Chapter 78:

Passionate About Learning

DC: The Infinite Villain

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Vandal Savage resurrected again.

This time, Damon saw the process clearly. It resembled a kind of bodily rollback, or restoration. Once the process finished, the body instantly returned to its prior state.

Judging from the timing of the two deaths and resurrections, the process seemed consistent.

In other words, whether Vandal died from a slit throat or was blasted to powder, the time required for resurrection would be the same.

The moment Vandal revived again, he jumped away and put distance between himself and Damon, watching him warily.

"Talk?" Damon asked with a cheerful smile.

Vandal's expression shifted again and again. After a long while, he suddenly smiled and sat back down.

"You did that deliberately. You said you did not want to talk. You said you had not seen clearly how I resurrected. All of that was a negotiation tactic. You used it to seize control of our conversation. I believe you are a time traveler now. If you can help me, I do not mind giving you the highest respect."

"Do not flatter yourself. I was simply too lazy to talk earlier. I am stronger than you, which means I do not have to care what you think. You should understand that better than anyone."

Whether Vandal understood it or not, Valentina certainly did.

Because Damon was strong, he had not cared about her thoughts at all.

"And if I did not show you a few things, I was afraid you might misunderstand and think you were the strongest man in the world."

Damon's words stabbed Vandal's pride again, and Vandal's face darkened.

"The conditions have already been discussed with Vandal," Damon told Valentina. "You do not need to do anything extra or change anything. Just proceed step by step and wait for events to unfold."

"Any questions?"

"What is your name?" Vandal asked after a pause.

"Damon Keller."

"He is yours to handle," Vandal said to Valentina. Then he stood and smiled at Damon. "I will wait for your good news."

"Take care. I will not see you out."

Vandal Savage left.

Valentina remained, feeling awkward.

If not for the matter of "waste is shameful," perhaps it would have been fine. But now she truly found it difficult to face Damon as if nothing had happened.

People had pride.

Especially exceptional people like Valentina.

Damon, however, clearly did not treat the incident as anything important. It was as if it had never happened. He continued chatting with Valentina with a smile. Sometimes he addressed her like a gentleman with a casual "dear." Sometimes he politely said "please." Gradually, Valentina stopped focusing on what had happened, and Damon became even harder for her to understand.

After drinking milk and eating breakfast, Damon began studying physics with Valentina from the ground up.

Physics was, after all, the foundation of this entire line of research.

Damon did not intend to personally research Firestorm's power from nothing. Obtaining powers was too simple for him. He had two reasons for learning. First, once he understood Firestorm's principles, he could create Firestorm at will. Second, the knowledge would prepare him for more interesting projects later.

For example, he really wanted to make a set of armor like Iron Man's.

If someone wearing that kind of armor attacked him, Damon could copy all of the armor's capabilities, but he could not produce a physical suit out of thin air.

In essence, there might not be much difference.

But having armor and not having armor were completely different levels of style.

For the moment, he did not need a new pillow, and he had not thought of a place where he wanted to stir up trouble. So he might as well become a diligent, eager student. Damon also remembered that Protege's power, although displayed as Infinite Copy and Infinite Stacking, seemed to be connected to thought and spirit on a deeper level. Learning more could only help.

Besides, if he copied an interesting power but could not think of interesting ways to use it, that would be pathetic.

So Damon studied seriously and with real focus.

Every day, he learned basic knowledge from Valentina. His rapid progress made Valentina call him a genius more than once.

And so Damon spent his days studying with Valentina and his nights tangled with Lilah.

Time passed quickly.

Before they knew it, three months had gone by.

"This is unbelievable."

On the bed in the bedroom, Damon lowered the book in his hands and spoke.

"What is?" Lilah asked, lifting her head in confusion.

"I did not expect my enthusiasm for studying to last this long. It has been three months, has it not? With my habit of losing interest in old things, even something enjoyable should have started boring me by now."

Damon spoke from genuine feeling.

After three months together, Lilah had gained some understanding of him. She hesitated for a while, then asked, "Then... what about me?"

"You?"

Damon smiled lightly.

"Your freshness has already lasted quite a while. You are simply not as new to me as you were at the beginning. At least before, I could not split my attention like this and keep reading at a time like this."

Damon raised the book in his hand.

Lilah's expression dimmed.

"Do not be too sad. Even delicious food grows tiresome if eaten every day."

That comfort did not help Lilah at all. If anything, it had the opposite effect. These three months had probably been the easiest period of her life. She went out shopping every day, bought what she wanted, served Damon, and felt her body and mind settle into this era.

Now, Lilah felt a crisis coming.

She had to do something.

She had to prove she had value worth keeping.

And she thought of what she should do.

Over the following days, Lilah interacted with Valentina more often. She did not understand what the equations, which looked like an alien scripture to her, actually represented. But she did know Firestorm was made of two people, and that Valentina alone could not become Firestorm. So Lilah tried her best to learn those incomprehensible pages.

At the same time, she used Valentina's connections to search for Dr. Manhattan.

Although she had heard Laurie say that Dr. Manhattan was no longer on Earth, she had to do something.

"There is news about the person you wanted to find."

Valentina returned from outside and took off her coat, looking at Lilah.

"Now can you tell me why you are looking for her?"

"Do you want to become Firestorm?" Lilah asked in a low voice.

"You know?"

Valentina froze.

Lilah said, "Help me now, and I will help you when the time comes."

"What does that mean?"

Valentina frowned at Lilah, but Lilah did not explain. She only stared straight back at her.

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