pdf-ebookys Chapter 562 The maniacal laughter that appears in everyone's dreams on the time-travel path
Chapter 562 The maniacal laughter that appears in everyone's dreams on the time-travel path
Chapter 562 The Laughing Batman Appears in Everyone's Dreams in the Time-Traveling Stream (6000-word long chapter)
"Have you finished your work?"
When Chen Tao returned from the Dark Multiverse, the first thing he did was go to the Crimson Underworld, the Garden of Bones.
After all living beings die, their souls enter the realm of death, a world completely different from the material universe.
In the realm of death, time and space have no meaning. Only the dregs of the dark multiverse, which are neither alive nor dead, are affected by spatial distance. When they die completely, each soul goes to where it is meant to go, guided by the god it worships or the power it wields after death, or simply returns to the embrace of death.
Once Chen Tao had his Justice League members wield the power of the Red of All Beings, they were essentially the chosen ones of the Red of All Beings in Chen Tao's universe, and naturally had a place to return to after death.
As long as he waits there, Chen Tao can find their souls, and before they are completely dead, plant their bones in the Bone Garden. Then, he can let the power of the Crimson of All Beings slowly repair their broken bodies until they are usable.
It wasn't that Chen Tao didn't want the Crimson of All Beings to repair their physical bodies all at once, but rather that the Justice League members were at most parasitized by the dead water tissue of drowned vengeful spirits created by Chen Tao, and were only slightly connected to the Crimson of All Beings.
Their connection with Red is even weaker than that of the bat-men minions mass-produced using the bat-men serum in the main universe. They cannot quickly reshape their bodies through a connection with Red, like Animal Knight, who was unfortunately possessed by the Three Hunters of the Corruption during the "Descendants of Corruption" era.
So when Chen Tao emerged from the Crimson Realm and returned to his own universe, which he had built into a fortress, the Time Master once again precisely jumped out from a nearby portal to block his path and asked:
"When can you just give me back all those heroes so I can erase their memories and send them back to their own timeline? I'm begging you, please?"
Chen Tao looked at him carefully.
I hadn't really observed the other person before, but now I see that they look completely exhausted, like a patient who's worked themselves to the bone, yet they're pretending to be full of energy, like a middle manager guaranteeing next month's sales to the boss.
Ok……
Who tormented him to the point of collapse, yet he still had to pretend to be strong?
So Chen Tao asked the Time Master this question.
The other person's face turned a deep purplish-red in a short time, but he bit his lower lip and didn't say a word. His eyes were as red as a rabbit's, which frightened Chen Tao so much that he didn't dare to ask any questions.
"Calm down, where's your teammate, the Golden Vanguard?"
Chen Tao asked.
"I've gone to another place to ambush you, to prevent you from dragging this out any longer," said the Time Master.
Chen Tao, having been rebuffed, grinned widely, like a fool, and chuckled awkwardly.
But he wasn't giving up, so he continued, "So I don't understand, since you'll send them back to their original timeline after erasing their memories, what difference does it make whether I spit them out a little later or a little earlier?"
Chen Tao said.
Faced with the Time Master, whose temperature was nearing red, he hurriedly raised his claws to indicate that he meant no harm:
"Stop, stop, stop! Listen to me first, I swear!"
"I swear I absolutely didn't mean to hold back. I was just curious and wanted to learn a little about the basics of timelines."
The Time Master clutched his head, and for a moment Chen Tao almost thought he heard a sob, or perhaps it was just his imagination.
"The timeline is like concrete that hardens over time," he said. "But haven't you ever considered what would happen to the timeline if you let pile drivers keep hammering into that concrete after it dries?!"
The Master of Time's tone was somewhere between screaming and calm narration, filled with a sense of rationality on the verge of madness.
Chen Tao heard him explain patiently in good spirits:
"When you remove those superheroes from their own timelines, do you think their timelines are simply paused as if a pause button has been pressed?"
Chen Tao nodded matter-of-factly: "Yes, that's what I thought. Isn't that right?"
"Of course not!" The Time Master clutched his head, his voice rising at least eight octaves in the direction of the scream: "Their timeline continued to function even without them! Just think, even the flapping of a butterfly's wings can create a massive storm, so imagine the horrific collapse that would occur if the heroes of those pivotal moments disappeared!"
"Can you imagine the death of Superman without him? Superman disappears during his battle with Doomsday and is pulled in to save your mess, while Doomsday doesn't die with him!"
Then Doomsday went on a rampage, slaughtering the entire Justice League and even the entire Earth, before beginning its cosmic carnage!
He evolved to become stronger and stronger, turning into the Doomsday Emperor or some other weird, twisted, and insane thing. He even killed Darkseid, creating a timeline that never existed before in the hyperchronic flow, which brought the entire universe to its destruction!
That timeline was as nightmarish and chaotic as could be, just like the mess Barry Allen caused and the broken timeline created by Batman's brother eye!
(Note: The trouble caused by the Flash mentioned by the Time Master refers to "Flashpoint". Barry Allen went back in time to save his mother, which resulted in Bruce Wayne dying in an alley. His father, Thomas Wayne, became Batman. Superman did not end up on the Kent farm, but on a US military base, where he was studied for decades and became Rib Super. Wonder Woman killed Mera and started a war with Aquaman, causing the destruction of the world... and so on, a series of twisted consequences.)
The Flash stopped himself from saving his mother and fixed the errors, but he also permanently changed the world, ushering in the New 52 era for DC.
But in reality, it was Dr. Manhattan who was behind the Flash creating the Flashpoint. He influenced Barry Allen and used the Flashpoint to steal ten years of the DC Universe.
"Future" is also a story of a broken timeline, where the Brother Eye AI created by Batman rebels and destroys the world.
The Time Master paused slightly, then continued:
"But this broken timeline isn't irreversible, you understand? It's like cement that hasn't dried yet. If we put Superman back to the point in time when he was supposed to appear, and let him and Doomsday complete their history, stabbing each other in the chest with bone spikes and kryptonite spears, and then jumping into the grave hand in hand, we can continue Superman's resurrection from the Life Matrix..."
History can then continue, and history will return to normal, do you understand?
Because the timeline of "Superman and Doomsday perished together, and then Superman was resurrected using the Life Matrix" has existed for a much longer time in the hyperchronic flow, making it far more robust than the timeline of "Superman disappeared, Doomsday became incurable, causing the world to collapse," which was caused by Superman being brought in to help.
The Time Master said, "So once Superman returns, the unevolved broken timeline will be erased, and the original normal timeline will be restored. But! Remember, this process must be fast."
He gave an example: "If the normal timeline is a solidified concrete road, the super paradox caused by Superman's disappearance is like a paradox pile driver, constantly destroying the solidified timeline. Because Superman disappeared, things that should have happened are now rootless floating duckweed."
But paradoxically, it takes time for the piling machine to break up solidified cement roads, and the collapsed world lines are like newly paved cement roads; they also need time to dry.
"As long as we can put Superman back into the original timeline before the Paradox Piling Machine completely destroys the solidified normal timeline road, the Paradox Piling Machine will disappear immediately, and the collapsed timeline road with its still-wet cement will also disappear."
Next, the solidified road surface destroyed by the pile driver will be repaired. Although after repair, these previously damaged sections of road will be slightly damp and not as solid as before, the areas not destroyed by the pile driver will remain solid. Over time, the damp areas will solidify again, and then everything will be fine.
The Time Master said, "But we absolutely cannot drag this out too long! We must not allow the collapsed world lines to solidify and harden, and we must not allow the Paradox Piling Machine to destroy too many solidified normal world lines!"
The Time Master was spitting as he spoke:
"Just imagine how terrifying that is! Those frozen roads are like steel bars forming our multiverse, where many events are interconnected!"
"I see."
Chen Tao understood what the Time Master meant:
"The events of 'The Death of Superman' led to the defeat of Cyborg Superman, who then planned a comeback. This is why he teamed up with Mongo to cause the massacre of 700 million people in Seaside City during 'Emerald Twilight,' which transformed Howl into Parallax. Because of this transformation, Howl was able to sacrifice himself to take down the Sun Eater in 'The Night End,' saving the DC Universe..."
"So if Superman's death goes off-track, the entire timeline collapses?"
"Yes, and what's even more troublesome is that once that twisted anomaly born on that broken world line exists for a long enough time without being erased, if it becomes strong enough to distort time and space and ignore time paradoxes, this thing will be like an iron rod stuck in a concrete road that cannot be erased."
"What if we end up with hundreds or even thousands of horrific freaks on broken timelines... Haha! The entire multiverse might as well just commit suicide! It's not just Superman's death; the disappearance of every hero could cause deviations in key events, leading to the creation of entirely new timelines! So I'm begging you!"
"All right."
Chen Tao gave in.
"vomit!"
He made a sound like a golden retriever vomiting.
Then, with a huge sneeze, Kong Kenan, the Chinese superman, appeared on the ground, all sticky and gooey.
"Oh God."
Kong Kenan, the Chinese superhero, groggily got up, wiped the slime off his head, and said seriously, "I don't quite understand, do you really have to vomit or swallow us to release us from the alternate dimension inside your body?"
"Of course," Chen Tao said, "The Metal Spirit's alternate dimension is within my body, I must..."
Then his cerebellum suddenly shrank.
Then Chen Tao extended a fingernail and silently sliced open his enormous belly, which was in the form of a dragon.
For the average person, this would be a cesarean section.
But for Chen Tao...
This is also a cesarean section.
No, for Chen Tao, who controls the Crimson of All Beings, this is just an action.
Then Chen Tao poured out a whole bunch of heroes like pouring beans, like Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket, dumping out a large number of useful items mixed with scrap metal.
A whole bunch of Supermen, lying haphazardly, were thrown out of Chen Tao's stomach in an extremely chaotic manner. They weren't covered in a lot of slime like the Chinese Superman Kong Kenan, but that didn't mean they were clean. Chen Tao swallowed them with his mouth, so they had all passed through his esophagus.
The Red Son landed headfirst on Etrigan's face. His steel mask made intimate contact with Etrigan's steel hedgehog mask. Since their biological positions were similar, the Red Son immediately jumped in pain.
Superman from the Justice League sat up from the ground, his skull-like helmet protecting him from the slime sticking to his face; then came the red and blue Supermen, followed by the tattered Superman from the Death of Superman, who fell on their heads; Wonder Woman was the last to fall, using her own steel balloon to cushion the fall on the tattered Superman's face before bouncing him slightly away.
Chen Tao continued to throw out the other Wonder Women like beans pouring from a bamboo tube, even including a miniature three-headed Wonder Woman from the Little Gotham series, who landed on the ground and cried out.
Chen Tao pointed at the little Wonder Woman and asked, "Can I swallow her back?"
"No," said the Time Master. "Every hero must return to their original place; you cannot embezzle from them."
Chen Tao deflated like a balloon, in a physical sense.
Every time he releases a hero, he loses a portion of his positive matter energy, which is the very thing that powers his [Dark Multiverse Dragon] status. Once he's completely exhausted it, he'll be like a diesel engine without fuel, completely shut down.
Chen Tao got a little anxious. After thinking for a moment, he used his status as a Dark Multiverse Dragon to mark each of the superheroes he spat out.
This behavior is equivalent to a super-youthful version of Barbatos's act of weaving other people's fates. Chen Tao knows almost nothing about such advanced operations as weaving fates, and now that he has vomited up more than 3000 heroes, he has also lost the powerful force required to weave fates. However, this does not prevent him from using his authority to leave a mark on the other party so that he can find them later.
There will always be another chance to get help from good friends, right?
So he did it, and the Time Master didn't seem to care or notice this little trick. He just kept urging Chen Tao to keep spitting out more superheroes.
Soon, Chen Tao also spat out the traditional old bat from the era of Knights Fall.
The other party pushed open the hatch and stepped out of his cockpit—out of the cockpit that was still three-quarters full.
Chen Tao swallowed it a little too quickly, and part of the bat-shaped airplane was bitten off and swallowed directly into his stomach.
"My plane is totaled," he said slowly, turning his head.
"Things aren't that bad," Chen Tao said. "At worst, we'll just build a new one."
"My money isn't unlimited..."
"vomit!"
Chen Tao ignored what the old bat was saying next. He cast a Dark Multiverse Dragon Mark on the other side as usual, and then loudly vomited out another hero, making a huge noise that drowned out what the old bat was saying.
Then he cut open his own belly, vomited and had diarrhea, and quickly expelled more than 3000 heroes.
The Time Master summoned the Golden Vanguard, and the two of them worked together. While Chen Tao was vomiting and having diarrhea, they kept helping people erase their memories. Then, they used strange instruments to open a portal and kicked the superheroes, who were now confused and wondering "Who am I? Where am I?", back to their original location.
Some heroes, after learning the importance of memory erasure for the timeline, actively participated in helping to erase memories, so the Time Master and the Golden Vanguard were not slow.
Of course, not every hero is so cooperative. The canonical old bat from Knightfall tries to rebel: "I will not allow anyone to tamper with my memories."
Indeed, in Identity Crisis, after discovering that the Alliance members had erased his memories, Batman almost turned against his old friends.
Chen Tao stretched out his claws and, with a snap, pinched the old bat: "That's not up to you."
He said, "You're just a Batman from the old comics era right now, without the Fenrir Armor, Hellbat Armor, or Slam Armor—those overpowered exoskeletons, haha, how cute."
Then he felt his claws being struck by the powerful electric current from the stun gun. Chen Tao immediately cried out in pain, and then!
Nothing happened.
These electric shock devices were prepared for the Angels of Death, not even intended to kill. The orthodox old bats arrived too quickly and unexpectedly, unprepared for anything.
Chen Tao exerted force, and the old bat also let out a cry in response.
Then he handed the old bat, which he had knocked unconscious, to the Time Master.
"You broke his spine." The Time Master held his forehead. "This Batman comes from after the Knightfall incident, where Bane broke his back. He managed to heal himself and then returned as king. You just broke his back again."
"..."
Chen Tao used the Crimson of All Beings magic to heal the old bat's back.
He scratched his head, then brought his face close to the old bat's: "Anyway, you're about to have your memories erased soon."
He muttered to himself, then transformed his dragon head back into a regular Batman head.
The old bat, just awakened, had no idea what the other party wanted to do. Then he saw the other party reveal a chilling smile: "Hehehehehehehehe!"
Seeing the indescribable expression on the old bat's face, he burst into laughter.
Master of Time: "...What are you doing?"
"Nothing much." Chen Tao casually handed the old bat to the golden vanguard beside him. "It's just a meaningless thing, but it's quite interesting, isn't it?"
He said, "Everyone should do some interesting but meaningless things in their life."
So soon, the old bat's memory was erased, and he was thrown back. The Time Master and the Golden Vanguard even helped him repair his bat-plane using future technology.
After the repairs, it looked brand new, and no one could tell that Chen Tao had once bitten off his cockpit.
Since sending the old bat away, Chen Tao has been performing his bat-like laughter for everyone he spits out, and adding a mark to their body as well. Otherwise, he listens to the Time Master and the Golden Vanguard.
After everyone had finished their busy work and finally sent all the characters away, Chen Tao's entire dragon deflated and reverted to its original form as a bat-winged dinosaur, which he had created using the power of the Crimson of All Beings.
So he simply transformed back into human form.
He wanted to exchange a few words with Golden Vanguard and Time Master, but after completing their mission, the two of them acted like jerks who had achieved their goal, fleeing from him as if he were a plague: "We must go and fix other problems in the timeline..."
Then it disappeared behind the portal.
In the vast expanse of space, all was silent, except for Chen Tao's blank sigh.
"Why won't you even say a few words to me?"
……
……
……
Rumble rumble rumble!
During the Knight's Fall.
Batman, Bruce Wayne, sat up abruptly in bed. He instinctively reached out and touched his back. The illusory pain seemed to still be there, but he knew he had healed his back and that the pain was just a figment of his imagination.
But his back still hurt, as if someone had broken his back and then healed it.
But this is ultimately impossible.
The old bat got up from the bed and stretched out his scarred body.
He had just had a nightmare in which he was powerless and involved in a space war. He could only pilot the Batship, firing machine guns at the enemy, and his contributions were nowhere near those of his superpowered comrades.
Fortunately, it was all just a dream, including...
"Hehehehehehehehehehehehe!"
It seemed as if a maniacal laugh was echoing in his ears.
The old bat shook his head violently. At this moment, he remembered his old friend, the Joker, and realized he had to concentrate, concentrate until he defeated the Angel of Death.
But the laughter still echoed in his ears.
During the time of Superman's death, a ragged Superman returned.
"??????"
He felt pain all over his body, ten times worse than when he was hit by Doomsday.
But he still had to deal with his enemies; he couldn't relax for a moment.
But for some reason, it seemed as if a maniacal laugh was echoing in his ears, so Superman simply laughed along with it, with a sense of relief and a willingness to sacrifice.
"Hehehehehehe..."
Meanwhile, not far away, the Golden Vanguard and the Time Master quietly and invisibly crouched among the ruins.
"Using kryptonite powder to create poison and weaken Doomsday is enough."
It's not just Superman and Batman; all the heroes banished back to their own timelines feel like they've seen a smiling Batman somewhere before, but they all ultimately attribute this memory to their own memory distortion.
……
……
……
The Batman universe: Earth, Metropolis.
When Chen Tao pushed open the door to the Justice League members' hospital room, he saw that everyone had already woken up and was sitting on the bed with smiles on their faces.
"How is everyone?" Chen Tao asked. "This time..."
But he was interrupted before he could finish speaking: "Wait a minute, let us speak first. Batman, we have a surprise for you."
"Okay." At this moment, Chen Tao still had no idea what he was about to face.
He blinked and said, "What surprise?"
(End of this chapter)