Clark suspected he was dreaming. Or maybe he was high. Or perhaps he ate some poisonous mushrooms. Otherwise, why would someone have nailed a giant rivet into Earth?!!!
The shape of this thing was like a large rivet, narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. And with Clark's Super Vision, he could see it was nailed very, very deep, definitely through the Earth's crust. Beyond that, he couldn't quite see.
The slight tremor just now was this thing drilling into the Earth's crust. That sudden jolt was it being fixed in place. When it started, it shook a bit, which caused the entire East Coast to quake.
Clark hovered in midair for several seconds before accepting reality. Then he suddenly realized what Shiller meant by "direct impact."
Murder cases, the Martian list, or confirming the existence of Martians were not important. What mattered was keeping himself busy, directing all his energy into thinking about the killer, without realizing someone was nailing something into Earth.
No exaggeration, Clark's scalp tingled right now. He didn't dare to think about what that thing was for. Surely Earth wasn't in violation of zoning laws and about to be demolished, right?!
But he soon found out. Because at this moment, the same face appeared on every screen on Earth. A green Martian's face.
"Hello, dear human friends. You must have noticed that I have delivered a little gift for you. The space station we just launched into Earth's orbit is not actually a space station. Even with your shallow level of engineering, you should realize it looks more like a cannon than a space station.
Congratulations, you're correct. It's the launch track for the 'Reproductive Gene Activation Tower.' Currently, three towers have been placed near Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and they have begun operating successfully.
You must be curious about what's going on. Don't worry, let me explain. Being neighbors for so long, we know you very well, but you know nothing about us. I must say, you are indeed exceptional neighbors.
As everyone knows, Earth and Mars are quite close. It's not surprising that life originated on two such similar planets, right?
However, Earth is a beautiful greenhouse. Therefore, the life that originated here is very fragile. Mars is different. Although our ancestors weren't originally from Mars, surviving and growing in such harsh conditions has given us very strong bodies and special abilities.
You must have figured out by now that Martians have extremely strong camouflage abilities. No human technology can distinguish us. Don't waste your efforts.
Of course, we have reasons to go to Earth. Mars's harsh conditions severely limit our capability to reproduce. The main issue is the low fertility rate.
To address this, our scientists developed a radiation tower to increase fertility rates. But unfortunately, this device doesn't work well on Mars. Mars's environment isn't suitable for our gene reproduction.
However, it so happened that Martian agents who went to Earth had an astonishingly high reproduction rate. After extensive investigation, we discovered that Earth is the most suitable breeding ground for Martians.
So, we quietly stayed on Earth for years, finally building the launch track and the Reproductive Activation Tower. We selected many Martians most suitable for reproduction to go to Earth and disguise themselves. Until just now, we deployed the Activation Tower near the continents with the densest populations. It's already started working.
I believe you've witnessed how strong Martians are. Our only disadvantage compared to you is our low fertility rate and insufficient population. But the Activation Tower perfectly solves this drawback. Once we can reproduce, Mars and Earth will both be ours.
As for you? Initially, we thought of driving you all to Australia to fend for yourselves. But I really like those little kangaroos. They will also be part of the natural assets belonging to Martians, and they can't be ruined by you.
Perhaps, the great Martian Lord will grace you with life. However, whether you go to the mines to dig or perform in the circus is not up to you to decide. Goodbye, my slaves."
This speech left Clark's head buzzing. What happened during his absence? How did the world become like this? Isn't this power escalation a bit too rapid?
Previously, the focus was on saving ordinary people from evil politicians. Now, with humanity on the brink of extinction, he first had to fight the Martians.
Clark was contemplating what kind of trouble the Martians were when his phone suddenly rang. The moment he answered, a desperate voice came through: "Superman!! Superman, come to the East Coast!!! Come to Metropolis Beach!!!"
Clark was perplexed. He didn't know this person at all. But upon listening carefully, he realized the caller was at the coast of Metropolis. And there were heavily armed soldiers around him, indicating it was someone from the military.
Clark flew over immediately. He indeed saw a coast guard officer standing there. After he landed, the officer anxiously asked, "Superman, can you pull that thing out?"
Clark opened his mouth, unsure how to answer. He thought for a moment before saying, "I only know that thing is inserted very deep. As for whether I can pull it out, I might have to give it a try."
Just as he finished speaking, another call came in. This time the voice was slightly calmer, though clearly forced: "Listen, Superman, this is Washington. You see that thing by the coast, right? Hurry and pull it out!"
Then immediately came the second and third phone calls. It was clearly different groups, yet all were unanimously demanding that Superman go and pull that thing out.
Although Clark disliked those politicians, he had no fondness for Mars people either. He absolutely would not allow aliens to invade Earth. So, he flew towards that direction.
Underground at Justice Hall. Ron, who had just put down the phone, transformed back into a human. He nervously stared at the monitoring screen and then remarked, "He won't really be able to handle it, right?"
"Don't worry," Bruce said, "This thing is a Krypton product. The material strength is very high, even Superman's heat beam can't cut it. Haven't you tried it before?"
Ron felt slightly relieved and said, "But what if he actually pulls it out?"
Bruce shook his head again, "There's an extending barb design below. If forcibly pulled outward, the entire East Coast would crack open. He wouldn't dare do that."
Before the words were finished, the ground shook again. Arthur's roar came through the communicator, "Get him away now, I can't hold back the tsunami any longer!"
"It's fine, he won't try again," Bruce said.
"You're really making me reevaluate the human race, Batman," an enormous figure hidden in the darkness on the other side of the monitoring screen spoke. Doomsday, or rather Krypton General Zod, sat opposite them.
"Anyway, your plan to modify Earth won't succeed anymore. Lending us the nail is just waste utilization, isn't it?"
"I truly don't know how to evaluate this plan," Diana said weakly, holding her forehead, "Even God would call it madness."
It turned out that while the Justice League was busy with battles, Bruce wasn't idle either. He located Doomsday, who was healing behind the Moon.
Clark's ultimate beam seemingly dealt a heavy blow to Doomsday, but in fact, it saved him. This beam destroyed the majority of the Destruction Day Spores, allowing Zod, who was battling his berserk nature, to achieve victory. Zod regained sanity.
When Bruce approached him, Zod was surprised. But when Bruce talked about Zod falling into human traps because he wanted to save a child, Zod had nothing to say.
Clearly, Zod became aware that the gap between good and evil on this planet was longer and deeper than the physical differences between humans and aliens. He realized he couldn't entirely side with such malicious individuals, and his actions had already made a choice.
Thus, they made a deal. Bruce promised to persuade Superman to use the Central Treasure Book to help Kryptonians reproduce. And Bruce wanted something that puzzled Zod—the "Planet Environment Modification Device" equipped within the Krypton Main Ship, which was essentially those nails.
This thing was developed by Kryptonians to improve harsh planetary environments. As mentioned before, for carbon-based life forms, the atmosphere and water on unfamiliar planets could be extremely lethal. Compared to using small life support devices to protect explorers, Krypton technology had evidently advanced to another level, directly modifying planetary environments.
Zod's original plan was to deploy these things, transform Earth into an environment suitable for Kryptonians, and then use the Central Treasure Book to reproduce and revive Krypton civilization on Earth.
However, after experiencing so much, he essentially gave up. Firstly, he was certain the long-legged Central Treasure Book wouldn't heed him, and he couldn't defeat Superman at all. Secondly, he realized that Kryptonians on Earth might become entirely different species. He lacked the ability to build a superhuman society, and forcing it might lead to big trouble.
Also, part of the reason was that the experiences on Earth made him feel that the feng shui here was slightly wicked. For the children, the growing environment is very important. Choosing humans as neighbors was a bit too ahead.
Having given up, having the nails were of no use. Zod simply handed them over to Bruce. And Bruce, utilizing the space station that Victor built resembling a telescope, wasn't entirely a space station but a cannon for firing nails.
The plan was well-prepared, but a little slip occurred: Superman returned too quickly.
Originally, the plan was to fire the nails before Superman returned. However, Clark seemed to have no nostalgia for Krypton civilization. Even if he spent half a day mourning his homeland, the plan would have succeeded. Bruce also thought Clark would at least feel sad for a while before heading back. So, there was some deviation in timing calculations. Superman returned when the nails hadn't been fired yet.
This was somewhat troublesome because on Earth, the only one capable of stopping the nails from being fired was Superman. Although it's hard to pull out after the nails are embedded due to Earth being held hostage, they can be completely intercepted by Superman during flight.
To prevent Superman from interfering with the plan, Bruce directly contacted The Daily Planet requesting contributions. Meanwhile, Luthor Manor held a banquet to drag Rafanas away. Shiller participated in the banquet, using the first murder case to distract Clark, and the second murder case to stall time.
While Clark was desperately pondering the minutiae of the murder case, the launch orbit was fully charged. Three giant nails modified by Bruce were driven into the seas near the three continents.