Barry had no intention of sitting indoors with Deathstroke for a cup of tea; he had to rush back to the Hall of Justice to discuss matters with Batman.
So when Su Ming descended the damp, dark staircase alone, he found only Harley and Ivy holding a 'celebration party'.
It was somewhat shabby because all the food had been soaked in water, leaving only an apple on the table with a small candle stuck in it.
However, there was no shortage of beer.
"You're back, there's a power and water outage today." Harley held a beer bottle, resting it against her chin, her two pigtails hanging listlessly.
"The aircraft is on the rooftop, there's electricity and water up there; you can go there to take a shower," Su Ming said, pointing upwards as he sat beside the round table.
The table was very small, like a high stool, and the three of them gathered around it, gazing at the candle in the darkness.
"Let's cut the cake after the celebration. Shall we?"
Harley pointed at the apple on the table, clasped her hands together, and pressed them against her cheek, twisting her body, as if she had come back to life.
Su Ming drew his sword instantly, and Godslayer sliced the apple into three parts, leaving a pillar-like section with the apple core supporting the candle, upright and motionless on the table.
Ivy shrank back a bit; she always felt unsafe being too close to Deathstroke.
"Oh~ time to eat, Little Red?"
Harley lifted her piece of the apple and pushed Ivy's portion into her hand.
Harley was very clever; she always knew she was only safe when with Deathstroke or Batman.
Given the disparity in personal prowess and some unpleasant memories from the past, she chose Deathstroke.
Su Ming could feel that Harley was very relaxed, but Ivy seemed nervous, like a small animal, always fearful of him.
But none of this mattered. Su Ming's plan was to stake out Joker or Mad Laugh; Ivy was merely a bonus accessory to Harley, like a piece of branded rat poison that might come with a small sausage or a piece of cheese.
The attitude of the bait was not important.
Su Ming knew there wouldn't be any issues in the coming days. With the Justice League idle, Mad Laugh wouldn't be so bold as to charge in head-on.
Creating other monstrous bats would take time.
He was another Batman, and Batman's tactics involved isolating and dividing his enemies, then picking them off one by one. He would choose a time when everyone was too busy to respond.
So Su Ming planned to set up the trap and then hide far enough away in the bushes.
He ate his apple, drank some beer, and chatted with them for a while before playing cards in the candlelight.
In the deep of night, he returned to the bedroom assigned to him, locked the door, and lay on the bed.
Indeed, as Harley had said, the room was like a large walk-in closet—perhaps it had once been a wardrobe, with no windows at all, meeting all his needs perfectly.
It was pitch black, with just a few cockroaches scuttling in the corners.
Having dealt with almost everything on Earth, Su Ming needed to make a trip to the Realm of the Dead, passing through the dream world as a shortcut.
Given God's recent unusual reactions, he had a bold hypothesis—that God was deeply mired in transformation. This required a meeting with the remaining members of the Endless Clan for more information.
Sleep Demon himself should be fine, but the skies of the Dream Realm represented the countdown to cosmic destruction, posing equally grave issues.
..................
Confronted with a meeting among a group of cosmic concepts, the process was clearly unpleasant; except for Death and Destiny who showed good attitudes, Destruction, Desire, Nightmare, and Frenzy seemed indifferent.
Anthropomorphized concepts were merely personifications; they were not human, as if they were just segments of code dictated by the DC World.
Su Ming summoned the Inverted Man, this magical concept from beyond the wall, who appeared more human.
When that slick, white-scaled figure dangled upside down and emerged, with images of Ancient Divine Attendants as magical apparitions following.
All the concepts dry-heaved.
Yes, Su Ming felt he couldn't be mistaken; even as anthropomorphized concepts, without the need for sustenance or human organs, they still dry-heaved.
Wade's artistically processed products were indeed Causality Law Weapons.
Su Ming then demonstrated the power derived from his ten Lantern Rings before calmly diving into the main topic.
Albella went to find Lucifer and Sleep Demon, based on Su Ming's suggestion, but there had been no news so far, and God also exhibited certain mutations.
Though the Endless Clan was strong, they were still vastly inferior to God, which wasn't a joke in the DC World.
So ultimately, everyone agreed to go back home and wait for the right moment.
Destiny said God's body was being transformed; it was now like a floating egg in the Divine Realm of Gods, and only when it hatched could everyone know what was happening.
God's fate was not under 'Destiny's control, hence Destiny was helpless.
If Sleep Demon and God were in on everything, then everything wouldn't be revealed until the end.
Su Ming had an inkling that this date might correlate with the multiverse countdown, with God possibly reshaping himself, ready for a new creation.
Well, that's a bit of a headache.
However, it's not that his mission failed, it's just that during the execution of the mission, a briefing was held, and he took the opportunity to introduce the Inverted Man to these old conceptual beings. It's easier to communicate with personified concepts than with formless concepts.
After the meeting ended, the Inverted Man slipped away, and after chatting a bit with Death, Su Ming also took his leave.
The 'Death' from DC is more unfortunate than the 'Death' from Marvel, because in the core rules of her concept, there is one that states, 'If she falls in love with someone, she will die herself,' and a new personified concept will appear to replace her.
The concept still serves the world, and the program doesn't require emotions.
However, after leaving the Endless Clan, Su Ming's matters were not over yet; there was still someone he had to meet.
..................
It was the same familiar starry sky, with the giant blue figure still floating cross-legged not far away, amidst the vast cosmos, with celestial bodies moving according to their original patterns.
Su Ming withdrew the X Metal protruding from his finger, separating it from the Jester Badge, and his cloak carried him afloat.
"Doctor."
"In the end, you still found out, much faster than I anticipated; I combined data from many future samples but could not foresee our future."
"You cannot see your own future because you are already dead." Su Ming floated calmly beside the giant, like an ant flying beside an elephant: "But the ten years lost in this universe have actually always been inside this badge, right?"
"Correct reasoning, but not utterly correct, quantum is everywhere, even in death, quantum remains quantum."
The blue giant replied, and in cosmic space, his voice was as thunderous as when he had once lectured as a human in a hall.
"Does the name Manhattan still hold meaning for you?"
"No, I use 'I' here merely to conform to your human language habits; in truth, formless quantum does not possess an individual concept."
Dr. Manhattan looked calmly into the distance, with no expression on his face, only indifference. He continued:
"Using tangible perception to distinguish the intangible universe, even I cannot elaborate further."
Su Ming sighed; if the Jester Badge was the entrance to the formless Quantum Realm, then the missing ten years and the Infinite World where the original owner of Deathstroke's body was once imprisoned should be here.
The last time, that blue light, he thought he was being teleported, but in reality, he was absorbed by the badge.
Su Ming is now within the Jester Badge, yet the badge remains on his chest. This means there is another self within the badge on his chest, and even further inside, there is the same self, also wearing a Jester Badge, and then infinitely more selves...
Just thinking about it is enough to drop your SAN value...
It's like a Möbius Ring or a Klein Bottle, an infinitely recursive structure forming independent segments in ten-year units.
Manhattan had neither the concept of concealment nor deceit; when he claimed he couldn't explain more clearly, that was genuinely beyond the possibility to convey to a three-dimensional being like Su Ming.
The unspeakable is essentially that.
"So, Doctor, what do you think about the impending destruction of this universe?" Su Ming changed the topic, pursuing incomprehensible knowledge might lead one to madness.
"There's no 'thinking' about it; what you refer to as the present is both the future and the past to me."
Dr. Manhattan wasn't a Holy Walker; he said this matter-of-factly, not as a play on words, but as truth.
However, Su Ming seemed to vaguely understand something.
In other words, in this rolling 'ten-year ball,' he can freely advance and retreat with respect to the external time, but the ten-year time of the ball itself was long since excised from 'time.'
Which means, as long as Manhattan is within the 'sphere,' time is virtually infinite for him.
Relative to the outside world, since infinite possibilities make everything uncertain, many things might be one way the first time you see them, and after time rewinds and you come again, things will have minor changes.
When Manhattan attempts billions of times, obtaining billions of different results, his perspective becomes such that seeing or not seeing no longer matters.
Completely using chaotic-distributed unpredictable values, there is no value in summarizing, especially with Su Ming as a transmigrator entering the picture, things have surpassed the universe's boundaries.
And the last meeting that was to Su Ming might very well occur after this meeting...
"Wait, then, about that bag of gemstones you gave me last time..."
"Yes, because now that you've given me ten Lantern Rings, in the 'past,' I can return them to you."
Dr. Manhattan straightforwardly admitted that the gemstones, which The Ancient One considered the Heart of the Universe and contained incomprehensible energy, were really Lantern Rings manifest as the Emotional Spectrum underwent quantum processing.
"But they still exist, whether as rings or gemstones." Su Ming manifested the ring, then pulled out the remaining gemstones from behind him.
Everything appeared as it had before.
"That's simply because they do not exist in any timeline here, and if you choose not to give me the rings, everything in the past will be rewritten."
Su Ming fell silent for a moment, removing the rings one by one, placing them into Manhattan's hand, even the ring of Invisible Light being unwound by blue quantum.
"Then theoretically, if I could return at any later point in this world's timeline, I could indeed retrieve the rings, use them, and then place them back here for a certain moment when we 'first' meet, and they become gemstones?"
"Correct understanding, the external timeline can be a river that halts or even reverses, but only with quantum calculations."
"...I'll leave the rings in your care on the external timeline; the place I'm going next can't use them anyways."
Dr. Manhattan merely held the rings without any indication, his expression unchanged as he watched Deathstroke disappear from sight.