bioinnovel Chapter 131 A Gentle Story
Chapter 131 A Gentle Story
Chapter 131 A Tender Story (Please Read On)
Chen Tao is watching TV.
A debate was a replay from last night; they often use these replays to fill the gaps when no one is watching in the early morning.
The bright moon hung high, the night was clear and the stars were few—it was the time when Batman often appeared. Chen Tao got up very early; it was still a long time before dawn, and night still shrouded Gotham.
Last night, the long-standing crime ban was lifted, and Gotham's underworld, which had been holding back for almost three months, was set to unleash a new wave of revelry tonight.
But Chen Tao knew that they must have received a... surprise.
A Batman who is not quite the same as before.
The sound from the television was still playing.
"As members of this planet, we have been searching for a savior. 90% of people believe in the power of God, and every religion believes in the concept of a savior. When such a savior truly descends to Earth, should we force him to abide by our rules? We must understand that this is a shift in paradigms..."
"The existence of Superman renders the police and all human social organizations meaningless. Humanity has a long and shameful history of allowing a powerful individual to reshape society and the nation solely through their own will..."
"Blindly following those with great power, ultimately leading to dire consequences... Hitler? Napoleon? We always shape heroes in our own way, projecting ourselves onto them..."
"Seriously, what's so great about Superman solving everything? I don't know if you've ever lived in Gotham, but to me, Superman is just a sunny version of Batman—have you even heard of Batman?"
"But it's clear that Batman couldn't possibly take down Gotham's entire criminal organization in one night."
"But it's possible now."
Chen Tao muttered to himself.
He chuckled softly, then continued watching. The people on television were arguing incessantly.
"Maybe Batman is a vampire, a spirit of the night, but he's still a human being, right? I've read Gotham's newspapers from recent years, and Batman has shown more than once that he can get hurt."
"But Superman? Haha, I mean—"
"He's a god walking among men!"
"But people shouldn't be saved by God. Hell, you can't always expect a Superman to fall from the sky and save you when you're in danger! Do you know about suicide slums?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, maybe I should say the official name: Hobby Bay. Recently, a crazy woman has become famous there. She deliberately goes into gang fights, and she even started something called the 'Superman Angels Society,' which, in my opinion, is no different from that cult 'Superman Omnipotent Cult'! Don't you know what those fanatical Superman fans of the 'Superman Omnipotent Cult' have done?"
"They attack everyone who publicly criticizes Superman, just like the Hitler Youth!"
"But Superman personally arrested every member of that cult; fans' actions shouldn't be used against their idol!"
"That's right, Superman arrests those crazy fans only because he wants to. But what will happen if one day he doesn't want to control his obsessive fans anymore?"
"Oh, by the way, you should know that those arrested members now hate Superman to death. The more they believed in Superman before, the more they hate him now."
"Did you see that news report? Do you remember how hysterical that blonde woman named Kelly was when she was arrested?"
"She had even organized anti-government protests, asking Superman why he didn't come and rule us. She was probably one of the most fervent Superman fans, almost turning into a cult member, but this is the end result—this is what happens when you completely rely on Superman!"
"I bet that old woman, Severna, who's famous in the suicide slums, and her Super Angels will end up the same way—"
The opposing debaters gave the affirmative side no chance to speak at all:
"I would like to quote a very famous entrepreneur, Mr. Lex Luther:"
"Superman may seem very friendly now, but this friendliness is just like 'a little boy seeing an ant and thinking it's cute, so he takes good care of it.' And even if Superman can be friendly his whole life, he will eventually die of old age."
"If the police and fire departments are all underutilized, who will save us when Superman dies?"
"Enough! You've said so much, are you suggesting Superman should just stop? You can lecture me loudly anytime, but I want to ask you, do you have the guts to say to grieving parents, 'Superman could have saved your child, but on principle, we don't want him to go'?"
The debate was directly destroyed by a unilateral and unreasonable moral dilemma.
Chen Tao shook his head.
There's not much to see after that.
But before he could get up and turn off the TV, he could still hear the opposing debater's struggle:
"Superman can't save everyone, nor can he save everyone forever. One day, this big blue Boy Scout will realize that everything he did was in vain. After he leaves, evil will still exist, unchanged. In fact, his overreaching will only weaken the forces of justice, causing even greater destruction and imbalance!"
"Faced with the chaos of reality, everything Superman does is futile, all of it will be in vain!"
"In vain!"
The debater's final conclusion echoed in his mind.
Chen Tao suddenly lost interest in turning off the TV. He didn't want to do anything right now and just sat on the sofa in a daze.
However, his phone soon rang, and a monitoring program sent him a notification.
Chen Tao walked to the window and, sure enough, saw Clark, dressed in a Batman suit, flying in from a distance.
"You're not using the grappling hook anymore?" Chen Tao asked him.
Clark turned his head away guiltily.
Although he learned how to use the grappling hook, it was too slow, and he eventually stopped using it.
Superman dodged the question and then said, "Tonight I stopped over 6000 illegal activities, including but not limited to smuggling, drug trafficking, forced prostitution, human trafficking, and violent debt collection. I resolved them all in one night."
He pulled out a crowbar from behind his back that was clearly bent from being hit hard and then forcibly straightened.
"You're right, there are just too many criminals to put them all in prison. So in the end, I listened to you and used the bat-like approach."
Clark said sullenly, "But breaking all four limbs would be too cruel, so I only broke their legs."
Chen Tao knew that the osteopaths would be busy breaking legs tomorrow, and that stretchers and crutches at Wayne Group's medical supply stores would be sold out.
Fortunately, he had the medical supply store stock up beforehand, and he even bought all of his competitor's stock a day in advance.
"There are just too many criminals," Clark repeated sullenly, then said:
"What they did was also ruthless, far more ruthless than in Metropolis. I find it hard to believe you've been fighting these villains all this time. Batman, you're an amazing man."
But so many criminals are still committing crimes.
For some reason, Chen Tao recalled what the opposing debater had said.
"Everything we've done has been in vain!"
He shook his head, forcibly banishing the other person's voice from his mind.
Who cares? The real Batman's superhero rescue plan failed after so many years, what does that have to do with me, a time traveler?
And I'm about to retire.
Without the constraints of the Court of Owls, Gotham's reform plan should be able to proceed smoothly.
Clark saw the images on television.
"Oh, that's the show."
Clark stared blankly at the screen, lost in thought. Chen Tao knew that the recent actions of some fervent admirers had somewhat affected the mind of this Kansas farm boy.
"Mr. Wayne?"
"uh-huh?"
"Sometimes... I feel like Superman doesn't exist. I feel like Superman is just a Kansas farmer's dream, and I don't know when he'll wake up."
His voice was somewhat low.
Chen Tao patted him on the shoulder:
"But your dream still inspires countless people. For some, that farmer's dream is their whole world, their only source of hope. After all—"
"You're Superman!"
As the first rays of dawn fell upon Clark Kent, our Kansas boy shed his Batman black suit and donned his red and blue bodysuit once more.
The "S" on his chest shimmered dazzlingly in the sunlight, reflecting off his face, which was chiseled like that of an ancient Greek demigod and carried a melancholic air.
"A meteorite is falling towards Earth."
He floated up, head raised, his eyes gleaming with white light.
"The landing points are Sydney and Seoul."
Chen Tao knew that he must have seen through countless illusions of the world and reached the world that needed him the most.
"Go save the world once again, Clark."
Chen Tao said, "Fly, Clark! Soar!"
……
……
……
"For God's sake! Your trade in drugs and people here is utter blasphemy!"
The gangster gunman felt completely numb when he saw the old woman barging into the transaction.
To avoid being caught by this old woman and thus attracting Superman again, they have changed the trading time from nighttime to the early morning when normal people should be asleep!
But damn it, why was this old woman still able to find them?!
The gangster gunman scratched his head in frustration:
"How the hell did you find this place?"
"Justice never sleeps, evildoers!"
The old woman stormed up to him, declaring righteously, "I've been monitoring you 24 hours a day!"
The international gang's gunmen felt they couldn't tolerate it any longer.
He raised his gun: "Enough, you bastard!"
He cried out in despair, "You've already sent over a dozen of our gang members to jail!"
Severna wasn't afraid at all.
She deliberately walked up to them, and right there, surrounded by a dozen or so gangsters, she swaggered in front of the large bags of heroin and the live human victims locked in cages.
Many of the kidnapped "goods" were children. They looked at the old woman blocking their way with horror.
The gangster gunman raised his pistol and aimed it at her thin, swaying body.
Sevna looked somewhat tired, but she still prayed in a loud voice: "In the name of God, the angels will punish you wicked people!"
Superman heard what she said.
Even though he is falling at several times the speed of sound right now.
He knew he had to save Sevna now, just as he had done countless times before.
But now... he can't escape.
Two meteorites falling from different directions crashed down at the same time. He had just caught the one from Seoul and was now fighting the one from Sherry.
This meteorite was exceptionally large, far exceeding his expectations. If it had fallen into a densely populated city, it could have caused millions of deaths and injuries in an instant.
He had to do everything in his power to change the trajectory of the meteorite, and he couldn't even spare a hand to call Batman to ask him to save Sevna.
The timing was extremely unfortunate.
It was extremely unfortunate.
Clark could hear the sound of a bullet being chambered.
Even from that distance, his super hearing allowed him to hear the sound of the firing pin striking the gunpowder.
Click.
Sevna spread her arms, blocking the children and the drugs.
Clang.
boom!
……
……
……
I'm sorry.
Clark said to Chen Tao.
They stood at the door of the hospital ward.
Superman, with his body of steel, stopped in his tracks. Chen Tao stood beside him.
"Maybe she'll hate me like that Carrie from the Superman Counselor group before."
Clark said to Chen Tao, "She might resent me for not being able to save her in time."
"No, it won't," Chen Tao said.
But this is clearly not very convincing.
Clark was a bit long-winded.
He held flowers he had brought to visit the patient and wandered through the hospital corridor:
"Perhaps that debater is right. Yes, I watched that debate a long time ago."
Clark said, "My efforts were ultimately in vain."
"Maybe in the end I've just ruined the lives of police officers and firefighters, and ultimately nothing has changed."
"Perhaps this world doesn't need super—"
"What nonsense are you spouting!"
Chen Tao interrupted him: "You're Superman."
He said, "Come on, you'll have to face this eventually."
They pushed open the door to Serena's hospital room.
The old woman lay on the hospital bed, her thin body covered with tubes and wearing a ventilator.
"I...I'm so sorry, there was a meteorite falling at the time, I had to..."
Superman, somewhat at a loss, placed the flowers on the table next to the old woman.
"No, it's not your fault, angel." Then he heard the old woman's faint voice: "God heard my prayers, and therefore sent you to me—"
"But angels don't come every time. I mistakenly took the angel's power for my own, which is why I've suffered this misfortune. It's not your fault, angel. You don't need to blame yourself at all."
The worst-case scenario didn't happen, and Clark breathed a slight sigh of relief. He paused, then continued:
"I'm so sorry. I swear to you, Sevna, I will bring those who hurt you to justice right away."
But his words only earned him a smile from the old woman.
No, it's not necessary.
"What?"
Clark was taken aback.
"Our angel, didn't you see the news?"
Chen Tao turned on the television and found the latest report on it:
"The brutal, cold-blooded, ruthless, and heinous shooting of Ms. Severna has ignited public outrage in the suicide slum. In the past few weeks, this courageous woman who said no to evil has earned the respect of all the citizens."
"Although she was physically weak, her heroic act inspired every citizen suffering from gangsters."
"The orphanage and Super Angels organization she founded have helped hundreds of people in need..."
"The rage of hundreds of thousands of people instantly tore the international gang apart; before the police even arrived, gang members were overwhelmed by the angry citizens..."
Severna's eyes were filled with boundless tenderness as she looked at Superman with reverence.
"Angel, this is your power. Gentle, kind, and inspiring. Even though you can't always be by my side, you still saved me because—"
"You're Superman!"
(End of this chapter)