"The Mother Box is fake."
"Pfft!!!!"
Barry spit out his coffee. Greed waved his hand, signaling not to make a fuss, and said, "Arrogance has really spoiled you all. No one wants to think a little more. Is this really okay?"
"What does this have to do with our brains? Why did you make a fake Mother Box?"
"Don't rush, I was just about to say." Greed said, "Darkseid needs the Mother Box, so we give it to him. This way, whatever he was planning, he must set aside, and turn his attention to the more important Mother Box. Tell me, isn't a theft case more pressing than a kidnapping case?"
Barry couldn't refute. After all, he and Jenna dared to be relaxed because the research material being stolen wasn't a big deal. To be accurate, it wouldn't cause significant harm in the short term, even if the sky fell, Brainiac would bear it. But the kidnapping case is different, the harm is immediate, the urgency of the case is strong, breakthroughs must be made immediately, or innocents will suffer.
Moreover, looking at the actions of those kidnappers, the three kidnapping cases were not their limit. They had no plans to give up voluntarily. But ever since the Mother Box appeared, there haven't been any more malignant cases.
"The theft was fake, too."
"Cough, cough, cough!!"
Greed couldn't help but roll his eyes, then continued, "Someone indeed tried to steal something, but we caught them. The Mother Box is still safely in the hands of the Primary Universe Batman."
"Why did you do this?"
"First, with an important item stolen, Brainiac has a reason to impose martial law. After all, even though they seemed distracted, without a mandatory approach, it's still not secure enough. What if they plan to pursue two lines of action?"
Barry couldn't help but nod. Indeed, it's more secure this way.
"Then, Darkseid is always a hidden threat. I don't know why Brainiac just drove him out of the Solar System and felt at ease. If invading the Solar System has no cost at all, wouldn't anyone dare to come?"
"I do not feel at ease." Brainiac interjected, "I'm just planning."
"Your planning speed is too slow, as a super artificial intelligence, it's been over a year, where is your plan?"
"I need to assess various risks, confirm the details of actions, and understand various intel…"
"I don't need that."
Brainiac fell silent.
"I understand, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will be impervious to any threat. You want to gather intel just to target Darkseid's weaknesses. He may have many weaknesses, but none of them are enough for you to decide to act, because if you can't deliver a fatal blow, things will get more troublesome afterward."
"But in reality, capturing weaknesses isn't as good as creating weaknesses. If you can't weigh which is better, then create the best one yourself."
"But how do you know what will entice him?"
"I don't know what will entice him, but I know what will definitely entice him."
"What?"
"Greed."
Greed smiled and said, "You might be thinking that it's because I have intel, I know he wants the Mother Box or the Anti-Life Equation, so I set up a trap. But in reality, even without these two things, I just need to make up something stronger, make everyone believe it exists, and Darkseid will definitely come to seize it."
Neither of them spoke, and no one asked how Greed would fabricate it. After all, the Mother Box was also his fabrication, and from the organization Darkseid set up hidden on Earth, he truly believed it.
"But that's not the most important thing," Greed said, "If the Mother Box stays safe there, Darkseid might realize it's a trap. But now the Mother Box is missing, and it didn't end up in his hands, what do you think he'll think?"
"I remember this thing was supposedly made by New Genesis Star," Barry said with a frown, "They seemed to have been fighting over it before. Now the Mother Box appeared on Earth, but then it suddenly disappeared, and Brainiac released a message saying aliens took it. Darkseid will definitely think it was New Genesis Star that did it."
"Exactly. He might not take it because he thinks the Human race is a very backward civilization, and with such high-tech stuff, even if given to us, we can't use it. But New Genesis Star is different, they are the original creators of the Mother Box, once they take it back, not only can they immediately use it, but they could also continue to mass-produce it. Darkseid won't allow such things to happen."
"But he has a grudge against the Primary Universe Batman, shouldn't he target the Human race first?"
"That's another question, do you think Darkseid learned his lesson?"
"What?"
"Why did Darkseid fall for Primary Universe Batman's plan? From our perspective, directly piloting his planet to another distant world to engage in a multiverse-level war is something only a complete fool would do. Darkseid isn't foolish. Why would he do such a thing?"
"Why?"
"Arrogance."
Greed continued, "In his heart, he has never looked up to the human race. In his eyes, a human-verse multiverse war is just like ants fighting. What's wrong with humans taking out their phones to film ants fighting? A person walking with a suitcase is not going to take a detour just because there are a few ants crossing the road ahead, right? Even if the suitcase contains all his possessions, he wouldn't care. Who would have thought that he'd get thrown by an ant and suffer a concussion, burning the suitcase in the process?"
"Makes some sense," Barry said. "But maybe it's also because the gap between humans and Darkseid is too immense, which led to his underestimation."
Greed shook his head and said, "Greed and arrogance are the heaviest original sins of intelligent life. No one can escape them. We're not discussing whether Darkseid underestimated his enemy, but whether he's learned enough from this failure."
"It seems not," Barry said, "otherwise he wouldn't come back and start making trouble on Earth."
"Exactly. He won't see this as a failure; he'll just think of it as slipping up, a horse stumbling on a flat path. He might even think he underestimated his enemy earlier, but he still believes that as long as he exerts full force, finding Batman's teeth on the ground wouldn't be an issue."
"Hard to understand," Brainiac said. "Even the Bruce of our universe, I mean, when he was still Batman, was extremely powerful, as if nothing was too difficult for him."
"There are still some things that can stump him," Barry glanced toward the back door.
"That's our understanding, but not in Darkseid's eyes. We know how formidable Batman is, but in Darkseid's eyes, he's just an ordinary human from some remote Earth surface civilization, without even a superpower. If it weren't for his underestimation and mistakes, wouldn't handling him be a piece of cake? Not to mention, a single Omega Ray could turn him into ashes, couldn't it?"
"Right," Barry suddenly realized, "Darkseid's Omega Beams can transport across time and space, so why didn't he use them on Primary Universe Batman?"
"During wartime, he did use this trick," Brainiac suddenly spoke up, "I have ways to disrupt the Omega Beams. This might be the reason why he hasn't used it yet. Change to another universe, and perhaps Batman would be in trouble."
"I see that you all don't have a proper understanding of Batman's strength either," Greed waved his hand and said, "Let's not talk about that, only about Darkseid. He clearly hasn't learned any lessons from this event, thinking it's not because Batman is too strong, but because he made a mistake. Therefore, he won't take any human seriously."
"In his view, seeking revenge on Primary Universe Batman, isn't that just a matter of time? Just one beam, and it's never too late to launch. But New Genesis Star is different. Those guys have been fighting with him for many years, nearly tearing the cosmos apart, and they're his number one enemy. Now, New Genesis Star might be reclaiming something very important and strategically valuable to them. How could Darkseid choose to go all out against Batman and ignore New Genesis Star?"
"I see," Barry said, "Once he knows that the Mother Box could be in the hands of New Genesis Star, he would surely pursue it with all he's got. But now that the thing is in Primary Universe Batman's hands, won't he still follow it to Batman?"
"Who said the thing is with Batman? Didn't it get stolen?"
"But there was no theft case..."
"Who said there wasn't? Someone indeed infiltrated the lab and took the thing away. That person was me."
"Oh, I get it. You plan to make another fake one, right?"
"You've finally gotten a bit smarter. The previous Mother Box indeed had certain research value, so it was given to Batman. And now, the one that was stolen is another fake, and it's in the hands of me, the thief."
"I guess you're planning to make a bomb so that once Darkseid finds the Mother Box, it can blow him up. Right?" Barry looked excited, even eager to see the scenario of Darkseid being blown away.
"No, no, no, such methods are too crude," Greed shook his head, "And they do not solve the current predicament on Earth. Because Darkseid himself hasn't come to attack Earth, so even if he's wounded, isn't he still hiding on Apocalypse Star?"
"You mean..."
"What is most urgent now is dealing with Darkseid's forces lurking on Earth. Unless they're exposed, they can keep causing trouble quietly from behind the scenes. With the shielding devices they have, they can keep Earth in constant turmoil."
"Exactly," Brainiac also agreed, "Whatever is happening on Apocalypse Star doesn't concern us. We only hope to maintain Earth's peace. As for revenge against him, a meticulous plan is needed."
"Both tasks can be done simultaneously. Eliminating the forces of Darkseid that have been lurking on Earth for years also harms him. Especially when he's eager for revenge against Batman, it effectively cuts off one of his arms."
"What do you plan to do?"
"If Darkseid discovers during his pursuit of the Mother Box's traces, that it wasn't taken by those from New Genesis Star, but intercepted by the human forces he planted on Earth, what do you think he will do?"
Barry suddenly understood, he said, "You want to make them fight amongst themselves? If Darkseid finds out that the treasure he's desperately looking for was intercepted by his most looked-down-upon Earth subordinates, he would surely be furious."
"But would the human forces lurking on Earth really betray Darkseid?" Brainiac questioned.
"Don't worry," Greed slowly stood up, walked over to shake Barry's hand, and pointing at himself, said, "Let me reintroduce myself. Schiller Rodriguez, the new head of the 'Thieves' department of the '100' organization, has successfully persuaded the Big Boss Tobias Whale of the organization, to use the power of the Mother Box to replace Brainiac and establish a new human dynasty under Whale's rule."