aircannonsinc Chapter 146 The Bet
Chapter 146 The Bet
Chapter 146 The Bet
Splash splash ...
This is Amanda Wora's residence.
The dark-skinned, overweight Black woman is taking a bath again.
Her barrel-like waist sank into the bathtub, and even during this relaxing break from work, her face remained gloomy.
Recently, the things that a bunch of crazy people have done have left her extremely stressed.
The bet between Batman and Superman caused a huge uproar in the underworld, attracting all sorts of monsters and demons from all corners of the world. She worked hard every day, catching this person and that person.
The purple-haired scumbag had fooled her; all her efforts and contributions to him had become a joke. He only wanted to get something for nothing and had absolutely no respect for human politics or things.
They directly interfered in the internal affairs of the two countries, and then used brute force to forcibly end the two countries as history.
This blatant violation of international conventions not only harmed the country's interests but also significantly diminished Amanda Woller's influence within the government.
This is why she is now forced to take leave and stay at home instead of in the FBI conference room.
Amanda Waller sighed.
Every time she reviewed Blake's behavior, she felt there were many strange things about it.
What exactly happened?
According to psychoanalysis, Blake would never have resorted to such radical means to put his little fascist ideology into practice at this time.
A week before the other side interfered in the internal affairs of the two countries, Amanda conducted psychological tests on the entire Anglo-British alliance.
They were in good spirits, and all the assessment reports were completely normal. She even talked with them over the weekend, and the conversation was quite pleasant. How could they suddenly do something as stupid as stealing the country and cutting themselves off from the government?
Even if we're going to take action, why are we in such a hurry?
But what's done is done, and it's all meaningless now.
Amanda shook her head.
Whatever their reasons for doing this, the government cannot allow the British National Alliance to continue to grow so powerful.
After drying himself off, Amanda Waller put on a suit and returned to his bedroom.
Soon, a vertical video of Superman and Black's group fighting over the dispute between the two countries was playing on the computer screen.
The video has been processed twice, with slow-motion and textual data explanations added to many key parts of the battle.
As Waller watched, he repeatedly compared Black's and Superman's fighting abilities in his mind.
But the next second, she stopped.
Because instead of the video that should have appeared on the computer screen, what was displayed was a scene of Luthor and Batman confronting each other.
Amanda slammed her hand on the table, scrambled to her feet from the sofa chair, and nearly slipped and fell.
How is that possible?
To prevent Batman from hacking into her home's data network like he would into a public restroom, she had already physically disconnected from the internet. He believed that even the world's top hackers, with extraordinary abilities, could never remotely project images onto a computer that wasn't even connected to the internet!
At a microscopic level, invisible to the naked eye, Chen Tao's robots were diligently carrying signals.
Amanda Waller's eyes widened.
"...A dangerous person like you wouldn't understand what I've actually done..."
"...You didn't get ■■■, nor did you get ■■."
Amanda narrowed her eyes. She was quite certain that the deliberately muffled sound came from someone very important to Superman. If she could get to that person, perhaps she could…”
Ding ding ding ding ding—
The phone rang. Amanda Waller picked it up, and President Wilson's voice came through: "Ms. Waller, I'm not sure if you've seen the video that someone hacked and sent us."
Amanda Waller suddenly realized that the other person's video... or rather, the live stream, wasn't sent to her alone, but to everyone.
"Your meeting screen is showing Batman confronting Lex Luthor, right?"
Amanda's first reaction was to erupt in fury: "Today is the day the bet we've been monitoring comes to light, and you've been keeping it a secret from me!"
But Waller quickly regained his composure: "Damn it, what is Batman trying to do?"
She looked at the screen: "What's the point?"
Then she heard Luther on the screen say:
"With a friend like you, who needs enemies?"
"This is……"
Luther picked up the kryptonite bullet that Chen Tao had thrown down. The arrow that had pierced Achilles' ankle had been insidiously made to look like an ordinary bullet.
Luthor knew that given Superman's habit of never dodging bullets, if he hadn't scanned the bullet's core with his X-ray vision beforehand, he would most likely only discover what it was made of after it had entered his chest.
That's incredibly insidious.
The folding kryptonite short spear, with its ricocheting ability to aid in thrusting, is also lined with lead—insidious indeed.
And then there was the kryptonite knife and the jet gun. Luther suddenly laughed:
"I see. I get it now, Batman. We're on the same page. We've never believed in Superman—I mean, it seems we're on the same page."
He said, "That's right, what Superman did wasn't a heroic act, it was just an uncontrollable whim, a force that could easily destroy Metropolis, just like he lifted a falling plane in mid-air."
"And you, us. We can sense the threat posed by Superman."
"Our actions are not based on a lack of personal security, but on the recognition that Superman's position poses a threat to the world. Our goal is not to subdue Superman, but to save humanity before Superman subdues humanity! You know, Bat—"
Then he heard Batman say, "The only thing we have to prevent Superman from harming humanity is Superman's own promise?"
Luther was taken aback; how did Batman steal his lines?
He immediately nodded: "That's right, that's right! You're right."
He said, "My..."
Chen Tao immediately interjected, "Your motives don't stem from petty evil, but from selfless goodwill. You're just an ordinary person. You understand perfectly well that what you can do is open people's eyes, change their perception of Superman, make them pause, and let them say, 'Maybe he's not so perfect.'"
"So you murdered the villain Snakeskin and then used him to fake Superman's girlfriend's death?"
"..."
It feels weird to have all my lines stolen by Batman.
“Yes,” Luthor said, “Superman will show his true colors at this time—”
But before he could finish speaking, Batman pressed his finger against his earpiece: "Did you all hear that?"
Luther frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"Yes, we heard it all, Batman."
Luther's face darkened as he watched Batman activate his arm armor, which in turn activated a holographic projection.
Amanda Waller, sitting in front of his computer, and all the high-ranking officials in the conference room appeared in the video.
"To be honest, I've had enough of your endless suspicions about Superman."
Chen Tao added to his mind: You guys never trust Superman, how can I retire with peace of mind and hand over everything to him?
"So, taking this opportunity, I suddenly had an idea. Let's make a bet, folks. I'll censor it, you won't know Superman's true identity, but let's bet on Superman today. I bet he will never change his principles because of his girlfriend's death, never."
"Your reasons for opposing Superman are nothing more than Lex Luthor's arguments. But today I'm going to prove one thing to you: Superman is never as threatening as you think."
Luther's eyes widened. He stared at Batman, who had ignored him, and then proceeded to preach his theories to the holographic projections of the government officials:
"I'm going to show you the human side of Superman. During this time, I've been going through your classified documents, and every single one of them is a scenario that imagines Superman turning evil, as if he were some kind of mentally unstable super psychopath."
Luthor heard Batman say, "You're wrong."
"You... Hahahaha!" Luther stared at him blankly, then suddenly burst into laughter:
"You foresaw this all along? Good heavens, you foresaw this all along. You tacitly allowed me to scheme against Superman, tacitly allowed me to test him. Admit it, deep down, didn't you also harbor doubts about him?"
He shouted:
"If you truly believe in Superman as you claim, why would you need to prove it to those government officials?"
of course not.
Chen Tao thought to himself silently.
Luther misunderstood. Of course, he couldn't have foreseen the other party's plan, but as everyone has said, he always prepares for anything that might happen.
He had already infiltrated the electronic devices of those high-ranking government officials, penetrating them like a sieve.
And Luther happened to be there at that time.
So he went along with it, using this opportunity to show those government officials what kind of person Superman really was.
Of course, he didn't expect that the fact that "Superman is a good guy" would make the government abandon its various plans for Superman.
But importantly, once he proved Superman's goodness to these government officials, he would have an excuse and a moral justification for whatever he did regarding any government actions against Superman.
If he wins the gamble, if Superman truly shows everyone the bright side of his humanity, then everything Batman does afterward to protect Superman will make perfect sense, at least officially no one will have an excuse or reason to target Superman.
If you lose the bet...
He figured Superman was unlikely to become anything terrifying, but if Superman really did change drastically because of Lois's death, if he really lost the bet...
Then he could simply return Louis to Superman and say, "Poke, it's snakeskin!"
But if that's the case, Chen Tao feels he needs to seriously consider the issue of retirement.
He certainly didn't want to enjoy a few years of retirement only to suddenly see on the news that Superman punched the Joker through the heart, then began to rule the entire earth, wantonly slaughtering criminals, leaving piles of corpses and rivers of blood.
If Superman became like that, became someone he never wanted to be, he would... he would feel guilty for abandoning Superman and retiring on his own.
Chen Tao looked at the image projected by Luther.
……
……
……
"Louis, I'm not trying to discourage you, buddy, but he's not going to be a reporter anytime soon, I mean it."
Superman knelt down in a panic, trying to lift Louis, who was as limp as a lump of mud, from the ground.
"I can still hear her heartbeat."
"Damn, you're so simple-minded."
Blake said, "You two aren't the only two people left in the universe, even in this room. A little disappointed, isn't it? The shock of this moment, as it tears your life apart piece by piece, is even more astounding."
"Let's see if we can sort this out a little. That heartbeat you crave like an Irishman craves tacos? That's not his heartbeat, you idiot. That's mine. Louis is dead."
Superman grabbed the corpse in a panic: "Impossible, Batman told me he had already protected..."
"Batman isn't omnipotent, Scout. Bane and those villains distract him too much; the hat trick will eventually backfire."
"Now you see how absurd your identity and actions are, don't you? You see, when I tell you that all of this is rubbish, you should know I'm right."
Blake made a shooting gesture.
"Do you remember what you said to me after you defeated me?"
"Piety flows from your sweat, blood, and breath; tell me how this damned world works, have pity on my life, which I suppose looks like a tangled mess, doesn't it?"
"I'm going to pull you out of your ivory tower and show you, without a doubt, how the cruel world should function for real people."
"For the past few hours, you've been playing games, playing the game between me and Luther. You've beaten every damn supervillain who deserves to be shot against the wall to a pulp. You saved the city, fuck, I'll say it again, you saved the world, you idiot. Everyone survived, except for one person—"
Louis Lane.
Superman was dumbfounded.
"The most important point is... your life is now a tragedy, and your fate is no longer fair."
"You have cancer, your child was run over by a bus, your house was destroyed in an explosion, you experienced pain, loss, resentment, and a series of hellish events. Finally, you've become human, just like us! How do you feel?"
Black stood before Superman, his telepathic abilities unleashing their full power without restraint.
Superman collapsed to the ground, his X-ray vision scanning over and over again, confirming Louis's body time and again, but only receiving unmistakable confirmation.
It wasn't a mud face, it wasn't a fake, it wasn't an illusion, it wasn't anything. The DNA match was exactly the same. Louis really was dead, right in front of him.
A red light shone from his eyes.
"You're a mind reader, so come and read me."
Intense heat shot from his eye sockets, sending Blake flying backward.
The telepath got up from the ground.
"That was love. You've fallen to the level of a human being. I've said it before, you're no better than me. When forced to act, we're both beasts."
Blake chuckled softly.
Chen Tao remained expressionless behind the screen.
Luther's eyes gleamed with a wild, excited light.
The audience whispered among themselves.
Superman roared to the sky.
(End of this chapter)