Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics Chapter 5795 - 4818: New Version and Movie Filming (Part 1)

Doctor Manhattan had certainly heard of Greed’s renown, even though they weren’t in the same world. To create a multiverse gaming platform, one naturally needs to investigate competing products. As long as the Battleworld is investigated, it’s impossible not to have heard of Shiller. And as long as Shiller is investigated, Greed is the most eye-catching element.

Over the years, Greed has created countless big events, and his performance in the Battleworld instance is well-known. Doctor Manhattan could imagine what kind of tricks he would use to demand compensation.

Now, the Manhattan Playground has just opened, and if Greed were really to seize on this and cause a ruckus, all the previous publicity would be in vain. It might even be impossible to set up the framework.

Doctor Manhattan is very rational and had to admit that the game’s program had issues. It wasn’t the players being too strong at fault; it was indeed due to the inadequacy of the program’s design. Offering some compensation was reasonable.

"What do you want?" Doctor Manhattan asked.

"Do you know where Night Owl is?" Greed suddenly asked.

Doctor Manhattan remained silent, but Arkham Batman glanced at him. The Batmen were indeed searching for Night Owl, as that guy had been rescued by Doctor Manhattan. It was still unclear which universe he had been taken to. He disappeared without a trace, but Batman could not think he had given up on his plan to disrupt the multiverse. They couldn’t rest easy without finding him.

"He indeed had some contact with someone I know," Doctor Manhattan said, "but if you want me to hand him over, I’m afraid it’s difficult. After all, he is Batman."

"I just want the cosmic coordinates," Greed said. "By rescuing Night Owl, you have essentially made enemies with more Batmen. You should be well aware of this."

Doctor Manhattan was silent again. He was, of course, very aware but had no choice. The situation was more powerful than people. If it were another Batman and another Shiller standing here today, he wouldn’t compromise, but unfortunately, it’s Arkham Batman and Greed.

These two, one is the most formidable Batman, the other the most formidable Shiller. Their participation in the game itself served as a promotion for the Manhattan Playground. The unsatisfactory game experience was indeed Doctor Manhattan’s problem. Weighing the options, he realized that without making some sacrifices, this matter couldn’t be resolved peacefully.

Doctor Manhattan gave the cosmic coordinates to Arkham Batman.

Greed turned to leave, and Arkham Batman seemed to want to stay a bit longer, but Greed gave him a look, so he also left with the others. It was less than ten minutes after they left that Manhattan Playground issued an emergency shutdown maintenance announcement, and other players were kicked out.

Arkham Batman, Greed, and the other players had just returned to the Presidential Palace when they learned of the news. Arkham Batman raised an eyebrow and looked at Greed, "How did you crash their system?"

Now Arkham Batman understood why Greed was so anxious for compensation, suspecting that there might be some conscience guilt involved. Had they left any later, Doctor Manhattan would have come after them for trouble.

But Greed did not answer directly; instead, he looked at Lucifer. Lucifer sighed and said, "No one in this world can scare me without paying a price. Besides, I didn’t do it on purpose."

Arkham Batman immediately remembered when Lucifer had warned him before. But Arkham Batman had never spoken with Lucifer prior, so perhaps that skill had shown Lucifer some illusion, evidently scaring him quite a bit.

Lucifer didn’t seem to plan on concealing this and directly said, "In human terms, I went through a rebellious phase. I was annoyed with God arranging everything and requiring me to proceed as he dictated, or even if I didn’t want to, I’d inexplicably end up following the destiny arranged by him due to a series of coincidences. I really hated that.

"For a while, I thought I had broken free, but after coming to the world, I still became the angel descended to Earth written in the Bible, saying that phrase ’don’t be afraid, child.’ That made me feel utterly devastated. I even wanted my consciousness to dissipate into the universe so I wouldn’t have to endure such pain again.

"That was arguably the most terrifying and sorrowful moment of my life. Even now, recalling it, my heart still beats fast with unease. I think you can understand the feeling of giving your all, thinking you can finally escape destiny, only to fall right back into its trap in a ridiculous way."

Arkham Batman nodded. Being Batman, he understood that feeling all too well. In fact, after the Batmen formed an alliance, they discussed this issue, pondering why Gotham seemed impossible to save and why the tragedies befalling them were identical. Although it seemed no answer was reached, everyone had an answer but merely chose not to speak of it.

"Did someone tell you that?" Matt asked.

Lucifer nodded and said, "I’m not sure if anyone did, but I certainly heard it. It couldn’t possibly be my illusion; it was definitely arranged by someone."

"And then?" Superman asked with some curiosity, "What did you do?"

"I wanted to do a lot," Lucifer’s gaze glinted with a hint of coldness, "In that moment, I wanted to erase the person across from me from the cosmos, to wipe out this damn sequence of data entirely, even erase your memories, so he would never exist in the cosmos."

Matt and Superman’s faces stiffened. Lucifer, however, was unconcerned: "Even if he is Batman, I could do so. No one can stop me... at least, not in the past."

"Not now, is it because of Anatoli?"

"You could say that," Lucifer sighed, "if I really did that, he would haunt me like a ghost until I restored everything to normal."

"Does he know you dealt with the Court of Owls..."

"I still don’t know," Lucifer sighed deeply, "I’m thinking about how to restore everything to normal quietly."

"Let’s not talk about that," Matt steered the conversation back on track, "What did you eventually do?"

"I didn’t actively do anything, but I lost a little control," Lucifer said, pressing his lips together, "That’s very deadly too. Actually, nothing limits my powers, including the settings he created. I restrained my own powers, but when I lost control, they leaked a bit."

"So you messed up the program?"

"Yes, and it even made the programs limiting you all kind of ineffective," Lucifer said, "Didn’t you notice that in the end, your powers got stronger?"

The others didn’t feel it clearly, but Arkham Batman knew. Besides the agent’s final enhancement, the most noticeable change was Superman. That last maneuver around the board, although it was partly due to his own calmness, let’s not forget that at that time, the lights were completely out, and the route couldn’t be discerned by sight.

This meant that Superman had to memorize all the routes in the hall, and for distance control and perception, he had to be very professional. Although this Superman was a special breed, it was mostly due to some recovery of his super brain and super senses that he could move so smoothly.

"After I realized I messed up, I looked for Shiller," Lucifer said, "I initially thought of asking him to buy me some time so I could fix the program. But Shiller said instead of fixing it for him, I might as well pin the broken program on him, as he wasn’t exactly clean in the first place."

"Not clean? What do you mean?" Arkham Batman squinted his eyes.

"How should I put it?" Lucifer pondered for a moment before explaining, "In terms you can understand, the programs he writes have two styles. Like the set of presidential skills you use is one style, and the later Batman Suit is another style."

Arkham Batman immediately realized, just as they had speculated before, Doctor Manhattan, being a rational being, shouldn’t use something like emotional manipulation. But the skill "unspeakable fear" is too inclined towards emotion, not something Doctor Manhattan would create.

"Can you tell who the source is?" Arkham Batman asked.

Lucifer shook his head, "Even though time isn’t linear to me, and I can see the past and future of something simultaneously, if the other party dares to do this, even work on me, then they wouldn’t leave any loose ends. It looks like it’s all written by Doctor Manhattan, and I don’t have any way to prove otherwise."

"That suggests the other party has a high status," Greed spoke up, "Being able to conceal the timeline of the past successfully and fool you, really impressive."

"If he can do it, so can I," Lucifer spread his hands, "He hides another program author, then I can also pin the holes I poked on him, doesn’t that work?"

"But I’m a bit curious," Arkham Batman looked at Greed, "Why are you interested in Night Owl?"

"Because I think Doctor Manhattan rescuing him isn’t that simple," Greed said, "I think you should investigate carefully."

"Are you sure it’s not you again..."

"If I wanted to do something, you should investigate it even more, shouldn’t you?" Greed laughed, "Besides, even if I wanted to do something, it wouldn’t be now. I’m busy with other matters."

"Right, the new version of Battleworld is about to go online," Arkham Batman stood up, "Then I won’t keep you, let’s talk another day."

Greed and Matt returned to the Central Universe together, but they didn’t immediately part ways. Matt went to the sanatorium and then asked, "Didn’t you mean not to act on that side?"

"That’s the problem," Greed sat on the chair, looking somewhat troubled, "The world next door is like a sieve, full of demons and ghosts. What do you think those guys would do if they knew a bigger and livelier world is next door?"

Matt’s face darkened. He knew that although this universe they were in wasn’t safe, it had a relatively stable development period due to their series of operations.

The Avengers might not get along, but that’s because the external pressure isn’t big. They have the time to resolve internal conflicts. In contrast, the Batman of the neighboring world, it’s impossible for so many Batmen to have no conflicts, and their current unity is because the external pressure is truly immense.

The Black Death Emperor just left, and Doctor Manhattan came. Building this playground, no way it’s just to satisfy his hobby. Batman has too many things to guard against.

And for their world, the enemies next door can’t be called non-dangerous. If those that Batmen can’t guard against learn there’s a much wider world, they will definitely try everything to get through. Those who can break through Batman and the world’s barrier defenses must be powerful in their own right. If they don’t prepare early, won’t it be like an open field for the enemy to walk into?

"Thanks for your hard work," Matt said.

"Not hard," Greed laughed again, "Let’s talk about the fear caused by that skill..."

Matt turned and walked away.