Luther had to admit he was completely defeated.
At least in this confrontation, he didn't win even a single point. For the smartest person in the world, this was a disaster. But suddenly, Luther felt a sense of liberation.
Since the moment the opponent revealed his true identity, Luther felt as if he were sitting in a church, facing what seemed to be a real Jesus Christ: powerful, wise, omniscient.
He suddenly began to reflect on where his aversion and hatred for Superman came from in his own personality.
Was it from Superman's strength? No, it was from Superman not being strong enough.
If there were no Superman, the most perfect being Luther could imagine would be himself; but with Superman, Superman became the perfect being in his heart, the limit of his imagination for the most perfect state a wise life could reach.
Yet Superman was not perfect. He had many flaws, and in Luther's eyes, Superman's flaws outweighed his strengths. These flaws were like a black hole, devouring Luther's perfect imagination.
Thus, every act of malice directed at Superman carried a punitive nature, as if to prove that Jesus was not the son of God, but was nailed to the cross.
As long as he could prove that Superman wasn't really that perfect, he could cover up the fact of "a perfect Superman choosing to remain imperfect."
Essentially, he couldn't understand why Superman wanted to be a person full of flaws.
This still stemmed from his arrogance. Instead of being a humanist, Lex Luther was a Lutherist. He protected people like Luther, not those stupid ordinary people. So he also couldn't understand why Superman would rather step down from the altar than to stand with ordinary people.
Superman chose ordinary people over him, and Luther couldn't accept such a choice. So he had to prove, to prove that Superman was not a savior, to prove that he could be nailed to the cross, to prove that this choice of his could lead only to this outcome—just like everyone who didn't choose Lex Luther.
But if Superman didn't have so many flaws, didn't have that useless kindness, didn't expect others so naively, didn't seal off his super brain for better empathy with ordinary people…what would he be like?
Now Luther knew. But was he happy? No, not at all. Because in front of such a Superman, he was no different from those ordinary people he used to look down upon.
He realized that Superman was never choosing between Lex Luther and ordinary people, but between "being himself" and "being an ordinary person"—there was no Lex Luther in the equation.
"I advise you not to do this," Clark said again.
"Don't give it a body?"
"Don't leave a weakness. It's not foolish and won't easily fall into a trap. It will test and investigate thoroughly beforehand. If it discovers the plan, won't all efforts be in vain?"
"If you really create a perfect body, aren't you afraid you won't be able to defeat it?"
"Of course I'm afraid. But you can't create a truly perfect body," Clark said. "Don't blame me for being blunt, but if you could, you would have done it for yourself already. The fact that you're standing here like this in front of me proves you don't have a better solution for this 'body' issue."
Luther found himself speechless.
"Furthermore, whether it will finally enter this body doesn't depend on how perfect the body is, but on whether it has any other choices. If it loses its body, it will die immediately, so even if it's just a pile of scrap, it will have to make do with it. Forcing it to need a body is the focal point of this plan."
"It's getting in touch with my sister," Luther said. "I can't say it's fallen in love with her, but it should choose to save her. By then, I'll create a vacuum environment, forcing the electronic life to control that body to save her."
"Not reliable. If your sister truly had such an attraction to it, it would've acted long ago. Since it hasn't, she might not be that important to it."
"I just want it to misjudge the situation, to think it can rescue Selina at a minimal cost. As I know, it has saved others this way. But once it enters that body, there's no coming out."
Clark thought for a moment and then nodded, saying, "That's possible. But wouldn't it be too obvious for a robot to suddenly appear in a vacuum environment?"
"Then provide a rationale for the robot's presence there. For example, if the president makes a move on me, I'd have to create a mechanical army to counter him. If Selina gets into trouble leading the mechanical army, employing the robot next to her to save her would be the simplest method."
"But how can you ensure during production that it won't take advantage and directly control all of your robots?"
"As far as I know, it doesn't have that capability. I mean, it hasn't evolved in that direction. Even if it has, I can find ways to interfere with it. In fact, I have some leads."
"Such as?"
"It turned itself into a radio wave, although gaining the ability to invade places beyond the network, it also gave itself a weakness—any radio wave can be interfered with."
"You've found a way to interfere with it?"
"Sort of." Luther stood up, took a black box from his desk drawer, and said, "This is a frequency jammer, and it's the fundamental reason I can freely discuss plans with you here."
"How can you be sure it's effective?"
"I've tested it."
"How did you test it?"
Holding the gadget, Luther walked over, looking at Clark, cursing in his mind: A Superman who uses his super brain is truly hard to fool.
"Not tested on the electronic life of our universe."
"Which one then? They can communicate among themselves. As long as one of them discovers this device, it'll notify the others to be on guard and not get fooled easily."
"That one was captured," Luther sighed softly but confessed truthfully, "People from some universe caught it and trapped it in a container. They're selling it externally."
"Sell out?"
"Yes. But buying it outright was too expensive, so I just leased it for a period for research."
"The price?"
"Sharing the research results with them. That way, they can sell the disruptor to other invaded universes to exchange for resources. I was the first to contact them, so I got a discount, and I get a share of the money from selling the disruptors."
Clark showed a satisfied expression and said, "Those people of that universe are quite sharp. Of course, so are you. But how did you find them?"
"They're sharper than you think." Luther snorted and said, "They advertise in the Battleworld, basically every superhero group has received their ads. After I made the disruptor, they ran another wave of ads, and now quite a few people are looking to buy from them."
"How do they transport universe resources?"
"For now, they don't accept resources other than energy." Luther shook his head and said, "Battleworld now has an energy exchange function, even the same world can upload and download between different universes, you just need to pay a little fee."
"Sounds interesting. You said quite a few people have bought, so you've accumulated some energy?"
"Not as much as Batman." Luther snorted coldly and said, "He looted Mount Olympus, probably the quickest among Universe Batmans."
"Alright, it seems the plan does have some feasibility. So I just need to defeat it in the end?"
"It's not that simple. Batman is busy setting up some kind of defense network and doesn't have time to deal with me. You need to pressure me on his behalf, so I can legitimately build a mechanical army for a counterattack."
"Hasn't he already sent a sniper to kill you?"
"Then just write about it in a report, let the whole world know, so electronic life can know too. But that might not be enough, you can find a safe opportunity to pass this plan to him, so he can cause me more trouble..."
A series of heavy footsteps suddenly echoed in the hallway. Luther stood up and turned to look, with a bang, the door was pushed open, and a team of agents stormed in. The leader had a pair of grey eyes.
"FBI, Detective Rodriguez. Mr. Alexander Luther, we suspect you are connected to the recent CIA plane crash, please come with us."
Luther's pupils shrank suddenly.
Time rewinds to after Shiller fired the gun.
After he finished the call about the crash, he got in the car and dialed Greed's number.
"Hello? It's me. You come over to cover my shift... Natasha's plane was shot down, you go to the sea and fish her out, and stop by the Batcave to check on those two scientists."
"Me? I have to clear my own suspicion. No, I'm not going back to Washington, swearing loyalty to the president is useless. The best way to clear my suspicion is to find someone even more suspicious, like the one who fabricated the scandal between the President and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency."
With a "swoosh," a robed figure appeared in the passenger seat. Greed pulled down the hood. The agent said, "Stop, change clothes."
Greed changed into the agent's clothes, while the agent changed into the FBI uniform prepared in the car, took up his badge, pocketed the gun, and got off halfway.
The car headed towards the dock, while he turned back, called while walking: "Have some people transferred from the Metropolis Base, send a car to pick me up."
Shortly, a Federal Bureau of Investigation car appeared by the roadside. Shiller looked around after opening the car door, then got in.
"Luther Group."
The car stopped at the entrance of Luther Group. Shiller, holding his badge, rushed straight in, and the guards and security did not dare to stop him. He went all the way to the top floor, ignoring the assistant's obstruction and knocked on Luther's office door.
"FBI, Detective Rodriguez."
Luther's face visibly turned livid. Although he wished the president would give him more trouble so he could legitimately build a mechanical army, the person who came was Schiller Rodriguez, a bastard agent who had shot him twice, both shots nearly killing him. How dare he?!
Luther slapped the edge of the desk, external shutters on the glass wall fell instantly, surveillance retracted into the ceiling, replaced by gun turrets. Several red dots instantly focused on Shiller.
Once Luther calmed down, he realized he shouldn't have done this. If he really killed this Rodriguez here, the play against the president would become a reality.
Fortunately, Superman was also here; he wouldn't allow himself to kill, which provided a step down, Luther thought to himself, while counting silently, waiting for Superman to step out and reprimand him.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
The direction where Superman stood remained quiet. Luther couldn't help but turn his head to see that Clark had already hid in the corner. He cursed inwardly: with your Man of Steel body, what are you hiding from?!
Only then did he remember that the other party wasn't the Superman from his universe, seemingly without such firm principles.
Fortunately, Shiller did not disappoint him; with so many red dots aiming at him, this bastard agent still expressionlessly pulled out his gun.
"Resisting arrest, evading the police, intent to assault an officer."
Bam!
"Take him away."