Beckett’s Life-or-Death Gamble

"What did you say?"

"You can control the Kryptonian spaceship?"

Alfred frowned. The blue robotic cat before him looked strangely familiar no matter how he looked at it. He felt as though he had seen a similar face somewhere before, yet he simply could not remember where.

"No, I said I can try to control the Kryptonian spaceship." As a rigorous Artificial Intelligence life-form, Woz would never guarantee success unless the odds were one hundred percent.

That was the principle of rigor it upheld as a robotic cat.

"Then what are your chances of success?" Mera asked.

"Based on the Kryptonian spaceship data in the database, Woz has a 77% chance of successfully taking control." A deep-blue screen appeared before Mera and the other two. The clear number displayed on it filled both Mera and Lois with delight.

A 77% chance was already high enough.

"Wait, you were the one who hacked into the Batcave database?"

Unlike the two women’s excitement, Alfred, as Batman’s butler, focused on something else. The big-faced cat icon in the lower-right corner of the blue screen finally reminded him why Woz had seemed so familiar.

"Hacked into the database?"

"If you mean Bruce Wayne’s personal classified database, then yes." Woz admitted it readily. With a sweep of its large paw, several confidential folders replaced the 77% figure and reflected in the eyes of the three present.

"Research Materials and Weakness Analysis on Diana Prince"

"Analysis of Superman Clark’s Power Composition"

"Analysis of Kryptonite Weapon Applications"

"The Feasibility of Defeating Superman"

"The Death of Superman Plan"

"…"

The straightforward list made Alfred stare at his nose, his nose at his mouth, and his mouth at his heart. Lois Lane, seeing these folders for the first time, was visibly incredulous.

"Alfred, is this real?" Lois Lane pointed at the documents on the screen.

She could hardly imagine that Batman, who had always presented himself as calm and gloomy, had secretly conducted so much research on her boyfriend.

"Wait, ‘Detailed Explanation of Bruce Wayne’s Weaknesses’?"

"Don’t tell me he even wrote down how to kill himself."

Curiously, Mera tapped the next page and discovered that the utterly insane Bruce Wayne had not only studied Clark thoroughly, but had not even spared himself.

"Ahem, that was all in the past. Right now, the important question is what we do after taking control of the Kryptonian spaceship."

"If I remember correctly, we no longer have the Mother Box."

Alfred coughed and decisively changed the subject. If this conversation continued, trouble was bound to follow.

"Draw Darkseid’s attention and buy time to revive His Highness Beckett."

Woz gave its answer bluntly.

"???"

"???"

Alfred and Lois Lane exchanged a glance, both seeing confusion in the other’s eyes.

Weren’t they discussing reviving Clark?

Why had the target changed again?

"Revive Beckett?"

"Are you serious?"

"Woz, do you really have a way to revive Beckett?"

Mera’s eyes widened instantly upon hearing this. She looked as though she were terrified Woz would suddenly say: I was lying.

"In fact, His Highness Beckett is not dead."

"Or rather, His Highness Beckett is only dead in the conventional sense. That is all."

Facing Mera, whom it was currently able to trust, Woz, newly rebooted, laid out every contingency Beckett had left behind.

After his initial clash with Darkseid, Beckett had already realized that his current strength alone was nowhere near enough to defeat Darkseid and seize the Mother Box.

So, during that brief moment after landing when he tilted back his head and drank the Nutrient Fluid, Beckett came up with an extremely risky plan.

A way to get close to the Mother Box as quickly as possible—death.

"No one lowers their guard around a corpse they created with their own hands, not even Darkseid."

"That is the confidence of the strong."

"And His Highness Beckett was killed by Darkseid’s own hand."

Woz solemnly changed the contents of the panel, using a simulated battle model to recreate the scenes of Beckett’s and Clark’s deaths.

Of course, because it could not construct a model of Darkseid, Woz used a red dot in his place.

"Wait, Beckett’s hair."

After following Woz through the scene once more, Mera, now calm, immediately spotted the inconsistency.

Beckett’s hair had remained golden even after he lost all signs of life. It had not returned to its usual black.

That made no sense.

When a person died, it was like a lamp going out. Yet Beckett’s current state was like a lamp still shining even after all its oil had run dry.

"That’s right."

"There is still a force within His Highness Beckett that preserves his final sliver of life."

"One of the Infinity Stones, the Reality Stone. Of course, you probably do not know what that is."

Woz extended its chubby little paw and pressed the screen, rewinding the footage.

On the screen, a faint black stream of light had suddenly appeared across Beckett’s body before he voluntarily shut down Woz’s program.

"It is one of the greatest treasures of our universe, possessing both solid and liquid forms."

"And now, it exists in liquid form within His Highness Beckett’s body, using its virtual reality ability to preserve his final trace of life."

The Reality Stone, virtual reality.

It was something Beckett had kept on him ever since Odin sent him out with the Space Stone. Because it had left its home universe, the Reality Stone had remained quietly inside the bracelet’s storage space, causing neither trouble nor disturbance.

Because it understood that, after leaving its birthplace, it would truly vanish once its energy ran out and could no longer be replenished.

Until Beckett actively used it.

He used it to distort his own body and preserve his final trace of "life."

That final trace of "life" was like a spark. As long as someone "ignited" the Mother Box and directed its power into Beckett, that spark, given fuel, could flare up and burn fiercely.

Beckett would naturally be revived along with it.

At the same time, the revived Beckett would receive a boost from the Mother Box’s power.

"But…"

"Why was Beckett so certain that Darkseid would leave his body behind?"

"If he simply destroyed Beckett’s corpse, wouldn’t Beckett’s plan fall apart?"

Influenced by Bruce Wayne, Alfred frowned and examined the matter from another angle.

"Because His Highness Beckett believed Darkseid would be interested in his corpse."

"He was gambling?" Lois Lane’s gaze was filled with disbelief.

Did someone really dare to gamble with his life?

"Yes," Woz affirmed.

For Beckett, there was only one goal in this world—find the Mother Box, then go home.

His obsession with returning home was enough to make Beckett stake his life on that fifty-fifty chance.

And the reason he had voluntarily shut down Woz’s system was because he trusted Woz.

He trusted that Woz, who had accompanied him since childhood, would certainly be able to direct the Mother Box’s power into his body.

If he succeeded, he would use the Mother Box to push his strength to another level;

If he failed, Beckett had never concerned himself with failure.

He was dead either way, so what was the point of worrying about it?

Treat life and death lightly—if you don’t submit, then fight!

"Beckett…"

"Where did he get that confidence? This is completely…" Mera did not know what to say for a moment.

"Because His Highness Beckett trusts you, Lady Mera." Woz raised its head, and the innocent big-faced cat began its performance.

"Do you remember the Nutrient Fluid His Highness Beckett gave you?"

"That was the last vial."

"With it, Barry Allen can recover quickly."

"And you, Lady Mera, are the key to His Highness Beckett’s revival."

Woz pointed at the Golden Trident in Mera’s hand.

"Trust… me?"

Mera’s eyes widened as she involuntarily tightened her grip on the trident.

The cold metallic texture seeped into her heart.

Two more chapters coming~

Probably around midnight~