amaotonovel Chapter 4517 The Darkest Night (45)
Chapter 4517 The Darkest Night (45)
Chapter 4517 The Darkest Night (Forty-Five)
"Many people think that resilience is Jason Todd's defining characteristic. I don't deny that. His difficult upbringing gave him above-average endurance."
This resilience wasn't due to insensitivity to pain; otherwise, numbness would have developed. But Mr. Todd's personality contained very little escapism or numbness, far less than the average person. He always confronted difficulties head-on, accurately finding solutions, rarely exhibiting path dependency. This was partly due to his intelligence, but even more so to his powerful inner drive and surging emotions.
I believe that what fueled his intrinsic motivation was the key to shaping his personality. At first glance, I would have thought his motivation stemmed from self-awareness. He was unwilling to be trapped here, unwilling to be ordinary, so he desperately wanted to move up. This is a common intrinsic motivation among many intelligent people from underprivileged backgrounds.
Because they are intelligent, they have deeper insights than others, and therefore are less satisfied with the status quo, wanting to see a bigger world and live a better life. This is so common that it has almost become a rule. But I don't think Jason Todd is like that.
Jason's intrinsic motivation stems from his empathy. That is, his desire for self-improvement doesn't arise from self-awareness, but rather from his perception of the situations of those around him. More precisely, it's the feeling of hope projected onto him by others that generates his powerful intrinsic motivation.
He was a born revolutionary, and revolutionaries are always tormented and passionate. Their torment stems from the fact that revolutionary spirit is more like a curse—an inability to stand idly by while others suffer, a compelling reason to take on the responsibility of leading them out of their predicament. This compels revolutionaries to become protectors, leaders, a ray of hope in desperate situations, a spark of light in a snowy plain. This is the source of his immense endurance and willpower.
What excites them is the hope that people place in them, giving them an unparalleled sense of mission. No matter how small the group or how dire the situation, any improvement brings a spiritual encouragement more enjoyable than any material incentive. Many people say that revolutionaries are good at finding joy in hardship, but that's not entirely true. When progress is made, they can truly disregard all material conditions and feel genuinely happy.
Empathy leads to selflessness, but selflessness doesn't always bring rewards. This may seem out of step with modern society, but in Gotham City, in that dark era that I didn't know much about, it was a very precious quality for survival.
It may sound strange, but I believe the Dark Ages were definitely not a hunting ground for jungle-like individuals. On the contrary, the overwhelming suffering filtered out the most empathetic revolutionaries, those most capable of understanding the suffering of others. They united, struggled to survive in the mire, and even fought their way out.
Just like in primitive societies, the immense pressure to survive meant that disunity was essential for survival. It was on this foundation that we built communal societies. In this model, individuals like Jason Todd will inevitably emerge. Furthermore, the communal nature of others will certainly be stronger. Adapt to society, understand society, and love this society and everyone else within it.
This is why Gotham experienced several social upheavals in a short period without triggering large-scale civil unrest. The people of Gotham love each other more than we imagine. They weathered so many dark nights together, supporting and watching over one another. The dark ages were not a stain on their character, but rather a torch they ignited together with the brilliance of humanity, burning brightly and never extinguished, even today and into the future.
As Jenna finished speaking, everyone couldn't help but applaud her. Victor even couldn't help but praise her, saying, "You should run for mayor, Miss. It's necessary because Brainiac could never give such an inspiring speech at a time like this, to unite everyone."
“I can,” Brainiac said. “Fun fact, Dr. Fries, I have a feature called recording.”
Jenna became a little shy, smiled and said, "Thank you for the compliment, but it's not that great. It would be great if I could be of any help."
“This has been a great help,” Schiller said. “Now I’m much more confident. Let’s get ready and then begin.”
Although it was just a little preparation, it would still take some time. Freezing and chemical processing are not easy procedures. And just as they were preparing, another piece of good news arrived: the superbody seemed likely to actually be able to resurrect the zombies.
The reason it's considered promising is because she discovered that once the forces of life and death reach a balance, humanity can indeed return to its state when it was alive. That is, it grows continuously because of the force of life and decays continuously because of the force of death. This is the normal human life cycle.
But precisely because it is a hope, rather than a confirmed success, it means that problems still exist. The most troublesome point actually lies in the soul, or more precisely, the spirit.
The body might be able to return to a living state, but the spirit controlling the zombie's body no longer seems to be the original soul of that person, but rather an illusion constructed by the power of death. It's only because the power of death has high enough authority that the illusion it creates is indistinguishable from the original, making it difficult to detect the problem.
It's like a file that was originally thrown into the recycle bin and then completely shredded, no longer existing. However, an administrator with very high privileges read the file's record in the recycle bin and rewrote an exact copy. You could say it's the original file, or you could say it isn't.
If it were just that, there wouldn't be a problem, but this administrator insisted on mixing in his own agenda. He clearly tampered with things; otherwise, there was no way to guarantee that the zombies would obey him. The superhuman couldn't fix these tamperings because she didn't have the necessary privileges to see what the original files looked like, and therefore had no way to modify them.
The question has circled back to the beginning: how exactly did Hugo break free from the control of the mastermind, and how did he help Novi break free as well? If this problem can be solved, then resurrection is not impossible.
In other words, to resurrect Hugo, they first need to deal with him. Since Lucy can't handle Hugo, Brainiac even prevents her from meeting him. This is because Hugo's abilities are truly malevolent; any sentient being with feelings could be brainwashed by him. If he were to successfully brainwash Lucy, it would be a complete disaster.
In other words, they still have to wait for Schiller to defeat Hugo before they can study the matter of resurrection.
However, this did cause Brainiac's attitude to soften slightly. Because it was clear that resurrection wasn't as simple as Lucy thought. It had a threshold, and was certainly very difficult; it was more likely to be achieved on a small scale, and didn't constitute stealing God's authority.
Because she wanted to resurrect these people, Lucy also became involved in Schiller's plan. Although she strongly disagreed with freezing and injecting chemicals, she knew that there was no other way.
The Lucy conducted a series of tests on Novi, and the conclusions were similar to Brand's: Novi was not resurrected through the normal process; rather, she seemed to have activated her brain and manipulated the corpse through willpower.
This also means that Superbody cannot directly dispel the power of death, otherwise Novi would likely turn into a corpse. Of course, dispelling it would turn anyone into a corpse anyway, since the power of life has a certain restraint on the power of death. To say "dispel" means to leave absolutely nothing behind; without the control of the power of death, the living corpse naturally becomes a dead corpse.
Because there was hope of resurrection, Superbody had never dispelled the death energy within any of the living corpses, so she dared not act rashly. If she didn't control her strength properly, her body might be damaged.
Soon, everything was ready. Jonathan and Victor, those two mad scientists, were incredibly efficient; they had it almost fully debugged in just over a day.
Novie, on the other hand, required the least preparation. So far, she has been very obedient. The nurse simply told her it was medicine, and she drank the liquid Jonathan had prepared.
Of course, she had strong doubts when she entered the cryo-chamber. But after all, she couldn't resist, or rather, after breaking free from the control of the mastermind behind it all, she didn't feel the need to resist. So in the end, she went in anyway.
Schiller kept a close eye on Novi from where she couldn't see him, observing her various expressions and movements, which further confirmed his suspicions. He could roughly guess where Novi's strong will to survive came from.
Entering the spiritual realm wasn't difficult. Schiller went directly to Jack and had him drive the truck through the Dream Kingdom. After locking onto Novie's spiritual realm, the truck stopped at the entrance.
“We can’t just crash right in,” Jack said after getting out of the car and checking the area. “Otherwise, it might cause irreversible damage to her mental health. We can only make a small opening here; you can walk in yourself.”
Schiller nodded; he didn't approve of making too much of a commotion either. That is, until he saw Jack take a chainsaw out of the car.
Schiller frowned deeply. Jack said somewhat helplessly, "Don't make that face. This is a dream, a dream, you understand?"
"Can't you make this dream less terrifying? You're like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre killer right now."
"You mean The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is scarier than the Joker?"
"Not really. But does it have to be this style? How about My Little Pony?"
Finally, both sides compromised. Jack changed his chainsaw to My Little Pony colors and cut a gap in the wall in front of him, big enough for one person to pass through.
Jack stuck his head in to feel around, then said, "Your plan worked. That chilling feeling is gradually dissipating. The power of death seems to be leaving her mental realm."
“This is the perfect time.” After saying that, Schiller went inside.
There were no changes in light or shadow, no bizarre or fantastical elements. He stepped into the familiar scene almost instantly. The fireplace in Wayne Manor was burning quietly, everything was as somber and silent as it had been more than a decade ago.