northernbook Chapter 530 The Cloaked Warrior's Choice!
Chapter 530 The Cloaked Warrior's Choice!
Chapter 530 The Cloaked Warrior's Choice!
I am Möbius.
It's strange, why would I even think about rebelling against the anti-surveillance agents?
You see, even though I am just a remnant of a reality that has been erased and reflected in the mirror of the Dark Multiverse on a timeline that was rewritten due to a cosmic reboot, I am still part of the Anti-Monitors. If I wanted to oppose the Anti-Monitors, it would be as ridiculous as the tongue trying to fight the brain.
I am an anti-surveillance activist! Wasn't this title originally mine?
I must have been controlled by Batman just now to have such a ridiculous thought.
I need to deal with Superman now.
Believe me, he is by no means a difficult opponent.
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"Huffing and puffing..."
Hall of Justice.
After a brief confrontation with the Anti-Monitor, Chen Tao and Luther's group fled back to their own universe in a sorry state.
They all appeared in a safe location immediately.
Immediately afterwards, beams of light flashed rapidly within the Hall of Justice, and soon, the other members of the Justice League also appeared there.
"We're safe," Luther said, panting.
His bald head gleamed with excitement.
"We did it, Batman! We succeeded! Our universe is safe!"
Luther could barely contain his indescribable ecstasy. He didn't even care whether what he had done would be spread, and started talking about it right in front of the Justice League members.
"Soon, Superman Supreme will be fighting the Anti-Monitor. It won't be a quick battle for either of them to win."
"And this window of opportunity was enough for us to control those cosmic propulsion towers and escape with our world. Although Night Owl's universe will be destroyed, our world will survive."
"Wait, is Night Owl's universe going to be finished?" Martian Manhunter asked. "You and Batman have decided to abandon that universe?"
Luther got up from the ground.
"This is a necessary sacrifice."
He took off his green armor and then dusted off non-existent dust.
"It's all over now, our universe is safe, that's what matters most."
Martian Manhunter remained silent. The other members of the Justice League also remained silent.
After a moment of silence, Wonder Woman Diana suddenly said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get out of this universe and escape!"
No one knew what to say. They couldn't condemn Batman for abandoning a universe to save himself, but they also couldn't bear the thought of innocent people dying in their place.
They didn't say a word in the end.
Luther, however, remained calm.
He felt no guilt whatsoever; on the contrary, he felt only the joy of surviving a disaster.
He said to Chen Tao, "Bat, we need to quickly activate those propulsion towers, and no one is more suitable than you to be in the control room..."
But he saw that Batman didn't move.
He neither showed the same look of relief as Luthor, nor did he prepare to manipulate the entire Push Tower. He simply stood there silently, like the other members of the Justice League, as silent as a statue.
Luther's heart skipped a beat.
……
……
……
The owl opened its eyes.
He stared blankly at the robot that had appeared before him.
This robot is called a fail-safe, and it was created by Night Owl for himself as a final weapon to deal with special circumstances.
Undoubtedly, this robot is extremely powerful, and it even had the help of the entire crime syndicate in its creation, but... none of that mattered at all.
It can neither help Night Owl defeat the Anti-Monitor, nor help him control Superman Supreme, and it can't even stop Batman.
This robot was equipped with everything Night Owl could think of, and Night Owl poured all his energy into it, but like Night Owl himself, it was ultimately a joke.
Night Owl knew he should laugh, and he might be able to laugh—the Joker virus had invaded his mind—but he couldn't laugh at all.
He was so tired that he didn't even have the strength to laugh.
"Night owl spotted... rescue procedures underway."
The fail-safe robot found Night Owl, scanned him, and helped remove the restraints, allowing him to move again.
It tossed the laser-cut metal coffin aside, then addressed the owl sprawled on the ground: "Removed from its restraints."
The robot's eyes flashed red for a moment, and then with a hiss, a brand-new Night Owl armor was piloted by the fault-tolerant robot to push open the door and fly in.
Night Owl lay motionless on the ground, now only wanting to quietly await his death. He had neither the strength nor the desire to resist any longer.
Then he heard the idiotic robot he had created ask, "Why, Night Owl, aren't you standing up?"
The robot scanned the owl's body.
No injuries were found.
Night Owl rolled over and lay there limp like a salted fish; he didn't want to pay any attention to the robot.
He needs to be quiet, to reflect on his life.
From the beginning until now.
His whole life...
Then the owl, who had already turned into a salted fish, was forcibly lifted up from the ground by the robot he had created.
"Let me go, you son of a bitch..."
"Sir, your vital signs are all normal, and the weapon system is functioning normally. Please begin saving your universe now. You need to fight hard—"
"Fuck your mother..."
Night Owl raised his armor, attempting to attack the idiot robot, only to see its eyes flash red.
"Scanning... Night Owl detected being mind-controlled by some unknown target. Initiating emergency protection procedures!"
Night Owl looked bewildered. After creating the robot, he deleted part of his memory to prevent leaks, so he didn't know how he had designed the robot.
"Injecting past memories into Night Owl's personality to counteract the result of mind control. The memory injection will begin in 20 seconds."
"20".
"Damn it, I don't need it anymore, you understand? Everything is beyond saving. Whatever plans you had, they're all useless now, understand? It's hopeless!"
The owl's shouts were to no avail; the fail-safe was just a robot that would faithfully carry out the orders given to it by the owl.
He was just coldly counting down the seconds.
At the same time, a projection shot out from his chest. When Night Owl looked up, he saw that it was his former self.
"It's 11:17 PM now. I've decided to add an order to this robot that forces me to save the world." Night Owl paused for a moment, then continued, "I don't know who's reading this message right now, but I think it's very likely my future self."
"In the future, I may very well be controlled, frustrated, and demoralized to the point of losing all courage, so I probably have to make contingency plans for this situation. In a safe environment, the fail-safe robot will count down for 20 seconds and then share its past memories with its present self."
"This can both break most mind control and ensure that one's decisions remain consistent."
Night Owl clutched his head in front of the projection: "It's no use. I had no idea what I was facing back then. It's all over, everything is over."
He wept bitterly, his emotions on the verge of complete collapse.
"I'm dead! This universe is dead too!" He completely lost his ability to perceive the outside world, and just kept repeating these words. Then he was captured by the mechanical tentacles extended by the fail-safe robot.
The tentacles enveloped his head, then, through some unknown technology, transformed into starfish tentacles identical to Staro's. The fact that Night Owl could enable a robot to use Staro's abilities, even through direct cell implantation, is an extremely astonishing achievement.
Then, as those past memories flooded in, the owl shuddered.
More of Night Owl's own memories were inputted into his mind, overwriting those that had been contaminated by the Joker virus.
Night Owl slowly got up from the ground. He regained his senses, but a bitter smile appeared on his lips.
"It's such a shame, it's no use now."
He stepped past the fail-safe robot, took two steps forward, and then looked ahead blankly.
What way could he possibly save this already doomed world?
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"What are you planning to do?" Luther had a bad feeling and asked Batman in a low voice, "You're not planning to do anything stupid, are you?"
Before Batman could say anything, Luthor interrupted him, saying urgently:
"Listen to me, everything is okay now. We just need to take our universe and escape step by step. Night Owl got what he deserved. He was planning to sacrifice our world to the Anti-Monitor anyway, and now we've left his world with the same fate that our world was destined to suffer. That's karma. There's nothing morally wrong with that."
He said, "Besides, even if you went to fight the Anti-Monitor, you couldn't possibly win. You already fought him, didn't you? He beat you up, and your face was covered in blood. If you had actually been able to face the Anti-Monitor head-on, I wouldn't have stopped you."
"And then there's Superman Supreme. He hates you to the core. Even though you can control him to fight the Anti-Monitor, can you guarantee he won't attack you the moment you appear in front of him?"
Luther rambled on and on: "This was suicidal, unnecessary, and foolish. The current result is already very good; it's the result of all our hard work."
"You don't have to..."
"This was part of the plan." Then he heard Batman tell him, "I've been planning this ever since I started making the plan."
"You're lying," Luther exposed him without hesitation. "You've been hesitating all along. You've been letting me run wild; you've tacitly approved of my plans."
"Come on, Batman, you were planning to stop here anyway. Whether you want to go back and die or not is just a matter of choice for you."
"You have this in your plan, but you also have a backup plan."
Chen Tao almost laughed.
Is it really that obvious? Green Lantern Hal noticed it, and now even Luthor has noticed it.
There's nothing you can hide from these guys.
Then Chen Tao smiled...
He quietly savored the experience, tasting his own timidity and fear, and then extinguished these complex emotions one by one in his heart.
His gaze gradually hardened, and a raging fire began to burn from within him, igniting his entire being.
People often say that enlightenment is nothing more than this.
"So why?"
Why make this decision?
"Isn't it better to live a good life?"
"What are you worried about? What are you afraid of? What foolish moral principles and desire for self-sacrifice are you acting on?"
"Does that kind of self-sacrificing desire give you an orgasm?"
Luthor turned to the rest of the Justice League: "No one will blame you. You are undoubtedly a hero to this universe; you led us all out of a life-or-death situation."
Even at the cost of sacrificing others?
"I've already said no one will blame you, are you even listening to me?"
Luther felt inexplicably angry and panicked.
"You think your morals are so high, you..."
No one spoke, and the atmosphere became as heavy as a funeral procession in a short period of time.
Luther turned to look at the other members of the Justice League.
"Speak up, are you mute? Weren't you supposed to be very talkative, Rong En?"
He clicked on Martian Manhunter's name, and then clicked on one after another:
"Clark, the savior of humanity? Weren't you quite the smooth talker back when we were fighting against you? Now you're just going to watch your comrades commit suicide?"
"Diana Prince? You're just going to let me talk to this lunatic all by myself?"
No one responded to him, and Luther felt like he was the only one who was isolated, which felt awful.
"Luther!"
Luther looked up and stared blankly at Batman.
His eyes met the other's, which shone like stars, as if he were a child looking up at the stars for the first time.
He guessed Batman's decision, and a surge of anger welled up within him.
"What's the point? You think you're so morally superior? You're planning to go back alone?"
He yelled, "You've lost your mind! We fought tooth and nail to escape from there!"
But when he heard the other person laughing, he simply couldn't believe that Batman could laugh.
"Listen to me." Then he heard Batman's voice: "You've never lived in Gotham City, have you? Luthor, you were Clark's enemy, but you've never been my enemy for long."
Chen Tao lowered his eyelids.
"So today, I might as well teach you a way to deal with Batman, a weakness that Batman can never change:"
"His insatiable desire to save the weak will lead him into trouble."
(End of this chapter)