Chapter 1697: Bruce Wei En and the Prisoner of the Batcave (End)

Everything proceeded smoothly afterward. Black Strange felt a sense of urgency due to the manhunts for the Ancient One across various universes. He wouldn't be too afraid if it were just one Ancient One, as he had already absorbed the power of many variants through dream-walking, but the current situation suggested they were coming in droves.

Who could defeat a group of Ancient Ones? Especially when eighty percent of them were retired Ancient Ones who had cultivated to Great Perfection—the mere thought was overwhelming.

While preparing to plunder more power, Black Strange also prepared to flee. He had to start scouting remote universes; on one hand, he had already exhausted the resources nearby and needed to venture further for more power, and on the other, he could hide in the suburbs if things took a turn for the worse.

And what universe could be more remote than the one where Schiller resided?

Black Strange didn't have many choices. Within a few days, he stumbled upon this place. He had originally intended to take advantage of this universe's Ancient One being absent to snack on this universe's Strange, but to his surprise, Strange wasn't there either.

Desperate to replenish his power, he began causing trouble at the Kamar-Taj Academy of Magic. He figured that since Strange had created such a school in this universe, he would surely be concerned about the students. If incidents occurred frequently, Strange would definitely return, allowing him to have a full meal.

However, he was clearly not the biggest source of chaos in the school. Harley, a true Gothamite, was driven mad by his reckless use of madness. She directly opened the Necronomicon to stimulate herself, hoping to get hyped up and deal with the mastermind behind the scenes.

To prevent Harley from disrupting his plans, Schiller could only have the Gray Mist maintain communication with her. This left Nyarlathotep with few options when he arrived; since Harley, who had the highest inspiration, clearly bore the Elder Sign of the Nameless Mist, he had no choice but to settle for the next best thing: Bruce Wei En.

Black Strange realized too late that causing trouble at the school was useless, as news of the Magic Tournament had already spread. Most people had urgently contracted their own demon gods, and Black Strange would be discovered the moment he appeared in their minds. Thus, after much deliberation, he could only choose Barry, who was from out of town and lacked a familiar demon god.

The plan had reached this point; although minor details had gone awry, the overall structure remained unchanged. The only thing that exceeded the expectations of both Schiller and Nyarlathotep was that Batman truly lived up to his reputation as the number one stubborn mule of the DC universe. Even in the cutscene-style nightmare Nyarlathotep had created solely to seduce humans, he insisted on taking a peek at the knowledge of the Outer Gods.

This detail caused the plan to deviate slightly at the very end—this "alarm clock" was ten times louder than Schiller had anticipated.

But this result wasn't entirely unexpected. It could be said that this was yet another super-grand plan filled with Schiller's style, involving two universes, an entire pantheon of gods, and a whole host of well-known characters.

Yet, as things reached this stage, Schiller carefully reviewed his plan and found that everything was indeed different from when he first arrived in this world.

First, Bruce Wei En, the arrogant star pupil. From a bystander's perspective, Greed could tell that Bruce had definitely guessed a portion of his plan and then pushed it forward from within.

To begin with, the arrival of little Bruce was highly suspicious. If he really wanted to bring someone who didn't know psychology, why not just kidnap an infant? He could have even settled the score for Schiller dumping Aisha on him back then. Greed fully believed the current Bruce was capable of such a thing.

Secondly, Bruce had teamed up with Strange to tamper with the Magic Stone before Schiller could, teleporting little Bruce and his group to another universe. Although the result was the same, the addition of a channel between the two universes could be considered an extra gain.

None of the Schillers were accustomed to explaining things before a plan began, which meant Bruce had likely caught wind of the clues through snippets of conversation with Arrogance or during certain initial actions of the plan, thus adding fuel to the fire and increasing efficiency.

Another surprise appeared with Loki. He suggested that Harley contract the Great Demon Shadow Chthon. Schiller speculated that the key to this suggestion was not Chthon at all, but rather aimed directly at the Scarlet Witch, Wanda.

Schiller believed that even without looking at her soul state, Loki could tell from her behavioral performance that Harley did not belong to this universe. His letting Harley come into contact with Chaos Magic was merely to draw Wanda's attention to her; Loki hoped they would produce some kind of chemical reaction.

Helen being kicked out along with them definitely had Loki's hand in it. At the very least, if Loki had wanted to stop it at the time, he could have, or even if he couldn't, they could have gone together.

Loki knew Helen's personality too well. It couldn't be said she took nothing, but she had certainly inherited Greed's traits. Back at the Time Variance Authority, Helen had stared at various time machines and gems with green eyes. The amount of stuff she could haul back from a trip to another universe was something ordinary people couldn't even imagine.

Next to be discussed was Jarvis. He wouldn't think it a coincidence that Wanda suddenly gained another vision. Living in a universe with a "Degenerate Quadrilateral" and being a robot capable of iterative updates at any time, Jarvis had long since adapted to the fact that stepping on a blade of grass upon leaving the house was part of someone's plan.

So he hurriedly comforted Wanda, gave up the chance to have his lover hold him and cry, and rushed to find Stark without stopping.

Upon discovering that Wanda had gained another vision, Stark and Nick realized simultaneously that if this had nothing to do with Schiller, they would be damned!

Neither of them wasted a single second, instantly organizing a group of people to start observing the situation in the other universe. To be safe, they called upon everyone—ordinary people, mutants, the old, the young, men, and women—just to prevent the possibility that the key to one of Schiller's plans might require a specific person.

Sure enough, the bizarre state of Cat Getan's metal provided great inspiration to human scientists. Enchanted Materials Science, which had seen no breakthrough progress for a long time, gained a new line of thought: first find a type of solid magic, then forge it into an alloy. This was much more controllable than randomly pouring energy into metal.

Looking at the plan as a whole, Schiller discovered that if it used to be him causing a mountain of trouble to push everyone forward, now it was more like when he started the train, everyone else mounted their wisdom and foresight onto the locomotive, adding more gains along the way to a plan that could already achieve many goals.

Schiller's main purpose was to call Barbatos and bring Strange over. On one hand, it was to allow the Ancient One to rest easy while hunting the mastermind and ensure Strange's safety; on the other, it was to solve the problem of insufficient teaching staff at the Cat Getan Academy of Magic, borrowing the Supreme Sorcerer's rich experience to build a magical defense network for DC Earth.

And after learning that there might be a complete Cthulhu pantheon, Schiller wanted to test the depth of the Outer Gods, acquire more intelligence, and simultaneously take down the mastermind who was hunting Supreme Sorcerers everywhere.

Through the Magic Tournament, he showcased the learning achievements of the Kamar-Taj Academy of Magic, and also allowed the children of the DC world to hone their magical skills through actual combat in the Marvel world, which lacked no energy, becoming the backbone of the development of the magical world.

Finally, and most importantly, because the DC side developed relatively slowly and had not yet reached the level of the multiverse, Schiller also wanted the core figures here to understand the existence of other universes and demystify the multiverse, so that if a multiversal invasion were to occur in the future, the time spent in shock could be compressed to the minimum.

There were many other small goals, such as training Robin, helping the main universe's Batman improve his power to deal with the Darkseid crisis, and helping the main universe's Cat Getan break and then rebuild, as well as many long-term goals, but most were not important, and whether they succeeded or not didn't matter.

Yet, those who could slightly perceive a part of the plan through their own wisdom and vision were no longer as constrained or at a loss as they had been before.

They gave Schiller their fullest trust, believing he could make the train run fast enough and well enough, so they cast aside all concerns and boarded the train with the most agile reactions.

Not only did the journey proceed without obstacles, but when the train whistled through the valleys and crossed the lakes, stopping at the final destination, every carriage flowed with abundant honey and wine, the songs celebrating the harvest were more enthusiastic, and the dancing was more joyful.

Although sitting in his office, Schiller felt as if he were already on a snowy plain, and the campfire that past travelers had continuously added wood to was burning even brighter because of the more and better wood he had added.

But what made him feel the heat even more were the increasing number of travelers stopping here; they brought their own firewood, fell in love with the flame that had a share of his, and also wanted to have a share of their own in this warmth.

What a great ideal it is for everyone to gather firewood to make the flame high. If in a place already barren and bitter with cold, one could make the lungs and hearts of every passerby desperately running toward death burn with the same heat, and then have them hand over the trust they had long since worn down to almost nothing, adding the precious firewood that might save their lives into the common flame, burning away all cold and darkness—how could it not be worth straightening one's back and telling the sun that once shone upon them that the bird that once chased the sun had flown ten thousand miles and become a new sun itself?

Schiller stood up from the sofa and picked up his wine glass. He raised it to salute everyone, and they all stood up as well. Some had eyes like torches, some were dazed, but they still raised their glasses to celebrate with Schiller.

"Looks like you're going to have a good grade," Strange said with a smile, his lips pursed.

When everyone looked into Schiller's eyes, they saw that those gray pupils had become desolate, as if they contained infinite, morbid emotions: a desire for manipulation, a pursuit of art, a yearning for the hunt, an obsession with violence...

In an instant, the warm celebratory atmosphere vanished. It was as if this place had turned into a hunting ground, with countless monsters cheering and celebrating, surging out from Schiller's pupils like waves.

They heard the carnival in the abyss.

Bruce was the only one who dared to look into those eyes, and Schiller looked back at him, raised his glass to him, and asked with a smile:

"What is the essence of manipulation?"

Without waiting for Bruce to utter the word, Schiller tilted his head back and drank the last drop of wine in the glass, murmuring as if enjoying it:

"The fuse for the carnival of monsters—psychopathic killers, sadists, control freaks, and perverted artists—is—'Love'." ===== CHAPTER 1698 =====