Chapter 2336

The most grand concert of the evening was held as scheduled, but behind this, Shiler's silent contribution was indispensable.

Spending half an afternoon, Shiler had basically sorted out the relationships between the several forces currently running rampant in Cat Getan.

Bruce was misled by him into dealing with the FBI, the FBI wanted to deal with Oliver and the KGB, the magician provoked mercenaries and assassins, the mercenaries and assassins had deep grudges with the FBI, Deathstroke's primary target shifted from Spider-Man to Batman, and Batman, with his original intention unchanged, wanted to strike a heavy blow at the FBI.

Thus, they chased one after another, and because of the obstruction of others, no one could catch anyone; at the same time, in the process of resolving grudges, they affected a large area, leading to more grudges, and then fell into a vicious cycle.

Under these circumstances, taking any radical measures would easily be counterproductive, because no matter which side you attacked, it would make the other side think you were sent by their opponent, and then they would go to seek revenge on the opponent, making the fighting even more intense.

Shiler's method of resolution was also simple and efficient—all students in Cat Getan were given an early holiday.

Cat Getan University's holiday regulations during the music festival stated that holidays were only granted when there were major event performances; at other times, for safety reasons, students were not allowed to leave campus.

So the concert was held in the evening, and they could only leave campus in the evening, but Shiler let them out in the afternoon.

The reason this method was efficient was that these were tens of thousands of teenagers released from their cages at the same time with excitement; once they entered Cat Getan, even demons would turn and run.

In a beach bar, Lucifer lay in front of the bar counter looking at the dismal turnover and sighed helplessly.

At this moment, his phone rang; after he picked it up, it was actually Shiler's voice on the other end, though Lucifer could tell it wasn't Pride.

"How do you have time to call me?" Lucifer asked. "Those three unlucky guys have already started holding economic seminars in Hell; leave a way for the demons of our universe to survive."

"What they want to do is their freedom, but I called to remind you of one thing: your bar had better close now, stop receiving all guests, and no matter what, don't let them in."

"Why?" Lucifer asked with some confusion.

"Because a huge wave of guests is heading toward the beach."

"Isn't that even better?" Lucifer said quite happily. "Business hasn't been good these past few days, and I've been worrying about it."

"But they are very crazy."

"Crazier than you?" Lucifer snorted and said, "Didn't you say that as long as you can make money, you'll do any business?"

What Lucifer didn't expect was that the phone hung up directly, as if Shiler didn't want to say another word to him.

Lucifer was a bit depressed, but he also developed a rebellious psychology: I won't close the door; I want to see just how crazy it can get.

Soon the bar was full of guests, and Lucifer could tell from their speech and behavior that these should all be students.

He felt he could chat well with young people, so he received the guests quite enthusiastically; at first it was fine, guests in the booths were drinking quietly, and guests on the dance floor were swaying their waists, dancing to the music.

But soon, the direction of things went a bit wrong.

The men and women in the booths drank and got closer and closer; it was normal to cuddle in a bar, but some people looked like they wanted to engage in negative-distance communication.

Lucifer wasn't some upright gentleman who had to manage this, until he saw one of them take a bag of powder out of their pocket.

Although smoking weed wasn't legal, Lucifer wasn't a human after all, let alone a human police officer, so he didn't really need to care, until he was hugged while serving drinks and egged on to take a hit.

Lucifer wasn't a coward, it was mainly that if God happened to be watching him now, and he took a hit like that, everyone in the bar would be struck dead by God.

Declining the invitation, Lucifer decided to go to the dance floor to take a look; just as he reached the edge, in the moment his eyes were dazzled by the lights, a girl pressed up against him; Lucifer turned his head to look—she was naked.

Lucifer wasn't that conservative of a person, and he changed girlfriends faster than he changed bars, but the problem was that this girl was covered in Gothic tattoos, her eyes were hazy, she was delirious, and it was clear she was high.

What really made Lucifer want to retreat were the needle marks almost covering her arms; Lucifer hadn't personally tested whether an angel could get AIDS, but he didn't intend to test it with his own body.

Walking slightly toward the center, it was actually a bit more normal, but just as Lucifer reached the crowded area, he felt his backside being touched; he turned his head, and a strong black man was looking at him and smiling.

Lucifer glared at him, but thinking that it wasn't easy to get so many guests, he couldn't be bothered to argue with him; he walked two more steps inside and was directly hugged by a drunkard.

Lucifer dodged instantly; he swore he definitely didn't do anything to this drunkard, it was clearly this guy who was too drunk to stand steady, but the moment he fell and hit his head on the ground, Lucifer felt like he was standing in the center of the World Boxing Championship stage.

Everyone around him cleared an empty space with lightning speed, screaming, shouting, cheering, and some people kept howling for him to throw a punch, "Beautiful left hook, throw a back suplex!"

Lucifer stood in the center, actually feeling a bit helpless; just then, a hot beauty leaned up and hugged him, kissed him, and said, "Old rules, if you win, you can take away the party queen; come on, handsome, let me see your skills."

Lucifer wanted to say that his skills were vast, but the problem was that as a bar owner, no matter what, he couldn't throw punches at his guests in his own bar.

He would definitely win if he fought, but fighting a group of human cubs, it would be embarrassing even if he won; if this reached Michael's ears, he would be laughed at for at least 2,000 years.

Lucifer sighed, waved his hand, and walked away; everyone let out disappointed shouts; he thought that would be the end of it, but the drunkard climbed up, really thinking it was Lucifer who hit him, grabbed a bottle from the side, and threw it at Lucifer.

This, of course, couldn't hit him; the bottle smashed into the corner of the wall, and it just so happened that someone who was high and lighting a cigarette was lying in that corner; with a 'whoosh', by a stroke of coincidence, the Molotov cocktail ignited half the bar counter.

Lucifer's bar was fireproof, but its method of fireproofing was to isolate magical energy, making it impossible for demon fire to burn here; however, because he had almost never done business with humans, it didn't prevent physical ignition.

Lucifer wanted to wave his hand to extinguish the fire, but the next second he was knocked off balance by a girl who pounced on him; others were like they were at some kind of party, piling on one after another.

Lucifer, pressed underneath, roared: "My bar!!!"

Throughout the city, such strange sights were happening everywhere; whether it was battle-hardened mercenary assassins, professional and seasoned elite agents, or extraordinary magicians, all were being chased by this group of crazy teenagers.

It wasn't that they couldn't kill, and subduing them wasn't difficult, but as long as they stopped and intended to take some action, they would inevitably be surrounded, and the outcome would be no different from being surrounded by zombies.

Cat Getan's teenagers were even more powerful than those elsewhere; on one hand, the people present might not really have as much criminal experience as them, and on the other hand, they had been cooped up in school for too long, and everyone wanted to do something big to vent; for a time, Cat Getan was full of Jokers, and even the turtles in the wishing pool hid when they saw them.

But no matter what, these outsiders causing trouble in Cat Getan City had quieted down, and the rest were locals; outsiders causing trouble was just dangerous, but locals stirring up trouble was one of Cat Getan's tourist attractions, so it could be considered successfully resolved.

When the evening concert began, all the heavyweight guests arrived; Shiler also came—the one who came was Pride, which might also be the only concert he intended to participate in completely.

In the songs rising above every ruin, the meaning of the drumbeats transcended rhythm, like the morning bell rung when a red sun shrouded in mist rises from broken walls; the connotation of the melody was far more than music, like cheering, like shouting, and also like the first cry that the long history of evolution failed to eliminate.

When humans chase the sun they can never catch, the most romantic thing is the footprints.

This concert was the first footprint left by this city that was still learning to walk; it was still a long way from the sun, and the road ahead was still long, but what truly inspired the ancestors of humans to learn to run was that wonderful feeling when their soles first stepped on solid soil.

Shiler stood in the crowd; in the Tower of Thought, he had spent some time adapting himself to this clamor he had never experienced before.

And the word 'adapt' would never have appeared in the life of an autistic patient; they could not break any existing life rules, and even if their body landed, their soul would fly further and further away.

There must always be something to drag their souls back, making them no longer a bird chasing the sun, but becoming a person walking upright, from then on possessing the earth in addition to the sky, and possessing peers walking side by side with him.

Then this isolated island far from all continents, when those gravel, clear springs, and forests gathered, the dark high mountains that only stood in the distance also created a vibrant garden because of the soil, water splashes, and seeds that arrived with the wind.

Then he could also be as pious as an ordinary person, grateful for the greatness of nature's creation, and also as humble as an ordinary person, feeling satisfied with everything he possessed.

"I didn't expect this to succeed," Pride said.

"You mean we've taken another step toward being ordinary people?" Greed said, leaning on the railing.

"I mean you were able to make this concert a success," Pride continued. "I thought I would see a ruin when I came back."

"It wouldn't go that far," Greed said.

On the morning of the day after the concert ended, Pride discovered that Greed was right.

The good news was that Cat Getan hadn't turned into a ruin.

The bad news was that the Metropolitan Stock Exchange sold 15.2 million shares that day, and the stock fell by more than 25%.

In the autumn of 1996, Black Wednesday arrived, and another Great Depression in the United States began.

(Volume Three: Chasing the Sun, End)