Chapter 4321

Clark did as Diana said: he drank a cup of warm water, went to the bathroom, and then lay down to sleep. When he woke up, he still felt a bit dizzy and nauseous, but it was much better than before.

Fortunately, he had been carrying the green gemstone for the past few days and had already gotten used to this slight discomfort. He took a deep breath, regained his energy, dressed himself, and prepared to go downstairs.

Diana was already waiting at the door, and the two of them went to the laboratory together. Diana looked at Clark and said, "You just handed over your hair and blood to the military like that—aren't you afraid they'll do something strange with it?"

"Don't worry, I asked Bruce about it. You can't do much with just blood and hair."

"What about cloning?"

"No." Clark shook his head and said, "Bruce told me that humans still haven't cracked the human genetic code, let alone that of Kryptonians. It's impossible."

"But you still need to be careful. I know you're not the type to go around causing trouble, but someone might try to sabotage you. For now, don't go alone to any sketchy places, okay?"

Clark roughly understood what Diana was getting at. He actually also knew the military's character—for the sake of getting his genes, they'd do anything. Honey traps and seduction weren't out of the question.

Clark wasn't too worried, though. On one hand, no one could force him; on the other, he felt he already belonged somewhere. Once this busy period was over, he'd figure out how to pursue Lois.

Thinking of that, Clark asked, "You said humans and Kryptonians would have reproductive isolation?"

"Who do you like?"

Clark was startled, then said, "You can read minds?"

"Hah, little baby. I've lived this long—do I need mind-reading to deal with you?" Diana flicked her hair dismissively and said, "Come on, spill it—who are you into?"

"Lois Lane. She's truly the most charming person I've ever met—strong, independent, smart..."

So Diana listened to a stream of flattery all the way, and she regretted a little exposing Clark.

When they arrived at the base, Clark saw Colonel Jones was also there. But he didn't think much of it—he nodded at Jones and went in. Then the experts drew a bit of his blood and took it to the nearby equipment for analysis.

Clark pressed on the puncture wound from the blood draw, feeling a quiet sense of pride: good thing he had the green gemstone—now he could participate in the physical.

As a child, because he couldn't control his strength and didn't know how to change his rock-like physique, he could only make up excuses to avoid school physicals, and for that he had even been mocked and ostracized. After starting work, although he could participate in physicals, he still couldn't have blood drawn—even when he relaxed his skin, regular needles still couldn't penetrate. So each time he'd claim he hadn't fasted or had taken medicine, avoiding the blood draw, which annoyed his superiors.

Now, with the green gemstone and his relaxed skin, ordinary needles could finally penetrate. Next time he had a physical, he could finally get his blood drawn.

After the blood draw, Clark prepared to leave. But the expert hesitated, then called out to him and said, "What did you do yesterday?"

Clark blinked, then glanced guiltily at Diana—what else could he have done yesterday? Gone drinking, of course.

"What's wrong?" Diana asked. She walked over and glanced at the test report, but didn't understand it, so she said, "Yesterday we went for drinks, and he only had three sips—should've been metabolized by now. Is there something abnormal in the blood sample?"

"This isn't just an abnormality," the expert said. "Only drank alcohol? Impossible. Come over—we'll test again..."

So Clark was tested again, and the expert kept frowning at the results. The expert said, "This blood sample shows a clear difference from your previous one—look at this value, it's spiked way too high..."

"What value is that?"

"I don't know, but it's one of your blood components."

Mentioning blood, Clark recalled his earlier ordeal and said, "Um, I was injured before—someone injected some gemstone powder into my blood..."

"Gemstone powder?"

"Yeah, that's it." Clark took off the gemstone he was wearing and said, "See if this is the component."

The expert took the gemstone for testing, and shortly afterward returned with the results, saying, "Exactly—it's this substance, with the same properties. Did you ingest this?"

"No way!" Clark said. "This stuff makes me weak—why would I eat it?"

"Then something's off. The marker for this component in your blood is significantly elevated—did someone inject you again?"

"Impossible—I wasn't injured this time. If someone injected me, I'd know."

Suddenly, Clark stopped. He remembered that the cocktail he drank yesterday, called "Sunset Boulevard," had looked green.

With a "bang," he slammed his fist on the table and roared, "Shiler——!!"

Diana also couldn't help but cover her forehead, saying, "I said the 'Sunset Boulevard' cocktail should be orange-red—how did it turn yellow-green? I shouldn't have let you drink it!"

Clark let out a long sigh, turned to the expert, and asked, "What kind of harm will this cause me?"

"Still unclear," the expert said, shaking his head. "This requires a full physical on you. I can guarantee the data won't leak to anyone else..."

Clark turned to Colonel Jones, who nodded and said, "Don't worry—this physical isn't happening."

Clark gritted his teeth. He was certain it was Shiler behind this—even if Shiler had helped him make LexCorp suffer a big loss, he wouldn't treat him to a meal!

Clark went to get the physical. Diana approached Colonel Jones and said, "Hello, Colonel."

"Hello, ma'am."

"We're being frank—you're not from around here, are you?"

"That depends on how you define 'local.' If we take the Sun as the center and the entire solar system as the radius to define a region, then I should be more local than you."

Diana narrowed her eyes.

"I'm a Martian," Colonel Jones said. "My real name is Ronan Ronze—I'm a Martian Hunter. You can think of me as a police officer on Mars. Many years ago, due to an accident, I came to Earth. After Martians went extinct, I've stayed here ever since."

"Sounds like you and Clark are in the same boat—no wonder you're helping him."

"I'm also helping myself. Humans are indeed Earth's dominant ethnicity, but there are also many outsiders who've taken root here—most are displaced orphans. Stirring up conflict between humans and extraterrestrials isn't wise, because we're not aggressors. On the contrary, when aggressors arrive, we'll stand with humanity, because we need this society—we can't live without it."

Diana listened, deeply moved, and said, "You're right. Dividing Earth's life into natives and aliens is superficial. We're part of humanity too—we've built this society, we'll protect it, and we even hope for human civilization to improve more than many humans do, and we've worked hard for that. If we label all of us as enemies, it'll only bring disaster to Earth."

"Often, extremists label a group as enemies not to protect their own people's safety, but precisely to manufacture crises, gain more power, exploit internal resources, and then legitimately persecute their own kind." Ronen said, "They create a false sense of competitive pressure, telling everyone it's a critical time, forcing them to tighten their belts—but in reality, the resources they save aren't used to defend against external threats or improve welfare; they're all siphoned off by them."

"Let's not talk about this," Diana said. "No matter how eloquently we outsiders speak, they'll just think we're corrupting minds. Let's talk about someone else instead."

"Who?"

"Shiler."

Diana rested her finger lightly on her chin and said, "In this series of events, he's playing a far more important role than we imagined. To be precise, he orchestrated everything—from the Frienne Serpent to Egyptian mythology, then the royal scandal and the artifact exhibition—all of it was him. What does he actually want?"

"I thought you already knew," Ronen said, surprised. "Haven't you noticed that the central figure in all these events is Clark Kent?"

"I did notice that. I know Shiler's target is Clark, but I don't get what he actually wants to do to Clark." Diana frowned and said, "If you say he wants to save Clark, then why did he inject him with unknown substances while he was injured, making his wounds worse? If you say he wants to harm Clark, then why did he save Clark's mother? I really can't figure him out."

"I think he wants to help Clark." Ronen turned away, began pacing, and said, "In this series of events, what looks most like an attempt to harm him is actually just injecting him with that gemstone powder."

"And this time—putting the powder in his drink so he'd consume it. Good grief, I really thought he'd just drunk too much, didn't expect it was poisoning!"

"But he didn't die from the poison, did he?" Ronen spread his hands and said, "That shows Shiler isn't trying to kill him. Have you heard of specific immune therapy?"

"Um..."

"It's desensitization therapy." Ron added, "When you're allergic to something, you can expose yourself to small doses of it to let your immune system produce antibodies."

"I really don't know about that—I'm not allergic to anything." Diana shook her head and said, "Can this really work?"

"This needs to be done under the guidance of a professional doctor, with each dose strictly controlled to avoid triggering a severe allergic reaction, and it's not effective for everyone—some people simply cannot produce antibodies."

"So you think Shiler is giving Clark desensitization treatment?"

"Exactly. If, as you said, Clark is allergic to that green gemstone, showing symptoms like dizziness, vertigo, and loss of strength, then repeated small-dose exposure could gradually make him immune to this allergic reaction, achieving the desensitization effect."

"Then why didn't he just say so?" Diana couldn't help but say, "Couldn't he have just told us directly that Clark is allergic to this, and that we should have more contact with it—maybe then he wouldn't be allergic?"

"Is he a doctor?"

"Uh..."

"Of course I don't approve of his somewhat rough method, which borders on poisoning and framing. But the fact is, he's not a doctor, and even if he told you, you might not listen, so he went ahead first and asked for forgiveness later. Besides, with this doctor here, the truth will come out sooner or later. If the doctor thinks it's not okay, he can stop it; if he also thinks it's okay, then we can use the gemstone in Clark's hand to continue the desensitization treatment, and it won't cause any serious consequences."

"That makes sense—no wonder he chose yesterday to poison the wine, knowing we'd draw blood… wait, how did he know?"

Diana looked at Ron again, and Ron just smiled at her.

?? Shiler: Bang answer chemistry