Chapter 3574: Edge of Tomorrow (Part 31)

"Batman, you must give me an explanation!"

"What do you expect to hear from me? That I was wrong to be the first on the scene to save lives? You're putting the blame for the Joker's actions on me—it's a complete reversal of cause and effect. There's no logic in it at all!"

"I'm not referring to that. I'm talking about why you had to spout nonsense in front of the reporters!"

"What nonsense did I spout? Isn't this the most serious terrorist attack of the century? Or do you want to cover for your own kind?!"

"But if you define it that way, Congress will let the FBI turn this place upside down. They've been looking for an excuse to do something anyway. You've handed them the perfect pretext to create even more chaos in Cat Getan!"

"Why don't you want the FBI involved? Is it because you're guilty? Or is it that even as Mayor, you're still dabbling in the same little hobbies as your counterpart?"

In the Cat Getan City Mayor's office, the sound of arguing was incessant. When Injustice Superman pushed open the door, he was met with a world-famous painting: Batman and the Joker arguing.

Of course, that wasn't exactly a rarity. The real issue was that there was another Batman acting as a referee, and another Joker in a red suit accusing the referee Batman of bias.

The moment Injustice Superman pushed the door open, he wanted to close it again. The room was far too crowded; there wasn't even space for him to stand.

But at that moment, both Batmen and both Jokers turned their heads to stare at him. Regardless of the reason, he couldn't back down, so he had to steel himself and walk in.

Even more absurdly, the first one to calm down was the Joker. The White Knight tapped the table and said, "I'll arrange for someone to find that damn reporter and make him shut up. If the FBI comes knocking, you'd better keep your mouth shut too, and don't say anything that will make the situation worse. Otherwise, you'll regret it!"

With that, the White Knight stormed out in a rage. The Phoenix Joker shrugged and followed him out.

"Is the Joker in this universe a bit too arrogant?" Batman slammed the table. "The Joker is about to take over the world!"

"Calm down." Injustice Batman sighed. "Focusing public attention on us is Brainiac's way of avoiding responsibility for this terrorist attack. We can't let him succeed."

Batman took a deep breath. "If we want to deal with Brainiac, standing with Congress and the FBI for the time being isn't out of the question. It's just that their capabilities are too weak; I don't think those ordinary officers can handle a super-intelligent AI."

"They certainly can't. There's no need to let ordinary people die in vain. That's why I contacted Amanda Waller."

"The Amanda Waller of this universe?"

"Yes, she's still very young. They all are," Injustice Batman said.

"They?"

"Amanda has assembled an organization to deal with supernatural events—the Federal Shield," Injustice Batman said, walking behind the desk and tapping the surface with his fingertips. "They recently formed a temporary task force of super-powered individuals to deal with Brainiac. At least in this regard, we share a common goal. I think we can cooperate."

"Waller cannot be trusted," Batman said. "You never know who her true master is. She can stab anyone in the back."

"I know that, of course. It's just that Brainiac, combined with the Joker, is worth our caution and our full effort."

"I really don't understand," Batman said. "Brainiac and the Joker are the two extremes of reason and madness. How exactly did Brainiac convince the Joker to help?"

"As you've seen, the multiverse contains more than just the insane Joker; there are many things beyond our expectations. Perhaps the Joker of this universe, like the Mayor, has cured the madness in his head."

"But if the Joker isn't insane, why did he bomb Diamond District?"

Injustice Batman didn't answer. He was pondering that very question. They had been in this universe for quite some time and had never heard of the Joker committing a crime. This might mean the Joker of this universe wasn't a lunatic; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to restrain himself for so long.

But if he wasn't insane, why would he commit a terrorist attack?

"There must be some other reason for this," Injustice Batman said. "In any case, the FBI is now involved, and Amanda certainly won't miss this opportunity to strike at Brainiac. Even if Brainiac made the first move to pin the blame on us, it won't be so easy for him to succeed."

Batman looked out the window. Standing in the Mayor's office, he could catch a distant glimpse of a corner of Diamond District. Only, that corner had already collapsed. Columns of smoke rose from the distant skyline, like cooking smoke over a twilight field, or perhaps like the volcanoes of hell.

Schiller spread out the newspaper, secured the corners with thumbtacks, and used a paper cutter to clip out a section of the front-page news. It was filled with terms like "Brainiac," "surveillance cameras," and "bomb materials."

Poison Ivy sat with her arms crossed, leaning back and squinting at the clipping board that was already covered in news, sighing, "They really aren't that easy to deal with. It's only been three days, and public opinion is already very unfavorable toward Brainiac."

"That's only on the surface," Schiller shook his head. "After all, they've been deeply entrenched in the field of official media for so many years; they wouldn't be without that level of control. When all traditional media outlets speak with one voice, it naturally creates an overwhelming effect."

Schiller also stood up straight and looked at the clipping board in front of him. Over the past three days, the direction of public opinion had shifted daily. The first clipping board was mostly about the Joker and Batman; the second day shifted to Brainiac; the third day was a full-scale exploration of why a super-intelligent AI that claimed to be responsible for everyone's life had failed to prevent this tragedy.

Most of the reports were reasonably argued, and could be summarized as: How could a super-intelligent AI that controlled almost all electronic systems fail to see the Joker entering the building? How could it fail to monitor the flow of bomb materials? How could it fail to issue a timely safety warning?

This wasn't exactly wronging Brainiac, as he had been fully aware of the situation and had chosen not to intervene.

But if one substituted the subway station explosives incident, Brainiac hadn't been able to trace the source of those materials either. On one hand, this proved the other side was cautious; on the other, it proved that a super-intelligent AI wasn't as omnipotent as imagined.

Schiller felt it was mainly because human technology was too primitive compared to Brainiac. It was like a modern person traveling back to a primitive society—you couldn't rely on surveillance cameras to find prey.

Cat Getan's level of technological adoption was among the highest in the world, but it was still only around the turn of the millennium. A vast amount of data and documentation was still handwritten, or at best stored on floppy disks. While there were many surveillance cameras, the storage equipment wasn't advanced enough to trace things back to their source.

For example, in this era, even television stations didn't record their broadcasts. Storing such long-duration footage required massive amounts of storage. All storage media were reused; when space ran out, the old footage was wiped—physically erased from the hardware—to make room for the new.

If Brainiac wanted to find clues in past news programs, he couldn't just check the TV station's archives. He had to investigate viewership reports to find people who might have watched a certain program, and then go ask them.

But human memory wasn't always reliable. Even if they weren't intentionally lying, they wouldn't remember the details of a TV show from months or years ago very clearly.

A discrepancy in one or two people's memories wouldn't matter, but if many details had such deviations, the final calculation could be wildly different. Brainiac felt a bit like someone who had traveled back to ancient times with a smartphone but no charger.

He hadn't been here long enough. Even if he invented more advanced storage equipment, there were many ways to improve human technological capabilities. But the efficiency of human factories was limited; a single month wasn't enough to produce these things, let alone go through the process of popularizing them.

For such a super-intelligent AI, every step humans took was too slow. He was like a wheelchair capable of sprinting at rocket speed—it didn't matter how fast he could go if the person sitting on top couldn't handle it.

"Now that the two Batmen are back, things are even more troublesome," Poison Ivy shook her head. "I thought the Justice League would hold them off for a while."

"The Justice League must have done so; otherwise, they wouldn't have only just returned. If they had come back sooner, we might have been exposed long ago," Schiller said.

"They'll find us sooner or later," Penguin said, standing at the island counter pouring a drink. "I think they might choose to cooperate with Amanda."

"Are they really that desperate?"

"Don't underestimate Amanda," Schiller said. "After this incident, Congress and the financial groups might stand together. They will do everything in their power to retaliate, so they might no longer restrain the Federal Shield. Amanda will become a hound released from its cage. If she has Batman, it's like adding wings to a tiger."

"What a nuisance," Poison Ivy sighed. "It seems being a villain isn't that easy either."

"There's news," Deathstroke's voice came from the doorway. He walked in and tossed a stack of photos onto the table.

"I didn't know you moonlighted as a private investigator."

"Our dear Ms. Quinzel paid too well, so I had to put my photography skills to use," Deathstroke smiled.

Poison Ivy smiled too, but when she saw the person in the photos, she frowned.

"Are you sure it's her?" Poison Ivy asked, picking up a photo with her fingertips.

Deathstroke nodded.

The person in the photo was none other than Talia al Ghul.

(End of chapter)