Chapter 4429

Diana hurriedly took out her phone. A tweet had already exploded. The reason was that someone had released the entire process of stealing the "Serpent of Phryne" on the dark web, and accompanied it with photos of the artifact being smashed.

Seeing the photos, Diana was so angry she laughed. She just said how could this broken artifact be so heavy; it turns out the stone outside was just a layer of skin, and inside it was actually concrete.

That photo was slightly overexposed, but one could see clearly that the smashed "Serpent of Phryne" had a layer of imitation stone skin on the outside, which looked like it was made of some kind of mixed material, and it was also possible that it was pasted with natural stone skin, while the inside was completely concrete, and it looked like modern high-strength concrete at a glance.

If there was only this photo, it wouldn't be anything. Even if they released a video of the theft process, it could completely be a set they built themselves. But the fatal part was that the content of the video they filmed matched the announcement released by the police, and the video was released first.

It was said before that because this sculpture involved aliens, all countries attached great importance to it, and the pressure was relatively high. Unfortunately, the police investigated and didn't find anything, and it was Diana who discovered a detail and deduced the crime process.

This group of robbers had a lot of methods; they removed the floor-to-ceiling window glass and then lifted the sculpture out. This could also be considered a relatively big investigation result. To relieve the pressure on herself, the police hurriedly released the progress.

Logically speaking, they shouldn't have stated the detailed crime process to prevent people from imitating it. But the curator didn't want to take such a big responsibility; he just wanted everyone to feel that the robbers were too cunning, rather than their security being ineffective. So he simply said the window part.

But unfortunately, the video released by the robbers was earlier than the published investigation results. That is to say, they released their crime process first, and then the police found out.

The reason why this video wasn't discovered before was because the dark web wasn't a public website, nor did it have modern interactive systems; they were all specified domains to see specified pages. They didn't expect the robbers to be so bold, releasing the video right after stealing it. No one tracked this domain, so naturally, it wasn't discovered.

And the omnipotent netizens deduced that the video release time was earlier than the investigation result release time through the time the domain was established. That is to say, this was extremely likely to be true.

After all, if you didn't do this thing yourself, who could be so clear about the process? They didn't use very popular methods, so it was impossible to stage it so detailed and correctly; it could only be recorded by the parties involved.

Now it's over. If the one transported from the United States to the UK was an imitation found by work error. But this one lent out was the genuine article acknowledged by the British Museum, and the result was also fake.

Then now there were only two results; either the UK admitted that it deliberately lent an imitation to the United States; or it admitted that it didn't know either, and the artifact was really stolen and swapped.

The former was definitely not possible. The UK was a NATO country, and it couldn't afford to offend the United States before, and now it couldn't afford to offend it even more with Superman as President. If they admitted it, they would have plenty of small shoes to wear in the future.

The latter had room for sophistry; the theft and swapping were indeed stolen and swapped, but in which country and which place it was stolen and swapped was very particular. Anyway, what we sent out was real, so it could only be stolen and swapped by your US museum.

The public also tended to agree with this statement, because if the UK knew this was an imitation, it wouldn't have lent it out so blatantly. If it were discovered, wouldn't it be waiting to lose face?

It was more likely that what they sent was a genuine article, but it was stolen and swapped by people in the Metropolis Museum, so the one stolen was a fake.

This statement was obviously unacceptable to the Metropolis Museum, and everyone was crying out for injustice. Still the same sentence, this wasn't a small thing; if they had the ability to steal and swap such a large mural, why would they be working here?

Taking a step back, if they were stealing things, they would rather steal something small and valuable, which would be easier to sell. The Metropolis Museum couldn't compare to the British Museum in terms of historical artifacts, but there were still precious jewels, so why go far to seek what is near?

The employees started to defend themselves on the internet one after another, saying that they had no ideas and no ability. But just defending themselves wouldn't be able to clear their suspicion; at least they had to point out who the suspect was before it was possible to completely distance themselves.

Now it's good, Diana is unlucky again and again and again and again.

Ordinary people couldn't move such a heavy thing, but superpowered people would find it much easier. Diana could fly and was immensely strong; only she could steal and swap the mural silently.

When Diana saw this news, she really wanted to say goodbye to this beautiful world. She would rather go back to Mount Olympus to look at Hera's face than stay on Earth!

Fortunately, she had already anticipated the Pharaoh's curse before. Diana barely calmed down and started to think. She also admitted that she indeed had suspicion, and was the one with the most suspicion; after all, ability was more important than ideas. Only she in the whole museum could steal and swap the mural.

As for why it wasn't an outside superpowered person, on one hand, it required some understanding of the museum, otherwise it couldn't be done so silently; on the other hand, making a fake was also quite difficult, requiring a deep understanding of the artifact itself, and also needing to replicate various details, which basically couldn't be done by non-professionals.

Thinking of this, Diana suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

Why was it a stone mural?

Actually, Diana had thought about this question before. You say Shiler makes fakes, why not make something else, why make such a big mural? Not to mention the material cost, and the cost of depicting details. You could just get an album, a scroll, or some ancient Egyptian papyrus, wouldn't it be able to convey information just the same?

Moreover, compared to these text-based things, the handed-down quantity of three-dimensional carved murals is relatively small. Even if you compile a perfect background, there is a possibility of being exposed. It's better to use some more classic things, which are both easy and real.

However, Shiler insisted on making something half a ton heavy. Could it be that he was waiting for her here?

Diana now wished she could fly to the President's secretary's office and punch Shiler. She knew that Shiler might not have anticipated this far, but he absolutely used the form of a carved mural to guard against her.

Because no matter what the plan was, as long as it needed to use the debate of truth and falsehood to bring out the fact that the artifact was stolen and swapped, this "Serpent of Phryne" would lead to only her having suspicion because of its weight. Because ordinary people just couldn't move it, but she, this superpowered person, could.

And the debate of truth and falsehood was almost bound to happen, because this thing was fake!

This wasn't any Pharaoh's curse at all; this was Shiler's curse!

No wonder, this broken thing had been exhibited here for so long and wasn't taken back. She had passed by here eight hundred times a day and hadn't even realized this point. Diana was really going to be cried to death by her own stupidity.

However, there was one more thing she guessed right, which was that she was forced into the water again.

Now all parties needed a scapegoat; if it wasn't her, it had to be her, not to mention it was highly likely to be her. If Diana couldn't find evidence to prove her innocence, then she would be completely finished.

To prove her innocence, she had to find the real one. But couldn't Diana know? There was no real one at all. This thing was fake from the beginning, and it was concrete from beginning to end. When it was hung on the wall, the feel of the hand when she helped it wasn't right; it was already fake at that time.

Since there was no real one at all, don't think about proving her innocence by this. Now the best way was to find that group of robbers, let them admit that they found an imitation and smashed it open to hide the whereabouts of the real one, and that they stole and swapped the artifact. Only then could Diana be innocent.

Actually, this was just passing the buck. The British royal family didn't want to admit to stealing and swapping, so they passed the buck to the United States; the US museum didn't want to admit to stealing and swapping, so they passed the buck to Diana; if Diana didn't want to admit it, then she had to find a way to pass the buck to the last person who touched the artifact.

"Give me three days," Diana stood in front of the curator and said, "I swear I will find the murderer. If not, even if I have diplomatic immunity, I will leave with them."

The curator actually believed in Diana's character, but he had no other way. He sighed and said: "I can help you delay the police for a while, so they won't come to trouble you for the time being. However, if you can't bring the robbers back, I can't help you either."

Diana nodded, having no time to say much, and turned to leave. She couldn't care about much at this time. This was the so-called, if you don't force yourself, you don't know you are a great detective. Diana was really forced into a corner this time.

She valued her job very much and wanted to stay in Metropolis very much, which was why she felt very nervous when Superman caused trouble at her house. She didn't want to be kicked out, especially not in such an undignified way.

And she valued the glory of the Amazons very much. She must never be framed as a thief, otherwise her mother and her sisters would be shamed for this, and she would never be able to return to Themyscira.

With the two superimposed, Diana's potential exploded completely. She didn't even contact Bruce again, but directly found the newspaper office that published the dark web domain.

Diana didn't even have time to make an appointment, and then drive over, but flew directly to the entrance of the newspaper office and rushed in. Before rushing in, she also looked up at the name on the sign at the entrance—"Daily Planet."

"Ms. Prince, what brings you here?"

The editor-in-chief's coffee hadn't been brewed yet, but the God-Killer sword had already been drawn. The editor-in-chief hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Let's talk nicely, Miss. We don't have such a big grudge..."

"Really?"

"Okay, I also know why you probably came," The editor-in-chief said, "But the dark web address really wasn't found by me; I don't have that ability; it was submitted by someone. The email address is on the printer next to it. This email address is encrypted; you'd better find a hacker to help you check it."

Diana walked over to take a look, and sure enough, it had already been printed. She glanced at the editor-in-chief, but didn't have time to talk nonsense with him, and flew back to the Justice League Hall to find Victor.

Victor looked at her with some surprise, but still glanced at the email address, and after some analysis, said: "This is an encrypted email sent virtually, and it also converted thousands of nodes in the middle; they probably aren't real, the other party is very cautious."

"Can you find any clues?" Diana asked.

Victor thought about it and said: "I can perform a brute-force search, but it will take some time. After all, I still have to calculate taxes..."

"Okay, help me check it," Diana said.

She didn't intend to go down one path to the end either. Besides the dark web domain, there was another line that could be checked, which was the robbers' escape route. Let Victor calculate here first, and she would go check how the robbers transported the "Serpent of Phryne." This required using Batman's invincible surveillance network. She knew Bruce wouldn't refuse.

?? Some people say I haven't persecuted Wonder Woman much, is it because I favor one over the other—isn't it coming now?