He saw the man positioning himself beside the trail, casting out a line, and while waiting for a fish to bite, played with his phone.
Zod feigned interest and walked over to ask, "Can you fish in this lake?"
The man glanced at him, took a good look at his attire, then nodded and said, "You can fish, but it's single-person, single-rod lure fishing only."
"How's the fishing?" Zod quickly added, "I just moved here from Full Moon Street. I used to fish a lot back ho. Didn't expect there to be a spot so close by..."
"Ah, yes, I also moved here recently," the man disguised as Ron said. "I was quite lucky, just in ti to catch the park opening for fishing and the new investnt project..."
Zod's interest was piqued, and he said, "A new investnt project? In this day and age, what's worth investing in?"
Ron pretended to have let sothing slip, hastily waved his hand, and said, "If you want to fish, you can do it here. As for other things, better not ask, I can't say much."
Zod was not easy to dismiss. He took a cigar from his case and handed it to Ron, saying, "To be honest, I'm also from tropolis. The economy's not great, so I ca here looking for opportunities. It's hard supporting a whole family."
Ron imdiately showed a look like Zod had hit a nerve and sighed dramatically, "Tell about it. I had a good business in Rushing City, but the Great Depression hit, and I could barely support my kids. Had to co to the big city to seek opportunities."
After finishing, Ron gave Zod another once-over and thought to himself "fashionable but hollow" before saying, "You seem like a decent fellow. It's not that I don't want to tell you, but... have you been to the city governnt?"
"I just moved in two days ago, just finished settling in, haven't had ti to go anywhere else."
"Go to the city governnt if you have the ability. They'll tell you." With that, Ron clamd up. No matter how Zod pressed, he would say no more. This only made Zod more curious.
"If the man Ron was impersonating was the type to swindle others into investing, he'd likely give a halfway introduction when he saw a fish on the line. Recomnding the city governnt? What's that about?"
Zod instinctively felt sothing was up. It seed there weren't many people in this park, and staying longer might not yield results. Bidding farewell to the man, Zod headed to the city governnt.
Strangely, just as he entered, a staff mber at the door glanced at him and pointed to the left.
Zod thought to himself, "I didn't even say what I was here for, what are you pointing for?"
He looked to the left and noticed a crowd at the office door. Naturally, he had to join the commotion.
As he walked over, he heard soone shout, "No cutting in line! That big guy over there, I'm talking to you! There are only 20 spots left today, and you still want to cut? I've been in line for ages!"
"Sorry," Zod quickly apologized, "I'm just looking for soone. What's this line for, anyway?"
Seeing Zod wasn't here to take a spot, the person relaxed and said, "This is the house-viewing group. If you're not joining, don't crowd in, don't you see it's packed here?"
"House-viewing group? Viewing houses where?"
Zod, not being naive, took one look and knew these were wealthy people. For such a group to queue here, was there a city center building for sale?
But there's no need to view such buildings in person. Their configurations and prices are transparent; just send subordinates to handle it. Why were they lining up here?
The person impatiently waved his hand and said, "The introduction brochure is on the wall over there; go get one yourself and stop crowding here!"
Zod had no choice but to follow the direction indicated, finding a rack with brochures on the wall. Picking one up—"The Inner World's Real Estate?!"
"I've been sneaking around and eavesdropping, working hard all this ti, and you tell you're already flipping real estate in the Inner World?!"
"Wasn't Malafax saying the place was a mysterious space only magicians could enter?"
But on further consideration, Zod found it plausible. Knowing Arica's current economic situation, flipping houses in another dinsion to rescue the market wasn't out of the question.
He appreciated the human spirit of selling the hangman's rope to save themselves under desperate circumstances.
It beca simple now. Zod joined the house-viewing group. Despite the crowd at the door, it didn't total 20 people. Zod managed to squeeze into this batch's viewing group successfully.
The thod to enter the Inner World wasn't complicated—a city governnt staff led them into a room and through a mirror.
Zod didn't understand the principle, but as long as he could infiltrate the Inner World, he could figure out what Lex Luther was up to. Recovering the spaceship, the sky would be the limit.
With this in mind, Zod took in the Inner World's scenery. Finding it almost identical to the real world, he couldn't help but marvel at human luck.
"How did these shorties land all the good stuff? If Krypton had had twice the survival space, maybe it wouldn't have ended in destruction."
But on second thought, Zod doubted it. No matter how much space there was, it belonged to the high and mighty, leaving ordinary people with nothing. "Better forget it."
This realization brought a wave of lancholy to Zod. At the sa ti, he was puzzled.
"Humans and Kryptonians are almost identical, except for slight differences in body type and strength. From social structure to political situation, it's a 1:1 replication."
"But the situation of ordinary people in human society is much better than on Krypton, and the overall trend of civilization's developnt isn't so rigid. The future is full of endless possibilities."
"Why is that?" Zod couldn't help but think, "Logically, the human race is so weak, their technological developnt, planet's size, and stage of cosmic exploration are all inferior to Kryptonians'. How co they are living so well?"
"More importantly, why haven't the human upper echelons made the system extrely rigid, locked the classes completely, controlled and oppressed everyone, eventually leading to the collapse of civilization?"
Zod was sowhat distracted, not hearing what the tour guide said. But seeing the people around him looking at their favorite houses in twos and threes, he had no choice but to walk to the other end of the street.
After slightly identifying the direction, he found himself to be on a street in the city center.
Because his previous thoughts had affected his mood, Zod was walking sowhat aimlessly, contemplating various questions in his mind.
As he walked, he noticed a particularly unique building among so vacant ones.
It looked like a shop, with a very beautiful piece of stained glass in the window. Zod couldn't help but walk over and look inside, only to find that there was soone inside.
And it was clear that the person inside wasn't a visitor like him looking at houses, but an employee working there.
Zod walked into the shop. A man wearing a white shirt and a brown apron walked over and said, "Hello, sir. We're not open yet."
"Hello, I'm here to look at houses. Have you already bought this building?"
"Yes, my boss bought this shop not long ago. It's already been renovated, and once the goods arrive, we can open up."
"I also want to buy a house nearby. I see your house is nicely laid out and decorated, and I'd like to take a look. Can I take a tour?"
"No problem, sir. Feel free to look around. I have so work to do..."
Just as he said that, a shout ca from the staircase leading upstairs: "rkel, co help ! Move this pot of cactus downstairs!"
A female figure walked down from the stairs, holding a large flowerpot. In the flowerpot was a giant cactus, half the height of a person.
When she ca down, Zod felt a bit uncomfortable. Before he could figure out what was happening, the woman stumbled and fell.
The flowerpot flew straight towards Zod's face. Just as he was about to dodge, the cactus spines separated from the body and flew towards him.
"Swish swish swish swish!"
Zod forcibly pulled back, but it was too late. The spines flew faster than he imagined. A large cluster of small green spines pierced him all over, causing him to scream in pain.
"Aaaah!!!!"
Even more terrifying, his skin, which should have been as hard as steel, could not stop the spines' penetration. The mont the green spines broke through his skin and into his blood vessels, his blood almost solidified.
In that instant of rigidity, Zod fell straight backward. Two thick vines wrapped around him instantly, binding him like a mummy.
rkel sighed in relief and said to Pala, "He can't escape, can he?"
Pala shook her head and said, "In his current state, it's equivalent to a human having a severe allergic shock. He won't recover for a while."
"I'll call the professor... oh, never mind, they're already here."
rkel saw a truck pull up in front of the store. The driver, Waylon, got out first, followed by Victor from the passenger seat.
Waylon opened the truck's cargo door and brought down a cryogenic chamber the height of a person. Victor directed him to move the cryogenic chamber into the shop and place it on the ground. Pala used the vines to lift the bound Zod and threw him into the cryogenic chamber.
"Can this thing ensure he won't wake up?" rkel asked.
"It can't," Victor said bluntly, "because our first priority now is to ensure he stays alive. That's what I'm here for."
rkel recalled Pala's analogy, and agreed; after all, with anaphylactic shock, one must first ensure the patient survives to be sent to the hospital.
The cryogenic chamber was moved to the flat ground outside the shop. In an instant, Hal had landed on the ground.
He used the green lantern energy to lift the cryogenic chamber and said, "We still have to take him to Mars, to prevent him from going berserk and destroying Earth once he wakes up. The brainwave impact in Mars City will prevent him from controlling his body, and we can directly communicate with his mind."
"If we're using him as a test subject, shouldn't it be best to keep him in a vegetative state? What's there to discuss?" Pala asked.
Hal shook his head and said, "Perhaps that was the idea before, but just now, the Green Lantern Corps found out why he was exiled to the Phantom Zone years ago. Guess what cri he committed?"
"What cri?"
"Illegal revolution."
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