A New Way to Make a God

A secret base lay fifty meters underground.

The conference table was packed. No one spoke.

A massive screen on the wall displayed a satellite thermal image of three blocks in Gotham's East End. Vast patches of deep red stood out beside a shaky video spreading across every major social network.

At the center was a man hovering in midair, dark red beams shooting from his eyes as he swept them back and forth.

Clack.

The Secretary of Defense set his coffee cup down hard. A sharp crack ran through its ceramic side.

"Mr. President." The Secretary of Defense swallowed, his voice dry. "LexCorp's private forces were wiped out in three minutes. Do we... need to raise our readiness level?"

The old man at the head of the table did not look at him. He stared at the dark red figure on the screen.

"Raise our readiness? To fight whom?" the president asked quietly. "A monster that can survive a tactical missile? Or are we going to wipe Gotham off the map of the United States?"

The conference room fell silent again.

"What does the press office say?" the president asked, turning to his right.

The press secretary snapped upright, sweat covering his forehead. He opened the folder in front of him and spoke rapidly. "The statement has gone out. The explosions in Gotham's East End are being attributed to a chain of natural gas pipeline explosions caused by a once-in-a-century weather anomaly. As for the video... we're contacting the major platforms to limit its reach and block it. Publicly, we'll call it a malicious fake made by a Hollywood special effects company."

"Who do you think you're fooling?" the Security Agency Director scoffed.

"What else can we do?!" the press secretary shot back, panic straining his voice. "Tell the public that something like a god has claimed Gotham as its kingdom? Tell them our elite special forces couldn't last three minutes against him? Do you want the entire country rioting by tomorrow morning?"

The president closed his eyes and rubbed his throbbing temples.

"Follow the press office's line." He tapped the table, settling the matter. "No one is to provoke that... being in Gotham. At least not now."

Play dead.

It was the only response humanity's institutions of power could come up with in the face of overwhelming strength.

Gotham City, East End. A dark alley.

Rain washed over the mud covering the ground.

Several homeless men knelt rigidly beside a reeking dumpster.

A smartphone with a cracked screen was propped on top of it.

The massacre video played on a loop.

"A true god has descended..."

The homeless men's voices were hoarse with fervor.

"He saw us. He saw our suffering."

Scenes like this were not confined to the alleys of the East End.

In the South End slums, in cramped basements, in every corner where life had crushed the poor until they could barely breathe, countless eyes were fixed on phone screens.

Fear belonged to those at the top.

For those with nothing to lose, the collapse of the old order was a celebration of a new faith.

Lex Luthor's temporary command center in Gotham.

Macy hurried down the data corridor, pale-faced and clutching a tablet. She pushed open the door to the innermost suite.

The lights were off.

Luthor stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down on the city battered by wind and rain. He had changed into clean clothes and showed no trace of his earlier disarray.

"Boss." Macy hurried up behind him, her voice strained with urgency. "We can't control the public reaction."

Luthor watched the raindrops on the glass.

"On the Dark Web and the major social platforms, the video of Chu... of the lord's massacre has passed a billion views." Macy swiped across the tablet, bringing up several charts. "Washington is playing dead. They've blamed the gas company, but the public isn't buying it."

Macy swallowed and continued. "The worst part is that a group of fanatics has appeared. They... they see Lord Chu as a god. They're forming online communities and analyzing his every move in the video. Boss, should we take the video down?"

"Take it down?"

Luthor finally turned around.

A flash of lightning outside let Macy see his face.

The face that had always been cold and calculating now wore an almost deranged smile.

"Why would we stop it?" Luthor strode up to Macy and snatched the tablet from her hands.

"Boss, that was our army!" Macy took half a step back, her eyes wide. "The private force you spent years and nearly ten billion dollars building! They were crushed like insects in front of the whole world. LexCorp's stock will collapse when the market opens tomorrow!"

"Army? Insects? No, Macy. Your thinking is too narrow."

Luthor tossed the tablet onto the sofa and spread his arms as though embracing the entire world.

"That was a baptism. The first embrace our master bestowed upon this decaying world."

Macy froze as if struck by lightning.

She stared at Luthor in disbelief, her lips trembling. "M-master? Boss, have you gone mad? He killed our people!"

"Shut up!"

Luthor whipped his head toward her, a dangerous gleam flashing in his eyes.

He closed the distance and seized Macy by the shoulder with startling force.

"Do not presume to judge a god with your pitiful mortal mind!" Luthor's voice rose, fervent and brooking no challenge.

"The old order must be broken! Only absolute power can bring absolute peace! LexCorp's sole purpose is to roll out the red carpet for our master's arrival!"

Macy felt as though the bones in her shoulder were about to break.

She looked into Luthor's eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"Listen carefully to my orders."

Luthor released Macy and went to his desk. He pressed the communications system's main control button, connecting to the Public Relations Department and Algorithms Center at Metropolis Headquarters.

"This is Lex Luthor."

Dozens of executives immediately answered with deference.

"I want the video of the King of Gotham pushed across every channel."

"Boss?" The public relations director sounded stunned.

"I'm giving you a dedicated budget of one billion dollars. Buy the front pages of the top fifty newspapers in the country. Buy splash-screen ads on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Hire the best post-production team in Hollywood, restore the video to 4K, and set it to an epic orchestral score."

"Listen carefully to the copy." Luthor tapped the desk, enunciating each word. "The people killed in that video were not LexCorp employees. They were parasites of monopoly capital, executioners who exploited ordinary people."

Macy went cold listening to him.

Luthor was trampling his own life's work and spitting on it, all to put the killer on a pedestal.

"The red light our master sent down was a sword that pierced the sham of the law," Luthor continued. "Tell the Algorithms Department to target every unemployed person, every bankrupt person, everyone who has lost hope in life. Give them an outlet for their anger. Give them an icon to worship."

"Within half an hour, I want 'Purging Evil' at number one in worldwide trends. Do it!"

"Yes, boss!"

The connection ended.

Luthor let out a long breath and turned toward the storm beyond the window, his eyes filled with a sick satisfaction.

"Just watch, Macy," Luthor murmured. "No swords. No guns. Control the narrative and win their hearts, and by tomorrow this planet will kneel at our master's feet of its own accord."

Macy leaned against the doorframe, her legs weak.

She looked at the boss who had once calculated everything. Now he had become the most dangerous force driving it all.

Chu Men had not even left the Iceberg Lounge, yet the largest corporate empire on Earth was already building him an idol of its own accord.

This was how fear truly spread.