Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 5959 - 4979: No Batman Here (The End)

When a few people headed to the city center, they found Constantine doing a task here. Tim asked, "Where’s Shiller?"

"He’s gone elsewhere." Constantine shook his head and said, "Are you guys ready to take on the last boss?"

Tim nodded his head, not bothering to ask why Constantine’s team rarely showed up. Honestly, it’s better if Constantine doesn’t show up. Though Black-haired Kang is different from other Constantines, the name is too famous, and it makes one’s heart tremble upon hearing it. Who knows what curse might come? It’s better he doesn’t show up.

Then they started searching in the city center’s commercial street. There’s a whole street full of restaurants right next to Green Street.

This area belongs to a declining old commercial district, completely underdeveloped compared to the new commercial district by the docks. Basically, only some old money occasionally comes here to reminisce about the past. Young people prefer to go to trendy restaurants by the docks.

Tim and Harley don’t like coming here either. The taste is too old-money style, a bit too bland, as if they can’t afford spices and salt. And even though Gotham has plenty of fresh fish, they only serve flavorless fish pieces here. It’s said it was originally set up by a bunch of Englishmen, which is not surprising.

So they took quite some effort before finally finding frozen broccoli in a restaurant’s kitchen. There’s quite a lot of it, a whole big box.

"Will the frozen ones work?" Tim asked a good question, but neither of them knew. They only knew that during the broccoli disaster that swept across Gotham, it was fresh broccoli growing on the ground. Frozen ones hadn’t been tried.

"If it doesn’t work, we’re doomed," Harley said, "How about we try it on the professor?"

"You’re insane," Tim paused, "But it definitely needs testing. Otherwise, if it doesn’t work when we go, we’re doomed."

"But even if we test it beforehand, the survival rate isn’t very high," Harley’s gaze fell on the broccoli.

"Whether we die sooner or later, we have to die," Tim said, "I choose to die sooner; at least the professor’s methods won’t be too cruel. The monster might not be so considerate."

"Makes sense." Harley nodded.

The Arrogant standing in the living room looked at the two and said, "So you mean, because you don’t know whether the monster will be allergic to frozen broccoli, you’re planning to test it on me first?"

Tim sighed, "If I said I want to log off and sleep, I bet you wouldn’t believe me, professor. But I’m really curious..."

"Or you could just tell us," Harley shrugged, "It’s not like we have to practice to know."

"Why are you skeptical it won’t work?" The Arrogant wasn’t angry; he just asked.

"Because if someone is allergic to something, it might not be a physiological allergy," Harley said, "And if it’s a psychological allergy, it could be due to its color, shape, or even smell. In these aspects, frozen broccoli is indeed different from fresh ones."

"You’ve considered quite thoroughly." The Arrogant sat down and said, "But I think you’re overthinking. It’s unlikely Brainiac knows what I’m allergic to; they can’t set such details. It should work as long as it’s broccoli."

"Plus, testing it on me might not be useful. After all, I’m a living person, while that monster is just a program written by Brainiac. Even if it works on me, if Brainiac doesn’t assign it as a weakness, it won’t be useful."

"True." Harley said somewhat regretfully.

The Arrogant naturally didn’t miss her regretful emotions. He smiled and said, "You’ve been waiting for this day for a long time?"

"It’s a pity we couldn’t witness your allergy back then." Harley straightforwardly stopped acting, "Of course, we also didn’t see the shooting of the broccoli. Being young isn’t good."

The Arrogant laughed again, "If you want, I can shoot the broccoli."

"No, emotions aren’t in place, doesn’t have that flavor." Tim waved, "We better go fight the monster."

So Harley carried that box of broccoli and headed towards Gotham University’s psychology department, where no one in this universe knows what they’re doing, it’s utterly baffling.

But it’s not Harley’s first day being crazy. To be precise, not many people in this universe are normal; it’s not surprising to do shocking things. Just treat it as if broccoli has some special use.

Before fighting the monster, they arranged a strategy first. Local universe people are quite familiar with the office’s layout, and although Brainiac expanded it, the basic layout remains unchanged. Inside are many indestructible covers, spaces for their maneuvering.

However, when arranging the tactics and hearing Harley planned to use broccoli to trap the boss inside, everyone was puzzled. If you say it’s some kind of array, aren’t the materials a bit too simple? Moreover, if this is a trap array, what did the first user of this array think? How did they come up with using broccoli for an array?

"Should have brought Damian over," Red Robin commented honestly, "He dislikes eating broccoli the most. This thing could really trap him."

"Precisely," Harley snapped her fingers and said, "The professor is allergic to broccoli."

"This is rather far-fetched," Red Robin said, "You can’t expect the boss to suddenly order a plate of black pepper lamb ribs with broccoli on the battlefield. How will he be allergic if he doesn’t eat it?"

"No need to eat it," Harley said. "It’s a psychic allergy; just seeing it is enough."

Red Robin still had some doubts, but he said nothing more. After all, it doesn’t cost anything to try, and what if it works?

They quickly entered the battleground. According to the tactical layout, the most agile Cassandra went to hold the leader, while Harley took the opportunity to scatter broccoli on the ground, restricting the leader’s movements.

As soon as they entered, the black-tinged silhouette arrived in an instant. Cassandra reacted quickly, bending down to dodge, then lifting her leg to kick. Noticing the leader was about to stab with an umbrella, she quickly changed her move, spun away, and led the leader in another direction.

Harley hurriedly scattered broccoli on the ground. Time was tight, and she didn’t have the chance to set up any formation; she just spread it evenly, so the leader wouldn’t come her way, gradually compressing his movement space.

The idea was good, but with a thrust, the leader charged directly to where the broccoli was, without any intention of avoiding it.

"How could this be!" Harley exclaimed in shock. "Brainiac, you’re being too careless!"

At this moment, there was no response from Brainiac. Harley felt puzzled but had to deal with the situation in front of her as the guy was attacking her.

Harley’s skills weren’t weak either; she had trained in gymnastics and martial arts, immediately lying down to dodge the thrust and rolling to avoid a downward attack. Getting up, she appeared slightly disheveled, but Red Robin fired a shot in the air, pushing the leader back a bit, allowing Harley to avoid the attack.

Harley had just breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed the leader charging toward Red Robin once again. She quickly raised her hand to fire her gun; unlike Red Robin, she had a shotgun. With a bang, the leader’s figure wobbled.

Harley felt puzzled again; this leader didn’t seem as strong as imagined. She knew Professor Shearer’s physical skills weren’t strong; his most powerful weapon was Psyshock. But surely there should be a form of attack for Psyshock; they’ve been inside for a while now with no sign.

The growing doubt in her mind made Harley’s actions increasingly cautious. She felt something was off, starting to slowly edge toward the room’s perimeter. It wasn’t because she wanted to slack off; she was preparing for potential emergencies.

The battle in the field was heating up, with Cassandra going head-to-head with the leader, while the others assisted from the sides, both sides trading blows.

Suddenly, Harley felt everything around her freeze. It was a peculiar sensation, like a piece of software experiencing a system glitch.

This moment lasted only a fraction of a second, unnoticed by those busy fighting. Only Harley, whose attention wasn’t fixed on the battlefield, felt it. She grew increasingly uneasy, choosing not to fire her weapon and instead remained in the corner, observing.

There was another pause. This time, it lasted slightly longer, resembling a frame drop. Another pause followed, more pronounced this time.

Soon, they experienced frequent brief lags, as if memory overload had drastically reduced the frame rate. Originally running at least 144 frames, it dropped to about 60 frames now.

Alarms went off in Harley’s mind. She quickly messaged Arrogant but received no response. She then tried sending to the group, but it seemed the communications system wasn’t working, and shortly after, her terminal shut down.

Suddenly, Charles looked at her. In his eyes, a flash of light triggered, and in the next moment, Harley found herself in Charles’ Psychic_Battlefield, along with all the players present.

They felt a bit bewildered but quickly saw through Charles’ eyes, as a blue-glowing phantom descended onto the battleground.

"Doctor Manhattan!" Harley exclaimed in shock. "How could he..."

But quickly, she realized. Doctor Manhattan had attacked Brainiac earlier, intending to dismantle Brainiac’s game system. Yet Brainiac wasn’t dismantled; the game system had not faced any issues, not what Doctor Manhattan wanted to see. He couldn’t let this game conclude smoothly.

There were four leaders in total, three already defeated, the last one looking near defeat too. If he didn’t take action now, the test would finish smoothly. Judging by the game’s overall performance, it might not get rave reviews, but close. Doctor Manhattan could not allow that. Simply put, he was in a panic.

The previous system glitch must have been Doctor Manhattan’s attempt to hack in, consuming excessive memory.

But why did it seem like Charles anticipated this, even protecting their Spirit Bodies?

In the next moment, Harley had her answer. The leader, modeled after Shearer, standing dumbfounded due to system glitch, suddenly lifted his head.

The black mist dissipated. Harley immediately realized that wasn’t a game leader created by Brainiac. It was the real Shearer!

A masterful illusion, bait and switch! Harley bared her teeth. Could Brainiac intend to use this Shearer against Doctor Manhattan? But how could he have the ability to threaten a quantum lifeform?

But the following scene was odd. That Shearer merely lifted his gaze without any move or sign of attack. Yet Doctor Manhattan suddenly froze, as if witnessing something unimaginable.

In the next instant, everyone returned to reality. Charles’s voice echoed in Bruce’s mind.

"Success. The entire game system containing the corruption has been reverse-written into Doctor Manhattan’s body via the collective unconsciousness—he has no choice now."