The Variable Future

At dawn, Lynn woke up freezing in a blast of cold wind.

This house was no longer livable. The demon he had tricked into coming over to be slaughtered yesterday had unexpectedly been absurdly powerful. Not only was it thick-skinned and incredibly tough, it also possessed formidable "magical attacks" in addition to its overwhelming physical attacks.

Lynn was not sure whether that was magic, some innate skill, or a bloodline ability. In any case, that goat demon had started shedding sparks halfway through the fight, followed by waves of sulfur-smelling smoke. In the end, it had even treated the area around Lynn's home to a scaled-down meteor shower of fire.

Honestly, if it had not still been the tail end of winter, with the weather somewhat limiting that guy's output, Lynn did not think he could necessarily have beaten him.

He had won, but it had truly been a miserable victory.

When Batman saw Lynn yesterday, his face had been wrapped up like a rice dumpling. That was not performance art cosplay—Lynn really had been badly burned by the demon's flames.

Luckily, Lynn now kept powerful recovery potions in his gourd. Otherwise, he would have suffered a major loss.

His physical injuries could be healed, but the pain and torment Lynn had endured at the time had been real. Even so, he had decided that from now on, he would treat Kitty as an ATM.

There was no other reason. The rewards for killing a powerful demon were utterly incomparable to taking out a few murderers.

Lynn had found a treasure trove!

"This house is unlivable... Sigh, get up, you lazy cat!"

Lynn really had raised a lazy cat. It had even dragged its own little bed over beside the stove to sleep. Lynn had frozen all night, while Kitty was perfectly fine and sleeping soundly.

"I'm not getting up. I don't have to go to work, so why are you making me get up?"

"If you don't have to work, does that mean I do? Stop talking nonsense. Get up and find some wood outside."

"This is cruel exploitation and oppression... Lynn, didn't you say last night that you wanted to check out somewhere else?

Not going anymore?"

At that, Lynn scratched his head. "So itchy. I'm not growing a brain, am I? Oh, the wound's starting to grow flesh back. Just like I said...

Of course we're going somewhere else. Don't be fooled by Gotham, where it's either bank robberies or shootouts every day, and the police force gets replaced every three years. Let me tell you, in this world, it's already one of the safest places around."

Lynn was not trying to fool Kitty with that.

Gotham, after all, had old Batman. The people gathered there were all high-level players who favored running default skins and competing with their brains.

Under normal circumstances, the damage caused by the villains there was actually quite limited.

That Court of Owls from before was like a bunch of lunatics, doing nothing but stacking building blocks underground every day. They had treasures but refused to use them—begging beside a mountain of gold.

Over in Star City, because there was a modern-day Robin Hood named Green Arrow, the atmosphere was much fresher. Every last one of them relied on technical skill. One guy started shooting arrows, and eight hundred others followed suit.

Black Arrow, Red Arrow, Green Arrow, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple—everything you could think of. Those people deeply understood the blurry boundaries of modern law. Instead of using the strongest cold weapon, the AK-47 in the fridge, they spent all day shooting at each other. Nothing but childish little stories.

Central City, though, was terrifying. The Flash was the slowest person there. On average, some villain faster than him popped up every day. Every so often, you ran into yesterday's self, tomorrow's self, a mother who died, came back to life, died again... The current Lynn would not dare go there even if someone beat him to death.

Supergirl...

To be honest, there was only one Supergirl in Lynn's heart: Brother Chun.

The one here probably had not started her superhero career yet. She was a very important part of Lynn's plans, but it was not suitable to go see her now. There were not yet aliens constantly popping up over there, so there was little point in going. He might even get beaten up by Superman. If he failed to become her brother-in-law and was mistaken for someone trying to take advantage of her, Superman's fists would be far harder to endure than The Beast's.

"Superman... Superman..."

Mentioning him left Lynn feeling somewhat complicated.

It was not just fans talking when they said the Justice League relied on Superman for everything.

Humanity's greatest support was Superman's kindness. That was no lie, either.

When it came to combat power, Superman was absolutely trustworthy. Yet the idiot humans of the DC world were always trying every possible way to push Superman to the opposite side.

Here, Lynn especially wanted to call out Mr. Batman. Batman was genuinely prepared at all times to reduce Superman to ashes.

But on second thought, Lynn himself was also on Batman's kill list. He might even be the very first name on the first line, so Lynn felt better about it.

Batman, after all. Normal behavior.

Still, Lynn felt that this situation could probably be changed.

Lynn did not care whether humanity was worthy or not. What was the point of talking about that? The day Superman stood on a rooftop and started wildly rewarding himself, humanity's opinions would become completely meaningless.

He could do whatever the hell he wanted!

That would not do. At the very least, not before Lynn had the ability to protect himself.

Speaking of that, Lynn had to mention Superman's adoptive father. Jonathan Kent truly was humanity's shining light!

The fact that Superman had not turned into Homelander meant all humanity owed the old man a favor. They ought to kneel and kowtow to him at least once.

Superman had ten thousand reasons to go dark. He would have more than enough justification to tear the Earth apart and throw it into the sun.

He was a damn alien to begin with!

When one possessed a weapon, murderous intent naturally arose. Authority, law, humanity, even divinity—none of those things could restrain Superman's combat power. He had enough strength to toss all that junk into the trash.

And yet, Jonathan Kent had forcibly raised someone like that into an exemplary Earth youth, one of the ten best neighbors, a perfect guardian.

If the old man could have lived a few more years, many things would never have had the chance to happen at all.

"Jonathan Kent must be saved! Whether for personal reasons, to thank Superman for everything he has done, or even just to get close to Superman reasonably and make him owe me a favor, we have to handle this properly."

Finding an opportunity to build a good relationship with Superman was something Lynn had been thinking about and preparing for ever since he arrived here.

On Earth right now, aside from the Blue Smurfs, Superman was the most qualified person to say that any problem could be solved.

But when it came to the Blue Smurfs, Lynn was not sure whether that guy still possessed something called [humanity].

What if Lynn delivered himself to the door and got taken into outer space by the Blue Smurfs for research? That was exactly the sort of thing he could do.

He could not take that risk.

Rorschach, sorry. It seemed the two of them would never meet in this life.

"Lynn, didn't you say there was some long-legged girl too? The time before last, I heard you mention Harley Quinn. And that woman who looked so much like me and held me that night..."

"Shut up!"

Lynn said righteously, "You make a perfectly good alliance with friendly forces sound so sleazy. Who taught you that?

How did helping old Batman once turn you into this? Hand over that drumstick. Confiscated!"

Lynn had an excellent appetite. In two or three bites, he confiscated Kitty's drumstick.

Bang!

Another railing from the roof fell down.

"This house is unlivable. Let's go! We're leaving today! We'll take a taxi!"

However, before leaving, Lynn still had a small matter to settle.

He needed to make a trip to Arkham to visit someone.