"In this Dream World, everything is under my control, including time."
Dane briefly introduced Victor, then patted him on the shoulder.
"Those things aren't important. Next, you need to take over Lex Luthor's role and continue to maintain contact with the people he just contacted.
You saw how he did it, right?"
Victor subconsciously nodded, then quickly reacted, "So that's it. You had me act with him the whole time for this purpose?"
Is this what a superhero is like? Playing dirty tactics too!
"You already know the St. Roch incident is related to him, so do you think you can trust him?"
Victor hesitated, "At a time like this, he shouldn't be doing anything extra, should he?"
Dane sneered, "That's because you don't know how much trouble that bald man can cause."
Strictly speaking, the character Lex Luthor cannot be considered a pure villain. He is a human supremacist, and all his actions are always aimed at trying to prove this point.
So, his targets are mostly metahumans. Unless he explicitly knows that ordinary people are connected to metahumans, he will, out of necessity, also target humans.
Just like Superman, when Lex Luthor didn't know his hidden identity, Superman was unassailable to him.
But once he knew that Martha or Lois's existence was Superman's weakness, he wouldn't be so pedantic as to choose not to exploit such a weakness.
In "Batman v Superman," he exploited the conflict between Batman and Superman, as well as Clark's weakness, Martha, and almost succeeded in achieving his goal.
Even if Plan A ultimately failed, his Plan B successfully killed Superman.
But only Lex Luthor himself knew that he exploited not only Clark's weakness but also Superman's kindness.
If Superman had as low a moral bottom line as Lex Luthor, Lex Luthor could not have won, just like Ultraman in the Crime Syndicate.
A Superman lacking a bottom line could make Lex Luthor scurry away in fear.
"Forget about that bald man. Let's talk about your mission."
Victor thought for a moment and decided against reminding Shazam that Lex Luthor wasn't bald, at least not yet.
He also didn't know why Shazam was so convinced that Lex Luthor would definitely be bald in the future.
"You've just watched Lex Luthor's methods throughout. If you were to take over and maintain contact with these people, could you do it?"
"But I am not Lex Luthor."
"But you can mimic Lex Luthor's way of interacting with them, right?"
Victor thought carefully. He had just recorded Lex Luthor's behavior patterns and linguistic style. If it wasn't face-to-face contact, he should not be seen through.
If it was only on an electronic screen, he could even communicate with those people as Lex Luthor and ensure he wouldn't be seen through.
So he nodded to Dane, "I think I should be able to do it."
"Good, then these people are entrusted to you. I don't require them to necessarily unite wholeheartedly, but I hope that when I need them, they will all point their guns outward, facing the invaders. Do you understand what I mean?"
Victor nodded, then hesitated for a moment and said, "So… I'm still working here?"
Although this Dream World felt very real, it was ultimately fake, which made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
Dane noticed his resistance to this place. He thought, perhaps it was because Victor knew everything here was fake, making it easier for him to associate it with himself.
So he said, "Although you don't need to stay here often, to counter the power of the mother box, you will still need to take some time to come here and perform tasks."
Those dignitaries were actually also pulled into the Dream World; otherwise, with only a few hours passing in reality, how could Lex Luthor have contacted everyone?
It was just that each of them didn't stay in the Dream World for long. After the matters were explained, Dane would throw them back into the Real World, and with their mortal eyes, they couldn't tell the difference between the two Worlds.
Victor knew this was a big deal, so he had no other complaints and nodded, "I understand."
"Oh, and one more thing."
"What?"
"Welcome to the Justice League."
When Dane had basically completed all preparations, Steppenwolf's progress was also quickly nearing its end.
This day, Lex Luthor once again walked into S.T.A.R. Labs. He looked like he had very deep dark circles under his eyes.
His female assistant, Mercy, asked with concern, "Are you alright, Lex?"
"It's nothing, I just feel like I haven't been sleeping well lately. It feels… like I'm subconsciously resisting falling asleep," Lex Luthor shook his head, "It's probably just overwork recently."
"Do you need me to call your personal Doctor?" Mercy suggested.
Lex Luthor was about to refuse, but then he remembered losing a large clump of hair when he woke up this morning. He frowned and silently nodded.
Mercy, having received his response, walked out of the room decisively.
Lex Luthor composed himself, put on a business smile, and walked through the laboratory door.
Steppenwolf only glanced at him before turning his head away again. Before him, three mother box each emitted a colored light, already in a semi-activated state.
Then Steppenwolf spoke, "The activation of the mother box is about to reach its critical point. In seven days, they will be fully activated. Before then, I want you to ensure that the power supply here experiences no accidents whatsoever!"
Lex Luthor quickly replied, "No problem, but my friend, even now, can't you tell me what you intend to do by activating this mother box?"
Although he had tried countless times, Lex Luthor would tirelessly bring up this question every time.
Sometimes Steppenwolf wondered if this human wasn't afraid he would actually crush him.
But perhaps it was because the time for harvest was approaching, or perhaps he had been here too long and wanted someone to confide in, or perhaps he believed that Lex Luthor, a mere human, could not change the overall situation. So, this time, Steppenwolf, for once, answered Lex Lutror's question.
"Once the mother box are fully activated, they will immediately execute the Trinity Protocol. At that time, their power will purify this Planet and reshape it, making it a new Apokolips, my Apokolips!"
After he finished speaking, his eyes fixed on Lex Luthor, observing every move of this human.
If Lex Luthor tried to take any rebellious action at that moment, Steppenwolf would let him know how vulnerable human power was before Apokolips.
But to Steppenwolf's surprise, Lex Luthor showed no abnormality, as if what Steppenwolf said was just a trivial matter.
He merely nodded calmly, "So that's it. The ultimate goal is still to conquer this Planet?"
Just the same old goal. The last alien who tried to rule Earth was eliminated by the Justice League, and he believed this time would be no exception.
Huh? Why was he so certain?
Lex Luthor felt a little strange, but he quickly dismissed it and tried to gather more information.
"If you want to accomplish this, then there is one organization that you definitely cannot bypass as an opponent…"
Steppenwolf sneered, "Ah, of course, I know what you're talking about: the Justice League.
A demigod with the power of the Old Gods, a Kryptonian, a half-Amazon and half-Old God, a Green Lantern Corps, and a Martian who fears Fire…"
As for others, like Batman or Constantine, they were never even considered by Steppenwolf from the beginning.
Although Steppenwolf hadn't been on Earth for long, he had already learned about all the superheroes on Earth, especially the Justice League, through the mother box.
As for other hero organizations, most were not worth mentioning.
And what Steppenwolf worried about was nothing more than Shazam, the user of Old Gods' power, and the Kryptonian.
He believed that only these two could truly pose a fatal threat to him.
"But they will no longer be a threat to me. Not anymore. The mother box work much faster than you can imagine. They only need an instant.
Just an instant, and this World will undergo change. And the Justice League, they won't have any time to react, and you Earthlings will no longer have the chance to unite. Your doomsday has arrived!"
Although Lex Luthor is a smart man, his personality has exploitable flaws.
Even though Steppenwolf had promised to help him with the technical decryption of the Kryptonian spacecraft, Lex Luthor wasn't in the S.T.A.R. Labs all the time.
He's a capitalist, not a researcher, and his intelligence is used to satisfy the needs of the former. And what kind of creature is a capitalist?
They are a group of misers who constantly suppress new technologies to gain absolute control over limited resources.
When Steppenwolf heard this news, he almost died laughing. With Kryptonian technology, there were almost inexhaustible resources in the Solar System for all of humanity to enjoy.
Yet, what Lex Luthor was thinking about was how to extract energy from the Earth's core to surpass Umbrella's technology, ultimately becoming the energy giant of this Planet and a monopolizer of the energy industry!
This is also why Steppenwolf looks down on humans. Before Apokolips even began to enslave this Planet, they were already thinking about how to enslave their own kind. How could such a species not perish?
While he appeared to be helping Lex Luthor decrypt the Kryptonian spacecraft's technology, in reality, he had long understood the ship's technology, and this knowledge came very early.
In fact, long before Lex Luthor decided to launch the "applecore" project, Steppenwolf had carefully chosen the Kryptonian spacecraft containing Doomsday for him.
He had found this spacecraft beforehand with the help of someone, extracted Doomsday's tissue cells from it, and then damaged the ship's original rigid structure.
Otherwise, how could a sealed chamber containing a super biochemical weapon like Doomsday be drilled through by human drilling machines? If you think about it carefully, does that make sense?
Moreover, this spacecraft had been buried under rock strata for tens of thousands of years; Superman and Dane didn't find it when they searched here back then. Yet, precisely when Lex Luthor needed to launch the "applecore" project, he discovered the radiation from this location.
Don't all these events seem too coincidental?
The truth is, all of this was Steppenwolf's plan. Every step Lex Luthor has taken to this day has been part of his plan.
Or rather, he thought it was part of his plan. Steppenwolf, whose mind is only filled with fighting and killing, is actually incapable of devising such a complex and precise plan.
Before he found Lex Luthor, he had another, more cunning collaborator. His name was "Vandal Savage"!
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