What bad thoughts can Batman have?

Chapter 853 Hero Mentor: Lantern No. , we meet again after all
Chen Tao now deeply realizes one thing:
When facing a sixth-dimensional god like the World Forger, mortals are vulnerable.

Everything mortals do is like a sand castle built on top of mud, which will fall apart with just the slightest push.

One or two successes are meaningless in front of the god of the 6th dimension. He can overwrite reality at any time and block your success halfway.

Our DC multiverse is a multiverse with a super time flow. The past and the future are relative concepts. There is only the question of whether it is difficult to modify it, but there is no such thing as being unable to modify it.

The Anti-Monitor wrote a perfect script for Chen Tao, and what Chen Tao had to do was very simple: dance within the script, gain the protection of the Anti-Monitor, and at the same time find the key factor to break the deadlock.

The Anti-Monitor has helped Chen Tao prepare a script for invading Multiverse Fusion, and what Chen Tao has to do is -

Iguru——

what happened?

The whole world is stretching, and the newly built concrete road is collapsing.

After a brief moment of daze, Chen Tao found himself standing there again, holding the cement that had not yet been spilled on the roadbed.

He just reversed a short period of super-time flow unconsciously. He heard the questions raised by Hero Day and the heroes of the dark multiverse who lived in the metal spirit space in his body:

"Didn't we say we were going to enter the multi-integration?"

This is... This is the scene he just experienced, just a few minutes ago. But he temporarily reversed it all to...

Then Chen Tao felt the Riddler patting his shoulder.

"A few minutes ago, my friend," he said, "you tried to take me back, and once I was gone, you tried to gain me... Who am I?"

"time."

Chen Tao frowned.

"Yes, time, my friend. This is a small teaching." The Riddler made a somewhat exaggerated bow and said, "Sir Bat King, this is a gift given to you by Lord Anti-Monitor Mobius to fight against his brother World Forger."

"From now on, you can borrow the power of the Anti-Monitor at will to reshape and disturb the reality of the super-time flow at will... before this reality solidifies like a concrete road."

The Riddler said, "This is the only way for you, a mortal, to fight against the World Forger."

Bat King?
This somewhat strange name made Chen Tao a little concerned, but he quickly put the issue aside for the time being.

He repeated what he had just said without thinking. When he came to the conclusion of looking for the first Lantern again, he stood there and fell into deep thought.

Chen Tao had already realized that on that day, he witnessed the death of Lantern No. 1. But before the death of Lantern No. 1, he had traveled through the super time stream at least twice.

And now, the history of Lantern No. 1 traveling through the super time stream is solidifying like concrete and becoming a reality.

Now the First Lantern is in a weird state of "according to the normal development of history, you will die, but since this history has just appeared not long ago, you can still struggle. If someone can change history, you can live!" But Chen Tao is not sure whether the idea of ​​"you can live by changing history" has led to the death of the First Lantern.

But no matter what, the current Lantern No. 1 is extremely important to Chen Tao, not only because he has mastered the method of entering the multi-dimensional fusion, but also because of a more important reason:
He held a sword in his hand, a sword made of metal.

This sword was once taken away by Lantern No. 1 to split the connection between universes. After his failure and death, it returned to Chen Tao's hands. Chen Tao deliberately let the main universe Batman take the sword away and returned it to the World Forger.

But now, the first Lantern Knight traveled through the super time stream and made the sword from the past appear in front of Chen Tao.

So for Chen Tao, the sword in the hands of the First Lantern formed a very simple causal relationship with the sword in the hands of the World Forger.

No matter what Chen Tao does to the sword, whether it is wearing it out or destroying it, the consequences will be synchronized on the timeline to the sword in the hands of the World Forger.

The moment Chen Tao saw the first Lantern, he immediately realized all these things. He always felt that this kind of cause and effect relationship would definitely be able to help.

While Chen Tao was thinking about this, the Horror Lantern Man also found the exact location of Lantern Man No. 1 through searching.

"he is……"

"Tell me, where is he?"

Chen Tao asked.

"He was on Earth-3 before the Crisis on Infinite Earths."

"Uh……"

"You mean, Earth-3 before the Crisis on Infinite Earths... The Crime Syndicate?"

"Yes, Bat."

……

……

……

Earth 3.

Of course, this was before Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The criminal syndicates of this era were still very... primitive, full of an old-fashioned flavor.

The Ultimate Man, or Superman in a later timeline, is a muscular man with an inverted triangle shape and a light-colored U on his chest.

And Night Owl... no, before the Crisis on Infinite Earths, let's just call him Owlman. He put an almost completely lifelike brown owl mask on his head.

They are all people we are familiar with, but they are the oldest versions.

During this period, the DC Multiverse clearly pointed out to us that the Crime Syndicate would become very powerful in its own universe, and could even defeat the Main Universe Justice League that came from across the universe.

But when they travel across the universe to wreak havoc in the main universe, they become weak and are easily defeated by the Justice League of the main universe.

They have Manifest Destiny in their own universe, and the rules in their world are completely opposite to those in the main universe where "heroes will definitely win."

Chen Tao appeared here... He gathered all his teammates into the metallic spiritual space in his body.

But no matter what, everything in front of me is very strange.

Superman is the center of the DC multiverse, and every time he is reborn, the previous universe will be retained upstream of the super time stream and completely lose the possibility of developing new stories.

Therefore, the Earth 3 in front of us looks exactly like the United States in the last century, except that bad guys are rampant. However, the worst bad guys here are nothing compared to the bad guys in the future DC multiverse.

Chen Tao had no intention of caring about the historical development of this universe. He came here for a purpose. He soon appeared at the door of a tavern.

This is Metropolis, the lair of the Ultimate Man.

"According to history, soon, in at least ten minutes, this city will be uprooted by Brainiac and stuffed into the Multiverse. He specifically picked a day when the pre-Crisis Crime Syndicate was meeting so that he could capture all the members of the Syndicate in one fell swoop."

Chen Tao heard the Riddler observing the outside with his permission, and then told Chen Tao: "The First Lantern must have some way to deceive the World Forger so as not to be discovered when entering the Multiverse Convergence."

"I understand." Chen Tao said.

Following the guidance of the emotional spectrum energy provided by the Horror Lantern, the target he was looking for, Lantern No. 1, was temporarily staying in the tavern in front of him.

Squeak.

Chen Tao pushed open the door.

All of this looks very old-fashioned, Chen Tao thought silently.

He went to an ancient time to visit an ancient person in a very ancient way.

The first Lantern became an ordinary civilian.

When Chen Tao walked in, he saw the other person sitting next to the bar.

When he saw Chen Tao's face, an expression of sudden enlightenment appeared on his face.

"I understand……"

He suddenly stood up and shouted.

The other party's words made Chen Tao, who had been organizing his words for a long time and trying to persuade the other party, a little confused.

"Uh...what do you understand?"

“History’s loop.”

Chen Tao heard Lantern No. 1 say.

It's this kind of thing again. What Chen Tao hates most is situations that he doesn't understand.

This so-called future time-space loop causes the help he is receiving now to make him feel out of control.

"Wait, wait, let's first confirm when you became the first Lantern."

For a moment, Chen Tao even thought he had made a mistake, but soon he saw Lantern No. 1 took out a sword from his hand and waved it in front of Chen Tao.

Okay, now I know the time node immediately. It was when I left Chen Tao and entered the super time flow vortex. Even the sword was in his hand. Chen Tao found it correctly.

But to be honest, this was too weird. The other party's attitude towards Chen Tao was unexpectedly good, and his impression of the First Lantern was that most of the time his emotions were not so stable, and he was shouting and yelling at him, or he was yelling inexplicably and weirdly.

"Come and sit here." Lantern Man No. 1 moved his butt to make room for Chen Tao. Chen Tao felt even weirder. He had been prepared to persuade Lantern Man No. 1 and had prepared a lot of ideas, but now...

"Don't think too much. I have much more experience than you in traveling through history and transcending time. You will always encounter things that you cannot understand at the moment."

Lantern Knight No. 1 seemed to see Chen Tao's hesitation. As an experienced time traveler, he was very familiar with this mentality because he himself had experienced it before. What Chen Tao was thinking now was what Lantern Knight No. 1 had thought before.

Only on this point, even Chen Tao could not hide it from the first Lantern Man who had experienced all of this.

Lantern No. 1 changed the subject.

"You know, this is Earth 3, a place where kindness can never flourish."

Lantern No. 1 said.

"Before getting down to business, I traveled around this planet for a while. I haven't had time to do anything with a complete planet for a long time. I'm always busy shuttling between various universes, desperately looking for ways. There are rarely places where I can temporarily stay, and I rarely have the leisure time to do so."

"How was the result of the tour?"

Chen Tao was not in a hurry to talk to Lantern No. 1 about the matter of multi-dimensional integration. He knew that he could not provoke the other party and needed to go along with what the other party said.

"Compared to the lower reaches of the super time stream, even the villains in this era are not that evil, but they are still too bad. I am beginning to understand why Superboy-Prime is so obsessed with returning to this era. But in my opinion, even the most harmless criminal is still a criminal."

"Even if it's not as bloody here as in the lower reaches of the super-time stream, it's meaningless to use two pieces of garbage as a comparison."

"There is no kindness or justice here, and the crime syndicate has made sure of that," he said.

"Remember Foolish Owl?" He almost completely ignored Chen Tao and just talked to himself: "The Owlman of this era, let me give you a vivid example. The bottle of champagne he drank was worth $2000. It was a bribe from the prime minister of a poor country, just to ensure that the crime syndicate would not cut his family into pieces."

He shrugged. "That didn't stop the Crime Syndicate from doing it, of course, except that the Owlman looted his bodega after they were done with their work."

"The Ultimate Man massacres a squadron of American soldiers and establishes an evil dictatorship in Metropolis. The Ultra Queen kills Colonel Steve Trevor of the US Army..."

"The entire universe was created to be filled with evil and terror. This dirty background has not changed even if the universe has been reborn and destroyed countless times. And I am also sure that this universe will not change in the future."

"What a filthy, evil universe."

Chen Tao heard Lantern No. 1 sigh, "My hometown is far more beautiful than this universe."

"But even such a dirty and evil universe still has a chance to survive. It still exists downstream of the super-time flow, right? Both you and I are very clear about this."

"The first generation of Night Owl died in the crisis caused by the Anti-Monitor. After the collapse of the multiverse, his planet reshaped a new generation of criminal syndicates in the antimatter universe.

(Note: This refers to Earth 3 being destroyed by the Anti-Monitor before the Infinite Earth Crisis)

The second version of the Night Owl Man was born.

After the original Last of Us on Earth-3 investigated a crisis-level event and recreated the multiverse, reshaping it into the current 52 universes, the Owlman world was once again torn apart."

(Note: This refers to the official return of the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 after Infinite Crisis, which incorporates the settings of the original Earth- and Antimatter Universe period)
"Time and again... with the creation of other New 52 Earths, the third Nite Owlman appeared after his world was destroyed by the resurrected Anti-Monitor, and he helped lead an invasion of the Main World... until he was killed again."

"After so many long histories and stories, Earth-3 keeps being reborn, under various names."

"But why, why does my universe..."

"No chance of survival?"

(End of this chapter)