Marvel Schiller's arm fell off, he sighed, as though his soul had flown to the heavens.
DC Schiller walked up to him, squatted down, and with a smile said, "Don't think I don't know, you've been waiting for the opportunity to take my place when my merger does not go smoothly, then pile up a ton of work for me, to exact revenge for the revenge I took on you..."
"Remember, it all started with you breaking my umbrella, you must pay a price for it."
DC Schiller rose to his feet, his eyes half-shut, gazing at the Schillers strewn all over the floor, he said, "And don't tell me you really believe that the little bat I talk about is the actual Batman. Just because I was being polite, some idiots took it seriously..."
DC Schiller took a couple steps forward, grabbed the railing of the High Tower, which usually stood intact but now looked like parallel bars. He powered up his arms, struggled to climb up, stepped on the edge of the railing, caught his breath, then straightened his body. Looking down at everyone, he spread his arms and said,
"I know, many of you want to unseat me, rise to the conscious mind. I am a very tolerant person, and I believe in fairness. Now, if any of you can knock me down, you will naturally get this opportunity, come on, I think we can..."
Just when DC Schiller was speaking, two thunderous sounds came from outside the tower. Followed by a loud rumble, and then a scream from a girl. Zatanna, with her highly penetrating voice, yelled from outside the tower:
"No! My portal! Clark! Come back! You can't explode again, Oliver! Oliver! Stop him!"
"Oh, my God, he's charging at that bat! Wait a minute, wait a minute! Stop fighting! Stop! That's Batman, can't you recognize his eyes?!"
"Wait! Batman, it's Clark! Stop fighting!"
Then there was a "bang bang bang" series of loud sounds, which jolted a weakened DC Schiller off the railing, and he fell to the ground. From outside the tower came a roar: "Batman! Where is Professor Schiller?! Hand him over! You bloody monster!"
"Why are you trying to approach the High Tower?! You must be out to attack the other Professor Schillers! Stop! I won't let you succeed!"
"Hold on, Clark, just calm down. Batman is rational, he wouldn't..."
"Oh, my God! My portal exploded! Stop fighting! Stop fighting!!!"
The ground shook with a "rumble", and DC Schiller, who had just picked himself up from the ground, looked out the window and, just as he expected, Superman and Batman were fighting.
Also predictably, Zatanna and Oliver's attempt to calm things down proved fruitless as the two fighters were at each other's throats.
Clark losing control of his emotions was not surprising, given that he had recently been wallowing in anxiety.
When he had earlier travelled to Mexico to aid Oliver, he thought he was there to save the people. But he later realized that the situation was not as straightforward as he had initially believed.
Clark had infinite power, could emit heat rays from his eyes, was perceptive of his surroundings, and could achieve anything he aspired to. He was almost omnipotent, but he found that he was struggling on his mission to save the Mexican people.
The first time Superman truly understood disappointment was when he witnessed the living conditions of local farmers.
At the time, he intercepted a truckload of drugs using his unequaled strength. He stopped their dirty deal, beat up the driver and the drug lord, and made them squirm and beg for mercy.
Then, a girl barely in her teens jumped out of the truck and stood in front of Clark, he thought she was a trafficked victim and wanted to take her home. But it turned out that the girl was the drug lord's daughter, and that they were local farmers.
Clark earnestly lectured the little girl, telling her that dealing drugs was wrong, and that growing drug plants would be harmful to many people. However, the girl asked Clark one question - if Clark burned all the goods in the truck, what would she and her father eat that day?
Clark was perplexed. He told the girl they could plant other crops, like wheat or barley that he grew back home, or even grow some fruit trees which would bring a good harvest.
Clark himself was a farmer, or rather, the child of an American farm owner. He was familiar with all kinds of farming and knew that drug plants were fragile, requiring higher planting conditions than some edible or industrial plants.
If it was all about making money, wouldn't it be more profitable and less of a hassle to grow crops and fruits?
The little girl did not ask a second question. She just looked at Clark with a gaze he did not understand, backed away a couple of steps, and started looking for her father.
In the end, Clark could not bring himself to burn the cargo in the truck with his heat vision because the little girl sat in the truck, staring blankly at Clark with a numb gaze. Clark did not know what to do.
After leaving, Clark felt uneasy all day. He just couldn't understand why a child, who knew nothing, would also aid in her father's sinful actions.
When Clark returned to Oliver, he proposed his questions, but Oliver only glanced at him, suggesting that he should finish college first and did not answer any of his questions.
Clark was at a loss; he returned to school to study, but school didn't teach these things. He looked up books on Mexican history in the library, but the books were just introducing some local legends of Mexico, and the customs and traditions of the Caribbean, but none of them mentioned drugs.
So, in the next vacation, Clark couldn't wait to push away all the vacation club activities and hurried to Mexico. At this point, the underground activities organized by Oliver had begun to take shape.
What shocked Clark was that the father and daughter he had stopped their truck were also involved. At the rally organized by Oliver, Clark sat in the audience, hearing for the first time how the locals viewed the industry of drug raw material production.
There wasn't anything particular; in a nutshell, they grew whatever others wanted to buy. If no one bought what they grew, they would starve. It was that simple.
So, Clark targeted those who purchased these evil materials. However, he encountered a new obstacle. That was, if he eliminated the buyers, the farmers would still starve.
Clark started investigating who exactly was consuming these materials, and he discovered that most of them flowed into America, and the majority of these consumers were ordinary people from troubled neighborhoods.
Clark caught one or two of them and asked why they did this. He asked if they knew it would bring great disaster to the Mexican people, but they told Clark to get lost.
Clark felt like a crazy person, inexplicably appearing in ordinary daily life, and felt ridiculous and unreal. Yet his common sense was telling him that it was all so absurdly wrong, but everyone around him was treating it as their daily life.
This put Clark into a particularly anxious state, and at this time, a beacon of light lit up in his life - it was a letter from Professor Shearer.
Oliver didn't elaborate on Clark's existence as much as Shearer did. Most of his achievements were achieved with the common people willing to rebel. Therefore, the advice Shearer gave was mostly aimed at him and these common people.
Although Shearer did not focus on answering Clark's questions, Clark gradually found the answers from some of the measures he took.
The drug production industry in Mexico was already very mature; from the beginning to the end, from production to consumption, cutting off any link alone would not solve the fundamental problem.
The advice Shearer gave to Oliver leaned towards improving the people's livelihood. The timing for a large-scale revolution was not yet ripe; therefore, the best way to unite the people was to improve their lives, expand their horizons, and make them willing to stand up and be self-reliant and self-strengthening.
So, Oliver started from the grassroots. Without claiming to confront drugs or revolution, he united the farmers to resist the buyers' price reduction and recapture the power to set standards. He also cooperated with the drug lords in Guadalajara to reorganize the local industry chain, establish production to marketing industry advantages across the board, and then radiate the entire state of Jalisco.
At first, Clark didn't understand this approach. He thought that even though the farmers were in trouble, helping them shouldn't involve abetting evil. But later, he found that things were much more complicated than he thought.
In Oliver's action after action, in the joint action of local farmers and drug lords, Clark saw a tragically aged nation, with poppies blooming in blood and sin, and deeply buried in the soil, a root system that was intertwined and incredibly evil.
Clark accompanied Oliver to witness everything. His thinking also followed the revolution activities they carried out. Therefore, when encountering difficult problems, he was often at a loss, and Shearer's letters became the best guiding light.
The solutions Shearer proposed for certain problems always shocked Clark but then made sense to him. At the same time, some of the principles he described also deeply inspired Clark and helped him grow.
About a month ago, Oliver told Clark that Shearer had gone missing. Clark immediately felt a tightness in his heart.
When he heard that Oliver wanted to look for the professor, Clark felt a bit excited. He hadn't seen Shearer in a long time and had amassed a multitude of questions he wanted to ask this knowledgeable and talented professor. He believed that it would undoubtedly be a pleasant conversation.
But unexpectedly, after Oliver had arrived in Gotham and Gotham University, he found out that Shearer had been missing for quite a while.
Afterwards, they went to Rodriguez Manor, but since Shearer wasn't there, they went to Wayne Manor under Victor's guidance.
There they met Zatanna, who, after a period of recuperation, planned to reopen the portal to Hell to find Batman and Shearer.
Both parties were targeting Shearer. Therefore, they agreed: Superman helped Zatanna collect materials, Zatanna opened the portal, and the three of them came to Hell together.
Originally, Oliver's conjecture had already scared Clark. If Shearer were really caught by the CIA and subjected to torture, he must have suffered a lot of pain. Clark felt his heart tighten just thinking about it.
But unexpectedly, upon entering Hell, the first thing they saw left him agape: Shearer had been captured by a terrifying Bat Monster! Of course, Clark thought, rescuing the professor was his undeniable duty.
Although the first time his soul power exploded due to his inability to control his strength, Clark's soul power was practically infinite. He took advantage of the still-open portal and plunged back in. This time, he brought the maximum power he could control, planning to have a life-or-death battle with the bat monster.
But as soon as they started fighting, Clark grew even more furious. In fact, this time his anger exceeded any he had experienced before in his life, because he discovered the monster opposite him was Batman.