Barry pondered for a while, finally deciding to tell Joe El what would happen in the future.
He could see that this man was very trustworthy. More importantly, he seemed to hold a significant position on Krypton; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to so easily bring a child that was supposed to be destroyed back home, without being discovered by the Parliament.
In some sense, the El family might be outside the scope of the Parliament's supervision. This means he could fully utilize this to interfere with the future.
Barry first asked El for a piece of paper. While writing, he asked, "You should be able to understand the cosmic coordinates used by the Green Lantern Corps, right?"
"'Sector'?"
"That's right."
"We can. Although it's different from the coordinates we frequently use, they can be converted."
Barry wrote a series of words and letters on the paper, handed it to El, and said, "After Krypton's destruction, this is where your son will live. The star system is called the Solar System, and the planet is called Earth. It should have the star you need."
El wasn't shocked by the fact that Krypton would be destroyed; instead, he showed a look of having anticipated this. He glanced at the paper, then said with some surprise, "So far?"
"Yes." Barry began scribbling again, then said, "What you need to do now is build a spacecraft capable of autonomously navigating here, allowing it to land precisely at this location on Earth."
Barry handed over another piece of paper. El saw it was a flat map with several continents drawn on it, with a cross on a specific part of one of the continents.
"Here, your son Carl Ai'er will meet a loving adoptive family, spend a happy childhood and youth, and after coming of age, attend university in Metropolis, become a journalist, and then a superhero..."
"Superhero?" El raised an eyebrow at Barry.
"Yes, he's a hero. And if things go as expected, at the future point in time, he's in the room with us right now."
Barry turned his head to look out at the blue sky of Krypton. El, following his line of sight, turned his head and saw nothing.
But as if sensing something, he stood up, his gaze fixed on the gently swaying curtain in the breeze.
Clark landed on the balcony, lifted the curtain with his hand, and looked at the dusty interior. His features appeared softer in the floating dust illuminated by the light.
The room wasn't large, with a sofa placed in the middle. The leather sofa was covered with a dust cover, even the legs of the sofa were well wrapped, indicating the homeowner didn't leave in a hurry, perhaps having long been prepared to say goodbye.
Moving forward led to the dining room, with a flower-patterned tablecloth spread over the table. A vase was still in the center of the table, but the plants inside had long turned to floating dust with the passage of time.
No tableware was placed on the kitchen countertop. Clark opened the cabinet to find all the tableware and kitchenware well packed and placed deep inside the cabinet.
Across from the dining room were two doors. Clark pushed open one of them to find a spacious bedroom. All the bedding had also been packed up and put in the cabinet, showing no trace of haste.
Clark discovered a photograph on the table. The photo was supposed to have three people: a man, a woman, and a gray-skinned young boy. But beside this boy, a baby's photo had been pasted on.
Beside the photo, Clark found scissors, glue, and remnants from another photo that had been cut out.
All this was done rather hastily: the tools hadn't been put away, the cuts weren't very neat, and even the glue was a bit sloppily applied. But Clark couldn't help but laugh.
He could imagine the whole planet was about to be destroyed, and his parents hurriedly took a photo with him as a newborn, frantically cut out the baby's photo, and pasted it onto another photo to make a family portrait.
Outside the window was the turmoil of an entire planet, but inside the house was the warmth and harmony of a family. A sense of black humor sadness mixed with a romantic indifference to life and death.
Clark carefully looked at the gray-skinned boy in the photograph, then confirmed that this was Hai'er. It seemed he was his brother.
Clark cautiously put the photo in his pocket, then continued to the other side of the bed, where he found neatly folded clothes and some everyday items.
Clark didn't move these things; he just took a photo with his phone. He then tried to place his hand on the lamp switch, but unfortunately, the lamp did not light up, indicating that the energy in the living area had not been restored.
Afterwards, Clark returned to the living room and opened the other door. Here was a nursery.
The floor was covered with colorful foam puzzle flooring, the walls painted in many colors, and some small planet patterns drawn on them.
Besides a baby cradle, there was a single bed by the window. Here it seemed a bit chaotic: books with text Clark couldn't understand, messy comics, small metal and wooden toys, and half a box of seemingly sorted but not completely sorted daily necessities.
Clark picked up a block and found that the back of the block was engraved with a name—"Hai'er."
It appeared this was Hai'er's room. But of course, since Clark was just born, Krypton was destroyed shortly thereafter, so the baby crib wasn't meant for him but for Hai'er.
The way the room was arranged showed that the Carl couple loved this older son dearly and brought him up well. At least Clark couldn't see any signs of violent destruction here.
However, this guy just rushed into the Solar System and directly punched Mercury to pieces. It didn't seem like he was a good kid.
Unless, there was more to the story.
Clark wanted to see if there was any diary or something, but after thinking about it, he felt that the human race wrote diaries to commemorate, but Kryptonians have super brains and wouldn't forget anything, so they probably don't have this habit.
He rummaged around the cabinets and drawers, and finally found a crumpled piece of paper under the bed's box, with a few lines written in Kryptonian. He couldn't understand it, so he put it away in his pocket to show Kara later.
After wandering around the house for a while, Clark initially felt there were no clues. He sat down on the sofa.
But as soon as he sat down, he noticed that there seemed to be something stuck under the tabletop of the coffee table in front of the sofa.
He picked it up and saw it was familiar English, and the handwriting was also very familiar—isn't this Barry's handwriting?
"Clark, I hope you can see this letter. I am writing to you with your biological father at our old home long ago. Since he can't write in English, I'm doing it for him.
He said he was very happy to know that you could become a hero and also knows about the trouble Hai'er has caused in our cosmos. However, he said he already has a solution. The specific method is as follows..."
Clark carefully read through all the contents of the letter and revealed a look of sudden realization.
However, the first thing he did was walk to the front of the sound system in the corner of the living room, move the sound system aside, and found a box underneath.
After opening the box, there were several medals, coins, a stack of photos, two items that looked like ID badges, and a small storage device similar to a hard drive on Earth.
Clark didn't look closely, because now was not the time to reminisce. There was still a big problem in the Solar System that needed solving, and he had to quickly finish up these matters.
Clark flew out with the box. Earlier, he and Kara decided to split up: he would look for clues at his own house, while Kara would go to the Parliament Building.
Now, with El's guidance, Clark first sent Kara a message, then flew towards a certain building in the city at the fastest speed.
Kara didn't find any information at the Parliament Building, most of the documents had been burned, and the remaining ones were unimportant, mostly some meeting notes.
She still memorized the contents on them. After receiving Clark's message, she also flew to the location Clark sent her. After landing, she looked up at the door, which read—"Earth Core Energy Research and Maintenance Laboratory".
When she entered, Clark was waiting for her in the lobby. Clark seemed to be continuously typing something, and Kara approached without him noticing.
"Hey." Kara called out.
"You're here," Clark said, "My biological father left me a plan, and I've figured out how to execute it. I'm texting Oliver now. Let's go."
"Where to?"
"The laboratory where my father worked before he died, to get something, then we can execute the plan."
Kara nodded and followed him forward. They came to a door, and Clark placed his hand on it, and the door opened directly.
"He gave you access so you could carry out the plan he left in the future?" Kara realized, then asked, "But what is kept in the lab that requires you to come and get it?"
"It's something very important."
Clark, recalling the information in his mind, made several turns and arrived at the door of a laboratory. First, he placed his hand on the switch, then took out the ID badge he found earlier. The scanning light on the door lit up, and the door slowly opened.
The inside of the laboratory was much cleaner, with no dust. Everything was well preserved, as if someone had worked there just yesterday.
Clark came to a piece of equipment, opened the cabin door, and pulled the handle with effort. A chill spread from within the chamber.
Clark reached in and took out an object shaped like a giant nail but was composed of silvery metal wires entwined in a spiral that shimmered faintly, with a mysterious red liquid inside the glass chamber in the middle.
"What is this?" Kara asked.
"Car keys," Clark said.
Kara was full of questions, but Clark had already turned around. He took a deep breath, turned to Kara, and said, "Next, we might face a lot of obstacles, but we must take this thing to the Earth Core."
"Someone will stop us? Who are they?!"
"Not people, maybe machines, or it could be locked doors. But whatever it is, we must break through."
"You mean..." Kara seemed to have guessed something. After all, there was already a premonition at the Breeding Center before.
Clark looked up as if seeing something non-existent and said, "There is another super artificial intelligence on this planet, created by Kryptonians, and eventually, it also destroyed Krypton."
Meanwhile, on Earth, Oliver stopped breathing after seeing the brief message Clark sent.
He thought: Indeed, all the Justice League members, who seem normal on ordinary days, are crazier than the next when it comes to critical moments.