Chapter 111: Have You Watched Too Many The Powerpuff Girls?

"Saliva? Are you sure you didn't missee?"

Chris's expression mirrored the black man's confused emoji, utterly baffled.

Saliva?

That thing was glowing, for heaven's sake—does saliva glow?

As Chris remained puzzled, the saliva arrived, hurtling straight toward the Statue of Liberty.

A deep, bell-like boom resounded.

Then, before Chris's eyes bulged and the tourists went utterly hysterical,

it collapsed like a mountain toppling, like a skyscraper crumbling.

The entire metal statue of the Statue of Liberty split open grotesquely from the waist where the glowing saliva struck, the crack spreading across the entire statue in mere breaths.

The next instant.

Crack.

The right arm of the Statue of Liberty, raised high as a torch symbolizing freedom, shattered violently, crashing down—half plunging into the Hudson River, half slamming into the earth, spraying water everywhere and churning up thick dust.

Boom—boom—boom.

Like the final straw that broke the camel's back, the moment the arm snapped, the Statue of Liberty disintegrated, fractured, and collapsed.

"Run!!"

The tourists around them went mad, too terrified to utter another word—they bolted, screaming and scattering in all directions.

Dust flew everywhere.

The island where the Statue of Liberty stood trembled violently.

The thunderous crash echoed across the entire Hudson River.

At that moment, not only were people on the Statue of Liberty's island staring at it—everyone near the Hudson River turned their gaze toward it too.

Their eyes filled with disbelief, wide with horror.

The Statue of Liberty—the one that had stood there since their birth, visible every single day as they passed by, the source of their pride and honor—had fallen.

Impossible to believe.

They felt as if they were dreaming, convinced they were hallucinating.

Many Americans went insane, their hearts trembling violently.

The Statue of Liberty, which had stood majestic and unshakable for over a hundred years in their eyes, had collapsed, toppled, and sunk with a thunderous roar.

Dust filled the sky, and also clouded the hearts of every American present.

Along the banks of the Hudson River, many Americans stood frozen, staring blankly at the gray, hazy sky before them.

Gone…

The towering, proud statue they had always seen clearly from this spot had vanished from view.

For the first time, standing here, they saw the sky the statue had once blocked—but they felt no joy, only profound shock and utter disbelief.

"The Statue of Liberty collapsed?!"

An American clutched his hair, screaming hoarsely, eyes wide with terror.

Farther away, a passing office worker dropped his hamburger in shock.

"Is this some fucking goddamn joke?!"

On the island where the Statue of Liberty stood.

Chris had fled to a distance, escaping the collapse—but he didn't leave. Like everyone around him, he turned back to stare at the Statue of Liberty, all of them frozen in stunned silence.

Before him:

Dust rose everywhere; chunks of greenish metal lay scattered on the ground, cratering the lush green grass.

The dust cleared.

Where the Statue of Liberty had stood, its grand pedestal now held nothing but the two remaining feet of the statue.

The horrific sight struck every soul to the core.

Chris's eyes bulged, nearly popping out; he opened his mouth to speak—but no sound came out. He felt a lump of burning charcoal lodged in his throat, his throat parched and dry.

He looked down.

As if struck by lightning, Chris shivered like a man naked in winter, breaking out in goosebumps, his whole body numb.

At his feet lay a chunk of greenish metal, several times larger than a human head…

It was the Statue of Liberty's eye.

He never imagined his footage of the Statue of Liberty would become the final one ever recorded on Earth—no one would ever film it again.

The cameraman beside him was equally horrified, unable to recover.

He never imagined his footage of the Statue of Liberty would be its last recording…

Thinking of it, both men swallowed hard.

Suddenly, Chris snapped back to reality and spun sharply toward the cameraman.

"Saliva?! Are you sure this fucking thing is saliva?!"

He stared at the cameraman like he was insane.

He snatched the cameraman's camera, determined to see for himself what had destroyed the Statue of Liberty.

The next second, Chris screamed in shock.

"My God—"

His eyes were pressed against the camera screen.

He stared for over ten seconds, confirming it more than a dozen times, then finally lifted his head, looked at the cameraman, and cracked his dry, split lips, whispering in disbelief:

"You weren't lying… this… is really saliva!!"

At this moment, the screen of the camera in his hand was frozen on a single frame.

A frame captured a few seconds before the Statue of Liberty's collapse — in the sky not far away, a blob of liquid that reflected sunlight, as if radiating light.

Looking closely, that blob of liquid looked exactly like saliva — or rather, it was saliva, plain and simple.

Chris and the cameraman stood dumbfounded, unable to snap out of it for a long time, like two statues, petrified on the spot.

Yet their minds were going haywire, their souls trembling.

The Statue of Liberty had collapsed — smashed down by a blob of saliva????

The truth was too shocking.

Shocking enough that they desperately wanted to see a neurologist right away, to check if they'd gone insane.

Subconsciously, they looked at the camera screen.

The two fell silent.

They hadn't gone insane — it was just that the truth was so horrifying, it was like being insane. Who could believe that a single mouthful of saliva had smashed down the Statue of Liberty, which symbolized America and had stood for a hundred years?

A naked, bare-faced irony.

The Statue of Liberty, symbol of America, had weathered storms, endured blizzards, survived every natural disaster and man-made calamity — only to be brought down by an unremarkable blob of saliva.

Before he knew it, Chris noticed the area around him had filled with people, all discussing the collapse of the Statue of Liberty, all venting their disbelief, unable to understand why it had fallen.

When the arriving Americans learned from the on-site tourists that the Statue of Liberty's collapse wasn't due to years of neglect, but rather that a glowing object had smashed it down.

"Huh?"

"Have you watched too much Powerpuff Girls? A glowing thing smashed the Statue of Liberty?"

"I'm begging you to be serious — could you not joke around?"

Not a single person believed the tourists' words.

Even when some tourists pulled out footage of the glowing object, still very few believed — after all, no one had seen the glowing object actually strike the Statue of Liberty.

Just as they were finding the tourists' account utterly preposterous, Chris stepped forward.

"They're not wrong — it really was that thing that smashed down the Statue of Liberty. My cameraman captured the whole thing, and also captured what that thing was — it was a blob of saliva."

The entire crowd froze for a full three seconds.

Tourists included, everyone looked at Chris with the gaze one gives a lunatic.

Oh~ my friend, can you say anything more absurd? Saliva smashing down the Statue of Liberty — you actually had the nerve to say that out loud. Your heart is so dark. Are you sure you haven't watched too much DC comics? Do you really think we'll believe that?

Feeling the crowd's gaze, Chris wasn't angry — because he'd worn that exact same look himself earlier.

He silently took out the camera, opened the screen, and played back the captured footage.

……