Nemo woke up from a headache-inducing sleep, his vision completely dark, but he knew Matthew was sitting at the edge of the bed.

Though it was a small room, there was a subtle energy flowing in and out of the air. Nemo couldn't tell whether it was radio waves or something ghostly, but he was now in a reality beyond human sensory limitations. At the same time, he felt Matthew like a large reef quietly leaning against the bedhead.

"Am I still in the experimental zone?" Nemo asked softly, his throat parched.

"You're in the lounge next to my office, the one you slept in before. I know you don't like staying in the experimental zone, so I moved you here since you're just sleeping. I feel more at ease working outside this way," Matthew replied.

"Why don't you turn on the lights? Sitting here like this is bound to scare people."

"I was reading some materials and my eyes got tired, so I thought I'd take a nap."

"Seriously, do we really have to be this frugal? If you'd moved me to the couch, you could have slept in the single bed," Nemo remarked, thinking there were more reasonable ways to arrange things. The single bed in the lounge was designed for Matthew's size, so Nemo didn't feel cramped at all, and the couch in the world's richest man's office was also top-notch comfort.

"When your powers run out, it's better to stay in the lounge for an extra layer of protection. Besides, some special guests might come into my office at any time. If you're into being admired for your sleeping posture, I don't mind," Matthew said.

"I definitely don't want that. Is the water glass next to you? I'm so thirsty," Nemo asked, also sensing the faint smell of water.

Matthew fumbled around a little and handed the water glass to Nemo, listening to the sound of him drinking in the dark.

"Actually, my parents have a great relationship. They just don’t live together. My mother has always been a special genius, but she has severe social anxiety. A certain country even built a secret laboratory for her, a death maze designed by her. Can you see the resemblance between her and me?" Matthew spoke more openly now, perhaps because he couldn’t be seen, but he was sharing something personal. Aside from their achievements and influence, his parents were mysterious figures, little known to the public or media, and the government kept their affairs secret.

Thinking of the secrets in Matthew's private estate and the Grimm Tower, Nemo instinctively nodded, then remembered that Matthew couldn’t see his movement at the moment.

"My father fell in love with her while discussing weapon patents, and she liked him as well. Just look at my face and physique—you can tell I inherited my father’s good looks and charm, which eventually won over the Sleeping Beauty in the castle. They had no issues when they were together in my mother’s territory, but when my father had to return to manage his military-industrial empire, they mostly stayed in touch through video calls."

Nemo was unsure why Matthew suddenly started talking about his parents. Was it because Nemo had shot off the head of his father’s mistress's statue to get back at him?

"Sometimes I stay with my mother, sometimes with my father, depending on who can free up their schedule to spend time with me. They both spoil me, and I prefer studying their fields of expertise. They let me develop freely. When I wanted a space station, they emptied their fortune to fully support me!"

Nemo was speechless. "So, your mother knew about the mistress but could accept it?"

"It’s more like, ‘you can only enter after doing a full physical and disinfecting yourself.’ Though men’s bodies are troublesome, my father made a Venus statue of his mistress to get my mother’s attention, though it was really just a little trick. His real preference has always been for Diana, the Huntress. After my mother passed away in the Meteor Shower Event, my father’s health declined rapidly. He could have had an organ transplant and lived for a few more years, but he chose euthanasia."

"Sounds romantic," Nemo said.

"I can't understand that kind of symbiotic relationship. Rather than saying that the man and woman were in love and couldn't let go, it’s more like a land animal and a sea creature suddenly finding a common language. I’m the result of that evolutionary intersection. Today’s events made me think of them," Matthew said, raising two fingers and bringing their tips together.

"So, when you severed the Venus statue's head, what exactly were you thinking?" The topic shifted back to Nemo.

Matthew didn’t tell Nemo about his thoughts on the test today. When Nemo had been following the experimental zone, he hadn’t cared about gains or losses. He was practically like a stiff fish walking upright. But when it came to the challenge, he seemed very confident. Could this be the magical effect of wearing a superhero costume?

"It felt like being in a thick fog, with no thoughts running through my mind, just a vague sense of anxiety and a dislike for the feeling of entrapment. It wasn't a sudden wave of sympathy for you. Maybe... it has something to do with forgotten memories? Not connected to the old group, but rather something more personal." Nemo's expression was still drowsy, and his words were a little disjointed, but it was the state Matthew liked most—Nemo, drained of energy, was soft and easy to calm down.

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Matthew's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Did you remember something?"

"It’s just a guess, but I seem to really hate seeing children being mistreated, especially when it comes to sexual abuse. Of course, I can’t stand other kinds of abuse either, even if the child didn’t care at the time and didn’t have lasting trauma, but I just flipped the switch," Nemo said.

"Ah," Matthew sighed softly.

"Maybe I have some childhood trauma or something?" After all, it was an issue related to the previous Nemo, and the current Nemo couldn't remember it. He could only leave it aside for now.

"I guess I’ll have to hug you again," Matthew said, taking advantage of the fact that Nemo had just woken up from his energy drain and was weak, pulling him into an embrace and rubbing his back.

"Get off! And where's my uniform?" Nemo noticed that he was wearing smooth and cool silk pajamas.

"I already sent it off for cleaning and inspection. I’ll give it back to you once it’s confirmed safe for battle. You’ve been asleep for a full 24 hours—just like being in a coma. I had to give you an IV drip," Matthew replied.

"I need to go back, my roommate is probably worried that I haven’t contacted him." Nemo opened his everyday phone and found only one missed call from Tolya.

Given what he knew about Russians, something must have happened. There were three text messages, and they were quite strange. The first one was just a bunch of exclamation marks, the second one came twenty minutes later with a string of ellipses, and the latest one, half an hour ago, simply said, "I know you're with Matthew Grimm, come back early if everything's fine."

Could this be a sign that Tolya's brain had been invaded by alien bugs? Nemo stared at the odd texts from his Russian roommate, lost in thought.

"Nemo, I'm sorry," Matthew said, pressing his firm chin against the curly-haired young man’s head.

"Why are you apologizing? What did you do wrong?" Nemo immediately grew suspicious.

"I shouldn’t have encouraged you to go all out. Actually, running out of energy is very dangerous for someone with superpowers. It can even be fatal. But the test results were so good," Matthew said.

"Your experimental zone can minimize the risks. Besides, I wanted to know my progress and limits. This kind of test is necessary," Nemo replied. He always unconditionally trusted Matthew when it came to superpowers, probably because he didn’t really care much about them himself. But just in case something went wrong, it was good to have an expert around to help clean up.

Matthew handed Nemo a discreet black backpack to store his superhero costume and weapons. Compared to certain comic heroes who solved their appearance problems with light, tight-fitting outfits, Nemo's gear was really quite extensive.

"I’ll have my assistant drive you back. For now, avoid using the internet and let your brain rest properly, understood?"

"Roger that."

※※※

"I’m back." Nemo greeted the house.

"Hmm." A nasal sound came from the person on the couch, signaling that Tolya had heard him.

As usual, Tolya was lying on the couch, blowing air from an electric fan while scrolling through his phone. Nemo walked around in front of him to check that Tolya hadn’t been infested by strange bugs in his brain, but today, Tolya seemed a little off.

Nemo had been out of contact for over 24 hours, but Tolya wasn’t as worried as he usually was. Those strange texts, and the fact that Tolya had continued playing with his phone without moving even after he knew that Nemo was back.

Tolya looked up, his steel-blue eyes gleaming with mysterious amusement. Nemo rarely saw his Russian roommate so genuinely happy.

Nemo seized Tolya's wrist with both hands, pulling his phone and hand closer, discovering that Tolya was watching a video of Nemo’s test with the superhero suit and weapons, now edited.

Nemo was instantly frozen in shock.

"Ha, is this you?" Although the video didn’t show a full front view, and even the head was barely visible, there was no way Tolya could mistake his Taiwanese roommate!

"You’ve got the wrong person," Nemo calmly refuted.

The video was still only about a tenth of the way through, maybe there was time to fix it! The camera was filming "KS man" rock climbing, only showing his back, with close-ups of his fingertips, clothing edges, boots, and debris flying when rocks shattered. Some of the movements were downright nerve-wracking, and there was even a very Hollywood-style shot of a Ryukyu Sai spike colliding with cold rock.

Besides, his face was hidden behind a hood and goggles!

Nemo pressed hard on a pressure point on Tolya’s hand, causing the Russian to yelp in pain and loosen his grip, giving Nemo the chance to snatch away the phone.

"It’s too late, I’ve watched the video over fifty times, and I knew it was you the moment I saw it! If the new hero wasn’t you, I wouldn’t have rewatched it so many times!" Tolya said matter-of-factly.

Nemo angrily tossed Tolya’s phone back into his chest, grabbed his own VV phone, and logged into the forum for easier browsing.

As soon as Nemo entered the "Meteor Shower Watchers Forum," he was drawn to a hot post that kept getting pushed up by comments in the discussion section.

"Hey, superhero husbands and wives! Don’t miss it—check the leaderboard, there’s a shiny new hero in town!"

He quickly entered the pinned superhero leaderboard section, changed the display settings to show by number order, and scrolled down. Sure enough, right after the latest entry for "KS man," his codename, there were already a lot of votes for him, and the post had moved up nearly a hundred spots in less than half a day.

Each superhero had their own page, where forum administrators could update their records, including videos, images, and other related documentation. The pages also included a comment section and an internal mailbox in the superhero's name.

Users of the Meteor Shower Watchers Forum believed that true superheroes had access to special mailboxes, which were privileges granted by the forum. However, what kind of information or events these superheroes used those mailboxes for was something the public couldn’t know.

Currently, the only visual record of "KS man" was the edited weapon test footage, but the way the footage was presented was entirely different from what Nemo expected of a standard test record.

The video, which had animated mechanical enemies added into the air attack sequences (no blood, suitable for children), was clearly special effects, but it made the footage even more exciting. The climbing and landing didn’t have additional effects, just coordinated with Nemo’s movements and set to music, and when he let go and fell, the soundtrack suddenly cut out. The sound of his landing made the tension soar.

The scene then shifted to a dark-colored assassin throwing a dark weapon at a marble sculpture in the final battle practice. Using the famous ninja weapons seen in movies and animations, the assassin repeatedly hit vital spots on the sculpture, and with successive impacts, the entire head of the statue eventually fell off.

The close-up at the end focused on the shattered Venus head, with only half of her face remaining. The screen gradually darkened, and the goddess fell into an eternal sleep.