I, V, Gotham Legend

"Sorry, I lost my composure." Joe apologized to the two people present.

"Huh? What?" Valerie didn't notice any of this.

"It's okay, I understand how you feel." Clark comforted.

Joe's shadow looked at Valerie solemnly. He lowered his head, and anyone could see his apology: "I'm sorry for looking down on you before. It's just that your ability is beyond my imagination. It's all my fault for being narrow-minded."

Joe thought of his home planet. The Kryptonians also scoffed at his doomsday theory because they thought it was a fantasy, and thus they went to destruction.

Joe realized that he had made the same mistake as those people.

Joe's attitude was very sincere, and most people might have forgiven him directly, but Valerie was obviously not an ordinary person.

"Hehe, now you know you're in the wrong, right? Then quickly hand over all the other technologies you have stored to me as your apology!" Valerie said flatly.

Joe and Clark were both stunned for a moment, but this time, Joe was not as hesitant as before: "I can give you a part of it, which can be regarded as the continuation of Krypton in this universe."

"You're so stingy. Instead of returning part of it, can't you give me all of it?" Valerie pouted.

"I'm a scientist from Krypton. My research interests are biology and energy. Unfortunately, a large part of these are dependent on the environment of Krypton."

Needless to say, Krypton no longer exists and many of the research he had mastered have come to nothing.

"So~" Valerie stretched out her words, "I'm a genius. Send me all your research and I can localize it for you."

Joe was silent again. He looked at Valerie's face. His brain, which could only process computer calculations, was full of thoughts. In the end, he only said one sentence: "I really wish I were still alive and could work with you."

If V was born on Krypton, perhaps his hometown could still be saved.

Joe turned on the wireless network and reconnected with Valerie. A large part of the database had been damaged, and the technology that could be directly reproduced was even more scarce.

He thought about it and sent something milder to Valerie.

Let those technologies that rely on mining the earth's core energy to be driven disappear along with Krypton.

Valerie received the signal from Joe, and she squinted her eyes, accepting and reviewing it.

"Why is it just this little? Can't you have some qualities of the last gravekeeper of a civilization?" Valerie was a little dissatisfied because the memory occupied in her brain was less than two terabytes.

"I'm just a surviving AI written by a scientist in a niche field on Krypton. My spaceship has been malfunctioning for decades. This is all I can offer." Joe said seriously.

Valerie believed it and nodded: "Well, my trip was not in vain."

Valerie had already taken a quick look at it. Most of it was written in a language she couldn't understand, but Joe was sensible enough to send her a data package of Kryptonian text and voice. It was said that Kryptonians' early childhood education was to use some device to inject these directly into the brains of newborns.

I'll study it after I go back. According to the game settings of 2077, these should be able to be installed into my own system. By then, Valerie will be the first person on Earth who can speak an extraterrestrial language!

"I'm sorry, but that's all I can do." Joe suddenly said, "I'm satisfied to see it complete again before the energy is completely exhausted."

"Does this thing need any fuel?" Valerie said, pinching her chin.

"It's a very bad fuel, one of the main culprits that led to the destruction of Krypton. There's no need to let it reappear on Earth." Joe shook his head.

There are many factors that led to Krypton's demise, and the Kryptonians' unconditional demand for the center of the earth is one of them.

"I do have a way to give this spaceship unlimited energy." Valerie looked at Clark, "It depends on whether you are willing to sell it to me."

"Sorry, Miss V, this spaceship is very important to me." Clark declined politely.

After his adoptive father's death, this spaceship and his biological father who lived in it became the site of one of his most fragile emotions.

"Okay, I can understand." Valerie nodded. If there was anything in this matter that could carry her connection with her past life, she would definitely cherish it.

Feeling that they had talked enough, Qiao said goodbye to the two of them, and then his shadow disappeared.

Clark looked toward the center of the console, and Valerie moved behind him and also looked up there.

A black board was inserted into the podium-like operating table, which looked more like a token than a chip.

"This is the most emotional he's ever been... He usually cares about me," Clark said thoughtfully.

"You're like a filial son guarding a patient's bedside." Valerie sighed.

"Really...yeah, it does feel that way." Clark thought of his deceased adoptive father, who died from the aftereffects of years of injuries.

During the last years of his adoptive father's life, Clark often chatted with him like this.

NO50. Survivors

Amid the vast Milky Way of the solar system, three spaceships tied together were sailing at a steady speed.

In the main cockpit in the center, a sturdy man with a crew cut stared at the dial in front of him, with a gleam in his calm eyes.

The hatch behind him suddenly opened automatically, and a woman wearing a transparent mask walked in: "You called me? General Zod?"

"We've come to the right place," Zod said, stepping aside to allow the woman to see the display on the instrument clearly.

The woman glanced at the dial with emotionless eyes, and then froze, the emotion in her eyes visible to the naked eye.

The waveform on the dial swayed with a familiar rhythm, obviously a network wavelength that only interstellar pioneer-type ships could use.

As an important backbone of the Kryptonian army, she often participates in the mission of rescuing spacecraft entangled by alien forces, so she can recognize this kind of waveform at a glance.

"We found our compatriots who were stranded outside..." Even Zod's steady voice couldn't help but tremble.

Zod was once the supreme commander of the Kryptonian army, but was exiled because of a failed coup.

They were supposed to wander in the vast and empty Phantom Zone for hundreds of years, but shortly after they left Krypton, their home planet was destroyed before their eyes.

Theoretically, the end of a planet is extremely long, but Krypton's destruction was like the explosion of dynamite, shattering at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Zod and his two companions watched as their hometown, for which they had fought for a hundred years, collapsed. After the destruction of Krypton, the Phantom Zone where they were exiled lost the ability to restrain the spaceship, but they would rather remain bound.

They drove exile ships, drifted in the universe, searched every interstellar colony, and explored every place that Krypton civilization had ever been to.

Unfortunately, they did not find any living compatriots, and the three had to accept the fact that they were the last Kryptonians.

It was not until they passed a transit base station that they unexpectedly found a surprising piece of news while searching past archives.

A spaceship once left the planet on the eve of Krypton's destruction and flew into the depths of the universe. No one knew where it was flying to, but it undoubtedly gave Zod and the other two hope.

They boarded the spacecraft that was supposed to exile them, heading towards the depths of the universe, in a direction where no civilization had yet reached, just for this tiny bit of possibility.

"Can you locate it?" the woman asked Zod, unable to hide her excitement.

"I know you're excited, Fiora, but calm down first... The signal only lasted a few minutes, and there should be at least an hour's delay." Zod returned to the instrument and pressed three fingers on it. "We can only determine which planet it is on."

A three-dimensional planetary model was projected above the instrument, and Zod zoomed in on a planet that was farther away from them.

The three-dimensional model seems to be repeatedly washed by water, and after each round of washing, the model becomes clearer.

Until a water-blue planet appeared before their eyes, both of them couldn't help but take a breath.

"A few days ago, we destroyed several iron lumps floating in space. They must have come from there... That planet already has a civilization that can initially explore the universe." Zod speculated.

“It’s possible that our compatriots live there…” Fiora’s tone was cold, but it was just a tone.

The expectation that their compatriots should be there and the worry that they might be dead struggled in their hearts at the same time until Zod made up his mind.

"There's nothing we can do just standing here and watching. Go ahead and notify the fleet." Although there were only three people with normal life, Zod still maintained the organization of the army.

Watching Fiora leave after receiving the order, Zod turned around and stared at the dial that no longer moved. No one knew what he was thinking.

Until the dial suddenly started to make a sound again, waking Zod from his daze.

"What..." This time, what he saw was something unexpected.

...

If we count the time before dawn as night, Valerie did return from her trip to the Arctic that same night. The sky was gray at six o'clock, and it felt like returning to Gotham.

To Valerie's surprise, Helena was still awake. She was sitting at the dressing table, her hair curled up with hairpins and her forehead lightly brushed with a fluffy brush of some unknown kind.

"Are you putting on makeup?" Valerie asked in confusion as she walked in from the emergency exit.

"I just..." Helena was a little embarrassed.

Valerie looked closely and discovered a few red spots on the delicate skin of Helena's forehead.

Not everyone is as naturally beautiful as Miss V. Staying up late frequently caused Helena's skin quality to deteriorate, which was obviously a major blow to a young girl.

"Sorry, you should rest for a while." Valerie finally realized that even a person as powerful as her had limitations.

Even if she had the technical ability to repair an alien spacecraft, she couldn't cure a young girl's haggard skin.

"I've got a little bit of a biological clock," Helena said sheepishly.

"Since it has come to this, let's not stay up all night." That was all Valerie could say.

"I'm waiting for you." Helena said, resting her chin on her hand. "You seem to be busy at night, but you don't need me..."

Valerie was somewhat moved. She found a chair and sat next to Helena: "It's just too dangerous for you. It's just a small matter. I can handle it myself."

"It's just a small matter for you, but it's very dangerous for me." Helena bit her lip lightly, and finally couldn't help asking: "Have I always been holding you back?"

"Why do you think so?" Valerie looked into Helena's eyes. "We are partners, right?"

Helena thought of their cooperation all along, apart from the Riddler, there was also the time with Sass, the time with the Ventriloquist, and even the recent Ferris wheel incident.

When they were in real danger, Valerie would send her away, and even if she was involved, she would be a hostage who would hold them back.

Just now, Valerie abandoned Helena again and went on her own to do something that even Helena didn't know about, which made Helena feel even more lonely.

Helena felt that she had always relied on Valerie's gentleness and followed her willfully, and Valerie also cooperated in taking care of her and accommodating her.

Just like this trip, it was a vacation that Valerie specially took out to take care of her. She knew very well how much V enjoyed her mercenary work.

Helena still had a lot of melancholy feelings in her heart that she wanted to express, but before that, Valerie's hand was on her belly.

"You're so sentimental. Are you having your period?" Valerie said, "I understand." "Then don't stay up late. It will make you feel worse. Go to bed first."

"No, I..." Helena thought Valerie was trying to fool her, but Valerie interrupted her.

"Don't think too much. You know I'm not smart." Valerie showed her rare self-awareness. "You are so smart, how could you hold me back?"

NO51. Space jump

Helena returned to her room, somewhat exhausted after pulling an all-nighter.

Valerie knew that she had acted without considering Helena's thoughts and was overprotective of her, but she didn't think she had done anything wrong.

It is too easy to kill people in this world. Even in the 2077 game that he played in his previous life, V’s teammates could die at any time.

She wanted to at least train Helena to the point where she could handle things on her own before considering taking her into any truly dangerous situations.

It was dawn outside the window. Valerie didn't feel tired, nor did she plan to sleep. She walked to her laboratory and opened the door.

Although the lab was tinkered with by the two reporters before they left, it did not disrupt the order in Valerie's memory.

She sat on the recliner in the middle of the laboratory, looking at the dim ceiling, like an old man staring at the sky. This was just a break before she started thinking.

When she felt it was about time, Valerie pulled out a wire from the recliner and connected it to the port on her neck. As if receiving a signal, the recliner lifted up a display flashing blue light from one side of the armrest.

Although you can process your own database with your own brain, if you want to summarize and organize it, it is more convenient to use computer assistance.

Valerie unzipped the compressed file of the Kryptonian language and retrieved the installation instructions for the voice pack that had been hidden at the base of her database.

It was on the way back that Valerie realized that she had such a convenient thing built into her brain, but she didn't know who downloaded it for her.

Valerie carefully followed the steps and precautions in the instruction manual to install the voice pack. Theoretically, this computer is now connected to her brain. Although it is unlikely, it would be funny if she accidentally turned herself into a real idiot.

The computer recliner under her butt made a fan sound like the roar of a motor vehicle, and Valerie, who was sitting directly on the recliner, was so hot that sweat was breaking out on her forehead.

The voice pack was finally downloaded. Valerie did not rush to open the Kryptonian technology file she got from Joe, but first took out a robot that looked like an octopus from her pocket.

This is the drone found when helping Superman repair the spaceship. It may be one of the spaceship's bodyguard systems, and it seems to have been abandoned due to lack of energy.

When Valerie saw it, it was lying in the aisle of the spaceship's corridor, covered in dust and looking like a piece of tattered paper. Valerie thought no one would want it, so she picked it up.

The head of this octopus robot is like a movie camera, with gem-red eyes inlaid in the rectangular metal block. There are fourteen tentacles below the robot's neck, and each tentacle is segmented.

Valerie flipped the thing back and forth, and finally saw the words carved in Kryptonian letters at the bottom of the robot, surrounded by the tentacle roots.

Valerie felt that she could read the words. She seemed to see a frame suddenly float up above the words, filled with the Chinese characters she was most familiar with.

"Ger-type mechanical guard, made by Jor-El."

"It's really useful." Valerie exclaimed.

Maybe we can make more voice packs later, so that Valerie can also be a genius who is proficient in languages ​​all over the world.