"Really? Um, then how should I call you? Should I call you Wonder Woman like on TV?"

  Viktor, who was willing to show respect to someone willing to dedicate time, effort, and resources to teach him, wanted to address her properly.

  "Oh, I think you can call me Ms. Prince."

  Bruce, standing behind her, quietly facepalmed. Wonder Woman shot him a warning gnce, then looked at him with anticipation.

  "Ms. Prince."

  He first called out the title as expected but then looked puzzled.

  "Does this word only mean 'prince,' or can it also mean 'princess'?"

  "Poof."

  Bruce couldn't hold back a chuckle.

  Diana's expression darkened, but considering that Viktor had just arrived on Earth and thinking back on her own early interactions with human society, many of which seemed naive and clueless in hindsight, she suppressed her annoyance over the teasing of her st name.

  Diana shot a quick gre at the rapidly composed Bruce and then pced a hand to her forehead.

  "Prince is just my st name. Do you have anything you need to pack?"

  Viktor was about to say that he had nothing but a bag of old clothes when Bruce suddenly interrupted him.

  "Wait a moment, this kid does have some luggage."

  Viktor was briefly surprised, then wondered if this man was going to generously help him adapt to Earth by offering him a starting fund.

  However, Bruce took him and Diana to an underground warehouse. Inside, there was a brand-new escape pod.

  This completely caught him off guard. There was no sense of disappointment from shattered expectations, only a bit of shock.

  "How did this thing get here?"

  He stepped forward and ran his hand over the silver surface of the escape pod.

  Seeing this escape pod again, the one that carried him out of hell and toward hope, Viktor felt a mix of emotions.

  "The Wayne Enterprises space satellite just happened to catch this thing. I put in some effort to bring it back and repaired it a little."

  Bruce said it so casually, as if he had just grabbed some loose change from a street vendor and bought a hot dog.

  However, in Viktor's memory, when the bck-suited Superman saved him, the escape pod was still pretty far from Earth.

  It felt like he suddenly owed Bruce tens of millions of dolrs for getting it. Even though… knowing his true identity, Bruce probably only brought the escape pod back just to dismantle it for research, trying to extract more information about him and the Viltrumites.

  But unfortunately, this thing had absolutely no connection to Viltrum at all. It came from a pnet civilization that had been conquered by the Viltrumites.

  The ones who carried out this conquest were Viktor and a few other Viltrumites who participated in the conquest.

  "By the way, there's something I need to tell you."

  Bruce, standing behind him, suddenly became serious.

  "When I was repairing the ship, I took a quick look at the navigation log data inside."

  "There are some of the data turned into unreadable gibberish, which means that during the period you were drifting aimlessly in space, you may have lost a period of time."

  Viktor, who had been squatting beside the escape pod, slowly stood up, looking somewhat confused.

  "That's not important, right? I remember the escape pod only had enough energy to sustain Earth time for about three years…"

  Bruce shrugged his shoulders.

  "The space is a strange pce. The energy consumption doesn't necessarily correte with the time you've spent in space. Right now, we can't decode that gibberish, so we're just letting you know about it."

  ...

  Under the night sky, two figures quickly flew across the sky.

  The smaller one was Diana, and the rger one was Viktor, carrying the escape pod.

  "Where do you usually live, Ms. Prince? New York?"

  "You watch too much TV. Not everyone has to settle in New York. I live in Boston, Massachusetts."

  The city below gradually became clearer as the blurred lights transformed into distinct shapes. The red-brick row houses were arranged neatly, and the Charles River flowed through the city like a silver ribbon. In the distance, the dome of Harvard University glowed faintly golden under the moonlight.

  "That's Vanessa's house up ahead."

  Diana's voice cut through the air as she swooped down toward a five-story building hidden behind a camphor tree grove.

  Along the way, Diana had already mentioned Vanessa to him. She was one of the few people in the human world who knew Wonder Woman's true identity.

  Of course, Vanessa's mother was also Diana's roommate and ndlord, who rented the house to her. She mentioned she's also a professor at Harvard University.

  Viktor followed closely behind, consciously reducing most of his strength as he nded.

  The small building was covered in green ivy, and the first-floor windows had warm yellow light shining through.

  Diana rang the doorbell, and the door was immediately opened by a young girl with brown curly hair, dressed in a loose-knit sweater.

  It was Vanessa.

  Vanessa saw Diana… then looked at Viktor standing behind her, holding the shiny silver escape pod up like a giant toy.

  "Diana, you're back? Is this the little friend you mentioned?"

  "His name is Viktor, and he's from another pnet."

  Diana gave a brief introduction.

  "He doesn't have a pce to stay for now. I was thinking of pcing his ship on the rooftop."

  "The roof is all yours. My mom's in the study preparing for lessons."

  Vanessa stepped aside to let Diana in. The staircase was covered in a dark red carpet, and there was no sound when she walked on it.

  A middle-aged woman with gold-rimmed gsses and an elegant demeanor descended the stairs. It was Vanessa's mother, Julia.

  When Julia saw the awkward Viktor and the escape pod in the doorway, she pushed her gsses up and smiled gently.

  "Is this the alien friend Diana brought? Welcome to Boston. The rooftop is very safe, and it's rare for anyone to go up there. You can just set it up there."

  Julia's tone was as natural as if she were welcoming an ordinary guest, with no sign of discomfort at the "alien" identity.

  He was momentarily stunned and instinctively said, "Thank you."

  Viktor had been expecting her to be nervous or suspicious because he's an alien, but her calmness made his tense nerves ease a little.

  Vanessa smiled and pointed at the ceiling.

  "This thing probably won't fit through the door. Do you want Diana to help you take it up?"

  "Huh? Oh, no, I can fly myself."

  He lifted the escape pod and took to the air, while Vanessa held her hand above her forehead like a shade and clicked her tongue in surprise.

  "Why does it feel like flying is a common skill for aliens? It makes me feel like humans are way behind in evolution."

  Julia urged her.

  "Hurry up and help, or do you want to go upstairs and do your homework?"

  Vanessa rolled her eyes and quickly walked past Diana, giving her a pyful nudge with her elbow.

  Diana pretended to be hurt, holding her ribs and compining to Vanessa.

  "What's up with that? You told me st time you would bring a handsome roommate. This one clearly isn't an adult yet! But hey, there's progress. Last time you brought that pnt spirit thing… the whole room smelled like dirt for weeks."

  Vanessa clearly wanted to argue but ended up giving Diana a thumbs-up to encourage her before running upstairs.

  The rooftop was covered with non-slip tiles, and a few pots of lush succulents were piled in the corners. Viktor pced the escape pod in the corner at the edge of the ptform, and Vanessa, breathing heavily, brought over a yellowish waterproof tarp and handed it to him.

  "Cover it with this. It'll block the rain and won't be too noticeable."

  "Thank you."

  He politely accepted, quickly covering the escape pod with the tarp and securing the edges with bricks.

  He opened the hatch, took a quick look inside, and saw that the temperature control light was in sleep mode and the soft cushioning mat inside the pod made it quite comfortable to lie in.

  Vanessa walked around the edge of the escape pod, staring at the open hatch, looking like she really wanted to see what was inside, but in the end, she restrained herself.

  She had known Diana for three full years, and this was the first time Diana had brought home a completely human-looking male roommate.

  She couldn't scare him off.

  After wandering around for a while, Vanessa finally just called out from the outside, letting him know that he could come down for dinner ter.

  Then Vanessa quickly left.

  Viktor didn't pay much attention to what was happening outside. He simply tidied up a bit, pcing his few changes of clothes into the storage compartment of the pod and settling in for the time being.