Chapter 2426: Heart and Spirit Assault (44)_1

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"Long ago, an accident with a delicate electromagnetic wave experimental detection device cracked the secret of the soul."

"At that time, I was testing some kind of telecommunication signal transceiver, but the test results were unreasonable no matter what. After repeated attempts, I could not find the reason. It wasn't until I checked the surveillance that I realized Batman had been flying over the lab the whole time I was running the experiment."

"This piqued my curiosity: why would Superman flying by cause my equipment to malfunction? I started to investigate, but there were more important tasks at hand, so the research wasn't very thorough."

"Soon enough, one of my research projects required the use of precise electromagnetic wave control technology. I had made all the necessary preparations, with only one final test remaining, and Superman was present for it."

"We were discussing some topics, but the conversation was rather unpleasant. To be exact, we had a fight, and he became very angry. It was at the moment of his anger that the test machine malfunctioned and the wave fluctuation readings went off the charts."

"It was difficult not to take note of this, so I dedicated some time to a focused study of the phenomenon and reached a quite astonishing conclusion: the souls of intelligent life are in fact a form of electromagnetic wave. Superman's soul is especially powerful, and his emotions can interfere with regular electromagnetic waves."

"This made me realize that if I could encode electromagnetic waves, perhaps I could copy and manipulate souls. And at that time, my biggest concern was for Alfred's health."

"He was getting on in years, and during his last check-up, old injuries had flared up again. He was in a lot of pain and even brought up death, which I could not accept."

"I told him I hoped to copy his soul by encoding electromagnetic waves so that I could resurrect him in a computer should he pass away."

"Alfred refused. He became very angry and warned me never to tamper with souls, as it is a forbidden territory for the human race. I should have heeded his warning."

Inside the remnants of a robot, White Can saw Batman floating in the very unstable psychic space. It was the real Batman, not an out-of-control artificial intelligence. He recounted how all of this had happened."

"The doctor gave me another warning, almost predicting the exact time of death," Batman took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly as he said, "Alfred is about to die, I cannot accept this, so I initiated the project."

"Everything went very smoothly. While Alfred was asleep, I took the machine that detects soul frequency waves to the hospital. I successfully recorded and copied the frequency, but no matter what I did, I couldn't activate it."

"Of course, you couldn't," White Can said. "Each person's soul has a unique code, and while alive, it is a unique existence in the cosmos. A copy isn't recognized and naturally can't be activated."

"I had considered that," Batman said. "So, right after Alfred died, I immediately tried to activate the backup consciousness."

"But you couldn't find it," Iron Man said. "Because you didn't know that the backup consciousness is also conscious. It retains the memories and thoughts of the moment you copied it. If it doesn't want to, it can dissipate on its own."

"Yes, but the terrifying thing is that the container wasn't empty."

Both Iron Men furrowed their brows, and Batman's voice grew deeper, "Alfred wasn't there, but there was something in the container."

"Who was it?"

"Out of overwhelming sadness, I directly interfaced with the machine with my brain waves. The thing inside claimed it was Alfred, but I knew it wasn't. It wasn't my butler, but it was too late to realize."

"That monster had the ability to invade brain waves. It penetrated my mind, trying to manipulate my soul. Once I realized something was wrong, I cut off the contaminated part of my soul, but once the two had unified, they were very powerful. I tried to wrest control of my body from them, but failed, and could only hide."

"Did you see what it looked like?"

"A dark figure, but it's not clear what it looks like," Batman's tone became anxious. "And because it has merged with a part of my soul, I can hear part of its thoughts. It's not content with just controlling me; it wants to corrupt Superman's mind and destroy the entire cosmos."

The two Iron Men immediately withdrew their consciousness and turned to find Clark lying on the ground; they promptly picked him up.

"Bring Batman with you," Iron Man said. "Let him into your psychic space; we need him to unlock the doors to the base."

"Stop joking, how could I possibly let..."

"You don't dare?"

In an instant, Batman was in White Can's different world, and then he was astonished. Here lay a highly developed city of the future, vast, massive, complex, and even Batman found it hard to comprehend.

"Stop looking around, help us," White Can said with some pride, but still addressed Batman: "Where's the brain wave interface machine? This guy's psychic defenses are too strong. We need external help to establish a mental connection."

"Go to the Batcave," Batman replied. "It has all the equipment we need."

They rushed to the Batcave at top speed, and following Batman's instructions, put Clark inside the machine. Upon activating the device, the three were connected to Clark's psychic space, only to witness a surprising scene—Ultron and Superman battling Batman together.

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That's right, the invading Evil Batman was caught red-handed by Ultron, and Superman didn't lose consciousness because of the invasion but was brought down by Ultron two against one.

At this moment, Clark also realized that Ultron was telling the truth because the creature in front of him looked nothing like Batman. He was entirely black, with his eyes blinking in alternating red and blue light, and a bat symbol on his chest glowing red. He looked more like an evil robot themed after a bat than Batman himself.

Ultron floated in mid-air, with countless lines made of data filling the space, and any time Evil Batman touched one of those lines, a part of his dark energy would transfer along the line to Ultron.

Ultron was absorbing and disassembling Evil Batman.

Ultron had been comfortably residing within Clark's psychic being, and it never occurred to him that someone would dare to directly invade Superman's psychic space. Who was this Little Smart Ghost?

He had been invited and granted permission to enter Clark's psychic space. Even so, 99% of his computing power was used to resist the oppression of Clark's mental strength.

As expected, as soon as Evil Batman came in, he was pushed down and even now could barely move.

The three new comers, that is, Batman, Iron Man, and White Can, just fell from mid-air with a thud, all pinned to the ground.

"God, I feel like I've been thrown into Jupiter," Iron Man strained to lift his body, but failed, and said, "How can someone's psychic space be solid???"

That's right, the three of them felt as if they had fallen into a block of solid lard, or rather something even harder than that, more akin to being inside the Earth's core. Everywhere they turned, everything was constantly pressing inward. Just resisting this pressure was draining all their strength.

"Did he take away the dumbest part of you?" White Can said looking at Batman, "Invading Superman's psychic space? What was he thinking???"

"I didn't know it was like this," Batman replied, "I've never been inside before. But who is that robot that's still standing?"

Both Iron Men looked up, and Iron Man gritted his teeth and said, "Ultron, you damned madman, whatever you're doing, stop it right now."

"Cut the chatter, if you've got the skills, come and hit me," Ultron said fearlessly, standing behind Superman and added, "Stupid humans who can't evolve special defenses, come at me!"

Iron Man took a deep breath, he watched as the lines of data created by Ultron had completely dissected Evil Batman's body and absorbed it entirely.

"Stop wasting words with him, think of a way," White Can closed his eyes, began to mobilize more mental power, and said, "Figure out how to develop a special resistance to this kind of environment."

"We're not electronic life forms, we don't evolve that fast, unless we could decompile ourselves... wait, it seems we actually can, because we're the same person."

They exchanged glances. They had no better ideas now. White Can said, "You take the Infinity Gauntlet, I'll do the compiling."

"All bark and no bite," Iron Man commented, but he agreed nonetheless.

Humans may have various advantages over electronic life forms, but they also have evident drawbacks. The biggest one is that they cannot edit themselves like artificial intelligence. They either act as a third party to compile others or need a third party to compile themselves.

But this wasn't a problem for the two Iron Men; they were originally one person, so it was very easy for one to compile the other. White Can quickly worked out a self-iterating program for Iron Man, who then used this program to evolve a special defense at the fastest speed.

He stood up and flew towards Ultron. He wanted to give Ultron a punch to interrupt his final absorption, only for a bright figure to block the way in front of Ultron.

"What are you doing?" Clark asked.

"He's an evil robot!" Iron Man shouted, "Stop him, he's going to destroy the cosmos!"

"But he helped me," Clark said.

Iron Man paused, then said, "Wait, isn't this Ultron's conspiracy? Creating another evil robot to force Superman, then slipping into Superman's mind to gain his trust and control him... Batman!"

"Clark, I can't believe you're saying these things to me," Batman looked at Clark and said, "Overconfident and inconsequential, is that what you think of me?"

Iron Man slapped his forehead, what time was this to be talking about love?? Think of a way...

"I didn't... I mean, I didn't say that, I don't think that way either, and moreover... I thought you betrayed me," Clark immediately became rather anxious to explain. He took a step forward, exposing a vulnerability on his side.

Iron Man swung a punch, but just as it was about to contact Ultron, Ultron's figure vanished in a flash.

"Damn it, he got away again, quick, after him!!!"