area51novel Chapter 227, Section 124: Human Hero Lex Luthor
Chapter 227, Section 124: Human Hero Lex Luthor
Chapter 227, Section 124: Human Hero Lex Luthor
Wei was jolted awake by a severe headache. He opened his eyes to find the surrounding space trembling violently with tremendous noise, like an old, malfunctioning machine.
He had experienced this situation twice before, and needless to say, the timeline had changed again, but unlike before, this time it lasted for far too long.
Amidst the continuous tremors, the paint on the walls of the New Jersey State Police detention cell began to peel away, revealing the bright silver metal interior beneath. The iron bed that Wei had been resting against also vanished from its solid state, scattering into countless molecules before his eyes and then reassembling.
The dim indoor light became even more dazzling, and the extinguished fluorescent tubes were replaced by natural light emanating from behind the translucent walls.
While Wei was still in shock at the changes in the walls, his simple iron bed had been reorganized by the turbulent space into a contraption filled with electrical wires and pipes, resembling a life support pod.
call!
A deafening roar swept past the window, drawing Wei's attention. He turned to look and saw a massive spaceship descend from the sky and land in the square in front of the police station.
Meanwhile, the city that had been sleeping in the night suddenly disintegrated, and buildings with flashing neon lights and bizarre shapes rose from the dust, along with countless flying machines as numerous as mosquitoes and flies.
Wei seemed to have become a person abandoned by time. Standing outside the rushing river of time, he witnessed human civilization step into the next century in just a few minutes.
"Why—why is this happening!"
When the tremors subsided, he stood in this magnificent yet unfamiliar world, gazing at the LED screen on the ceiling displaying blue skies and white clouds, and uttered a question.
If the Joker still existed in this world, he would surely jump out with a maniacal laugh and tell him that if this world were a giant game, then everything Willie experienced before was a key decision that could change the course of the story.
After all, this world has long been destroyed. In order to recreate it, **** created ****** and extracted many elements from the adjacent Dark Multiverse.
To reduce the difficulty for players, the developers thoughtfully used a dark multiverse without any superpowers or even Batman as the initial blueprint, greatly increasing Will's chances of survival.
As players played the game and began to rewrite the world data, the initial blueprint data was no longer sufficient for the simulator's interpretation. As a result, more information and data from other dark and diverse sources replaced local resources and textures in an almost brutal way, which became the world line change in Wei's eyes.
But has the worldline really changed? No, actually very little has been changed; much more has been added.
The last update added superpowers to this simulated world, along with Superman, a top-tier fighter capable of easily defeating any boss. What changes will this massive update bring this time?
As for why the Joker left.
It's very simple; he has already given up on this world.
Like a movie that was aborted, the original V Batman was supposed to experience a lesbian rebirth and then fight to the death with a corrupted Superman. However, with the intervention of Clark and Lex Luthor, the script was scrapped, and the Joker director completely lost control of the plot.
Of the nearly one million participants in this simulation system, only a handful, like Wei, made it to the very late stages.
But he is by no means the only one.
That's why the Joker didn't hesitate to give up and choose to go to the next film set.
But Joker, who has played some terrible jokes on Batman for half his life, has now become a pitiful victim of fate.
Having regained some consciousness, Wally chose to rebel, not bringing the Joker back to his own world, but instead leading him to the abyss of death.
Once the tunnel opened, Joseph and Wally created a new storyline in the Batman v V timeline, which was strictly prohibited in the simulation experiment.
But that's not the main point. In this storyline, Wei, who is in the beginner village, accidentally obtains a stationary bike that can travel through time.
Perhaps one day, two bats that have gone further and further apart on the diverging paths of fate will meet again, but who can say for sure what the future holds?
Lex Luthor jolted awake from his seat, rubbing his temples in surprise at how he had managed to fall asleep under such circumstances.
He vaguely remembered the dream he had just had. In the dream, he was confronting a strange guy from afar, and the guy was planning to kidnap Louis and drive Superman insane right under his nose.
Lex felt he was being too stressed.
Secretary Eve Tesmark promptly handed over a steaming cup of black tea.
"Eve, you're not—never mind, it's nothing."
The moment his fingertips touched the coaster, Luther seemed to remember something, lifted his eyelids, and then shook his head with a soft chuckle to himself.
In his dream, Eve was sent by him to protect Superman's wife, but the dream was so realistic that he couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion.
"Professor Luther, Superman is waiting for you in the lobby downstairs."
"Superman? When was that?"
"Eight minutes and two seconds ago, you were sleeping, so I didn't disturb you."
Luther simply expressed his dissatisfaction with a frown, then he pressed a button on the control panel, and the instrument in front of him displayed a full-scale projection of the building's ground floor.
Superman stood in the center of the hall, with two mountains of flesh piled up beside him.
"Looks like you've handled Gotham's affairs with ease." Lex blew away the rising steam from his tea and carefully took a sip.
A minute later, these two arch-rivals met on the ground floor of the Luther Financial Building.
"Christmas has just passed, you must not have come to me because you missed me — let me guess, you couldn't find a suitable place to contain a powerful enemy?"
"Look at these two big guys. If they were put in jail, I bet the Kansas prisons would be torn to shreds."
Although he had already seen through his brother's eyes, Luther still pretended to be surprised.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Luther."
Superman walked over with his arms outstretched.
Compared to the fabric suit that Louise hand-sewn, Clark's current armor is full of futuristic technology.
The shoulder pads that hugged his upper arms made his already broad chest appear even more majestic and imposing. A red variant of the S-shaped logo was embedded in the gray-blue nano-metal breastplate, extending from his chest to his waist and abdomen, connecting to the red patch at his hips.
This red color echoes the vector lines along the seams of the trousers, extending all the way to the boots; it's more like a totem that would be inlaid on armor.
Anyone who has seen it with their own eyes will no longer complain about Superman's outfit, which is wearing his underwear on the outside.
Luther laughed and responded by opening his arms wide.
After all, if they can exchange gifts at Christmas, their relationship can't be too bad.
Of course, Luther's expression turned cold the moment he hugged Luther, which also showed that their relationship wasn't much better.
After a round of insincere pleasantries, Luthor took over the trouble from Superman: the killers Crocodile Weylen and Bane.
Coincidentally, he has recently been researching the mysterious power "Crimson of All Beings" that can turn humans into beasts, and the Killer Croc is undoubtedly the best experimental subject.
As for Bane, who possesses the power of Dionysus and poison, there's even more to say. This technological marvel of the Court of Owls fell into Luthor's hands, and the outcome was predictable.
Superman was well aware that Luthor still harbored strong hostility towards him, but firstly, he really couldn't deal with the two of them, and secondly, he understood Luthor and knew that the other party was firmly on the side of humanity.
A rational, ambitious, and determined scientist would not release experimental subjects to harm human society.
Here, I'd like to highlight Hugo Strange, the mad scientist who ordered the cyborgs to carry out the casino massacre.
Using the anti-gravity device, Luther easily transported the two enormous creatures into the laboratory.
Pressing the switch on the experimental platform causes two transparent spheres, held by robotic arms, to extend from the flip-top ceiling. The bottom of the spheres opens, enveloping Killer Croc and Bane within.
As the sphere began to move, their bodies gradually levitated until they came to rest in the center of the sphere.
Next came the thawing. Luther sipped his warm red tea while watching the ice shards on the two suspended figures melt and fall off.
Bane was the first to regain consciousness.
After agreeing to meet Lex Luthor, the enhanced human pretended to cooperate and allowed Superman to freeze him, then waited for Superman to leave.
But he clearly underestimated Luther's abilities; with his feet dangling in the air in the center of the transparent sphere, he couldn't exert any strength at all.
"Unless you can fly like Superman, you should save your energy."
Do you know me?
"I even know everything you've done in Gotham."
Luther put down his teacup and turned his chair to face Bane directly.
"The most powerful human on Earth, the pinnacle of enhanced humanity—I think that's a fitting description for you. But you should also realize that human power has its limits; our genes determine our upper limit."
"Once you reach your physical limits, all that's left to compete on is scheming and intelligence, something you've already experienced firsthand with Bruce Wayne."
What are you trying to say?
"Beyond human capabilities will make you stronger."
Luther tapped on the keyboard, and a line of large characters appeared on the lab's display wall—"Code Name B—ZERO".
Since obtaining Superman DNA from the Zoro battle thirty years ago, Luthor has been pushing forward Project Bizarro, but he cannot completely clone a Kryptonian, as this would violate his "human supremacy" philosophy.
So Luther set his sights on Jonathan Jr. first.
Unlike Superman, Lex Luthor genuinely loves this child. He possesses human genes and has received a pure American education since childhood. Every Christmas, Joe receives gifts filled with Uncle Luthor's love.
However, Luthor was not yet able to control the separation between Superman and his son, so the plan had to move to Phase B: cloning.
This stage is also quite challenging. The birth of Little Joe is a miracle with a one in a trillion chance. In reality, no matter how much Lex tries to reduce the Kryptonian genes, it can easily devour and assimilate human genes.
It wasn't until Luthor witnessed Bane's power, enough to rival Superboy's brute strength, that he became fascinated.
This is the human settlement he is looking for.
"And what are my benefits?"
After reading the plan and realizing that Luthor coveted his genes, Bane took control of the situation.
"I'll let you go after the experiment is over, but only if you don't cause any more trouble, especially not to attract Superman's attention." Luther rested one hand on his face and the other on his thigh, his fingertips tapping his knee repeatedly.
It's ridiculous. How could Luthor, who considers himself a human hero, possibly let Bane go?
Bain was unwilling to believe the other party, but for the moment, he seemed to have no other choice.
Meanwhile, in his cell, Wei had already begun examining the strange prison uniform he was wearing.
The white composite material, resembling a waterproof sheet, makes a loud rattling noise with the slightest movement, and an exoskeleton covers the entire body outside this white sheet.
-
However, these exoskeletons are different from those that enhance strength like mechanical bat armor; they are used to restrain criminals, and their joints will be locked immediately if the criminal shows any tendency to escape.
Instinct told him that he was in a dangerous situation. Although the timeline had changed, the fact that he had destroyed the Court of Owls and gotten into trouble with a bunch of troublesome guys had not changed. In fact, the change in the timeline had increased the difficulty of his escape. Originally, he only needed to open the handcuffs and shackles, but now he had to deal with this annoying exoskeleton joint lock.
Looking around, besides the spaceship-shaped hibernation pod, there was also a toilet in the cell with a sink attached to the back cover and the seat covered in urine stains.
This somewhat old-looking toilet is probably the only thing that resonates with Wei in this futuristic tech city.
He glanced casually at the camera in the corner, then strode lazily toward the toilet.
After freeing up his bladder, he ripped off the tap.
The tap water sprayed onto my face, flowed down my body to the floor, and then flowed into the life support pod filled with wires.
In fact, he didn't expend much effort; the switch was already somewhat rusted.
The unusual noises coming from the detention room also caught the attention of two officers on duty in the monitoring room.
"See? That idiot broke the faucet off! Call a plumber right now!"
"Perhaps we should observe him further. He's a prisoner sent here by Superman; do you really want to believe everything you see on the surface?"
"You're right, but if we don't do something soon, the water on the floor will soak the life support pods—"
Damn it, I told you long ago that the detention cells didn't need these things. Just give them a wooden plank bed!
The police officer, heavily pregnant, reluctantly stood up, his fingertips dangling the key to the detention cell.
The door to the detention cell was quickly opened, and two police officers ordered Qin Wei to squat in the corner with his hands behind his head, then unlocked the joint locks on his body.
Instantly, the exoskeleton retracted, locking Wei's limb joints in place.
This thing was even more secure than he had expected; he couldn't move a single finger and could only listen to the idle chatter of the two police officers behind him.
"I told you it would be fine. With the joint lock in place, unless he's Superman, there's no way he could break free."
The flag has been raised; now it's up to Wei to break free from this entanglement of joint locks.
In fact, this was just an exploration. After figuring out how the thing worked, he already had a general direction for tackling the problem.