Chapter 2870

Hal also never imagined that his counterpart in another universe would actually be in such a situation, or rather, he simply couldn't believe that his other self would be idealistic to this extent.

First and foremost, for the Green Lantern, the green energy is the lifeline; even if most Green Lanterns lack the means to decipher the little blue beings' energy extraction technique, shouldn't they at least consider how to minimize their dependence on others?

As a result, most Green Lanterns truly just obediently fly back to headquarters to replenish their energy.

To Hal, this really seems a bit unbelievable—it's like when he was in Mexico and encountered a somewhat absurd situation: they had food, they had trucks to transport the food, but they had no oil.

Oliver led them in dozens of gasoline battles before securing the hardest universal currency on the American continent—petroleum used to power vehicles.

This is the most crucial resource for establishing a food transportation network; without oil, nothing can move, with food rotting in warehouses on one side while people starve to death at home on the other.

In Hal's view, green energy can rival cosmic petroleum, even surpass it in comprehensiveness and importance, yet their counterparts in other universes have diligently worked at this post for many years, only to end up as gas station attendants.

They naively believed that the behind-the-scenes boss of the gas station would truly pour this oil freely and selflessly into the food transport vehicles to save the hungry.

Hal cannot comment on this.

The fact that green energy is not truly used to maintain universal peace is actually no secret, since before the Green Lanterns appeared on Earth, Earth was not within the protected range, and all Green Lanterns more or less know this.

Yet they have taken no measures, not even self-preservation; one must admit, this level of self-restraint is indeed noble—aside from being utterly useless, it does deserve praise for kindness.

This leaves Hal with a headache.

The oath itself is fine; the problem is that the very first one to betray the oath was its creator, whose purpose in establishing the Green Lantern Corps was impure, thus truly deceiving the foolish—how could these people possibly pass up such a good opportunity?

Hal knows without listening to any Green Lantern's account that if most universes continue this way, Earth will inevitably suffer retaliation, because persimmons are always picked from the soft ones—those Green Lanterns subject to the lanterns, with no means of countermeasure, aren't they just the softest persimmons?

If his universe could truly exist independently of all others, Hal wouldn't be so benevolent, because people teach people not to understand, and events teach people in just one instance.

However, the most terrifying aspect is that the connection between universes is very tight, even allowing mutual visits through some means—good deeds don't leave the door, bad deeds spread far and wide, so a disaster in one universe could very well spread to many.

By that time, merely sorting out his own little plot of land would be useless; if these walking time bombs aren't resolved, sooner or later he'll end up blowing himself up half-paralyzed.

The moment he understood these problems, Hal felt he had developed anxiety.

It's not that he doesn't want to think, or shirk responsibility, but faced with this situation, who wouldn't go to the Western Heaven to seek Shiler Buddha?

Hal wrote a ridiculously long email; Greed read the first two lines and wanted to prescribe him medicine.

No, just as one Iron Man appeared, now a Green Lantern shows up—how could my stable career as a psychiatrist encounter these two crouching tigers and hidden dragons?

Glancing at the still-dazed arrogance, Greed resignedly sighed, gritted his teeth, and finished reading the ridiculously long email.

The useful information within is not much; the vast majority consists of cursing his other selves in other universes, plus imagining the terrible disasters that might come.

After removing most of the useless nonsense, Shiler roughly understood Hal's demands.

As said before, superheroes lofty in the heavens find it hard to abandon the idealism they've upheld for half their lives; Hal also lacks the ability to press everyone into Mexico's fields, so he doesn't expect them to awaken overnight.

But Hal believes that among the Green Lantern corps, there are still some who can be won over—aside from many naive, foolish Hal Jordans, there are still seasoned veterans.

Through initial contact, Hal learned that in some universes, Hal Jordan is not the first Earth Green Lantern; before him, three predecessors joined the Green Lantern Justice Corps.

One of them, a man named Guy Gardner, was personally appointed by the Universe Guardians as the leader of the Green Lantern Honor Guard, appearing as a formidable agent, though he lacks the steady temperament of John Stewart; Kyle Rayner, though somewhat flighty, Hal feels is like himself—a Ion Lantern—not bound by the Green Lantern power battery, and he also has some secrets that cannot be seen through.

Joining the Green Lantern Honor Guard can be said to be the highest honor for all Green Lanterns; from the three predecessors bearing this title, Hal can see that the highest honor is indeed well-deserved, as none of them are ordinary.

Moreover, due to close contact with the Universe Guardians, their attitude toward these little blue beings seems somewhat different, and they are extremely cautious in their use of green energy, which can be described as exquisite, making them possible allies to win over.

Hal has heard their names in his own universe, but most of these predecessor Lanterns are stationed in dangerous sectors most of the time and only appear when cosmic disasters threaten; Hal hasn't been in the power center long, so this is his first time seeing them.

Additionally, Hal doesn't really want to mention that as soon as they appeared, they triggered a major chaos—the Green Lantern Sinestro.

In some universe, Sinestro is still a Green Lantern, and for unknown reasons, he's counted as an Earth Green Lantern, inserted into their team, causing them to just start fighting.

Or it was Hal's longtime idol Alan Scott stepping in to quell the chaos, which led Hal to believe this old predecessor is also worth winning over.

In a short time, Hal used all his ability to lock down several potential teammates, but regarding how to make them realize the severity of the problem, he still has no clue, so he had to seek help from Shiler.

After reading Hal's text, Greed realized a problem: DC superheroes are truly very serious.

The Green Lanterns are truly serious about being Green Lanterns; they gain green power, wear the ring, play superheroes—as if this is a path with no forks, only able to walk straight into darkness.

But if, like Hal in Shiler's universe, one suddenly jumps out of this framework, one would discover that perhaps they are the normal ones, while this group immersed in role-playing are the madmen.

Granting them superhero identity is akin to granting privileges to the wealthy through money.

Then normal people would naturally think about how to make money, rather than clinging to dead-end salaries to contribute more to a company, especially when this company is neither legitimate nor reliable.

But the Green Lanterns are like a group of diligent workers giving everything for their boss; Greed truly suspects whether this green energy has some brainwashing function.

That's money! Right in front of your eyes money!!!

If you say this money truly exists in the national treasury, having made some great contribution to all cosmic beings, then wanting to move it might still require a bit of moral struggle.

But in reality, the Universe Guardians are just a private boss, and not the kind capable of achieving power-responsibility balance and mutual supervision like a large corporation; more like a small workshop that acts on impulse and judges people by appearances.

Moreover, it's not just that their behavior seems unreliable—they already have a notorious record, with nothing done reliably.

Then not earning this money—aren't you sick?!

But Greed also clearly knows Hal is right—letting these overly immersed superheroes awaken overnight is impossible.

However, his view differs from Hal's; although making them suddenly awaken, unite against a common enemy, is indeed difficult, sometimes it's not necessary to have a spiritual awakening to take meaningful action—enlightening with emotion, moving with reason is a method, but Shiler still prefers coercion and inducement, deception and fraud.

He thought it over, then began typing line after line on the reply email, pausing occasionally to think, then continuing, and soon wrote a lengthy piece, which he sent over.

Hal sat on the rooftop, looking at the plan Greed sent him; speaking frankly, he wasn't the least bit surprised, because the plan's main thrust was still selling green energy.

Though vulgar and clichéd, Hal also had to admit it was indeed useful, because too many Green Lanterns in the battle realm fail to get energy replenishment, and taking advantage of danger is always the best way to make a fortune.

Using his surplus green energy to gain support from other Green Lanterns is indeed currently the best approach, though somewhat similar to kidnapping, but the situation is special, so he couldn't care less about that.

However, the main problem is that in Greed's plan for him, selling energy is not a moral lowland—Greed had him poison the energy he sold, then sell the antidote again.

Upon seeing this, Hal already didn't want to continue reading—not because he thought the plan wouldn't work, but mainly because his moral底线 no longer supported him continuing.

But Greed's plan style has always been like this: as long as it can break through the moral底线 to be read, one discovers it has high feasibility.

So-called poisoning sounds unbelievable, but there really is operational possibility, because for Green Lanterns, the most potent poison is actually yellow light energy.

Coincidentally, Hal still controls a parallax monster; Aisha calls him Uncle Jordan and loves eating his secret-recipe grilled fish.

The parallax monster's power comes from fear, and her father is currently gathered with countless sources of fear.

Therefore, as long as contact is made with Bruce and his daughter, this poisoning plan is highly feasible—even if pushed further, wiping out all Green Lantern corps is not impossible.

Other Green Lanterns or Ion Lanterns might have ways to save one or two people, but among all present Green Lanterns, only Hal has sufficient green energy to save everyone, which would easily make him the leader of all Green Lanterns.

Once he obtained leadership power, Hal would have a way to secure this position, so forming a multiversal Green Lantern Corps would no longer be a mere fantasy; thereafter, even a little bit of effort would surely allow him to organize a group of awakened ones.

But to exterminate the Green Lanterns for his own power, the last one who did so so cleanly was still the most evil Green Lantern Corps traitor, Sinestro.

And Hal vaguely felt that if he took action, he would do better than Sinestro, which might also mean he could gain greater power than Sinestro.

Hal turned off the chat interface, took a deep breath, and gazed toward the endless desert in the distance.

For the peace of the universe, he must truly clean this room.