American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Chapter 367 Don't come any closer! (Xiu En's voice cracks)

When Bruce Wayne uttered these words, which were almost tantamount to trampling on the rationality he had believed in for the first half of his life, Shuen, who was far away outside the world's crystal wall, almost couldn't help but applaud him.

I finally got it!

Ivy continued.

"Using the photosynthetic efficiency of the Ximu Realm's life cycle system as a reference value for energy output power, the device's energy channel will be temporarily connected to the world's core."

"Finally, point the final coordinate anchor point to your own biometric signature, Bruce Wayne, and activate it."

"My biometric identifier?"

"Why are you pointing at me instead of you?"

Ivy was stumped, so she immediately asked Xiu En through the link.

Shuen answered confidently, "This device was made by Bruce and his team. He must have considered how to activate it most safely, so using himself as the coordinate is definitely the safest option!"

Ivy embellished this unreliable explanation and then said in a profound tone, "Because you, Bruce Wayne, are the person in this world, besides me, with whom I have the deepest karmic entanglement."

Only with you as a lighthouse can he find his way home in the sea of ​​oblivion.

Bruce remained silent.

A few minutes later, he looked at Ivy and nodded.

Under Ivy's tense gaze, Bruce's fingers moved swiftly and smoothly on the virtual screen of his arm armor.

Ivy used the life laws of the World Tree to work with Bruce.

Frequency calibration! Energy connection! Coordinate lock!

When the last instruction was confirmed, the small anchor in his palm burst forth with a trembling silver light!

A beam of light, composed of causality, shot out from the anchor and tore open a spatial rift in the void in front of him!

"It's done!"

Xiu En's consciousness, on the other side of the world's ocean, shouted excitedly!

He saw it! He saw the door leading home! He could even smell the scent from the other side of the rift, the scent that belonged to the Ximu Realm that haunted his dreams!

"I'm back!"

He transformed into a golden streak of light and rushed towards the rift that represented hope without hesitation!

However, it was in that very instant that...

A sudden change has occurred!

Just as Xiu'en's consciousness entered.

A radiant light of merit, billions of times brighter than the sun, composed of concepts such as good results, achievements, and redemption.

They burst forth from all directions, sweeping towards Xiu En like madmen!

That was after the virus modeled after him saved countless timelines.

The delayed arrival of the money was enough to make him ascend to heaven in broad daylight and be carried back to the heavens in a grand sedan chair as a reward for being a model worker!

"Oh, won't all the good deeds I've accumulated disappear?! Are they all just waiting for me to accumulate them?"

Xiu En's consciousness was so frightened that it slammed on the brakes on the spot!

That liar! That damned Loki! His broken bell was just a request for a delayed distribution of merit, not a refusal to accept merit! He tricked me again!

As soon as he logs into the Ximu Realm, this huge sum of money will be deposited into his account immediately, and then the Heavenly Court will receive an alarm and send people down to arrest him!

Xiu En was terrified!

"Don't come any closer!"

Xiu En let out a hoarse shout, offering his most sincere rejection to the fiery golden light of merit!

Then, on the other side of the rift, to Bruce and Ivy's utter astonishment, the golden figure, which had just been filled with the joy of returning home, plunged back into the dark depths of the World Sea at an even greater speed than it had come, vanishing without a trace.

The rift closed as his coordinates disappeared.

At the scene, only a bewildered Bruce and a sunflower with "???" written all over its flowerpot remained.

And then there was the League of Heroes, who had rushed over from the party after being startled by the earth-shattering golden light, only to find they hadn't seen anything.

Bruce stood there, stunned, his hand still in the position of activating the device.

Ivy's eyes were filled with big question marks.

Ran?

That big idiot, he was scared away by the golden light when he was only one step away from home?

The silence was soon broken by shouts that grew louder as they approached.

"Bruce! Are you alright?!"

"What was that just now?! That golden light! My God, its energy reading completely overwhelmed my detector!"

"I think I saw a golden shadow? Right there in that crack?"

Superman, Iron Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman—almost all the heroes who weren't drunk or hadn't been drinking were startled by the golden light and rushed over, surrounding Bruce and Ivy and bombarding them with questions.

However, at that very moment, Bruce pressed a hand to his temple.

Just now, the instant that golden figure appeared, his memories, which had been forcibly erased, seemed to be stimulated by something intense, and began to flash back in a chaotic and fragmented way!

He saw it!

He saw a young man enjoying Alfred's cookies with great relish at the dining table at Wayne Manor!

He saw on the battlefield of Apokolips that the young man transformed into a three-legged golden crow, fighting against the Dark Lord and blocking the gate to hell with his own body!

One scene after another, one fragment after another, which should have been the most profound in his memory, washed away his already distorted perception!

These things—

In his memory, some of these things were clearly done by Ivy, and some he did himself—

But why is that golden figure, smiling like a fool, in every single scene?!

"who is he----"

"Who...who is he?!"

"His name is Xiu En!"

Seeing Bruce's expression, Ivy immediately realized that her chance had come!

"Because he was modeled after so many worlds, he carries a great deal of merit on his shoulders!"

"Merit?"

Tony Stark interrupted her, looking completely bewildered.

"What is that? A new type of cosmic ray? Or some kind of high-dimensional energy particle?"

"It's a reward for doing good deeds!"

Ivy was completely stumped by the question and could only explain it using the simplest and most direct analogy.

"You can think of this as the company's year-end performance review! His KPIs were off the charts! So, the head office—which is basically some kind of heavenly court—is preparing to send someone down to give him his year-end bonus and, incidentally, forcibly transfer him to headquarters!"

Ivy pointed to the spot where the rift had disappeared.

"And he didn't want to go to headquarters! He just wanted to stay home and eat snacks! So, when he saw that golden year-end bonus coming his way, he ran away in fright!"

'

All the heroes looked at this sunflower spouting nonsense with a "Do you believe me?" kind of look.

"etc."

"Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, asked."

"Based on your description, this Heavenly Court is a higher-dimensional civilization that transcends our current understanding. Then, what is the medium through which merit serves as their communication signal or tracking beacon? Is it gravitational waves, or some kind of subspace particle that we have yet to discover?"

"How should I know!"

Ivy is about to go crazy.

"That's the gist of it! If he gets touched by that golden light, he'll never come back!"

"I'm very sorry, Ms. Ivy."

Captain America Steve Rogers, standing to the side, also spoke with a sincere expression.

"While I really want to believe you, the idea of ​​being scared away by the year-end bonus sounds a bit beyond our comprehension."

"I believe her."

Just as Ivy was about to be driven crazy by this group of scientific nitpickers, Bruce stopped all the discussion.

Those fragmented memories, along with the intense emptiness within him, have pieced together a truth that, though absurd, is the only one.

He forgot about someone.

One, a family member who was incredibly important to him.

"Reed, Tony."

He turned to his two colleagues.

"From now on, the Alliance's highest priority missions will be changed."

"First, analyze the energy composition of merit and develop technologies that can shield, divert, or transfer it."

"Second, optimize the causal stability anchor and establish a stable channel that allows him to return safely without triggering an alarm from the Heavenly Court."

He looked at everyone, and finally his gaze fell on the sunflower that was stunned by his trust.

"What we need to do is bring back our family members who ran away from home because they were afraid of going to work."

"Those science trolls have finally been suppressed by Bruce."

In the mental connection, Ivy's voice carried a hint of relief and ease.

"Well done, Ivy."

On the other side of the World Sea, Xiu En's tense consciousness finally relaxed.

"However, what did you say when you explained it to them? Especially about my origins. If you had said it out loud and the Heavenly Court had found out, we would both be finished."

"Hmph, do you think I'm a fool?"

Ivy's tone carried a hint of smugness.

"I can't be bothered to explain to them things that sound like the hassle of being caught smuggling. They wouldn't understand anyway."

She cleared her throat, mimicking her own serious tone from just now.

"I told them, 'You're a great and selfless savior, but you're a bit socially awkward and have terminal laziness. Because your KPI for saving the world this time is so outstanding, you called the Heavenly Court headquarters, and they're preparing to promote you, give you a raise, and even transfer you to headquarters to be some kind of annual model worker.'"

"And you, you regard fame and fortune as dirt, and clocking in at work as torture. You ran away to avoid a promotion."

"6

Xiu En fell silent.

This explanation has its own unique style.

But upon closer reflection, it seems to make a lot of sense.

"They believed it?"

He asked in an uncertain tone.

"Whether most people believe it or not is irrelevant; they're all clapping anyway."

"As for Bruce?"

"I think he probably didn't believe it at all."

Yes, Bruce didn't believe a word of it.

When Ivy used her flawed, socially awkward savior theory to explain everything, he outwardly chose to believe her and, based on this, issued new mission orders to the Allied Forces.

But in his mind, the fragmented memories activated by Xiu En's brief return had already pieced together a more accurate and chilling picture of the truth.

He remembered.

Long ago, when he had just met Xiu En, he had conducted the highest level of biological scanning on him.

At that time, he looked no different from a normal person, except for the glowing light and constant coughing.

But the result was a blank.

His energy composition, his genetic sequence, everything about him seems to have appeared out of thin air, not belonging to any known laws of this universe.

At that time, Bruce had his suspicions, but he didn't investigate further. Because for the Dark Knight of Gotham at that time, things beyond the universe were too far removed from his reality.

But now, all the clues have come together.

Smuggling? The existence behind Xiu En? Surviving through a loophole?

Bruce deduced the meaning of the words that Ivy had deliberately concealed almost instantly using his own logic.

He doesn't belong here.

The so-called Heavenly Court is less of a headquarters and more of a firewall responsible for managing and fixing bugs.

He made himself forgotten because he violated the rules of this universe, which would allow him to be detected by the firewall.

What I need to do now is to challenge the rules of this universe.

Half a day later.

Bruce looked around at the metaphysical research team in front of him, which consisted of the top minds from Earth and other planets. The others had already left, but those who remained were willing to help.

"Everyone, do you have any preliminary ideas regarding a solution for shielding the energy of merit?"

Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards pointed to a holographic whiteboard in front of him and said solemnly.

According to Ivy's description, merit is a positive flow of information based on causality. It has extremely strong directionality and immutability.

"Simply put, it's an irresistible cosmic-level bonus check specifically addressed to Mr. Xiu En."

"Why don't we just hack into the bank that issues the checks?"

Tony Stark proposed a very "Iron Man" solution.

"Theoretically possible, Tony."

Reed sighed.

"But the problem is, we don't even know which dimension that bank, or rather, the Heavenly Court, is in. We don't have its IP address."

"Then let's build a signal jammer!"

Rocket Raccoon jumped onto the table.

"Just like interstellar communication interference, if the power is high enough, even a brick can become a Gundam! Let's build a Faraday cage the size of the universe and block out that 'merit' thing!"

"I'm afraid that won't work."

Steelbone shook his head.

"According to the data transmitted from the rift just now, merit itself is part of the law. It is omnipresent. You cannot conceal its existence."

"How about installment payments?"

Peter timidly raised his hand.

"Or could we find someone to collect it for us? Like that flowerpot at his house?"

"Great idea, kid."

Reed nodded approvingly, then shook his head.

"But according to the uniqueness of the law of causality, this merit only recognizes Xiu En as the recipient. I just tried using Ivy as a simulation object, but the model shows that the consequence of forcibly transferring it would only cause Ivy's existence to collapse on the spot because she could not bear such a huge causal burden."

The meeting once again reached a stalemate.

"Did you hear that, Ivy?"

On the other side of the World Ocean, Xiu En also listened to the meeting, relayed by Ivy. He couldn't help but complain to Ivy through the link.

"They're actually studying these things very seriously."

The sunflower nodded.

"Hmph, at least they still have some conscience."

Xiu En's tone became somewhat complicated.

"I always feel like he knows everything, but he never says anything."

He looked at the black-clad figure who remained silent for most of the meeting, only speaking up to guide the discussion at the most crucial moments.

"Forget it, let's just ignore them."

Since tech geeks are working hard, he, the person involved, can just relax and be a nobody.

He asked, "Xiaohua, are you tired? Do you want to find a place to sleep first? Call me when they've figured out the solution."