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Chapter 300: Who's to Blame?
Brainiac was done for again.
Of course, that didn't mean the trouble was gone for good, but Orin Vale wasn't discouraged. Brainiac was like Ultron to begin with; permanently solving the problem was far more difficult than simply defeating him.
That was no exaggeration. Since the character's creation, even after all these years, Superman and the Justice League have never managed to completely rid themselves of this nuisance. Eliminating an artificial intelligence was troublesome enough, let alone an interstellar super-intelligence that scattered its backups all over the universe. Getting rid of its main body, at least at this stage, was an incredibly difficult task.
But it didn't matter. To be honest, Orin Vale didn't really mind Brainiac popping up every now and then to make his presence known.
The warship confiscated from Old Bu last time was still the highest quality item in Orin Vale's collection, and it even came with the bonus knowledge of technological trees from nineteen different galactic civilizations.
This time, a brief encounter lasting only a few minutes had netted him another warship and further enriched his library of galactic knowledge. It was practically a gift from the heavens.
And besides these regular gift packages, Orin Vale had even pulled a limited prize this time. He'd shot down a warship and gotten three New Gods for free—a buy-one-get-three-free deal, can you believe it?
When Orin Vale, as the new master of the warship, swaggered in to inspect the Harvest Zone, the three New Gods were completely dumbfounded.
Getting caught wasn't that unusual, but not even seeing their opponent's face the entire time was just plain ridiculous. One moment, they were happily sneaking through the shadows, crawling along in the rear, and then, with a sudden *swoosh* and a blur in their vision, they were inexplicably thrown into a prison. Who could they even complain to?
The three of them were still in the dark. When they saw Orin Vale, their hearts filled with terror, and they felt an inexplicable dread at his unimaginable countermeasures. But if they were to find out that they had simply served as shields against another group of sneak attackers, they would probably have coughed up blood on the spot from sheer anger.
Before its head was crushed, Brainiac's last remaining consciousness spat out a few threats. Orin Vale hadn't been paying close attention, but it was more or less the classic villainous trifecta—threats in the vein of "I'll be back."
To this, Orin Vale's response was, "Great, feel free to come back often."
After all, how did that old saying go?
Come back and visit often.
The richness of his knowledge inventory was primarily dependent on how frequently Old Bu paid a visit.
He had originally just come to fill out Almerac's technology tree, but he hadn't expected to receive such a windfall from Old Bu along the way and make a fortune. Orin Vale was in a great mood because of this.
After this turn of events, the remaining people of Apokolips had also temporarily withdrawn from Almerac. It seemed they had no time to worry about strategic strongholds for now.
Zazo, who had led the rebellion, also confessed the Old King's whereabouts that day. Perhaps considering his own escape route from the start, Zazo hadn't killed the Old King, but merely imprisoned him. Now that the Rebel Army had been utterly defeated, Zazo was powerless after his surrender. After he gave up the location, Maxima rescued the old man without much trouble.
Maxima personally led the charge, carving a path through the stronghold and tearing apart the fortress with her bare hands to find the Old King.
The moment she saw the old man, she felt her eyes sting. She rushed forward in a subsonic Flash and threw her arms around her father. "Father!"
The old man was also weeping, deeply moved. "You actually found me? I had completely given up hope of this day ever coming..."
"What are you talking about?" Maxima said. "I am the Princess of Almerac. Of course I'd fight that despicable villain to the very end."
But to her surprise, the old man cried, "My dear daughter, of course I don't doubt your determination, I was doubting your ability! Who would've thought your brain could actually get you this far?"
Maxima flushed, a hint of displeasure on her face. "I've grown up. I'm very smart now."
Hearing this, the old man's tears flowed even more freely. "If that's really true, then how have you not yet noticed that you just crushed your old dad's bones?"
"Ah!?"
Maxima froze, hastily letting go. "Ah, Father, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention... Are you hurt?"
"It's fine, it's fine. Just a few broken bones, it's nothing serious... cough, cough, cough..."
"..."
In any case, the outcome was a happy one for all.
After this battle, Maxima wanted to return the throne to her father—it seemed she herself was aware that her intellectual limitations made her ill-suited for the position. But the Old King refused. He seemed to think this was a good opportunity for his daughter to take the reins, so he simply held a formal ritual and passed the position to her.
And so, following historical tradition, Maxima officially took over and became the new Empress of Almerac.
Of course, that happened after Orin Vale had already left.
He anticipated a "since I can't repay you, I'll offer myself to you" combo from the newly appointed empress, so he quit while he was ahead and fled with his new warship and spoils before the ritual began.
Somewhere in the darkness.
An alloy gate opened, and gray-black shadows flew in, flapping their wings.
A figure in a purple-black robe turned around in the shadows, a sinister light glinting in his crimson eyes.
"You didn't find them? What do you mean you didn't find them?"
Several Parademons crouched on the floor, all talking at once, describing the situation with a flurry of words and gestures.
The more Desaad listened, the colder his gaze became. He sat in his chair and pondered for a moment before waving his sleeve, dismissing the Parademons.
The New God of Apokolips sat quietly in the darkness for a moment. Then, he raised his arm. With a flick of a withered claw from within his long sleeve, a transparent interface appeared before him.
It displayed a series of readings collected by the Parademons—all data from their investigation of the "crime scene" where his three teammates had mysteriously disappeared.
The person behind this had been extremely covert; even he hadn't noticed at first. But after analyzing the residual energy and reconstructing the spatial readings from the scene, Desaad began to discover something.
There were traces of technology—space teleportation technology. It was unfamiliar to him, but he thought he could recognize the handiwork.
After all, across this entire universe, beings who possessed technology on this level were few and far between.
"Brainiac." Desaad practically squeezed the name through his teeth.
The New God's eyes narrowed, and he ground his teeth. His five withered fingers nearly crushed the armrest of his chair.
Of course, he knew of this being. The super-intelligence drifting through the universe, the collector of technological knowledge, the figure maniac who loved to bottle civilizations.
But for all these years, this insane AI had never been crazy enough to stir up trouble on Apokolips. That, it seemed, ended today.
Desaad said in a low voice, "This act will be considered a declaration of war!"
(end of chapter)
Brainiac was done for again.
Of course, that didn't mean the trouble was gone for good, but Orin Vale wasn't discouraged. Brainiac was like Ultron to begin with; permanently solving the problem was far more difficult than simply defeating him.
That was no exaggeration. Since the character's creation, even after all these years, Superman and the Justice League have never managed to completely rid themselves of this nuisance. Eliminating an artificial intelligence was troublesome enough, let alone an interstellar super-intelligence that scattered its backups all over the universe. Getting rid of its main body, at least at this stage, was an incredibly difficult task.
But it didn't matter. To be honest, Orin Vale didn't really mind Brainiac popping up every now and then to make his presence known.
The warship confiscated from Old Bu last time was still the highest quality item in Orin Vale's collection, and it even came with the bonus knowledge of technological trees from nineteen different galactic civilizations.
This time, a brief encounter lasting only a few minutes had netted him another warship and further enriched his library of galactic knowledge. It was practically a gift from the heavens.
And besides these regular gift packages, Orin Vale had even pulled a limited prize this time. He'd shot down a warship and gotten three New Gods for free—a buy-one-get-three-free deal, can you believe it?
When Orin Vale, as the new master of the warship, swaggered in to inspect the Harvest Zone, the three New Gods were completely dumbfounded.
Getting caught wasn't that unusual, but not even seeing their opponent's face the entire time was just plain ridiculous. One moment, they were happily sneaking through the shadows, crawling along in the rear, and then, with a sudden *swoosh* and a blur in their vision, they were inexplicably thrown into a prison. Who could they even complain to?
The three of them were still in the dark. When they saw Orin Vale, their hearts filled with terror, and they felt an inexplicable dread at his unimaginable countermeasures. But if they were to find out that they had simply served as shields against another group of sneak attackers, they would probably have coughed up blood on the spot from sheer anger.
Before its head was crushed, Brainiac's last remaining consciousness spat out a few threats. Orin Vale hadn't been paying close attention, but it was more or less the classic villainous trifecta—threats in the vein of "I'll be back."
To this, Orin Vale's response was, "Great, feel free to come back often."
After all, how did that old saying go?
Come back and visit often.
The richness of his knowledge inventory was primarily dependent on how frequently Old Bu paid a visit.
He had originally just come to fill out Almerac's technology tree, but he hadn't expected to receive such a windfall from Old Bu along the way and make a fortune. Orin Vale was in a great mood because of this.
After this turn of events, the remaining people of Apokolips had also temporarily withdrawn from Almerac. It seemed they had no time to worry about strategic strongholds for now.
Zazo, who had led the rebellion, also confessed the Old King's whereabouts that day. Perhaps considering his own escape route from the start, Zazo hadn't killed the Old King, but merely imprisoned him. Now that the Rebel Army had been utterly defeated, Zazo was powerless after his surrender. After he gave up the location, Maxima rescued the old man without much trouble.
Maxima personally led the charge, carving a path through the stronghold and tearing apart the fortress with her bare hands to find the Old King.
The moment she saw the old man, she felt her eyes sting. She rushed forward in a subsonic Flash and threw her arms around her father. "Father!"
The old man was also weeping, deeply moved. "You actually found me? I had completely given up hope of this day ever coming..."
"What are you talking about?" Maxima said. "I am the Princess of Almerac. Of course I'd fight that despicable villain to the very end."
But to her surprise, the old man cried, "My dear daughter, of course I don't doubt your determination, I was doubting your ability! Who would've thought your brain could actually get you this far?"
Maxima flushed, a hint of displeasure on her face. "I've grown up. I'm very smart now."
Hearing this, the old man's tears flowed even more freely. "If that's really true, then how have you not yet noticed that you just crushed your old dad's bones?"
"Ah!?"
Maxima froze, hastily letting go. "Ah, Father, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention... Are you hurt?"
"It's fine, it's fine. Just a few broken bones, it's nothing serious... cough, cough, cough..."
"..."
In any case, the outcome was a happy one for all.
After this battle, Maxima wanted to return the throne to her father—it seemed she herself was aware that her intellectual limitations made her ill-suited for the position. But the Old King refused. He seemed to think this was a good opportunity for his daughter to take the reins, so he simply held a formal ritual and passed the position to her.
And so, following historical tradition, Maxima officially took over and became the new Empress of Almerac.
Of course, that happened after Orin Vale had already left.
He anticipated a "since I can't repay you, I'll offer myself to you" combo from the newly appointed empress, so he quit while he was ahead and fled with his new warship and spoils before the ritual began.
Somewhere in the darkness.
An alloy gate opened, and gray-black shadows flew in, flapping their wings.
A figure in a purple-black robe turned around in the shadows, a sinister light glinting in his crimson eyes.
"You didn't find them? What do you mean you didn't find them?"
Several Parademons crouched on the floor, all talking at once, describing the situation with a flurry of words and gestures.
The more Desaad listened, the colder his gaze became. He sat in his chair and pondered for a moment before waving his sleeve, dismissing the Parademons.
The New God of Apokolips sat quietly in the darkness for a moment. Then, he raised his arm. With a flick of a withered claw from within his long sleeve, a transparent interface appeared before him.
It displayed a series of readings collected by the Parademons—all data from their investigation of the "crime scene" where his three teammates had mysteriously disappeared.
The person behind this had been extremely covert; even he hadn't noticed at first. But after analyzing the residual energy and reconstructing the spatial readings from the scene, Desaad began to discover something.
There were traces of technology—space teleportation technology. It was unfamiliar to him, but he thought he could recognize the handiwork.
After all, across this entire universe, beings who possessed technology on this level were few and far between.
"Brainiac." Desaad practically squeezed the name through his teeth.
The New God's eyes narrowed, and he ground his teeth. His five withered fingers nearly crushed the armrest of his chair.
Of course, he knew of this being. The super-intelligence drifting through the universe, the collector of technological knowledge, the figure maniac who loved to bottle civilizations.
But for all these years, this insane AI had never been crazy enough to stir up trouble on Apokolips. That, it seemed, ended today.
Desaad said in a low voice, "This act will be considered a declaration of war!"
(end of chapter)
