章 3799: Chapter 2918: Prince Jade (Continued)

When Arrogant came to his senses, Greed had almost resolved the issue, but he still saw the message Hal had sent.

Arrogant shook his head and said, "In the cosmos, the spokesperson for willpower is another term for a stubborn person, someone rarely more stubborn than Batman."

"How is Hal doing?"

"He is not a qualified king," Arrogant said. "He is not suited to being a frontman, issuing commands. He is similar to Batman in this regard, but unlike Batman, he possesses the potential for manipulation."

After some thought, Greed said, "That doesn't sound much like Hal Jordan. You also said he was stubborn, and such people hardly understand flexibility. Moreover, being a kind-hearted stubborn person, it's even harder for him to endure humiliation."

Arrogant tapped his fingertips lightly on the desk and said, "It depends on whether he has explored the true meaning of kindness, and not been fooled by the facade of hypocrisy. I believe he has managed it; although Oliver couldn't last to the end, he set an example for many."

"I find that quite interesting," Greed said as he sipped his coffee. "Green Arrow Oliver is inherently passionate, romantic, yet filled with pessimism; such a person is not suited to be a revolutionary. The fact that he has come this far is already surprising."

"And what he wouldn't have expected," added Arrogant, "is that the enterprise he completed is not just in Mexico. The people truly inspired by him are both close and far—Bruce, Clark, Hal, Arthur, even Lex."

"Though they are distinctly different from Oliver, even disparate among themselves, they have all, in their own ways, taken Oliver's unfinished work into various domains and places, spreading the ideas he did not manage to disseminate far from that land."

Arrogant reflected with some admiration, "Hal is a very honest person; all he lacks is the truth. Once he realizes what is truly right, his strong willpower, or perhaps his stubborn spirit, will enable him to endure almost anything."

"That is exactly what I said—he holds the potential to manipulate, a qualified political machine that requires discarding all personal opinions, rewarding contributions, and punishing mistakes in equivalent measure."

"That sounds somewhat inhumane, but for the cosmos, such a method of governance is far superior to the system set up by the Guardians of the Universe. It appears fair and democratic, but in reality, it's full of selfish motives," he continued.

"When an organization needs to rely on slogans like 'world peace' to unite and control its members, it shows that most of the time, they cannot achieve clear rewards and punishments, not even basic fairness," he said.

"Because it is only when systemic fairness cannot appease most people's grievances that a greater goal is needed to urge people to endure current injustices, much like religions always preach about the afterlife and resurrection."

"The system built by the Guardians of the Universe is just like that; their foolishness and shortsightedness prevent them from establishing any real leadership. They merely shouted a slogan, expecting everyone to mechanically repeat it, hoping that the same foolish people, by their inherent goodness, would obediently remain tools," he explained.

"But anyone knows that no organization is as good as no organization at all; the Green Lantern Corps, or any Ring Corps, has such a primitive organizational method that it's shocking, and most of the green lantern energy is wasted," he noted.

"Given that, it's understandable that Hal would want to collect and utilize them to build a better Green Lantern organization. I believe he has the capability to do better than anyone else," he concluded.

Greed nodded and said, "The more I think about it, there really are many pitfalls on your side. Darkseid is a tyrant purer than Thanos, and I can't even find an organization equivalent to the Guardians of the Universe to stir things up."

"Your universe administrators have sunk too low," Arrogant pointed out. "While they are always used as stepping stones, they indeed have a higher organizational level than my side."

When this topic arose, Arrogant felt somewhat helpless and stated, "My universe is like a company that only has managers, the archangels are too high-ranking; apart from the Prime Universe, they hardly care about how the Individual Universes perform."

"In a certain sense, that's relatively lax," Greed said. "Eternity has been quite troublesome for me; if he weren't so vigilant, I wouldn't need to bother them every other day."

"Actually, it's not that they don't want to interfere; it's more like they lack the capability. This side of the universe has too many strange and quirky things, typically Mountain of Feces code, ancient errors that only God can correct—they probably don't want to waste the energy either," Arrogant emphasized.

Greed seemed to suddenly think of something joyful, and he laughed twice before saying, "Although the Barbados invasion event is no more, do you think that Creator Goddess would sit idly by?"

As Arrogant began to space out again, Greed did not disturb him and quietly drank his coffee. After a while, Arrogant came to his senses and asked, "Where do you think her breakthrough is?"

"The vulnerabilities in your universe are not many, but if she wants to find a spokesperson from another universe, you probably can't do anything about it. So, I think the opposite approach is required, figuring out a way to lure her over," he suggested.

"You are better at dealing with such beings," Arrogant, caressing the handle of his coffee cup, said. "Bruce is the emissary of Barbados, and although managing multiple roles is not impossible, I think that Goddess is not so foolish."

"Then find another," Greed said casually. "Lex might gain his trust, but his strength isn't enough; if he gets detained, it would be more troublesome."

"Let Joker take on the Pope's role, and then face off with Batman—it wouldn't be a bad script, but it seems you have other plans for Jack; he probably won't be able to manage," he added.

"The idea of a good superhero suddenly wanting to destroy the universe is a bit too far-fetched, so people like Superman are out of the question."

"But a ruthless regent who manipulates and steals the authority of the Emotional Spectrum, perhaps..."

Before Greed could finish, Arrogant realized what he meant and pondered, "Hal is smarter than we thought. He has his own demands. Luring a foreign, powerful God here is still too risky; he might not be willing."

"Then figure out a way to make him willing," Greed said, stirring his coffee. "I know you are always soft-hearted and don't like to deceive your friends, but perhaps many times they are also hoping that you will make choices for them."

"Only you would think that," Arrogant replied. "In your view, everyone is waiting for you to make decisions for them, even make money for them, and then magnanimously let you manage the money you made."

"So I just want a name," Greed said with a smile. "After all, from setup to harvest, it's me who does the work. They just sponsor it. What's wrong with that?"

Arrogant still seemed hesitant; he clearly didn't want to do this, but he didn't have much room to hesitate anymore.

"I'll talk to Hal."

"No, you need to talk to Oliver."

Arrogant frowned and resisted, forcing Greed to say, "I can talk to him too, as long as you're not afraid of a mess."

"I'll do it," Arrogant almost gritted his teeth as he said these words. Then, he added, "He sold Mexico and still couldn't pay off your bill."

"He can't sell it now, since he's already pulled out," Greed calculated clearly. "He doesn't have much. I'll give him a friend's price. Getting him to stir up a peasant revolt in the Three Great Empires could work."

"No way," Arrogant refused flatly.

While talking, Greed was also browsing through emails, sighing, "You've got a lot going on here, most of it looking for you... Ah, this one's for me, definitely Asgard."

As soon as Greed mentioned Asgard, Arrogant remembered the unresolved issue of Mount Olympus. Thinking about Wonder Woman and her entire family, Arrogant felt an urge to fall into a deep sleep.

The problems with these gods were even harder to solve than those of the universe since Earth was also their home. They clung on and wouldn't leave, and there was no moral high ground from which to criticize them.

What was even more troublesome was that while Odin might not be a good father, he was at least a good Emperor. Zeus, on the other hand, hardly seemed human.

Since this was also Wonder Woman's homeland, a permanent solution was impossible. Arrogant thought, if all else fails, maybe send a hundred-plus Lokis, each performing at the average level of other brothers and fathers, to see if they could enrage Zeus to death with their antics.

"Loki has called an online meeting with me. It's probably about the Twilight of the Gods matter. Do you want to come?" Greed stood up and said.

Normally Arrogant would refuse, as they usually didn't interfere with each other's affairs, but thinking that later on, they might need Asgard to deal with the problem of Mount Olympus, he nodded.

Greed turned on the camera, but Arrogant stayed out of the frame since no one yet knew that Shiller had physically split. This was their big surprise, not to be spoiled in advance.

Loki appeared somewhat haggard on the screen, and the Crocodile Loki he held seemed a bit blank-eyed.

"No, it won't work, Shiller. You have no idea how many arguments we've had these days..."

Meanwhile, in another room, a teenage boy wearing a mask was browsing through instance options, evidently keen on finding the right one, though most options were discarded.

Manipulation walked in, quickly noticing what he was doing, closed the door, and suggested, "Looking for a sufficiently violent instance? How about the Zombie Universe?"

Moonlight shook his head, clearly uninterested in anything zombie-related. Manipulation thought for a moment and said, "Don't like the mindless ones? Let me think... How about this one?"

Moonlight saw the instance cover that appeared on the screen: no flashy designs, just a mouth covered in blood with four particularly sharp fangs.

"As night falls, the hunted's pursuit of sustenance is no longer love, but... blood."

コメント 0のコメント

投票

ギフトを贈る

Load failed, please RETRY