Chapter 4427

Diana sat up from the bed in her apartment and sighed deeply. After glancing at her watch and wiping her face, she went to the bathroom to wash up. Thinking of the things that had happened recently, this brave and battle-hardened heroine couldn't help but feel exhausted.

Steve's blue eyes had appeared in her dreams countless times, tossing and turning, thinking of him in her sleep.

However, Diana couldn't treat this resurrected Steve as her true lover. From Hal and Barry, she learned that the resurrection of their closest loved ones might be the work of the mastermind behind the dark power's erosion. Although Diana was very reluctant, she could only leave Steve in the temporary custody of the Amazon Queen.

Logically speaking, he should have been sent to the United States; after all, global experts were gathered here to study this group of fakes, but Steve had once crashed in Themyscira and had heard Diana tell many stories about the Amazons. Rashly placing him in the United States might let more people pry into the secrets of Themyscira, which the Queen was unwilling to do. Therefore, they could only compromise and lock him in the Queen's prison.

Seeing him suddenly brought back many memories for Diana, and she hadn't been able to sleep well for the past few days. She had wanted to take leave, but the Christmas holiday at the Metropolis Museum had already passed, and she didn't want to take any more personal leave, so she chose to return to Metropolis to work.

Diana packed up and drove out. Recently, everyone had just returned to work, and the road was bustling with traffic and a bit jammed. Just as Diana was rushing to the Metropolis Museum, she received a call from her supervisor.

"Yes, it is a bit jammed, but I'll be there soon... What?!"

Diana seemed unable to believe what she had heard; a name that sounded like thunder echoed in her mind—the Serpent of Phryne.

Diana couldn't care about anything else; she forcibly turned the steering wheel, pulled the car over to the side of the road, "whooshed" into mid-air, and flew directly to the Metropolis Museum.

Rushing into the museum lobby, pushing aside the crowded security personnel, and looking at the shattered glass case and the empty wall, Diana was completely stunned.

"The Serpent of Phryne was stolen??!!" Diana shouted loudly in disbelief, "Who stole it and why?!!"

Diana's first reaction was this, because after all, she knew this snake was fake. It looked like a very precious Egyptian artifact, but in reality, it was worthless.

Although outsiders didn't know, Diana had worked at the museum for so long and had encountered everything; it wasn't like no one had come to rob or steal things before. But the biggest problem was, what kind of robber would ignore those jewels and paintings and steal a half-ton mural? Were they afraid they wouldn't be able to run away?

Then again, this robber was also a character. The Serpent of Phryne mural was divided into three sections, and it was a three-dimensional carved mural, with a thickness of about an adult's forearm. Adding the three sections together, it was almost exactly half a ton, which was over 1000 pounds. This thing was very troublesome to transport.

The reason Diana knew this so clearly was because when this mural arrived at the Metropolis Museum, it was because of the difficulty of transport that they dismantled two door frames, and many types of cranes came, and in the end, it was Diana who flew into mid-air to help, before it was successfully hung up.

Who would have thought that in the span of one night, it could be taken away along with the frame. What kind of sacred being was the robber who stole the mural?

And what made Diana's heart rise with a bad premonition was that this thing seemed to be Shiler's exclusive weapon, and was tightly bound to this person, Shiler Rodriguez. The so-called "the painting arrives before the person," as long as something happened to this snake, it was inevitably inseparable from Shiler.

Diana walked directly out of the crowd, took out her phone, dialed Shiler, and said, "Hello? Shiler? It's me. Do you know that snake was stolen again?"

Just after saying it, Diana realized it was wrong; why did she have to say "again"?

"I just found out," Shiler replied, "It's truly a pity. Humanity might miss out on a gem of Egyptian civilization."

"Don't you know what's going on?" Diana didn't believe it at all and asked again.

"I did indeed collect this painting for a period of time, but unfortunately, I had no fate with it. Hearing that the painting was stolen, I am also very sorry. However, the Presidential Office is very busy now, and I really can't spare the hands to investigate. Miss, if you..."

Before he finished speaking, Diana hurriedly hung up the phone; the Pharaoh's curse is still chasing me!

Although Diana really didn't want to get involved in this matter, the fact was that this was a borrowed artifact after all; once it was lost, both the British Museum and the Egyptian side would be unhappy.

The British Museum naturally treated this thing as their own, and because it recorded information about aliens, it was destined to leave a heavy mark in history, and could simply be called their national treasure. If it weren't for clarifying the scandal at the time, they wouldn't have lent this to Metropolis.

And Egypt felt that this thing was originally theirs; if it were in the British Museum, it might never see the light of day, but since it could be lent out, maybe there would be a day for it to be returned, and they were still thinking about returning the original owner.

And the Federal Government didn't even need to be mentioned; they had always borrowed things without returning them, and had long since regarded this precious artifact as their own property, so naturally, they were unwilling to see federal property damaged.

Thus, the Metropolis Museum faced huge pressure, and everyone put down all their work to rush to investigate the whereabouts of this precious artifact. Diana was even specifically named, because everyone at the Metropolis Museum knew she had superpowers and felt that she would get twice the result with half the effort in investigating.

Diana's mood at this moment was speechless. This ancient Egyptian artifact with a lifespan of less than a year had really become a treasure held in the palms of people's hands. Unfortunately, Shiler, that dead liar, actually washed his hands of it, which left her with nowhere to find the traces of the artifact?

There were cameras in the Metropolis Museum, but if cameras were useful, then the major museums in the world would all be safe. Dealing with ordinary cameras was really too simple. Whether it was system hacking or physical wire pulling, it was very easy as long as you bribed internal personnel or simply snuck in secretly.

Or, don't deal with the cameras, just cover your face. Although you would be exposed in the museum, it would be very difficult to track after leaving the museum.

This time the robbers were very cautious and careful, directly cutting off all the power in the museum, and not a single surveillance camera was working normally. However, Diana understood after a little deduction that this wasn't because the robbers were smart, but because they had to do so.

Stealing such a large stone mural was different from stealing pots, pans, and jewelry. Those things could be taken away in a bag, but this mural couldn't be moved without a professional crane. And to get those machines, it couldn't possibly be one or two people; it must be a gang, and they had to be busy for a long time. Not wanting to find a way to cut off the cameras, they would soon be discovered.

Besides, there were also some cameras outside the Metropolis Museum; if they didn't cut them off, it would be easy to capture their car. The ordinary sedans that other robbers drove could blend into the crowd and leave. But to transport such a large thing, they definitely had to drive a truck, and trucks weren't so easy to run away with; if the vehicle characteristics were captured again, they would really be unable to fly even with wings.

The cameras couldn't be relied on, so they could only check the traces in the museum. But unfortunately, the traces were also cleared very cleanly, and it looked like no heavy machinery had been used. What made Diana feel most suspicious was that the door frame was actually intact.

The exhibition hall where the mural was located only had one small door to go out. It was dismantled when the mural was brought in, so how could it be taken out without dismantling it?

Diana naturally thought of the worst result, which was that these guys felt it was troublesome to take the mural out, so they simply smashed it and took it out in small pieces.

A large mural was certainly valuable, but it was useless if it couldn't be transported. Smashing it, although most of it had no value, the parts recording the images of aliens might be sold for a higher price.

Thinking of this, Diana couldn't help but rub her forehead. She wasn't feeling sorry for the artifact; after all, this wasn't an artifact at all, and it wouldn't matter if it was smashed into slag. What gave her a headache was that if it was really smashed, it would be hard to investigate, and her job wouldn't be easy to do.

Sure enough, when discussing, someone said: "Since there are no traces of a crane, it's mostly smashed." Once these words were out, the atmosphere immediately fell to the bottom. Everyone knew that if it was really smashed, it definitely wouldn't be found, and by then, it might even cause a diplomatic incident, and everyone would have to get out.

At this moment, Diana spoke up: "But it's not simple to smash such a large thing; you have to have some professional tools. If you used a hammer drill, the traces would likely be heavier than a crane; since none were found, maybe they used another method."

Once these words were out, it attracted many people's agreement. In any case, no one wanted to fall into the worst situation. But at this time, someone knocked on the door and entered, saying: "I went to check the archives, and discovered that all the files, reports, and data related to the Serpent of Phryne are gone."

"What?!" The curator stood up and looked at him in disbelief, "Those people even stole the data?! Are they crazy?!"

Diana was also slightly surprised. Generally speaking, robbers who rob artifacts like this wouldn't care about any data, because they mostly move to rob after having a buyer, which is to say, they point and then rob. The buyer specifies this artifact, so naturally, they know its value better than anyone else, and there is no need for any data to prove it.

Even if no one specified it, they rob and then find a buyer, such big news of theft would definitely make it to the newspapers, and everyone would know. If it were jewelry or paintings, they might need to appraise it to prevent someone from passing off a fake, but this kind of stone mural basically has no possibility of being faked, so naturally, there is no need for data to set off its value.

Just after thinking this, Diana refuted herself in her heart; don't say this thing has no possibility of being faked, isn't this whole thing fake?

However, the fact that they stole the data was still very suspicious. Most people were thinking in the direction of proving its value, but Diana felt that the act of stealing the data proved that the other party might not be wanting to take the artifact to sell for money.

If one had to say, there was no reason, it was just a hunch. Because ordinary robbers, since they dare to do this line of work, have no awe for historical artifacts. To put it bluntly, it's not as strong as Diana's awe for the Pharaoh's curse, and they wouldn't have the patience to look at those obscure historical data, at most checking Wikipedia after getting their hands on it.

But the entire archive, all the data related to the Serpent of Phryne, was looted, which looked more like it was aimed at the data itself. Even, this data was more important than the artifact itself.