

"You're being discriminatory! What? You're talking about Gotham? Never mind then."

"We must give all the victims an explanation! I was also scammed; I bought a lot of Batman lottery tickets, but I never won anything. I demand that Batman release its accounts and return all the illegal gains!"

“My cousin’s brother’s friend told me that when Batman runs out of money, he goes to Bruce Wayne’s house, the richest man in Gotham, to steal and extort money.”

"Yes, yes, I've heard similar stories too."

The post was followed by numerous comments. While some, like Barry Allen (the Flash), expressed their speechlessness with a simple "...", or Diana (Wonder Woman) attempted to de-escalate the situation with a "judge carefully" message, the majority of the comments were from anonymous accounts stirring up trouble.

Green Arrow's methods are no less merciful than Ian's, fabricating all sorts of "dirt" on Batman, from "overly controlling" to "suspected of being infected with tinea cruris by Catwoman."

They'll stop at nothing. Someone even started a poll for "most distrusted superhero," and Batman's name was prominently at the top—by a huge margin!

Bruce stared at the absurd accusations and malicious comments on the screen, feeling his temples throbbing. He had faced countless crises and numerous mad enemies in his life, but nothing like this—being led by superheroes to storm a tower and publicly "judged" and "roasted" on a childish internal forum.

This was absolutely the first time for him.

"That damn playboy!"

Batman's face was a mix of emotions.

He knew this was a mess Ian had made; the imposter Batman and the global gambling scheme were both Ian's doing. But Oliver Green Arrow, that stubborn guy, was clearly convinced it was Bruce Wayne who was behind it all, and he unleashed all his anger on him.

He tried to contact Oliver through an encrypted channel.

But the other party refused to answer.

He sent Alfred to physically cut the internet cable at Quinn Manor, but the feedback was that Oliver seemed to have been prepared, not only being careful but even using defense cables to access the internet.

"Is this guy's brain infected with the so-called Ian virus?"

Bruce couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath.

He's now in a difficult position to defend himself unless he can drag Ian out and confront him face to face, but even a fool could tell that the kid would only muddy the waters further.

While scratching his head and cheek.

Batman was completely unaware that just minutes before, a shadow from the Dark Lord had already appeared deep within his supposedly impregnable Batcave.

A dangerous seed was planted silently.

(End of this chapter)