American comics: Damn it, I’m surrounded by those who worry about their fathers!.

Chapter 1017 The Pharaoh's Plot Unveiled! The Show Begins!
Witt slowly turned his head, a faint smile appearing on his face for the first time.

"You want to know, Imra?"

His voice was steady and pleasant, as if he were telling an ancient history. "Since you asked, I will naturally not be stingy with sharing. After all, a great play needs an audience that knows how to appreciate it."

He gently waved, gesturing for the Saturn Girl to come closer.

His gaze then returned to the global disaster he had orchestrated on the screen.

"My original intention was actually very simple."

The Pharaoh's voice carried a distant, wistful quality.

“In that desperate Watchers universe shrouded in nuclear shadow, I found a power beyond the ordinary—Dr. Manhattan. My goal, from beginning to end, has been only one: to find him, persuade him, and use his godlike power to stop the inevitable nuclear destruction of our world.”

On the screen, the scene shifts, briefly showing the gloomy, dilapidated streetscape of New York in the Watchmen universe, and the suffocating red light of the nuclear war countdown clock.

"It was no accident that I brought the marionette couple with me."

The Pharaoh tapped his fingertips lightly on the table. "Everyone thinks that Dr. Manhattan spared the pregnant marionette out of pity for the unborn life. What a... superficial interpretation."

A cold, mocking smile curled at the corner of his lips. "I witnessed firsthand how Dr. Manhattan remained completely unmoved when the Comedian shot and killed a Vietnamese woman who was several months pregnant. How could he be swayed by 'pregnancy'?"

The Pharaoh's gaze sharpened.

"The only explanation is that he 'saw' it. He saw the future of the child inside the marionette's belly, and that vision was the only reason for him to go against his then-unfettered principles. That was the reason he let them go."

"so."

Witt paused for a moment, then continued, "I had the second Rorschach help them escape from prison and bring them into this world."

“My bargaining chip is Jane Kroc and the child in her womb that Dr. Manhattan ‘foresaw.’ I hope that through her, I can awaken the last remaining attachment to the ‘future’ in Dr. Manhattan’s heart, remind him of the ‘reason’ he gave for letting go, and thus… intervene in the process of our world’s destruction.”

He paused for a moment, seemingly savoring the ingenuity of the plan.

"I guessed the beginning right."

The Pharaoh's tone carried a hint of frustration.

"Dr. Manhattan did spare the Marionettes because of the child's potential future, but..."

He shook his head slightly, a hint of bewilderment flashing in his eyes. "I miscalculated a variable, a variable I never anticipated—Superman's attraction to him."

The screen freezes on Clark's eyes, burning with rage.

"When he came into this universe and came into contact with the core of this 'primordial universe'—Superman Kal-El, everything changed."

The Pharaoh's voice was tinged with helplessness, "He no longer cares about the survival of the Watchmen universe, no longer cares about the child's future. He... is obsessed, obsessed with this ultimate confrontation with Superman. He is like a mad scientist, and like a thrill-seeking gambler, obsessed with observing the two possible outcomes: whether Superman defeats him, this 'god,' or whether he ultimately destroys the entire primordial universe?"

For the first time, a speechless expression clearly appeared on the Pharaoh's face.

"I cannot accept either of these outcomes!"

His voice suddenly rose, carrying a hint of suppressed anger.

"If Manhattan dies, then the last hope of the Watchmen universe will be completely extinguished. Everything I have done, including my efforts to save the Watchmen, will be in vain, along with your universe itself, which is full of color and chaos, but also full of infinite possibilities!"

The Pharaoh suddenly stood up and walked to the huge circular screen.

The screen was displaying a scene in the United Nations hall, showing Diana fighting a bloody battle against several superhumans.

He opened his arms as if to embrace the entire screen, the entire chaotic world.

"So! I've come up with a new plan!"

His voice was filled with fervor and absolute confidence, like a creator god proclaiming, "A plan that can save two universes at the same time, Imra! I never intended to destroy Superman; on the contrary—I will save everyone!"

He turned around abruptly, staring intently at the Saturn girl.

"When I set foot on this land, I felt its complexity and pathology."

"This place is filled with irreconcilable extremes. On one side are Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and other embodiments of hope walking in the sunlight; on the other side are the evils that breed in the darkest corners of Gotham, the greed of politicians, and the blindness and insatiability of the people under the protection of heroes."

"Marches, protests, tearing society apart over trivial differences—people have been so well protected by heroes that they've forgotten the true cruelty of the world, forgotten... what the despair of losing a protector tastes like!"

As he spoke, the Pharaoh's finger jabbed sharply at the chaotic scenes on the screen. "The only cure for this world, corrupted by its own greed and folly, is—a rebound from rock bottom!"

The Pharaoh's voice was resolute: "Only when humanity loses something completely will it learn to cherish it. Only when they are stripped of the protection of heroes and left naked to face the abyss, to face true destruction, will the seeds called 'unity' and 'hope' sprout anew in the ruins of despair. And to make humanity lose something completely..."

A cold smile curved his lips.
"We must make all of humanity... enemies of Superman!"

He walked back to the control panel, his fingers rapidly tapping on the complex keyboard, bringing up encrypted files, lab reports, and satellite images.

"Furthermore, after thorough investigation, I discovered an interesting fact: the theory of superhumans is not entirely unfounded."

The Pharaoh pointed to a document on the screen labeled "Firestorm Matrix Theory".

"Since the emergence of Superman, the U.S. military and some clandestine agencies have launched a superhuman project codenamed 'The Crucible,' and the key figure in charge of this project is Professor Martin Stein."

"He not only put forward the theory, but also successfully merged his consciousness with that of his student Ronnie Raymond, becoming the first controllable and powerful superhuman entity—Firestorm."

Witt's eyes gleamed with the satisfaction of his successful scheme.

"So I carefully selected the recipient of this 'gift'—the Russian 'Zhi Shi,' a fanatical nationalist and a powerful figure who was wary and hostile to Western superhumans."

The scene shifts to a secret Russian military base.

"Sure enough, this intelligence about Firestorm—this American-made 'living nuclear weapon'—was like a spark thrown into a powder keg, instantly igniting the fury of the man. He pushed Firestorm to the forefront, accusing it of being the ultimate weapon for the United States to destroy Russia!"

"I know that Firestorm will inevitably go to Moscow to explain and try to calm this diplomatic storm."

Witt's finger traced the movement of the energy markers representing the firestorm on the screen. "If Superman gets close to Moscow, he will inevitably intervene and try to resolve the conflict, so I devised a plan to lure him to Moscow as well."

His finger moved to another image—a neighborhood destroyed by an energy shockwave, marked "Bubastis Energy Signature".

"At this critical moment, I used Bubastis—a bio-energy weapon inherited from the Watchers universe and personally improved by me."

Witt's tone carried a cruel glint in his eyes. "I created several... 'small explosions,' carefully chosen in locations, with disguised energy signatures, but enough to make heroes tracking unusual energies, especially those with cutting-edge technology and magical tracking abilities, quickly realize that the source of the explosions was not a runaway firestorm, but some more powerful and unknown entity."

On the screen, the Justice League's satellite network, the Tower of Destiny's magic detection sphere, and the Batcave's energy tracker all locked onto the explosion points, analyzing the residual abnormal energy signals.

“They will track this energy, Imra.”

The Pharaoh's voice carried an air of absolute confidence: "They will be like ants drawn to honey, following the energy traces left by Boubastis that point to the depths of space, but what they will ultimately find will not be Boubastis, much less me."

His finger pointed to the distant red dot on the screen that represented Mars.

"What they will eventually find is Dr. Manhattan and his Crystal Fortress. All the powerful superhumans on Earth will be drawn to this ultimate threat, like moths to a flame, heading to Mars."

"Of course, the biggest threat to my plan is Peter Patrick. As long as he exists, the world cannot descend into chaos, so he must also go to Mars."

Pharaoh said confidently, "Zatana is on Mars. I believe he will not stand idly by. After all, he has a close relationship with her. As long as he goes to Mars, Doctor Manhattan will definitely clash with him and may even erase his existence, because he will not tolerate anyone being closer to Superman than him."

The scene then shifts to the devastation in the United Nations hall, where Black Adam's army is wreaking havoc.

"And when the Earth lost its guardian, lost Patrick..."

Witt's voice was like an icicle, "When those superhumans who have been ostracized, hunted down, and driven to the brink by governments around the world—Black Adam and his cronies—find that the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads has disappeared, what will they do?"

The answer is self-evident.

On the screen, superhuman terrorist attacks erupt in multiple locations around the world.

"The answer is chaos, utter chaos."

The Pharaoh's voice carried a declaration: "Human order will crumble under the onslaught of superhuman powers like Black Adam, cities will be reduced to ruins, civilization will teeter on the brink of collapse, and fear and despair will spread like a plague. Only then, when humanity is stripped of all false security and confronts the abyss of destruction nakedly..."

His gaze once again fell upon the chaotic scenes around the world on the screen.

"Only then will they remember that name from the depths of their bones, remember the figure who once shielded them from all disasters, remember Superman, and remember how precious the hope he represents is."

Then the Pharaoh slowly sat back in the control chair, his face returning to calm.

He took one last look at the chaos unfolding around the world on the screen.

"Now, the stage is set, the actors are in place, and the show... is about to begin."

(End of this chapter)