SUP Chapter 25: My Eyes, Can They See Ghosts?

The moment Ian’s hand touched Homelander’s dripping blood and his completely severed spine.

The system’s voice, as expected, sounded in his ear. But it wasn’t the prompt he wanted, nor the worst-case scenario he’d braced for.

[You have come into contact with an unknown extraordinary substance. Warning: this substance is completely dormant. A new task has been acquired. Please enter the occupation selection interface to view.]

“What’s going on?” Ian was slightly stunned, quickly opening his occupation selection interface, where a new [Dormant Occupation] option appeared. As his thoughts brushed against this strange choice, a line of text, visible only to him, slowly emerged.

[Awakening Task: Please ignite the life flame of this occupation.]

The more he read, the more confused he became. Ian was utterly baffled by the system’s brief task description. Was it asking him to resurrect Homelander, dead for who knows how long?

“Hm?”

Ian turned to look at Homelander, head separated from body, spine fully snapped, dead for ages. He felt his system was deliberately making things difficult.

“Wait, the Hulk’s just as dead, so why didn’t it say his occupation was dormant?” Ian tried negotiating with his system.

But the unintelligent system gave no response.

“Bullshit! Total bullshit!”

Frustrated at not getting what he wanted, Ian angrily yanked Homelander’s head from the corpse’s grip, then slid down the Hulk’s arm to the ground, cradling it.

Hesitation.

Dilemma.

Careful deliberation.

Ian clearly wanted to test if he could bite into the head. He believed in energy conservation, thinking that absorbing Homelander’s matter might count as reigniting his life flame.

Despite this unique idea, Ian couldn’t quite cross the psychological barrier. Eating an evil spirit was one thing; eating a human was another.

“Forget this knockoff Superman!”

Unable to overcome human instinct, Ian tossed the grimacing Homelander head aside, aiming to kick it away like a soccer ball.

He kicked hard.

A national-team-level shot.

Homelander’s head flew far, missing the trash can Ian aimed for and landing on a snow-covered abandoned bus stop in the opposite direction.

The head was unscathed, but the metal bench at the bus stop was dented, proof that this knockoff Superman had some legit superhuman qualities.

“Sigh~”

Ian stared at the still-active task, his intelligence offering no help this time. The vague task description left him clueless about what to do.

“It can’t really mean resurrecting Homelander, right?” Ian glanced up at the Hulk’s arm, intending to check Homelander’s headless body, but as he looked up, he noticed something off in the sky. Amid the ever-oppressive leaden clouds, something was moving.

Its outline was blurry, not like a living creature, as if it were about to emerge from the clouds.

“So big.”

Ian could sense the faint, massive presence, like an asteroid. Wait, an asteroid? His eyes widened in shock.

Then, the object in the clouds grew clearer, a colossal round shape blotting out the sky. In this world, where Ian had spent so long in utter silence.

“Hey!”

A voice appeared!

Clear!

Urgent!

The voice was like a thunderclap. Ian whipped his head toward the sound, catching only a human silhouette before the familiar return bell rang out early.

“Dong~~~~”

The first heavy chime seemed to freeze everything.

“Dong—Dong—”

The second and third followed.

Ian jolted awake in bed.

[00:42]

Even with the strange early return.

The clock still pointed to that seemingly eternal time.

“There are living people in that world!?” Ian’s heart buzzed with uncertainty. He executed a carp flip, springing toward the ceiling.

He pressed both hands against the ceiling, using the force to land smoothly, slipping into the slippers by his bed.

“All the superheroes are dead… so who could be alive?” Ian was baffled by the last moment, unable to fathom why he returned early.

This had never happened before. Was it tied to the shout he heard or the mysterious round object in the sky?

“Where’s my intelligence? Do something!”

Ian smacked his forehead.

And, well, it kinda worked, though in the wrong direction, his mind flashed to a scene, then to his awakening task and the Hulk’s figure.

“Slap slap slap~”

Ian’s slippers squeaked like a clown as he raced to his second brother’s room, pounding on the door. A groggy Jordan opened it, staring at his little brother.

“What’s up?”

Jordan was puzzled.

He yawned, looking drained.

“Your comic books!”

Ian didn’t care if the air smelled of gardenias. He barged into Jordan’s room, scanning around, and found the box where Jordan kept his comics.

Under Jordan’s confused gaze, Ian rummaged, tossing aside hidden discs, until his eyes landed on a yellowed comic issue.

The Incredible Hulk

There it was, the familiar green figure, fierce and massive, on the cover.

“You barge in at night just to read a superhero comic that only ran three issues before getting canned for bad sales?”

Jordan, interrupted mid-session, was inwardly fuming but held back, recalling Ian’s rough night.

“Can I borrow it?”

Ian looked at his brother. Though annoyed, Jordan sighed and nodded, then shooed Ian, engrossed in the comic, out of his room.

“Damn, I gotta get back in the zone.”

Jordan adjusted his mood, picked a new disc from the scattered pile, and resumed his nightly conquest.

Outside the bedroom door.

Ian stared at the comic, a strong gut feeling telling him that Homelander’s occupation failing to activate, while the Hulk’s worked instantly, was tied to this.

His real world had no Homelander stories!

But it had Hulk stories!

“I’m smart enough to connect the dots.” Ian felt he’d cracked the task’s logic, but as he turned to head back to his room.

“Whoosh~”

The sound of a flush.

His father, Clark, stepped out of the upstairs bathroom.

Their eyes locked.

“Hm?”

Ian’s gaze moved past Clark, to something behind him. His face paled in shock, pointing behind Clark.

“Dad! You’ve got some guts! Cheating at home!” Yes, Ian saw a strange woman following Clark out of the bathroom.

“What are you talking about?”

Clark instinctively covered his sleeve, but hearing Ian’s accusation, he looked confused, turning to see nothing.

“Acting now? No way!”

Ian caught the oddity in Clark’s furrowed brow.

His dad was genuinely confident, not at all like someone caught red-handed. Thinking calmly, even if Clark were cheating, he wouldn’t do it at home.

Unless Lois approved?

Though Westerners were open-minded, their family was somewhat traditional, so Ian doubted his mom had such peculiar tastes.

But why was there a woman?

“Maybe she’s not alive! Did eating a spirit make my eyes see ghosts?” Ian thought of a web series he’d never finished before transmigrating.

As if realizing something, he glanced at the brand on his hand.

It was flickering.

As if only he could see it.

“Is this because of the big shot’s mark?”

Ian looked up again.

His pupils still reflected the woman no one else could see. She wore black, her uniform crisp, with neat short hair and enviably pale skin.

“Hm?”

Perhaps sensing Ian’s prolonged stare.

She tilted her head.

“Human? Now that’s… a special talent.”

She seemed surprised too.

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