MC Creative Mode: Wholesale Perpetual Motion Machine

Chapter 274 Fighting for a Life That Does Not Exist
Those white eyes, crawling with flies, suddenly turned to the Justice League and said, "Throughout history, in 99% of countries, the law has been nothing more than a tool used by the ruling class to rule the lower classes."

"Many times, breaking the law is only out of necessity, just to survive. Is it wrong to survive?"

"When you see something like this, do you choose to obey the law or to obey morality?"

Just as the scene shifted again, a hoarse voice finally rang out once more.

Batman hissed, "Enough..."

"What you've said is enough..."

The Hellbat armor's visor opened automatically, revealing a somewhat pale face beneath.

Batman looked at Fang Zheng with a calm, even indifferent gaze, and muttered to himself, "The essence of man is the sum total of all social relations."

"Whether it's you, me, or the entire Justice League, or even the world we see and the world you see, it's all the same."

Batman muttered to himself, "What we're doing is a sadistic role-playing game."

"When we could eliminate poverty, disease, war, and crime in an instant, yet insist on using the least efficient means of violence to combat individual criminals, it's essentially no different from humans playing a sandbox game and using invincibility mode to crush NPCs."

"Our fight against crime is the same as a human raising ants in an ecosphere and deliberately killing a few of them with a toothpick to maintain the stability of the ant colony."

"Whether it's my technology, Cyborg's technology, or Superman's abilities, we can build Earth into paradise if we want to."

"When we have the ability to do so, the choice to allow evil to exist is no different from a slow massacre of all mankind."

"Whether it's me, Superman, Cyborg, or those super criminals with all sorts of super technology, having technology that could almost instantly achieve interstellar civilization but not using it, instead still indulging in using the Bat symbol to teach street thugs a lesson, or using super-tech suits to rob banks, this is no different from technological monopoly."

"When a superhero's abilities expand to the point of breaking the laws of physics, like Superman, who can drag the entire galaxy by simply basking in the sun and unleashing his power, his motivation to continue engaging in street crime goes far beyond the realm of protectiveness."

"It's more than being invincible by using an invincible mode in a game to slaughter low-level AI. It's almost as if this is about gaining a sense of existence by repeatedly confirming one's absolute dominance over others."

Batman looked at the Flash with that calm gaze again and said, "Whether we like it or not, human life is often a matter of a single thought. Anyone who wants to can overturn the entire human society, or even be under the watchful eye of a 'god' who can arbitrarily restart history."

"I am Batman. My research capabilities alone can crack alien technology that almost no scientists in all countries of the world can crack in just a few days."

"Whether we choose to act or choose inaction, our very existence weighs more heavily on the scales than the entirety of human civilization."

"Whether it's the Möbius Chair I once possessed, or the golden form Superman once existed in, both have acquired the power that thought is law."

"But our continued efforts to combat bank robbers are far more ridiculous than having the sun yet being obsessed with burning ants with a magnifying glass."

"For human civilization, this is no different from trampling on dignity. In our eyes, individual lives are no different from a string of data that can be rewritten at will. The so-called protection of the earth is nothing more than a declaration of the gods' occupation of the toy box."

Batman calmly looked at Fang Zheng: "In the process of your constant intervention, you allow us to think more about the richer logic. You possess absolute power, yet you refuse to end the systemic contradictions. Instead, you condone the continued existence of the criminal ecosystem and therefore have a reason to take action. This is already the captivity of civilization. It is building a zoo to watch apes and monkeys fight for your amusement."

Ultimately, does human civilization and Earth need so-called superheroes?
Perhaps it is necessary, after all, without the help of these superheroes, Earth's civilization has faced numerous crises of destruction.

Conversely, do so-called superheroes need human civilization?

Superman can see the entire Earth just by basking in the sun, hear the words of every person on Earth, and hear every cry, even the faintest one, yet he still allows countless evils to exist.

When Batman and Cyborg possess the technology to transform the entire Earth and propel humanity into interstellar civilization in just a few hours, yet still wear cold weapons, wield the Batman badge, and wrestle with thugs on the streets, joking around with the Joker, ignoring the existence of those who die from disease, starvation, or suffer immense pain due to crime.

The term "superhero" has become nothing more than a fig leaf for unparalleled privilege. Superheroes need human suffering far more than humans need their salvation.

"But no matter how powerful we are, no matter how inefficiently we use our abilities, no matter how inactive we are, does any of this matter to you or to us?"

Looking at Fang Zheng's gentle smile, Batman extended his little finger and said, "It doesn't matter, really, not at all."

As he spoke, Batman looked up at the void, at the gloomy clouds in the sky, stretched out his hand towards the sky, clenched his fist tightly, and the terrifying power of the Hellbat Armor directly crushed the air, creating a violent sonic boom in his palm.

However, this was nothing to other superheroes, but for Batman himself, he had just opened his mask, and the shockwave that was so close at hand caused blood to spill from his mouth and nose, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.

But despite experiencing such pain, Batman laughed. "Ha..."

Hahaha!!!

Wearing the Hellbat armor and laughing heartily while clutching his stomach, Batman at first glance looks like a madman, a deranged demon.

He laughed wildly, the impact causing blood to spill from his mouth and nose, which then sprayed everywhere as he laughed.

He laughed until he was breathless, then stopped laughing under the worried and frightened gazes of his Justice League companions, and his face returned to calm.

He looked at Fang Zheng and said calmly, "Is this what continuous feeling feels like? It's not much different from before."

Looking up at the void, he said, "Storyboards are one-sided, storyboards are limited, there is no intermediate process between storyboards, and there is no causal relationship between two storyboards."

"In other words, each scene is essentially meaningless."

"Just like the emergence theory in the scientific community, a single thing has no meaning. Like an atom, even if it is the atom that makes up a superman, it is no different from the atom that makes up an ordinary person."

"A single water molecule does not have fluidity. Only when a large number of water molecules come together and are judged as a whole can the property of fluidity be observed."

“And we…” Batman pointed to his chest, then to Superman, the Flash, Cyborg…

"We are also meaningless."

Ultimately, once Batman officially begins to understand the truth of Fang Zheng's words through the anomalies in his own thought patterns, what is he really thinking?

Batman has no meaning whatsoever.

Within each panel, the scenes featuring Batman are not consecutive.

Just like the previous experience, the three Batmans in different panels, although seemingly having continuous memories, even though Batman was forcibly carried across the panel boundaries by Fang Zheng's power, the Batman in the old panel still did not disappear.

In other words, within the frame of each panel, the Batman depicted has neither a past nor a future.

From the moment of his birth, he has been like a photograph, or at most a very short video, undergoing an eternal cycle of movement within a small scope.

Only when each scene is put together as a whole, that is, when countless photos are connected and considered as a whole, does the existence of "Batman" within it possess a past that, though unclear, can barely be considered to exist, and a future that, though uncertain, can barely be considered to exist. However, he still lacks many intermediate processes.

In those intermediate processes, in those causes and effects that do not exist, what about the people that Batman saw, knew, and understood?
where are they?
That's right, they don't exist.

Even Batman himself doesn't have a so-called growth process or a so-called time sequence.

From the moment he was born, Batman was Batman.

From the moment he was born, Superman was Superman.

Their childhood memories, their myriad experiences, perhaps a small part of which are indeed recorded in a certain scene.

After Fangzheng merged all the storyboards, clarified all the cause-and-effect relationships, and marked their order.

Perhaps Batman's deceased parents, who died before his birth and exist in different storyboard intervals, forever in the state of "death," existing as a photograph, as a record, will meet Batman again when the storyboard merges.

At that time, perhaps in a more distant storyboard, in a more expansive storyboard with a vastly different background, which could perhaps be called another story, Batman and his parents, or Superman and his parents, will experience a different story.

Perhaps there, Batman isn't the son of a tycoon, nor a super-rich man with immense wealth, but simply the child of an ordinary working-class family.

Perhaps there, Krypton didn't explode, Superman wasn't sent to Earth, and he's still living a peaceful life with his biological parents.

But, but...

What about the rest?

What about the others?

With a sorrowful expression, Batman looked at the buildings in the distance where the roar and gunfights continued, at the child who was slaughtering gangsters, and at the criminals who were desperately fighting back or fleeing with guns.

"But what about them?"

There is no causal relationship whatsoever, no past or future whatsoever. This means that whether it is the child who seems to have received power from Fang Zheng and is slaughtering gangsters to avenge his tragic past, or the gangsters he is currently slaughtering, it doesn't matter.

They were all just born, and they have been in this state since birth.

What will happen to them after the storyboard footage is merged?

There is no past. Born criminals, will they still be criminals in that new world? Will they continue to commit crimes because of their innate nature?

Will they be ostracized by other "superheroes" and "ordinary people" because of their crimes that don't exist and only exist in their memories?
Doesn't this mean that they are born with an indelible original sin?

At this moment, what does Fang Zheng's act of letting that child slaughter gang members, and even personally killing these "criminals," mean?
This means that the "God" who created the world has already condemned them to original sin, and it is very likely that at the time of creation, all those born with "original sin" will be cleansed, leaving only the "righteous" who have been cleansed of their original sin.

anything else?
Batman repeated, "The essence of humanity is the sum total of all social relations."

He looked at Fang Zheng with hidden pain: "You have already said that you will not create life that does not exist."

"In other words, the life that exists in our memories will cease to exist."

Upon discovering that his mindset had changed, he reconsidered Fang Zheng's statement about killing hundreds of criminals in a single room.

Batman has confirmed the limitations of storyboarding, confirming that the scale of the storyboards will not be too large.

This means that the fusion will take place simultaneously with the merging of storyboards, so there won't be too many people with overlapping and confused memories.

More likely, they will be those who, from the very beginning, have seemingly complete memories, seemingly complete lives, seemingly perfect logical networks, and seemingly existing relatives and friends.

In reality, from the very beginning he was just a thinly veiled figure, labeled as a "gang member," "petty thug," "orphan," and "criminal."

In their memories, which have existed since birth, there are parents who are proud of them, relatives who worry about them, their lovers, their enemies, and even those who are "victims"...

Those countless humans who exist only in impressions, memories, and background settings, and the networks of relationships formed by those countless humans, will never have existed in the world after the storyboards are merged.

In that new world, countless people will suddenly discover that their fathers and mothers, their relatives and friends, their lovers, and their enemies have all disappeared.

Moreover, it never existed at all from the very beginning.

But what exactly is the difference between the two?

Like himself, he has existed from the beginning. In essence, he has no past. He is just a "Batman" composed of many false memories. He is just a random passerby in Batman's memories, who may or may not exist in a certain panel, and who is only a thin impression, a symbol of a few memories.

What is the only difference between the two?

Is it just a difference in the amount of information?

Is there a difference in a particular scene?
No no no...

they are the same.

"The essence of man is the sum total of all social relations."

Existing and non-existent, false memories forming a whole and false partial memories are the same; neither is superior to the other.

Only the whole, the entirety of all social relationships, constitutes a part of "Batman".

If you remove any part of it, even if you're still left with just "Batman," what about those seemingly "non-existent" social relationships?

Upon realizing this, Batman felt increasingly tormented.

He looked at Fang Zheng and slowly said:
"This is your unforgivable ultimate evil, which has obliterated countless relational lives and created a false world that is unfair to the 'survivors' because it is based on existential slaughter."

"But what's the difference between those non-existent lives, those lives that only exist in our memories, and us? Even if it's just to defend the dignity of existence, to protest against unjust judgments, to protect the souls of the dead in our memories..."

"I, Batman, will challenge you. I will prove that even in the face of the most absurd nothingness, there are people who will fight for 'life that does not exist'!"

(End of this chapter)