Chapter 4408

Clark stared blankly at the Justice League members in front of him. He suspected he was dreaming. Or maybe he was high on drugs. Or maybe he had eaten poisonous mushrooms. Otherwise, why would he see the Justice League celebrating Christmas inside a Martian spaceship?!!

Clark even rubbed his eyes. Super vision had never been so distrusted. Even the super brain felt as wronged as June snow. It wasn't until Bruce greeted him that Clark realized all this wasn't a hallucination. They were really preparing for a Christmas Eve banquet inside a Martian spaceship!!!!

Clark took a deep breath, trying to suppress the urge to blow them to the Kuiper Belt with a breath of cold air. And obviously, everyone saw this urge of his. Hal flew to the ground with a "swoosh," picked up the star, stuffed it into Clark's hand, and said: "My God, you're finally here. We couldn't install this thing without you. Come help out quickly!"

"Ah, yes. So many gifts, I don't know when I'll be able to finish packing them." Barry said, "I know you're best at this, Clark. Everything is counting on you."

J'onn and Arthur were really a bit at a loss looking at the collapsed Oreo tower and the turkey with a big hole in it. Arthur scratched his head hard and said: "Is it still in time to go back and buy one? Or change the main dish to gray-backed whale?"

"If you go back to buy one, buy a set of colored lights too." Victor said, "The power was turned up just now, and the lamp core was burned out. I shouldn't have connected them to the power supply."

Clark's gaze swept over them, but didn't stay, instead looking at the three women standing by the dining table, especially Lois Lane holding the table flag.

At this moment, the exchange of glances between the three women was as fast as light-speed transmission and as powerful as nuclear power generation. Within just two seconds, a figure rushed toward Clark.

Before Clark realized what had happened, he felt a warm and soft touch on his lips. The screams that erupted in the room were deafening. And he felt unprecedented dizziness.

Lois kissed Clark hard, then looked at Clark's dazed expression and couldn't help but "pfft" and laugh. Clark, who had reacted, closed his eyes helplessly.

A few minutes later, everyone was sitting around the sofa, each doing their own work, Carol was helping Hal break the interface of the star decoration, Barry was packing gifts, J'onn was eating Oreo cookies, Arthur and Mera were studying how to sew the turkey's belly. And Clark and Bruce sat face to face, listening to him explain the plan for all this.

At first, Clark was still angry, just not wanting to express it in front of Lois. However, accompanied by Bruce's narration, he felt more and more shocked.

Undoubtedly, this was a big lie that deceived the whole world, but it was also a brilliant and great plan.

Using the pressure of the Martians to force humanity to unite and develop. Clark couldn't imagine what kind of person could formulate such a plan. In front of this plan, the ways he had once imagined to save the world all seemed a bit shallow and one-sided.

Clark's thinking had always been "saving," even if he realized that he couldn't save the decay within the corrupt body, but had to stand outside to make corrections. But what he had always thought about was how he could improve the bad parts.

He couldn't say this wasn't a kind of savior complex. From beginning to end, he had always wanted to take responsibility for this world, trying every means, paying every effort, to save something.

However, at this moment, he realized that Bruce's thinking was different from his. Bruce didn't need a savior, or rather, he thought humanity didn't need a savior. The only ones who could save humanity were humans themselves. The correct way to save humanity was to force humans to have to save themselves.

The moment two completely different ways of thinking collided, it was as if a violent storm had blown up in Clark's brain. Even the super brain was blown dizzy by this storm.

Clark had always been struggling with how to become God, and at this moment he realized that humanity didn't need God.

Indeed, they needed a leader who was strong enough, and Clark felt he was duty-bound. But if this was just a fabricated lie, then even without him, everything would still run as usual. Bruce could still achieve his goal.

In other words, humanity didn't need him.

Clark found it hard to describe his mood at this moment. Perhaps he should feel sad and lost, because he had no feelings for Krypton, and if Earth wasn't his home, then he would become a true orphan, and the universe was so big that there was no place for him.

But his emotions were much more complex than this; on one hand, he was indeed a bit lost, feeling that he had thought of many methods, but they were actually useless, on the other hand, he was a bit relaxed and glad for reasons he couldn't say, and even a bit proud.

Clark thought carefully, and he felt that relaxation might be because he hadn't thought of a perfect way to save all humanity from beginning to end, and now he didn't need to do so, his pressure wasn't that great, so he naturally relaxed.

And pride was because he thought he was an Earthling. If humanity actually had the ability to save itself and do better than Kryptonians, then he should also share the honor.

It was just that under the interweaving of these several complex emotions, Clark didn't know how to express it for a moment. And at this time, he heard Bruce say: "Actually, I knew about the situation on Mars a long time ago, and I also knew this method was useful. Logically speaking, I should have executed it earlier. But do you know why I didn't do it?"

"Why?" Clark regained his senses and thought along Bruce's line of thinking. If Bruce had done this earlier, perhaps the plan would have been completed long ago. And at this time, Bruce was already old; if it were when he was young, the plan might have been executed more perfectly. Why didn't he do it?

"Because of you," Bruce answered. "I was waiting for you."

Clark looked at him with some disbelief. But there was no joke in Bruce's calm blue eyes. He was serious.

"Why?" Clark asked again, "Why wait for me?"

"I can give humanity hope, but I also need someone to give me hope," Bruce said, looking into Clark's eyes. "After Damian died, I gave up all thoughts of changing this world. In the decades in Gotham, everything I saw about humanity was dark, desperate, and not worth saving."

"And you, Clark Kent, the things that shaped you into a body of steel, are exactly the opposite of what I witnessed in the first half of my life; they are the bright, beautiful, and hopeful side of humanity. My fire had gone out, and it was you who reignited it."

"You once said that whether good or bad, you will eventually change this world. And now, the way you change this world is by changing me. You may not be the savior of this world, but at least you are mine."

Bruce's voice was low; this didn't sound like a sentence, but like a glass of wine; Clark stared blankly at Bruce, as if he were drunk. He had never imagined Bruce would say such a thing. This didn't sound like him.

However, that night from the past appeared before his eyes again. Just thinking back, the conversation that night could also be tasted with a few different meanings. Bruce told him that wanting to be responsible for everyone would only make him feel helpless, helplessness breeds anger, and anger destroys everything.

Before, Clark realized that this might be Bruce's experience. It was just that he guessed the focus might be on "anger destroys everything." He knew this might refer to Damian's death.

But at this very moment, he suddenly realized that the focus of this sentence was in the first half. That feeling of experience also came from the faint despair and helplessness when Bruce said "wanting to save everyone."

This meant that Bruce had also tried. He had also wanted to change the world and put in effort for it, just like the young Clark. It was just that he gave up.

It seemed like he was using the identity of someone who had been there to let Clark also act according to his ability and not be brave, but wasn't it also that he had some hope in despair? Perhaps Clark's tough refutation was exactly what he wanted to hear, and his persistence and belief were exactly what he wanted to see.

People are all like this; even if they know in their reason that something is impossible, they still have fantasies, fantasizing that the past can be changed, fantasizing that there will be miracles in the future. And Clark was that miracle that appeared in the young Bruce's fantasy about the future—a powerful and just god descending to the human world.

Perhaps that was also the self in Bruce's fantasy at some moment, descending from the sky on his way to inevitable aging and death. Those youthful fantasies that had faded under the erosion of time appeared vividly before him. A drop of rain fell on that dead sea, seemingly broken by external forces, but in reality, it was still the echo of his own unwillingness in the first half of his life.

Clark realized even more why his father would say he was destined to change the world. This didn't lie in what kind of plan he formulated or what kind of method he used, but in the fact that his existence itself would give those who, like Bruce, had been defeated by darkness and had wanted to change the world but had to give up, a reason to set off again.

Humanity is such a race; they are good at using all kinds of methods to give themselves hope. If not, there wouldn't be so many fictional gods. God never appeared, so when the real Superman proved to the world that he was both just and powerful, he would naturally construct a faith stronger than God, letting people who had been trapped in despair struggle to squeeze out the last bit of strength before dying. And this was the great power sufficient to change the world.

Clark took a deep breath. How could he not have thought that the boy and his mother saved from the drowning school bus, the colleagues saved from danger, the police and doctors who covered up the truth of his death... Bruce was the same as them, forced by reality, attacked by darkness, and in the midst of despair, tied the last bit of hope to him—and he did it.

He didn't let him down, he didn't let them down. No matter how painful, he didn't choose to give up. He responded to their entrustment and truly changed this world.

Clark closed his eyes hard. And at this time, the room became noisy again. Hal went to put the star again, Barry was rummaging for extra ribbons in the gift box, J'onn was denounced by everyone for stealing more than half of the Oreo tower, the sewn turkey was finally sent into the oven, and others were helping Victor hang up the repaired light string. These sounds were infinitely magnified in his super senses, and also became very distant; he clearly felt his heart becoming softer and softer in every heartbeat.

Clark couldn't help but look at the other man in front of the island. Schiller seemed to notice his gaze and smiled at him. Clark muttered to himself: "... What about you?"

But he knew that Schiller had already answered him, and that voice containing a smile echoed in his ears. "I like Superman very much. I finished reading all your stories. They are very good-looking, I love to watch them."

It is love. What makes people break through despair is Superman's love for everyone, and what makes Superman never give up is people's love for Superman.

Countless stars on Christmas trees were lit up; whether on Mars or on Earth, tonight was Christmas Eve.