amaotonovel Chapter 4490 The Darkest Night (8)
Chapter 4490 The Darkest Night (8)
Chapter 4490 The Darkest Night (18)
Schiller straightened his coat and walked out of the lab. Jenna lowered her voice and asked, "So who is it?"
"An old adversary from your early years, who was already dead when you came to Gotham. Hugo Strange, the former director of Arkham Asylum."
"Your defeated opponent?"
"I guess so," Schiller said, shaking his head. "He's the kind of person who only answers psychology questions on psychology exams."
"...And what about you?"
"Back then, I was the supervillain Scarecrow."
The group drove to what used to be Gotham's central roundabout. Traffic there has improved significantly, but it remains the very heart of Gotham.
Victor set up the equipment with lightning speed. Before Brainiac could even assess it, a plume of icy vapor shot into the sky. Remarkably, no one felt the cold; only a very faint breeze swept by. Then, a thin film spread out in the air until it formed a hemispherical protective shield, enveloping Gotham.
“This doesn’t look like ice at all,” Jenna exclaimed. “It looks more like magic, like a shield from a cartoon.”
“It’s not ice at all,” Nora explained. “The scientific name for dense ice is actually ‘static atom energy barrier’.”
"What?" Jenna didn't understand at first, but she knew that these professional terms were much more advanced than "ice," and asked with wide eyes.
“Victor invented dense ice more than a decade ago. With his skill level, what do you think he could have turned into in those ten years?” Schiller asked.
“The original dense ice only insulated heat in a broad sense, that is, it blocked most heat exchange, and could barely be called ice. But now, it is more like an atomic manipulation technique, allowing the atoms in a certain region to reach a balance. Victor calls it 'stasis'. This allows the atoms inside and outside to not react with the atoms in this region, achieving the effect of completely isolating energy.”
“That sounds amazing,” Jenna said. “So he shouldn’t be called Mr. Freeze, but Atom?”
“The Atomic Man has another name,” Schiller said.
"what?"
"God."
Nora shook her head and explained, "Victor certainly can't completely control atoms, otherwise he'd be no different from God. He can only slow down the movement of atoms in a certain area, or even keep them relatively still. But that's already quite impressive. Who would have thought that he initially just wanted to break through absolute zero and create the most perfect ice in the world?"
After the dense ice barrier was deployed, Gotham's temperature stopped dropping and eventually settled at around -10 degrees Celsius. This temperature was already quite low, but still tolerable. Especially considering Gotham is a long-established industrial city and doesn't lack thermal energy.
But other cities were clearly not so lucky. The sun hadn't even risen, yet it was already sparking widespread panic. The rapidly dropping temperatures further fueled the unrest.
“I need a lot of raw materials,” Victor said. “It looks like we have to freeze the whole planet. God help me, I won’t be on the front page of the 21st-century terrorist list.”
Despite saying this, he quickly returned to the lab and began his research. He had experience freezing Gotham, but not freezing Earth. There were too many things to confirm.
The good news is that there's not much to worry about regarding raw materials; Brainiac can mobilize its global production lines and prepare everything in as little as two hours. Meanwhile, the ground temperature is currently dropping at a rate of approximately 5 degrees Celsius per hour, meaning a drop of about 10 degrees Celsius in two hours, which is perfectly acceptable.
The biggest problem is gravity. After the Sun decays into a black dwarf, it won't be completely without gravity, but its gravitational pull will obviously decrease significantly, and it will gradually cease motion. However, the orbits within the solar system are currently functioning normally, which is likely due to the intervention of the Justice League.
After all, such a major incident couldn't be left undone. Both Bruce's dark powers and Green Lantern energy could adjust planetary orbits. The solar system's speed in space might slow down, but it wouldn't stop completely, nor would it suffer major disruptions due to gravitational issues.
Of course, enveloping the Earth in these two energies to isolate heat exchange isn't impossible, but the biggest problem is that the people on this planet haven't undergone magical transformations. No one can guarantee whether covering the entire globe with such energy will cause mutations or other problems. Especially with the power of darkness, even Barbatos wouldn't dare to do that to Earth.
Fortunately, Gotham's talent pool proved its advantage at this time. Victor's research on dense ice had reached a level of perfection, and he used it with ease and mastery. First, they would secure their base in Gotham, and then begin work on freezing the Earth. As long as they could stabilize the temperature at a level where humans could barely survive, the problem wouldn't be too significant.
The remaining problem is the issue of plant photosynthesis. If plants cannot photosynthesize and wither, the food chain will quickly collapse. The damage to the Earth would be irreversible. Clearly, this requires Pamela's support for the greening of all things.
Normally, plants can only obtain energy through photosynthesis. But if the Green of All Things intervenes, it's not impossible to hold out for a while using the power of plants. When Schiller called, Pamela didn't answer, presumably she was already negotiating with the Green of All Things. Schiller wasn't worried about failure, because it was clear that while the Dark Force and Green Light energy wouldn't work on Earth, they could certainly be effective against these mysterious entities.
And then there's the issue of Clark's inability to replenish his energy. Kryptonians like Clark and Kara do indeed lose their superpowers without the energy of the Yellow Sun. But Hale is different.
Hale was Superman when he was on Krypton. That means the red sun and the yellow sun made no difference to him. He was already a superhuman; he was powerful enough without needing sunlight. He doesn't usually act like Superman because he already is. But if there isn't a Superman, then the other side will be facing an even more powerful one.
Clark's weakness is kryptonite, while Hale's weakness is that he has no weaknesses. They also come with additional abilities such as mind reading, teleportation, shapeshifting, and time travel—abilities that even Superman doesn't possess.
It can be said that all the good karma this universe has cultivated in the past has borne fruit today. If Nora hadn't been rescued so quickly, Mr. Freeze wouldn't have been able to develop such powerful atomic manipulation technology, and therefore wouldn't have had the ability to freeze the Earth. If Brainiac had been eliminated or driven away, resource allocation would have been a major problem; without raw materials, even a skilled cook can't make a meal. If Bruce hadn't broken free from his identity as Batman, he wouldn't have been able to actively contact Barbatos and obtain the Dark Power. If Hal hadn't become the undisputed Emerald Prince, he wouldn't have had so much Green Lantern energy to control orbits. If Hale hadn't been left on Earth to join the Kent family, he wouldn't have been able to stand up in place of Superman. Even if the insane people in Arkham Asylum and all the insane reserve members in Gotham City hadn't been properly resettled, the fall of night would have been the end of the city.
And precisely because these issues were resolved almost imperceptibly, Schiller no longer needed to run around; he could simply remain in his office as an armchair detective. His primary objective now was to find the hidden Hugo Strange.
If nothing unexpected happens, this guy's first target will be himself, and his second target will likely be Arkham Asylum. He's already gone there to warn Brand and made proper arrangements for Edward. It will be difficult for Hugo to find a breakthrough from there. So he'll probably still come after him.
Schiller stared blankly at the wall. After a while, he stood up, took out his phone, dialed a number, and said, "Hello, Wellen? What are you doing? Helping with shipping? Are you free? I need your help with something."
Half an hour later, Mrs. Edson stood at the door of Schiller's office, staring in shock at the large felt board: "My goodness, Professor Rodriguez, are you going to hold a paper exhibition here?"
Schiller directed Wellen to nail the felt board to the blank wall, then turned and said, "I just need to nail some clues and evidence to get my thoughts together."
“You don’t seem like the kind of person who needs evidence, sir,” Mrs. Edson said. “But I still hope it will be useful, so there won’t be another little Chick.”
After nailing it on, Wellen patted his big paw and said, "Okay, Professor, what do you think of this?"
Schiller stepped back a few paces, looked around, nodded, and said, "Not bad, thanks for your hard work. How have you been lately?"
"It's not bad, but I can't handle the cold." Wellen wrapped himself up in layers of clothing. He was already quite tall, and with so many layers, he looked like a giant ball. He sighed and said, "I'm cold-blooded, so minus ten degrees is still too cold for me."
“Then go back and rest,” Schiller said. “Hibernation is fine too. Maybe you’ll wake up to find it’s already dawn.”
Wellen grinned. "That won't do. The worse the weather, the more overtime pay you get. I'm busy making money."
Schiller watched Wellen leave, then returned to his office, examined the felt board, and began nailing things onto it. Once he had nailed the entire board, he turned and left the office, heading towards the cryogenic laboratory.
"What are you doing here again?!" Victor poked his head out from behind the lab table. "Mrs. Brainiac! Get him out!"
“I cannot do that because of the way you addressed me,” Brainiac said.
Victor rolled his eyes: "If you don't dare, you don't dare. Why make up excuses?"
“This is very important. If the superhero hears this, she might misjudge my marital status…”
"I'm not really feeling annoyed. In fact, it reminds me of the days before Nora woke up, when I was in the lab with Schiller like this. The equipment back then wasn't nearly as advanced as it is now, and it was very complicated to set up. But I still enjoyed it. Schiller was as sharp-tongued as ever, always pointing out my hidden thoughts while writing papers and lesson plans, just like now. Maybe I should be interrupted by him, but I'm actually used to it. It makes me feel less alone. Although I'm not alone now, it's always nice to relive old memories..."
“Schiller! That’s not what I thought!” Victor roared. “I didn’t use my own pen to glorify myself like that! Have you no shame?!”
"Although I pretended to be angry, it was actually just to cover up the shock and perhaps a little shyness that Schiller had once again guessed my thoughts correctly, because he knew once again that I was actually impressed by his insightful observations..."
"Oh my God!!!"
Some say arrogance isn't as aggressive anymore, but it's just that it lacks a stage.