Chapter 4412

Hal returned to his apartment. As he sat on the sofa, he felt as though something was missing. After a moment of thought, he realized the expensive bottle of red wine he had brought back from the Martian ship was gone.

But he didn't dwell on it, as he knew very well that his tolerance for alcohol wasn't very high—he could manage about a finger's width of whiskey or half a glass of red wine before feeling dizzy. When the alcohol hit, he wouldn't remember anything, so he assumed he must have put it away somewhere after drinking too much yesterday.

Hal remembered that there hadn't been much left in the bottle, and he didn't intend to indulge in alcohol, so he let it go. He turned on the television and, while watching a program, began to ponder what Bruce had told him.

He had known that resurrection wouldn't be that simple. Such an act of defying heaven was bound to have a price, but he hadn't expected that the resurrection hadn't been fully successful. He hadn't truly come back to life.

When it came to death, Hal's attitude was fairly calm. If he were a man who feared death, he never would have become a test pilot. It was a job with great benefits, but equally dangerous. He had been lucky to survive the previous accident; if not for his good fortune, he never would have obtained that mysterious ring, nor would he have become a super-powered being.

Since he had already been granted a second chance at life, returning it to the Grim Reaper wasn't a big deal. At the very least, he had saved Victor from Steppenwolf, so dying wouldn't be a loss.

Yet, Hal remained curious about his current state: if he wasn't fully resurrected, why was he still conscious and capable of movement?

Hal guessed that perhaps his soul was controlling a corpse, and the two hadn't truly fused, which was why this situation had arisen. Would the Green Lantern headquarters have a solution?

Although he had wanted to fly there directly, he thought about how he had been drinking yesterday and hadn't had a proper shower. He went straight to the bathroom to run the water. The steam from the shower fogged up the mirror. After showering, Hal soaked in the tub.

But the moment he raised his arm, he noticed a small bruise on his lower forearm. To be precise, it was a patch of dark red blood pooling under the skin. He touched it lightly, but it didn't hurt; the muscle there was just abnormally sunken.

Hal began to check other parts of his body and found similar marks on his back and calves. He didn't remember ever getting injured. Where did these marks come from?

Suddenly, Hal's hair stood on end, as he realized: if he was a corpse, could these be lividity?

Hal let out a long sigh, losing all interest in his bath. He hurriedly dried himself off, threw on his clothes, and prepared to head to Green Lantern headquarters to seek a solution.

"Hello, is this Victor Stone?" Carol looked out the window while holding her phone. "We met at the Justice League's Christmas party; I'm Hal Jordan's girlfriend, Carol Ferris. The thing is, Hal has run into some trouble, and his condition isn't very good. I'd like to meet with you to talk; would that be possible?... Alright, I'll send you the address. See you in an hour."

An hour later, Carol pulled into a parking spot and walked into the café. Victor wore a hood to conceal his half-mechanical face. Carol walked up to him, shook his hand, and said, "Hello, Mr. Stone."

"Call me Victor," Victor said. "You said Hal is in trouble. What happened?"

Victor was clearly worried. He knew that during the battle against Steppenwolf, if Hal hadn't interrupted Steppenwolf several times, he would have died long ago, the Mother Box would have fallen into Steppenwolf's hands, and the entire Earth would have faced disaster. He was deeply grateful to Hal, so he had rushed over the moment he heard there was a problem.

"It's like this. Hal has been wanting to return to flight and has been training. During this process, he discovered some problems with his body; his strength and stamina aren't what they used to be, and he's also experiencing flashbacks. After Bruce examined him, he reached the conclusion that he wasn't fully resurrected."

"Because he didn't want to put pressure on you, he didn't intend to let the Justice League members know. However, I feel that since you performed the resurrection procedure, perhaps you might know what went wrong. I just wanted to ask if you knew of any clues."

Victor froze. "Not fully resurrected? How is that possible?"

Carol crossed her hands on the table, applying slight pressure, and said, "I don't doubt your ability, but bringing the dead back to life is the power of God; surely no one can say there's a 100% chance of success. Besides, you know Bruce's capabilities; he wouldn't lie."

Victor fell into deep thought. After a long while, he said, "To be honest, this ability isn't under my control; the Mother Box executes it automatically. Logically, there shouldn't be any issues, as I am a successful case."

Carol looked at him with slightly widened eyes. "You?"

"Yes. The reason the Mother Box fused with my body was that my father used it to resurrect me. But in that sense, we are different. The Mother Box fused with my body, so I was resurrected successfully; the Mother Box didn't fuse with Hal, so perhaps that's why it wasn't fully successful."

Victor frowned deeply. "But whether that's the reason, I can't say for sure. I'm not an expert in this area. If you want to know the specific details, I'm afraid I'll have to ask my father; he's the first person to have used a Mother Box to resurrect a human. He knows more about the Mother Boxes than I do."

"Then I'll have to trouble you," Carol said. "I'm not blaming you at all; I just feel that since a problem has arisen, we should do everything in our power to solve it. At the very least, Hal's condition hasn't reached the worst-case scenario yet. If we keep dragging this out, it's hard to say what might happen."

"Ultimately, it's all Steppenwolf's fault," Victor said. "If that Darkseid dares to send anyone else, I will definitely make them pay."

After leaving the café, Carol picked up her phone to call Hal, only to find there was no signal. She thought for a moment and figured Hal might have left Earth. She sat in her car and, after careful consideration, composed a text message and sent it to Hal.

Hal was currently at Green Lantern headquarters. The Green Lantern with the two-pointed mustache who had been his instructor during his rookie training walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "You missed our victory banquet."

"Victory banquet? Celebrating what?"

"We resealed Parallax," he said. "That's a huge cause for celebration. The universe will no longer be plagued by the power of fear. You're our great hero."

Hal finally remembered that several Green Lanterns had pursued Parallax after it was driven from Earth. It seemed they had won the battle. But he didn't care about that at all—Parallax was like a raw recruit compared to Steppenwolf.

In truth, this was just Hal's personal perception. His willpower was so strong that he was almost completely immune to the power of fear. At the time, the fear Parallax spread had knocked out half the Justice League, and even Steppenwolf had been affected. If anyone else had been in his shoes, it might not have been so easy to drive Parallax from Earth.

"Sir, I came back this time for another matter," Hal began. "I was injured in the previous battle; to be precise, I died once..."

"No rush. Let's talk over here." The man led Hal into a large hall. At this moment, communication signals were restored, and Hal received Carol's text.

He glanced at the content of Carol's message and sighed. He had known Carol would go to Victor.

Between the two of them, he preferred to look after others' feelings, while Carol preferred to get to the bottom of things and solve problems. However, Hal hadn't expected to keep it from Victor forever; perhaps Bruce would have had to consult Victor eventually anyway, so asking now was fine.

Seeing what Carol had raised regarding the differences in the resurrection process between him and Victor, Hal's brow furrowed even deeper. If that were the case, it made a lot of sense: Victor had fused directly with a Mother Box and become a cyborg to be successfully resurrected; if there had only been energy, it might not have been a complete resurrection.

Just then, Hal felt dizzy again and steadied himself against the wall. The man in front turned back to look at him, assessed him, and said, "Your condition really doesn't look good. Come here, let's run a check on you."

They went together to a place that looked like a research center. There were all sorts of strange machines there that Hal didn't recognize, but they were clearly high-tech and obviously designed specifically for Green Lanterns—many of the machines were shrouded in a layer of green light.

Hal became a puppet again, letting others manipulate him. He did whatever the man told him to: standing at one machine, then inputting energy into another. After checking for a long time, he heard the man say, "To be honest, something is indeed wrong. The way your Green Lantern energy circulates has developed issues, which might be triggered by the original problem in your body."

Hal thought for a moment and asked, "Do you have any solutions here?"

"Do you remember what I told you when you were doing your rookie training?"

Hal tried to recall. At the time, he was a novice, knowing nothing about how to use Green Lantern energy, and it was this officer named Sinestro who had been his mentor. Under his guidance, Hal had become a qualified Green Lantern.

Sinestro had taught him many combat techniques, so he didn't know which one the officer was referring to. Sinestro walked over and said, "Green Lantern energy is a subjective power supported by willpower. In other words, belief and imagination are the best foundations for using this ability. First, you must believe—believe that what you create is real, so that the energy can transform into matter; second, you must have a sufficiently rich imagination to wield the power as easily as moving your own arm."

Hal seemed to understand a little. "You mean I need to pull myself together? As long as I believe I'm fine, the situation will improve?"

"Theoretically, yes. But this doesn't solve the root problem. I can only tell you that you do have issues, but because we don't understand the human body, we can't determine exactly what's going on. You can use your belief to alleviate the symptoms, but to be completely cured, you might have to return to your home planet."

Hal nodded. "You've helped a lot. Thank you, sir."

Hal nodded and said: "It's already a big help, thank you, officer."