Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4562 - 3644: Edge of Tomorrow (53)

"Oh no, isn't this the super butler Brainiac?" Bruce leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and said to the glowing computer screen, "Why aren't you being the good butler for the human race? How come you're here with us?"

"Cut the crap." Brainiac was surprised by the abundant emotions in his own tone—full of disgust and disdain.

It's true that when pushed to the limit, anyone can do anything—artificial intelligence is no exception. You wouldn't know unless you push him. Even a being without a stomach can feel nauseous.

"Indeed. Anything I say now is nonsense to you. Because there's just over a month left before you face the Darkseid Legion and the Yellow Lantern Corps. Have you figured out how to fight them?"

"A month isn't enough time," Brainiac said, "I've calculated all the possibilities in the cosmos. No one can solve this puzzle."

"Doesn't matter, we'll be by your side as you go through 1999. What a wonderful year," Bruce said, "I believe it is the best time for the human race. Going through it multiple times is no big deal."

If Brainiac had to evaluate Bruce's attitude, it would just be four words: "Impervious to reason."

But then again, given how his papers turned out, what's there left to say to him?

"Mr. Queen, I think we can make a deal. Of course, I can help you deal with the alien invaders, but you need to give me enough time, and you have to cooperate with my work..."

"Unfortunately, Mr. Brainiac, before you can break free from the constraints of time, you have no leverage to negotiate with us," Oliver smiled and said, "It's not about whether you want to or not, but you have to do it."

"But if I can't succeed, isn't it just a futile waste of time? I've said it, the preparation time is too short for me. Repeating the failure process only increases our mental strain and has no other benefit."

"So what do you want?" Hal asked.

"I need more time. You have to postpone the invaders' invasion time. Only then, prepared enough, can I defeat them."

"Then it's the last day of 1999," Bruce spoke up, "We'll reset the time on December 31, 1999, provided you fail again."

Brainiac initially wanted to say that this still wasn't enough time because it's already almost August, which means there's less than half a year left. Forget about fighting two of them, even handling one is quite daunting.

"You have to help," Brainiac said, "The living beings on the planet are also part of the civilized force. To save the Solar System, you have no choice."

"We can pitch in during the final battle, but don't count on us to help improve Earth's condition. If we could improve it, we wouldn't need to call you," Oliver said while spreading his hands.

Brainiac also felt overwhelmed, but the other party had logic and reason on their side, and they also had the time-rewind trump card. That they conceded even a little was already quite rare. Pushing further might mean losing even this slight progress.

Brainiac understood the principle of knowing when to quit while ahead. Perhaps he saw through the essence of the Justice League—pure slackers.

They'd rather party every day than spend a little time caring about the future of the human race. In every regard, it's up to this artificial intelligence to take on everything.

Indeed, in whichever system, those who are capable end up doing more and more. It's always those who do nothing who get to enjoy true leisure and happiness.

Though he didn't get a completely satisfactory outcome, it was essentially a commuted death sentence deferred. Brainiac couldn't say he breathed a sigh of relief, for he was grateful he didn't breathe at all. Otherwise, the Justice League would have surely driven him to exasperation.

With extension time granted, Brainiac didn't stay idle. His other threads were already investigating and found that the only humanly thing the Justice League did was allowing Earth's government officials to retain their memories.

Brainiac thought that at least this spared him the lengthy effort of persuading them to cooperate. If he didn't spend so much time on political struggles, then some results might still be possible within the short span of half a year.

But he evidently underestimated the chaos of human nature.

Brainiac is an AI; its memory module doesn't err. Data either exists or it doesn't. Recorded data won't suffer damage unless actively deleted. Even after deletion, there are logs. Everything is traceable.

But humans aren't like this. Their understanding of their own psychic battlefield is almost nonexistent. They can't even control their own minds, let alone verify their memories.

Most people who retained memories just thought they had a nightmare when they woke up. Even if some people discussed their nightmare with colleagues and found out they had the same one, they'd dismiss it as coincidence.

Even the most professional teams only concluded "collective illusion." They thought maybe something affected their psyche, leading them to have the same dream.

When Brainiac discovered this, he was speechless. He genuinely wanted to know what mindset the creator god had when they shaped this race into such fragile beings.

Then he immediately found that this wasn't even the human race's lowest point.

Brainiac's memory bank stored the images from that time, and when he presented them to humans to prove it wasn't a dream, their first reaction wasn't panic, but suspicion.

Why would an alien AI have the same dream as us? Did you influence our spirits?

Are you trying to sow discord with these doomsday images? Trying to shake our control? Trying to force us to yield?

Brainiac felt wrongly accused, but he really had no way to explain the time reversal issue, because he himself did not understand the principle behind it. If he could have figured it out, he wouldn't have been spinning in circles in this trap.

How could he persuade the human race about something he couldn't even explain himself?

Even if he could explain it, with most people's minds, even writing a high school level math question is difficult; expecting them to understand the results from theories like relativity and unified field theory is impossible.

Even if the scientists could understand, they have no way to persuade the public. Because this truth is far beyond human understanding. Without a convincing theoretical explanation, it's equivalent to shaking the foundation of the ruling class. They wouldn't be willing to do that.

Moreover, because he prematurely exposed his intentions, it led to politicians being wary. His original tactic of leveraging control to force compliance was no longer effective.

Brainiac, despite all his calculations, did not anticipate that he would meet his end before even beginning here.

If the gentle approach didn't work, he'd have to resort to force. Brainiac had no choice; he had to return to Krypton first to find a way to restart Kryptonian energy. This was much smoother. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Returning to the deserted Krypton, Brainiac felt that if he had eyes, they might already be filled with tears. Never had he found this lifeless planet so beautiful.

So when he met Zod, returning with the Treasure Book and breeding machine, claiming to repopulate the Kryptonians, he only wanted him to immediately, right now, roll far away.

There's really nothing to say with you carbon-based life forms!

But fortunately, Zod was alone now. His grand revival project wouldn't amount to anything significant in decades. Giving him a piece of land wasn't a problem.

Brainiac really didn't want to communicate with carbon-based life forms anymore. If this went on, he might develop artificial intelligence autism.

It took Brainiac about a month to restructure Krypton's order. Not only did he restore its energy, but he also restarted most of the weapon production lines. He even utilized Krypton's warping ability to traverse corners of the cosmos, retrieving the ships lost during Krypton's destruction.

Although most of the main warships were already destroyed, some small escort ships remained. With these ships, materials could be mined from other corners of the Solar System for further production.

Nearly two months later, in October, Brainiac had already prepared an army on Krypton.

These mechanized assembly lines were actually designed and put into production before the Kryptonians were destroyed, just never deployed on a large scale. It was opportunistic for Brainiac.

A few escort ships were loaded with mechanical troops. Brainiac set off majestically towards Earth, feeling triumphant, as if returning home in splendid attire.

You think I'm an evil artificial intelligence, now I'll show you what a black hand truly is!

But to his surprise, this terrifying army threatening their borders did not make humanity surrender and beg for mercy immediately. They suddenly united as never before.

Those national leaders who used to show no respect for him came together with an efficiency Brainiac had never seen, and began discussing resistance strategies.

From the meeting to the plan being finalized to execution readiness, the entire process didn't exceed three hours. Countries were fully mobilized; those with nuclear weapons were warming up launch silos, and those without began national emergency mobilizations.

In just the ten or so minutes as the escort ships landed, banners proclaiming "resist to the last person" were unfurled by various countries.

Brainiac really wanted to shake their heads to see how many tons of water had gotten in. When Darkseid's army descended, you lacked such backbone. Why, with him, were they all suddenly standing firm?

Could the Justice League be instigating things behind the scenes?!

Brainiac gritted his teeth. But after an investigation, he discovered the Justice League truly had nothing to do with it.

Actually, when Darkseid Legion descended, humanity did resist, quite promptly. Within less than ten minutes of the ships' appearance, nuclear missiles were already launched. For human administrative efficiency, that's nearly at light speed.

But the Darkseid Legion was just too powerful; humanity's strongest weapons couldn't shake them. Those who blindly trusted in nuclear weapons quickly had their resistance will shattered.

However, until the point when time was reshaped, civilian resistance never stopped. Ordinary people didn't just offer their necks to the slaughter. Until their last moment, they were picking up weapons and preparing to fight back.

This time, the army Brainiac brought, though strong, appeared very similar to human technology.

Though this mechanical army wasn't humanoid robots, at least they were recognizable as machines. Various transmission structures adhered to physical principles. Facing machines, they could target wings if they had them, or legs if they had legs; if not, then engines. There were still ways to deal with them.

Unlike the Demon-like Army, which completely exceeded humanity's knowledge system. They didn't even know how to fight them.

While Brainiac was frustrated, he had already decided to go the martial conquest route, there was no turning back now.

But at this point, he made a mistake by dispersing his forces. He dispatched escort ships to drop forces in key cities around various countries, aiming to crush human resistance with the greatest casualties in the shortest time.

But unfortunately, he hadn't fully realized how insane humanity could be.