"Cough, cough." Under the spotlight, Clark let out a long sigh, adjusted the microphone higher, blinked lightly, and said, "Hello, everyone. I'm Superman."
"Oh—!!!!!!"
A tidal wave of cheers erupted from below. Everyone had gathered around the square, countless cameras trained on him. His red-and-blue uniform looked even brighter and more dazzling beneath the blazing early winter sun.
"I'm standing here today mainly to address two issues." Clark sighed softly. "I know everyone feels deeply grieved and saddened by the building accident at the Luthor Hotel a few days ago. Many people have been mourning the dead and caring for the injured. I completely understand how you feel. As the first person to witness the accident, when I heard your screams, I felt your pain as my own. I couldn't control myself and acted as quickly as I could to save people. But unfortunately, I wasn't able to save everyone."
"Oh..."
Everyone below let out mournful sighs, though there were even more voices trying to comfort him. That was because the media had already built things up enough over the past few days.
First came the horrific footage of the accident: the collapsing building, fleeing crowds, injured victims being interviewed through tears. Then footage shot by Lois began circulating, showing Superman descending like a god to save people. Naturally, it made people feel that without Superman, even more people would have died.
Of course, someone had also deliberately steered the narrative toward Lex Luthor, hoping to make Luthor Corp take the blame. They had used some less-than-honorable business tactics to imply that the Luthor Hotel's construction quality was poor. So the public's anger was all aimed at Luthor Corp, while Superman had become far less noticeable.
"However, I also have some good news to announce. After cooperating with the military