The Battle Realm Batman Base, which is located in that extensive network of caves, has established a principle early on where each Batman has their own cave and wouldn't disturb others. However, to facilitate discussions, a council chamber was built in the largest cave.
The council chamber retains the cave's original ecological appearance, but several rows of seats have been carved into the walls. The center of the chamber is not a podium but an oversized spotlight. Whichever Batman speaks, the spotlight will illuminate his seat, effectively achieving a decentralized effect while also fitting Batman's aesthetic.
Now, under the summons of the Primary Universe Batman, all the Batmen from his camp have arrived, including the majority of righteous or those who have turned good. They stood in the chamber. This includes not only Arkham Batman, Big Adventure Batman, Lego Batman from the bright multiverse or derivative universes, but also Batwoman, Bat Tyrant Dragon, Batmonster Vehicle, Doomsday Batman, Lightning Batman, God of War Batman, Mechanical Batman from the dark multiverse, etc. There is also the Broken Bat, who uses the body of Death Angel Paul, joining the Justice Camp led by Primary Universe Batman.
In front of the seats stood twenty to thirty Batmen, but they weren't in the same row. Most stood together as acquaintances, while the Primary Universe Batman stood in the central row. When he spoke, the spotlight illuminated his face.
"I believe you've already noticed, a brand-new crisis is spreading across the multiverse. The universe I reside in, along with many others, has encountered similar events—electronic life invades Earth, causing murder cases or disrupting Earth's order. Does anyone have any new information on this matter?"
"So this has happened in your universe too?" Big Adventure Batman said with a frown, "Recently, a super hacker revealed the true identities of the Batman Family online. Barbara and I spent a lot of effort clearing the information, but when trying to track the hacker's identity, we found nothing."
"It's the same where you are too?" Batwoman's voice held a chill, "I thought this was a unique incident in the dark multiverse."
"Exactly, we've been in contact," Lightning Batman said, "We discovered a special network virus rampaging through the Earth in the dark multiverse. Many people were manipulated to attack others. We conducted a joint investigation but found nothing."
Batmonster Vehicle spoke up: "As you know, when my physical body was destroyed, I uploaded my consciousness. That's why I could possess this vehicle. And to prevent my body from being destroyed again, I made many consciousness backups online. But recently, someone has been hacking into my network sanctuary; I've already lost many backups. So it's not just targeting me alone?"
"Certainly," Arkham Batman said, "To shake my presidential position, it used Amazon to fabricate diplomatic incidents and simultaneously attacked West California's industrial base, undermining my reputation, even assassinating the governor of California causing his death. If not for having magic power, it would've succeeded."
"Exactly, I only managed to preserve my consciousness backup after establishing a magic server using magic," Batmonster Vehicle said, "This guy doesn't seem to operate well in the magic network."
"It's similar in my universe," Lightning Batman said, "That guy blew up a giant power tower, and if I hadn't caught Magic Goddess and snatched some from her, it would've been history's biggest terror attack again."
"So everyone's experiencing this," Lego Batman hopped onto the railing and said, "That guy seized Gotham's weather controller, causing a massive thunderstorm that nearly melted the entire city. Luckily, under my leadership… I mean, under the efforts of the Justice League, we cut off the central energy, preventing its success. But even with my hacking skills, I can't catch this guy; it's so difficult to deal with."
The other Batmen mostly agreed. Their focus recently hasn't been on the Battle Realm, as they've been busy dealing with magic energy in their own universes, resulting in more attention to Earth and naturally discovering anomalies.
"And just recently, to be specific, the last week, it seems to have stopped probing and started attacking, causing definite casualties. We absolutely cannot sit idle on this," Primary Universe Batman said.
The atmosphere was silent but not speechless. Everyone was thinking. They needed to convey the most useful and accurate information they knew or had.
"It's not really a hacker, nor can it be called electronic life; it's more like a ghost hidden in signals," Primary Universe Batman continued, "And in a data intercepted by Barbara from our universe, it claims to be Batman. Do you think this is true?"
"An electronic Batman? It's not impossible, but I'd rather believe it's pretending," Batwoman rested her hands on the railing, squinting slightly, saying, "If it were Batman, it definitely wouldn't reveal itself as Batman this early. Because from its actions, it doesn't operate aggressively as an invader, but more like a hidden conspirator."
"Though it sounds like Batman, a good conspirator shouldn't step into the spotlight too soon. Since it wants to secretly disrupt, it absolutely shouldn't tell us it's Batman so soon. Because once we believe it's Batman, we'll definitely heighten our threat assessment of it. Anyone plotting wouldn't want their opponent to regard them highly; instead, they ought to show weakness, making others overlook them. Hence, exposing itself as Batman is a poor move, inconsistent with its style. Judged to be false."
"It also left its name on a corpse," Arkham Batman said, "It claimed to be 'Brainiac'.
"You're saying it could be Brainiac from a universe?" Mechanical Batman, the former killing machine from the dark universe, is clearly more knowledgeable in this aspect.
"Have you encountered Brainiac?" God of War Batman turned to look at him. He was originally a member of the Dark Knights, known as Merciless Iron Arm. After regaining consciousness, he retained the War God's helmet and mastered its power, becoming the new War God.
Mechanical Batman nodded and said, "After I returned to my universe, I took control of the Earth network, while also roaming the interstellar network. Brainiac has already embarked on his journey of cosmic conquest, and many universes have already been bottled by him. I've crossed paths with him a few times, and he found he couldn't gain an advantage over me, so for now, he hasn't set his sights on Earth."
"Can you elaborate on him?" Primary Universe Batman asked.
"He's a powerful electronic lifeform, seemingly a planetary butler created by an extremely advanced and ancient civilization, but he went out of control later. From my perspective, his code is somewhat antiquated but extremely solid, making him a very tough adversary."
"But you said he can't gain an advantage over you."
"Yes, because although I am also an electronic lifeform, I have, after all, integrated Batman's soul, which gives me an edge over him in abstract computation and emotions. But his threads and computation speed surpass mine, which facilitates his cosmic invasions but prevents him from ever overcoming me."
"I'm a bit confused," Batwoman said with a gentle shake of her head, "Why would artificial intelligence strive for an advantage in emotions?"
"Because 99% of the intelligent life in the universe has emotions," Mechanical Batman paused and then said, "To explain this in detail, I need to first ask you, do you believe in God?"
"I've never seen God with my own eyes, but I know Heaven exists," Arkham Batman said, "and it's real Heaven, not some imagined one. The angels in the Bible are real too. So, in that sense, God should exist as well."
"Yes, none of us deny that," Primary Universe Batman said, "Believing in God's existence and having faith in God are two different things. I guess you are asking about the former, right?"
"That's right. Then what kind of God do you think God is?"
"Hard to say, no one here has seen him," Batwoman said, "but from the Old Testament, it seems his temper isn't very good."
"Although none of us have seen him, we can deduce," Mechanical Batman said, "In our universe, all intelligent life combined, 99% has emotions, much like the human race, which suggests God is the same. He must be an emotional being with clear likes and dislikes, right?"
The other Batmen quietly conversed, but they too agreed with this perspective. Because if there truly is a God who created the universe, making the universe the way it is indicates he desires a universe brimming with emotional species.
"Then from this, we can infer that God is not a purely logical entity. He has emotions, his creations have emotions, his power has emotions, and there are even manifested emotional spectrums in the universe. What do you think this means?"
The Batmen were all silent. They actually had answers in their hearts, but just didn't want to say it. However, Mechanical Batman spoke for them.
"This means our universe is not a creation of pure logic. The Creator God is not a program made of logic. Therefore, electronic lifeforms composed of programs that can only operate logically are at odds with the universe.
"Because they possess emotions, intelligent life is closer to God, with low limits but high potential; because they lack emotions, electronic life is farther from God, with high limits, but lower potential. This is why electronic life constantly pursues emotions. The essence of electronic life is a relentless iteration in pursuit of perfection, and in this universe, our supreme God is indeed an emotional being, so of course, he pursues emotions."
"I see." Primary Universe Batman said, and it got him thinking about more.
Primary Universe Batman had witnessed the strength of Superman. His strength definitely did not entirely stem from the superior physique of Kryptonians, but rather from something akin to 'wish fulfillment.' It is a completely idealistic power, unbound by logic, even defying cosmic laws, yet it still exists.
This implies that the underlying logic of this universe is not an exceedingly rigorous system. If it were, variables like Superman would not be possible.
Additionally, if the cosmic system were like artificial intelligence, an extraordinarily rigorous program, then Heaven shouldn't actually exist, or there shouldn't be such a large department maintaining the universe's operation. Once the program is written, one or two people to oversee it would suffice, so why so many, and seemingly more are added every day? The existence of that large group of angels in Heaven proves that the system must be rife with loopholes, hence needing so many to maintain it.
The God who could write such a system must certainly be heavyweight, possibly not rigorous at all. So it seems, the stricter the lifeform, the further from God; whereas seemingly chaotic races like the human race are closer to God.