Reborn as Superman's Son, Ch 31-32

Chapter 31: Eden: Think, Thragg, think! What will you have left in five hundred years?

On the moon, Regent Thragg lay sprawled across the fractured lunar surface, wiping the crimson blood trickling from the corner of his mouth while glaring toward Earth and cursing inwardly at Eden's ruthlessness. Damn brat. No matter how you looked at it, Eden was already a perfectly qualified Viltrumite—of course, he'd be more qualified if he wasn't Thragg's enemy.

Thragg had been resting on the moon, slowly adjusting his condition, and his injuries had mostly healed when he noticed something. Through his line of sight, a pitch-black shadow broke through Earth's atmosphere, hurtling toward him at terrifying speed. That boy was coming after him. Cursing, Thragg charged straight at the incoming figure—fleeing wasn't his style.

"BOOM!"

Thragg and Eden collided violently at the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere.

The horrific shockwave threatened to whip up a hurricane that could ravage the entire globe.

Global Defense Agency.

"Eden, what the hell are you doing?! EDEN!"

Cecil Stedman stared furiously at the energy readings transmitted from the edge of the planet's atmosphere.

According to the Robot's calculations, this energy surge was powerful enough to wipe the entire American continent off the crust. Even with the atmosphere as a buffer, Earth would suffer catastrophic damage.

"Hmm?"

Just as Cecil was at a loss, Clark—who had been listening to Principal's speech—seemed to sense something. He patted the principal's shoulder, excused himself to the restroom, and stepped outside under the open sky.

"Whoosh~"

Clark took a deep breath and blew upward with tremendous force. The massive natural disaster triggered by Eden and Thragg's clash instantly vanished without a trace.

Meanwhile, at the Global Defense Agency—

Robot looked at the energy signal that had suddenly disappeared from the computer screen and reported calmly to Cecil. "Cecil, what were you saying? That Earth's safety requires all your worrying? That even if you rack your brains, you can't solve every problem?"

"What the hell just happened?" Cecil asked, bewildered.

"Just now, a sudden gust of wind rose from the surface and dispersed the shockwave from Eden and his opponent's battle," Robot explained. "Incidentally, there's only one person on this entire planet with such absurd power. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about."

In an instant, Cecil seemed to understand everything. He furrowed his brow and cursed bitterly. "Goddamn Superman. Goddamn Kent family. Goddamn Viltrumites. Physics doesn't even exist anymore."

"Cecil, are you suggesting Clark is also a Viltrumite?" Robot asked.

Cecil speculated, "At least he's related to them somehow. Either way, they're all superhumans."

Meanwhile, in the sky—

About a minute after Clark dispersed the shockwave from Eden and Thragg's battle, he 'coincidentally' encountered a group of Viltrumites descending from above. General Kregg led the group, and the moment they saw Clark, their fierce expressions instantly became much more subdued. What the hell—that wind came from him? Truthfully, these Viltrumites should have reached the surface a minute ago to meet their new queen, but they'd been literally blown back into the atmosphere by the gust this man had exhaled, forcing them to descend a second time.

Clark didn't answer Kregg's unspoken question, but his meaning was crystal clear as he wore a 'kind' smile and spoke in 'polite' honorifics. "I know who you are, and I also know you're my wife Nolanne's people. But this is Earth, not Viltrum, so you must obey Earth's laws. Also, Nolanne is currently giving a speech—a very important speech in her life—so I hope you won't interrupt her. Please wait here for about ten minutes, then you can go see her."

With the demeanor of a 'nice guy,' he 'requested' that these Viltrumites wait in place for a bit.

Vidor—who had just been thoroughly educated by Eden and now had no temper left—looked toward General Kregg and said nothing. Remove that quotation mark feeling. Actually, the other Viltrumites said nothing either.

Kregg let out a cold laugh and issued his command with firm authority. "Just wait here."

Even though Kregg had fought for the Viltrum Empire for half his life, eliminating countless rebels and earning a fearsome reputation across the universe for millennia, he had never encountered an existence as terrifyingly powerful as the man before him. Even so, Kregg managed to squeeze out a smile he wasn't good at. "How should we address you?"

Clark said with a smile, "My name is Clark Kent. However, the people of this planet habitually call me Superman."

"Superman? The name fits perfectly." Kregg had never felt a nickname so perfectly suited to someone's strength.

Superman—super on Earth, super in the Viltrum Empire too.

Behind Kregg, the other Viltrumites grumbled internally. Earth is really dangerous. I want to go back to space.

You see, they were Viltrumites—a race capable of dominating the cosmos. Even with only fifty-two purebloods remaining, they still kept the Coalition of Planets gasping for air. The number of beings in the entire universe who could fight a Viltrumite one-on-one? You could count them on one hand. But now, on this supposedly insignificant Earth, Kregg had already encountered two beings whose strength completely crushed the purebloods. One was naturally the 'Superman' standing before them—whose power was unfathomably deep, capable of blowing their ten-thousand-meter Viltrumite mothership along with all fifty-two purebloods with a single breath. The other was Superman's son.

In the sky, Clark watched Eden in space and chuckled helplessly. "That boy Eden is hitting too hard. When he gets back, I'll have to remind him. After all, not every solar system in the universe is protected by my bio-field. The moon's already been smashed to pieces by him."

Eden had gotten too used to fighting Viltrumites with his full strength—he was hitting way too hard now.

In space—

Eden and Thragg drifted through the void, exchanging brutal blows. Blood floated everywhere around and on their bodies—but every drop belonged to Thragg, not a single one was Eden's.

"Too hard!" Thragg gritted his teeth. Since arriving on Earth, he never imagined the universe still held a Viltrumite whose strength so vastly exceeded his own. Even more frustrating—his fists couldn't even penetrate this half-breed boy's defenses. Thragg couldn't help but wonder: Could the royal bloodline truly be this powerful? If regular Viltrumites were balloons and Thragg was a brick, then Eden was a wall forged entirely from diamond—utterly indestructible.

Eden looked at the stubbornly resisting Thragg, raised an eyebrow, and mocked him through the mental communicator. "Still don't understand, Thragg? Your resistance is meaningless. Only by submitting to me, submitting to my mother Nolanne, submitting to the royal bloodline—only then can Viltrum become better."

Thragg, beaten within an inch of his life, floated in space and asked through the communicator, "And if we resist?"

"That's why I'm here—to stop your resistance, to make you understand how wrong you are, how meaningless this all is, to make you understand that if you don't join Earth, you'll die." Eden landed another punch on Thragg's face, knocking out several teeth, and continued relentlessly.

Thragg gritted his teeth and persisted. "I won't let you succeed. You're just a half-breed. We pureblood Viltrumites have our pride."

Eden sighed, grabbed Thragg by the neck and accelerated continuously, eventually becoming a streak of black light.

Half an hour later—

Mars.

"BOOM!"

Thragg crashed onto the Martian surface, creating a massive crater.

"Thragg, are you willing to die for Viltrum's honor? The entire Viltrum Empire now has only fifty-two purebloods left. What can fifty-two purebloods accomplish? THINK, Thragg! THINK! Five hundred years from now, what will your Viltrum Empire have left? With external threats and internal troubles, it will all fall apart. Your empire, your pride, everything you've known—will all become dust in history."

Eden crouched beside the dying Thragg, pointing at his own head as he interrogated him.

Thragg could barely breathe anymore. "The legend... the legend of the Viltrumites. Viltrum is dead, but the legend lives on."

Fortunately, this was Mars—the thin atmosphere still had some oxygen. If they were in the vacuum of space, Thragg would already be dead.

Eden's fists swung like windmills, relentlessly pounding Thragg's face. Countless streams of blood splattered in all directions, quickly staining the ground. He kept beating him until Thragg couldn't even speak a coherent word, only then did he finally stop.

"Listen, Thragg. The Viltrumite legend and honor are completely meaningless. The moment Thaedus betrayed you, developed that damned scourge virus, and caused your Viltrumite dynasty to collapse—that's when Viltrumite honor should have ended. Now you need a completely new way of living. Whether you like it or not."

Eden lifted Thragg by the neck and said coldly.

Chapter 32: Pure-Blooded Viltrumites: Earth Culture is the Best in the Universe! Thragg Who? Don't Know Him!

Earth.

After the Omni-Woman and Superman fan meeting ended, Nolanne remained in the venue, seemingly waiting for something. Before long, Conquest led fifty pureblood Viltrumite warriors down from the sky. They arrived before Nolanne, knelt on one knee, and pledged their loyalty.

"Hail Queen Nolanne."

Nolanne nodded lightly, accepting their allegiance.

General Kregg, being the highest-ranking among the purebloods, was the only one who could speak on behalf of the others. "Your Majesty, I have an unreasonable request. I hope you'll agree."

Nolanne sat upon her throne, wearing the Berserker Cloak Eden had given her—it silently declared to all Viltrumites who might question her status or strength that her queenship was earned without a shred of doubt. "Speak."

Kregg knew this wasn't entirely appropriate, but he still requested it. "I hope you will spare the foolish Thragg's life. After all, after that crisis, it was Thragg who held all of Viltrum together."

Nolanne narrowed her eyes at Kregg. "Oh?"

Kregg felt somewhat flustered, unsure if his words would anger Nolanne. "I know this is unreasonable, but—"

"I agree." To his surprise, Nolanne immediately agreed to Kregg's request.

Nolanne's words stunned Kregg—his eyes widened in disbelief before he was overwhelmed with joy. "Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty."

Nolanne merely smiled faintly.

These Viltrumites couldn't change their base programming—their loyalty to Thragg. But Nolanne was confident that with Earth culture's help, they'd soon toss Thragg and all Viltrumite logic aside. By her calculations, it wouldn't even take a month before these warriors were completely transformed. When that time came, even if Thragg personally ordered them to abandon Earth's culture and way of life, they wouldn't budge—in fact, they'd band together to oppose anyone who tried to invade or destroy their Earth lifestyle, even if that person was Thragg himself. After all, even she—'great' Nolanne—couldn't resist Earth's lifestyle. How could the others possibly withstand it?

** "I'm keeping Thragg alive so he can watch his soldiers transform from inside out. That way, I can prove just how much of a failure his years of rule really were."

Half an hour later—

Eden brought the half-dead Thragg back to Earth. When the Viltrumite warriors saw Thragg beaten to a pulp by Eden, they all shuddered with a chill down their spines. What made it worse—Eden didn't seem injured at all.

Just as the pureblood warriors were becoming increasingly obedient after seeing even Thragg beaten half to death, Nolanne spoke. "Now, in the name of Viltrumite Queen Nolanne Kent, I will issue your first command."

The warriors knelt in unison. "Your command, my Queen."

Conquest asked eagerly, striking a posture of leading the charge and proving her loyalty, "Are we supposed to eliminate some blind civilization?" The others might have a way out, but she—the 'traitor'—absolutely didn't.

Nolanne smiled as she issued her first task. "Eliminate? No. What you need to do now is learn to live on Earth. You need to learn to love this planet."

Instantly, all the Viltrumites were dumbfounded. For thousands of years, they'd only been focused on the thrill of battle—they had no idea what love even meant.

Nolanne continued, "Love the people of this planet, the scenery, the ecology, the creatures, the technology, the culture—everything about it."

The Viltrumite warriors exchanged uncertain glances and answered hesitantly, "Uh... alright."

Nolanne said, "Good. Now you're dismissed. You can move freely, individually or in small groups, and explore this planet."

The group wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but they followed Nolanne's orders and left the school venue. "Yes... yes, ma'am."

Outside the venue, the warriors looked at Kregg and asked, "What do we do next?"

Kregg couldn't decide on his own—he looked at the dying Thragg. "First, let's heal Thragg. Hear what Thragg has to say."

The warriors exchanged glances and nodded. "Alright."

Inside the venue—

Eden didn't understand Nolanne's intention. "Mother, you're just letting them go like that?" In his mind, they should at least eliminate Thragg.

Nolanne shrugged, displaying an air of total confidence. "Let them worry. Even I couldn't resist what's out there—they don't stand a chance. Son, do you know what they used to call me back on Viltrum? They called me 'Iron-Willed' Nolanne, because no one on all of Viltrum had a will more resolute than mine, not even Thragg. As for why Thragg stays alive? Child, I don't have time to babysit these warriors all over the world. I still need to spend time with your father. In the meantime, Thragg will manage them for me."

Eden shrugged as well and said nothing more. His mother's people—let his mother manage them. But if any Viltrumite disobeyed, Eden would still kill them without hesitation. As for how many civilizations they'd destroyed or how many aliens they'd killed? Eden didn't care one bit. Eden wasn't like Clark—at best, he was Earth's hero and the universe's most proactive father.

One day later—

Thragg had fully recovered. Kregg led the pureblood warriors to him and asked, "Thragg, Nolanne wants us to integrate into Earth life. What should we do?"

Thragg smiled coldly, deciding to use some imperial strategy against Nolanne. "We might as well do as she says—completely blend into human society. We look just like them anyway, so as long as we don't expose our powers, no one will notice we're different. Then we can secretly develop our own forces. While I don't agree with everything that boy said when he fought me, he was right about one thing—we only have fifty purebloods, and we can't do anything meaningful in this universe with that. To fully restore the Viltrum Empire's glory, we need at least ten thousand Viltrumite warriors. So what you need to do now is simple: actively reproduce."

It wasn't until his later study of Earth culture that Thragg learned this tactic was called "turning the tables," and that Nolanne's move was called "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind"—swallowing up all the forces he'd spent years developing in one gulp.

The pureblood Viltrumites breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Thragg's plan. "Understood." With both the new queen and the regent's orders, they could finally let loose.

After pulling out a world map and assigning each pureblood a country to infiltrate, Thragg dismissed them. The moment he finished giving orders, the warriors vanished from before him.

Thragg said confidently, "Nolanne. Son of Nolanne. Our game ends now."

And so—

Seven days after the Viltrumites arrived on Earth, the fifty pureblood warriors had fully integrated into Earth society, causing absolutely zero impact on global civilization. Those fifty purebloods were like water droplets falling into the ocean—making not even a ripple.

Day 8.

Australia.

Conquest asked hesitantly, "My eye is blind, my right arm is prosthetic—you'd still accept me?"

The man nodded without hesitation.

Conquest didn't know what to do with herself. The men on this planet were incredible.

France.

"You're all so passionate," Lucan murmured, realizing he might be about to betray Thragg and the great Viltrumite spirit and pride.

England.

"The water here has a bit of an issue," Thula noted, "but everything else is perfect." She seemed to have found where she'd settle for the next five hundred years.

The other warriors' situations were roughly the same as Conquest, Lucan, and Thula's. But they were proud Viltrumites—their Viltrumite spirit was still fighting!

One week later—

Conquest, Lucan, and Thula had gotten married.

Kregg obtained Nigerian citizenship because he discovered that country allowed men to legally marry multiple wives.

Kregg's thoughts: "Thragg, I'll always be loyal to you. I know it looks like I've fully integrated into Earth culture, but my heart is still with you! Really!"

Two weeks later—

"Screw Thragg! Screw Viltrumite honor! Screw the Viltrum Empire! I'm a genuine, authentic Earthling now. THIS is living! That constant fighting in space? That's not living—that's just surviving."

The Viltrumite generals declared this unanimously.

China.

"Art of War... Does Nolanne read military strategy books?"

Thragg was sweating profusely. Since arriving on Earth, he felt like a primitive man who'd just gained intelligence. It seemed like Nolanne had calculated everything, but he still wasn't certain. He decided to observe a bit longer.

Three weeks later—

"Thragg is an idiot! The old Viltrum Empire was even more idiotic—idiots among idiots!"

All the pureblood Viltrumites had reached this consensus. Now, across the entire Earth, only Thragg alone was still resisting Earth's culture.

"Another cliffhanger?! I'm going to that author's house to beat him up!" Thragg closed the webnovel app on his phone. Today's reading session ends here. Next up: spamming the author to update.

The most tragic episode for Thragg.