Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 5551 - 4577: Blackest Night (66)

Actually, Gotham’s bad reputation has long been a thing of the past. Not to mention, even before Brainiac’s arrival, Gotham had already greatly laundered its reputation through tourism. After the establishment of the Brainiac government, although the control over Gotham wasn’t strong, nothing major has happened here since. Moreover, its good economic development and excellent living conditions have even attracted a batch of migrant workers.

Few in the new generation know where Gotham’s once notorious reputation originated. Even if they’ve heard that this city used to be terrible, they only assume it was the Mob’s doing, which got better after Brainiac purged the Mob.

Although the older generation has some understanding, to put it bluntly, cities on the East Coast were all like that back then. Gotham wasn’t great, but was Emperor City any better? Was Miami that much stronger? Not to mention Chicago. They simply don’t care.

This has led to Gotham’s dark era fading into history, rarely being mentioned or considered important anymore.

Therefore, when a strange event happens in Gotham, no one perceives that the location of the event might exponentially increase its danger.

Let’s take the rules of a role-playing game as an example: Some very cunning game masters will deliberately beautify the names of certain location options, making them sound harmless to lure teams into choosing them. If they were all called "Certain Maus," even fools wouldn’t choose them.

Because anything happening in places like these has a significant possibility of mutation. In other places, you might just encounter two Fish-Men, but in this kind of location, you’ll have to consider the possibility of dining with Mr. Ke.

Gotham is such a place. Don’t be fooled by the event name not being a major battle, just an event branch or a side mission, but the location bonus is so significant that a bad choice could directly summon the main antagonist.

In fact, the main antagonist is already present. It’s just that mysticism isn’t something you can grasp by cramming at the last minute. Just reading the classics left by predecessors takes years, and these Madmen clearly don’t have the patience. They only somewhat understand what’s going on, and then jump straight into action. This makes them unaware that the Blood Tide isn’t an event created by some simple existence.

These people continuously flock into Gotham, starting to investigate where the creatively beautiful corpse is. Gotham’s coastline isn’t long, and a thorough search could uncover it. Soon enough, a team reached it.

It turns out this team wasn’t adequately prepared. They even climbed onto the cliff directly and then looked down. Keep in mind, even Shiller would get dizzy looking down from that spot. These folks unsurprisingly repeated Hugo’s fall, becoming part of the Blood Tide.

This caused the Blood Tide to grow even larger. And coincidentally, photos of the mutated Blood Tide got disseminated. Everyone else saw it and thought, "Isn’t this even more beautiful?" So they became even more eager to see it with their own eyes. Then several more ill-prepared teams met the same fate here, also becoming part of the Blood Tide.

Most of these people were spontaneous enthusiasts, not genuine experts. But their deaths weren’t entirely meaningless as, besides expanding the Blood Tide, they subtly influenced the battlefield between the Black Death Emperor and Curse Xie Kun.

Both sides have their characteristics: they can’t gain Strength through human sacrifices. The Old Day Dominator doesn’t need to be said, they aren’t Devils, they don’t feed on human Souls, and the number of dead men doesn’t matter. The Black Death Emperor is the source of the Power of Death and doesn’t need additional external replenishments. It seems these people died in vain.

However, in Gotham, anything is possible. Not to mention, it’s within the radiating domain of the Old Day Dominator’s madness. These deceased individuals formed a relatively independent "phenomenon," which is the Blood Tide.

In the Cthulhu Mythos system, madness holds Strength. It’s not that a Madman would be stronger, but the madness brought by forbidden knowledge that’s incomprehensible to the Human race overflows from the human brain, transmitting to their peers, creating psychic stimulation.

After the Blood Tide formed, the bodies injected with Joker Virus solution began twitching more frequently. Some even managed to rise autonomously. They still couldn’t move freely, but they looked alive.

The critical turning point occurred when someone truly prepared intervened. Like Harley’s team, although initially unfamiliar with the Old Day Dominator, they could obtain substantial information and knowledge from the Gotham University Library to understand the source of madness and research some defensive methods.

Additionally, their defense against spiritual pollution was high; even with their Sanity Points at rock bottom, they could operate smoothly. They quickly felt their way to the cliffside. Although they hadn’t directly faced Curse Xie Kun, they were close.

Meanwhile, the Black Death Emperor was still immersed in his role-playing game, battling with the Old Day Dominator in the Psychic_Battlefield for three hundred rounds, entirely oblivious to the outside occurrences.

With insufficient Death Force, he summoned the live zombies over to extract Strength. And the live zombies he summoned happened to get caught by the turf-intending Madmen.

The Madmen couldn’t discern if these were corpses; they only knew these people were bizarrely different from them. They didn’t detain the live zombies but saw how the live zombies, drained of Death Force, fell to the ground. They attributed this to voluntary sacrifice by the Old Day Dominator’s followers.

To further understand the Old Day Dominator, they captured a live zombie intending to interrogate, but evidently, they extracted nothing. So, in a fit of rage, they detained all the live zombies to see if the god, deprived of offerings, would unleash fury.

It wasn’t until several consecutive failures to extract Death Force that the Black Death Emperor realized something went wrong. However, he wasn’t willing to give up because he had already figured out some clues in the psychic world. So, he had to gather more live zombies to drain Strength.

They came in such a large number that the Madmen couldn’t stop them. But Brainiac wasn’t here for idle meals either. After blocking the cliff, anyone nearing got taken away immediately, leaving no chance.

The Black Death Emperor wasn’t stupid. Just thinking about it, he knew if the delivery didn’t arrive, it must’ve been intercepted. As a result, he made the most erroneous decision—he gave those live zombies by the coast some Death Force again, letting them break the siege and receive the delivery.

First, those zombies were injected with the Joker Virus, unable to move for now, because the energy isn’t enough. Once they regained the Power of Death, they revived directly. But the revived aren’t zombies under the control of the Black Death Emperor, one might say they are closer to a postmodern Joker Gang.

From the moment they woke up, they discarded the Black Death Emperor’s orders. Who cares about breaking the blockade or welcoming followers! I’ve got my own big plans to pursue! Batman, where’s Batman?! I ask, where’s Batman?!

The revived zombies remained inactive, unable to break the blockade or access the Power of Death. The Black Death Emperor was perplexed: What’s happening outside? How did Brainiac sever my connection with the zombies?

Though unsure, he wasn’t short on alternatives. If the delivery can’t come in, I’ll go out to get it. Ignoring those other zombies is one thing, but surely Hugo will listen to me?

Currently, the Black Death Emperor’s consciousness is projected into Hugo’s Spirit Domain. He just needs to resurrect Hugo again to control him out of there, then he’ll have the freedom to soar high.

Moreover, he has grasped some principles of spiritual pollution from the Old Day Dominators. In other words, despite Hugo being polluted now, the Black Death Emperor can still find a way to revive him, at least manipulate his body.

No sooner said than done. The Black Death Emperor directly used the last of the Power of Death to revive Hugo, now turned Creature, though he doesn’t realize that this Creature is not merely Hugo anymore.

Outside the cliff blockade area, Gordon was assigning work to his subordinates. Brainiac had issued a stern order; for the past few days, they’ve been on high alert, preventing the Black Death Emperor’s deliveries from bringing him extra energy.

After assigning tonight’s shifts, Gordon felt a faint tremor beneath his feet. He instinctively turned around, then froze completely—a blood-red tsunami descended from the skies. The surging waves were not water, but a boundless and distorted mass of human limbs.

Gordon was too shocked to speak. Having been in Gotham for so many years, he thought he’d seen it all—but he had never seen anything like this!

Yet this is why he’s survived in Gotham this long. At the sight of this scene, all experiences flashed through his mind. His instinctive action wasn’t to run or scream, but to pick up the phone and dial Shiller’s number.

"Shiller!!!" Gordon’s roar echoed in the sky, "I told you not to dump bodies into the lake!!!"

Shiller, holding the phone, was a bit speechless. It’s rare for him to feel falsely accused; this was definitely one of those times. Although he wasn’t entirely innocent this time, what does this have to do with the lake? The lake at his doorstep doesn’t connect to the ocean.

While he believed it was unrelated, some people thought differently. Harley and Jason, hiding beside the cliff and witnessing everything, were jaw-dropping. "My god, what is that thing?!"

"Is this the Blood Tide you wanted?!" Jason was also a bit incredulous, "You never told me it was alive!"

"I didn’t know either!" Harley scratched her head, "That’s the most densely populated East District. We can’t let this thing enter the city! We need to stop it!"

Jason vigorously rubbed his eyes but forcefully calmed down, saying, "We’re not enough; let me think, let me think... I’ve got it!"

Harley looked at him as Jason said, "Do you remember the lake in front of Professor Shearer’s house?"

"Are you saying..."

"The creature lurking underneath, it’s somewhat a local, right? Gotham always needs a Batman; it’s time to stand up and protect the hometown!"

This moment, Shiller was standing afar, observing the situation through binoculars and telling Brainiac, "Make sure to arrange the route carefully, pull him a bit farther away, then let the Super Body enter the scene. Do not allow the Super Body to be contaminated."

"Rest assured. The guards will drive the zombies along the coast northward, towards the sparsely populated North District. The Super Body waits for them there."

"And Noel? Has she gone there? It must be ensured that the Black Death Emperor siphons the Power of Death from her body to achieve complete rebirth."

"Professor Fries is already on the way with her."

Shiller nodded, just about to put down the binoculars. Suddenly, another giant appeared in his view.

"...What is that????"