The Green Lantern Corps, a mysterious organization in the universe. It is considered mysterious because each of its members possesses a special ability derived from the Green Lantern Ring. However, relatively speaking, it is actually an open organization, and many civilizations in the universe are aware of its existence.
It cannot be denied that the vast majority of Green Lanterns are justice-loving and helpful. The Green Lantern Corps have divided the universe into many sectors, with each sector being maintained by a Green Lantern responsible for cosmic order. These Green Lanterns are mostly diligent and conscientious, making significant contributions to cosmic peace.
In this respect, it would seem that Schiller fleecing the Green Lantern Corps is something a villain would do. Although Schiller doesn't care if people really see him as a villain, he still has room to justify this behavior. The key lies with the creators of the Green Lantern Corps, the little blue Guardians of the Universe.
It's been mentioned on how unreliable the little blue people are, but in reality, they are more unreliable than anyone can imagine. For instance, the leader of the Red Lantern Corps, representing anger, is a byproduct of the little blue people's troubles.
The little blue people created a kind of mechanical life that slaughtered the civilization in Sector 666, and in the end, few survived there. The survivor, Atoshita, was chosen by the red light spectrum out of anger for the destruction of civilization and became the leader of the Red Lantern Corps.
From a cosmic perspective, this story sounds tedious. But when it comes down to the microscopic level of life, Batman is but a shadow of revenge for a lost parent, while a slight blunder by the little blue people results in the obliteration of all civilization in a vast cosmic region. In the end, there is no Batman in the universe to hold them accountable.
Another example is in the comic's event "Blackest Night," where lanterns of various colors began to fight each other, which was also caused by the little blue people. The leader of the Blue Lantern Corps disagreed with the little blue people, and so did the purple, green, and yellow lanterns.
The little blue people indulged Supreme Green Lantern in suppressing Green Lanterns, but they turned a blind eye to the Orange Light Corps Leader monopolizing all Orange lantern energy. These handling methods caused all the corps to harbor grievances and eventually fight each other.
They made the wrong decisions at every critical point, ultimately leading to this major event. The price they had to pay for their mistakes was just bearing the brunt, and many times they didn't even have this. The ones who bore the name calling were all the Lantern Corps.
For the Lantern Corps, the losses caused by their mistakes resulted in severe losses to the Corpsmen, their reputation plummeting in the universe, and even the foundations of the Corps being shaken.
It sounds heavily distressing, but compared to the destruction encountered by ordinary civilizations in the universe, it's virtually nothing. Just in Sector 666, the carnage saw casualties in the billions.
And what lessons did the little blue people learn from this? Nothing at all.
They continued to make messes, stirring up relations among the Lantern Corps, driving the lantern heroes to kill each other, leading to the occurrence of "Blackest Night".
The human race always yearns for justice and beauty. Therefore, when the Green Lantern Ring arrived on this planet with the name of justice, many people, like Hal, did not have enough vigilance. They even longed for the Green Lantern to truly bring peace to the universe.
But in fact, even if most Green Lanterns are just and friendly, due to gaps in cognition and ability, ordinary terrestrial organisms simply cannot recognize the immense danger behind them.
It's like an ant colony facing humans. If humans are friendly, then naturally everyone is overjoyed. But if there's any accident, neither the ants nor their nests can withstand the terrifying catastrophe falling from the sky.
What's most worrying is that because of the friendliness shown by humans before, many ants not only will not resist when a disaster comes, but they will even line up for slaughter, high singing praises of friendship with humans before dying.
It can be foreseen that if Hal does not break free from blindly accepting tasks and maintaining the justice of the Green Lantern, then one day, there will be no Hal Jordan in this world, only a Green Lantern who belongs both spiritually and physically to the Oa Star.
"Actually, I rarely tell people about my hometown. Seashore City has a bad reputation on the West Coast because of the influx of immigrants brought about by the gold rush of the last era, leading to security concerns."
"But I still love my hometown. I was born and raised there, and for a long time, I was scared to leave,"
Sitting on the couch in the mansion, Hal fiddled with the kryptonite crystal filled with green lantern energy in his hand. The green light reflected in his pupils, making his eyes look like a piece of softly glowing jade.
"You may not believe it, but when I came to Gotham, I felt awake for a moment. I broke free from that great justice-oriented mindset because I missed home."
"However..." Hal exhaled and relaxed his body, leaning against the back of the couch. "The people and things in Gotham have been eye-openers. I've never been so far away in the first half of my life. Now, it's time to travel."
"Where do you plan to go?" Schiller asked.
"I want to tour the East Coast first. I don't have any fixed plans, just go wherever I go. Maybe I'll visit the West again, I've always had a dream of being a cowboy…"
"I thought that after you learned about these things in the universe, your goals would be loftier."
Schiller picked up a green crystal from the box, observed it, and the faint green light on it showed a fresh vitality, like a tender bud just sprouting in the spring.
Hal paused, looked up at Schiller, heard the hint in his words, and asked, "Loftier? What do you mean?"
"After you became a Green Lantern, didn't you ever consider going to the headquarters?"
"I..." Hal paused for a moment, then sighed and said:
"Alright, I admit, I am not a very adventurous person. So far, Gotham is the farthest place I've been to. I can't possibly wander off several million light-years to a strange alien planet without even leaving my hometown, can I?"
"But you've been to Gotham, what foreign planet scares you?" Shiller pointed out the key point once again, leaving Hal speechless.
"Hal, even though I said I would help you clean up your mess, you know it was just a joke. I have my own uses for these energies and they can't remedy the potential effects of a security leak."
Shiller's face turned serious, drawing Hal's attention as he heard Shiller say, "You should know how fragile human civilization is. Not to mention aliens, the current situation on Earth is already at a tipping point, where any faint influence could ruin the entire civilization."
"At this point in time, no one wishes for an unidentified force from the cosmos to interfere with Earth's affairs. But no one knows for sure whether they'd target Earth because of the information you leaked."
Hal's face also turned serious as Shiller sighed and said, "True, Earth might be a backwater. Even if you deliver all the details here to the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps, no one would care much about such a small planet. But, are you willing to take that gamble?"
"Even if a single Green Lantern gets interested in this place, it could bring unpredictable destruction. Just like what you did in Gotham. He might not have ill-intentions, but humans are truly fragile."
"No, I'm sure they'll be interested in Earth." Hal looked a bit gloomy as he said, "Or more precisely, they will definitely be interested in Gotham."
"Fortunately, after I came to Gotham, I entered your dream. I haven't given away any more information since, or else, once they knew about the situation here, a bunch of Green Lanterns would flock here, wanting to purify this city."
Hal covered his forehead with his hand and said, "My goodness, I might indeed have to go to the Oa Star. If someone in the Corps is actually interested in Earth and comes here, discovers Gotham, the Green Lantern Corps will definitely attack this place."
The more he spoke, the more anxious he became. He even stood up from the sofa. The green Kryptonite crystal in his hand emitted a faint glow, and the green light spread from his arm to his body.
"Wait, are you just going to go like this? Do you know where the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps is?"
"Of course, the ring will tell me... oh, this is not a ring." Hal looked down at his hand holding a piece of stone, but it was not a ring.
Shiller picked up the bell from the coffee table and gently rang it. Soon, Merkel, Dick, and Aisha walked out.
Shiller beckoned to Dick, who came over. Shiller patted him on the shoulder and said, "Just like I told you before, Dick, take off that ring. Your Uncle Hal needs to use it now."
Dick rubbed his sleepy eyes and stretched out his arm. The ring on his finger was barely glowing after such a long time. The Green Lantern ring was almost out of power.
Aisha walked up and grabbed Dick's arm, then yanked the ring off his hand. Just as she was about to put the ring in her mouth, Shiller took the ring and returned it to Hal.
"The Green Lantern energy in this crystal can also recharge this ring in reverse, the principle is the same as the Lantern Furnace. The crystal you hold in your hand contains about the energy of 10 Green Lantern rings. It can fully charge your ring 10 times."
Hal gasped, looking again at the pile of crystals in the big box, and said, "My goodness! So, each crystal here is equivalent to 10 Green Lantern rings? You couldn't possibly have drained the entire lantern furnace, could you?"
"There is something else I would like to ask of you. If you plan to go to the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps, could you check for me how much energy is left in the furnace located there?"
"Why do you want to know this? You're not planning to steal all the Green Lantern energy, are you?"
"Of course not..." Shiller denied it, and Hal sighed with relief. But then, he heard Shiller say:
"I couldn't possibly do that on my own. So, it's not 'I' who want to steal all the energy from the Lantern Furnace, it's 'we'."
Ten minutes later, at the headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps on Oa Star, a Green Lantern officer in uniform, holding a stack of files, strode into the main Energy Central Hall.
He saluted the leader of the Corps, then said, "Sir, I've found the Lantern using energy most frequently recently, his name is Schiller Rodriguez, from Sector 2814, Earth."
The Corps leader's eyebrows furrowed deeply. At this time, another younger Lantern entered and saluted the few people. He said, "There's a new member reporting in, his name is Hal Jordan, a recent addition to the Corps from Sector 2814, Earth."
The Corps leader and his deputy shared a look, while the younger Green Lantern looked puzzled. He said, "If there's no problem, I will arrange a welcome ceremony for him and then assign him for training."
"Wait!" said the Corps leader, "We'll welcome him personally."