Chapter 479

Previously, Hal, who still possessed a Green Lantern ring, broke into Wayne Manor alone and was caught by Alfred. The Green Lantern ring was knocked off by Aisha and finally picked up by Dick.

The key lies in the step where the Green Lantern ring was knocked off by Aisha. As explained before, a Green Lantern ring is equivalent to a safe, and what is stored inside the safe is Green Lantern energy.

Only a Lantern recognized by the Green Lantern ring can open this safe and take out the Green Lantern energy inside. This is part of the Green Lantern ring's safety lock.

An ordinary person not recognized by the ring cannot open the safe door even if they put on the ring, and they cannot get the energy. And ordinary people have no way to crack the Green Lantern ring's safety lock.

The process of Hal's ring being knocked off, in detail, was that Hal used his identity as a Green Lantern to pass the safety lock's authentication and opened the safe door. Just as he was about to take something out, his hand was bitten by Aisha, and the safe was thrown away.

However, the safe at this time was already in an open state, and power was constantly being transmitted outward. Therefore, when Dick picked up this safe, he could immediately use the power of the Green Lantern. Even though he had not cracked the safety lock and had not been authenticated by the ring, he could still obtain a portion of the Green Lantern's abilities.

After listening to Dick describe the whole process, Shiler guessed the principle behind it, and the key to this was Aisha.

The Green Lantern Corps has operated in the universe for so many years, and safety measures in various aspects are quite comprehensive. Almost no one has heard of any ordinary person having such good luck as to pick up a ring and then go on a rampage.

Such accidents rarely happen, actually because the Green Lantern ring has a relatively perfect safety lock mechanism. Just as Hal said before, during the process of power transmission, the ring cannot fall off, even if the Lantern tries to pull it off themselves, it is useless.

But the only exception is Aisha.

Aisha is equivalent to the physical body of the Yellow Lantern beast, Parallax. Any material in this world could be a conductor for Green Lantern energy, but it uniquely excludes other Lantern beasts; Green Lantern energy cannot be conducted through Aisha's body.

When Hal opened the safe door and was about to take out the things inside, Aisha bit his arm, blocking the Green Lantern energy, and at this time, the safe door was still open.

Therefore, when the ring was knocked off, a safe with a wide-open door appeared. Even a child like Dick, who had not undergone any willpower training, could use this energy.

Based on this principle, Shiler conducted an experiment.

Willpower does not have a fixed standard, but in most cases, it is related to concentration, endurance, and control over one's own emotions.

Different people possess different willpower when facing different situations. If you break Batman's leg, he might not even grunt, but if you were to snap a pearl necklace in front of him...

Therefore, Shiler could reach the standard of willpower required by the Green Lantern by switching his different personalities. This is a simpler and more efficient method.

Logically, he summoned a Green Lantern ring. However, unlike the Lantern-rejecting Batman, Shiler would not refuse to wear the ring for reasons like "not wanting to rely on external forces." Since the ring had come, wearing it for a bit was fine.

However, Shiler had no interest in wearing the ring to go on a rampage. The "Dragon Proud Heaven" type of transmigrator chooses to be full for one meal, the intelligent type of transmigrator chooses to be full for every meal, and the Shiler type of transmigrator chose a new street lamp.

Shiler put on the Green Lantern ring, then used his own willpower to unlock the safe, let Aisha grab his arm to block the Green Lantern energy, and then took off the ring. In this way, he recreated the situation Hal was in at the time. The Green Lantern ring he possessed became a safe with the lock opened.

Because the moment the Green Lantern ring is jammed, its energy is constantly being output, which is why Dick could immediately activate the ability as soon as he picked up the ring. Shiler utilized this point; after taking off the ring, he directly let the ring's energy output into the Kryptonite crystal that had already been drained of energy.

Regarding the application of this new material, the line of thought was still the "color commonality" theory that Shiler mentioned initially. Green Lantern energy is green, and the energy stored in Kryptonite that produces radiation is also green. After the gray mist drained the energy inside, the remaining colorless crystal was used by Shiler as a container for Green Lantern energy, and as expected, it succeeded.

However, Shiler did not transfer all the energy from the Green Lantern ring into the Kryptonite crystal, but left a tiny bit of energy in it.

Because Hal said at the time that the Green Lantern ring has a safety lock, and after the Green Lantern ring's energy runs low, it will actively return to the Power Battery to recharge.

Although the Green Lantern ring that Hal dropped did not successfully return to the Lantern Corps to recharge because Dick barely controlled this energy, Shiler did not control his own Lantern ring, so the Lantern ring successfully returned to the Power Battery and fully charged itself.

But at the same time, this ring was not lost, nor was it reclaimed by the Lantern Corps. Its owner was still Shiler Rodriguez, so after being fully charged, it returned to Shiler's side again.

Then, Shiler put the fully charged ring on his hand again, unlocked the door again, used Aisha to jam it again, extracted the energy to pour into the Kryptonite crystal again, and let it return to the Power Battery to charge again...

Very magically, the extracted Green Lantern energy, after being poured into the Kryptonite crystal, was completely preserved. This type of crystal capable of storing special radiation seems to possess some special properties, which can ensure that the Green Lantern energy will not leak into the universe but will always be stored in the crystal.

Just like this, through his small scientific experiment, Shiler basically understood the nature of the Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern rings, Green Lantern Power Batteries, and Green Lantern energy, and with his outstanding economic mind and time-tested moral standards, successfully "fleeced" the Green Lantern Corps.

After listening to Shiler recount this process, Hal was stunned.

Since it is around the 1990s, the phenomenon of "bugging" is not yet that common. At the very least, Hal, who has no computer education background, had no idea how to describe this behavior.

"Actually, I am cleaning up the mess for you." Shiler suddenly changed the subject and shifted the blame onto Hal. Hal said, dumbfounded: "Cleaning up the mess for me? What did I do?"

Shiler pointed at the tabletop with his finger and said: "It was you who had no vigilance at all. You dared to put on a strange ring when you got it, and you dared to execute an order when you received a strange command."

"Not only did you sell out Earth's information to aliens, but you even used the ability they gave you to run amok in Cat Getan..."

"I didn't run amok! I..."

Looking at Shiler's eyes, Hal's voice grew weaker and weaker. He lowered his head, feeling guilty, trying his best not to think about the tragic scene below when he was disguised as a Green Lantern on the central turntable in Cat Getan.

"However, the die is cast now. Your information has already been handed over, and that group of aliens might have already circulated it among themselves. The leak of intelligence is irreversible. So, shouldn't we at least recover some losses?"

"But, this is without others' consent... um..."

"Did they get your consent when they gave you power?"

"Giving me power still needs to go through..."

"Of course it does." Shiler interrupted Hal's words and said:

"Before they gave you this power, did they inform you of the specific responsibilities corresponding to it? When they obtained detailed information about your personal body, did they get your personal consent? Are there any privacy terms related to it? Before you used this power, was there an explanation of the risks that this power might generate?"

"I'll give you an example. No one has informed you in any written or verbal form that using this power while landing on a human traffic light pole might cause the risk of traffic congestion. Therefore, the losses caused by the traffic jam at the Cat Getan central turntable are not your responsibility alone."

"But, you said it yourself, they are aliens. Aliens shouldn't understand these contract terms and such on Earth, right?"

"Because they don't understand Earth's rules, yet they rashly gave you this power, leading to you causing destruction on Earth—whose responsibility is it?"

"It's..."

Hal almost blurted it out, but he checked his conscience and swallowed the rest of his words.

After Shiler put it this way, he was also a bit shaken. He remembered that when he got the Green Lantern ring, indeed no one told him how to use this power so that it wouldn't endanger Earthlings.

Actually, Hal also felt a bit aggrieved being accused by Alfred and Batman of selling out Earth's information.

He was just an ordinary person; suddenly divine power descended from the sky, and the other party was righteous and stern, so it was understandable that he didn't think the other party might harbor malicious intent.

And now thinking about it, if a contract is written with all terms favorable to you, constantly giving you power, money, and the name of justice, only requiring you to help them do some small things, this is problematic no matter how you think about it. The hidden risks must be unimaginably large.

"If there are such rules among aliens, but they didn't tell you, this constitutes contract fraud; they deliberately deceived you."

"If there aren't even such rules among aliens, then aren't they more barbaric than humans? Why would you listen to their words?"

Listening to Shiler's words, Hal fell into deep thought. Shiler continued: "Still the same saying, the die is cast now. Just like all victims who have been deceived, the most urgent thing is not shame and self-blame, but recovering the losses."

Shiler threw the green crystal in his hand to Hal. After Hal caught it, he picked it up and looked at it from left to right.

Suddenly, he discovered that when he concentrated his attention, the energy in the crystal spread up along his arm. In less than a second, he turned back into a Green Lantern emitting green light all over his body.

"Now, you are free, Hal."

Shiler looked up at the floating Hal, looked into his eyes, and said: "Do you know? I once asked Batman a question..."

"What question?" Hal also looked into Shiler's eyes.

"The justice you want to execute—whose justice is it exactly?"

Hal floated in mid-air. While thinking, his expression gradually became serious, and then became firm.

He did not have a bizarre and tortuous life story like Batman; he was just a kind and firm ordinary person. Therefore, the answer in his heart told him that any justice bestowed upon him by others was actually just power wearing a cloak of justice.

"Actually, I don't know yet... I don't know what justice is."

Hal gave an answer that Shiler did not expect, but he continued: "But I will use this power to pursue this answer. Before I get the answer, my footsteps will never stop, even if I have to pay my whole life for it."

As he spoke, Hal slowly landed. The green light on his body faded but did not disappear; instead, it returned to the crystal again. Clearly, after firming his belief, his control over Green Lantern energy had risen to a higher level.

"Your ideal is great, and I also believe that with your willpower, you can practice justice. But the only problem is, in the process of practicing it, we might need a large amount of funds..."

"Funds? But, I don't have money..."

Just as he said this, Hal paused for a moment, and then cast his gaze on the green crystal on the tabletop.

"However, fortunately, I have already prepared our startup capital."

"Prepared? How did you prepare it..."

"I said it already, they breached the contract first, so it is only right that we appropriately collect some liquidated damages."

Hal suddenly had a bad premonition. He stared at Shiler and asked:

"... How much did you collect?"

Hal saw Shiler bend down and drag out a large box from the bottom of the coffee table—inside it was a mountain of green crystals.

At the Green Lantern Corps headquarters, the Corps Commander wearing a green uniform stood in front of a huge Power Battery, turned his head to look at his subordinate beside him, and asked, a bit bewildered:

"The power consumption of the headquarters' Power Battery has been very severe recently. Do you have any clues?"