The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4434 Dark Prelude (19)

Diana sat up in bed in her apartment and sighed deeply. She glanced at her watch, wiped her face, and went to the bathroom to wash up. Thinking about the recent events, even this valiant and skilled woman couldn't help but feel exhausted.

Steve's blue eyes appeared in her dreams countless times, keeping her awake at night, longing for them day and night.

However, Diana couldn't accept the resurrected Steve as her true love. She learned from Hal and Barry that the resurrection of their loved one might be the work of a dark force corrupting them. Despite her deep reluctance, Diana had no choice but to entrust Steve to the Amazon Queen's care temporarily.

Logically, he should have been sent to the United States, since global experts are currently gathered there to study these imposters. However, Steve had previously crashed in the Amazon and had heard many stories about the Amazon from Diana. Releasing him hastily to the United States might allow more people to uncover the secrets of the Amazon, which the Queen was unwilling to accept. Therefore, a compromise was reached, and he was imprisoned in the Queen's jail.

Upon seeing him again, Diana was overwhelmed with memories and had been unable to sleep well for the past few days. She considered taking leave, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Christmas holiday was already over, and she didn't want to take any more personal leave, so she decided to return to work at the Met.

Diana got ready and drove off. Everyone had just returned to work, so the roads were busy and a bit congested. On her way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Diana received a call from her boss.

"Yes, there is a bit of traffic, but I'll be there soon... What?!"

Diana seemed unable to believe what she had just heard, a name that resonated deeply in her mind—the Serpent of Frini.

Diana didn't care about anything else. She forcefully turned the car around, stopped it on the side of the road, and with a "whoosh," it flew into the air and directly to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rushing into the museum lobby, pushing through the throng of security personnel, Diana was utterly stunned by the sight of the shattered glass dome and the empty walls.

"The Serpent of Frinigia has been stolen?!?" Diana shouted in disbelief. "Who would steal it and why?!"

Diana's first thought was this, because she knew the snake was fake. What appeared to be a valuable Egyptian artifact was actually worthless.

Although outsiders might not know, Diana had worked at the museum for so long and had encountered all sorts of things; it wasn't like no one had ever tried to rob or steal before. But the biggest problem was, what kind of thief would leave all the jewelry and paintings to steal a half-ton mural? Were they afraid they'd get away with it?
Then again, this robber was quite a character. The Serpent of Frieze mural is divided into three sections, and it's a three-dimensional sculpted mural, about the thickness of an adult's forearm. The three sections together weigh roughly half a ton, or over 1000 pounds. Moving this thing would be extremely difficult.

Diana knew so much because when the mural arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was difficult to move. Two door frames had to be dismantled, various cranes had to be used, and Diana even had to fly into the air to help, which is how it was successfully hung up.

Who would have thought that the mural, frame and all, could be stolen overnight? Who on earth stole this mural?

What stirred a bad feeling in Diana's heart was that this thing seemed to be Schiller's personal weapon, strongly linked to Schiller Rodriguez. As the saying goes, the painting arrives before the person; whatever happened to this snake would inevitably be related to Schiller.

Diana walked straight out of the crowd, took out her phone, dialed Schiller, and said, "Hello? Schiller? It's me. Did you know that snake has been stolen again?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Diana realized something was wrong. Why did she say "again"?
“I just found out,” Schiller replied. “It’s such a shame. Humanity may be missing out on a gem of Egyptian civilization.”

"Don't you know what happened?" Diana asked again, completely unconvinced.

“I did own this painting for a time, but unfortunately, I couldn’t have it. I’m also very sorry to hear it was stolen. However, the Presidential Office is extremely busy right now, and I really don’t have the time to investigate. Madam, if you…”

Before he could finish speaking, Diana hurriedly hung up the phone. "The Pharaoh's curse is still chasing me!"

Although Diana was very reluctant to get involved in this matter, the fact was that it was, after all, a loaned artifact, and both the British Museum and Egypt would be unhappy if it were lost.

The British Museum naturally considered this item their own, and since it contained information about extraterrestrials, it was destined to leave a significant mark on history—it could practically be considered their national treasure. If it weren't for the need to clarify a scandal at the time, they wouldn't have lent it to the Metropolitan Museum.

Egypt, on the other hand, felt that the item originally belonged to them, and if it were in the British Museum, it might never see the light of day. But since it was borrowed, they thought it might be returned someday, and they were hoping to return it to its rightful owner.

The federal government, needless to say, has always been one to borrow without ever returning anything, and has long regarded this precious artifact as its own property, so naturally it is unwilling to allow federal property to be damaged.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art faced immense pressure, with everyone dropping everything to track down the whereabouts of this precious artifact. Diana was specifically chosen because the staff at the Metropolitan Museum knew of her superpowers and believed she would be much more effective in the investigation.

Diana was utterly speechless. This ancient Egyptian artifact, less than a year old, had truly become a treasure cherished in someone's hands. And yet, that damned swindler Schiller had simply abandoned it, leaving her nowhere to look for the artifact.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art does have security cameras, but if cameras were truly effective, then all the world's museums would be safe. Disabling ordinary security cameras is incredibly easy. Whether it's hacking the system or physically disconnecting them, it's simple enough to bribe someone inside or simply sneak in yourself.

Alternatively, you can ignore the cameras and simply cover your face. While this will reveal your whereabouts inside the museum, it will be very difficult to track you after you leave.

This time, the robbers were extremely cautious, cutting off all power to the museum and rendering all security cameras unusable. However, Diana quickly deduced that this wasn't due to cleverness, but rather a necessity.

Stealing such a large stone mural is different from stealing pots, pans, or jewelry. Those things can be easily carried away in a bag, but this mural can't be moved without a professional crane. And to move such equipment, it can't be done by just one or two people; it must be a group, and it will take a long time. If they don't find a way to disable the security cameras, they'll be discovered very quickly.

Furthermore, there are security cameras outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and if they aren't switched off, their vehicles could easily be captured. Other robbers drive ordinary sedans that can blend into the crowd and leave. But to transport such a large item, they would definitely need a truck, which is much more difficult to maneuver. If their vehicle's features are captured on camera, they would have no chance of escape.

With the security cameras unreliable, they could only examine the traces inside the building. But these traces had been meticulously cleaned, suggesting no heavy machinery had been used. What puzzled Diana most was that the door frames were also completely intact.

The exhibition hall where the mural is located has only one small door to exit. The door frame had to be removed to bring the mural in, so why wasn't it removed when leaving?

Diana naturally considered the worst-case scenario: that these guys would find it troublesome to take the mural out, so they would simply smash it into pieces and take it out in small chunks.

Large murals are certainly valuable, but they're useless if they can't be moved. Even if they're smashed, most of them will be worthless, but the parts depicting alien figures might fetch a higher price.

Thinking of this, Diana couldn't help but rub her forehead. She wasn't lamenting the loss of the artifact itself; after all, it wasn't an artifact, so it wouldn't matter if it were smashed to pieces. What troubled her was that if it were truly broken, the investigation would be much more difficult, and her job would be in even more trouble.

Sure enough, during the discussion, someone said, "Since there are no signs of a crane, it's most likely that it was smashed." This immediately plunged the atmosphere into despair. Everyone knew that if it really was smashed, it would be irretrievable, potentially causing a diplomatic incident and costing everyone their jobs.

At this moment, Diana spoke up, "But it's not easy to break something this big; you'd need some professional tools. If you used an impact drill, the marks would probably be more severe than if you used a crane. Since we haven't found it, maybe they used another method."

Her words drew agreement from many others. After all, no one wanted to end up in the worst possible situation. But then someone knocked on the door and came in, saying, "I checked the archives and found that all the files, reports, and materials related to the Serpent of Frini are gone."

"What?!" The curator stood up, looking at him in disbelief. "Those people stole the documents?! Have they gone mad?!"

Diana was also slightly surprised. Generally speaking, robbers who steal cultural relics don't care about any documents, because they usually only act after they have a buyer in mind—they designate the item first and then steal it. Since the buyer has specified the artifact, they naturally know its value better than anyone else, so there's no need for any documents to prove it.

Even if no one specifically designates the theft, and they find a buyer after stealing it, such a major news story would definitely make the newspapers, and everyone would know. If it were jewelry or paintings, they might need to be appraised to prevent someone from passing off inferior goods as genuine, but these stone carvings and murals are basically impossible to forge, so they naturally don't need any documentation to justify their value.

As soon as she finished thinking that, Diana mentally refuted herself. Not to mention that there was no possibility of this thing being faked, wasn't this whole thing fake?
However, the theft of the documents remained very suspicious. Most people thought it was to prove their wealth, but Diana felt that the theft suggested the other party might not actually be trying to sell the artifacts for money.

If I had to give a reason, there's no real explanation; it's just a gut feeling. Because most robbers are capable of this kind of work, they have no real reverence for historical artifacts. Frankly, they don't even have the same level of awe as Diana for the Pharaoh's curse, and they wouldn't have the patience to delve into those obscure historical documents; at most, they'd check Wikipedia after the theft.

But the entire archive, including all the materials related to the Serpent of Frini, was looted, which seems more like a raid on the archives themselves. Perhaps these materials were even more important than the artifacts themselves.