บท 2549: Chapter 1779 S: Big Apocalypse Event (Forty-Six)_1
Bruce and his team arrived in Mexico, but the situation wasn't as good as depicted in the real world. The timeline of this world fabricated by Jack was around 1986, when things hadn't started to happen yet.
This time wasn't favorable for the Mexican people. Though 1986 was the year they hosted the World Cup, a year prior, two major earthquakes plunged the country into a massive disaster. Thankfully, the earthquakes did not affect the stadiums, and the World Cup was held as scheduled.
At that time, Mexico's economy had been stagnant for a long time. After the glory of the World Cup ended, it seemed to signal the end of the country's prosperity. Delamadrid's administration's introduction of a free-market economy during his term failed to revive the economy. The Mexican Revolutionary Party's credibility further declined due to the slow disaster relief during the earthquakes.
In this period, Mexico was at a crossroads. The prestige of the left-wing continued to fall, and the influence of liberals kept growing. However, this had nothing to do with the living standards of the lower-class people. The south was still rampant with drug lords, with the southern drug trafficking group headed by Galado, the godfather of Mexican drugs, extending its reach into more cities.
The issue now facing the team was that everyone had lost their superpowers. They could no longer descend from the heavens as divine soldiers to deliver significant blows to drug traffickers through military means. With the absence of Bruce and Oliver's financial and networking support, things were even more difficult.
Ordinary people are always insignificant. The premise for being able to shout slogans is to first have the ability to stand up and voice out. Most people in this world can't even achieve the former, as they need to devote almost all their energy to scrape a living. Nobody can blame them for not stepping up to change the tragedy of the times.
But superheroes, who are born with powerful abilities, never accept this. Their kindness and strength give them a stronger sense of responsibility than others. To some extent, the pioneers of the era must be arrogant, firmly believing that they must be responsible for all the unfortunate people in these times, and then be motivated to save them.
In this team, apart from Bruce, no one had similar experiences. Clark was born powerful, Diana is a member of the God Clan and the royals, Oliver's wealth is comparable to Wayne's, Hal has long accepted his identity as Green Lantern, while Arthur is still a small-town youth with limited experience.
They oversimplified everything and intended to replicate everything they've done in the real world. Yet, as Bruce has previously experienced, the harsh reality struck them forcefully.
They hadn't even encountered a drug lord worth mentioning. Just the security personnel in a poppy plantation alone caused Oliver and Hal to lose their lives.
They were originally planning on expanding their influence southward based on this plantation, like before. Oliver and Hal were the trailblazers for scouting. Despite being well-prepared and armed following thorough investigation, they still underestimated the ferocity of the drug traffickers.
The local guide who led the way betrayed them. Thankfully, the plantation's security guards were just mercenaries instead of sadists like Galado. Oliver and Hal each suffered a gunshot and were returned to their birthplace, Gotham.
Perhaps because they did not participate in Gotham's game and were delivered directly by God, they did not regenerate as kids. This dashed their last hopes—regeneration won't bring back their superpowers, they're completely ordinary people now.
Bruce didn't intervene in the plan they made, only observing from one side. Indeed, he could devise a flawless plan to take over the plantation. Still, he knew that if he didn't let his comrades realize the harshness of reality, all their plans would ultimately lead to a castle in the sky.
Clearly, he was right. After failing once, they didn't reflect on their actions. Next up were Clark and Diana. They planned to deal with a government official who had engaged in black-market transactions with the plantation. Diana's extensive battlefield experience endowed her with impressive physical strength, and even without divine power, she was stronger than the security guards at the villa.
They managed to find and kidnap the official, beating him until he revealed who the boss behind the plantation was. The outcome was that they got identified and were wanted the next day.
Originally, they were staying in an ordinary inn with the money provided by Bruce, but after getting identified, they couldn't stay in any hotels or inns. Informants for the drug lord were practically everywhere in the city, with wide-reaching influence. If locals spotted them, they'd report it; consequently, the team was ignominiously driven out of the city.
Both Oliver and Diana have decent strategic minds, so they started to go into the countryside. The farmers there were indeed oppressed for a long time—diligently growing poppies for the drug lords while being exploited, many were barely surviving.
The more experienced Oliver led them to drive off a small boss who had been skimming profits, but they faced another problem afterwards: once people got their money, they all went their separate ways. Some suggested that Oliver lead them to start a business together, naturally still in drug cultivation.
Then, Oliver realised that the reason he could persuade so many people to join him in the real world was not because he had charismatic leadership or because they genuinely believed that the future Oliver depicted could be realised. Instead, it was because of him, Hal, Clark, especially Clark's extraordinary power. That was the greatest charm to get this crowd to follow them devotedly.
Telling these utterly uneducated farmers that one day everyone in the world could live the life they want is simply too far-fetched. However, if a person with immense strength, whose eyes could shoot lasers and could seemingly punch a hole through Earth, appeared at this time, his persuasiveness would obviously be much stronger.
But once they all became ordinary people, they found that they couldn't touch these individuals.
The locals' thoughts were simple: you helped us chase off the ruthless exploiters, we're grateful to you. As compensation, we can let you lead us and we're willing to work for you. You can even enjoy our offerings like the drug lords in the big cities. Isn't this the best repayment?
There's a saying that Mexicans have two dreams in their life: either to become a drug lord or to become an American.
The desire to become a drug lord stems from the belief that drug trafficking is the best job in the world. If one becomes a drug lord, they don't have to do anything, just sell the stuff that hardworking farmers have grown, buy guns, recruit more farmers, sell more drugs, and count money from the comfort of their home.
Under such circumstances, Bruce gained a deeper understanding of what Jack had said. Why in a certain country or city, the crime industry is unsustainable because when the ultimate goal of a society is to seize benefits through violence, only a tiny fraction could ever profit, while the majority remains oppressed, blinded by distorted values.
After struggling for half a month on this land, where nearly everyone has 'died' twice on average, Oliver finally had enough. He knew it was time to change tactics.
"I don't understand, why can't we contact the Soviet Union?" Clark folds his arms and asks, "Didn't they provide us with a lot of support in the real world?"
Oliver sighed deeply, "That's because we had already achieved results, and to be blunt, their help wasn't out of any belief, but because we could hinder America, they needed someone to restrain the United States."
"It's not time for the Soviet Union to aid the whole world anymore." Diana shakes her head, "Perhaps they could in earlier years, but now they are in internal chaos, they probably won't give us any attention."
"Bruce, you've been quiet lately. Do you have any opinions?" Oliver turned to look at Bruce.
Bruce paused a moment before saying, "I believe as you all have realized, it's not that simple."
"Of course." Hal agreed, a bit dejectedly, "I used to be just an ordinary pilot, never thought anything was too difficult. But after being the Green Lantern for so long, now that I suddenly don't have the green lantern energy, I always wish I still had superpowers."
"I think the situation isn't just because we lost our superpowers." Diana sighed, "In fact, because things were too convenient for us in the real world, we lack both theoretical knowledge and practical experience."
"It's like a person usually uses their right hand, but the exam requires them to write with their left hand. Even having done the paper once, everything is still difficult."
Oliver was still staring at Bruce. Bruce nodded slightly, "There's not much point to all this, after all, you all have superpowers in the real world. Who would deliberately cut off their own arm?"
"No, I think the biggest problem is that ordinary people aren't unsuccessful, and they don't take a long time either. If we all have superpowers, shouldn't we be able to do things in an even shorter amount of time? But why haven't we done it even in the real world?"
Oliver was talking to himself, meanwhile, Clark lightly patted Bruce on the shoulder, "Bruce, there's no need to beat around the bush. I know you must have a solution."
"Indeed, we don't need to free ourselves from the dependence on superpowers." Bruce shrugged, "That's what my trip to Gotham taught me. I'm already a billionaire, why would I want to turn myself into an ordinary person and experience the so-called struggles of a commoner?"
"Struggles aren't worth glorifying and there's no need to experience them. It's not like, by facing the same difficulties as ordinary people, we can genuinely stand with them. Everything we have that's beyond ordinary is what we've already got, giving it up to 'be closer to the people' is useless."
"So then, we offer to make you leave this dreamworld, but you still won't go." Hal said irritatedly, "Once we're back in the real world, we all have superpowers again, don't we?"
"We can have them here too."
All the others turned their heads to look at him. Bat Cat licked her paw, glanced at her counterpart from another universe, and seemed to understand what he meant.
Bruce drew several patterns on the ground, "Being incredibly strong is a superpower, magic is a superpower. Now that we've lost them, we can regain another type of superpower."
"Another type of superpower? What is that?"
"Money and power."
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