"Six enemy reconnaissance aircraft were shot down again over Washington. The Air Force General personally visited the crash site, calling it a great victory for human resistance on land, encouraging the Air Force to keep up the effort..."
"Latest news from Tokyo: The reconnaissance aircraft hovering over Tokyo Tower the day before yesterday has been shot down, resulting in one minor injury. Eyewitnesses at the scene described the aerial combat as extremely fierce!"
"A statement from the British Royal Family honors the fallen heroes: The coffins of the three battle heroes who perished in the crash on the 23rd have entered the Royal Air Force Cemetery, and the Queen personally paid her respects. May the heroes rest in peace."
"Shanghai reports the latest battle update: The 12 armed robots discovered along the eastern coastline have now been destroyed, with no casualties reported so far..."
"Latest news from New Delhi: They claim to have shot down 1300 enemy aircraft and successfully heavily damaged one of the escort ships, causing it to crash into the Indian Ocean, ranking first in this human joint operation..."
One broadcast after another never stopped. Since Brainiac launched a full-scale attack, the human resistance forces have not only failed to be dismantled but have instead become stronger. News from all over the world continues to report the downing of enemy aircraft.
This made Brainiac couldn't help but sigh, the human race really knows how to boast.
The technology gap between Krypton and the human race is vast. From the start of the war to now, the total number of drones destroyed is no more than 300. But looking at the global news reports, the humans claim that the number of drones they've shot down is over 100 times this number.
Their assessment of battlefield casualties is roughly "hit counts" — as long as the weapon hits, no matter if the aircraft was actually brought down, it's all counted as a success. Moreover, they've exaggerated the role of nuclear bombs beyond belief: a damaged tailwing on an escort ship is now reported as 10 ships destroyed.
And the ordinary people really believe it.
Brainiac only realized at this moment that his decision to split his forces was a mistake. At that time, he should have concentrated his strength and directly decapitated a country's government to create an undeniable loss that the media couldn't cover up, in order to achieve deterrence.
This all-out offensive, appearing to cause losses to every country, hasn't caused enough chaos for societal collapse, so the propaganda can still hide the truth, and there are still many viable forces available for the battlefield. The originally anticipated blitzkrieg turned into an outright war of attrition.
In terms of war of attrition, theoretically, the human race should not outlast Brainiac. Being a silicon-based life form, he can work endlessly without the need for rest. But the humans can't maintain a state of full mobilization for long.
Once the casualties reach a point where even the propaganda machines can't hide the truth, society will inevitably panic, and the social structure will collapse. At that time, even if ordinary people wanted to resist, they'd just be scattered fighters, unable to achieve much.
Yet, the problem is that Brainiac also has other battles to fight. Spending two months entangled with the humans is just what Darkseid and Sinestro need to teach him what a real threat looks like.
Although he wanted to preserve Earth's viable forces for continued long-term combat support, it seems necessary to go all out now.
The escort ships are no longer holding back, and Brainiac launches an all-out extermination action, using the cannons as ground weapons to violently sweep through the capitals of each country to achieve the purpose of intimidation.
This finally had some effect. After the command systems of various countries were destroyed, human society began to panic, and the intensity of resistance was much weaker than before.
However, it wasn't long before new governments emerged in other regions, or perhaps the regional governments became legitimate. A large number of ordinary people began flocking to those places, organizing a new round of resistance.
Not all countries could do this, for example, the countries in Europe are too small. When one country's capital was destroyed, they had to go to another country, but this kind of banding together was happening in every country, truly showing a determination to resist to the last person.
Brainiac had to destroy the government in that place again. By the end, he had scoured every place where humans gathered.
By this time, he wasn't thinking about conquering humans so they could work for him; it had become a matter of pride, killing for the sake of killing.
But by mid-December, Brainiac was still stuck in this human quagmire.
There were no longer any organized governments, but even guerrilla organizations firmly refused to surrender and wanted to fight Brainiac to the end.
Then, very unfortunately, both the Apokolips Corps and the Yellow Lantern Corps arrived. This round was unsurprisingly another failure.
After resetting, Brainiac begins to deeply reflect:
The human race is very peculiar. Their lows can be extremely low, and their highs incredibly high; as shameless as they can be, they can be just as selfless; as fragile as they are, they can be just that resilient. It was a race even Brainiac with his Level 12 Wisdom couldn't comprehend.
Actually, the last round wasn't easy either. The early stages were manageable, as he destroyed one government after another with sheer extreme force. But in the later stages, a number of Hexagonal Warriors suddenly emerged.
Each one had the strength to match their wisdom; they could command, strategize; lead troops in battle, and manage logistics; motivate warriors and calm the public.
And these people weren't originally professional soldiers: some were students, some workers, some office workers, even vagabonds and beggars. Brainiac couldn't comprehend how, given their talents, these people ended up in such states on Earth?
When I'm not here, you guys manage to end up on the streets; when I arrive, you transform into unparalleled talents. So, you're targeting me, aren't you?
In the midst of these people's struggles, Brainiac actually doesn't have it easy either. The robots he produces are not invincible, and ultimately, he consumes quite a bit. He tallied up the battle results and found they far exceeded what he could bear.
He has to admit that part of this is due to his own recklessness, but the Human race's sudden surge is also a major reason. Humanity's combat abilities in dire situations made Brainiac realize he had completely underestimated the strength of this Race.
This time, he painfully resolved not to step into this quagmire: "If I can't afford to provoke, I can afford to hide. I'll just hole up on Krypton, crank out troops, and ignore Earth, is that not enough?"
The answer, of course, is no.
Not to mention Krypton is not fundamentally a mechanical civilization; up until their extinction, they were just starting out in mechanical production with only a modest legacy left for Brainiac.
More importantly, the vast majority of equipment on Krypton is suited for Kryptonians, not for mechanics, meaning it requires a humanoid being to operate.
But the robots Brainiac produces don't meet Kryptonian standards. Even if they did, the production efficiency is not high enough, let alone any chance for iteration.
Apocalypse Star's technology and Krypton Technology also have a generational gap. Bridging that gap in just a few months is impossible, so Brainiac can only opt for winning by quantity. However, factors like inconvenient operation and outdated equipment mean his army is inadequately prepared.
Ultimately, Brainiac suffers another resounding defeat.
In the following cycles, Brainiac tried every means possible, whether it was collaborating with one side to expel the other or outright partnering with Darkseid, none of it achieved his goals.
The situation even got worse: because whether it's Darkseid or Sinestro, they are the worst of the worst, the benchmark for deceit. Collaborating with them was like negotiating with tigers, and of course, he was completely devoured in the end.
Round and round, Brainiac ultimately had no choice but to cooperate with the Human race. The good news is: after several cycles, Humanity's leadership finally realizes this isn't a dream.
Therefore, this time, negotiations between Humanity and Brainiac went relatively smoothly. Humans fought for their survival, Brainiac struggled for victory, and the two sides unprecedentedly reached cooperation.
Just like in the first cycle, Brainiac took full control of the Human network. However, with the Mechanical Corps he brought from Krypton this time, the control was comprehensive and deep.
Due to Earth's facilities being too backward, Brainiac chose to send most of the scientists to Krypton to revive Kryptonian equipment first.
This move greatly improved Krypton's production line efficiency because, after all, Kryptonians are also carbon-based life forms and look almost identical to Humans, who understand their design and production goals best, thereby optimizing the production line at the fastest pace.
Furthermore, utilizing memories from the second cycle, namely the week of full Earth invasion, Brainiac handpicked the champions who caused him great trouble to form the command and logistics department, leveraging their abilities and Wisdom for further assessments of battlefield dynamics to make advantageous choices.
It's fair to say that the results of this round of cooperation between Brainiac and Human race are the best, with seventy percent of the Demon-like Army being defeated, although the remainder still caused damage, it was within acceptable range.
The Yellow Lantern Corps was also pushed back. But as expected, when Yellow Lantern Corps retreated, other Lantern Corps came. And the most troublesome was not else, but the Green Lantern Corps.
More precisely, it was the Green Lantern Corps from the Guardians of the Universe, the Little Blue People side. Although their numbers are not many, each of them is an expert. This universe's Hal didn't make a move, so Brainiac exerted every effort just to drive them out of the Solar System.
As a result, Darkseid surprisingly had another wave of reinforcements, the prior battle having completely drained Krypton and Humanity. Now nothing more could be squeezed out. This operation again declared a failure.
With a reset, Brainiac raged in the Justice League's meeting room for half an hour, proving that if there were an artificial intelligence award for "Best Rapper," Brainiac would be unquestionably deserving.
Even though the "dog planner" is inconsiderate of others, yet still, the fight must continue, as the last cycle was just shy of completion. Darkseid's final reinforcements were really not that strong; with a bit more resource, surely they could be pushed back.
Brainiac was like a player whose boss had only a sliver of health left to clear the stage, despite feeling disgusted to the core, dizzy from the battle, yet he had to brace through and thoroughly break through.
Reflecting back, he thought the approach last time was correct, but the details needed refinement. Furthermore, Humanity was also a mess, several times due to personal emotions or poor organization causing delays.
These detail issues can't be easily corrected, can only resolve with time. Fortunately, under Brainiac's strong demands, the Justice League stepped back halfway again, giving him 100 memory-retaining slots, allowing those scientists and capable individuals to accompany him through more cycles.
And in the Gotham University office, as the torn-off calendar pages flew back, the months rewinding from December to July, Shiller sighed.
Truly another tomorrow after tomorrow, how many more tomorrows will there be. Who knows how many more times 1999 will repeat.