hotmtlnovel Chapter 4303 Body of Steel (8)
Chapter 4303 Body of Steel (8)
Chapter 4303 Body of Steel (Part 8)
A piercing alarm blared. The Black officer standing in front of the monitor abruptly turned around. Countless fully armed soldiers rushed in one direction. The Black officer burst out of the room, shouting, "Don't go!!!"
He dashed off in that direction, almost ahead of everyone else. When he arrived, a hole had already been torn in the ceiling above the cell. Clark Kent floated in mid-air, his face extremely grim.
He gave the black officer one last look and said in a deep voice, "Remember my warning: those in low Earth orbit are not friends. Don't get close to them, or you'll regret it."
After saying that, he soared into the sky and disappeared above the military base. The black officer was stunned for a moment, but quickly turned and glared at Schiller.
"What did you say to him?!"
"I told you, I can tell you everything I know. But are you sure you want to say it here?"
The Black officer clenched his fists. His face was grim, and his breathing was rapid, but he managed to calm himself down and said, "See you in half an hour."
Schiller remained expressionless, simply sitting there. Less than half an hour later, just over ten minutes later, someone came to take him away. As he walked out of the cell and down the long corridor, nearing its end, he heard a fierce argument erupting from inside one of the rooms.
"This is the result of your coordination?! Now that he's run away, who can guarantee he won't destroy the Earth?!"
"He is an alien who grew up on Earth; he has humanity. Forcing him would be the worst outcome for anyone."
"Aliens have humanity? That's the biggest joke I've ever heard! They're monsters who've ravaged countless planets on their way here. All humanity can do to fight them is with guns and cannons! Understand?!"
"No. You think aliens are inhuman monsters simply because if you treat them as monsters, you don't have to consider those complex social and philosophical issues; all you have to do is raise your gun. And you're a general, and you happen to have a gun. Load, fire, eliminate the monsters, and then collect your medals—that's what you want."
“You label a group of people as monsters, and then you profit by eliminating them. Whether the other side is aliens, the kind of humans you classify as enemies, or even friendly soldiers you consider expendable, it makes no difference. You’ve just become accustomed to such cruelty and utilitarianism.”
"But I'm telling you, aliens aren't as powerless as your own kind you once slaughtered and wiped out. Treat them with your arrogant superiority, and death will be all that awaits you. Do you think you're tougher than the reinforced concrete and iron plates that built this military base? Compared to the alien spaceships that were blown up by them?"
As Schiller reached the door, the tall white officer burst out. He looked furious, but his steps were unsteady and his fingers trembled. Clearly, what sustained him was not genuine courage, but the instinct to flee driven by fear.
They entered the room, and the door closed. Only the two of them remained. The black officer turned around, hands behind his back, and said, “I can guarantee that nothing we say in this room will be heard by a third person. Now, Mr. Secret, let’s hear what other shocking things you have to say.”
Schiller slowly walked to the chair next to the table and sat down. He used his hand to comb his wet and slightly dried hair back, took off his suit jacket, loosened his tie, and exhaled.
"Your statement was far more shocking than mine. Considering we're currently on a US military base, it's even more astonishing. Before I say anything, I'd like to ask: was what you just said your true opinion?"
“You’re acting like a reporter, but unfortunately, there are no cameras here. Our words won’t be recorded by anything, and they won’t get out. You’d better not try anything funny.”
"Of course. You should be able to tell I don't have any electronic devices on me. Besides, how am I supposed to attack a non-existent officer?"
The Black officer sighed and said, “You know more than I thought. I really don’t know where you came from, you freak. If you insist on asking me, I’ll say yes, that’s my honest opinion. Humanity should reflect on itself before questioning whether aliens are ruthless monsters. Don’t act as if they are truly innocent of their own kind, because we all know they aren’t.”
"A very interesting point of view."
"It's not funny. This is a very serious topic. Humans have no more right than aliens to oppress their fellow humans. Sharing blood and origins is not a holy water to whitewash evil. If they want to use the same attitude to point their guns at aliens to prove that the violence that once oppressed their fellow humans was justified, then the aliens will also prove to them that under the dog-eat-dog nature of social Darwinism, anyone can become prey one day."
“You want them to understand that, but it’s not easy,” Schiller said. “They’re used to being hunters, and they can hardly do anything except turn their guns around.”
"That's why I'm here. Although I really hope someone can teach them a lesson, that person can't be Superman. He's a good kid. People will eventually realize that, but I don't want them to realize it too late."
“Very great, Mr. Jungs.”
The Black officer wasn't surprised that Schiller called him by name. He simply sighed, shifted his form, revealing green skin. He said, "But you've ruined all of this. I had already convinced Clark that we would fight the invading Kryptonians together..."
“No, quite the opposite, I saved it all.” Schiller shook his head and said, “You should have known, but you just didn’t want to believe it. Clark Kent never truly became Clark Kent. He was a god with immense Kryptonian power, omnipotent, in control of everything. He was Kal-El, with a part of that small-town boy Clark Kent within him, a part born of kinship, of love. But that wasn’t enough.”
The green-skinned giant slowly clenched his fist, then lowered his eyes and said, "Perhaps you are right. But how do you plan to completely transform him into Clark Kent?"
“You know it all too well, Mr. Ron Jungs. Don’t you remember how you went from being a Martian hunter to John Jones on Earth?”
Countless images flashed before Rong En's eyes: his brother's maniacal laughter, the wails of his wife and children, endless flames...
His breathing trembled slightly as he said, "That's too cruel. You can't do that. You can't..."
Then he suddenly opened his eyes, and all he could see was Clark Kent's icy face as he flew away, staring intently at Schiller and saying, "What did you do? What did you do to his family and friends?!"
When Clark flew over Smallville, he couldn't believe what he saw. The Kent family's house looked like it had been hit by a tornado; half of the house had collapsed, bundles of straw were scattered on the ground, the pickup truck was overturned, there were skid marks on the ground, and even the roadside utility poles had fallen.
He stood there, stunned, a name echoing repeatedly in his mind. But he dared not call out that name, because reason told him that he might not get a response anymore.
He landed and stumbled into the house. The place where he grew up was a mess; the dining table was overturned, the chairs were broken, the island counter was knocked over, the pots were smashed, and oatmeal was smeared everywhere.
Countless pieces of information flooded Clark's mind, making him dizzy and giving him a splitting headache. The anger that had been building up in his chest for so long finally erupted. His roar soared into the sky.
A hurricane swept through Smallville. The snow that had fallen for miles around vanished in an instant. Everyone awoke with a start, only to see a figure rise from the ground.
Inside Luther Mansion, Lex Luther, who had just hung up the phone, looked ashen-faced. He must be under some kind of curse, otherwise, why had everything been going wrong for him lately?
Just as this thought crossed his mind, a sudden thought struck Lex: the Serpent of Phriene, Egyptian legends, Tutankhamun, the Pharaoh's tomb…
He rushed to the table, turned on the computer, and searched for Tutankhamun. Sure enough, the first result of the search engine was "Seven archaeologists die in succession - the most terrible curse of the pharaoh's tomb".
Clicking on it leads to a golden statue of a pharaoh. The image is prominently labeled "Tutankhamun, Pharaoh of Egypt." The article recounts how the seven archaeologists who opened Tutankhamun's tomb all died young, suggesting the "curse of the pharaoh" theory isn't entirely unfounded. However, everyone who sought to investigate the curse perished along the way.
“Damn it…” Lex couldn’t help but curse. Clinging to a last shred of hope, he looked up the origin of the Phrygian Serpent. Unsurprisingly, this mural was also one of the artifacts from Tutankhamun’s tomb.
In this article, he discovered more details. An archaeologist had reported the anomaly of the serpentine gemstone, but this archaeologist and his colleagues all died in the same year.
Lex slammed his fist on the table. No wonder that damn conman was so eager to get rid of it; there was probably something wrong with this gem.
At that moment, he disregarded everything else and rushed to the laboratory, retrieving the box containing the gemstone. Of course, he knew it was radioactive and dared not open it rashly. He simply wanted to take a picture and ask a true professional how this thing was unearthed.
Suddenly, with a crash, the floor-to-ceiling window shattered. A tall figure floated outside the window and then rushed in. The next second, Lex was grabbed by the neck and lifted up.
He met a pair of incredibly cold blue eyes. His handsome face, as striking as an ancient Greek sculpture, was now as cold as an ancient, unmelting ice sculpture on a glacier. Lex clearly saw murderous intent in them. All the self-deceptive hypnosis and the psychological barriers he had built for self-protection collapsed in an instant.
He's here, he's powerful enough, and he wants to kill me.
Lex Luthor was almost instantly consumed by fear. He realized that the intelligence and foresight he had used to surpass his peers, and even most of the world, in countless moments throughout his life, were utterly useless in the face of absolute power.
He was so fragile, so vulnerable, so nothing at all.
His mind went blank, filled only with fear, but after the fear came a survival instinct that almost overcame all negative emotions. He didn't want to die, he couldn't die here, but he was helpless, powerless to resist.
"Where is Martha?" Clark's voice was almost squeezed out through clenched teeth.
Lex, pinned to the ground, was completely unable to speak. The large hands clamping his neck were almost snapping it; his vocal cords had no room to vibrate, so he couldn't even scream, let alone utter any meaningful words.
He could only convulse and struggle helplessly. The will to survive churning within him was almost twisted into a cross, and in that instant, his convulsing left pinky finger suddenly touched something cold. He fumbled in that direction, and then, instinctively, grabbed the object and hurled it at Clark.
The next second, Clark let out a scream, and a cloud of smoke billowed from behind him. He was knocked down almost instantly. The tide had turned.
(End of this chapter)