"I’ll support you. You’ll return to your holand and beco its king. This world should be led by people like us, not by fools," said Luthor.
Just like that, an alliance between him and Victor was quietly ford.
* * *
anwhile, outside the eting room, Reed felt uneasy in the hallway. Sothing about the atmosphere made him uncomfortable.
Ahead of him, Susan was organizing so docunts. She was indeed engaged to Luthor, but that didn’t an she had any special privileges at LexCorp. He allowed her to chase her own dreams, but if she wanted to stay and work at the company, she had to earn it like everyone else.
At this point, Susan didn’t really care about Reed anymore. She had seen things clearly. Maybe his love for her was more genuine and intense, but Luthor’s charm was simply on another level.
Even if he only had ti for the occasional mont of romance during breaks in his research, it still felt far more fulfilling than anything she ever had with Reed.
"Hey, Sue..."
Just as she finished sorting the papers, Reed finally spoke up.
"Congratulations on the engagent."
That was all he could manage to say.
"Thank you, Reed. I believe one day, you’ll find your true love too,” Susan replied politely. As long as he gave up his fantasies about her, she was happy to stay friends.
"Let’s hope so, but at this rate, it looks like you and Ben are going to start a family before I ever do."
Reed laughed at himself. The first step was always the hardest. Now that he had finally managed to talk to her, he wasn’t feeling so nervous anymore.
Ben laughed too. Both of them were his friends. He was glad to see them getting along.
And just like Reed said, he was already engaged. Maybe his wedding would happen around the sa ti as Susan’s.
“Mr. Luthor really is sothing else. I only got my idea after observing the cosmic storm, but he had already achieved it long before I even started.”
Susan smiled. That was enough. Seeing Reed return to this state, focused on science and research, ant he was finally back to being himself.
“Lex is a genius, and everyone around him is a genius too. I actually feel like I’m the one struggling to keep up. But pushing myself to chase after him… that’s its own kind of joy."
Susan’s words seed to open the floodgates.
Reed started asking about the many new inventions from LexCorp that he had seen online.
There were quite a few that interested him. Susan didn’t mind explaining them, as long as they weren’t confidential. She even shared a few funny stories from the research phase.
Like the ti sothing strange happened between Dr. Connors and Dr. Richards while studying genetic information.
Just as the conversation was flowing naturally again, the door to the conference room opened. Victor stepped out, his appearance unchanged, but his entire presence had transford. He was brimming with confidence again.
“Reed. Ben. It’s your turn to go in now. Whether or not you get to carry out your experint depends on your own performance. This project will now be led by LexCorp.”
“Huh? Oh… alright.”
Though Reed wasn’t sure what had just happened, he quickly followed the others into the room and sat down across from Luthor.
“There’s not much ti, so I won’t waste it on more discussion. I’ll just get straight to my conclusion."
Luthor’s tone made Reed tense up. He firmly believed the cosmic storm held more value than just creating dicine. But with no solid research or clear data yet, he had no way to prove it.
In other words, he had no real leverage to impress the man, only a theory with nothing concrete to back it up.
Even though his research suggested that the cosmic storm had once passed over Earth and may have triggered the evolution of life, that was still just a personal opinion, which he hadn’t been able to prove yet.
Luthor’s next words gave him a clear answer.
“The dicine you ntioned earlier that could potentially treat cancer, disabilities, and genetic disorders—let’s set that aside. Treatnts like those already exist. There’s no point in investing further into them. But when it cos to the cosmic energy itself, I am very interested. So, I’m willing to support your entry into the space station to collect and study this storm.”
“That’s amazing!”
Reed jumped up in excitent. But when he noticed everyone looking at him, he realized he might have overreacted and awkwardly sat back down.
“Don’t get too excited just yet, Dr. Richards. My support cos at a price. This experint will be made fully public to all U.S. citizens. This is the discovery of a new form of energy. It could change the world.”
“But Mr. Luthor, we still don’t fully understand what the cosmic storm does...”
Reed frowned. The idea of revealing his project to the public before his research had even begun made him uncomfortable. It wasn’t because he planned to deceive anyone—he simply wasn’t used to being in the spotlight.
"Dr. Richards, what the cosmic storm actually does isn't important. What matters is that it's a form of energy humanity has never discovered before. But that's not sothing you need to worry about. It’s the job of the PR departnt. If you don’t want to mislead the public, then I suggest you produce a reliable report as soon as possible and hand it over to them."
Luthor shut Reed down before he could say anything more on the matter. To him, this was all about image, an opportunity to once again remind the world of LexCorp's cutting-edge innovation. It was a chance to cent the idea of the company as a leader in advanced technology. And he had no intention of letting soone like Reed, with his personality, understand the full scope of that plan.
In fact, soone like him was only ever ant to be a pure scientist. That was where he belonged.
"I’ll allow you to conduct your space research," Luthor continued, "but in return, you’ll have to address one of my concerns."
He didn’t hesitate to lay out his condition.
"Because this entire project will be made public to every Arican citizen, your safety must be guaranteed. Unfortunately, while I have full confidence in LexCorp’s technology, I do not share the sa trust in your team’s execution or your ability to follow my orders.”
He was blunt about it.
He didn’t want to take the risk that Reed or Ben would encounter unexpected problems in space. He had doubts about the forr’s calculations and whether the results would hold up in the real world.
Hearing this made Reed feel a flicker of anger.
He was a reserved man, but he had his pride. His knowledge and intellect were his greatest strengths—his identity. And now, Luthor was questioning the very thing he was most proud of.
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