Chapter 465: Those Who Were Once Great (Part 1) (Patreon)

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Gray Mist, a mysterious symbiote created by the god of symbiotes, Knull. Initially, Schiller thought that this symbiote might have been created by Knull to help him escape imprisonment.

However, it now seems that the abilities of this enigmatic symbiote far exceed the scope of aiding Knull's escape.

Nevertheless, Schiller can imagine that when Knull created this special symbiote, he might have harbored grander ambitions. Perhaps he wanted a more powerful body or sought to transform his life form into a higher being.

Schiller doesn't know what kind of life form would be considered perfect in the eyes of chaotic demon gods like Knull. But now, it appears that Gray Mist is infinitely close to meeting that standard.

What constitutes the most perfect life form?

This question does not have a straightforward answer. However, Schiller believes that Gray Mist's life form is close to perfection because it offers more possibilities than any other life form. This nearly flawless existence is not his endpoint but his starting point.

Since obtaining this symbiote, Schiller has discovered a few characteristics of Gray Mist. Firstly, it is like a tape recorder, memorizing everything it encounters. Secondly, it is very selective in its diet. Lastly, it craves alcohol like an addiction.

Setting aside the first and third points, Gray Mist is indeed a picky eater. The minds of ordinary people cannot pique its interest. It only shows interest in the minds of brilliant individuals like Bruce and Stark, or not just intelligent individuals but geniuses among geniuses.

Of course, this was Gray Mist's dietary preference during its early stages of development when it still retained some properties of an ordinary symbiote, being attracted to certain substances produced by the brain. But later on, it became increasingly picky.

During the incident when Knull served him a large wave of energy, Gray Mist even lost interest in Stark's mind, focusing solely on craving energy. Since its first ingestion of energy from the most primal chaos in Space, it seemed to become even pickier. Schiller hadn't heard it complaining of hunger in a very long time.

Yet, now, facing the Kryptonite that sealed the monster egg, Gray Mist unexpectedly felt hungry, which puzzled Schiller. Could these Kryptonite stones really possess something special?

Perhaps there were clues to follow, for even during the day of destruction when the egg was still inside, it wasn't easy to deal with. However, the rays emitted by these few Kryptonite stones significantly suppressed its life activity.

"Are you sure you want to eat this? It's radioactive. Are you sure you won't get diarrhea?"

"No!" Gray Mist swallowed hard in Schiller's mind.

"Alright, let's think about how to deal with this monster egg and then dig out these Kryptonite stones for you to eat..."

"You can move it away!"

"The problem is, where should we move it? If we throw it into the sun or a black hole, it might cause it to hatch prematurely. If we move it to another safe place without Kryptonite suppression, it might hatch quickly..."

"Ring..." Gray Mist suddenly provided Schiller with an unexpected answer.

"Ring? What ring? Oh, are you referring to the ring you created before?"

Schiller quickly understood what Gray Mist meant. He looked down at the grey ring on his hand.

When Schiller first chatted with the Green Green Lantern, he copied one of the Lantern's abilities. However, because the Green Lantern's power came from the Green Light, the system couldn't directly replicate the Green Light. Instead, it copied one of the abilities of the Green Lantern's ring called the "World Inside the Ring."

Many people's understanding of the Green Lantern might be limited to the green aura, teleportation, and light beam projection—common abilities. However, in the Green Lantern's comics, it was mentioned that Hal's ring contained an independent world.

In the comics, Hal had once shrunk his defeated opponents and digitized them, placing them in the world inside the Green Lantern's ring. They could survive indefinitely in that world, and of course, Hal himself had been trapped inside the ring before.

Schiller remembered that the first time he gained the ability of the World Inside the Ring, he briefly explored it. Upon entering, he appeared on a floating island with a massive city shrouded in fog below, and there were faintly discernible colossal monster shadows.

At that time, Schiller hadn't fully stabilized in the Marvel and DC worlds, so exploring this world within the ring was placed low on his priority list and was eventually forgotten.

With Gray Mist's presence, Schiller didn't need to use the World Inside the Ring for storage or transportation, so he hadn't thought about that ability for a long time. Now, Gray Mist suggested that this ability could be used to deal with the monster egg, which indeed sparked Schiller's inspiration.

He stood in the center of the platform, looking at the enormous monster egg, lost in thought.

He wondered how Hal utilized the Green Lantern's energy to shrink his opponents without limitation and imprison them within a construct of willpower before encoding them into the world inside the Green Lantern's ring.

But what Schiller possessed was not a Green Lantern's ring, so duplicating Green Green Lantern's process of trapping someone in the world inside the ring would be difficult. To figure it out, he would need to experiment and gain real knowledge from practice.

Seeing Schiller walk toward the monster egg, Lex and Bruce halted their exploration and gathered around him. Bruce approached Schiller and asked, "Do you have a plan?"

"I have some ideas, but whether they will succeed requires testing. I suggest you both leave this place."

Schiller glanced at Clark, who had already exited the cavity and stood in the corridor. Clark was too weakened, and staying here might cause him to faint.

Bruce remained silent, and Lex didn't take a stance either. Schiller continued, "It's not that I don't want you to witness this process, but because I'm not entirely confident. However, both of you are ordinary people..."

"If any misunderstandings occur during the experiment, such as the monster hatching prematurely or a sudden radiation burst from the Kryptonite, both of you may end up dead here..."

Bruce opened his mouth, seemingly not opposed to Schiller's suggestion of them leaving. He scrutinized Schiller from head to toe, making Schiller feel uneasy.

Just as Schiller was about to ask Bruce what he was looking at, Bruce hesitated and said, "Are you having an anxiety attack?"

"I...," Schiller was taken aback by his question.

"You look different from usual."

"What's different?"

Bruce pursed his lips and said, "Normally, in the moment of my hesitation, you would have already threatened me with psychology exam scores, internship opportunities, next semester's assignments, Wayne Manor visits, Alfred, Aisha, and Dick, and so on..."

Schiller lowered his head, muttering to himself, "Is he... Am I a devil?"

"Okay, okay..." Schiller reached out and said to Lex and Bruce, "The method I'm thinking of has a relationship with magic, so it's not within your two fields of expertise. But I can explain the general principle to you."

"In short, I have a special space, an independent world. I plan to move the egg into it so that even if it hatches, it shouldn't pose a threat to the real world."

Bruce and Lex glanced at each other, giving each other a knowing look, then turned and started walking outside.

Bruce supported Clark and, together with Lex, left the underground cavity, returning to the previous hall. Lex said to Bruce, "I know you left miniature cameras on the road, but this is Metropolis, my territory..."

"But we can talk," Bruce showed an unusual amount of patience, perhaps stemming from his recognition of Lex's intelligence. He was willing to explain certain things to someone as clever as Lex.

Meanwhile, Clark, who had left the Kryptonite-radiated underground cavity, finally felt better. However, the walls of the cellar were still covered with Kryptonite, even in the corridor he exited into.

Being weakened for so long made Clark feel uncomfortable. He just wanted to leave this place, and the conversation between Bruce and Lex was incomprehensible and uninteresting to him. He decided to wait on the surface until Professor Schiller dealt with the egg. Afterward, he would figure out how to handle the radiation issue underground.

So, he started to walk outside, while Bruce and Lex were deeply engaged in their conversation and didn't pay attention to him. Clark, dragging his weakened body, came to the basement.

The radiation inside the basement wasn't as severe as before, so Clark regained some strength. Though he was still a bit weak, he could now use his abilities.

This improved his mood slightly, and he stood at the entrance of the basement, pushing open the door and flying into the air.

In that moment of taking off, he heard the "whoosh" of gunshots. Immediately after, numerous agents rushed out from the surrounding bushes, pouring bullets into the open door of the basement.

From the agents' perspective, as soon as the basement door opened, they adjusted their gazes and aimed their guns at it, ensuring that they could shoot anyone coming out of it.

Ordinary people leaving the basement would typically climb up a ladder, moving slowly when they first emerged, making them easy targets for a few bullets.

However, Clark was different. He flew straight out, and he was fast. The agents saw a figure rushing out, so they instinctively fired their guns. But at that moment, Clark was already several meters above ground.

Clark hesitated for a moment, then an overwhelming rage engulfed him. Superman stood for justice and kindness, but that didn't mean he had no temper.

First, he came here to save people from a fire and got stuck. Then, a group of agents inexplicably opened fire on him, leading to a confrontation. After returning to the room, he had a heart-wrenching nightmare. Even though Clark's temper was usually good, his patience was completely depleted now.

Alfred and Kayla watched all of this from the sixth-floor window of Wayne Manor, furrowing their brows simultaneously.

Alfred was confident that Bruce would never fall for such a childish trap. To be honest, the firepower of these agents wasn't even comparable to the daily gang shootouts on Elizabeth Street in Gotham.

Even if it was Batman, who fought for justice in Gotham's nights, ordinary people in Gotham could easily avoid this level of firepower, or else they would have died countless times already.

However, Alfred couldn't understand Bruce's solution. Where did this flying person come from?

Just then, they saw that all the bullets poured out by the agents were frozen in mid-air.

Immediately after, an irresistible circular airflow spread out from Clark's body, causing everything around him to be blown away.

In the agents' vision as they fell to the ground, Clark rose into the air like a rocket. In the midst of the flying snow, he appeared godly.

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 466: Those Once Great (Part 2)