The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4436 Dark Prelude (Twenty-One)

Diana quickly pulled out her phone. A tweet had gone viral. The reason was that someone had posted the entire process of stealing the "Serpent of Fringe" on the dark web, along with photos of the artifact being smashed.

When Diana saw the photos, she was both angry and amused. She exclaimed, "How can this broken artifact be so heavy? It turns out the outer stone is just a shell, and the inside is actually concrete!"

The photo was slightly overexposed, but it was still clear that the smashed "Serpent of Friñe" had a layer of imitation stone skin on the outside, which looked like it was made of some kind of mixed material, or it might have been covered with natural stone skin, while the inside was completely concrete, and it looked like modern high-strength concrete.

If it were just this one photo, it wouldn't be a big deal. Even if they released a video of the theft, they could easily have filmed it themselves, using a set they built. But the problem is that the content of their video matches the police announcement, and the video was released first.

As mentioned before, because this sculpture involves extraterrestrials, it has attracted great attention from various countries, resulting in considerable pressure. Unfortunately, the police investigation yielded nothing, but Diana discovered a detail that led to the deduction of the crime.

These robbers were quite skilled; they removed the glass from the floor-to-ceiling windows and then carried the sculpture out. This is considered a significant finding in the investigation. To alleviate the pressure on themselves, the police quickly released the update.

Logically, the details of the crime shouldn't be revealed to prevent imitation. However, the curator didn't want to take such a heavy responsibility; he just wanted everyone to think the robbers were too cunning, not that their security was inadequate. So he simply revealed the window incident.

However, the video released by the robbers predates the published investigation results. In other words, they posted the video of their crime before the police even discovered it.

The reason the video hadn't been discovered before is that the dark web isn't a public website, nor does it have a modern interactive system; access to specific pages requires specifying a domain. They hadn't expected the robbers to be so audacious, releasing the video so soon after the theft. No one tracked the domain, so it remained undetected.

However, resourceful netizens deduced from the domain's creation date that the video was released earlier than the survey results. In other words, it's highly likely that this is true.

After all, who could be so clear about the process unless they did it themselves? They weren't using very common methods, so it's impossible for them to have staged such detailed and accurate photos; it could only have been recorded by the person involved.

This is terrible. If it was shipped from the US to the UK, it could be a fake due to a mistake. But this one on loan is an authentic piece recognized by the British Museum, and it turns out it's fake too.

So now there are only two possible outcomes: either Britain admits that it deliberately lent the fakes to the United States, or it admits that it didn't know and that the artifacts were indeed switched.

The former is definitely not an option. Britain is a NATO member, and it has never been able to afford to provoke the United States, and now with Superman as president, it's even less likely to. If they admit it, they'll face a lot of trouble later.

The latter, however, has room for argument. While the item was indeed switched, the country and place where it happened are crucial. Anyway, what we sent was genuine, so it can only have been switched by your American museum.

The public also tends to believe this explanation, because if the British knew it was a fake, they wouldn't have lent it out so openly. What if they were discovered? Wouldn't that be incredibly embarrassing?
It's more likely that they sent a genuine item, but it was switched by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so the one that was stolen was the fake.

This explanation is clearly unacceptable to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and everyone is protesting their innocence. To reiterate, this is no small matter; if they had the ability to steal such a large mural, why would they be working here?
Even assuming we're going to steal anyway, why not steal something small but valuable, something easier to resell? The Metropolitan Museum of Art may not be as comprehensive as the British Museum in terms of historical artifacts, but it does have some precious jewels. Why go to such lengths when you can find something so close?

The employees began to defend themselves online, saying they had neither the ideas nor the abilities. But simply defending themselves wasn't enough to clear their names; they needed to identify the suspect to completely absolve themselves of any involvement.

Well, Diana is in trouble again.

Ordinary people couldn't move something so heavy, but it would be much easier for someone with superpowers. Diana could fly and was incredibly strong; only she could replace the mural so quietly.

When Diana saw this news, she truly wanted to say goodbye to this beautiful world. She'd rather return to Mount Olympus and be at Hera's mercy than stay on Earth!
Fortunately, she had anticipated the Pharaoh's curse. Diana managed to calm down and began to think. She admitted that she was indeed a suspect, and the prime suspect at that, since ability was more important than ideas. She was the only one in the entire museum capable of the switch.

As for why it wasn't done by an outsider with superpowers, one reason is that they would need to have some understanding of the museum, otherwise it would be impossible to do it so quietly; another reason is that making a fake is quite difficult, requiring a deep understanding of the artifact itself and the ability to replicate various details, which is something that only professionals can do.

Thinking of this, Diana suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

Why stone murals?
Diana had actually considered this issue before. You say Schiele forged something? Why forge such a large mural? Let's not even talk about the material costs and the cost of depicting the details. Couldn't you have just used a picture book, a scroll, or some ancient Egyptian papyrus to convey the same message?
Moreover, compared to textual works, the number of surviving three-dimensional sculpted murals is relatively small. Even if a perfect background is fabricated, it might still be exposed. It's better to use something more classic, which is both simpler and more authentic.

But Schiller insisted on building something that weighed half a ton. Could this be what he was waiting for?
Diana was itching to fly to the president's secretary's office and punch Schiller. She knew Schiller might not have anticipated that far ahead, but he had definitely used the mural carving as a precaution against her.

Because whatever the plan, as long as it involves using the debate over authenticity to bring up the theft of the artifact, then the "Snake of Frinier" will only make her a suspect due to its weight. Ordinary people simply can't move it, but she, with her superpowers, can.

The distinction between genuine and fake is almost inevitable, because this thing is fucking fake!

This is not the curse of the pharaoh at all, it is the curse of Schiller!

No wonder this piece of junk has been on display here for so long without being taken back. She'd passed by here eight hundred times a day and hadn't even realized it. Diana was so stupid she could cry.

However, there was one more thing she guessed correctly: she was forced to go into the water again.

Now everyone needs a scapegoat; it has to be her, and it's very likely to be her. If Diana can't find evidence to prove her innocence, she's completely finished.

To prove her innocence, she needed to retrieve the real thing. But did Diana not know this? There was no such thing as a real one. This thing was fake from the start, made entirely of concrete. The way she held it when it was hung on the wall felt wrong; it was already fake then.

Since there wasn't a genuine artifact to begin with, there's no point in trying to prove her innocence with that. The best way now is to find the robbers and make them admit that they broke into a fake to hide the whereabouts of the real artifact, and that they switched the artifacts. Only then can Diana be cleared of suspicion.

In reality, it's a game of musical chairs. The British royal family, unwilling to admit to the switch, shifted the blame to the United States; the American museum, unwilling to admit the switch, shifted the blame to Diana; and if Diana refused to admit it, she had to find a way to shift the blame to the last person who handled the artifact.

“Give me three days,” Diana said, standing before the curator. “I swear I will find the murderer. If I fail, I will leave with them, even if I have diplomatic immunity.”

The curator actually believed in Diana's character, but he had no other choice. He sighed and said, "I can stall the police for a while and prevent them from bothering you. But if you can't bring the robbers back, I can't help you."

Diana nodded, not having time to say more, and turned to leave. She couldn't care less at this point. This is what they mean by "you never know you're a great detective until you push yourself." Diana was truly pushed to her limit this time.

She valued her job and desperately wanted to stay in Metropolis, which is why she was so nervous when Superman caused trouble at her house. She didn't want to be kicked out, especially not in such an undignified way.

And she valued the honor of the Amazon very much. She absolutely could not be falsely accused of being a thief, otherwise her mother and sisters would be disgraced, and she would never be able to return to the Amazon.

With these two factors combined, Diana's potential was fully unleashed. She didn't even contact Bruce again, but went directly to the newspaper that published the dark web domain.

Diana didn't even have time to make an appointment and then drive over; instead, she flew directly to the newspaper office and rushed inside. Before rushing in, she glanced up at the name on the sign at the entrance—"The Daily Planet."

"Ms. Prince, what brings you here?"

Before the editor-in-chief's coffee was even ready, the Vulcan sword was already drawn. The editor-in-chief quickly waved his hand and said, "Let's talk this out, ma'am. We don't have such a deep grudge..."

"really?"

“Okay, I know why you’re here,” the editor-in-chief said. “But I didn’t find the dark web address myself; I don’t have that ability. Someone submitted an article to me. The email address is on the printer over there. This email address is encrypted; you’d better find a hacker to help you find it.”

Diana went over and saw that it was indeed printed. She glanced at the editor-in-chief, but didn't have time to waste words with him, and flew back to the Justice League hall to find Victor.

Victor looked at her with some surprise, but still glanced at the email address and, after some analysis, said, "This is a virtual email sent from an encrypted email address, and it went through thousands of nodes in the middle. It's probably not real. The other party is very cautious."

"Any clues can we find?" Diana asked.

Victor thought for a moment and said, "I can use exhaustive search, but it will take some time. After all, I still have to calculate taxes..."

“Okay, you can check it for me,” Diana said.

She hadn't planned to go down that path to the very end. Besides the dark web domain, there was another line of investigation: the robbers' escape route. She had Victor work on that while she investigated how the robbers managed to transport the "Snake of Frini." This would require using the invincible Batman surveillance network. She knew Bruce wouldn't refuse.

Some people say that I haven't persecuted female warriors much, so is that favoring one over the other—and here comes the answer.