American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

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Loki looked at the eager-to-try Shuen, his smile filled with even more anticipation.

"This is not as simple as riding bumper cars at an amusement park."

Dr. Manhattan was more direct, turning to Rorschach and saying...

"Rorschach, you have a matchbox in your pocket. Inside the matchbox is that badge. You picked it up by accident when you went to check the comedian's secret compartment. It's the first and last piece of evidence in this whole affair."

Rorschach reached into the inside pocket of his trench coat and, after a moment, pulled out a paper matchbox.

He opened the box, inside which was only a lone smiley face badge and a drop of blood that had long since dried and congealed.

"It was no accident that you found it."

Dr. Manhattan added.

"It was I who gently plucked the note of his death on the causal chain of time, allowing this key to be discovered by the most obsessive locksmith."

Xiu En had no interest in listening to their discussion about fate and script.

He walked up to Rorschach and took the metal badge from the matchbox.

The instant his fingertips touched the blood.

A radiant light shone forth.

An anomaly has occurred.

Xiu En's pupils, which had always shone with golden light, had lost all their luster, becoming like two dim glass beads, hollowly reflecting the world before him, yet seemingly piercing through time, gazing into the infinitely distant past.

He stood there motionless, like the most perfect statue.

"Heh, he really went in."

Loki's voice carried a hint of excitement, then turned to confusion.

"Oh my god! Is that really it? No, wait, did he choose the director's cut at high speed?"

For the others in the control room, less than a second had passed.

But they all sensed something was amiss.

Sunflower's petals were all shrinking. Through her mental connection with Xiu En, she felt a surge of emotional information mixed with war, betrayal, alcohol, and endless nothingness rush into Xiu En's consciousness, only to be instantly burned away by his own purifying fire.

"Jon..."

Looking at the scene before him, Adrian instinctively asked the only being who could possibly understand it all.

"Time collapsed for him."

Dr. Manhattan explained calmly.

"In those 0.87 seconds, his consciousness witnessed Edward Blake's entire life. What an efficient spectator."

In less than a second, Xiu En's eyes lit up again.

The light carried an expression that Xiu En rarely showed; it was a sorrow that Xiu En seemed to have accumulated after witnessing all the tragedies in the world.

He saw a boy on a muddy battlefield, weeping over the body of his fallen comrade.

I saw a cold-blooded tool being flaunted like a hunting dog by high-ranking officials at a victory celebration banquet.

I witnessed a scene from a rainy night in Vietnam where a man personally murdered his pregnant mistress.

He saw a villain who looked bewildered and lost in the face of her questioning.

I witnessed a lonely veteran who, in an era where heroes have fallen, has become increasingly violent, numbing himself with alcohol and violence.

He saw all of Edward Blake's sins, all his evil, all his self-destructive indulgence.

But in the end, he also saw the man's last obsession.

On that rainy night, when the bullet pierced the woman's body, her face showed shock and confusion, yet also a hint of the desolation I knew all along.

"What else can you do besides kill, Eddie? You can't even love."

remorse.

Endless regret.

This is the true core of the Stone of Obsession.

He never truly loved.

Or rather, he didn't know how to love the only woman who could accept all his sins.

That former enemy? That former lover? The soul he buried with his own hands.

The next second, the sadness on Xiu En's face vanished like morning mist.

Instead, she wore a dazzlingly bright smile.

"It's nothing."

He said casually.

On the ruins of that spiritual world, in the eternally recurring nightmare of that comedian.

He used his own strength to weave a final, gentle ending for him.

He imagined the woman as someone who had never died: in a warm room, holding a child, giving him a peaceful smile as he returned home.

The comedian's violent and tormented soul, before that illusion, wept like a child, then, without a care in the world, transformed into countless specks of light, escaping the endless cycle and peacefully dissipating.

"He failed to protect the person he loved, so he can't let go of her."

Shuen spread his hands, showing everyone the badge in his hand, summarizing this spiritual journey in the simplest terms.

"I let him see it, and then he left."

To everyone's astonishment, the last drop of dried, blackened blood on the yellow badge completely disappeared.

The entire badge became pure, like the most perfect crystal.

In the center of the badge's original empty smiling face, a small golden sun mark slowly emerged and quietly burned.

Xiu En's radiant smile complemented the radiant badge in his hand.

He twirled the newly purified artifact between his fingers and handed the badge to a corner that had been almost forgotten by everyone.

There, Rorschach stood motionless.

"Here you are."

Shuen reached out his hand, and the soft glow emanating from the badge in his palm even illuminated Rorschach's chin and blurred face, which were hidden in the shadow of his mask.

"Let me show you too."

"The ending was pretty good."

Rorschach did not move.

He looked at the badge, the key he'd found in the comedian's apartment that had unlocked this crazy journey.

He saw that the drop of blood that had once disgusted and angered him had disappeared, and a warm sun had appeared in its place.

That bastard who deserved to go to hell, that scourge of the world, that monster he both hated and understood to some extent, was actually purified after death?

And it has turned into something that looks so holy?

He believed that sinners should go to hell, not become the sun on a brooch after death.

"Hmph, this human's brain is about to explode."

Ivy's voice carried a hint of disdain.

"A black-and-white, binary mind is just that fragile."

"Take it."

Seeing his hesitation, Xiu En impatiently pushed his hand forward again.

"If you don't look at it, I'll put it away, and you won't be able to see it next time."

"I……"

Rorschach raised his hand slightly, then lowered it again.

the truth?

What he's pursuing is the truth, no matter what form the truth takes.

Ultimately, his obsession with the truth led him to reach out and carefully pinch the edge of the badge with two fingers.

The world disappeared the moment they made contact.

Everything vanished in an instant.

Rorschach saw only one scene.

A bright and warm room that felt almost unreal.

The sun shines brightly outside the window, and the fire in the fireplace flickers gently.

A blonde woman dressed in simple loungewear sat in a rocking chair, holding a baby in her arms. She hummed a tuneless lullaby softly, a contented and serene smile on her face.

Then, she looked up at him.

That smile held only a faint sense of relief, a result of having seen through everything.

Immediately afterwards, the door to the room was pushed open.

A comedian covered in gunpowder and blood, with fresh scars on his face.

The Edward Blake he knew.

Standing at the doorway, he stared at everything in the room, completely stunned.

He put down his gun, threw away the cigar in his mouth, and stood there helplessly.

Then he smiled.

It was a smile that had shed all pretense.

He bowed deeply silently to the woman in the rocking chair and to this warm, dreamlike scene.

Saying goodbye is also an apology.

Then, his figure gradually became transparent, eventually turning into countless scattering points of light and dissipating in the sunlight.

Luo Xia withdrew his hand as if burned, staggered back a step, and crashed into the wall.

He was panting heavily, and beneath the simple mask, his eyes were contracting violently from the immense impact, then slowly widening again.

He leaned against the wall, slowly slid down to the ground, hugged his head, and buried his face deeply in his arms.

His shoulders were trembling uncontrollably, and he was making muffled, almost whimpering sounds in his throat.

The evil was not judged.

But the sinners found rest.

But he did not feel relieved.

There is only one kind of sorrow and nothingness.

"It seems our detective has also read the ending."

Loki walked over to Shum and looked at Rorschach, who was curled up on the ground with his head in his hands.

"An ending crueler, yet gentler, than going to hell. Making him witness the evil he pursues end in a good way will leave him wondering what he should hold onto for a long time. You truly are a devil."

"oh."

Xiu En responded, completely bewildered. He couldn't understand why showing others a happy ending would be considered devilish.

He just felt that everyone in this world had some kind of mental problem.

"The transaction is complete, and the cause and effect are resolved."

Dr. Manhattan, who had been watching quietly from the sidelines, finally spoke up.

His pure blue figure began to appear somewhat ethereal.

He glanced calmly at Adrian, who was lost in thought, then at Rorschach, who was still trembling on the ground, and finally his gaze settled on Shuen.

"The story in this dimension no longer needs to develop linearly. I should leave."

As he spoke, his body was becoming transparent at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Thanks for the cookie; the sensory data it provided was very interesting."

The blue light completely dissipated.

Everything seemed to have returned to its starting point, yet something had changed forever.

Loki stood with his arms crossed over his chest, leaning against the wall, a lingering smile on his face.

Adrian stared blankly at the plate in front of him, which Dr. Manhattan had described as overly complicated. His mind was now completely blank, unable to come up with any grand plan to save the world.

Rorschach, the embodiment of the black and white will of the city's cleaners, huddled in the corner, hugging himself tightly with his arms, motionless.

The comedian's fate also became the funeral of his own beliefs.

The entire room was like a theater after the curtain had fallen and no one had cleaned it up; the actors were frozen on the stage, and props were scattered all over the floor.

Xiu En glanced around at the scene filled with mental patients and felt it was a bit of a waste.

These two guys, one so clever he can scheme against the whole world, the other so obsessive he can turn hell upside down, are just left hanging like this, and Xiu En isn't quite at ease.

His eyes darted around.

"Hello!"

Xiu En first shouted at the blond statue.

"Stop daydreaming, Golden Retriever. Didn't your plan to treat everyone to dinner fall through?"

Then, he turned his head toward the dark shadow in the corner.

"And you, masked man. Didn't you beat that game where you catch bad guys too?"

"Anyway, you guys are all pretty free right now."

Xiu En shrugged, his face displaying a complex expression that conveyed both "I'm helping you" and "Don't be ungrateful."

"I have a big job coming up, and we'll be short-staffed in the future."

"A very, very large world needs purification. Perfect timing, you two—one with a decent head, the other ruthless enough—should be of use. What do you say, interested?"

"What are you doing?"

On the shoulder, the sunflower felt like its flower head was about to crack. Don't you see the atmosphere? What kind of operation is this?

Loki's face lit up with a smile, and he almost couldn't help but applaud for Shuen.

He cleared his throat and took the initiative to assume the roles of human resources consultant and corporate culture promoter.

"I think what my dear guest means is..."

"Given that you two have both encountered minor setbacks in your respective careers and are somewhat confused about your future paths, this generous, benevolent, and inexhaustible deity has decided to offer you an unprecedented opportunity."

He opened his arms.

"A completely new world, an endless hell filled with depravity, evil, and wailing. It needs cleaners, architects, and above all, a completely new god."

Loki's gaze finally settled on Adrian.

"If God doesn't want to deal with you, then become God yourself. Doesn't that sound much more direct than your complicated squid plan?"

"A completely new world?"

Adrian looked up, his brain beginning to function again.

"What world?"

His voice had regained its clear logic.

"Nature, scale, danger level. What exactly does 'purification' refer to? Is it physical cleansing or ideological reconstruction? What is our role? Mercenaries, or partners?"

His barrage of questions left Xiu En feeling a bit overwhelmed.

"Could you explain this to him?"

Shuon turned to look at Loki, finding it too much trouble to talk to such a smart person.

"He came back to life."

Ivy commented.

"His survival instinct and control are terrifying. Give him a new project and he can immediately restart from a dead state."

As Adrian began his job interview, Rorschach lifted himself from his arms.

He silently leaned against the wall, slowly supporting himself as he stood up.

He looked down at his own elongated shadow on the ground, cast by the lamplight.

His belief in the dualism of good and evil appears both laughable and pale in the face of the comedian's gentle ending.

But he is not dead yet.

Walter Kovacs may be dead, but Rorschach is alive.

"There?"

"Where is there still evil?"

His eyes, now burning with renewed fire, looked at Xiu En.

As long as there is something that needs to be cleaned up, then its existence has meaning.

"Good question!"

Loki snapped his fingers gleefully.

"As far as I know, that world has nothing but evil."

"Alright, alright, stop asking!"

Xiu En grew impatient with their interrogation and their muttering to themselves.

He walked directly to the center of the control room and stretched out his hand into the air.

A huge and extremely disturbing scene filled the entire room.

It was an endless expanse of scarlet land, the sky was purplish-black, and twisting lightning constantly streaked across it.

The mountain of flesh, covered in sharp teeth, wriggled and spewed foul-smelling pus.

Tentacles with countless eyes emerged from the ground.

A vast expanse of deformed monsters is tearing each other apart and devouring one another.

Its malevolent concentration was so intense that even the air in the control room was filled with a crimson mist.

The moment Rorschach saw this scene, his pupils contracted sharply.

Adrian's first reaction upon seeing this image was to rapidly analyze the composition of this ecosystem on the control panel, and then draw a conclusion.

"This world is a world that a pest called Sithon has accumulated over many years. It's very large, but now it all belongs to me."

"My idea is to clean it up. And your job is to sweep the floor for me. Or, if you're capable, you can remodel it to your liking, and of course, I'll offer a little help."

"Meals and accommodation included."

"To do it or not to do it?"