American comics: Damn it, I’m surrounded by those who worry about their fathers!.

Chapter 1140 Zombies and Machima
The report only briefly mentioned the missing person's basic information and the approximate location where they were last seen, emphasizing the police's fruitless search and the family's anxiety, without mentioning any details.

After a moment of contemplation, Peter turned to Azu and said, “John, if you have nothing else to do, come with me.”

He plans to take Azu with him to investigate the disappearance of teenagers in the town.

After all, this kid has been idle lately, so he's a good fit to help out.

Azu shrugged. "Of course, although I wanted to say I wanted to go to Piltover to take care of some things recently, your business is the most important, Dad."

"I've also never seen what you learned from Piltover University."

Peter complained that Azu had spent several years in Piltover as a college student but hadn't learned anything.

I sent you to Piltover University for nothing.

Just as he was about to continue complaining about Ah Zu's academic problems, his phone suddenly rang.

After glancing at the caller ID, Peter answered the phone.

"Dugan?"

"Yes, Peter, do you have a moment? I want to talk to you about something."

"Stars and Stripes" Dugan said hesitantly on the other end of the phone.

"of course."

Inside the Talon Club, the afternoon sun shone through the gaps in the blinds, casting beams of light.

Behind the bar, an old radio played a classic country song softly.

Peter and Azu pushed open the glass door, and the brass bell on the door rang out with a clear "ding-a-ling".

Lana, who was carefully wiping the glasses behind the bar, looked up when she heard the sound.

Lana wore a neat ponytail today, with a few strands of chestnut hair hanging down beside her ears. She was wearing a waitress apron that looked a little small, but it still couldn't hide the vibrant youthful energy she exuded.

"Mr. Peter!"

Lana put down her cup and rag, her voice filled with surprise, and quickly walked around from behind the bar.

Good afternoon, Lana.

Peter greeted him with a smile, "Are you on duty today?"

"I have no classes this afternoon."

Lana stopped in front of Peter and said excitedly, "Aunt Niel had something to do, so I came to help."

Her gaze swept quickly over Peter, then landed on Azu behind him, and she nodded politely in greeting.

Azu nodded slightly in response, then began to scan the interior of the bar, searching for Pat Dugan.

"How have you been lately? Is everything going smoothly at school?"

Peter greeted Lana.

Even though Lana is about to graduate from university, she still looks the same as before.

Could it be that the other person, like Professor Martha, was also affected by the World Tree in their own garden?!
"It's fine, same as always."

Lana, unaware of Peter's inner thoughts, smiled at him.

She hesitated for a moment, then added in a low voice, "It's just... things seem a bit unsettled in town lately. The news said someone has gone missing..."

Peter's gaze softened as he comforted her, "Don't worry, the police are investigating with all their might. Just be careful and try not to go out alone at night."

"I know."

Lana nodded obediently, then seemed to remember something, her tone becoming lighter, "Ah, you're here to see Mr. Dugan, right? He's already waiting for you in the usual spot."

She pointed to the relatively quiet booth by the window at the very back of the bar.

“Thank you,” Peter nodded.

Lana seemed to want to say something more, her lips moved, but in the end she only said, "Would you like something to drink? It's on me."

Lana, with a hint of anticipation in her eyes, offered to treat everyone.

"Two beers will do, thank you, Lana."

Peter gently declined her offer to treat him, saying, "Go on with your work, there's no need to make a fuss about us."

A slight hint of disappointment flashed in Lana's eyes, but it was quickly masked by a smile.

"Okay, come right away."

She responded and turned to walk quickly toward the bar.

Peter watched her retreating figure, then looked away and glared at Azu, who had a strange expression on his face.

Is this kid laughing at me?

The two then walked together toward the booth where Pat Dugan was.

"You said you saw Lex? Near the bridge? And he was in a car accident?"

Peter repeated the information Dugan had just provided, his brow furrowed.

"It's true."

Dugan took a swig of beer and lowered his voice, “Just before those kids went missing, I saw Lex’s ridiculously expensive sports car crash through the guardrail like it was drunk and plunge into the Kanduszig River. At the time, I thought, what is this rich guy doing in our poor place? Then I heard about the disappearance and thought… it’s too much of a coincidence.”

Peter listened to Dugan's words, his fingers unconsciously stroking the beer glass.

Lex never mentioned it to him.

That day at the manor, I asked the other person about their slightly tired appearance.

Lex simply brushed it off as "a minor accident."

If it were just a regular car accident, Lex might not have thought much of it, given his personality. But since it happened near the time and place of the disappearance, it was definitely not a "minor accident."

This kid is definitely hiding a lot of things.

Peter's doubts grew like vines.

"Thank you, Pat, this information is very important."

Peter thanked Pat Dugan.

Almost at the same time, a Lex Group’s iconic black helicopter hovered over Riverwood.

Inside the cabin, Lex Luthor looked down through the porthole at the desolate town below.

This small town, called Riverwood, is the town mentioned in the news where the missing persons case occurred.

The sun was shining brightly, but it couldn't dispel the eerie gloom that hung over Riverwood.

The streets were deserted, and vehicles were parked haphazardly on the roadside, some with their doors wide open, as if their owners had fled in a great hurry.

Several houses had broken windows, and suspicious, spray-like dark stains were visible on the walls.

The entire town was devoid of birdsong and dog barking; the only sound was the monotonous and oppressive roar of helicopter rotors.

"How's it going?"

Lex's voice was transmitted to the ground command center and field teams via the built-in communicator.

“Mr. Luther,” the ground commander’s voice came through, “we have completed the initial blockade and reconnaissance. The town… there are no signs of life, and no survivor life signals have been detected.”

Lex frowned. "No survivors? Are you sure?"

"Confirmed, sir. We have used various methods, including thermal imaging and life detectors, and the entire town... is in a state of silence; there are no living creatures left."

The helicopter slowly landed on a temporarily cleared open space outside the town.

Lex set foot on Riverwood's soil, surrounded by a team of fully armed security personnel in sealed protective suits.

A strange odor, a mixture of a faint putrid smell and something indescribable, similar to the smell of ionized ozone, wafted over, making one feel uncomfortable even through a high-end air filtration system.

"Take me to see it."

Lex gave orders to his men.

"Yes, sir."

The group moved forward along the main street.

The scenery along the way was shocking.

The shop window was shattered, and goods were scattered all over the floor, covered in filth.

A school bus was parked diagonally in the middle of the road, its doors wide open. The bus was empty, but there were signs of struggle and dried, blackened bloodstains on the seats.

In the front yard of a house, children's toys were scattered on the lawn. A broken doll's face was covered in mud, and its empty eyes stared at the sky.

"We discovered a large number of traces of humanoid creature activity."

As the person in charge led the way, he reported to Lex, “They…they seemed to have been wandering around haphazardly, bumping into houses, and even…attacking each other. Judging from the remaining biological evidence, they were extremely aggressive, and…they seemed to have no sense of pain, or rather, they seemed completely indifferent to the damage.”

As they talked, the group arrived at the town center, in front of a building that had been temporarily converted into a forward command post.

This place might have originally been a community center, but now it is surrounded by Lex Group's armed personnel and equipment.

The person in charge led Lex through several airtight doors to a makeshift observation room made of high-strength glass.

Inside the observation room, the lights were a stark white, and a creature was secured in the center by a special restraint device. The creature could still be vaguely discerned as humanoid, but its skin had an unhealthy, deathly grayish-blue hue, covered with dark purple, net-like markings.

The horrifying creature's eyes were murky and swollen, its pupils dilated, devoid of any spirit, displaying only a primal, frenzied hunger.

The creature continued to struggle, trying to pounce on the living person outside the glass with astonishing strength, causing the restraints to emit a tooth-grinding metallic scraping sound.

Lex's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes keenly observed every detail.

"All the residents of the town... have turned into this thing?"

He asked his subordinates in a deep voice.

“Based on our reconnaissance and sample analysis… yes, Mr. Luther.”

The person in charge answered affirmatively, "No exceptions have been found so far, and the conversion rate is 100%. We speculate that the event happened so suddenly and quickly that no one could escape."

One hundred percent conversion rate... Lex silently repeated the number to himself.

This is no longer an ordinary plague or virus leak.

Zombies?
"What are the routes of infection? What are the modes of transmission?"

Lex pressed on with his questions.

"It is not yet fully clear. Routine testing of air, water, and contact has not detected any known pathogens. It does not appear to be transmitted through biological means as we understand it."

The person in charge sounded uncertain and confused.

Just as Lex was about to press for more information, a researcher wearing a white, sealed protective suit hurried over.

The other person was holding a tablet computer with complex scanned images displayed on the screen.

“Mr. Luther, we have made a major discovery.”

The researcher's voice trembled with excitement, "We found a rather unusual individual in a detached house on the east side of town. We detected abnormal energy readings in its body."

Lex immediately turned around: "Lead the way."

A few minutes later, Lex arrived at his destination.

The area around this detached house is now under even tighter security.

The interior was in complete disarray, as if a fierce battle had taken place.

In the bedroom on the second floor, a zombie was found on the floor.

Although the zombie still retained its terrifying appearance, there were fewer signs of struggle.

Special scanning equipment was pointed directly at its abdomen, and the screen clearly showed that inside its abdominal cavity was a metal object with an extremely intricate structure that was completely out of place with the surrounding flesh and blood tissue.

“Take it out.”

Lex gave orders to his men.

The professionals carefully performed the surgery on site.

A few minutes later, the object was completely removed, and after rigorous disinfection and packaging, it was delivered to Lex.

Even the well-informed Lex couldn't hide the shock that flashed in his eyes.

It was a complex device, about the size of a ping-pong ball.

The silver-gray shell was covered with geometric patterns and interfaces he had never seen before. It was cool to the touch and faintly emitted a faint energy fluctuation.

The design style of these metal items is full of a sense of technological advancement, yet also carries a feeling of being outside this world.

It looks like a miniature space station?
Or perhaps some kind of life support capsule, or a beacon or similar object?
Lex stared at the high-tech-looking object pulled from the zombie's belly, his mind racing.

This thing is definitely not from Earth, and it is completely different from the technological systems of Krypton, Apokolips, and other planets that he had come into contact with.

where does it come from
Why would it appear in Riverwood?

What is its direct connection to the disaster that turned the town's residents into zombies?
Did it cause the disaster, or did it appear after the disaster occurred?

Countless questions swirled in his mind like a whirlpool.

Lex felt as if he were standing on the edge of a huge mystery, behind which might lie secrets and dangers far beyond his imagination.

The very next second he fell into deep thought—

"Ho-!"

A furious roar suddenly came from the zombie lying on the floor.

Everyone turned around abruptly and saw that the zombie whose stomach had been emptied suddenly went berserk, got up and pounced on Lex.

"Stop it!"

The person in charge was shocked to see this.

Just as the zombie was about to pounce on Lex, who was closest to it, and bite off his throat.

"Whoosh!"

A blurry figure appeared between Lex and the zombie in an instant, moving at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

The shadowy figure is one of Lex's newly hired bodyguards.

The new bodyguard's codename is "Wind Chaser," a mercenary with some fame in Metropolis whose ability is to manipulate air currents and grant himself extremely high movement speed.

Although his speed is not as fast as the Flash, his burst of speed is far beyond that of ordinary people.

With a casual wave of his right hand, "Wind Chaser" unleashed a highly compressed, visible air blade that slashed out with a piercing shriek.

"Pfft!"

An air blade grazed the zombie's neck.

The zombie's frantically roaring head separated from its body in an instant, tumbled a few times in the air, and then fell to the ground with a "thud." Its murky eyes were still wide open, and its mouth was still opening and closing.

The headless corpse swayed and fell heavily to the ground, dark red, viscous blood gushing from the severed neck.

The whole process happened in the blink of an eye.

"Wind Chaser" shook his hand as if he were merely dusting off a bit of dust, then retreated back into the shadows behind Lex, as if he had never moved.

Lex stared expressionlessly at the decapitated zombie on the ground, then glanced at the otherworldly device sealed in a special container, and finally his gaze swept over "Wind Chaser".

The headshot incident at the factory made Lex realize his vulnerability in the face of extraordinary threats.

Hiring a superhuman like the Wind Chaser as a bodyguard is a necessary investment.

The world is becoming increasingly dangerous and unpredictable.

Lex shifted his gaze from the bodyguard and fell into deep thought.

The zombie crisis in Riverwood, the bizarre massacres at the factory and by the Blood Gang, and this technological creation from an unknown realm... Is there some kind of connection between these events?

Lex felt as if he were standing in the center of a huge and dangerous spider web, where every trembling thread could lead to deeper mysteries and more deadly threats.

The second floor of the barn at Patrick Farm, known as the "Fortress of Solitude".

Machima sat on the wooden chair, her hands supporting her chin, her elbows resting on her knees, her eyes fixed on the scene before her.

Before her, a spider web gleamed with a silvery sheen in the slanting sunlight.

An unsuspecting flying insect has stumbled into this transparent trap and is struggling desperately, flapping its wings and making a barely audible buzzing sound, trying to break free from the sticky threads.

Machima's face was expressionless, showing neither sympathy nor disgust.

She simply watched quietly as the fragile life exhausted its strength in despair, watching each struggle cause the spiderweb to tremble slightly, only to be entangled more tightly.

Her eyes were deep, as if she were immersed in this pure and primitive natural scene.

After a while, a spider of considerable size with dark patterns on its back slowly crawled out from the hidden corner and steadily approached its prey along the death highway it had woven itself.

Instead of immediately consuming it, it circled the trapped insect once before swiftly and powerfully piercing its body with its chelicerae to inject digestive fluids.

The insect's struggle intensified for a moment, then quickly weakened, and finally faded into silence.

Machima's lips twitched slightly.

She then stood up, brushed off non-existent dust from her skirt, and prepared to leave this corner filled with dust and the smell of death.

However, just as she turned around, she caught a glimpse of an old wooden box leaning against the wall out of the corner of her eye.

The box looked older than the other items in the barn, with deep grain on its dark wood surface and rusty metal buckles.

The lid wasn't fully closed, revealing some yellowed paper inside.

Curious, Machima walked over, gently brushed away the dust and cobwebs on the lid, and then lifted the heavy lid.

It was filled with all sorts of odds and ends: a few old books with faded covers, some unused metal parts, a bundle of faded ribbons...

Her gaze swept over the clutter and finally settled on a stack of things simply wrapped in brown paper.

She took out the package and untied the somewhat fragile hemp rope.

Inside were several yellowed old newspapers, seemingly carefully cut from a larger newspaper.

Machima picked up the top card.

(End of this chapter)