bookbashuk Chapter 4331 Body of Steel (36)
Chapter 4331 Body of Steel (36)
Chapter 4331 Body of Steel (Thirty-Six)
"Hello, I'm Schiller Rodriguez, the owner of the bar nearby." Schiller handed his business card to the two people in front of him.
The two men sitting opposite him were both very tall, one was stronger and the other was thinner, one looked older and the other looked younger.
“Hello, Mr. Rodriguez. May I ask what brings you here?” the older man spoke first. He had a slight Spanish accent, and his English was somewhat unclear.
"That's right. We're a pharmaceutical company, and we're currently screening candidates for drug trials. You've bought medication from one of our pharmacies before, right?"
The two looked at each other. One nudged the other with his elbow, then gave a look of sudden realization and said, "Oh, I think so, we were sick before."
"Here's the thing, regarding your illness, we have a special medicine here that we can give you free of charge. We'll even pay for your trial costs. However, you'll have to cooperate by keeping a reaction log. Are you willing?"
The older man was about to refuse when the younger man quickly stopped him and asked, "How much?"
“The first phase of the trial costs $15,000,” Schiller replied.
The two of them gasped in unison.
“Normally, if there are no major adverse reactions, there are four phases of trials. You can receive a total of $6. However, this money is not easy to earn. You must keep a detailed diary every day, including what you did and how you felt.”
“Okay, we’ll do it. Give us the medicine,” the younger one said.
Schiller took out a contract from his bag, then a medicine bottle. After they signed the contract, he left his email address and handed them the medicine bottle, saying, "I'll pay a deposit of 5000 yuan first. The rest will be paid after the first issue of the journal is finished."
The two nodded repeatedly and signed the contract without even glancing at it. Schiller smiled, picked up the contract, and left.
"Why did you agree?" the older one asked. "It won't work for the two of us to take human medicine."
“But it won’t poison us either,” the younger one said. “If there’s no reaction, he’ll just make it up. How could he know how we feel? That’s 6 yuan! With that money, we could rent an apartment.”
The older one sighed and said, "That makes sense. Washing dishes isn't a good job; we should find a proper job."
The two men took the medication back to the restaurant kitchen. They glanced at it but didn't think much of it, though they were worried the other person might need a blood test, so they took the medication anyway. However, there was no reaction after taking it. The younger one then started fabricating a report.
After he finished writing, the older one came over, took a look, shook his head, and said, "This won't do. It's obviously made up. Give it to me, I'll write it."
Fortunately, English is a phonetic language. After learning the 26 letters, you can basically speak it and spell everyday words. Plus, since they were undocumented, it's normal for them to misspell words. As long as they can understand it, it's fine. So writing it isn't difficult either.
"You can't just write down a bunch of fake feelings; it'll be spotted immediately. Didn't he tell us to write down all our reactions? So let's start writing from the morning, from getting up to working, then to resting, eating, and so on. Write down fewer feelings, and it won't be as easy to be found out, right?"
“That makes sense.” The young man nodded and said, “You’re quite experienced.”
"That's right. I wrote a lot of self-reflection reports while I was in prison in the Phantom Zone. Zod has read so many of my reports, but he doesn't seem to have reflected on them much."
That's right, these two are the two Kryptonians who defected from the Kryptonian flagship. They traveled all the way from New Mexico to California, and then to Fat Din Plaza, the center of illegal labor in Los Angeles.
Because they were both tall and strong, and could communicate in English to a reasonable degree, they actually found jobs smoothly: washing dishes in the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant.
Actually, this job is very easy for them. Back on Krypton, they were professional soldiers with extremely high training levels. Even when they went to prison with Zod, they didn't fall behind in training. Standing for 10 hours washing dishes is a piece of cake for them.
However, they didn't come here to work illegally. On Earth, it's not just about surviving, but about thriving, so they planned to save money to rent an apartment so they could find good jobs.
Just as I was figuring out how to make more money, the drug trial participants came knocking on my door. What else could I say but try it?
Actually, they went to buy medicine before because they weren't feeling well. They couldn't quite put their finger on what was wrong, but they felt a bit dizzy and lightheaded, and a few times they even smashed plates.
They bought medicine on their day off. But they soon discovered that the human medicine didn't work for them; they still felt unwell. And the drug used in this trial seemed to be the same—it had no effect whatsoever, nor did it cause any adverse reactions.
They were a little nervous when they submitted their first log report. But Schiller didn't look at it carefully and gave them the money, which relieved them.
But things weren't so simple in the second phase. They suddenly discovered that their strength seemed to have increased.
After smashing seven plates in one day, they were finally kicked out by the owner. The younger Kryptonian squatted dejectedly on the street corner and said, "I don't know what happened, I just couldn't control myself..."
The older one seemed thoughtful. He said, "Do you remember when we were on the spaceship, we also inhaled gemstone powder?"
"You mean when the general fired that shot..."
"That's right. Even though we were the furthest away, we still absorbed some of it. Maybe the gem strengthened us."
"So we'll have superpowers too?!"
"Then you're overthinking it. Those two mutants took a bullet head-on, what good would it do for us to absorb so little?"
"But even so, our strength is much greater than before."
"What's the point of being strong? We still got kicked out, didn't we?"
"That's true. Sigh, these things from humans are too fragile. That plate is practically as thin as paper. In that case, it would have been better not to reinforce it at all."
"Luckily we got the job of testing the drug, otherwise we would have starved to death."
"Hurry, hurry, go and write the second phase report. This is our only source of income."
Not long after, Clark, looking at the second phase report, sighed sadly and typed rapidly on his computer:
"Claude (pseudonym) and Jia (pseudonym). Two such hardworking and excellent model employees couldn't withstand a cold, rainy night in Los Angeles. They fell ill and were very weak. They bought medicine, but it didn't work. They still went to work despite having fevers. Unfortunately, Jia, because of her weakness, dropped a plate. They were both immediately fired by their boss. And so they ended up homeless..."
Half an hour later, Clark called Louise again and said, "Take a look at my new manuscript..."
Louise paused for a long time, then said, "I read it, Clark. It's well-written. But..."
"but what?"
Are you sure these two undercover agents you found are real illegal workers?
"Uh. What's the problem?"
"Either they fabricated a report for you, or they concealed the truth and sent you a embellished version of the report."
"What do you mean?"
"First of all, the climate in Los Angeles is very mild; even if it rains, it shouldn't be enough to catch a cold. Secondly, neither a cold nor a fever would cause someone's hands to shake so badly they'd break a plate; only a high-dose drug could cause that. Finally, going to a pharmacy is utter nonsense. Undocumented workers who haven't been here long wouldn't dare go to a pharmacy; they'd get arrested..."
“Oh my God,” Clark said, frowning and rubbing his forehead, “So, they both lied to me?”
“Wait,” Clark said again, “Schiller lied to me!!!”
After hanging up the phone, Clark immediately went to cause trouble for Schiller. But he couldn't find Schiller at all; that damned liar was fast on his way.
He had no choice but to go find those two people. He knew Schiller had contacted them, and he needed to ask them what really happened.
But those two people no longer worked at that restaurant. Clark went to ask the owner, but the owner didn't answer him.
He was loitering around the street, so of course he was noticed. Before long, an old man wrapped in a coat approached him and asked, "Sir, who are you looking for?"
"Yes. I'm looking for two of my friends. Both are men, one is about this tall, blond white, and the other is about this tall, dark-haired white. They both speak with a Spanish accent."
The old man rubbed his hands together, indicating he wanted money. Clark was somewhat helpless, but he gave it to him anyway. The old man said, "I've seen those two before. They were kicked out of that restaurant a couple of days ago. If I'm not mistaken, they should be camping in that grove of trees over there. Be careful when you go there; someone might have a gun."
Clark wasn't afraid of guns. But he was stunned as soon as he entered the woods. There were dozens of tents of various sizes, scattered with garbage, and quite a few people sitting there.
When they saw a stranger approaching, they all turned to stare at him, but not with a wary look; rather, their gazes were somewhat indifferent, as if they were just looking for the sake of looking.
Clark felt a chill run down his spine. He listened intently and heard all sorts of incoherent babbling from someone heavily intoxicated. The stench kept filling his nostrils. Clark had no choice but to walk in to find them.
He glanced to his left and saw a man lying on the ground, clutching an empty tin can in his left hand. He looked to his right and saw a woman's body contorted at an unsettling angle, her breath coming in hoarse gasps. Everyone here seemed less human and more like monsters in human skin. Was this some kind of alien invasion?
Clark felt that finding the two men was no longer important; he needed to figure out what was going on with the tent area in the woods. Was the federal government so focused on the spaceship in near-Earth orbit that their base had already been raided?!
Just as Clark was feeling horrified, he suddenly heard the cry of a baby. He turned his head and saw a woman holding a bloody object in her arms. The object still had a small tail dangling from it.
Clark had never hated his superhuman eyesight so much. Because as soon as he focused his gaze, he saw that the "little tail" was the baby's umbilical cord, still dripping blood.
This is something the author witnessed firsthand.
(End of this chapter)