mtl008 Chapter 4406 Project Farstar (24)
Chapter 4406 Project Farstar (24)
Chapter 4406 Project Far Star (Twenty-Four)
Clark's body reacted faster than his reason. He went straight forward, picked up Rafanas's body, flew to the second-floor atrium, and rushed into the nearest room.
Clark wasn't stupid; he knew he'd fallen into a trap. Rafanas dying before his very eyes, with no one else around, couldn't possibly be a coincidence. This wasn't the end of one conspiracy, but rather the beginning of a series of more.
Don't ask him how he knows; the answer is that the Pharaoh's curse has taken effect.
Based on his usual way of doing things, he should believe that things he didn't do were things he didn't do, that the truth would eventually come out, and that he would be exonerated. So he should have stayed put.
However, Clark was no longer the same naive man he once was. He knew very well that the military and politicians who had been eyeing him were the kind of people who would stir up trouble even when they were in the wrong, and Lex Luthor, who was always targeting him, was no pushover either. Everyone at the banquet today possessed the remarkable ability to tell outrageous lies without batting an eye, and they were masters of currying favor and being obsequious to those in power.
These people meticulously orchestrated a scheme, ensuring that he couldn't escape regardless of whether the truth was revealed. He had no choice.
Even if he can find evidence, even if the matter is eventually investigated and clarified, their goal might not be to put him in jail at all, but rather to keep him occupied so they can do something else. Or perhaps the process of him finding evidence is actually beneficial to one of their conspiracies; or perhaps, revealing the truth will only make things worse.
In any case, if these people are deliberately plotting against him, every seemingly viable path to survival will turn out to be a trap, including his current choice to hide the body.
Clark's decision to make this choice stems from his gamble that the person who orchestrated this scheme is unaware of the true extent of his superpowers. Since being tricked once, Clark has been holding back, rarely displaying abilities beyond his superhuman strength. This might be his trump card for turning the tables.
Clark took a deep breath, and white mist billowed from his mouth and nose. Instantly, the temperature in the entire room plummeted. A breath of icy cold air landed on the corpse, freezing it completely, inside and out.
Despite the extreme cold, Clark didn't increase his intensity; instead, he began to inhale gently. He exhaled an intense icy mist, capable of lowering the temperature of an area to very low levels. But what was truly deadly was the heat absorption he was currently performing, which could bring the temperature of the target object infinitely close to absolute zero.
Although true absolute zero has not yet been reached, molecules have already begun to undergo quantum phase transitions at this temperature. That is, at or near absolute zero, changes in state occur driven by quantum fluctuations.
A portion of Raphanus's body molecules disintegrated during quantum fluctuations, transforming from a solid into a gas, while another portion of the particles disappeared from the observable world, transforming into an unobservable state.
When screams came from downstairs outside the door, Rafanas's body had vanished into thin air, and the temperature inside the room had returned to normal, except for some water stains that had condensed on the walls due to the temperature change.
Due to the extreme time constraints, Clark didn't have time to go back and deal with the bloodstains on the first-floor floor, but blood alone didn't prove anything. No witnesses meant no one could prove they had been to the reception area.
As for why he didn't turn and run away immediately upon discovering the body, it's because someone saw him sneak in; the security camera at the entrance might even have captured him. If everyone else ruled him out as a suspect and he was the only one who escaped, then he would be the one to take the blame.
Clark never hesitated to assume the worst about these people. If they had planned this all along, they would have already prepared evidence to exonerate themselves. If they didn't confront them and instead chose to run away, they would have even less room to defend themselves in the future.
Soon, commotion broke out below, with everyone wondering whose blood it was. They gathered in the center of the banquet hall and began searching for the source.
Rafanas wasn't exactly a big shot, but he was still somewhat of a local tyrant. Besides, he'd arrived quite early and chatted with several people; now that he'd disappeared, naturally people were looking for him. Lex Luthor also appeared, sending men to search every corner of the first floor, but finding nothing, he then began searching the second floor.
When Clark was discovered, he deliberately feigned shock. As he was led to the first floor, he carefully observed everyone's expressions and came to a conclusion: either these people were acting too well, leaving no trace, or most of them genuinely didn't know about this event, because their expressions weren't those of "I knew it," but rather of shock.
“Aren’t you going to explain?” Lex said, looking at Clark. “I don’t think I invited you, did I?”
“I wasn’t invited to the party,” Clark said, rolling his eyes.
A discussion immediately broke out below. Everyone was intelligent enough to understand the unspoken meaning. What did "he wasn't invited to the banquet" mean? It meant Luther had invited him privately.
Lex stared at him, wide-eyed. Clark carefully observed his facial expressions; this guy didn't seem to be acting. Could he not be the mastermind either?
Thinking of this possibility, Clark said in a low voice, "What mischief are you up to now? Didn't you tell me to wait for you on the second floor?"
Of course, with everyone so close, lowering his voice was useless. Everyone heard him. Lex's face immediately darkened, and his eyes darted around, as if he had thought of something.
“What about the Rafanas?” he asked Clark.
“Who is Rafanas?” Clark asked. Anyway, his press releases were all in his head; he’d never actually written them down. Who could say he was there to interview Rafanas? His editor wouldn’t betray him.
“No, when Rafanas went to the restroom earlier, I saw someone following him,” a woman said. “It must have been a rather tall man.”
Clark's heart sank. Although Rafanas wasn't the center of attention, the banquet hall wasn't large, and there was a high chance that his action of following him would be noticed. Fortunately, he had been waiting at the entrance to the corridor leading to the restrooms, so when he followed, only his back could be seen from inside the banquet hall.
Lex looked at Clark with suspicion.
“Don’t you know me? I don’t kill people,” Clark said again.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Lex said menacingly. “You just pulled off something big recently, who moved Capitol Hill to the Metropolitan Area?”
Clark took a deep breath; he knew this was going to happen. He had already made it clear that he disliked politicians, and if they could move the entire Capitol Hill there, killing one or two people was to be expected.
The problem is that this Rafanas happens to be the director of the municipal administration, and he had previously written news about the poor state of the metropolitan area's municipal management. It's easy for people to interpret this as him secretly murdering the culprit because he couldn't stand what those politicians were doing.
“Anyway, it wasn’t me,” Clark insisted. “Besides, how do you know he’s dead if we haven’t found the body? Maybe he tripped and fell somewhere and left early.”
“You’re really illiterate,” Lex said. “The bloodstains indicate his landing position; he couldn’t possibly be alive.”
Clark's heart sank further. This proved that the person who threw the body down was highly professional, not only able to kill Rafanas in the short time it took for him to observe from the banquet hall, but also to ensure that he fell at the perfect angle, with the bloodstains confirming his death. This would prevent the group from being distracted by other possibilities, allowing them to focus solely on catching the killer.
"Then why aren't you calling the police? What are you waiting for?" Clark asked confidently.
“Of course I’m looking for the body,” Lex said coldly. “Of everyone here, only you have the ability to hide the body so quickly.”
"That's hard to say, aren't there Martians too?"
These words were like a storm that had frozen the sea; in an instant, the entire banquet hall fell silent. People looked at each other, and an atmosphere of fear began to permeate the crowd.
"You mean the ones who attacked were Martians?" someone asked. "Are they hiding among us?"
Clark didn't answer. Lex stared intently at him. Soon, security personnel came to report: the first, second, and third floors had been searched thoroughly, but there was no body; they had even searched the backyard, tearing up the lawn to check, but still found no trace.
Then the police and secret agents entered. They searched very thoroughly, swapping everyone, checking shoe sizes, footprints, and fingerprints. The entire estate was searched inside and out several times, practically turning the place upside down.
There was no breakthrough regarding the footprints. Although the reception area where Clark and Rafanas were located was empty at the beginning of the banquet, many staff members must have been coming and going to prepare the banquet before it started. That area had been traversed several times, and the footprints left on the floor were too messy to extract any useful clues.
Neither of them were drinking or eating while talking, so there were no cups or food scraps. Although Rafanas was on the heavier side, it was winter outside and the temperature was low, so even though the manor had heating, he wouldn't sweat much, and there was no way to check for sweat.
There are security cameras, one at the front door and one at the back door. There aren't any in the banquet hall or reception area. The front door did capture Clark sneaking in, but he said he had an appointment with Luther, which is a plausible excuse.
There's no way to verify this. Clark says it happened, Luther says it didn't. Even without text messages or call records to verify, it could be said that it was agreed upon beforehand. Without a third party present, it's impossible to say for sure whether it happened or not. And judging from the motive, it's possible that it happened or not. After all, they had some past grievances, so it's normal for them to meet and talk things out, or of course, it's also normal for them to never speak to each other again. There's no way to judge.
Police have confirmed that, apart from Clark who snuck in, all attendees had invitations, and no one was late or left early within the start and end times.
This made Clark realize that the killer must be among them. It could be a guest, or it could be staff. Because of the incredible speed of the attack, Clark suspected the perpetrator might also be a superhuman.
After all, Rafanas fell from the second floor. Whether the attack took place on the first or second floor, a living person would still need to be dragged up to the second floor. Either they could do what I did and simply carry the corpse upwards, which would only take a few seconds; or they could take the east staircase, which is quite a distance. To complete a circuit so quickly without leaving a trace shows the opponent's incredible strength.
Who could it be? Clark looked left and right, and suddenly saw Schiller talking to Lex Luthor.
"Great, it's definitely him." Clark immediately locked onto his target.
Clark had long admired Schiller's reputation in the fighting world, where someone had once proposed the famous "Schiller's First Theorem": if Schiller is present in the area where you are in trouble, then it is 100% related to him, and 90% of the time he is the mastermind. And this "area" is defined as the entire universe.
Clark strode over, not worried about making a mistake. Because there was "Schiller's Second Theorem": even if something happened to be completely unrelated to Schiller, if you tried to pin it on him, he could always find a way to justify it.