He erupted his Small Universe, reversing time to five minutes before the explosion occurred.
Five minutes was his limit; he couldn't save his mother, but he could save nearly a thousand teachers and students at Gotham Elementary.
He hugged Timothy tightly, then turned and left with the bomb.
He was never meant to exist, when he leaves, all traces of his existence will be completely erased. His power is only enough to make one person remember him. Memory brings pain, he does not wish to become Timothy's pain; since Batman is the strongest, he chose Batman to be his keeper of secrets.
Admitting defeat does not mean surrendering.
He drew resentment from other Readers in the High-Dimensional World to strengthen his own power.
The power of the Reader is immense.
If any publication wants sales, authors cannot ignore the opinions of the Readers. One person's voice is too small, but a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand.. when tens of millions of voices gather together, the power becomes so immense that no one can ignore it. Many of the stories in his dreams come from the telepathic transmissions of countless Readers, which is why the hands turning the pages belong to men and women, young and old.
He turned himself into the strongest weapon, infiltrating parallel universes, expanding from points to surfaces, encircling cities from the countryside, seizing that high-dimensional pen that edits destiny, to create a beautiful new world where superheroes can live happily.
He was supposed to quietly carry out his plan within the unseen Dimensional Rift until the day arrived when he could correct the settings and reshape the world, but a BUG appeared as soon as the plan began.
His father was that BUG.
Family ties created a connection between them, Dad shared his power. He thought Dad was still alive, that power allowed Dad to resurrect, retaining all of Dad's memories.
The father who survived became insane.
He could not bear to watch his father descend into madness like the lunatics of Arkham, so a door opened from the Dimensional Rift into this world. His consciousness returned to Gotham, the amnesiac Ghost grabbed his father.
Dad also grabbed him.
..
Colt understood everything.
"Earth Simulator" wasn't a sandbox game at all; it was the progress bar for his grand plan!
No wonder he always felt that time was insufficient; no wonder he always felt a sense of urgency. According to his plan, when the world restarts, the Dimensional Rift will also collapse, giving him the chance to return to his hometown and be Du Zhe once again.
This has been set long ago.
Fifty-eight days later, he will leave even more completely. This time, there will be no bugs, no confidential informants, certainly no one to remember him.
He had gained so much—family, friends, even Timothy.. all of them would leave him.
The air in the Dimensional Rift was always fresh, yet Colt felt as if he were suffocating.
Colt was like a fish out of water, gasping for air, yet unable to breathe; his heart felt so stifled it was about to explode. Common sense tried to tell him that this discomfort was caused by being out of breath, but reason understood that he was terrified of a future where he lost everything.
The more one gains, the more painful the loss becomes.
Colt closed his eyes, struggling to calm his thoughts and switching to abdominal breathing to alleviate the feeling of hypoxia.
Reason regained the upper hand.
Colt put the Virtual Helmet back on, Ghost launched another strike, this time targeting Red Robin's Information Bank.
Timothy had no defenses against Colt, granting him free access to the Safe House and the Information Bank, but Colt didn't use them; instead, he chose to infiltrate stealthily. Unlike Batman, Red Robin had created a file for Colt, one that even had hearts marked on it.
Ninety-nine layers of encryption, every single layer was a word of love.
..
【Your eyes are the brightest stars ()】
【Violet eyes is the most beautiful color (^o^)/～
【Ever since you appeared in my dreams, I have started to look forward to every sleep (*ω)】
【The roses needed for the wedding have already sprouted o(＊￣￣＊)o】
..
【4.2 light-years is very close (￣￣)】
【The bow on the bandage tied my heart in knots (〃''〃)】
【Good morning, good afternoon, good night (づ￣ 3 ￣)づ～】
[I love you (＾＿－)]
..
[This is the ninety-ninth floor. I don't care if you are Batman or Oracle, that's enough. It's impolite to be so curious about other people's love lives (* ￣￣).]
This wasn't a smile, it was a threat.
-----------------------
Author's Note: The main story has less than 20 chapters left. The extra updates are coming to an end. Please add to your collection and pre-order!
Chapter 61
Colt broke through the ninety-ninth line of defense.
Timothy's records were even more complete than Colt's memory.
The files recorded their group assignments, math competition results, every date and photograph of them following Batman, photos of them treating the Dynamic Duo to apples on Halloween, evidence of hiring Jason to scare upperclassmen, the sheet music for their four-hand performance of Waltz of the Flowers.. Timothy even used AI photo manipulation to add Colt into class group photos, there were over a thousand photos of the two of them together.
Up to this point, the information was still quite normal, but as he continued flipping through, the content began to become terrifying.
First, various income and expenditure statements for the Reed family appeared, even broken down into annual, monthly, daily reports formatted into PPTs. By analyzing the sources of income and the destinations of expenditures, Timothy analyzed the status of the family members, accurately identifying exactly which year, month, day Colt became a Ghost, which day he could first touch physical objects, which day he could eat food, which day he started growing taller, which day he registered which account..
The data itself isn't the most terrifying thing; what's even more terrifying is the analysis derived from that data.
Why did Ghost choose Iron Man instead of Batman? What role did Ghost play in the Mechanical Crisis? Was it that missing gem that allowed Ghost to leave the network and begin touching physical objects? If so, could other gems containing special energy also help Ghost return to reality? Was Ghost's connection actually calling out to him for help..
Next, there is the research on Dream Blessing, the direction of Ghost's Spiritual Power development, the analysis of Ghost's quotes..
Nothing was more embarrassing than the quote analysis.
Those cringeworthy words from his childhood were put under a microscope, the Detective dragged out the Du Zhe hidden within Colt, stripping him completely bare.
.. Reader, wanting to save the fate of [comic book characters], possessing the [Edit] power of high-dimensional life.. Idealists, targeted by the world's malice, forced to leave this world..
***Being violated, a normal person should feel angry.
Colt felt as if his heart had been soaked in a jar of syrup; although it was a bit embarrassing, he felt more joy than anything else.
This joy even offset the pain in his heart.
What kind of mindset did Timothy have while organizing these materials?
In the past, he was arrogant and conceited, but now he is timid and dull. Whether Timothy's love arose from a detective's curiosity or was driven by Red Robin's desire to rescue, he was deeply grateful to Timothy for letting him experience the feeling of being loved.
Colt was desperate to see Timothy.
Opposite Wayne Tower.
Tim was busy signing off on insurance claims for Vigilante Insurance and supervising the Superhero Damage Fund to ensure that property damage assessments and compensation plans for the public were completed as quickly as possible, only returning to his nearest Safe House late at night.
Red Robin infiltrated the Justice League system to check interrogation records and gather detailed intelligence on the Lord World.. On the right side of the large screen was a dense array of surveillance footage, among which one closely monitored shot captured an object in motion, automatically jumping to the foreground for display.
At Little Reed's house, the Robin Bird's feeder was filled by an invisible person, the TV remote was moved. Even the little bird, which had been snoozing soundly in a dish of nuts, was moved to its nest; an invisible hand stroked it from head to tail, repeatedly.
The image returned to a standstill, exiting the front-end display.
Timothy was preparing to send a message to Colt when a pair of hands suddenly wrapped around him from behind. Warm skin pressed against his face, every instrument in the room equipped with a speaker began to ring at once:
“Tim, I love you.”
The Flying Skateboard's speed broke the record. Timothy thought to himself that this bit of contemplation wouldn't stop him from responding to Colt: "I love you too, Colt."
Timothy grabbed the hand in front of him and pulled Colt into his arms, then felt Colt's forehead and found his temperature was a bit high, so he reached into a drawer and pulled out some Spiritual Power.
"I haven't overdrawn my Spiritual Power." Colt refused the medicine being brought to his lips, his gaze fixed on Timothy's glowing display screen. The foremost interface showed a family portrait of Jack Drake, Janet Drake, a young Timothy, all three of them smiling at the camera.
“I'm organizing intelligence from the Lord World. The counterparts, Jack Drake and Janet Drake, have also been away from home for a long time, they also died in an accident.” Timothy followed Colt's gaze and turned off the photo. "Time flies; I've almost forgotten what they looked like."
Colt held Timothy tightly, kissing Timothy's eyes, nose, face, lips with dense, lingering kisses.. He knew that although Timothy wouldn't say it, Timothy missed his parents very much, just as he missed Alisa.
Timothy ended the long, lingering kiss, his fingertips gently brushing over Colt's even redder lips. "You're very passionate today. What happened?"
I have always been passionate with you." Colt changed his position, straddling Timothy's lap, wrapping his arms around his neck, staring at him with sparkling eyes: "I just finished decrypting level 99, I suddenly really wanted to tell you that I love you.
The implication of the 99 layers of encryption was obvious.
Any normal person would be angry if they were being observed under a microscope and turned into a spreadsheet, but Colt's reaction was abnormal. Tim calculated the remaining workload and decided to work overtime again tomorrow morning.
Timothy carried Colt toward the bedroom of the Safe House, saying, "We'll sleep here tonight."
For a couple in love, there is no problem that cannot be solved by working up a good sweat.
..
The sweaty workout has ended.
Timothy covered Colt with a blanket and kissed his forehead. "I'm going to find something to eat."
This Safe House hadn't been used for a long time, the only thing left in the refrigerator was the cereal Nightwing had left behind during his last stay. Timothy checked the expiration date, while boiling water to make the cereal, he used his phone to check the surveillance footage.
Surveillance footage specifically recording the Joker's countdown.
57 days.
It was still a dangerous double-digit number, not having suddenly dropped into the even more terrifying single digits, so the reason might be related to the contents of the files. Was the anomaly caused by the surveillance footage of Joseph's death? Or was it the burning of the Edit Department's plans?
"You saw the experimental records of the failed high-dimensional space positioning.." Tim stopped mid-sentence as he carried his cereal back to the bedroom.
There was no one on the bed, the clothes draped over the sofa were gone as well.
Colt?
Timothy put down his bowl to look for his watch, only to find that Colt's location had moved to New York.
The phone let out a duck-like sound as a message popped up in the two-person encrypted group chat.
[See you at the old place.]
What was their usual spot? Neither the school library nor Oak Tree Manor counted. If one had to name a usual spot, it could only be within a dream.
This is a sign that a long talk is coming.
Timothy had granted Colt access to his Information Bank a long time ago, even risking being discovered by his siblings by marking Colt's files with prominent heart symbols. However, Colt was strictly moral and had never once gone in to browse. Timothy waited and waited, almost wishing he could make a low-level mistake—like accidentally sending a file to their group chat—just to break the ice on that well-known but unspoken grand plan, so he could have a serious talk with Colt.
It is not too late to start now.