Chapter 23: Such a Perfunctory Scam?
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
Orin Vale carried a large, stuffed-to-the-brim bag of snacks to the counter. The boss behind the counter shifted his gaze from his small, old-fashioned TV, glancing at the large bag of chocolate balls and lollipops.
The boss laughed. "Heard you've got a kid at your place these days?"
The owner's surname was Wang, a neighbor from a nearby street who ran a small convenience store. He and Orin Vale were quite familiar with each other.
Orin Vale smiled. "A friend's daughter."
Boss Wang nodded, skillfully picked up the scanner, and placed the items from the bag onto the counter one by one.
"A friend from out of town?"
"Yeah. Due to some circumstances, her daughter has to stay here for a while."
"Is that so? Then you'd better watch her closely, and especially teach her to protect herself," Boss Wang said. "After all, this is Gotham. Girls especially need to learn how to protect themselves. Well, of course, it's important for boys, too."
Orin Vale nodded in deep agreement. "I'll teach her."
However, considering the subject was a Kryptonian girl...
He felt it was more important to teach her how to protect others from her in the future.
Few people could manage to hurt her, even in a place like Gotham.
"I was just watching the news," Boss Wang continued to ramble. "Yesterday, they said there was a prison break at Blackgate Prison."
"Oh?" Orin Vale was a little surprised.
He had heard of Blackgate Prison; it and Arkham Asylum were known as Gotham's two great public restrooms. The security design philosophy of these two institutions was basically "Isn't it a joy to have friends coming from afar?"—you could get in and out as you pleased. It was as if they'd let murderers and psychos out for a two-day holiday for Children's Day.
Sometimes Orin Vale even suspected their security philosophy might have been based on his Land of Light, except at least you had to buy a ticket for the bus there, whereas these two...
It was hard to comment.
But logically, that should be something from the post-Batman era, at least according to his memory of the source material. Could it be that Blackgate Prison's history of being a wreck was even longer than what was shown in the comics?
"Actually, that's not it." Boss Wang gave a strange smile and started to gossip. "You definitely weren't paying attention to the news."
Orin Vale shook his head. "What happened?"
"No one broke out. Instead, some idiot tried to climb the wall to get *in* and was caught red-handed by the night-watch guards."
For a moment, Orin Vale didn't quite understand. "Someone tried to break *into* Blackgate and got caught?"
"Yeah, I heard his good buddy was doing time in prison, and he was so bored alone that he wanted to go in and hang out with him, so he got caught. After the fact, Blackgate checked their archives and found out the guy was a goddamn wanted criminal. So the warden said, 'Since you're here, you might as well stay.' And so he stayed..."
Orin Vale was speechless. "..."
"That's not even the best part." Boss Wang was already bursting with laughter but managed to hold it in and continue. "The best part is... do you know why the buddy he went to see was doing time?"
"Why?"
"Because he... he kidnapped over twenty people, illegally detained them, and forced them to listen to songs he wrote for over thirty consecutive hours, driving them all insane... hahaha..."
Orin Vale was speechless. "..."
Boss Wang finished scanning all the items, packed them neatly into the bag, and handed it to Orin Vale with a smile. "See? I always tell people, this is Gotham. Magical, yet realistic. You can never guess what's going to happen in this bizarre place."
"Makes sense."
Orin Vale bid farewell to the boss and left the convenience store with the large bag of snacks.
Just as he stepped out, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.
It was a coldness like he was being targeted.
Aliha was a criminal from the Phantom Zone, a member of an alien race named "Parasitic Midge People" by the Kryptonians.
To the people of Earth, their race was undoubtedly extremely dangerous, though not because of their own inherent strength. Rather, they were elusive, adept at infiltration, espionage, and any operation that required concealing their tracks, even capable of killing without a trace.
This was because their essence was akin to that of a parasite.
They could leap from one host to another, seizing and modifying the host's body. They would usurp the host's place, taking over their consciousness and occupying their body. After consuming that body until it was depleted, they would immediately leave to find the next host.
During this time, they could seize the host's identity and steal their entire life. They would slowly savor this process while devouring the host's life, gathering necessary intelligence to complete specific missions, and finally, after eating their fill, they would leave without a trace.
Aliha was an elite among its race. It was particularly skilled in this art and greatly enjoyed the cruel process. The most glorious, and also the most difficult, mission of its career was to infiltrate the upper echelons of the Eleventh-level Civilization, Krypton, and assassinate a key target.
At the time, it had confidently patted its chest, refusing the farewell banquet its kinsmen had prepared.
"There's no need for that," Aliha said contemptuously. "Give me three days. In three days, you will hear the news of that foolish Kryptonian's death. Just prepare the victory feast and wait for me."
In that moment, it became the hero of its entire race. The whole nation cheered as it departed.
And then...
And then it was thrown into the Phantom Zone by the Kryptonians.
Not long after that, the homeworld of the Parasitic Midge People was also crushed by the Kryptonians.
Now, as fortune turned, a new opportunity arose for Aliha by a stroke of luck. It and all the other criminals who had managed to escape the Phantom Zone formed an alliance, calling themselves the "Phantom Alliance," and pledged their service to a supreme, terrifying existence who had also once been imprisoned in the Phantom Zone.
Aliha didn't know the identity of that being, but it knew the other possessed god-like power. It was rumored that the leader's physical body could withstand bombardment from interstellar weapons, that he could tear apart cosmic warships with his bare hands, and that his eyes could shoot rays of heat that annihilated everything.
And now, that being had only one command for them.
Find the Kryptonian girl who had also escaped from the Phantom Zone.
The last daughter of the House of El, Kara-Zor-El.
Not long ago, a member of the Phantom Alliance had sent back a message. It was an Atlonian named Ly-Baggu, an ugly fellow with scythe-like forelimbs. Aliha had always looked down on him, but it had to admit that the creature's racial talent made him a formidable fighter.
The last message from Ly-Baggu said that he suspected he had found the daughter of Krypton, and then...
And then there was nothing.
The Alliance suspected that Ly-Baggu had met an unfortunate end, which was why Aliha had been dispatched to investigate the situation.
Upon discovering this planet called "Earth," Aliha was quite excited. It had never been here before, nor had it ever seen the race that called themselves "humans."
Every time it encountered a new species, it would relish invading and occupying their bodies, devouring their memories and lives bit by bit, feeling the other's consciousness dissipate in despair within its mind, and finally claiming their entire life as its own.
Those were its most joyous moments.
After switching between two hosts in the past few days and digesting their memories, it was now controlling its third host body and had finally, through its race's innate superpower, sniffed out the scent of a Kryptonian.
But it wasn't strong. It wasn't the Kryptonian herself, but rather a scent clinging to someone else.
Following this scent, it quickly locked onto the young man who was just leaving the convenience store with a large bag.
That's him!
A cruel smile appeared on Aliha's face as it silently closed in.
It looked like this would be its main course for the day.
It would occupy this person's body, digest his memories, and search through them for information about the Kryptonian. Then, it would devour his life and spirit completely.
Having made up its mind, Aliha found its moment, picking a corner where no one was around.
Now!
The parasitic organism detached from its host. The latter, having lost consciousness, immediately collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The bizarrely-shaped creature, under the cover of the shadows, transformed into an afterimage and pounced onto Orin Vale.
Mine, it's all mine!
Aliha cackled cruelly in its mind—then the laughter came to an abrupt halt half a second later.
In its place was a profound shock at the completely unexpected situation.
Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!
An unexpected heat, a wave of scalding air rushing towards it, as if an endless amount of light and heat were contained beneath this seemingly human skin, threatening to vaporize it in an instant.
Aliha wanted to scream, but even the ability to make a sound vanished in the moment of scorching.
Immense fear and shock instantly engulfed the Parasitic Midge Person.
What was with this scorching light!?
How could any human—no, how could any creature in interstellar space contain such an exaggerated amount of light and heat within its body?
What in the world had it just pounced on?
A walking, humanoid sun?
Almost at the instant of contact, it instinctively tried to pull its body back.
Because every cell in its body was screaming at it that this was not a person it could casually enter.
It would definitely die!
Unfortunately, it was too late.
The moment of contact, an immense suction force emanated from within that body, as if a powerful magnet was hidden within that scorching sun.
Its body was no longer under its control; the immense gravity was like a black hole that devoured everything. The tremendous pain and burning sensation made it feel as if its very soul was about to be melted.
In a daze, the scene before its eyes spun as if the world was turning upside down. The young man and the entire street vanished, replaced by a deep blue, ethereal domain, a space filled with a sacred aura that extended infinitely in all directions, seemingly without end.
It was as if an illusory, ethereal, and incomparably vast voice was echoing in this sacred space.
"Let there be light."
At first, there were countless golden points of light. More and more points of light gathered, growing ever more dazzling, until they transformed into a giant shadow that filled the world.
A sacred golden radiance so brilliant one could not look at it directly enveloped the silver giant. Its divine golden eyes, its massive silhouette blurred within the golden radiance, and a coercion that filled the domain threatened to crush one into dust, bringing to mind only the giant from the dawn of chaos that separated the world...
Aliha could no longer feel its own existence. Even the burning pain seemed to have disappeared, leaving only a profound shock that filled its soul.
It was a crushing pressure from a higher level of existence, the trembling of its soul in the face of a higher being beyond comprehension.
A god?
The word surfaced involuntarily in its mind.
Following that was a deep-seated rage at itself for its own arrogance in pouncing a second ago.
How in the hell did you dare to provoke him?
How could you?!
In the final moment of its life, it felt as if it were being filled with light.
Like a moth flying into a great fire, not even ashes could be found.
Orin Vale felt like he had been attacked.
But using the word "attack" seemed like a bit of an overreaction.
It was more like the feeling of being bumped on the neck by something like a flying insect; there was a tiny sensation, but he wasn't entirely sure, a touch that felt suspiciously like an illusion.
In any case, the intensity definitely didn't meet the definition of an attack.
Then, he turned around instinctively.
He immediately saw a homeless person flop to the ground behind him, lying motionless on the pavement.
Orin Vale's pupils contracted at that moment—
—A scam?
But then he had a second thought.
That's not right.
You're at least five meters away from me, for crying out loud. Have scammers these days lost all their professional integrity? Are they this perfunctory?
(end of chapter)