American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

The elevator leading to the Bat Cave.

Bruce stood with his back to Shum and Alfred, watching the receding lights on the elevator shaft wall, silent as a tombstone.

The unpleasant meeting with Lincoln March hadn't stopped him; on the contrary, it accelerated the plan he had been brewing for a long time.

"Young Master, perhaps you should rest for a while. Your eye bags are practically drooping down to your chin."

Afu broke the silence, still steadily holding the tray with a glass of unknown dark green vegetable juice on it.

"No time to rest, Alfred. Lincoln is just a Gotham problem, but what I see..."

Bruce stepped out of the elevator and strode toward the massive control panel.

"It's the ruins of the entire world."

As his palm swept across the biometric device, the previously dormant mainframes instantly awoke, their roar echoing through the empty underground cavern.

Dozens of huge holographic screens lit up simultaneously, but instead of showing the streets of Gotham or the surveillance footage of Arkham, they displayed dense files, battle videos, and the hellish, scorched earth of another world.

"This is the end of that world."

Bruce's fingers tapped on the keyboard so fast that only afterimages could be seen.

The image on the screen freezes.

The Green Lantern Corps' shattered rings float in cosmic dust.

Paradise Island has become a deserted island submerged by the sea.

The red lightning in the city center vanished into the turbulent flow of time...

Finally, the camera focuses on the man wearing a blue bodysuit with a bright red "S" logo on his chest.

The man in the picture has empty eyes and is being pulled by beams of light from several menacing alien spaceships. He is surrounded by the corpses of his powerless comrades in Metropolis.

"Aside from Batman, who is just an ordinary person and barely survives in Gotham, the heroes of that world... are almost all wiped out. Order has collapsed everywhere, and people are living in misery."

Bruce retrieved the most crucial data from the hard drive—a painful lesson recorded by Bruce Wayne of that world with his life.

"The Kryptonians took Superman away, not just as a prisoner, but as a 'recycling.' The Amazonian princess died from betrayal, and the king of the sea was swallowed by his own ocean."

Xiu En tilted his head, looked at the tough-looking Superman on the screen, and smacked his lips.

"Tsk, sounds like a high-level match?"

He even felt a little sorry.

"That big blue guy looks like he's full of solar energy. If I could get him to charge me for a while, I might be able to upgrade the brightness to the level of a searchlight."

"This is no joke, Shum."

Bruce turned around, the light from the screen casting two cold stars in his dark pupils.

"Our world will be targeted sooner or later. Whether it's an alien invader like General Zod, or some other inexplicable intruder."

The screen switches, revealing a huge world map. Seven red dots are flashing in different cities.

Metropolis, Central City, Seaside City, Atlantis...

"Is this your plan? To form a group and run dungeons?"

Xiu En pointed to the glaring red dot in the Metropolis.

"You want to be the leader? Forgive my bluntness, boss, but while your financial power is strong right now, what if you're fighting that guy who can shoot lasers from his eyes..."

"I must find them. Before the Great Collapse occurs, I must unite these gods who are fighting their own battles."

Bruce's hand rested on the initialization button, and a new folder was created with a simple, unadorned name:

—Archival Preparation

"At the same time, we will establish a complete set of countermeasures and guidance measures for each potential ally."

"File 01: Kryptonian. Threat Level: Alpha."

File 02: Amazon. Threat Level: Beta.

File 03: Speedster. Threat Level: Beta.

Ah Fu looked at the list and sighed softly.

"So, you're not planning to sleep again, sir? You're even planning a business trip to the metropolis?"

Bruce looked at Shum.

"Shuen, in that world you don't exist. You are the number one contingency in this defense system. In a few days, we'll go to Metropolis. I won't completely believe the information about the other Batman. I want to see with my own eyes what kind of person Clark is in this world."

"Okay, boss, as long as the overtime pay is sufficient."

The data stream on the screen was still jumping wildly, turning every bit of the painful lessons about another world into a bargaining chip for survival in this world.

Batman stands at the center of the interplay of light and shadow. Just as Shum thought, this mortal is trying to use his mortal body to build a breakwater for this world where gods are about to fight.

Moreover, some materials, such as kryptonite, must be added to this breakwater.

Soon, Bruce brought Shuen to the Metropolis.

The sunlight in the metropolis is completely different from the dim, yellowish light in Gotham, which seems to be seen through a shroud.

The sun here seemed to have been washed clean, pouring down recklessly from the cloudless sapphire sky and crashing against the pristine glass walls that Gothamites suspected of some conspiracy.

"This place is really nice, boss. If I were to die here, I'm confident I could hold out for another ten minutes before I die."

Xiu En was sprawled out on an outdoor chair in the Metropolitan Sunshine Cafe, just like some kind of phototropic plant.

He didn't even order coffee; he just squinted, staring greedily at the midday sun.

His golden statue of Shaohao was emitting a pleasant hum that could only be heard by certain people with super hearing under the unshielded ultraviolet light.

Every metallized cell in the body is frantically photosynthesizing.

On his right shoulder, a golden sunflower swayed merrily in the sunlight with every breath he took.

That's right, that's Ivy's clone. It appeared on Shuen's shoulder after sensing that Shuen was about to leave Gotham.

It turned its flower head directly towards the sun, completely ignoring the questioning looks from passersby who wondered if planting shoulders was a popular trend these days.

"Wipe your drool, Xiu En. We're here to talk business, not to photosynthesize."

Bruce Wayne has just finished a video conference that even a playboy like him found unusually long.

His navy blue suit shone brilliantly in the sunlight, but also displayed excellent, well, heat resistance, in this sweltering heat.

He took the iced water from the waiter and turned his gaze to the building across the street with its huge golden ball logo.

Planet Daily.

"That editor-in-chief was a stubborn old stone, but he had no reason to refuse Wayne Group's investment to replace the entire set of advanced printing equipment."

Bruce swirled the ice in his glass, his voice low, devoid of any joy at a successful deal, displaying only the calm of a hunter eyeing a trap.

"I have acquired a 51% controlling stake. From today onwards, that newspaper is Wayne's property."

"So, you spent all that money just to buy yourself a future headline column?"

Xiu En yawned lazily, picked up the decorative iron fork on the table, and bent it as if he were kneading a cookie.

"I can't imagine the happiness of the rich, but I guess you're probably planning to pay your future employees?"