American Comics: Something's Wrong with This Superhero World

Chapter 118 The Power of Fear

In his vision, Superman saw himself rejected by the entire world. Countless people emerged from their homes in the streets, holding Superman posters and logos marked with an X, their faces filled with anger and disgust. Among these people were some faces Superman once recognized, his die-hard fans; their transformation filled him with deep pain and despair.

Superman also saw Lois, his wife, standing at the doorway with their child in her arms, her eyes cold. Lois's voice reached Superman's ears clearly: "We're getting a divorce." Superman's child also looked at him with disgust.

This scene was like a sharp knife piercing Superman's heart, making him feel suffocated.

The pain in the hallucination did not end there. Superman then saw Xiao Xian hovering in the air, looking down at him as if he were a defeated dog. The next second, Xiao Xian shot out a heat beam from his eyes, piercing through Superman's body.

Superman, trapped in the illusion, floats in the air. At the same time, the giant spider's body begins to heal rapidly, returning to normal in just a few seconds.

After recovering, Pennywise struck Superman, who was hovering in the air, with his spider spear. Superman didn't budge, but the spear snapped in two. Pennywise looked at Superman helplessly. This Kryptonian was too strong. He remembered that Kryptonians weren't this outrageous when he was on Krypton.

Although Pennywise's essence is high enough, this body is essentially just an ordinary Earthling. It's already quite impressive that he can transform into a spider and easily cut through steel.

Superman's defense is truly monstrous. Pennywise estimated that to break through Superman's defense from a physical perspective, he would have to treat this body as a one-time use and project a force exceeding the body's tolerance limit.

But Pennywise was quite comfortable using this body and was reluctant to change it.

Fortunately, although Superman is incredibly strong, with top-notch physical abilities, his mental resilience is not much stronger than that of ordinary people, and may even be weaker than that of some people with strong willpower.

After taking one last look at Superman, the giant spider transformed back into Pennywise's form. Pennywise burrowed into the sewers; having absorbed a great deal of fear and stretched his muscles, he was going back to rest.

"Ugh..." Seeing Superman floating in the air like a balloon in the live stream on his phone, Xiao Xian rolled his eyes speechlessly. It seemed he would have to take matters into his own hands.

"It's stronger than before," Beverly said, looking at the screen on her phone. "Back then, a bunch of us kids could beat it, but now even Superman can't defeat it."

"It's not that it's gotten stronger; it's that for most people, the key to fighting Pennywise isn't strength, but courage." Xiao Xian looked at Beverly, whose face still held a touch of childishness, and said, "Do you remember Pennywise's old lair?"

"I remember," Beverly nodded. "I'll probably never forget that place for the rest of my life."

"Then do you still dare to go?" Xiao Xian asked. If Beverly had already lost her courage, then it would be better not to bring her along.

"Will you come with me?" Beverly didn't answer directly, but looked at Xiao Xian and asked.

"Of course, I will personally kill Pennywise," Xiao Xian said, looking at the mission that had just popped up in his field of vision.

Ding! Mission: Who is the hero?! Triggered.

Mission Title: Who is the Hero?!

Mission Description: Pennywise has defeated Superman, becoming the world's most famous monster. Defeat him, and you'll prove you truly deserve the title of the world's most popular superhero.

Mission objective: Defeat Pennywise

Quest Reward: Pennywise - Fear (Modified)

Pennywise - Fear (Modified): The improved Pennywise's ability to absorb fear has removed the weakening effect inflicted on you by others overcoming their fear of you, while retaining the effect of absorbing fear. You can use the fear others have of you as a source of power.

Seeing the effects of Pennywise - Fear, Xiao Xian finally understood why Pennywise had failed against the children. It turned out that Pennywise's ability to become stronger by absorbing fear also had the effect of weakening himself after others overcame their fear.

In the movie, after the group overcomes their fear, the originally gigantic Pennywise shrinks smaller and smaller until he becomes a tiny clown who struggles to walk, and is killed by the group by having his heart ripped out.

However, this ability is labeled as Pennywise, not Death Ray. Considering that Death Ray flew away after Pennywise died in the movie, this effect is likely useless against Death Ray.

Before gaining heat vision, this skill might not have been very useful to Xiao Xian, because others' hatred towards him was already overloaded. But now that he has heat vision, whether it's hatred or fear, the power of emotion is naturally better for Xiao Xian.

More importantly, this ability was acquired from Pennywise. Although it seems ordinary, its potential is immeasurable. Apart from superheroes with bug-like abilities like Superman, generally speaking, the abilities of monsters are much more bug-like than those of superheroes and supervillains.

Just like the super regeneration that came from Tomie, Xiao Xian initially thought it was just a life-saving skill, but it actually changed the essence of Xiao Xian's life and extended to a series of practical superpowers, including teleportation, parasitism, no-cooldown enhancement, and monitoring.

The same goes for Super Charm. Although no fancy extended abilities have been developed, the effect of automatically maxing out the favorability rating when meeting someone of the opposite sex is already incredibly overpowered.

For example, right now, without her super charm, Beverly wouldn't have so easily trusted Xiao Xian, a stranger. Not only was she willing to confront her childhood trauma and reveal all the information about Pennywise, but she was also willing to accompany her to challenge Pennywise, who had just defeated Superman.

Let alone Xiao Xian, a complete stranger, even Billy, the leader of the Losers' Alliance who had saved his friend's life, struggled to convince his friends to face the Joker again. In the end, it was Pennywise who gave them a helping hand, stating that he would definitely kill them all, which forced them to fight Pennywise to the death.

"If you go, I'll go with you." Looking at Xiao Xian's handsome face, Beverly held Xiao Xian's hand and said, "If I can kill him once, I can kill him a second time. Although we don't have the help of our friends this time, with you here, we will definitely succeed."

In fact, Beverly wasn't confident about defeating Pennywise; just because you can do something when you're young doesn't mean you can do it when you're older.

Just like in the fairy tale where none of the adults dared to expose the emperor's new clothes, it was the children who finally saw through the lie.

But Beverly couldn't just stand by and watch Xiao Xian go to Pennywise while she did nothing. Rather than staying at home and waiting for the outcome, Beverly preferred to face it with Xiao Xian, even if they failed, they could die together.

After her friend's death, Beverly almost lost the will to live. If she hadn't met Xiao Xian, she originally planned to commit suicide after the murderer's trial.

(End of this chapter)