Chapter 4959: There Is No Batman Here (Sixty-Four)

The darkness in the surrounding air began to churn and surge. This was a sign that Batman was under attack. And that manic laughter didn't weaken; instead, it grew increasingly piercing, making them dizzy and disoriented even inside the truck. Charles had to strengthen their mental defenses.

"Batman told us before that the situation in many Dark Universes is very bad." Nightwing sighed. "Take Batwoman's universe, for instance — Atlantis is having internal problems again. Seems someone wants to usurp the throne. The one aiming for the top plans to start with the land, and the war is getting bigger and bigger. Many coastal cities are about to be flooded."

"Batwoman wanted to dissuade them, but those Atlanteans simply wouldn't listen. She brought the main universe's Aquaman and Superman back, and barely managed to suppress the war. But recently, Atlantis's queen doesn't know what got into her — she wants to release her usurping sister from the Abyss..."

"Exactly," Damian said. "Who knows what's wrong with the Dark Universes — the people there act like their brains are fried. They're uncomfortable unless they're cooking up some disaster. The Batmen save them as best they can, but quite a few still meet with disaster."

Charles frowned slightly. He said, "Facing the main universe's Justice League, they still won't settle down?"

"They're a bunch of lunatics," Red Hood said. "They won't think 'I can't beat him so I'll stop.' They only think about biting off a piece of you with their lives. It's as if they're controlled by some mysterious force, forced to walk that disaster worldline..."

"Perhaps there really is some mysterious force," Charles said. "Could it be Barbatos stirring trouble behind the scenes? He is the source of darkness, after all. Or Darkseid instigating from the middle. Doctor Manhattan isn't impossible either."

"That's the problem." Nightwing pressed his lips together. "The villains in those universes aren't much better either. Disasters strike every corner of the universe equally. Even Darkseid's Apokolips has fallen."

"Then it seems to be the universe's will," Charles said. "We have this situation here too — a universe will inevitably develop along a predetermined timeline. Even if someone interferes and changes the universe's fate, in the end everything still returns to the proper track."

"Very few Batmen would be willing to abandon their own universe." Red Robin said. "So even if the Batmen go and fish the Dark Universe Batmen out, without saving their universes, they'll ultimately still go back and drown in their universe's darkness. The Batmen have already lost several counterparts this way."

The atmosphere grew somewhat oppressive. Everyone knew Batman was a hero. Many of those Dark Batmen were just momentarily blinded; they'd wake up quickly after the Batmen rescued them.

Like the Batman Who Laughs, the Merciless, and so on. After joining the Batman collective, they turned back into superheroes. But this raised another problem — they'd want to go back and save their own universes.

But many Dark Universes are already in ruins. Take the Merciless's universe — its background setting was constant warfare to begin with. The whole Earth was wrecked almost beyond repair. The difficulty of rebuilding it isn't ordinary.

Moreover, Dark Universes won't give people a chance to build in peace. All of humanity is dead, but the villains who want to stir trouble won't die. They pop out every now and then to cause a major incident. Building might take months; destruction takes only a second.

The Batmen of these universes try to seek help from other superheroes in the Multiverse. The superheroes want to help too, but the problem is, the Dark Multiverse's Earths are like bottomless pits. No matter how many resources and manpower you pour in, you simply can't save them.

Sometimes, Batman and the Justice League go all out and barely manage to pull a Dark Earth back from the ICU. Not a day after they leave, some inexplicable bad thing happens again and destroys all the progress.

The Batmen have also discovered that the Dark Multiverse is actually cursed — everything is bound to not develop in a good direction. As long as there's a probability of something bad happening, that bad thing will definitely happen. It's Murphy's Law in all caps.

Superheroes from the Dark Multiverse refuse to give up, but this unrestrained pouring in of resources will drag even the Light Multiverse down. Yet there's no way to make superheroes abandon saving their homeland. So the matter is just stuck there awkwardly.

Still using the Merciless as an example. Actually, those few Batmen fished out of the Dark Multiverse are all the same. They rarely appear at the Batman base anymore, because they've put so much energy into their homelands. You could say they've already detached from the Multiverse Batman collective, unable to participate in Multiverse affairs.

But the more they behind closed doors, the more they can't save their universe by their own strength alone. For now it's just a conservative approach that avoids burdening others, but this can't go on forever.

Most superheroes who know about this are very pessimistic. If the Dark Multiverse is a place where good things won't happen and bad things definitely will, then no one can save it — not even evacuate the refugees, because there are simply too many. It seems the only ending is watching the Dark Multiverse vanish into the darkness.

"Brainiac counts as a method." Tim sighed. "A super AI is already the lowest-cost, most effective governance method, especially good at post-disaster reconstruction. And his probability calculations are very accurate — he can prevent many bad things from happening."

"But by that logic, wouldn't Doctor Manhattan work too?" Pamela spoke up. "He can modify probabilities, right? Why doesn't Batman choose him?"

"It's not that he doesn't choose him — it's that he definitely wouldn't be willing." Nightwing let out a long sigh. "I've heard from our Batman about some of Doctor Manhattan's behaviors. He lacks empathy, doesn't care about any individual in the universe, not even the survival or death of a single universe."

"Then what does he care about?"

"No one knows," Red Robin said. "But I suspect he wants to keep playing the role of a higher-dimensional observer — but not just observe. He also wants the power and ability to intervene at any moment, like a god."

"Doesn't sound great." Charles shook his head. "Power should be matched with responsibility. God has the power to observe and shape us because He has the responsibility to create and maintain the entire world. If Doctor Manhattan only wants power but refuses all responsibility, then he's just an arrogant evil god."

"How to put it." Nightwing sighed. "I feel he just wants to be responsible for the easy parts — only be a god in the Light Multiverse. For the troublesome Dark Multiverse situation, he doesn't want to touch it at all, and even thinks it'd be better if it disappeared as soon as possible."

"That's the difference between him and Batman," Red Hood said. "Batman realized long ago that they're two different paths. Even though Doctor Manhattan also needs an orderly universe to exist to fulfill his dream of being a god — in a sense they're on the same side — they can never become comrades-in-arms."

"Indeed, compared to Doctor Manhattan, little Bruce is a good teammate too." Harry smiled. "At least when powerful enemies invaded our universe, he didn't run."

"Because Brainiac wants to rule Earth." Tim said. "That sounds classic and traditional. But just like how sometimes classical Emperors would choose to stand with commoners against the nobility, in the Multiverse, traditional ambitious types are actually better."

"If it were Doctor Manhattan, he'd probably stand high above, pick one from among the several forces invading Earth to be Earth's ruler, and then say 'This is for your own good too.'"

Several people curled their lips, clearly disgusted by such behavior. Actually, Brainiac and Darkseid both belong to the traditional ambitious type. They do many things based on profit above all, and at the same time never deny they're evil tyrants. They don't demand others believe in them — they'd rather others fear them.

Doctor Manhattan is different. He wants both fame and profit, and also wants to maintain his status as a higher-dimensional observer, looking down on all beings from on high as a god detached from the mortal world. But he also wants to enjoy the thrill of casually toying with the universe's fate. He can't truly be objective and impartial — he interferes with the universe's development to satisfy his private desires.

And when he interferes, he only interferes with the easy ones — the ones where he casually fiddles a bit and the universe will definitely operate according to his will, walking the path he hopes for.

As for those hard to interfere with — like the Dark Multiverse — he doesn't even spare a glance, treating them as nonexistent. He certainly wouldn't use his abilities to interfere with those universes' fates. Because it's too much effort and not fun — it doesn't satisfy his desire to show off and amuse himself.

No one likes this kind of person. Never mind Batman — even the Joker would call him an evil god. The Robins look down on him even more.

Charles paused a moment, then said: "Batman never forced him to have no choice?"

Everyone looked at him. Charles continued: "Modifying probability is indeed a very useful ability. It would be very effective against your Dark Multiverse. Batman shouldn't need to consider his personal opinion, right?"

The others didn't quite understand yet, but Bruce had already reacted. Right — Doctor Manhattan's opinion doesn't matter. Since he has this ability, he should go save the Dark Multiverse. He's not even human anymore. Batman doesn't need to consider his personal wishes too much.

Wait — did Batman really consider it?

Or that same old thing — Bruce thought — you hand this to me to handle. Put bluntly, you didn't treat this as a real thing either.

If Batman truly wanted to mediate the conflict between Brainiac and Doctor Manhattan, he wouldn't have sent Bruce.

If Bruce was just an expedient measure — because Batman didn't really want to see this fake Batman in the base — then what about Deathstroke and the Agent? Do those two look like they have the patience for intelligence work?

Deathstroke is a mercenary who likes swinging a big sword. He barely takes any job except killing. The Agent may be an agent, but he's a professional mole. How could Batman not know? Neither of them has any expertise in electronic life or artificial intelligence.

Lilith and Constantine are mages. But Brainiac and Doctor Manhattan are both science-side existences — one is an AI, one is a quantum lifeform. This obviously isn't something mages can handle.

You could say Batman sent this many people and not a single one is professionally relevant — a perfect avoidance of the correct answer. Isn't his thinking already completely obvious?

"Looks like you don't need to hide it from him," Bruce said to Brainiac. "Right now he probably wishes you'd catch Doctor Manhattan's handle and force a poison on him that can't be cured, so he'd have no choice."