Lin Li saw Barry hesitate, wanting to speak but holding back, and frowned, saying, "Is there something else? You look very troubled."
Barry said seriously, "Lin Li, I need you to promise me something."
Lin Li's frown deepened. "Tell me."
"No, you must promise. This is for you, and for everyone else."
Barry's expression became solemn.
"Control yourself. Do not kill."
Lin Li's tight frown loosened. He thought it was something serious, but it was just Barry's excessive kindness. He probably heard Lin Li talk so casually about electrocuting metahumans, assumed Lin Li didn't value life, and specially came to talk to him about it.
Does he care about other people's lives?
Does he?
Doesn't he?
No, he doesn't.
Ultimately, it's just a TV show, a show labeled as good. Lin Li has never felt a sense of belonging to this world, nor does he believe it's a real world. He's just lost in an online game, where all the NPCs are building a heroic game.
Do you care about the lives of NPCs in a game?
No.
Why not?
Because from the very beginning, you look down on NPCs from a superior perspective.
This is just a TV show, virtual, fake, it doesn't matter. Anything can be done, casually, as long as he can go home. What if this place is destroyed? It's just a TV show.
This kind of thinking has always firmly occupied Lin Li's mind, but his reserved Eastern personality made him express it in a slow manner.
Especially since transmigrating here, he gained more powerful and destructive abilities than ordinary people from the start, powers that could easily dominate ordinary people.
Indulging in this power, Lin Li couldn't help but feel his ego inflate, viewing all life as inconsequential.
Is Lin Li a smart person? Yes, not to mention transmigrating here, even in the real world, he wouldn't be foolish. At least he's among the people with above-average intelligence and strong willpower.
Therefore, the moment his frown loosened and he felt impatient with Barry, he activated his superspeed thinking, scrutinizing himself comprehensively.
Lin Li was confused. He knew his mindset was problematic; he was gradually getting lost because of his power. Barry, who had been lost before, was particularly familiar with this situation. He saw his own past arrogance in Lin Li.
Fortunately, Barry has always been a kind person, and his losing himself didn't cause any major mistakes. But Lin Li was different; his heart might disregard good and evil due to his urgent desire to return.
A silver arc flashed in his eyes, and everything that had happened throughout the month replayed in his mind.
It seemed he thought he could easily control everything, control Wells, control Reverse-Flash, control the future's direction, always full of confidence, planning everything, just because he had watched the TV show.
When did he become so easily angered? The first time he faced Reverse-Flash, he had just arrived in this world, bewildered and helpless in a foreign land, unable to return. This was understandable. Anyone with ties would not want to transmigrate, so Lin Li understood this kind of frustration and anger.
But the second time he got angry, dealing with Weather Wizard, even if Barry was injured, his anger seemed unexplainably high.
He even clamored to kill Marden.
When did he become so extreme, so easily angered, so disregardful of human life?
In the real world, even killing a chicken made him feel reluctant. He would even stop for a few seconds to mourn the passing of a life when faced with death.
But here, he was actually cruel enough to want to destroy a life.
At the same time, this coldness made Lin Li's heart chill; he felt no emotional fluctuation, killing as a matter of course.
Is it merely because he doesn't consider this place real? Is it merely because he considers this place virtual, fake?
"Lin Li, the Weather Wizard incident gave me a warning."
"We have both been overcome by our superpowers."
"Superpowers amplify our inner behaviors."
"If we cannot control our inner selves, superpowers will lead us down a path of no return."
"Lin Li, you are my good friend."
"Promise me to respect life, control yourself, and not belittle every life because of superpowers."
Barry's words awakened Lin Li from his confusion; he realized he needed to exercise restraint and self-discipline.
He couldn't say, "I won't kill anyone from now on, I'll study hard, and be a saint every day." However, if his bottom line was crossed, he wouldn't hesitate to execute judgment himself, for instance, in cases of child abduction, rape, murder, and so on. Lin Li would not show mercy.
But at least he needed to clearly understand and distinguish the meaning of his actions, face his own morality, and have no regrets in his heart.
Regardless of whether it was real or fake, if his heart were to sink, even if he returned to the real world, he would only be a devil, bringing suffering to his loved ones.
No, my sister can only have a happy smile; I will never allow the pain of suffering.
A smiling face appeared in Lin Li's mind, and his heart became clear and transparent.
His eyes brightened, then the electric arcs dissipated, and he exited superspeed thinking mode.
"Barry, thank you. I know, I understand."
Lin Li said to Barry solemnly.
"I will control myself. Unless absolutely necessary, I will not easily kill."
Barry grew anxious. His meaning was not to kill at all, not "unless absolutely necessary, don't easily kill."
Barry meant that regardless of whether they were bad people or good people, they could just assist in capturing them; they had no right to kill anyone.
Therefore, Barry also said to Lin Li seriously and solemnly, "NO, Lin Li, my meaning is, do not kill, no matter how angry or sad you are, do not let the urge to kill occupy your thoughts."
Lin Li was speechless. He later remembered that in The Flash, Barry was indeed such a person, a person who was excessively kind.
He didn't argue with Barry. He brought up an example.
"Barry, what would you do if killing a deserving criminal could save 100 ordinary citizens?"
"I wouldn't kill anyone, nor do I have the right to kill anyone. I would save those 100 ordinary citizens."
"What if you didn't have that ability?"
"I wouldn't kill anyone; I would choose to save lives."
"Barry, anyone who kills deserves to be killed. A killer will always be killed."
"NO, we should leave it to the law to judge. As long as he is captured and imprisoned, he can't harm anyone."
"What if he escapes and kills again?"
"Recapture him."
"What about the person he killed after escaping? Should he pay for your kindness? Should he die because you didn't kill? Should he prove with his death that you showed great mercy to his killer? And then the world will praise your benevolence towards criminals, a hero who doesn't kill, a great hero, building your heroic throne with the bones of innocent dead?"
Lin Li said with a cold face.
He couldn't understand this excessively kind value system when he watched the TV show. For a person who deserved to die, death was his best destination, not imprisonment, only for him to escape one day and kill a few more people, then be imprisoned again, in a cycle, thereby making the person who caught him a hero.
Lin Li didn't want to be this kind of hero, nor was he willing to be this kind of hero.
Barry was silent. He couldn't persuade Lin Li, and Lin Li couldn't persuade him. Their differences in values were too great.
"Lin Li, let's have a fight. You are my good friend, and I won't let your hands be stained with blood. If I win, everything will be done my way."