Chapter 278

"So, what exactly is going on now? You said you came into my dream and then brought me here? But if you'll forgive me for saying so, this is really a bit... hard to understand."

In the night sky of Cat Getan, atop a certain building, Gordon, wearing a trench coat, flipped the hem of his coat to the back and then placed his hands on his hips. He looked at the strange man glowing with green light and said: "He shouldn't be a Cat Getan local, right?"

Hal descended from the air to the ground, crossed his arms, and asked Gordon: "How did you know?"

"Do you know that you look a lot like a traffic light right now?"

"I am a Green Lantern to begin with; I am the Green Lantern."

"I'm talking about the kind of traffic light with red and green lights. If you were a local, you would absolutely not be floating in mid-air glowing green all over, because we all know that the traffic light at the central roundabout gets hit by thousands of bullets on average every day..."

Shiler interrupted the conversation between Gordon and Hal, saying: "The cause of the matter is just as I told you before, and now, I must find a way to resolve it."

Gordon took a deep breath, looked at the giant monster wreaking havoc in the city, and said: "Thank goodness, this is not the real-world Cat Getan."

"If we don't stop it, it will eventually enter the real world. I asked you to come here now just to prepare for destroying this monster."

"Go ahead and say it. No matter what your plan is, I will cooperate. This is for Cat Getan, and also for Batman."

Gordon's tone was firm: "Regardless, this strange vigilante in a tight suit has saved Cat Getan's police many times. If he is in danger now, then I think I should go save him too."

"I am talking to you about this alone because I must teach you how to fight in a dream, Commissioner Gordon."

"Wait!" Hal interrupted Shiler and said: "Even if this is a dream, we can't just chat here, right? If that Yellow Lantern beast really enters the real world, it will cause massive destruction!"

Just then, the three people standing on the roof felt a slight tremor in the ground. The deformed monster, terrifying in both size and appearance, let out a roar. A massive black tide surged from the horizon, and in an instant, it flooded into the city, submerging the entire Cat Getan City.

"He seems to have been stimulated by something?" Hal floated in mid-air, squinting his eyes as he spoke.

"You don't really think that after stitching together the few things I mentioned, they would be of one mind, do you? Not to mention the Yellow Lantern beast and the Yellow Lantern ring, even the Laughing Egg I mentioned and the owner of this body, Batman, are sworn enemies."

"Star-Treading"

"This monster is just a product of temporary compromise; right now, his body is likely in total chaos."

And just at this moment, Shiler also looked toward the horizon and said: "It seems the other friends I invited have arrived."

A clear "plop" sound reached the ears of the three, yet they saw nothing fall into the water. Immediately following were "swish" sounds. In an instant, a giant penguin leaped from the sea and used its sharp beak to bite off a section of the monster's tail.

Hal opened his mouth wide and said: "A penguin?? Why would it be a penguin?"

"It seems you don't know much about this kind of bird." Shiler introduced: "Perhaps the penguins you see are waddling and clumsy on land, but in reality, this type of bird is extremely fast underwater, agile, and skilled at hunting."

Just as he finished this sentence, the giant penguin, which was dozens of times larger than a normal one, dove back under the water, dodging the Fear Laughing Demon's claw swipe. Immediately after, it leaped out of the water from the right side of the monster's blind spot and bit hard into its ribs. The Fear Laughing Demon let out a cry of pain, but when he turned to continue attacking the penguin, he found it had disappeared again.

"... Who is that?" Gordon asked.

"That is Cobblepot, Commissioner. I was just about to tell you about this part."

"In the dream world, the best way to increase combat power is to fight in the image you are most familiar with in your heart. After fully releasing your true self, your coordination with the dream will be higher, and you will possess greater power, just like this penguin."

Gordon squinted his eyes and looked into the distance, saying: "It seems a bit different; I don't think a normal penguin's beak is this sharp."

Just as Gordon said, that agile penguin possessed a pair of very sharp beaks. Every time it pecked, it made the monster cry out in pain, and if it pecked exactly at a joint, it could even make it sway a few times.

Shiler was explaining to Gordon when he turned his head to look at Hal and said: "Detective Gordon is just an ordinary person, so I need to tell him how to fight, but what are you doing staying here?"

"I..." Hal was choked up for a moment, but he still said: "But this is also my first time fighting in a dream. I feel that the power of the Green Lantern seems a bit sluggish here. I think I could learn a thing or two as well."

Shiler turned back and continued to say to Gordon: "Commissioner, you can try to relax, and then follow your inner instincts to imagine what kind of person you should be..."

Gordon took a deep breath and said: "That's a bit difficult."

He turned his head again to look at the giant monster nearby, then slowly closed his eyes.

Soon, a ripple appeared in the dream, but Gordon himself did not change. Instead, various large-caliber thermal weapons began to gradually emerge behind him.

Shiler smiled and said: "Commissioner, it seems your 'insufficient firepower phobia' is quite severe, isn't it?"

Gordon opened his eyes and looked at the weapons floating behind him. He said a bit embarrassedly: "Actually, I've always really wanted to try these weapons, but unfortunately, even though the police station is already equipped with quite a few heavy weapons, this kind of weaponry is still too exaggerated..."

Shiler looked behind him, where there were not only automatic machine guns with calibers several times larger than normal, but even something suspected to be a missile launcher.

Just then, Hal touched his face, looked up, and said: "Is it raining? Why does it seem..."

"Oh, wait! It's snowing!" Hal reached out his hand and found some snowflakes landing on it. He asked very puzzledly: "Does it even snow in a place like Cat Getan?"

The moment his voice fell, a violent storm surged. All the newly fallen snowflakes began to spin like blades. Hal had to use his arms to block his face and shouted: "What the hell is this?!! Why did it suddenly turn into a blizzard?!!!"

"This is what I am about to introduce next: the manifestation of willpower has countless forms. It doesn't have to be limited to human shapes; natural elements like storms and lightning can also be manifested in the dream world..."

"You mean!" Hal shouted in the storm: "This blizzard is also a person???"

"That's right, this is the manifestation of Victor's inner self."

"Victor?" Gordon asked with some astonishment: "His inner self is actually so wild? I couldn't tell at all usually!"

"Just as there are quiet snowfields, there are violent blizzards. A person's inner self always has many images; it's just that Victor focused on releasing the violent part of his heart, and thus achieved this effect."

"This is also what I want to emphasize: you can find the emotion you most want to manifest by concentrating your attention, such as anger, violence, the desire to kill, and so on..."

Gordon and Hal both tried, but neither of them had any very obvious changes. Shiler guessed that this might be because both of them are heroic characters, and they have relatively few extreme emotions in their hearts.

And even though Victor looks gentle and scholarly on the surface, he is, after all, the predecessor of Mr. Freeze and has the potential to become a villain, so he has enough violent emotions in his heart.

On the battlefield, the wind and snow grew more intense. After a snowflake fell from the sky, it began to spin rapidly, carrying blade-like air currents around it, and then traced a graceful arc, cutting toward the Fear Laughing Demon's body, instantly leaving a wound on its arm.

Countless such snowflakes fell, attacking this monster from all sorts of angles. Following the snowflakes were floating ice crystals.

The ice crystals first arranged themselves in mid-air like soldiers waiting for inspection, and then shot toward the monster like bullets. Every time an ice crystal touched the monster's skin, it produced a large patch of blue frozen matter, hindering the Fear Laughing Demon's movements.

"I don't quite understand..." Hal said.

"This is a dream, how can one get hurt in a dream? If, according to what you said before, attacks in a dream are all imagined, then can't this monster just imagine that it won't get hurt?"

"That might be true in your own dream. When you realize you are dreaming, you can add a pair of wings to yourself or conjure up a gun, but this is a dream where multiple people exist..."

"In this kind of dream, any attack and defense is a contest of willpower. If your willpower is higher than the opponent's, then you can cause effective damage to him; conversely, you might be defended against. That's how it is."

"Alright, I think I understand..."

Hal flexed his wrists, and the green light on his body grew brighter. Clearly, the Green Lantern's energy was very abundant, and that feeling of sluggishness and darkness had disappeared. On the contrary, because of Hal's strong willpower, the Green Lantern energy began to grow more and more vigorous, and his strength also became stronger and stronger.

"Don't be in a hurry, we still have a friend who is the vanguard who hasn't arrived yet."

After Shiler finished speaking, he looked toward the horizon again. At this moment, a sharp cry came, and a figure with wings appeared above the Fear Laughing Demon, and then sharp claws slashed across the monster's shoulder, leaving three deep wounds.

That was a monster resembling an owl, with wings on its back, hands like sharp claws, and its body covered in countless feathers. Accompanied by a piercing screech, countless feathers appeared behind him and then shot toward the Fear Laughing Demon at high speed, causing countless blood sprays on its back.

"I really don't like using this form." Alberto's cold voice came, and he said: "But I have to admit, the sharp claws and feathers of birds are the best weapons."

"Who is this again?"

"You should be very familiar with this person, but you don't recognize him. However, that's not important. Commissioner Gordon, I think you should understand the rules here by now. Now, you can go and show off your skills."

Hal had already finished a full set of warm-up exercises. Although Gordon was still not quite used to it, he didn't hesitate and went straight to the battlefield.

Before leaving, Hal looked at Shiler, who was standing still, and asked him: "We are going to deal with this monster, then what are you doing?"

"You don't really think that just by hitting each other like this, you can completely destroy this monster, do you?"

"Then what do you plan to do?"

Shiler suddenly changed the subject: "Currently, there is only one Lantern on Earth, right?"

"Uh, if this Yellow Lantern monster doesn't count, then indeed there is only me."

"Alright." Shiler replied. Hal looked suspiciously at Shiler's departing back, and he suddenly had a bad premonition.