Reborn as Superman's Son, Ch 46

Chapter 46: A Postcard from Clark Kent, Sent from Another Universe!

Outside the base.

"Respected 'Mr. Superman,' where's the plane?" Stark finally walked out of this godforsaken base. Before he could savor his freedom, he frowned at the harsh sun, endless yellow sand, and devastation all around.

Right—Stark saw no ultra-luxurious private jet, no military armed helicopters, not even an off-road vehicle. "There's not even a shadow of any vehicle out here."

An ominous premonition rose in Stark's heart.

"Plane? What's that?" Eden shook his head.

"Then may I ask, 'Mr. Superman,' how exactly are we getting back? Don't tell me we're supposed to run to New York on our own two legs?!" Stark frowned as he spoke.

"That's a very interesting question, Mr. Stark. Since you keep calling me 'Superman,' I think you should be able to guess how I got here." As Eden spoke, he placed one hand on Stark's shoulder and the other on Dr. Yinsen's shoulder.

"Oh hell. I was just joking. You're serious?" Seeing this, Stark's eye twitched as his heart sank.

"Whoosh!"

"BOOM!!"

Then Stark felt the scenery around him blur. Wrapped in Eden's bioelectric field, he spiraled into the sky.

One hour later.

New York.

"Ugh."

Stark pointed at Eden's face with one hand. The words he wanted to say reached his lips but couldn't come out.

Finally, Stark could only give Eden a thumbs up before running ungracefully to a tree pit and dry heaving repeatedly.

"..."

Eden frowned in disgust at the sight.

In fact, Eden had already reduced his speed to the absolute minimum.

After all, it took him a full hour to reach New York.

For Eden now, this speed was no different from a snail crawling.

Eden had even deliberately divided his attention to use his bioelectric field to protect Tony Stark and Dr. Yinsen, preventing them from being torn apart by air friction.

But for Tony and Yinsen, it was still far too fast.

"Thank you so much for rescuing Tony from such a dangerous place. I'll take it from here."

At that moment, "Pepper Potts" Virginia Potts arrived at the rendezvous point Eden and Coulson had agreed upon, escorted by Happy driving a Rolls-Royce at over 200 mph.

"Mr. Kent, I'm glad you successfully rescued Mr. Stark from the terrorists as agreed."

At the same time, Coulson—disguised as CIA—also arrived at the scene in a Chevrolet.

In addition, Eden noticed military armed helicopters rapidly approaching.

"Agent Coulson, I've kept my end of the bargain and brought Tony Stark back from Afghanistan. Our cooperation ends here."

After Eden finished speaking, he thought of something else and reminded Coulson, "Oh, and consider this a buy-one-get-one-free service! Tell your Director Nick Fury to ask himself: how many heads does a snake have?"

"Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Kent."

Coulson first froze, then immediately nodded.

"Mm."

Eden had said what needed saying and done what needed doing. He was ready to leave now.

"Ahem."

"'Mr. Superman,' please wait a moment."

"Let us properly introduce ourselves."

"As you can see, I'm Tony Stark—the greatest genius of the 21st century, Nobel Peace Prize winner, CEO of Stark Industries..."

"Well, I do feel my 'Peace Prize' is rather ironic, to be honest."

Just as Eden was about to brush off his sleeves and leave, hiding his achievements and fame, disappearing from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sight and the public eye of Tony Stark—

Having spent just one minute tidying up his appearance, Tony Stark walked directly up to Eden and, quite unusually, initiated a conversation.

"Yes?"

Eden looked at Stark and asked.

Of course, Eden wasn't targeting Stark specifically—he just didn't want trouble following him.

"This is my business card."

"Um... 'Mr. Superman'?"

Stark waved his hand, received his business card from Pepper's hand, personally handed it to Eden, and said somewhat hesitantly.

"My name is Eden Kent." Eden naturally understood what Stark wanted to ask. He first glanced at Agent Coulson beside him, knowing that if Stark wanted to investigate, he couldn't hide anything anyway, so he spoke directly.

Rather than letting Stark spend time secretly investigating him and drawing others' attention, it was better to tell him upfront. This way everyone saved trouble.

"Fantastic! You even have the same surname as 'Superman.' Well then, my friend, esteemed Mr. Kent—I know what you're worried about! And please rest assured, I will never disturb your life. I just want to tell you: whatever troubles you have, whatever you need, whatever help you require—please remember you have a 'billionaire' friend in New York."

Without further ado, Stark stuffed his business card into Eden's hand, then casually waved and left dashingly with Pepper and Happy.

After experiencing the terrorist attack, Stark had clearly matured considerably. But he was still essentially that playboy, not yet fully transformed into Iron Man. Incidentally, Stark also arranged everything for Dr. Yinsen, who'd shared his ordeal.

In the Rolls-Royce.

"Happy, take us to the hospital," Potts said to driver and butler Happy.

"No. I was held for three months. Right now I only want to do three things." Stark interrupted Potts with a firm tone. "First, I want a cheeseburger. Second, I need to hold a press conference immediately. As for the third thing..." Stark watched Eden vanish from the clearing in the blink of an eye and muttered to himself, "I need to coat the metal layers in my house with lead."

"Lead?" Potts was clearly stunned.

"Yes. I don't want anyone able to spy on my private life at will," Stark stated matter-of-factly.

"Huh?!" Potts tilted her head, still confused.

"BOSS. Actually, I wanted to say this earlier—that kid with you was dressed just like Superman from the comics." At that moment, Happy seemed to think of something and couldn't hold back any longer.

"Happy, you're very smart. But please remove the 'just like.'" Stark looked up at Happy.

"Superman?" Potts froze. Her brain seemed to crash.

"Yes. Just as you're thinking. The one from the comics. The one who wears his underwear outside," Stark nodded.

"No, wait, Tony! Are you saying 'Superman' rescued you from Afghanistan?!" Potts felt her brain short-circuiting.

"Yes." Stark nodded, then continued, "That's why I need to hold a press conference."

"You're going to tell the world Superman is real?" Potts asked.

"No! Pepper. Quite the opposite. I'm going to tell them Superman doesn't exist in this world. I, Tony Stark, got back through my own means." Stark shook his head.

Stark could sense that Eden disliked being in the public eye.

So the first thing Tony would do upon returning was draw all eyes from various forces entirely onto himself.

In Tony Stark's eyes, Eden was both his benefactor and friend.

Noon.

Eden returned to Midtown School of Science and Technology.

"Thompson?! Time for courage training." Eden timed it perfectly, waiting by Thompson's locker for him to get out of class. After ten minutes of "bullying," Eden went to the cafeteria to eat. Meal warrior, meal spirit—only when it came to meals did Eden never arrive late.

Not long after Eden got his food and sat down at an empty table, New York's "friendly neighborhood" Spider-Man Peter Parker also sat down with his tray.

"Eden, why didn't you come to class this morning? I went to your place to find you, but you didn't seem to be home."

"I need to work, Parker," Eden answered.

"Oh, sorry." Parker froze, vaguely remembering something. He recalled that Eden's parents didn't seem to be around—at least he'd never seen them, which reminded Parker of himself. But clearly he was much luckier than Eden. At least he still had his loving aunt, but Eden seemed to have no relatives in this world.

"It's fine." Eden shook his head, indicating no need to worry.

"Ding." At that moment, Eden's phone rang. He opened it to find a message from Coulson—the matter Eden had asked S.H.I.E.L.D. to clarify had yielded results after 24 hours of effort from all parties.

The NYPD personally published a statement saying that after extensive investigation, they'd found the real killer of Rhino. Spider-Man had been wrongly accused. Of course, Daily Bugle editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson still insisted Spider-Man killed Rhino. Regarding Jameson and Spider-Man's love-hate relationship, Eden truly had no solution.

However, Eden still shared this good news with Peter Parker. He smiled, "Peter, Spider-Man really didn't kill anyone. He's innocent."

"Huh?! Really? Let me see!!" Peter Parker took the phone Eden handed him. Looking at the headline about the NYPD's apology letter to Spider-Man, his heart felt incredibly relieved. Sure enough, good people get good rewards. Good people won't be—and aren't afraid of being—falsely accused.

"This is wonderful." Peter Parker breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Eden. "By the way, Eden! Are you really interested in Spider-Man?!"

"Of course. Spider-Man is my idol," Eden said honestly.

"Really? I really appreciate your support—I mean, I appreciate that you like Spider-Man. I like Spider-Man too." Peter Parker said somewhat embarrassedly.

"That's great. We can go see Spider-Man together when we get the chance." Eden teased, seeing Peter Parker's embarrassed look.

"Um. Okay, okay." Peter Parker nodded while sweat formed on his forehead. Honestly, Peter Parker was panicking inside right now. Going to see Spider-Man together with Eden was genuinely difficult for him—because he WAS Spider-Man.

At the same time, Peter Parker felt troubled. He felt he should be more honest with Eden.

"Good friends really shouldn't hide things from each other. But my identity is dangerous. Knowing it won't benefit you, Eden." Peter Parker thought. "However... maybe we could try inviting Eden to my house. Aunt May would definitely like Eden."

*[Deliberately setting a verbal trap, damaging the superhero Spider-Man's conscience and destroying his will! This is super villain behavior. All attributes increased by 10%.]*

At that moment, the System's notification sounded in Eden's mind.

"..."

This made Eden, who was eating, pause momentarily.

After school.

When Eden bid farewell to Parker and returned to his apartment as usual, something outside his apartment caught his attention—a cardboard box.

But damn it, Eden's usually infallible X-ray vision couldn't see through what was inside the box at all. He couldn't even analyze what material the cardboard box was made of. You have to understand—even lead only interfered with Eden's X-ray vision, not completely blocked it like this.

"..."

After hesitating briefly, Eden still opened the cardboard box.

"Meow~" Inside the box, the Flerken fat orange cat (the name Eden gave it) slowly opened its sleepy eyes. Seeing its owner Eden, it acted cute trying to curry favor.

"Huh?! How is this right? How did you get through too?" Eden froze. He remembered this creature should have been kept in the Kent family's first-floor living room, so it shouldn't have traveled through with him.

Just as Eden was thinking, he discovered a simple postcard in the cardboard box.

"Dear son Eden, by the time you read this letter, I've already sent you your cat. I think you should have received it by now."

"I always felt that one's own pet should be raised by oneself to have a sense of achievement. Of course, this isn't because it has seriously disturbed the alone time between your mother and me."

"By the way, everything's fine at home—no need for you to worry! What you need to do most now is abandon all fantasies and find every possible way to return through your own means."

"This is a gift from your father—a different, surprise-filled, extremely special coming-of-age ceremony. I hope you'll like it."

After Eden finished reading the letter, he looked at the signature on this postcard. It clearly read: Your loving father - Clark Kent.