"Then fire him, and his entire team. He and his team have burned too much money and can never show any results. The Luthor Group doesn't need useless people."
With a ding, the elevator doors opened. Accompanied by the click-clack of high heels on the expensive floor, the female CEO, dressed in business attire, instructed the person on the other end of the phone as she strode into the top floor of Luthor Tower with imposing confidence.
"I don't care what Luthor did in his life or what strategic plans he laid out. I'm in charge of the Luthor Group now!"
Hanging up, the female CEO, who managed a multinational conglomerate worth hundreds of billions of dollars, opened the door. The luxurious top-floor office was dark. She frowned and reached for the malfunctioning smart light switch.
Clap, clap, clap!
Suddenly, a round of applause echoed from the darkness. A figure sat behind the desk, bathed in moonlight that cast a faint silhouette.
"Lex?"
Dropping her phone, the female CEO's face went pale, and she stumbled backward, her voice trembling with disbelief.
She hadn't forgotten that figure so quickly. A person who should have been dead appeared like a ghost!
"Don't be afraid, Mossy. The one sitting here now is not a vengeful spirit from hell."
With a click, Lex Luthor illuminated his face from the shadows, resting his chin on his interlaced hands and appraising her with amusement.
"Impossible, you… you're dead!"
Mossy recoiled in terror, her back hitting the wall.
"The Transcendent killed you. Everyone saw the video!"
"The one who died was just another me."
A glint of hatred flashed in Luthor's eyes.
"My appearance is to collect this blood debt. Blood debts must be repaid with blood!"
Lex Luthor was indeed dead. Strictly speaking, he was a clone self-generated from Lex Luthor's backup plan.
"But who cares whose clone is whose? Whoever can successfully seize power on Earth is the real Lex Luthor."
He leaned back in his chair, looking at the trembling Mossy, and spread his hands.
"Don't be afraid. You've managed my Luthor Group very well during this time."
"Lex…"
Mossy stammered, wanting to explain.
Lex Luthor must have heard what she said when she first walked in. She didn't think it was a compliment, even though his tone sounded like one.
"Although, it's been a bit too well. You now personally hold thirty-eight percent of the Luthor Group's shares, making you the sole majority shareholder."
This statement terrified Mossy even more, and she scrambled for the door, fearing that Luthor would pounce on her in the next second and choke her to death after swallowing the wealth of two generations of the Luthor family.
"It doesn't matter."
Looking at Mossy, who was like a little white mouse in a snake's mouth, Luthor waved his hand to appease her, as if he didn't care about her actions at all.
"Actually, I should thank you."
"Th-thank me?"
"Before you took over the Luthor Group, I was forced to stay out of public view for a long time. Some people within the company, each with their own ulterior motives, began to secretly embezzle company assets. Before I died, the Luthor Group was already riddled with holes and on the verge of collapse."
Luthor spoke eloquently, hatred flickering in his eyes.
"Fortunately, after my death, you took over. You purged the internal rot and revitalized the Luthor Group, making it flourish once more. You helped me immensely. You didn't disappoint me after I promoted you to the executive management level at such a young age, second only to myself."
"Lex, I'm willing to sign the share transfer agreement immediately and return the properties belonging to your family."
Mossy knew how sinister and terrifying this man was. She was just a bat occupying a snake's nest for a while; it was fine to be driven away. As long as she could keep her life from the snake's bite, that was enough.
Moreover, she remembered that Luthor had displayed superpowers before his death, and he had held out for quite some time against the Transcendent before dying.
"There's no rush for that."
Faced with assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars, Luthor waved his hand indifferently.
"I have a more pressing matter. Where is Professor Ivo?"
Even if he got his company assets back, Lex Luthor was a dead man in the eyes of the world. In fact, he was dead. The one sitting here now was his clone.
Furthermore, his enemies would not be happy to see him crawl back from hell. The situation would revert to its original state.
"Ivo? Anthony Ivo?"
Mossy thought for a moment.
"Precisely. In which laboratory did the group assign Professor Ivo?"
"I fired him two months ago."
"You what?" Lex Luthor froze visibly.
"You fired him?"
"He is one of the best scientists owned by our Lex Group, perhaps even one of the best scientists on this planet. You actually fired him!"
He stood up, and Lex Luthor's expression was one of disbelief.
"I've been cutting costs for the Group, eliminating unnecessary expenses, and he's a prime example of that. He alone had his own laboratory, his experimental funding requests were never fixed, his research directions were outlandish, and he never produced any tangible results."
Moxi was confused. Lex Luthor hadn't reacted this strongly even when she suggested returning the Luthor family's assets.
"I take back what I said earlier."
After hearing her explanation, Lex Luthor straightened his suit. The admiration he'd previously shown vanished from his eyes, replaced by an expression of annoyance at a foolish person. He frowned and said coldly, "You probably can't understand that the progress of human development has never been driven by ordinary people with minor cleverness, but by geniuses that the world cannot comprehend."
With that, Lex Luthor faded into the darkness and disappeared. Before leaving, he threw out one last sentence.
"Remember what you should and shouldn't say. Tonight, you never met a ghost named Lex Luthor."
The pallor of shock lingered on her face. Only when she confirmed that Lex Luthor had truly left did Moxi gasp for air like a drowning person, as if she had narrowly escaped death.
...
In a secret underground laboratory.
Lex Luthor looked at the news on his computer, scanning the headlines.
"The worldwide undead plague, resolved in time by the Transcendent and the Justice League."
"Cyborg reveals the mastermind behind this incident was Hades, the King of the Underworld from Greek mythology?"
"The Transcendent banished the God of Death, who sought to conquer the mortal realm, back to hell!"
On screens beside him, several video clips played, all showing footage of the strongest superheroes in the public eye in action.
"The Transcendent killed the lightning monster that caused the explosion in Fawcett City, the Transcendent defeated Black Adam, who destabilized the world situation, the Transcendent and the League battled an ancient demon that conjured volcanoes, the Transcendent and the League fought against alien mercenaries..."
"A series of accomplishments, dazzling and brilliant."
With no one else around, he no longer needed to hide his emotions. Lex Luthor's face was grim, and he clenched his fists tightly.
It was too much. In the time he had been dead, the Transcendent had saved the Earth multiple times.
"Why is this damned planet so full of disasters!"
It was a joke. In the time he'd been dead, one global crisis after another had escalated and unfolded consecutively.
The previous Lex Luthor's attempt to use the Transcendent, who had killed him, to incite global rejection and fear of the Transcendent had undoubtedly failed.
Any initial dissenting voices had been completely drowned out and forgotten after the Transcendent saved the world countless times.
It was as if God was working against him, providing these crises as stages for those superheroes to fully display their abilities!
"What a clown."
He violently swept the laptop off the desk. Lex Luthor was somewhat exasperated, mocking the previous Lex Luthor and also enraged by the ultimate mess the other had left him to face from the moment of his 'birth.'
"Indeed, Lex Luthor is not dead."
But what was the use of that?
The enemies had grown stronger, and he was still in the same situation as before his death, with the same limited cards in his hand.
"Can a different Lex Luthor solve the enemies that the previous Lex Luthor couldn't?"
No longer possessing the powerful composure he had shown before Moxi, he was helpless against the Transcendent. Now, he could only hope to seek wisdom from others, like a gambler on the verge of despair searching for the card that would turn the tide.
For instance, Dr. Anthony Ivo!
The memories left by the previous Lex Luthor told him that he was an unparalleled technological genius.
...
[Template Fusion: 89%]
On an autumn morning, by the lake, David sat on a fishing stool, fishing.
The last time the sun was almost drained by H'el had caused intense global panic, bringing him an unexpected amount of emotional points.
"Humanity's greatest fear stems from the unknown."
His gaze swept across the green lake surface. The water rippled, and the light beneath was dim and unclear. No one knew what lay beneath.
Visible, tangible disasters might not be the most frightening; disasters whose occurrence is unknown, or even whose existence is uncertain, are the most terrifying.
"On an ordinary day, without the knowledge of people worldwide, the sun was nearly drained, and Earth narrowly escaped doomsday. Even though the Justice League informed the world that the crisis had been resolved, the seeds of unease were sown."
For a long time, people worldwide became nervous. On their way to work, during work, while eating, and even while sleeping, they felt waves of anxiety, fearing that such an event might happen again. They constantly monitored every move of the Justice League, which provided David with a large number of emotional points.
"During this period, the template fusion progress grew very rapidly."
Before the trend could decline, the incident where the King of the Underworld summoned an army of the dead to conquer the world occurred again, further accelerating David's template fusion speed.
"Although the fusion stage of new abilities brought by the template varies each time, I have a premonition that after reaching 90% fusion, I should acquire Hyperion's strongest healing ability."
David's eyes flickered.
After all, only 90% and 95% remained. It was a choice between two nodes, and one of them would surely grant the power of immortal healing.
A sonic boom echoed from the sky. Clark, dressed in a suit and wearing square-framed glasses, landed beside David after briefly observing that no one was nearby.
"How did the interview go?"
David glanced at him.
"Good, good."
Clark scratched his head sheepishly.
The last time Clark had once again overextended himself by fighting crime, his father Jonathan and mother Martha had discussed the issue at dinner, hoping that while he was Superman, he wouldn't forget to be himself, Clark Kent.
"Clark, I know you're exceptionally talented, you can hear things happening far away that we can't see, hear voices from miles away that ordinary people can't.
But you're not a god, you can't do everything, you can't save everyone."
His mother Martha felt heartbroken seeing her son's state; flying back and forth in the sky, he had almost no time to rest. He hadn't had a life as Clark Kent in a long time.
"I think Mom and Dad are right. Actually, while I was saving people, at that very moment, people were being shot in the distance, robberies were happening, all sorts of evil and tragedies were unfolding. I can't stop everything."
Looking at the lake, Clark felt a bit down.
He wasn't a god; he had realized that, but he had just wanted to save as many people as possible.
"Mom and Dad are right, you need to learn to let go. You don't owe anyone on this planet anything, and you weren't born to be a 24/7 nanny for humanity," David said.
He agreed with his parents' view. Clark should have his own life, relaxing and having leisure time like a normal person, falling in love, getting married, and having children like a normal person.
"Yes, that's why I went for an interview at the Daily Planet today."
Clark took a deep breath, a faint smile appearing on his face.
Living like a normal person, starting with a job.
"Actually, being a reporter is a pretty good job. You can investigate things under the guise of being a reporter without raising suspicion. You can also use interviews to approach people whom Superman can't get close to without them being on guard."
"Your academic qualifications..."
David nodded. Clark's life seemed to be getting back on the right track.
However, Clark's academic qualifications should be an issue; he hadn't even graduated from college yet.
"I remember the Daily Planet is the premier newspaper in the American news industry."
"That won't be a problem."
Clark's mouth revealed a row of shining teeth.
"I provided some exclusive news and photos to prove I had the ability, and they hired me as an intern reporter."
As for how he got them, being a reporter with Superman's abilities was practically cheating. He wouldn't be so rigid, trying to convince the interviewer with his diligence and hard work. No one would waste time listening to him narrate that.
"Speaking of which, where did Dad go?
Every year around this time in autumn, we would come to fish by the lake here."
Looking around, Clark asked in confusion.
"He kept telling me to relax, so why isn't he here today?"
This was also a tradition for the Kent family. Every autumn, during the most pleasant weather, Jonathan Kent would pick a day when the farm wasn't busy and bring his two sons to the lake for fishing.
"Uncle Rick's tractor broke down, so he asked Dad to help."
David replied. As he spoke, he reeled in a fish.
"Okay."
Clark got a stool and sat down. Elated from his successful interview, he suggested they have a competition.
"Let's see who can catch more fish?"
This was also an old tradition, the three of them competing in fishing. But usually, he would come in last because fishing requires a calm mind, and he was in his rebellious phase when he was forced to suppress his talents.
But not anymore.
"Sure."
David nodded, not thinking he would lose.
"Let's agree beforehand, no one can use superpowers." Glancing at the several fish in his brother's fish box, Clark, remembering David's gravity manipulation ability, quickly added.
...
Anthony Ivo was dead.
When Luthor tracked him to his latest residence and arrived at his home, he found that Ivo had died in his bed.
In front of the body covered with a white sheet, Luthor's expression was grim, unable to accept it.
"You... how could you be dead?"
His last hope was shattered.
But just then, a tall figure appeared not far behind him and said in a mechanical voice, "Who... are you?"
"Who's there?"
Luthor was startled and turned to look, seeing a tall, non-human silver figure standing in the shadows of the room.
"Hello, my father created me. My name is Amazo."
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