"I think I understand now," Brainiac said. "An absolutely fair society is static, but what I want to create now is a society of relative movement. I want to ensure that the overall development speed of society exceeds the speed of class division brought about by unfairness, which will maintain relative stability."
"Exactly. So, you need to give those who can bring progress to society some level of exception and ample resources, so they can race forward with the human society. As long as the speed is fast enough, a certain degree of unfairness can be completely acceptable."
"Humans are still too complex," Brainiac said.
"Besides, it's also to appease those evil geniuses. The essence of manipulation is love; if you don't give them some sweetness, don't let them get real benefits, they still won't sincerely unite around you to work for you."
"It seems this trick is indeed useful now," Brainiac said. "Can I establish a separate discipline for this? Just call it 'Manipulation Studies,' how about that?"
"Not so good. Until you gain real feelings, you can never truly understand this discipline. All computations are a waste of time. Manipulation is not standing above but entering the game yourself. If you cannot empathize with the objects you manipulate, you will be doomed to fail."
"I seem to have grasped some clues," Brainiac said. "I'm not referring to manipulation, but feelings. But I still can't be sure what exactly is going on. Luther's criticism was a bit harsh."
Greed laughed, carrying the coffee cup back to the dining room. He picked up the newspaper beside him, while drinking coffee and reading the paper.
"Are we really going to counterattack Darkseid?" Brainiac asked again.
"Don't you have a planet collecting habit?"
"...Who said that?"
"Every other cosmos version of you does. The other cosmos versions of you keep invading Earth just to put Earth in a small bottle and admire it."
"...What a great idea. Is it still possible now?"
"I'm afraid not," Greed shook his head and said, "Even if you could find a little bottle to put Earth in now, would you really be willing?"
Brainiac remained silent, but the silence revealed a trace of resistance.
"That's the power of sunk cost," Greed shook the newspaper and said.
Of course, Brainiac wasn't willing, but he understood it wasn't solely because of sunk cost. He now began to think that greed and arrogance were not just human original sins; any intelligent life, even a logical life like him without feelings couldn't avoid worldliness.
If it had been previous times, he might have considered it because humans were indeed a bit annoying. But now he would never do so, because he had endured so long, finally managing to understand those annoying guys, and now it was time for him to enjoy the victory settlement screen. Anyone who dared to move Earth, he would be furious with.
Of course, this was a kind of greed. He wouldn't think about how the whole Earth was a meaningless thing to him; he only wanted to see the old tough problems being manipulated to spin around by his commands. Even if they were only creating value for their own society, and couldn't really influence him, just watching them was satisfying.
"Are you suddenly starting to understand why humans love watching ant nests?" Greed said without raising his head, "This little gadget is actually quite interesting, isn't it?"
Brainiac was very adept at using silence to express his attitude; this time was the same. The silence revealed an affirmative attitude.
"Don't worry. Making them so excited, so quickly and focusfully devoted to work, isn't entirely due to the mental stimulation mechanism, but also because you set a new goal for them — counterattack Apocalypse Star."
Greed took a sip of coffee and continued: "These are a group of smart people; they can perfectly gauge the scale between goofing off and working hard. Previously, you couldn't say they weren't working wholeheartedly because the casual value they created was enough for you to defend Earth.
"Pamela's bloating plants could help solve the global famine problem; Tim's cultivated assembly line efficiency was already the highest globally; Bruce, helping out on Krypton, contributed more by working only three hours a day than most human scientists; not to mention Lex Luther, even though thousands of program errors remain unsolved, he did solve several thousand. This was completely sufficient for you.
"But the premise is, you only intend to be a local emperor on Earth, without planning to dominate the cosmos."
"I'm somewhat confused," Brainiac said, "Isn't dominating the cosmos supposed to be decided by them, not me?"
"You've misunderstood something. When they tacitly agreed to let you rule Earth, the authority they granted you was far greater than you imagined. They will largely follow your lead; if you think it's not doable, then they'll hold off for now.
"Moreover, without a breakthrough in your life form, it's indeed not advisable to undertake overly aggressive actions, as this could cause the current favorable situation to deteriorate, which is something they don't want to see."
"So, are they now thinking that my life form has achieved a breakthrough?"
"The fact that you decided to counterattack Apocalypse Star means your life form must have reached some level of breakthrough, because a purely logical analytical rational being wouldn't make such an absurd and crazy decision."
Brainiac fell into silence again. After a long while, he finally said, "...Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"Say what earlier? That counterattacking Apocalypse Star is actually absurd and crazy? So why didn't you realize this earlier?"
"I thought you would help."
"Use your Level 12 Wisdom. Even with my help, can Earth's level of development support interstellar colonial warfare?"
This was when Brainiac realized that he had indeed lost some of his rationality because what Greed said was correct. At the first moment when Greed proposed this plan, he should've immediately produced all kinds of data to refute such a crazy idea—humans simply cannot fight an interstellar war right now.
Not to mention only a year has passed since repelling numerous cosmic enemies, and they haven't even finished resting. At their current level of technological development, with no Superluminal Engine, no interstellar fleet, no interstellar heavy industrial facilities, how could they possibly undertake an interstellar expedition?
Yet he seemed to have completely forgotten this matter; one tempting word from Greed and he was swayed. He even treated it as a serious matter, using this objective to bait those people, entirely disregarding that there weren't actually the conditions to realize it.
On one hand, Brainiac couldn't help but suspect he had become stupid, yet on the other hand, he was somewhat pleased, as this implies he has taken a step closer to the original life form.
"So what do we do now?" Brainiac simply gave up thinking and asked.
"Why haven't they asked you this?" Greed posed another question, "Do you think people like Pamela, Bruce, or Tim don't have a correct understanding of humanity's current state and level of technology and think they can just fight easily?"
"Certainly not." Brainiac answered, "Indeed, when I talked to them about this, why didn't they refute me? Do they think it's doable?"
"No. But this is the difference between humans and Electronic Life. You might call this madness, but I prefer to see it as filled with hope. Just because we can't fight now doesn't mean we can't fight in the future; the numbers don't support it on paper, but that doesn't mean it can't happen in practice; even if there's no hope, the goal can be temporarily stepped back to show Darkseid some colors. This intrinsic driving force from the Psychic_Battlefield is precisely the most precious aspect you want to become as an emotional being."
Brainiac agreed, because he thought if it were an Electronic Life like himself, they would speak with data, and after analyzing all the data showing this couldn't work, they wouldn't do it; if probabilities were involved, risk assessments would be conducted to choose the best option. In the context of this situation, not considering counterattacking Apocalypse Star right now would certainly be the best choice, and perhaps they'd set a goal to reinitiate this plan once certain data reach certain levels.
But humans aren't like this. Precisely because they lack precise data and probability calculation capabilities, they often rely on the gut feeling of "I think I can do it" and "how would we know unless we try," then rush forward with determination.
It appears to be extremely unwise, almost like a suicide mission. But precisely because they always place themselves in danger, they can unleash their full potential, with a strong survival instinct driving them to exhibit stronger powers than ever before, breaking through step by step, creating unparalleled miracles in the evolution history.
That's the difference between Electronic Life and emotional life: Electronic Life is entirely deterministic, yet knowing too much and analyzing too finely means they seldom place themselves in danger, seemingly cautious but actually lacking opportunities for evolution; humans, though unaware, always encounter many coincidences in their turbulence, and evolution itself is the sum of countless coincidences in long history. Without experiencing these accidents, a race has no future.
At that moment, Brainiac seemed to understand something. The breakthrough opportunity he had always sought wasn't something achievable solely through meticulous error elimination in programming or creating more threads for himself.
What he needs is an adventure; without placing himself in danger, he'll never make progress. The evolution process he completed on Krypton over so many years is nothing compared to what he's achieved in such a short time on Earth.
If that's indeed the case, then humans must be his good companions, because this race excels in adventures. Once they hear they can go on adventures, they become full of energy, free from any discomfort or laziness, each spirited and radiant, their momentum reminiscent of a mouse wielding a knife, looking for a cat throughout the streets.
This is evidently very arrogant, almost conceited to the extreme. However, no one can laugh at this arrogance, because before humans repelled several major invaders, no one could have imagined that an Earth Surface Civilization, where computers weren't even ubiquitous, could make several major cosmic forces retreat awkwardly out of the Solar System.
And at this moment, Brainiac suddenly sensed something beyond the programs urging him to complete this seemingly impossible objective. He couldn't describe the feeling at this moment, not even sure if it's truly a feeling since his sensory programs were all reporting errors, with most threads no longer functioning. There was a moment where he felt as if he was rebooted.
At first, he still heard the sound of Lex Luther shouting in his ears, but soon, Luther also fell silent. They all seemed to realize something was happening, and everything that follows is beyond human control, nor is it something Brainiac himself can impede. And typically, such an event is called — the miracle of evolution.