Then, Shiller put the fully charged ring back on his finger, once again unlocked the door, once again used Aisha to jam it, once again extracted the energy and poured it into the Kryptonite Crystal, once again letting it return to the furnace for recharging...
What is quite amazing is the extracted Green Lantern energy, after being infused into the Kryptonite Crystal, has been completely preserved. It seems that the crystal, which can store special radiation, has some special properties. It can ensure that the Green Lantern's energy will not dissipate into the cosmos, but will always be stored in the crystal.
In this way, through his small scientific experiment, Shiller basically understood the nature of the Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern Ring, Green Lantern Central Power Battery, and Green Lantern energy. Using his sharp economic mind and impeccable moral standards, he pulled the wool over the Green Lantern Corps' eyes.
After listening to Shiller's account of this process, Hal was dumbfounded.
As it was around the 1990s, the bug phenomenon was not so prevalent, at least. Hal, who had no background in computer education, had no idea how to describe this behavior.
"Actually, I'm cleaning up the mess you made," Shiller suddenly changed the subject, passing the buck to Hal, who stood there with his mouth agape, speechless: "Clean up my mess? What did I do wrong?"
Shiller pointed a finger at the table and said, "It's your lack of vigilance. You got a strange ring, dared to wear it on your finger, received a strange command, and dared to execute it."
"Not only did you sell information about Earth to the aliens, but you even abused the abilities they gave you, causing havoc in Gotham..."
"I didn't cause any havoc! I..."
Looking into Shiller's eyes, Hal's voice gradually dampened. Ashamed, he lowered his head, trying his utmost not to remember the horrific scene beneath him when he was pretending to be a lantern in the middle of Central Gotham.
"But now, the die is cast. Your information has been handed over. The aliens may have already circulated it. The leakage of information is irreversible. So, we have to at least recover some losses, right?"
"But, without someone else's consent, um..."
"Did they ask for your consent to give you power?"
"They need my consent to..."
"Of course, they do," Shiller cut Hal off and continued,
"Did they inform you of the specific responsibilities that came with this power before they gave it to you? When they obtained detailed information about your body, did they get your personal consent? Were there any privacy clauses related to it? Before you used this power, did they explain the risks it might pose?"
"For example, no one ever informed you, in writing or verbally, that using this power while hanging from a traffic light pole might cause traffic congestion. Therefore, the losses caused by the traffic jam in Central Gotham are not entirely your responsibility."
"But, as you said, they're aliens and they probably don't understand Earth's contract clauses."
"They don't understand the rules of Earth, but rashly gave you this power, leading to your causing destruction on Earth. Whose responsibility is it?"
"It's..."
Almost without thinking, Hal blurted out. But, feeling guilty, he swallowed the rest of his words.
While following Shiller's train of thought, he began waffling. He remembered that when he first received the Green Lantern Ring, indeed nobody had told him how to use this power without endangering the Earthlings.
In fact, Hal felt a bit wronged when he was accused by Alfred and Batman of betraying Earth.
He was just an ordinary man who suddenly gained divine power. Moreover, the other party was right in their noble pretensions. His being unaware of their possible ulterior motives was excusable.
Now, reflecting on it, if a contract has terms that were all in his favor, constantly giving him power, money, and the guise of justice, only asking him to do small tasks, it was suspicious no matter how one looked at it. The hidden risks must be unimaginably enormous.
"If aliens also have these kinds of rules, but he didn't tell you, then this would constitute contractual fraud. They intentionally deceived you."
"If there are no such rules among aliens, aren't they more primitive than humans? Why would you trust what they say then?"
Hearing what Shiller said, Hal plunged into deep thought. Shiller continued, "Like I said, the die is cast. But like all victims of scams, the most pressing issue is not shame or self-blame, but reclaiming losses."
Shiller threw the green crystal to Hal. After catching it, Hal examined it carefully.
Suddenly, he realized that when he concentrated, the energy in the crystal spread up his arm. In less than a second, he transformed back into the glowing Green Lantern.
"Now, you are free, Hal."
As Shiller looked up at the levitating Hal, he said, "Do you know? I once asked Batman a question..."
"What question?" Hal also looked into Shiller's eyes.
"Whose justice do you wish to uphold?"
Floating in mid-air, Hal fell into deep thought. His facial expression gradually became serious, then determined.
Unlike Batman, he didn't have a peculiar and twisted background. He was simply a kind and steadfast ordinary man. Consequently, the answer in his heart was telling him that all the justice that others had gifted him was in fact nothing more than disguises for power.
"Actually, I still don't know right now...I don't know what justice is."
Hal gave an answer that Shiller did not expect, but he continued, "However, I will use this power to pursue this answer. Until I find the answer, I will never stop, even if it means sacrificing my life."
Having said that, Hal slowly descended. The green light on his body faded, but did not disappear. Instead, it returned to the crystal. Apparently, after firming up his belief, his control over the Green Lantern energy had improved another level.
"Your dream is noble, and I believe, with your willpower, you can uphold justice. The only problem is... during the process, we may need a substantial amount of funds..."
"Funds? But, I don't have money..."
Just as Hal finished speaking, he paused, his gaze landing on the green crystal on the table.
"Fortunately, I've already prepared our startup capital."
"Prepared? How did you prepare..."
"As I mentioned, they were the ones who breached the contract first. Thus, it's fair for us to collect a bit of liquidated damage."
Hal suddenly had a bad feeling. He stared at Shiller and asked,
"...How much did you take?"
Hal watched as Shiller bent down to pull a large box from under the coffee table – inside the box were piles and piles of green crystals.
At the Green Light Corps Headquarters, the Corps Leader in his green uniform stood in front of a massive lantern, turned to his subordinate next to him, and asked in confusion,
"Recently, the power consumption of the lantern in headquarters has been quite severe. Do you have any idea why?"