"Hiss..." Big Adventure Superman drew in a sharp breath and whispered to Big Adventure Batman, "I think he's been with Bruce for too long. This is way too vicious."
"But he makes a good point," Big Adventure Batman spread his hands and said, "What exactly did Night Owl gain by abandoning his moral baseline?"
The two of them exchanged a glance, big eyes staring into little eyes, obviously unable to come up with an answer.
Many people feel that those who abandon morals gain more advantages in society because they bypass certain unspoken rules, sacrificing others' interests to pursue their own naturally brings greater benefits.
But the premise of this rule is that they must gain more benefits. Sacrificing one's morals and doing whatever it takes to succeed, even if most people disapprove of you, they have to grit their teeth and call you a hero.
But if you sacrifice your morals and fail to achieve your goals, you'll inevitably look like a rogue who harms others without benefiting yourself. People walking by not only curse you but might even spit at you.
Understanding how to turn low morality into an advantage is a complex subject. If you must price everything, including morality, for benefits, you must be a clever person who can do the math. Otherwise, the meager gains from sacrificing morality won't withstand the pressure brought by societal rules.
Many choose to be good people and follow morals not because they're stupid, but because it's the simplest and least troublesome way for ordinary people. As long as they live by some form of socially accepted standard, life might not be grand, but at least they can survive.
Breaking through is always difficult. It's equally challenging to break upward and downward. To break moral standards downward, one must also face immense social pressure. If the timing is wrong, the degree is problematic, or the gained benefits can't pull you out of the whirlpool of public opinion, the sudden enormous pressure can be utterly crushing.
So many won't try, simply to protect their lives. Some will try, not because they're cunning enough to manage the nuances, but out of necessity and luck, they manage to balance gains and losses.
Many think breaking the baseline for benefits isn't that hard or disgraceful because they ignore the social pressure imposed on them in the process. More accurately, they underestimate the emotional and mental harm social pressure inflicts, showing a complete disregard for mental health.
Once an arrow is loosed, there's no turning back. When they realize the extent of the damage, even capable of breaking one's spirit, it's often too late. Even if one isn't dead, parts of their personality might be irrevocably changed. The harm of being ostracized or even loathed by a group is long-lasting and irreversible.
Just like many bear lifelong shadows from school bullying, school is merely a micro-society. Those who take risky paths and fail face complete societal pressure, which is not something ordinary people can endure. So most don't act not because they lack intelligence, but out of the instinct to maximize benefits and minimize harm.
Only the rare clever few, blessed with good fortune, can genuinely gain core benefits this way.
Night Owl is actually quite smart, given his adversaries are numerous Batmen. Yet, he's not smart enough, nor lucky, resulting in his several evil decisions not giving him enough leverage, turning one misstep into a cascade of errors.
He sacrificed his moral baseline by joining Mad Laugh's evil plan, only to get himself trapped. Ignoring the mage's warning, he studied black magic, explored forbidden knowledge, ended up getting tricked, harmed his teammates, and was expelled from his team, sneaking away in disgrace.
As an Evil Batman, he's unqualified. His evil didn't yield him enough advantage, so even other Evil Batmen weigh heavily whether Night Owl is a good leader.
At this moment, the advantage of justice becomes apparent. The just side maintains team unity through a baseline, everyone believes the leader will respect this baseline, even in temporary setbacks, to protect everyone's safety and maintain all interests.
But this concept doesn't exist on the evil side. Bound by potentially greater interests, there's no unity or baseline. Once circumstances turn unfavorable, anyone might be sacrificed. When crisis hits, everyone bolts unless they risk being offered up by the boss.
This means that the just side, while not gaining immense benefits in good times, ensures a baseline in weaker times, maintaining morale, granting the team greater resilience and fault tolerance. The evil side, while quickly reaping benefits during good times, will scatter like birds and beasts once the situation plummets.
Night Owl's situation now is like those once evil Batmen who now express, "Big Brother this, Big Brother that," but ignore you when trouble strikes.
The righteous Batmen who stood by the Primary Universe Batman earlier, argued fiercely for him. Night Owl just had several rounds of argument with them.
Now that it's his turn to be scolded, his teammates are all silent like gourds with their mouths cut off, some studying the lights on the ceiling, others examining the gaps in the floor tiles, with no one speaking up for him.
However, backing him up now is challenging; at least, the Big Adventure Batman thought about it and couldn't find any angle for rebuttal.
From the battlefield's defeat angle, but they've already said they didn't lose. From a personal quality angle, no matter how bad the Primary Universe Batman performs now, it's still not worse than Night Owl before. After all, Night Owl sold out more moral principles and ended up worse than others, isn't that incompetence?
But Night Owl, being Night Owl, rolled his eyes and said, "Don't you feel guilty, Batman? Eighty percent of the Flashes were killed, they must have been in a lot of pain when they died. And your Superman, wasn't he disappointed in you at the moment of death?"
The Big Adventure Batman couldn't take it anymore, he stepped out of the crowd, shouldered Night Owl aside, and said, "Don't worry, Batman. War always comes with casualties, everyone is mentally prepared for that. Especially the Flash and Superman, they surely don't fear sacrifice, nor would they blame you, you know them well."
"I feel very sorry for their deaths," the Primary Universe Batman's voice lowered, he said, "Indeed, war always involves sacrifice, but such large-scale sacrifice is not common. Even if they don't mind, I feel very regretful. All the pain they experienced is my fault."
Night Owl immediately felt a bit smug, as long as the Primary Universe Batman's momentum remained weak, it was good. He was about to seize the opportunity for a deeper psychological blow when he heard the Primary Universe Batman say:
"Mistakes are irreversible but can be compensated for. Sacrifices have been made, and naturally, they cannot be brought back to life, but we can use their deaths to achieve results, and that is what I should be doing now. If I wallowed in guilt and melancholia, it would be irresponsible to all the living."
"I don't express it because I don't want my emotions to affect too many people, leading to disastrous consequences in future battles. I assumed everyone was intelligent enough to understand this already, but I can't believe someone actually thinks that not hiding in a room to cry is wrong. But then again, for a sociopath with no empathy, it is not surprising to make such a joke by attempting to understand the world of normal people's emotions through a shallow and simplistic view."
Night Owl's face turned green and purple.
He realized that without Superman, Batman wasn't weakened, but damn it, epically strengthened. Superman's Holy Mother heart might be annoying most of the time, but at least his indiscriminate sympathy for vulnerable groups could greatly help the current Night Owl. If the Main Universe Superman was here, he'd at least step in to mediate instead of just leaving him there like a thin bat.
Night Owl couldn't help but look at the lone Superman present, who wasn't even looking at him but seemed to be operating the Battleworld interface, occasionally throwing a glance at his Universe Batman.
Great, if Superman were here, he'd probably just flirt with his Universe Batman, ignoring other Batmen's survival. In a way, more ruthless than the Evil Batman like Night Owl.
Unfortunately, the Super霸 from his own universe got himself laid down, impossible to help him out. Just then, a new Superman entered Batman's meeting room. Night Owl turned to see, isn't that the Injustice League's Superman?
Before coming, he checked the Battleworld news and knew what this Superman had done. He actually mind-controlled his Universe Batman, simply... well done.
Night Owl couldn't help but feel a bit envious. Since Super霸 was no longer useful, and the Super Queen was still backing Super霸 to hunt him down, this group seemed to have no future compared to the thriving Injustice League. This guy probably just had some grievances with his Universe Batman, and since he's not even a Batman, joining shouldn't be a problem, right?
When the Injustice Superman walked into the room, he felt the atmosphere a bit tense but didn't know who went crazy. He only knew the battle situation was unfavorable, and the Superman side was so understaffed that they brought him, an evil Superman, over to fight. He didn't really want to come, but since the Injustice Batman was in their hands, he had no choice.
As soon as he entered, he felt a hot gaze; following it, he first saw familiar pointy ears, then... a diver's mask?
The Injustice Superman scanned the crowd with his eyes, looking for the Injustice Batman. But that guy with the round glasses kept staring at him, which annoyed the Injustice Superman.
So he shot a heat beam over.