In an instant, all the lights on the planet illuminated.
As if responding to the Martian Manhunter's call, the nearest building sign blinked. Clark heard a voice:
"Hello, human race."
He turned back to look at Hai'er. Ron shook his head and said, "I have shut down his brain functions, he won't wake up for a while. He's not the biggest problem right now."
Clark also came to the edge of the building and looked down. The lights on the street flickered rhythmically, as if trying to say something to them.
"An out-of-control super artificial intelligence..." Clark muttered, "Will he invade Earth?"
"He can't do that," Ron said. "The Earth Magic Defense Network is fully activated, and no radio waves can penetrate. But he can leave here and head into the cosmos."
"What will he do?"
Ron shook his head, not sure whether he didn't know or didn't want to say. Just then, a golden flash appeared, and Barry appeared in front of the two of them.
He exhaled, shook his head, and said, "Finally back."
Then he also looked down at the street and shouted, "Brainiac, are you okay?"
"You know him?"
"Kind of, an evil super artificial intelligence," Barry said. "He came to the Solar System to find permission to lift the bottom-level restriction protocol."
"Where is this permission?" Clark frowned and asked.
"With me," Barry said. "To be exact, I took it to Earth in the past. That's why he sent Hai'er to test, and then led us to the living room, eventually bringing Krypton back to Earth."
Ron's hand paused, surprised that this was how it all unfolded.
Barry shrugged and said, "Although we lost a Mercury Base, now we have a new one, and it's better than the original one. This is quite a profitable deal."
At that moment, Clark's communicator rang, and Oliver's voice came through: "Bring Hai'er back, everyone assemble, prepare for a meeting."
Clark, Ron, and Barry took the unconscious Hai'er back to Earth. They first placed Hai'er into the Low Temperature Cabin where Zod had been before, and then went to the meeting.
All members of the Justice League were present, and those external members involved in this incident also attended. Batman and the Supermen were also there.
As the only one who knew the past events, Barry explained the entire event chain to them:
Past Barry took Brainiac's permission to lift the bottom-level restriction protocol, causing Brainiac to target the Solar System, and sent Hai'er to test Earth many years later.
Hai'er arrived in the Solar System and blew up Mercury, attracting the attention of the Justice League. Hal and Barry went to deal with it, Hai'er returned to the past, taking Brainiac's permission to lift the bottom-level restriction protocol.
Time thus closed the loop.
El learned from the future Barry that his future son Clark could absorb the energy of the Sun of the Solar System to become stronger, thus knowing that the Sun of the Solar System was the star they needed, and formulated the Interstellar Crazy Rush plan.
And Joe El knew Earth's coordinates, so when Krypton was destroyed in the future, he set the automatic navigation for Clark and Kara's ships to Earth, allowing Clark to come to Earth and crash in a Kansas farm.
As an adult, Clark joined the Justice League and encountered the Hai'er invasion incident, went to Krypton to investigate, and found a letter entrusted by past El to the invading past Barry at Joe El's house.
The main content of the letter was to reveal the existence of the Kryptonian Planet Engine. El had Clark acquire the keys to the Planet Engine, successfully activated the engine, and brought the entire Krypton to the Solar System.
This is the beginning and end of the Hai'er invasion event.
"The reason I agreed to El's plan is because it's clearly better than our original Mercury," Barry said with a smile standing at the forefront.
Oliver and Lex also nodded. They were clearly quite satisfied with Krypton.
Even though the civilization on this planet was completely destroyed, and various facilities were damaged, just having a planet-level fusion reactor and a superluminal engine was definitely profitable.
The Justice League effortlessly acquired a planetary warship, capable of traveling to any corner of the cosmos at any time.
Some people might think Krypton was after all the Kryptonians', and Zod might still want to implement a Kryptonian Renaissance plan on it.
However, this plan cannot be completed in a day or two. In the absence of mature maturation technology, the first generation of Kryptonians takes decades to grow. By that time, humans might have already replicated the superluminal engine.
And even if they grow up and take back their planet, there is absolutely no need to be in conflict with the human race. On the contrary, the two sides can fully cooperate and jointly defend the Solar System.
The physique of Kryptonians is so strong, and the Sun of the Solar System is an extra enhancement for them, equivalent to Earth having a group of bodyguards effortlessly.
To make an analogy, it's like Marvel's Earth and Asgard. Although individual humans do not have the ability to survive in the cosmos, just because the boss above can fight, even if it's a strategic location, it has lived stably for many years.
The same highly anthropomorphic civilization, born with cosmic survival ability, individual combat power off the charts, small population, limited control range. Isn't Krypton equivalent to DC Earth's Asgard?
Moreover, with Clark here, it's very likely to win over Hai'er. Now the Father of All Gods is also here.
"I have a question," Injustice Batman began, "you say that super artificial intelligence born on Krypton is called Brainiac? Do you know who he is?"
"We know a little," Oliver replied, "I know you're wondering why we didn't kick him out before bringing Krypton here. All I can say is, we want him brought here."
Injustice Batman frowned at him.
"Think about it, how did our Mercury get destroyed?"
"It was destroyed by Hai'er."
"And who sent Hai'er?"
"Brainiac."
"So our Mercury was destroyed by Brainiac," Oliver spread his hands, "He destroyed our Mercury, he needs to compensate. If we let him go, who will compensate for our Mercury?"
"But Krypton isn't..."
"Krypton will definitely come," Oliver said, "When the time comes, we can shuffle Mercury around, it's not like there's no room to make an orbit. By then, we'll have two Mercurys."
"But due to this evil artificial intelligence, our original Mercury was destroyed, and now there's only one Mercury left. This is a huge loss for humanity!"
Oliver said quite agitatedly, "You've all seen the original Mercury Base, it was a highly advanced cosmic base. It got destroyed like this, and we can't even seek compensation?!"
Injustice Batman opened his mouth but ultimately couldn't argue. What Oliver said did make some sense.
If both Mercury and Krypton were here now, humanity would have hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, now there's only Krypton left; although it's a bit better than the original Mercury, it's not that much of a gain.
Oliver sighed deeply, "More importantly, the Green Lantern Corps had invested quite a bit there. Now, not only is Hal very injured, but the original arrangements of the Green Lantern Corps were also destroyed, humanity suffered a heavy loss..."
Just then, Hal flew in. He looked radiant, showing no signs of recent injury, and slapped a stack of documents on the table, "This is an unprecedented disaster; the Green Lantern Corps just issued a statement expressing regret over the recent attack."
"I also got a large budget for building the base in this sector. Let's think about how to spend it. I think we could first take one-tenth to buy another set of equipment from Iron Man and put it on Mars..."
Oliver pulled him aside. Only then did Hal realize there were outsiders present. He immediately held his chest and coughed a few times, then softly said, "I also got quite a bit of medical expenses, considered my personal property. I'll send them to Gotham Magic Academy later..."
The two Batmans were increasingly sensing something was off.
If Brainiac had coaxed Hai'er to come find Zod, even if Earth's signal was jammed and Hai'er didn't find Earth, why did he head straight for Mercury?
The entire Solar System has only one artificial planet, most of the other planets had nothing particularly valuable. If there was anything, it didn't belong to humankind and had no ties to the Green Lantern Corps.
Hai'er came and accurately blew up Mercury, causing substantial losses to human and Green Lantern Corps assets. Why does it seem too coincidental?
The two Batmans squinted their eyes simultaneously.
Oliver also coughed twice and said, "Right now, our most urgent task is to assess the losses from this battle. First, the energy consumption of various shields is..."
Oliver recited a long list of losses, anyway, from Malafax coming to Earth to Krypton's jump into the Solar System, all resources used were accounted as losses.
Finally, aligning the documents, he said:
"Brainiac, as an artificial intelligence created by Kryptonians, has inflicted such significant losses on humanity. Unfortunately, the Krypton Supreme Council that created him has perished, leaving only a planet behind. If nothing else, we can begrudgingly accept this planet as compensation."
"Indeed, although Brainiac is an independent intelligent artificial life, he was, after all, created by Kryptonians. They really can't shirk responsibility," Lex chimed in.
"I agree, the Krypton Supreme Council back then weren't good either. They created such an evil artificial intelligence and didn't control it; they should bear the main responsibility. Since they're already dead, we should compensate with the inheritance," added Bruce.
Others also nodded, condemning the damages the evil artificial intelligence inflicted on Earth, while agreeing that human acceptance of Kryptonian inheritance seems rightful, given the inheritances left behind by Kryptonian calamities.
"Ahem," Oliver coughed twice again, "Although, in principle, it should be like this; not all Kryptonians have died. We still need to conduct a democratic vote."
"You Kryptonians, vote internally. Raise your hand if you agree to use Kryptonian inheritance to compensate human losses."
Clark and Kara both raised their hands.
"Alright, there are four Kryptonian guests on Earth, but one is a clone. According to Kryptonian law, he doesn't have the rights of a Kryptonian, so there are three Kryptonian citizens."
"Now, with two votes in favor, the 2-to-1 vote passes—applaud the friendship between humanity and Krypton!"
Led by Oliver, the conference room erupted in enthusiastic applause. Everyone exchanged smiles and high-fives in celebration.
After adjourning, Injustice Batman deliberately slowed down a step to walk side-by-side with Barry. Injustice Batman glanced at him and said, "You did it, didn't you?"
"Not entirely," Barry rolled his eyes, "I just found the past me in the Divine Speed, and while I previously used Divine Speed to move Zod's ship, I cut off the signal transmitter and tossed it onto Mercury. No biggie, no biggie."
Now, Injustice Batman felt that the Joker he had seen before might not only be more reliable than the entire Justice League combined but also kinder than them.