American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

"The Stone of Obsession?"

Adrian.

This man maintained his elegance and composure even when facing the unknown and trespassing on private property.

The pupils contracted the instant the word was heard.

"Hmm, I might not know what you're talking about."

He lied, but he was certain that his heartbeat, his micro-expressions, and his adrenaline levels remained unchanged as he uttered those words.

This is the ability he has given himself through rigorous training—the ability to have absolute control over his body.

"I do have a collection of ancient stones here, including sandstone from the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt and obsidian from the Himalayas. If you are interested in geology or anthropology, I might be able to tell you a thing or two."

"As for the Stone of Obsession?"

He spread his hands, revealing a helpless yet sincere smile.

"It sounds more like something out of mythology than something in the realm of science. I'm afraid I can't be of any help."

His words and attitude were sincere, attempting to steer the invasion back onto the familiar path of negotiation, where the issue could be resolved through language.

Adrian not only denied it, but even started to take the initiative.

"Of course, you didn't go to all that trouble to come here just to discuss archaeology with me, right?"

His gaze shifted from Shuen to Loki, the more enigmatic green-robed man who had been watching the show the whole time.

"I can see that you are not from this world. The power you possess far exceeds my imagination. So, what do you truly desire? Power? Wealth? Or the chance to change the rules of this world?"

His voice was incredibly seductive.

"Listen, whatever your purpose is, I might be able to help."

Adrian stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window lies an eternal world of ice and snow; below, the fruits of human ingenuity.

This massive polar fortress.

"I am Adrian Witt."

He spoke the name with unparalleled confidence.

"It may sound arrogant, but I am the richest and smartest person on the planet. My company controls 80 percent of the world's energy and technology lifeline, and my influence is enough to paralyze or revitalize any country within 24 hours."

He turned around, opened his arms, as if to display his kingdom and world.

"I can give you everything you want. A city made of gold, an army that obeys your commands, and even a stage where you can become the true gods of this world."

"And all I hope is that you won't take away what is crucial to me and to the future of this world."

He stared at Xiu En, trying to find a trace of greed in that seemingly lazy face.

"puff."

Xiu Enqing couldn't help but chuckle softly.

Shuen jumped down from the control panel and looked Adrian up and down.

"Yes, what you've said."

Xiu En seemed to be thinking very seriously.

"Those things sound so boring, and they're not even as good as your tea. You seem to be trying to fool me. Oh, and by the way, your tea is pretty mediocre too."

"Well said!"

Loki stepped out of the shadows.

"Oh, Adrian, Adrian. You really are the smartest and the most foolish mortal I've ever met."

Loki walked up to Shum and looked at the blond human hope before him with an appreciative eye, as if he were watching a story or a drama.

"Your wisdom allows you to see through the structure and flaws of human society. But your limitations also prevent you from ever understanding what kind of world exists outside the chessboard you think you control."

"Do you think we care about your pitiful wealth and power?"

Loki's tone was full of deliberate pity.

"It's like an ant waving at us a single grain of rice that it has painstakingly accumulated, trying to exchange it for dominion over the entire forest."

"You're here!"

Loki pointed to the massive base.

"You've built this iron shell that isolates you from the world, playing your self-righteous savior game. You think your greatest enemies are the US and the Soviet Union, which are on the verge of nuclear war, and your former allies who don't understand you."

No, you're wrong.

Loki stretched out a finger and pointed to the sky shrouded in blizzard.

"Your true audience, or rather, the only audience you want to perform for, is only one."

"That true god, that blue ghost who had long been weary of everything, banished himself among the stars, and regarded humanity as dust."

"Dr. Manhattan, who could wipe out the entire solar system with a snap of his fingers."

When Loki uttered the name Dr. Manhattan, Adrian's feigned expression finally crumbled; he no longer wanted to pretend.

"The so-called stone of obsession."

Loki revealed the whole truth.

"It's not a gem you can hide away, and you won't achieve any scientific results by holding it."

He paused, enjoying the pale expression on Adrian's face.

"That was the last emotional connection between Dr. Manhattan's quantum consciousness, which had long transcended the mundane world and was about to dissipate due to utter weariness, and the world, and his past as a human being."

"His former lover, the watch he repaired, and a beer bottle shattered by a bullet on the battlefield, representing his last ill-fated relationship with humanity."

"That almost negligible trace of what we call humanity is what we call the Stone of Obsession."

"And you, in fact, have already failed, haven't you?"

The moment Loki finished speaking, Adrian staggered back a step and slumped back into his hoverchair.

A self-deprecating, bitter smile appeared on his face.

"That's right..."

"you're right……"

He raised his head.

"My plan—the plan to teleport the giant squid—failed long ago. It only caused greater chaos and panic, and could not bring about true peace."

He looked out at the white world outside the window.

"My only obsession in this life."

He took a deep breath.

"I just want to invite that god who has transcended everything and sees us as ants—that is, Dr. Manhattan—to sit down and have a meal with me before everything comes to a complete end, before I completely abandon humanity, this incurable species."

"Show him the final glimmer of light that our small and foolish race can radiate before our destruction. Our art, our philosophy, our cuisine..."

He pointed to a whole wall of petri dishes on one side of the control room, which contained rare, extinct food ingredients reproduced using genetic technology.

"I want to prove to him that our existence, even if it is only the slightest, is worth remembering."

By the end of his speech, his voice had become barely audible.

All his efforts and plans were built on a mirage that was destined to never be realized.

God does not answer the prayers of mortals.

The beautiful lynx seemed to sense its owner's despair. It cautiously approached and gently rubbed its furry head against Adrian's drooping hand, making a soothing gurgling sound in its throat.

But Adrian did not react.

Looking at his lifeless expression, Xiu En felt a bit like someone who had spent a lot of effort cracking open a nut only to find it was empty – equally disappointing.

"Hey, it's just responding to your request to have a meal together, it's no big deal."

He called out to Adrian.

Adrian chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Eating? You don't understand...it's different..."

"God will not respond."

He raised his head, his empty gaze fixed on Loki, as if seeking final confirmation.

"He no longer cares, right? All my preparations, all the dishes, those things that embody the highest artistic achievements of human civilization, are nothing more than a collection of decaying atoms arranged in different ways in his eyes, utterly meaningless."

"Yes, it's pointless."

Loki gave the cruelest, yet most honest, answer.

He reveled in the moment when this idealist's last dream was utterly shattered.

"He won't even think the food you prepare is bad, because taste has long lost its meaning to him."

Upon hearing the final verdict, Adrian closed his eyes.

"That's too much trouble."

Xiu En impatiently interrupted the conversation.

What he hates most is this kind of situation where talking back and forth doesn't solve anything and just makes the atmosphere feel like a funeral.

It's just treating people to a meal. It's no big deal.

He walked straight to the center of the control room.

Then, he closed his eyes.

At that moment, the divinity of the Golden Crow spread outwards from him instantly.

Based on the concept of light and heat.

In his perception, this small Antarctic ice sheet was no longer the end of the world; the entire solar system, and even the more distant Heng system, had become a vast network composed of countless luminous signal base stations.

The distant Alpha Centauri is greeting him, the massive Betelgeuse is complaining that its belly is about to burst, and the pulsars of the Crab Nebula are DJing him at a very rhythmic frequency.

Xiu En blocked out the noisy background sounds.

Because he discovered that Manhattan is within the solar system, so it doesn't need to cover such a large area.

Using the sun as a relay station, he projected his senses onto the loneliest and brightest red planet in this star system, besides the sun.

Mars.

There, in a glass castle built of red sand, a pure blue figure is sitting cross-legged and suspended in mid-air.

He simply exists quietly, as if he has merged into the background radiation of the entire universe, unchanging through the ages.

found it.

"Cough."

Xiu En cleared his throat, gave a bright smile, and began to speak.

"Hey, you blue glowing thing, can you hear me?"

Adrian didn't open his eyes to watch this farce.

Only Bubastis raised his head, his yellow, beastly eyes filled with confusion at the two-legged creature that was talking to thin air.

"Listen, someone wants to invite you to dinner."

Xiu En completely ignored the reactions of those around him and continued talking to himself.

"He said he prepared a lot of good food. Although I guess it won't taste that great, it's still a meal, right? You can leave after you finish eating, and it's free. If you think it's too far, I can have him pack it up and deliver it to you."

He thought about it and felt that he needed to add some extra chips.

Oh, right!

Xiu En added, a smug smile spreading across his face.

"If you come, I can also let you try some of my special cookies, how about that?"

Xiu En's voice had barely faded for less than a second.

In front of the long dining table in the control room, the air temperature suddenly rises and then cools down in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, a pure blue humanoid silhouette emerged from the air.

He hovered quietly on one side of the dining table, his feet three inches off the ground, his body radiating a faint blue glow.

His face was only a blurry outline.

He exists here simply as a collection of pure energy and information.

……

silence.

Rorschach's mouth was agape to its limit beneath his mask.

He saw a ghost.

No, even ghosts aren't this scary!

A look of shock appeared in Loki's green eyes, which seemed to know countless stories.

Another director was just called out like that?

Is this reasonable? This isn't dramatic! This is absolutely fantastic!

Adrian, who had kept his eyes closed, seemed to sense this familiar yet unfamiliar radiation fluctuation. He opened his eyes.

When he saw the blue figure floating in front of the table he had carefully prepared, the one he had longed for but knew would never appear there.

A tear slid down his cheek.

Then, another drop.

"Jon..."

Like a child, he subconsciously murmured the name that belonged to a mortal.