hotmtlnovel Chapter 4063 MU Superbody Major Event (143)
Chapter 4063 MU Superbody Major Event (143)
Chapter 4063 MU: The Superbody Incident (143)
"Hiss..." Superman gasped and whispered to Batman, "I think he's been hanging out with Bruce for too long. This is too vicious."
“But he has a point,” said Batman the Adventurer, spreading his hands. “What did Night Owl gain by abandoning his moral principles?”
The two looked at each other, staring at each other, clearly unable to come up with an answer.
Many people believe that those who abandon morality will gain more advantages in society because they are exempt from certain unwritten rules and sacrifice the interests of others without any bottom line to gain their own benefits, so they should naturally receive more benefits.
But this rule is based on the premise that he can gain more benefits. He sacrifices his morality, uses any means to achieve his goals, and ultimately succeeds. Even if most people disapprove of him, they have to grit their teeth and call him a ruthless hero.
But if you sacrifice your morality and fail to achieve your goal, you'll inevitably resemble a scoundrel who harms others without benefiting himself. People walking past you will not only curse you, but may also spit on you.
How to turn low morality into an advantage is a profound art. If you insist on putting everything in this world, including morality, up for sale in exchange for profit, then you must be a smart person who can do the math. Otherwise, the petty gains obtained by sacrificing morality will not be enough to withstand the pressure brought by social rules.
Many people choose to be good people and follow morality not because they are stupid, but because it is the simplest and easiest way for ordinary people. As long as they live according to some form of standard that is generally accepted, they may not live a very good life, but at least they can survive.
Making a breakthrough is always difficult. Breaking through upwards is just as difficult as breaking through downwards. Breaking through moral norms downwards also involves immense social pressure. And if the timing of the breakthrough is wrong, the degree is problematic, or the benefits gained fail to pull you out of the media storm in time, then the sudden and overwhelming pressure can absolutely drive a person to their death.
So many people don't try it, mainly just to save their lives. And some people do try it, not because they're really smart enough to handle it well, but mostly because they have no other choice and happen to be lucky, so what they gain and what they lose cancel each other out.
Many people feel that crossing ethical boundaries to gain profit is neither difficult nor shameful, but this is because they overlook the societal pressures that come with it. More accurately, they severely underestimate the emotional and psychological damage that societal pressure can inflict, demonstrating a complete disregard for mental health.
But with these things, once the arrow is released, there's no turning back. When you realize just how severe the damage is—enough to shatter a person's spirit—it's already too late. Even if the person survives, certain aspects of their personality will be irreversibly altered. The damage inflicted by rejection or even hatred from a social group is long-lasting and irreversible.
Just as many people are left with lifelong trauma from school bullying, the school is merely a microcosm of society. Those who take the risk and fail face real, comprehensive societal pressure, which is far beyond what ordinary people can withstand. Therefore, most people don't do that, not because they're not smart, but simply because of their instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm.
Only a very small number of intelligent people, and even then, they must be incredibly lucky, to actually obtain core benefits through this method.
Owl is actually quite clever, after all, his opponents are many Batmen. However, he is not clever enough and his luck is not good enough, which means that his many evil decisions have not earned him enough confidence, but instead, one wrong step leads to another.
He sacrificed his moral principles, choosing to join the Laughing Monk's evil plan, only to find himself trapped in it all. Ignoring the sorcerer's advice, he learned black magic and explored forbidden knowledge, only to be outmaneuvered, harming his teammates and being expelled from his own group, ultimately being rescued in disgrace.
So even as an evil Batman, he's unqualified. His evil didn't bring him enough advantages, so even other evil Batmen like him would have to consider whether Night Owl is a good boss.
This is where the advantage of justice becomes apparent. The side of justice has a bottom line, and it is this bottom line that maintains the unity of the team. Therefore, everyone believes that the leader will abide by the bottom line, and even if there is a temporary setback, he will do his best to protect everyone's safety and safeguard everyone's interests.
But the evil side doesn't operate on that level. Bound together by potentially greater interests, there's little unity or moral compass; so if things turn against them, anyone could be sacrificed. Therefore, in a crisis, everyone scrambles to escape, or else the boss will easily push them out to take the fall.
This means that while the righteous side may not necessarily gain much benefit when in a dominant position, their bottom line is still guaranteed when they are at a disadvantage. Their morale won't dissipate as quickly, and the entire team will be more resilient and have a greater margin for error. On the other hand, while the evil side may quickly reap benefits when in a dominant position, they will inevitably scatter like birds and beasts once the situation turns around.
The current situation with Night Owl is that those former evil Batmen used to treat him like a big brother, but when that big brother got into trouble, you didn't care.
The righteous Batmen who previously sided with the main universe's Batman were arguing their case forcefully for the sake of the main universe's Batman. Night Owl had just argued with them for several rounds.
Now it's his turn to be scolded. His teammates are all like gourds with their mouths sawed off, each one either examining the lights on the ceiling or the gaps in the floor tiles, and not a single one of them comes out to help.
However, it's difficult to lend a hand now; at least Batman in The Great Adventure couldn't come up with a rebuttal after thinking about it.
You're talking about a battlefield defeat, but they've already said they didn't actually lose. From a personal character standpoint, even if the main universe's Batman performs poorly now, he can't be worse off than Nite Owl. After all, Nite Owl crossed more moral lines and still fared worse—isn't that just plain pathetic?
But Night Owl lived up to his name; his eyes darted around before he said, "Don't you feel any guilt, Batman? Eighty percent of the Flash's have been killed; they must have suffered terribly when they died. And your Superman, didn't he feel disappointed in you in his final moments?"
Batman, unable to bear it any longer, stepped out from the crowd, nudged Night Owl with his shoulder, and said, "Don't worry, Batman. War always involves casualties, and everyone is prepared for that. Especially the Flash and Superman, they would never be afraid to sacrifice themselves, and they certainly wouldn't blame you. You know them."
“I feel very sorry for their deaths,” the main universe Batman’s voice lowered as he said, “There are always sacrifices in war, but such a great sacrifice is not common. Even if they didn’t feel anything, I feel very sorry. All the pain they experienced was my fault.”
Night Owl immediately felt a surge of smugness; all he needed was for the main universe Batman's momentum to wane. He was just about to press his advantage and launch a deeper psychological attack when he heard the main universe Batman say:
"Mistakes are irreversible, but they can be made up for. The sacrifices have been made and cannot be brought back to life, but we can use their deaths to gain results. That is what I should be doing now. If I wallow in guilt and wallow in self-pity, it would be irresponsible to all the living people."
"I didn't express it because I didn't want my emotions to infect too many people and affect the subsequent operations. I thought everyone was smart and had already tacitly understood, but I didn't expect that some people would actually think that it was wrong of me not to hide in my room and cry. But then again, an antisocial person who lacks empathy can only try to understand the emotional world of normal people through his shallow and simplistic knowledge, so it's not surprising that he would make such a joke."
Night Owl's face turned pale and then purple.
He realized that the absence of Superman wasn't a weakening factor for Batman, but rather an epic buff. While Superman's saintly nature was often infuriating, his indiscriminate sympathy for the underdog was at least a good help to Night Owl. If the main universe's Superman were still around, he would at least step in to smooth things over at this point, instead of leaving him hanging like a thin bat husk.
Night Owl couldn't help but look at the only Superman present, only to find that the other man wasn't looking at him at all, but seemed to be operating the Battle Realm interface, occasionally giving his own Batman a glance.
Great. If Superman were here, he'd probably only be busy flirting with his own Batman from his own universe, completely ignoring the lives of the other Batmen. In a sense, he'd be even more ruthless than a villainous Batman like Owlman.
Unfortunately, he had already taken down his own superhero, so he couldn't help him out of this predicament. But just then, a new Superman arrived in Batman's conference room. Owl turned around and saw it was Superman from Injustice!
Before coming, he had already checked the news in the Battle Realm and knew what good things this Superman had done. He actually directly mind-controlled Batman in his own universe, it was simply... well done.
Night Owl couldn't help but feel a little envious. Since Superman was already useless, and Supergirl was still on Superman's side hunting him down, this group clearly had no future. The Injustice League was far more promising. This guy probably only had some grudge against Batman from his universe; Night Owl wasn't even Batman, so joining wouldn't be a problem, right?
When Injustice Superman entered the room, he sensed a tense atmosphere, but he didn't know who had gone mad. He only knew that the situation was dire, and Superman's side was so short-handed that they had to bring him, the Evil Superman, in to work. He didn't really want to come, but since Injustice Batman was still in their hands, he had no choice but to come.
As soon as he entered the room, he felt a burning gaze. Following that gaze, he first saw a pair of familiar pointed ears, and then... a diver's mask.
Injustice Superman's gaze swept through the crowd, searching for Injustice Batman. But the guy with the round glasses kept staring at him, a gaze that annoyed Injustice Superman.
So he fired a heat beam at it.