Chapter 4800: New Version and Film Production Begin (Part 1)

Doctor Manhattan had naturally heard of Greed's notorious reputation; even though they weren't in the same world. But to run a multiverse gaming platform, one naturally had to investigate the competition. As long as he investigated Doujie, it was impossible not to have heard of Shiler. And as long as he investigated Shiler, the most eye-catching figure was Greed.

Over so many years, Greed had stirred up countless major incidents; his performance in Doujie instances was universally praised. Doctor Manhattan could imagine what kind of tricks he would use to demand compensation.

Right now, Manhattan Amusement Park had just opened; if Greed truly seized on a pretext and raised a huge ruckus, all that previous publicity would have been for nothing. Worse, the whole framework might not even get off the ground.

Doctor Manhattan was very rational; he also had to admit that the game program having issues couldn't be blamed on the players being too strong — it was indeed caused by his own program design not being rigorous enough. Issuing some compensation was reasonable.

"What do you want?" Doctor Manhattan asked.

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

Doctor Manhattan fell silent, but Arkham Batman looked at him. The Batmen were indeed searching for Night Owl; this guy had been rescued by Doctor Manhattan before. Which universe he was rescued to was currently still unclear. He had vanished just like that, but Batman would never believe he had given up on his plan to disrupt the multiverse. Not finding him made it impossible to eat or sleep in peace.

"He did indeed have contact with a certain me," Doctor Manhattan said, "but if you want me to hand him over to you, I'm afraid that's difficult; no matter what, he is still a Batman."

"I only want the universe coordinates," Greed said. "You saving Night Owl was already making an enemy of more Batmen. You should be very clear on this point."

Doctor Manhattan fell silent again briefly. He was of course extremely clear on this, but he also had reasons he had no choice but to do so. It was just that the situation was stronger than the person now. If the ones standing here today were another Batman and another Shiler, he would not compromise, but as it happened, it was Arkham Batman and Greed.

These two, one was the most domineering Batman, one was the most domineering Shiler. The two of them coming to play the game itself counted as providing publicity for Manhattan Amusement Park. The game experience being poor was indeed Doctor Manhattan's problem. Weighing the pros and cons, if he didn't make some concessions, this matter would likely not end well.

Doctor Manhattan gave the universe coordinates to Arkham Batman.

Greed turned and left; Arkham Batman seemed to want to stay a while longer, but Greed gave him a look, so he also left with the others. Not ten minutes after they left, Manhattan Amusement Park issued an emergency server maintenance announcement, and all other players were kicked out.

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

Now Arkham Batman knew why Greed was in such a rush for compensation; turns out he himself felt guilty too. If they had left even one step later, Doctor Manhattan would have come looking for trouble.

Greed didn't answer directly, but looked at Lucifer. Lucifer sighed and said: "There is no one in this world who can intimidate me without paying a price. Besides, I didn't do it on purpose."

Arkham Batman immediately recalled Lucifer telling him before that he had intimidated him. But Arkham Batman had never spoken to Lucifer before; it was likely that skill let Lucifer see some hallucination, which had clearly frightened Lucifer badly.

Lucifer didn't seem to intend to hide it either; he said directly: "To put it in human terms, I went through a Rebellious Phase for a period. I was very annoyed that God had arranged everything, demanding I follow his orders step by step, or that even if I was unwilling, I would still inexplicably, through a string of coincidences, walk the destiny God had arranged. I hated this very much.

"For a time I thought I had broken free, but after I came to the human world, I still became the angel descending to the mortal realm written in the Bible, speaking that line 'Fear not, child.' That made me feel extremely devastated; I even wanted my consciousness to dissipate between heaven and earth, so I wouldn't have to endure this pain anymore.

"This can be called the most fearful and grievous moment of my life; even mentioning it now still leaves me with lingering fear. I think you can understand that feeling — you use every trick in the book, thinking you can finally escape fate, but in the end you still fall into the trap woven by fate, and in such an absurd way at that."

Arkham Batman nodded. As Batman, he understood this feeling best. Actually, after the Batman Alliance, they had discussed this issue — for instance, why Gotham could never be saved, why the tragedies befalling them were all exactly the same. It seemed no answer was reached, but everyone had the answer; they just tacitly didn't speak it.

"Did someone say that line to you?" Matt asked.

Lucifer nodded and said: "I'm not sure if anyone said it, but I did indeed hear it. This cannot be my hallucination; it was definitely arranged by someone."

"Then what?" Superman asked with some curiosity. "What did you do?"

"There was much I wanted to do," a cold glint flickered in Lucifer's eyes. "In that instant, I wanted to erase the person opposite from the universe, to completely wipe out that damn string of data, even to wipe your memories, so that he had never appeared in the universe at all."

Matt and Superman's faces stiffened. Lucifer didn't care at all: "Even if he is Batman, I can do this. No one can stop me... at least not before."

"Not now, is it because of Anatoli?"

"More or less," Lucifer sighed. "If I really did that, he would haunt me like a ghost, clinging on until I restored everything to normal."

"Then he knows you..."

"He doesn't know yet," Lucifer sighed deeply again. "I'm still thinking about how to quietly restore everything to normal without a sound."

"Let's not talk about this for now," Matt steered the topic back on track. "What did you end up doing?"

"I didn't actively do anything, but I lost control a little," Lucifer said, pressing his lips together. "This is also very fatal. Actually, nothing can truly limit my power; those settings he created are the same. It's me actively suppressing my own power, but when I lose control, that power leaks out a bit."

"So that broke the program?"

"Yes, and it even made the program restricting you all somewhat stop working," Lucifer said. "Didn't you notice? By the end, your powers had all strengthened somewhat?"

The others didn't feel it obviously, but Arkham Batman knew. Besides the Agent's final strengthening, the most obvious change was Superman. That final lap of his, though his own calm composure played a part, don't forget — the lights were already completely out by then; visually distinguishing the route was impossible.

This meant Superman had to have memorized every route in the hall, and his grasp and perception of distance had to be extremely professional. Although this Superman breed was special, it was most likely also because his super-brain and super-senses had recovered to a certain extent that he could do it so smoothly.

"After I discovered I'd caused trouble, I found Shiler," Lucifer said. "I originally wanted him to buy me some time so I could fix the program. But Shiler said, instead of letting him fix the program, why not directly pin the blame for the broken program on him? Anyway, this guy wasn't clean to begin with."

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

"How to put it?" Lucifer pondered a moment, then explained: "In terms you can understand, the program he wrote has two styles. The Presidential skill set you used is one style; the later Batman suit set is another style entirely."

Arkham Batman immediately reacted, just as they had guessed before — Manhattan Doctor, this rational being, should not use emotional manipulation methods. But the skill "Unspeakable Fear" was far too biased toward emotion; it didn't seem like something Doctor Manhattan could create.

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

Lucifer shook his head: "Although time is not linear in my eyes — I can see the past and future of a thing at the same time — since the other party dared to do this, and even dared to make a move on me, they wouldn't leave any tracks. It all looks like Doctor Manhattan wrote it; I have no way either."

"That shows the other party's level is very high," Greed spoke up. "To understand how to conceal the past timeline and succeed, to deceive you — truly impressive."

"What he can do, I can do too," Lucifer spread his hands. "He hid the other program writer; I can pin the hole I poked on his head too — wouldn't that settle it?"

"But I have some doubts," Arkham Batman looked at Greed and said. "Why are you interested in Night Owl?"

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

"Are you sure it's not you again..."

"If it were me wanting to do something, you should investigate even more, right?" Greed smiled. "Besides, even if I want to do something, it won't be recently; I still have things to be busy with."

"Right, the new Doujie version is about to go live," Arkham Batman stood up and said. "Then I won't keep you any longer; we'll chat another day."

Greed and Matt returned to the Central Universe together, but they didn't separate immediately. Matt went to the Sanatorium and asked: "You weren't planning to make a move on that side?"

"That's the problem," Greed sat in the chair, looking a bit headache-stricken. "The neighboring world is practically a colander — all sorts of demons and monsters. What do you think their reaction would be if those guys found out there's an even bigger, livelier world next door?"

Matt's face also darkened. He also knew that although the universe they were in wasn't safe either, under a series of their operations, it had gained a period of stable development.

Don't look at the Avengers not getting along; it's precisely because external pressure isn't that great that they have the leisure to resolve internal conflicts. Look at the Batmen next door — so many Batmen can't possibly have zero conflicts, yet they're this united now because external pressure is simply too great.

The Darkest Emperor hasn't been gone long, and now Doctor Manhattan has come again. His building this amusement park, no matter how you think about it, won't be just to satisfy his own hobby. There are simply too many things Batman has to guard against.

And for their world, the enemies next door can't be said to be not dangerous either. Because those guys that even the Batmen can't guard against — if they learn there's an even vaster world next door, they'll absolutely try every means to cross over. And existences capable of breaking through Batman's and the world barrier's defenses are certainly the strong among the strong. If this side doesn't prepare early, the enemy might as well walk in unopposed.

"You've worked hard," Matt said.

"Not hard," Greed smiled again. "Let's talk about the fear that skill caused you instead..."

Matt turned and walked away.