Clark did as Diana said: he drank a glass of warm water, went to the bathroom, and then fell asleep. When he woke up, he still felt a bit dizzy and nauseous, but it was much better than before.
Fortunately, he had been carrying the green gemstone with him these past few days, and he had gotten used to the minor discomfort. He took a deep breath to regain his energy, got dressed, and prepared to go downstairs.
Diana was already waiting at the door, and the two of them took a car to the laboratory. Diana looked at Clark and said, "Aren't you afraid of giving your hair and blood to the military and them doing something weird?"
"Don't worry, I've talked to Bruce. There's not much they can do with just blood and hair."
"Not even cloning?"
"No." Clark shook his head and said, "Bruce told me that humans haven't even cracked their own genetic code yet, let alone Kryptonians'. It's not possible."
"But you should still be careful. I know you're not the type to mess around, but someone might try something shady. Don't go to dangerous places alone recently, okay?"
Clark mostly understood what Diana meant. He was also aware of the military's tendencies—they'd do anything to get his genes. Even a honey trap or seduction wasn't out of the question.
Clark wasn't too worried, though. On one hand, no one could really force him, and on the other, he felt like he already had someone in mind. Once he's done with this busy period, he'll work on pursuing Lois.
With that thought, Clark asked, "Do you think humans and Kryptonians could be reproductively isolated?"
"Who have you taken a liking to?"
Clark was taken aback, then asked, "Do you have mind reading powers?"
"Ha, baby. I've lived for so long, do you think I need mind reading to handle you?" Diana said with a bit of disdain, flicking her hair. "Come on, tell me, who is it?"
"Lois Lane. She's honestly the most charming person I've ever met—strong, independent, intelligent..."
And so, Diana listened to compliments about Lois for quite a while, somewhat regretting having exposed Clark.
When they reached the base, Clark noticed Colonel Jones was also there. But he didn't take it seriously and nodded at him before going in. The experts then took a bit more of his blood and brought it to the machines for analysis.
Clark pressed on the spot where the blood was drawn, feeling a bit smug: fortunately, the green gemstone allowed him to finally participate in medical exams.
When he was a kid, because he didn't know how to control his strength or how to change his body of steel, he always found all sorts of excuses to avoid school physicals, which led to mockery and exclusion. After starting his job, although he could attend check-ups, he still couldn't get his blood drawn. Even when he relaxed his skin, normal needles couldn't penetrate him. So each time, he'd use excuses like not having fasted or having taken medication to avoid blood tests, to his boss's displeasure.
Now with the green gemstone, combined with relaxing his skin, he could finally let a normal needle pierce him. At the next check-up, he'd finally be able to do a blood test.
After giving blood, Clark was ready to leave. But an expert hesitantly stopped him and asked, "What did you do yesterday?"
Clark was momentarily stunned, then somewhat guiltily glanced at Diana—what else did he do yesterday? Went drinking, of course.
"What's wrong?" Diana asked, coming over to look at the test report. She couldn't understand it, so she said, "We went drinking a bit yesterday. He only had three sips, it should've metabolized by now. Is there something wrong with the blood sample?"
"This isn't just an issue," the expert said. "Just drinking? That's impossible. Come over, let's test again..."
And so, Clark was tested once more, and the results had the experts frowning continuously. The expert said, "This blood sample is significantly different from your previous ones. This particular value has risen drastically..."
"What is this value?"
"We don't know, but it's a component of your blood."
Mentioning blood, Clark recalled his past experience, so he said, "Uh, I had an injury before, and someone injected some gemstone powder into my blood..."
"Gemstone powder?"
"Yeah, exactly this." Clark took off the gemstone he was wearing and said, "Check if it's this component."
The expert took the gemstone for testing, and shortly after came back with the results, saying, "Yes, it matches. Did you consume this thing?"
"How would that be possible!" Clark said, "This thing makes me weak. Why would I eat it?"
"Then something's not right. The marker for this component in your blood has risen significantly, unless someone injected you again?"
"No way, I wasn't injured this time. How could someone inject me without my knowledge?"
Suddenly, Clark stopped. He remembered the cocktail he drank yesterday called "Sunset Avenue," which seemed to be green.
"Bang!" he slammed the table and roared, "Shiller!!"
Diana couldn't help but cover her forehead, and she said, "I told you, the 'Sunset Avenue' cocktail is supposed to be orange-red, how did it turn yellow-green? I shouldn't have let you drink it!"
Clark let out a long sigh and looked at the expert, asking, "Will this harm me?"
"It's still unclear." The expert shook his head and said, "This requires a full physical examination on you. I can assure you, the data will absolutely not fall into anyone else's hands..."
Clark turned to look at Colonel Jones, who nodded at him and said, "Don't worry, there won't be an examination."
Clark gritted his teeth. He was sure it was Shiller messing around, and even though he helped him make the Luther Group suffer a big loss, he wouldn't be taking him out for dinner!
Clark went for the examination. Diana walked up to Colonel Jones and then said, "Hello, Colonel."
"Hello, ma'am."
"Let's speak frankly, you're not local either, are you?"
"That depends on how you define local. If you center on the Sun and divide the entire Solar System by its radius into one domain, then I should be more local than you."
Diana narrowed her eyes.
"I am Martian," Colonel Jones said, "My real name is Ron Ronz, a Martian Manhunter. You can understand it as a police on Mars. Many years ago, due to an accidental incident, I came to Earth. Later, when the Mars people went extinct, I settled here."
"Sounds like you're in the same boat as Clark, no wonder you're helping him."
"I'm helping myself as well. The human race is indeed the main race of Earth, but there are also many foreigners rooted here, most of whom are displaced orphans. It's unwise to intensify the conflict between humans and aliens because we are not invaders. On the contrary, when the invaders arrive, we will stand with the human race because we need this society, we can't leave it anymore."
Diana listened and felt quite moved, saying: "You're right. Dividing Earth's life into natives and aliens is shallow. We are also part of the human race; we have built this society, we will maintain this society, even more than many humans, we wish for human civilization to be better and have worked hard for it. If we are all classified as enemies, it would instead bring disaster to Earth."
"Often, those extremists mark a certain group as enemies, not because they truly want to protect their people's safety, but quite the opposite, to create a crisis, gain more power, squeeze internal resources, and persecute their kind more righteously," Ron said, "They manufacture a pressure of nothingness competition, telling everyone that it's a very special time now, forcing them to scrimp and save, but in reality, the resources saved are neither used to resist outsiders nor to improve welfare, but are all swept away by them."
"Let's not talk about this," Diana said, "No matter how well we foreigners speak, they'll only think we're deceiving hearts. Let's talk about another person."
"Who?"
"Shiller."
Diana lightly touched her chin with her finger and then said, "He plays a far more important role in this series of events than we imagined. More accurately, this is all orchestrated by him, from the Frenes Snake to Egyptian Mythology, and then to royal family scandals and artifact exhibitions, all of this is his doing. What exactly does he want to do?"
"I thought you've already known," Ron said, somewhat surprised, "Didn't you notice that Clark Kent is the central figure in this series of events?"
"I did notice that. I know Shiller's target is Clark, but I don't understand what exactly he wants to do to Clark." Diana frowned and said, "You say he wants to save Clark, yet he injected unknown drugs when Clark was injured, making him worse; you say he wants to harm Clark, but he saved Clark's mother. I really don't get him."
"I think he wants to help Clark." Ron turned around, started pacing, and said, "In this series of events, what seems most likely to harm him is nothing more than injecting him with those gemstone powders."
"And this time, the powder placed in the drink for him to drink. My God, I really thought it was because he drank too much and didn't anticipate poisoning!"
"Yes, but he wasn't poisoned to death, was he?" Ron spread his hands and said, "That shows Shiller doesn't want to kill him. Have you ever heard of specific immune therapy?"
"Uh..."
"It's desensitization therapy," Ron added, "When you're allergic to something, you can let your immune system produce antibodies by contacting this thing in small doses."
"I really didn't know; I'm not allergic to anything," Diana shook her head and said, "Does that really work?"
"This requires guidance from professional doctors, each dose needs to be strictly controlled to avoid severe allergic reactions, and it's not effective for everyone; some people just can't produce antibodies."
"So you think Shiller is doing desensitization therapy for Clark?"
"Exactly. If, as you said, Clark is allergic to that green gemstone, experiencing dizziness, losing strength, then perhaps through several small doses of contact, he can gradually become immune to this allergic reaction, achieving desensitization."
"Then he should just say so." Diana couldn't help saying, "Could he not just tell us that Clark is allergic to this, and that contact will make it less likely to react?"
"Is he a doctor?"
"Uh..."
"Of course, I don't agree with his slightly crude methods, which are infinitely close to poisoning and plotting, but the fact is that he is not a doctor; even if he spoke, you might not listen, so he went ahead with it. Besides, with this PhD around, the truth will be uncovered sooner or later. If the PhD feels it's not working, he can stop it; if he thinks it's viable, then using Clark's gemstone for continued desensitization therapy won't cause any serious consequences."
"Indeed, no wonder he chose yesterday to poison the drink, knowing we were going to draw blood... wait, how did he know?"
Diana looked at Ron again, but Ron just smiled at her.