Chapter 3819: Batman

Batman and the others' grand tour of the laboratory was something Schiller heard about from Natasha. Precisely because these mad scientists went all-out, became obsessed, and risked their lives the moment they started research, the originally planned three-day visit was dragged out to half a month. They didn't just leave the country; they went into outer space and were even dragged by Magneto—partly kidnapped, partly invited—to take a trip around the Andromeda Galaxy, providing many valuable suggestions for the construction of the Capital Sky Island.

In truth, half a month wasn't much time; it wasn't enough to produce any real results, at most providing a few lines of thought. However, all parties involved were quite clever. Although Batman couldn't come often, they could exchange information through the Battle Realm, so they could completely switch to working online.

They hired Batman for certain research, agreed on the compensation, and then had Stark convert the real-world materials into Battle Realm points, paying a deposit first and the balance after the research was completed.

In reality, real-world currency could be converted into points, but it was very cost-ineffective. The most cost-effective method was using energy and materials—that is, cosmic mass. After all, building those Battle Realm instances also required consuming these things; it was a means for the founders of the Battle Realm to raise funds.

Ever since humanity in this universe entered the interstellar era, resources were no longer in short supply. There were no decent advanced civilizations in the Milky Way, and the Nine Realms were even more unobstructed. Humanity's current mining methods weren't very advanced yet, and they wouldn't be able to mine away a corner even after digging for hundreds of millions of years.

To further pursue interstellar colonization, and knowing that the three major empires might not swallow their pride and could retaliate later, humanity had been stockpiling grain recently. They had dug up quite a few resources from the solar system and surrounding star systems, which happened to be used for trading with Batman.

Schiller was currently trying to persuade the other Battle Realm founders to make the trading bidirectional—that is, one could exchange resources for points, and also exchange points for resources. It shouldn't take long before this channel was opened.

Exchanging points for resources was too much of a loss for Schiller and his universe. After all, they already had interstellar travel capabilities, and resources were everywhere. If they upgraded their mining equipment, they would have even less to worry about.

However, for Batman and the Justice League, this was extremely important. With Batman's intelligence, what kind of space facility couldn't he build? He hadn't headed into space purely because a clever housewife couldn't cook without rice.

To build a deep-space fleet capable of interstellar exploration, besides technology, materials were also needed. Or rather, materials were even more important. Once materials science reached a certain level, a three-year-old playing with building blocks could assemble a spaceship.

But many materials used for fuel and hulls didn't exist on Earth. With Cat Getan being the way it was—unable to go a day without someone needing him—Batman couldn't spend a large amount of time digging for materials on alien planets.

But if he could directly use Battle Realm points to exchange for them, he wouldn't need to exchange for too much; as long as he could build one deep-space ship and some mining equipment, Batman had his own ways to snowball and build more and more.

With resources and a fleet, Batman would gain a greater say among the Justice League and Earth's superheroes. He would possess greater power instead of being held back at every turn. This would allow him to decide on certain matters more autocratically.

One shouldn't fear stupid ideas; one should fear having no ideas. After entering the multiverse era, one universe could only have one voice. By comparison, having Batman lead the universe was more reliable.

Of course, not all Batmen came to New York to do serious business. Quite a few were purely there for tourism, such as Adventure Batman and Lego Batman. The two of them were truly there to play.

While the other Batmen were busy visiting the laboratory, the two of them were busy shopping. From Times Square to Wall Street, from Central Park to Fifth Avenue, the famous attractions of New York were all played through by them.

Many people might think Cat Getan and Metropolis were the night and day of New York, but in reality, the terrain of these two cities had nothing to do with New York. In the maps provided by officials, Cat Getan at least had a bit of New York's look, vaguely showing the shape of Manhattan, while Metropolis was completely different, more like a West Coast city.

Actually, DC also had a New York; the Justice League's predecessor, the Justice Society, was stationed in New York. But here, New York was set as a small city, which should be about the same as Blüdhaven. However, even without that setting, the East Coast really couldn't squeeze in a third megacity. Don't forget there was still an Imperial City above; if they squeezed any further down, Baltimore would be gone.

So the Batmen who had just arrived in New York also felt it was very fresh. Many went to famous attractions to take photos and check in, posting many commemorative photos in the group. Although they weren't allowed to use magic after leaving school, Lego Batman still relied on his small size—not being discovered by security—to climb onto the torch of the Statue of Liberty, controlling a drone to take a photo of himself.

Quite a few Batmen were very interested in the superheroes of this universe. And as it happened, the superhero culture of this universe was also very popular; basically, every superhero with a bit of fame had their own video account, web page, and merchandise, which could be called a paradise for star-chasers.

The most popular superhero on Earth was Captain America. Because the commercial operation of Captain America's image was done the best, and he himself was relatively upright, he was easily liked by people of all ages. Basically, the streets were full of his posters and merchandise.

Because most people were focused on the Batmen visiting the laboratory, Lego Batman and Adventure Batman, who were originally on a free tour, had to have Schiller thrown over to watch them because Lego Batman's thinking was too erratic and he caused quite a bit of trouble.

Schiller took them to Hell's Kitchen to shop. Now, Hell's Kitchen was no longer a slum; it was more similar to a cultural district, gathering graffiti, parkour, street racing, street art, cocktails, and coffee, as well as superhero specialty stores.

Schiller found a place to park on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen. Before he could even get out of the car, Lego Batman cheered and rushed out, because he had seen a huge graffiti mural painted with dozens of Spider-Men.

He rushed over to take a photo and check in, but because he was too short, he couldn't capture the whole thing. Adventure Batman walked up and lifted him up, and only then did they manage to photograph the massive wall painting.

The street behind this mural was full of shops selling Spider-Man merchandise. Since it was a day off, there were quite a few people browsing. Spider-Man fans from all over the world would come here to check in, and there was a high probability of running into Spider-Man himself here. Never mind which Spider-Man you ran into; they were all Spider-Man anyway, so just grabbing them for a photo was the right thing to do.

This street was actually full of small goods: Spider-Man web-shooters, hoods, masks, all kinds of red and blue themed clothing and shoes, as well as little badges, necklaces, pencil cases, and the like. Lego Batman bought one of everything.

Schiller picked up one of the small badges, flipped it over, and, very predictably, saw the place of origin. He then picked up his own phone, logged into a Chinese app to identify the image, and discovered that not only had the price directly converted into US dollars, but the decimal point had also shifted one place to the right.

Seeing the price difference, Schiller silently put down the cute Spider-Man badge. As expected, tourist attractions all over the world were the same.

However, Lego Batman was buying happily and didn't care at all about being ripped off. After finishing the Spider-Man block, they went to the Captain America block. The merchandise here was even more varied, with even 1:1 scale metal shields for sale.

Lego Batman insisted on buying that metal shield, regardless of the fact that its size was almost like a flying saucer to him. Schiller had no choice but to buy it for him, and immediately turned around and quoted the price based on the weight of vibranium.

The Iron Man specialty store was much more upscale. Because the image rights for Iron Man and Tony Stark were both owned by the Stark Group, all the specialty stores were exclusively operated by the Stark Group, so the decor was naturally much better than those contracted out. Moreover, there were two real machines at the entrance—mechs that had been phased out by Stark—and quite a few people were taking photos there.

Here, Lego Batman found his favorite gift—a complete set of Lego Iron Man mechs.

Although there was no Lego in the Marvel universe, there were indeed building block brands similar to Lego. It was just that these things were relatively expensive, and ordinary operating companies wouldn't choose this category. Stark was bold and launched a series of building block mechs that could not only be worn by the block figures but also made sounds and lit up.

Lego Batman put it on right after buying it, but unfortunately, the model was a bit ill-fitting, and after putting it on, he couldn't fly like Iron Man; he could only make some boring sounds and emit light.

"I'm going to modify it!" Lego Batman roared, "I will change it into a unique mech that belongs only to me!"

Schiller and Adventure Batman nodded while applauding him.

What Schiller hadn't expected was that there was actually a Moon Knight specialty store here, and someone had even replicated Moon Knight's outfit and staff; it looked quite authentic when placed on a plastic mannequin.

However, the most popular items in the Moon Knight store were the figures, and, surprisingly, the Khonshu figures sold better than the Moon Knight figures. The skull-like falcon head really did fit the aesthetic of young people better.

Then, immediately after, they arrived at the "Ilvermorny" specialty store, which was full of postcards, wands, crystal balls, quill pens, and the like for every character. Although they couldn't compare to the genuine goods in the magic school, they were made quite exquisitely.

What Schiller couldn't stand the most was that a row of his photos was hanging on one wall—to be precise, a row of school doctor photos, all movie stills. Below them was also a row of potions he had brewed at school, the same style of quill pens he had used, and ornaments from the same style of desk. There were also quite a few people crowded there picking things out and taking photos.

Fortunately, Schiller was wearing a mask when he went out today, otherwise the three of them would definitely have been blocked in the store today. Even so, Schiller always felt that someone was staring at him. There was no other way but to urge the other two to leave quickly.

Then they saw the Ghost Rider specialty store. This was, of course, also very popular, especially the flaming motorcycle ornaments and that flaming warhorse. There was even a life-sized cardboard cutout of Johnny placed at the entrance.

All these things required paying them royalties, and it wasn't a buyout of rights; they got a cut for every one sold. So now, the financial situation of the two brothers, Johnny and Danny, was much better. Although they still couldn't afford a house in New York, they could at least rent a decent one.

The store also had a large poster of Mephisto, and they had even specially made a bust over a meter tall and placed it right in the center. Schiller didn't even need to look to know that the person at the front desk cashier was definitely an apostle of Mephisto.

"I think this model is good," Adventure Batman said, "I'm quite popular in our universe too. Do you think I should open a specialty store?"

"It's not a fresh idea anymore," Schiller said, "Go take a look at Bruce's universe; there's a Batman Street there, all selling Batman merchandise. Hoods, capes, figures, mechs, dolls, badges, postcards. If you want to open a store, you can go there to learn the ropes."

"Sounds good," Adventure Batman said, "I'll go ask Bruce later. This should be quite profitable, right?"

"More than that, Bruce's fiscal deficit is almost turned around."

?? There's a big event afterward, woo-hoo~