No matter if it's World War I or World War II, whether it's the Verdun Meat Grinder or the Battle of Stalingrad, if you can hold down an entire enemy team with just a gun by yourself, then without a doubt, you're a war hero. This is how Diana understands and pursues it.
The front lines require powerful, more powerful firepower. At the same time, everyone must realize the strength of the firepower; or rather, whether it's really strong or not isn't important, as long as the opponent believes it's impenetrable. This is also the concept behind Diana's weapon design.
In fact, the firepower of this Colt Python isn't particularly exaggerated. It can blow apart an adult, but some shotguns can do that too. Though it has infinite bullets, reloads quickly and reliably, machine guns can also accomplish similar tasks.
The most unique feature of this revolver compared to ordinary human firearms is its enormous flash and sound. The flash can be disregarded, but the sound can absolutely be considered a sonic weapon. Not only the shooter but everyone around will be stunned.
Shiller now realized that this might not be an auxiliary product to enhance power but something Diana deliberately added because she wanted this kind of group attack deterrence effect.
Evidently, she and Deathstroke should sit at the same table, both believing that the deterrence of violence is greater than violence itself. As long as something appears scary enough, it already possesses unparalleled power.
After realizing this, Shiller didn't even want to discuss further with Diana, but unsurprisingly, Deathstroke became interested. As a professional mercenary, his ability to sell his skills was terrifying.
He began analyzing the entire matter to Diana, including the arms dealer named Hesingnag, the artifact he wanted to retrieve and the pursuits along the way, detailing everything eloquently.
Finally, he persuaded Diana and got himself such a good thing as well. Before he could recover from the excitement of acquiring an excellent weapon, he saw Shiller's death stare as he looked up.
"You two really share interests, aren't you glad we're not actually married?"
"If she can really make me the perfect weapon, I would propose to it."
"It?"
"I'm referring to the weapon."
How rare to find a kindred spirit. Shiller rolled his eyes mentally, but agents can't do that; they need to be secretive and efficient, even forsaking weapon reliability for silence. He thought Diana understood his evaluation of the revolver, but it turned out she misunderstood.
Deathstroke apparently was quite satisfied with this reward and returned to his professional domain, becoming reliable again. After dropping the street slang, his analysis was still very reasonable.
"I still think it's impossible for you to retrieve the artifact through normal negotiation methods, because the agreement has already been signed, and nobody would want complications, and Egypt definitely won't be the endpoint."
"What do you mean?"
"Egypt is a hotbed for artifact forgery and laundering." Deathstroke apparently knew a bit about this; he said, "There are plenty of artifacts here, experts daring enough to make judgments, a series of industries for artifact archaeology and restoration, yet it's not a powerful or orderly country at all—practically a paradise for the black artifact industry."
"If a collection item is shipped here, it won't be returning home gloriously; it's just here for a bath, to be carefully trimmed and restored. The final destination will definitely be Eastern Europe or some West Coast private collection of a super-rich person."
"So you think that Hesingnag is also involved in this?"
"That's right. The money needed to work up and down to sign such complex contracts would not be small. If there isn't enough reward, a firearms dealer won't do this. The only possibility is he needs this artifact to please someone."
"Who might it be?"
"It could be a partner of his, maybe a government of a country, or even a colleague. It's hard to guess, and there's no need to dwell on it. The key is that the destination is definitely not in Egypt itself, meaning this item will only stay here for a very short time. Once it's transported out of Egypt, it will be hard to ever find again."
"So what's your plan?"
"I just want to persuade you to give up, go investigate the interpersonal relationships behind this thoroughly, then plan to leverage the conflicts among Egypt's various forces to retrieve the artifact; this definitely won't be in time."
"Why do you think I would do that?"
"I think that may have been your original plan." Deathstroke said, "I've seen too many agents; every country's agents have their unique way of doing things, and the CIA is especially notorious. When I saw you, I knew you were one of the excellent ones."
"Thanks for the compliment, but you were flattering the wrong way." Shiller said, "I'm FBI, not CIA."
"I sure know that. Otherwise, I wouldn't use police curse words on you. Americans are all the same; as soon as they appear in this region, their purpose is definitely to provoke conflict and create a split. There are no other options."
"Alright, maybe more straightforward than you think, but it sure follows this thought process." Shiller admitted, "I will act quickly, but if there's indeed no time, then I can only set out for Europe."
"This is somewhat surprising to me." Deathstroke said, "Usually the ones handling the Middle East and handling Europe aren't the same group of people. Don't tell me you have work experience in both?"
"What if I do?"
"Then you should've been silenced already." Deathstroke stated honestly, "And add in Asia, perhaps you'd be worth a plane crash."
"How do you know I'm not?" Shiller laughed.
"So, you were indeed on that recently crashed plane." Deathstroke squinted his eyes; he already knew about the plane crash news on the way, given such a massive plane, it was quite the sensational international news. However, from the landing area and the plane's condition, it was clear the crash wasn't an accident, and it was likely targeting a specific person."
Shiller didn't continue talking, so Deathstroke had to speak, "Alright, but I can't follow you back to Europe, or I might end up being hunted from Spain to Iceland. Are you sure you can recover during this time?"
"If I stay in the hospital for half a month, I probably can," Shiller said, "But obviously I can't do that, so we really should consider a quick resolution in Egypt. Anyway, tell me your plan."
"My plan is simple, find them, and grab directly."
"Very Deathstroke," Shiller gave a fair assessment, saying, "The only small issue is, the artifact's research value doesn't lie in its recorded historical information."
"Just say it straight."
"To put it simply, the artifact has recently undergone some changes, acquiring some mysterious properties. There's no way to be sure, extreme methods might not affect it, but the mysterious properties are the only reason to retrieve it."
"Ah, that's troublesome," Deathstroke touched his temple, "At a critical moment, arms dealers might destroy it, right?"
"No one knows," Shiller sighed, "No one even knows if he knows the true value of the artifact, so it's best not to provoke him, or cause him to take any extreme actions, hastily relocating the artifact inappropriately, leading to its destruction."
"So what exactly is it?" Deathstroke asked.
"Is that important?"
"Of course, what we're looking for depends on how we treat it, at least give me some rough data."
"I'll have to call to ask," Shiller said, "I usually don't ask too many questions when taking a job, because the employer's subjective judgment might cause a bad impact, employers like Batman are rare."
"Yeah, most people are like when they see the dentist for the first time, frantically denying they eat sweets, as if portraying themselves as paragons of virtue in front of me would bring any benefit. But don't you have your own information channels?"
"I do," Shiller answered succinctly, then added in his mind, "But it's very likely from the killer."
Shiller called Diana, asking her about the characteristics of the artifact they need to find. Upon receiving the description of "a mural weighing about half a ton," "very likely" was crossed out and replaced with "definitely."
Although the current act of altering memories is limited to a certain personality trait, concealment is almost non-existent, Shiller is quite sure that his trail can't be bitten by just looking at memories. Considering the other party's nature, seeing them might kill you faster.
Still, Shiller attempted to search within the memory bank, and as expected, the search field was filled with a large amount of junk information, indicating that it all happened in another cosmos, too much for Shiller to go through in a short time.
Shiller snapped back to attention and then said to Deathstroke, "Okay, we just grab it directly."
"Why did you suddenly change your mind?" Deathstroke asked curiously, he could tell Shiller wasn't very on board with this plan before. Shiller is a typical agent, emphasizing professional skills, not sheer force. He's not too accepting of outright robbery plans.
"For some killers, going around collecting information, devising plans to stir up trouble, zigzagging to find targets, might end up with results not as good as a straightforward heist."
"You've somewhat impressed me," Deathstroke said, "Seems like there was an opponent who left a deep impression on you."
"Only I can leave a deep impression on myself."
"You mean you once did something stupid?"
Shiller stood up, "The stupidest thing I did was trying to bite my own tail."
Then the two went to rest, not because they didn't want to set out immediately, but because both had injuries that needed treatment. A bullet was lodged in Deathstroke's arm and needed to be removed. Shiller's right arm was dislocated, with a fractured shoulder blade, requiring realignment and fixation.
According to Shiller, his current uncontrollable strength is mainly due to the unfamiliarity with his non-dominant hand. Deathstroke only sneered at this, saying he hadn't heard of switching hands turning someone into a train.
"It's interesting," Deathstroke said while taking off his tight suit, "You don't seem to accept your lack of control, and seem to want to find a proper excuse for it."
"Because it hasn't brought me any benefits."
"It has multiplied your strength by tens of times, isn't that a benefit? If it were me, I'd carry that gun every day, giving everyone their own place in the sea."
"That depends on whom you're comparing it to," Shiller said, "What if I say someone can control this strength even in a normal state, even gaining more, what do you think?"
"That's not something you should ask me, but Newton," Deathstroke said impatiently, "I should ask you if you have any issues with Earth's current orbit."
"I'm not referring to that," Shiller waved his hand and prepared his arm for realignment, "They can see more, like... full map vision."
"Oh, train network map," Deathstroke chuckled again.
Shiller didn't continue talking; Deathstroke had already suffered once from not taking his cues seriously, and it seemed this wouldn't be the last time.