I became light in American comics

Chapter 197 Guardians of the Universe

Apokolips.

"Sir, you may need to know this."

"What about this time?"

The communication robot hunter reappeared and said, "Hunter Commander, engaged in battle with enemy invaders. Destroyed."

The captain of the machine hunters pondered for a moment.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Is there a security vulnerability in the defense system? Or does the enemy possess some kind of uncanny ability?"

"It shouldn't be. We detected high-energy data on Bio Star."

The robot hunter presented the data to the captain.

The captain fell silent for a moment after seeing the exaggerated readings that seemed like a statistical error.

"Based on the readings, it's speculated that the Hunter Commander unleashed a planet-destroying energy cannon, but the enemy countered the energy head-on with a more powerful energy attack, and then killed the Hunter Commander in the process."

The rest was not discussed further.

But everyone who heard this, including Desad, realized just how terrifying the energy must be to produce such an effect.

"I need to contact the Grandmaster." The hunter captain contacted the Grandmaster, whom they regarded as a god, again.

After a moment, it raised its head: "The Grandmaster said to withdraw from Bio; Bio Star was never an essential part of our plan to begin with."

"How come I remember someone just saying that anyone who dares to break into your factory will die?" Disad said leisurely.

The hunter captain's eyes flickered twice more, as if he were listening to someone speak.

Two seconds later, he continued, "The Grandmaster said that if we give away a factory, it's fine, no big deal."

“Don’t I remember there was a very important hunter production line there?” Disad squinted.

The hunter captain paused briefly before adding, "The Grandmaster said that the production line is something external."

"But isn't Bio your home planet, the home planet of the Machine Hunters?" Disad continued sarcastically.

Your house was robbed and you're not worried about it? So your house is just an external possession, right?

The hunter captain's eyes flashed red again. However, this time the call took an unusually long time; it seemed the grandmaster had been holding back for quite some time before finally managing to utter the next sentence.

The Grandmaster said there's an old saying on Earth: "Those who achieve great things throughout history have always considered the world their home!"

Disad: "."

To be able to describe cowardice in such a refreshing and elegant way is truly remarkable.

However, this also made Dessard begin to doubt the reliability of his allies.

According to some of his unverified intelligence, the so-called "Grandmaster" currently leading the Machine Hunter Legion is suspected to be from Earth as well. And Earth... well, it's not fair to say the New Gods are prejudiced; they probably don't have a very good impression of most civilizations in the universe.

They seriously doubted whether the guys from Earth were capable of getting things done.

"So if there's nothing else, we'll take our leave now." The machine hunter captain prepared to head back home.

After all, their legions are going to be busy now.

Busy looking for a new home.

Biostar.

Hal floated in mid-air, staring at the enormous crater created by the explosion, the devastation of the ruins, and the black smoke, speechless for a long time.

A moment later, he flew forward and landed next to Shen You, who had shrunk back to normal size.

"The energy readings from the light rings indicate that you should theoretically be able to blow the entire planet away," Hal said with a strange expression. "How did you manage to do that?"

Shen You, of course, knew what he meant.

The crater from the explosion looks enormous, but it was quite restrained compared to the destructive power of the two rays.

“It’s simple, energy control.” Shen You thought for a moment and said, “But it’s actually more difficult to do than to say. This is a key course for us—controlling the explosion radius of compressed light techniques. Members who cannot achieve precise and destructive explosions are not allowed to leave the home planet alone to carry out missions.”

Shen You's understanding of this part was actually quite good, but not top-notch. Zoffy, the captain of the guard team known as "Flame Head," had the M87 beam's power set to be at least planet-destroying, but he never actually blew up Earth with a single shot.

However, Shen You felt the main issue was experience. He had no shortage of theoretical knowledge and skills training, but back in the Land of Light, his beam power had never reached this level. He lacked practical experience in using beams capable of destroying flying stars with a single shot, so it was inevitable that he wouldn't be able to control them properly.

Fortunately, this was on Bio Star, where machine hunters were concentrated, rather than on Earth. If it were on Earth, he might not have dared to risk blasting through the little broken planet without being absolutely certain of success.

"You guys have training courses?" Hal muttered curiously. "Sounds a bit like the Green Lantern Corps."

"In some ways."

Shen You was not going to continue this topic.

"We need to go down and see what's down there."

“My light ring also detected something strange, another unidentifiable energy source, but it seems my light ring is reacting to it.” Hal frowned.

In the emotional spectrum, blue and green lights are the two most closely connected, so it's normal for them to sense each other. However, at this point in time, Hal is still a novice, and among the seven lights, only the green lights are currently an officially recognized group. Very few people in the entire universe have even heard of the blue lights, so it's understandable that Hal doesn't recognize them.

The blue light energy came suddenly and went quickly; the temporary charge was soon almost completely depleted by Shen You. It seemed that someone had intentionally released this energy to help him.

Shen You wanted to find out who it was, and also hoped to take the opportunity to get in touch with Blue Lantern Energy and understand the principles and applications of this beacon of hope.

This is almost the energy system that is closest to his own attributes and has the best compatibility among all the power systems he has encountered since coming to DC.

The two fell into the ground from the debris of the explosion, descending along a complex and dilapidated pipe system until they reached the area where the energy source was emanating.

Then, completely unexpectedly, they encountered someone down there.

With elven-like blue skin, white hair, and a height of less than 1.5 meters, he wore a white robe with a ring representing the Green Lantern Corps printed on his chest.

"The Guardian!?" Hal exclaimed in surprise.

Before them stood the very machine hunters and the founders of the Green Lantern Corps, one of the so-called immortal guardians of the universe who had lived for billions of years.

At this moment, the guardian looked as listless as a salted fish dried on the beach, his arms dangling limply in the air by chains, his expression listless, his aged face full of fatigue.

He struggled to lift his head as the two men entered, managing a weak smile.

"finally."

He didn't move his mouth, but his voice resonated in their minds.

Telepathy.

Shen You quickly recognized that this was the person who had spoken to him during the battle. However, his telepathic connection seemed to have been affected by the depth of the underground space, or perhaps he was too weak, which was why the words came out intermittently.

"You are a Guardian? But aren't all the Guardians on Oa?" Hal asked, puzzled.

“I am the Guardian, Hal the Green Lantern. Unlike my colleagues, I had high hopes for you when you took over from Abinsu.”

"The guardian said weakly."

"My name is Ganser."

Hal frowned slightly, a hint of doubt in his eyes: "I thought the guardians didn't have names."

“Obviously I am,” said Guardian Ganther. “Now, can you put me down?”

Chapter 198 Is it really necessary?

"As I just said, my name is Ganther, and I was once one of the immortal guardians of the universe."

The little blue man was put down, straightened his clothes, and said leisurely.

"So why are you here?" Hal asked curiously. "Shouldn't you... I thought you never left Oa."

“In most cases, yes. But as I just said, I used to be a Guardian, but I am no longer.” Ganther sighed.

"Huh? Guardians can get fired?" Hal exclaimed in surprise. "I thought only Green Lanterns could get fired."

“That’s generally how it is. But my people think I’ve betrayed our ideals and am no longer on their path,” Ganther said calmly. “So I was removed from the Guardians and banished.”

The incident itself wasn't surprising to Shen You; Ganse's expulsion from the Guardians was inevitable. What surprised him was the timing. In the original main universe, Ganse's expulsion would have happened much later, not so soon.

However, being accused by those little blue men of "betraying the path" may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Ganther is a guardian who cannot be ignored when talking about the Green Lantern Corps. He can be described as a breath of fresh air among the Corps' troublemakers.

As we all know, the Guardians in Green Lantern are practically from the same school as the goofy bosses of Showa-era Ori, creating far more trouble than they solve. Therefore, among this group of idiots, Ganther, who can be considered morally upright and conscientious, becomes an anomaly.

Ganther's repeated protection of errant Lanterns, including Hal, and his disobedience to the Guardians of the Sea, coupled with his constant opposition within the council, made his removal from the Guardians of the Sea only a matter of time.

So if we had to pinpoint his crime, it would probably be refusing to associate with his idiotic compatriots.

Being expelled was actually a good thing. In the later parts of the original story, the little blue men went even further, even teaming up to subdue Ganser and perform a procedure similar to a lobotomy on him, stealing his emotions and forcing him to synchronize with the council.

"So after you were expelled from Oa, you were caught by the machine hunters?" Shen You asked.

"A few other things happened during that time, but it was pretty much the same," Ganser sighed. "The machine hunters were a mistake we made in the past, and now that we've fallen into their hands, it's perhaps a form of retribution."

Shen You roughly guessed it. This was probably why those robot hunters had undergone a full set of "anti-Green Lantern" modifications, and also why the commander could use Green Lantern energy.

Those who captured Ganther may have used coercion, brainwashing, or direct mind-reading to extract knowledge about the Green Light from his mind, and then applied the Guardians' technological modifications. In terms of the study of the emotional spectrum, at this stage in the entire universe, no one is indeed more authoritative than the Guardians.

“Actually, I’ve wanted to ask this for a while,” Hal asked. “What’s with the machine hunters? I can’t find anything on the ring. I asked the Guardians, and they told me to mind my own business and threatened to take the ring away and fire me.”

"Of course. My fellow countrymen erased this mistake from the Lanterns' database, a taboo subject that cannot be mentioned in Oa. In fact, I was strongly against it from the beginning. But they refused to accept their mistake, and I had a big argument with my fellow countrymen about it."

Looking back now, perhaps the seeds of my rift with my compatriots were sown around that time. From then on, we gradually began to diverge from each other.

Unlike the other guardians who were reluctant to discuss their dark past, Ganser slowly recounted the truth of the matter.

It's not exactly a new story; it's the same old stale tale. Billions of years ago, these bored little blue men decided to protect the peace of the universe and created a legion of machine hunters who looked like traitors.

After the classic AI developed self-awareness, it meticulously calculated and determined the only correct solution: "The world is wrong." Following the Legion's rampage, almost all life in Sector 666 of the universe was slaughtered. Afterwards, the machine hunters were banished by the Guardians, and only then was the Green Lantern Corps born.

Actually, there are many other factors and foreshadowing involved. For example, the AI's rampage wasn't an accident, but rather a deliberate act by a traitorous guardian named Calona. Also, there were survivors in Sector 666, one of whom, Atositas, filled with hatred for the loss of his family and an inextinguishable flame of anger, later became the leader of the Red Lantern Legion.

"A massacre of an entire sector!?" Hal was shocked. "That's genocide, not genocide, but the extermination of countless races!"

“Yes. But my brothers refuse to acknowledge it; they even erased all the records about the machine hunters from the Book of Oa,” Ganther sighed.

Rewriting history to conceal crimes – this tactic seems familiar, like I've seen it somewhere before.

A bunch of self-important little blue people who wield their own law enforcement authority and meddle in everything across the universe, shouting slogans of freedom and peace but in reality they're just a bunch of interstellar troublemakers, bullying the weak and fearing the strong, only picking on the easy targets and avoiding anything that can be fought. And now, they've added genocide and historical revisionism to their list of crimes.

No one would believe that Shen You's character wasn't written with a sarcastic or cynical tone.

“Now that they have the technology to absorb and utilize the energy of the lamp rings, they are more dangerous than before,” Ganther said in a deep voice. “Also, although I only saw the machine hunters when I was imprisoned, I could tell from their conversations that there is someone else behind them now.”