Chapter 277

"Wait, but..."

In an apartment in Haibincheng, a man wearing a pilot's jacket was muttering to himself, pacing the room with his hands on his hips. He said: "I know, I know, it's my duty, but..."

"Alright, if it's really as you say, then I'll go check it out—but I think you're overreacting."

"When I first joined the Green Lantern Corps, you told me the Green Lantern Corps was the strongest of all the Lantern Corps, and I felt that to be true. I just don't understand what's making you so nervous..."

"... lright, if you're determined to do this, I won't object. After all, Earth is my home. Protecting it is my responsibility."

"Do you have the exact location where the Yellow Lantern appeared? I was asleep just now and didn't sense anything unusual."

The man scratched his head; his brown hair was messy, just as he said—he had just woken up and still looked half-asleep.

"What? Gotham? Why there? Well... not surprising. You said the Yellow Lantern represents what? Oh, fear. Yeah, the environment there is certainly frightening enough."

"I'll teleport over to take a look. If it's as serious as you say, I'll deal with it quickly."

"Listen, right now, I, Hal, Hal Jordan, am the only Green Lantern on Earth. I can't let my hometown look bad. If I call for backup before even fighting, it'll seriously damage my reputation in the Corps, right?"

"Oh, yes, I know you mean well, and I know the Yellow Lantern might be tough to handle—but you've got to believe in me, believe in my willpower. Since becoming a Green Lantern, I've done pretty well, haven't I?"

The man calling himself Hal crossed his arms and said: "Remember, not every human on Earth has my level of adaptability and willpower. Though I've only had the Lantern Ring for a short time, I still think I can handle Earth's problems just fine..."

After a moment, he sighed and patted the dog at his feet: "Sorry, I'll have to delay our walk. I've got something to take care of, but believe me—I'll be back soon..."

With a flash of green light, Hal vanished—but when he reappeared, he wasn't in Gotham. He stood on a highway in Broodhaven, looking up at the sky, confused: "... hat's going on? Did I get lost?"

Broodhaven's climate was excellent, the sky clear, so even in daylight, stars were visible overhead. Hal checked his bearings and realized he hadn't gone wrong.

Normally, when he teleported here, he should have materialized directly beneath the sign marking Gotham's entrance. Now, there was only a straight highway—nothing else.

Where was the city?

Hal wandered in circles, bewildered. Maybe the stars were misleading—after all, each Ring's arrival produced anomalies. So he teleported back to Broodhaven and bought a local tourist map.

Walking toward Gotham along the map, Hal didn't find it troublesome—he was now a Lantern, his physical strength flawless, walking fast, and Broodhaven wasn't far from Gotham.

But the more he walked with the map, the more confused he became. He held it up close to his eyes and said: "What the hell? It says right here—after passing the pine forest on the right, you'll see Wayne Tower... Where's the tower???"

Beyond the pine trees lining the right side of the road, Hal saw nothing—but a faint, lingering scent of alcohol drifted through the air. He assumed it was leftover from a camping party and paid it no mind.

He kept walking, covering a long distance, until he finally spotted a sign.

What puzzled Hal was that a man stood beneath the sign, holding an umbrella. Hal walked over and asked: "Hello, I'm looking for Gotham. Is this road the way to go?"

The man shook his head and asked: "You're Hal, right? Hal Jordan?"

"You know me?"

"I don't just know you—I know your identity. You're a pilot, the owner of a Green Lantern Ring, a Green Lantern, correct?"

Hearing the first part, Hal was already puzzled—he wasn't a celebrity; no ordinary person should know him. But when he heard the second part, he narrowed his eyes and stared at the man: "Who are you? How do you know about the Lanterns?"

"Do you remember shortly after you first got your Green Lantern Ring, you posted on a forum about aliens? Only one person replied to you—that was me..."

"You're the one... Oh my god! I sent you so many messages—why didn't you ever reply?!"

Hal's tone shifted from shock to complaint.

Shieler sighed and said: "I can explain that later, but right now there's a major problem you need to handle."

"A major problem? What kind of problem? Why are you here? What's going on?"

Hal was utterly baffled, but Shieler had no intention of answering his barrage of questions. He told Hal: "You're going to Gotham, right? I'm sorry to tell you—if you keep walking down this road, you'll never reach Gotham."

"Impossible." Hal outright denied it.

"The map says—after you see the traffic sign, keep going forward and you'll reach Gotham..."

Try it.

Hal waved a finger, assumed a running pose, and with a "whoosh," vanished—then reappeared instantly before the sign.

Seeing Shieler and the sign again before him, Hal was confused. Shieler said: "Yes, Earth is round—but I doubt your speed is fast enough to circle the entire planet in an instant."

Even if Hal had been careless, he now knew something had changed. His expression grew serious. He asked Shieler: "What's going on? Give me a reasonable explanation."

Bidi Ge

"Abandon all illusions of 'reason.'" Shieler stepped over the highway barrier and walked to the roadside sign. He told Hal: "Because you're in a dream."

No sooner had he spoken than Hal saw the pole holding up the traffic sign expanding before his eyes—growing larger and larger until it became a colossal, sky-piercing tower standing on blackened, charred earth. Hal looked up, mouth agape, and asked: "What is this?"

"Come with me. I'll explain everything." Shieler walked forward, and Hal, his brown eyes filled with confusion, followed behind, asking: "Where are we? Is this your illusion? Who are you? Are you connected to the Yellow Lantern?"

Shieler sighed: "I won't explain the past. Let's start from the Yellow Lantern's arrival."

"You know the Yellow Lantern has arrived? Oh, right—you're not an ordinary person. But I've never heard of any Lantern Ring capable of making an entire city vanish."

"Because it wasn't the Lantern Ring that made the city vanish—it was me."

"Don't joke." Hal's tone dripped with disbelief.

"That's Gotham! One of the biggest cities on the East Coast! How could you possibly make it disappear in an instant? That would cause massive panic! Why haven't I seen anything about it on the news?"

"Gotham hasn't vanished from the real world. You can't see it because the moment you stepped onto that road, you entered a dream."

"As for why I did this—it's because I have a certain responsibility..."

Shieler sighed again. Today, he sighed more than he had in the past several months combined—because things had truly gone beyond his expectations.

His original plan with Jack was to penetrate the edge of Batman's consciousness, extract, and eliminate the potential threat. The process was complex, but the goal was clear: prevent the emergence of the Laughing Bat at all costs.

Along the way, Shieler encountered Joker and killed Joker, encountered Batman and killed Batman—anything to stop that utterly annoying Laughing Bat from appearing in his life.

In the two preceding segments, everything went smoothly. They successfully reached the edge of Batman's dream, found the embryo that might hatch into the Laughing Bat, and nearly destroyed it.

But unexpectedly, this stimulation caused the black tide deep within Batman's soul to surge forth in an unprecedented, violent wave, bursting into the universe.

This purest form of fear in the entire universe naturally drew the attention of one being: the Yellow Lantern Ring—or rather, the Yellow Lantern's embodiment of fear, the Parallax.

All Lantern Corps' Lantern Beasts were immensely powerful, and Parallax was no exception.

But Parallax had seen and experienced everything. Ordinary fear was not enough to attract his attention. The problem was: Batman's fear was the purest form of fear in the entire DC multiverse. To Parallax, it was an irresistible temptation.

Thus, alongside the Yellow Lantern Ring's arrival came a terrifying monster—the Yellow Lantern Beast, Parallax.

"Parallax?" Hal asked, puzzled. "I've heard from senior members of the Corps that each Lantern Corps has a Power Battery and a Lantern Beast. They said each emotion's Beast is incredibly powerful—but they never appear lightly..."

"So you mean someone's fear in this city triggered the arrival of the Yellow Lantern Beast? That's... troublesome." Hal's expression grew increasingly grave—he now understood the gravity of the situation.

"I didn't expect this either. According to the timeline, this shouldn't be possible—you've only just..." Shieler turned to look at Hal.

He hadn't worried about the Yellow Lantern Ring because, under normal timeline, Hal had only just become a Lantern. Sinestro should still be a Green Lantern. They hadn't yet split, so Sinestro wouldn't have defected, and thus wouldn't have created the Yellow Lantern Ring.

When the black tide surged upward, Shieler hadn't even considered the Emotional Spectrum—he assumed no Yellow Lantern Ring existed in the universe yet. Yet here it was, appearing anyway.

Shieler reflected: this universe had changed enough already. The Yellow Lantern Corps appearing early wasn't impossible.

"But you still haven't told me—what happened to Gotham? Where are we?"

"Don't rush. I'm getting to that..."

"The arrival of the Yellow Lantern Ring and its Beast isn't the greatest danger. The greatest danger is the host—the one whose body contains a dying, fleeing... egg."

"An egg? What's that?"

"I'm not frightening you—I must tell you: if that egg hatches, even all the Lantern Corps combined couldn't defeat it alone."

Hal was about to object, but Shieler continued: "Fortunately, right now it's still just an embryo, severely weakened, barely clinging to life."

"But just then, the Yellow Lantern Ring and its Beast arrived. One desperately trying to escape, the other desperately trying to enter. Who do you think won?"

"Hmm... probably the Beast?"

"No. They both lost. And Batman won twice. Now, he possesses both the Laughing Egg and the Yellow Lantern Beast."

Shieler explained further: "Batman could have used his willpower to reject the Yellow Lantern Ring. But the nearly dead egg inside him saw its only path to survival."

"So, while Batman's attention was focused on the Yellow Lantern Beast, the egg seized control of his mental space, accepted the Yellow Lantern Ring—and the Yellow Lantern Beast followed the Ring into Batman's body. Now, they've merged."

As Shieler spoke, the two entered the towering structure. Light and shadow shifted, and Hal found himself standing atop a skyscraper, looking down at the entire city of Gotham.

He had finally reached Gotham—but he felt no joy. Above the city, he saw an indescribable monster.

It had a multi-jointed, multi-legged yellow centipede-like lower body, a black upper body bearing a bat emblem, and a head with no eyes or other features—only a wide, crimson mouth.

At that moment, Shieler's voice spoke:

"The Yellow Lantern Ring, Parallax, Batman, and the Laughing Egg have merged. And I call it..."

"The Fear Smiler."

————Extra Notes————

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