Chapter 462: The Butler is Always Right (Part 1)

Just when Benjamin summoned all the agents in the manor to search for the entrance on the first floor, the atmosphere in front of the entrance became increasingly scorching.

Just when Schiller said that the treasure underground might be a special mineral that could weaken superpowers, Bruce and Lex stood on opposite sides.

These two skeptics would absolutely not believe that the other party would not use this thing indiscriminately if they held it. At the same time, they were also controlists. That is, no matter whether this matter had anything to do with me, and no matter whether I would use this thing in the future, I must get complete control of it to feel a sense of security.

And they were both very typical Americans. Zero-sum thinking was almost engraved in their genes. Peace and win-win did not exist in their brains. They always felt that as long as the other party took one more piece, they would have one less piece, and then they would be finished by the other party.

This sense of insecurity that existed all the time was urging them to move forward, but at the same time, it would also easily become a weakness to be exploited by others. At the moment Schiller's words came out, the two genius-level figures didn't even doubt whether this was Schiller's alienation strategy.

Or rather, they might have thought about this question, but they didn't dare to bet whether what Schiller said was true.

After this youth version of the Justice League split on the spot, the atmosphere at the scene became subtle.

Because in Bruce's plan, he wanted to use Kryptonite to weaken Schiller, so he naturally stood on the opposite side of Schiller, and the one who wanted to grab Kryptonite with him was Lex, so he also stood on the opposite side of Lex. So in this way, Schiller and Lex stood on one side.

If comparing Lex and Bruce, their wisdom was about the same. Bruce won in physical fitness and fighting skills. If they were face to face, Bruce had a great advantage.

But Schiller stood on Lex's side, and Bruce's only martial arts advantage vanished, so he had to seek a powerful ally.

When Clark was called by name by Bruce, he was still very confused, because he couldn't understand the situation on the field at all. He stood far away and shouted loudly: "What's going on? Aren't we partners?!"

"Clark, you can't let this kind of thing fall into Luthor's hands. His previous actions have already shown that he has no bottom line about destroying humanity."

"Don't listen to him, Clark. If I get the treasure, I will absolutely not use it against you."

"You are lying, Lex. You want to get that kind of mineral called Kryptonite just to guard against Clark, right?"

Lex also didn't show weakness, directly looking into Bruce's eyes and questioning: "Then you want to get this kind of mineral to guard against whom?"

After asking this sentence, Lex and Bruce instinctively cast their eyes on Schiller. Schiller was originally lowering his head to study his umbrella. After finding that no one on the field was talking, he looked up, first looked at Lex, then looked at Bruce, and said: "Why are you staring at me?"

"I said I wanted to go down, you didn't let me. I wanted to leave, you didn't let me either. Now do you still want to blame all this on me?"

"Hey, stop arguing!" Clark finally walked over, looked at Schiller's action of silently taking a step back, and Clark stopped again. He stretched out two hands, blocked between Lex and Bruce, and said:

"No matter who gets this thing in the end, we must first confirm whether it is harmful to ordinary people. This is our most important goal for cooperation."

As he spoke, Clark walked to the entrance of the cellar again and said: "If you can't agree on this point, I won't let any of you go down."

"For me, it's the same whoever gets this thing, so I won't help any of you to deal with the other side. If you are going to stalemate here, then I will go down first."

At this time, Clark was about to walk into the cellar. Bruce and Lex looked at each other, and the intense conflict suddenly eased again.

Obviously, both of them knew that they couldn't let Clark get that kind of magical mineral, and if Clark really went down alone, without the influence of people around him, then even if the mineral could weaken superpowers, it might not be able to stop him.

Seeing Lex and Bruce walking together again, Schiller shook his head. Clark really restrained him in every sense, but there was no way. The silly, white, and sweet Clark restrained all the players who used their brains. Your prediction is very good, but I don't move at all.

The reasons for Lex and Bruce's dispute were very complex, stemming from their personalities and positions. If one had to choose one side, one must analyze their behavioral logic. Just like what Schiller did, the reason he stood on Lex's side was because he knew that Bruce must want to use this thing to deal with him. Even if he stood on Bruce's side, he would be backstabbed in the end.

But Clark chose not to choose anyone. In short, he didn't use his brain at all, stuck to his goal, and then rushed forward, but just happened to break Schiller's alienation strategy. Facing the brave Clark, Bruce still had to choose to join forces with Lex.

The current situation became that Clark jumped into the cellar first, Lex and Bruce walked forward while talking, seemingly formulating a new plan, and Schiller followed behind them, considering whether he should go down himself.

Logically speaking, things had progressed to this step, and he had no need to go down himself. Anyway, no matter what was underneath, Lex and Bruce would empty it. By then, it would be easy to get a little from Lex's hands. After all, Schiller was not Batman, and he had no use for half a ton of Kryptonite except for taking up space.

But just at this moment, Schiller, who was walking at the back, discovered that it seemed several teams of agents were walking toward this place; the garden fence was covered in thick white snow, yet one could still see figures swaying between the branches.

From the formation, it could be seen that this was not a coincidence. They were orderly surrounding this place.

Going to an unknown place, facing possible dangers, and competing for treasure with equally dangerous opponents, or staying here and facing some very easy-to-deal-with agents, Schiller chose... the former without hesitation.

He walked into the entrance of the cellar without looking back. The agents hiding and observing here thought he hadn't discovered it, so after Schiller entered the entrance of the cellar, the agents rushed out directly from the hiding place and then set up some explosion-proof equipment at the entrance.

When the agents were executing orders step by step, Benjamin was on the top floor of the manor tower, looking at the situation at the entrance of the cellar with binoculars.

This tower was in a very good position. It was located in the center of the entire manor and was the highest place, completely usable as an observation tower, with a panoramic view of the entire manor.

Not only the situation of the entire manor, but he could also see the situation around the mayor's mansion. Therefore, the moment Benjamin raised his binoculars, he keenly captured a black dot in his field of vision, streaking across the skyline of Metropolis.

In the sky full of snowflakes, the visibility was not far enough, so Benjamin didn't see clearly what it was at all, but soon, he felt the ground shake, and the fire of the explosion lit up in the distance, even forming a cyclone that stirred the snowflakes to fly.

Benjamin narrowed his eyes. He put down the binoculars, turned his head, and asked Kayla behind him: "... Did you see it?"

Kayla was also holding binoculars. Very coincidentally, she was just looking in that direction. After she put down the binoculars, she said in an incredible tone: "I seem to have seen a crashed fighter jet."

"Fighter jet? Besides that group of crazy Soviets, who would fly a fighter jet in this weather?"

Kayla frowned, recalled, and said: "That doesn't seem to be a fighter jet model I've seen. You know, I've also served in the Air Force, and currently, the Air Force shouldn't have fighter jets with all-black paint."

Just at this time, they heard a noise from downstairs. It was not downstairs where they were, but near the fourth floor of the manor.

That was a crisp sound. It didn't sound like a gunshot, but rather like the sound of glass breaking. Benjamin's face sank. He looked at Kayla and asked: "Could it be that the guests are making trouble again?"

Kayla picked up the walkie-talkie, wanting to communicate with the agents and let them go over to check, but Benjamin stepped forward and stopped her, saying: "Don't mobilize the people at the entrance for now, let's go over and see for ourselves."

Benjamin thought that this was just that group of impatient guests making trouble again. During this period, he also discovered that this group of people was just tough on the outside but weak on the inside. Although their words were intense, once the agents took out their guns, they would only mutter and retreat.

Thinking this way, Benjamin didn't have much defense, so he walked down directly from the tower, then entered the main building of the manor, passed through the banquet hall, walked up the stairs, and came to the place where the sound came from.

That was the end of the fourth-floor corridor. At this time, broken glass was scattered on the ground. Kayla walked up with a pistol, checked it, and said, "Someone should have broken the glass. Is it a prank because of dissatisfaction?"

"If it's a prank, there shouldn't be glass on the ground, because if the glass was broken from the inside, the glass fragments would be scattered outside, and now, the glass fragments are in the corridor, which means someone broke the glass from the outside."

Benjamin checked around the broken glass and didn't find footprints or other similar traces. Finally, he reached a conclusion: "It seems this is not man-made. Perhaps the wind and snow blew some sharp objects onto the glass, and then broke it from the outside."

Kayla frowned, seemingly still having some objections, but she couldn't find any evidence to refute Benjamin.

After all, in this rainy and snowy weather, people easily leave traces, and the residents here are all some celebrities who are pampered. They have no motivation to run outside the window and then climb in through the window.

And if it was said to be an invasion by foreign enemies, it was also unlikely. Now the traffic in the entire Metropolis was paralyzed. Who would spend so much effort to run here? The entire operation was completely confidential, and communication was also cut off. Outsiders didn't know what happened here at all, and had no reason to come here.

But just at this time, Benjamin gave a puzzled "Eh," Kayla walked up and found that he was staring at the wall next to the window.

Kayla didn't see anything on the wall, so she walked closer, leaned her head over, and finally found a tiny scratch at the junction of the wall and the windowsill, almost invisible.

This looked like it was left when someone climbed over the window. Benjamin stared at the trace and said: "It seems someone really invaded here."

Kayla was a bit puzzled. She felt that this evidence couldn't be called sufficient. She said: "What if it was caused by glass fragments flying out when foreign objects broke the glass?"

"Kayla, discovering details and inferring the behavioral logic behind them is a professional quality that agents must have. Many agents can be called the king of agents because they are good at discovering these details and inferring information that ordinary people can't discover."

"The position of this scratch is at the junction of the windowsill and the wall, but the direction is upward. If it was caused by glass fragments flying out, it should be the lower part of the window glass splashing and flying out, and the trace should be facing downward."

"The lower part of the glass couldn't have strangely turned a corner in the air and flown upward when it broke. Therefore, this shouldn't be caused by glass. More importantly, look here, first a deep scratch, then a long shallow scratch. What does this explain?"

"What?" Kayla asked.

"The thing that made this scratch has an irregular shape and should have two parts."

"So, what is that?"

"It is very likely the zipper of a jacket, or the zipper on a pants pocket. The friction between the zipper pull and the zipper itself against the wall would cause such a shape."

As he spoke, Benjamin picked up the zipper on his coat and scratched it lightly on the wall. Sure enough, a shape like the previous scratch appeared.

"The person who invaded should be an old hand. He cleaned up the traces on the ground in a short time, but ignored the wall part."

"Just as I said." Benjamin turned his head to look at the scratch and said somewhat disdainfully: "In the spy business, details determine success or failure."

"You have to know, details determine success or failure." In a room on the fifth floor, Alfred held the double-barreled shotgun and said to Hal.

Hal, who was standing by the bed, sighed and said: "So, after you cleaned up all the traces, you specifically let me leave a shallow scratch on the window with a zipper, just to confuse that agent leader?"

【Author's Note: Lingdian Reading Network】

"That's right. This will give him the feeling that I am meticulous, confuse his judgment of my strength, and also arouse his interest."

"If I didn't do anything and just let those traces stay there, then that agent leader would definitely feel that I am a novice, and he could solve me by sending one or two agents at will. That way, I wouldn't be able to attract his attention."

"But if I clean up the traces too cleanly, on one hand, it might make him feel that no one invaded here. On the other hand, if he judges that my strength is too high, he might mobilize all the agents to carry out a search, which is not conducive to our actions."

"So, it is to arouse his interest, let him come to chase us, but not let him take it too seriously." Hal summarized.

"That's right." Alfred nodded and said: "Now it seems that I should have successfully aroused his interest, and even stimulated his fighting spirit, making him want to come over and have a showdown with me."

"Then what do you plan to do? Have a duel with him?"

Alfred looked at Hal with a look like looking at a fool and said:

"Why would I have a duel with him?"

"Then what do you plan to..."

"The young master and the young lady are not young anymore. I think it's time for them to learn some necessary self-protection means." ===== CHAPTER 463 =====