Here it comes, here it comes. That familiar feeling again.
Doctor Manhattan sensed it. It was all like an invisible web, constantly dragging him into the situation the other side had set up. This was absolutely not merely Batman Dragon's plan. This was a confrontation within the DC Multiverse—a cute, enticing counterattack. The coy yet inviting counterattack made one unable to resist probing into how exactly it had been achieved.
Batman Dragon was only one link in this enormous chain, pulling him into a situation where he had no choice but to repair the DC Multiverse's shattered aftermath. Originally, no one should have been able to affect the Watchmen Universe, much less the Over-Time Stream. But the arrival of the Empty Hand broke through the protection Doctor Manhattan had established for the Watchmen Universe, resulting in its destruction.
The Watchmen Universe's Earth had lost its Antarctic continent—and the Watchmen Universe was not the DC Multiverse. Once the Antarctic was gone, it was gone. Although Perpetua had restored it for him, the new Antarctic hastily cobbled together by hand was as conspicuous in its original location as a self-media blogger using a 3D printer to patch up a collapsed section of wall. If you insisted it wasn't flat, then sure, it absolutely wasn't. But the material wasn't the original material, and the color wasn't the original color either.
In short, Doctor Manhattan still wanted to create a cosmic core for the Watchmen Universe someday in the future, completely transforming it into something even more powerful. Therefore, the damage currently inflicted on the Watchmen Universe was already infinitely close to the limit Doctor Manhattan could accept.
When Chen Tao and the Empty Hand joined forces, Chen Tao created the future for the Empty Hand, while the Empty Hand used the future to