Chapter 4856

Just stepping into the courtyard, he saw a huge pile of miniature starships crackling and clashing in battle. The Shi'ar nobles were badly frightened too. They'd long heard Earthlings were martial, but never expected even children this small to be undergoing interstellar war training.

That's right — normally this kind of scaled-down model ship, and simulation of cosmic environments, only appear in the three great empires' military academies. That's where they learn how to wage interstellar war.

This is actually very necessary. Most carbon-based lifeforms grow up on planetary surfaces; entering space requires adaptation. To them, many things in the universe are counter-intuitive. Without simulation practice, judgment errors come easily.

Those simulation pods of theirs cost a fortune, and are extremely precise, requiring very strict maintenance. This is because simulating all kinds of cosmic environments isn't that easy. They don't achieve simulation by editing cosmic parameters, but by roundabout manufacture of certain harsh conditions — naturally even more troublesome.

But Franklin directly produced a pocket universe, no different from the real universe, parameters freely modifiable. Whether simulating a galaxy or a black hole, a single thought of his could create one completely identical to the outside. In his pocket universe, he is the Creator.

Little Thomas is heavyweight too. He doesn't just control dark matter in the real world — same for Franklin's pocket universe. The two of them can chain a combo, able to simulate every cosmic environment in this world, even create an environment similar to an antimatter universe.

Little Morgan isn't bad either. She's even started following Stark to learn knowledge related to the information flow; at an age not even table-leg high, she's already touched the edge of correctly observing the universe. And she can combo with Franklin too, helping the two adjust the most suitable cosmic parameters.

The twin brothers unwilling to fall behind. One of them can edit emotions — meaning they can help Franklin create true emotional life in the pocket universe — not puppets controlled by their will, but beings with autonomous consciousness, with partings of life and death born of their own feelings.

Billy coincidentally possesses the power of the Olympian gods — divine power — able to help Franklin create gods in the pocket universe, as well as other energy beings similar to cosmic demons.

In short, these few little ones combined roughly equal a God; a Genesis combo, the mysteries of heaven and earth, cosmic evolution right before their eyes.

The Shi'ar nobles, before they could even eat, took one look then fled in a panic.

Greed had a touch of regret. He'd prepared a table full of fine dishes, originally wanting to hear the aliens' feedback to add to the Southern Cross tavern menu. Result: they didn't eat a single bite before running off.

Everyone played hard all morning; stomachs growling, they ate every dish clean. In the afternoon, took the kids for a walk on the hillside, went boating on the sea for a while too.

Word came from Chris — script basically finalized, not much different from the previous plot, and Shiler just needs to play himself. Greed set his mind at ease, started memorizing the new script.

Though he still changed quite a few lines; after wrangling with Chris a bit, most were accepted. And Chris's main reason for refusing some lines was the oppressive feeling was simply a bit too strong, afraid it would scare the kids.

Near evening, the study door was pushed open; Greed looked up — it was Pride entering.

"Where'd you go?" Greed lowered his head back to the script. These last few days Pride hadn't shown his face much, seemed busy, but Greed didn't know what he had to be busy with here. Surely not going out to investigate cases in the middle of the night?

Pride sat down beside him, quite satisfied: "Brainiac reformulated the Ivy League Plan — it's no longer just an athletic league, but a brand-new comprehensive strength ranking of East Coast institutions."

Greed raised a brow: "Where's Gotham University rank?"

"Most unfortunate — nineteenth." Pride sighed lightly; this ranking was low to the extreme, could even be called inconceivable.

"How come?" Greed was also surprised; in his impression Gotham University was similar to Columbia University in New York. If it's just East Coast ranking, shouldn't be this low, right?

"The entire Psychology Department has exactly one professor — me," Pride said, "Physics and Chemistry are also severely understaffed — not just lacking professors, but TAs too. Gotham University's student count is one-third of Metropolis University's, while professor count is even one-tenth. This ranking can't possibly go up."

Greed thought a moment; he felt this might be a historical legacy problem — after all, before, few dared go to Gotham; having this many is already not bad. Gotham's only been good for a few years; far from widespread public recognition, naturally can't recruit people.

"Then what do you plan to do?" Greed asked.

"Current top priority is finding more professors," Pride said, "but teaching pressure is high, compensation insufficient, promotion potential not high either — really very hard to find."

"Wait," Greed suddenly seemed to recall something, "you're not thinking of recruiting from this side, are you?"

Pride nodded. Greed was somewhat speechless; after a long pause he said: "Because Gotham's reputation is too bad, can't hoodwink people on your side, so you come over to hoodwink this side?"

"Not exactly hoodwinking," Pride paused then said, "I also don't plan to recruit Central Universe people — after all they're all proceeding routinely now, each with their own missions, treatment much better than over there, probably won't come with me."

"But there are still many scientists from other universes who are down on their luck. Like Connors who lost an arm, Ethan at death's door, Banner driven off Earth, Otto defeated by Spider-Man. They're all quite good scientists; going to my place to teach, however you slice it, beats being treated as villains."

Greed opened his mouth, found he had no rebuttal either. The Central Universe doesn't practice interventionism; even if they intervened, might not save them. Sometimes these scientists being persecuted is a problem of their entire universe — fundamentally unsalvageable.

And if Pride times his entry right, rescues them, then has them teach at Gotham — truly not a bad choice.

Still take Hulk as example. Back then the Illuminati exiled Hulk from Earth — that exile wasn't just Hulk, but Bruce Banner too. And Banner's a quite decent scientist; if someone had extended a hand at that moment, he'd likely have gone with them.

And the Marvel Universe is an infinite universe — the number of universes it possesses is infinite — meaning there must be quite a few universes where Banner is experiencing this plot. As long as they can find one and fish him back, that's one more physics professor.

"So you went to rescue people?"

"Still just the planning stage," Pride said, "but I went to find the Central Universe scientists — they all approve this plan."

"Who all did you find?"

"Almost everyone. Dr. Connors, Dr. Ethan, Dr. Banner..."

"I knew you're good at dealing with them," Greed said, "you should form a super-scholar organization — call it 'Mad Doctors' how about it?"

Pride shook his head: "They're doctors because humanity's highest degree stops at doctorate; actually they each hold several doctorates on average. 'Mad Doctors' still sounds a bit modest."

"I inquired about their life experiences," Pride said, "without question, every one of them has had extremely difficult moments. Though fairly satisfied with the status quo, if some small turning point could occur at that moment, they'd be quite willing too."

"I persuaded them to contact their counterparts," Pride said, "some already communicate with counterparts, some can go through others. Actually we already have several targets."

"When do you plan to start?"

"Finish filming the movie first," Pride said, "didn't you say our parts are at the beginning? After filming wraps, start the cross-multiverse talent recruitment plan."

"Who do you plan to go for first?"

"Ethan."

Greed was a bit surprised: "Why him?"

"The others only suffer temporary hardship, but he'll lose his life," Pride said, "and he's an MD — Gotham University's medical school is severely short-staffed. He's been on the battlefield, can also better adapt to Gotham's environment."

"True," Greed continued, "then the next should be Connors, right?"

"Correct, both can go to the medical school. Actually I wanted to recruit Xavier into Psychology. But if we get him we must bring Lensherr along. Though most Magnetos also hold physics doctorates, how he obtained that degree is questionable."

"How we got our Psychology degrees is questionable too," Greed couldn't help retorting, "you plan to teach from elementary straight through to doctorate?"

"But even if Professor Xavier comes, can't have him teach basic courses," Pride shook his head, "by your analogy, I teach elementary, he teaches university."

"At least you'd have it easier," Greed said, "and you don't necessarily have to save them at their moment of suffering. Your universe itself is more suited for mutants — because the universe is more spacious."

"Your universe has no three great empires, the Lantern Corps declining daily. Mutants' development space would be huge."

"But Batman..."

"He'll agree, don't forget Darkseid," Greed looked at Pride, "Darkseid has become multiversal-unique; losing one or two avatars means nothing to him — sooner or later he'll make a comeback, someone must restrain Apokolips' development in the universe. Mutants are the best choice."

"Their superpowers come from their genes, unaffected by universe differences. Population sufficient, can develop into interstellar civilization. Among leaders, Professor X's moral bottom line is trustworthy — the most suitable tiger for 'using the tiger to devour the wolf'. Batman has no reason to refuse."

"What did Bruce fish up outside the Source Wall?" Pride asked, "That's your plan — you should know, right?"

"I know. But he won't act for now. Batman's next move will certainly be eliminating Darkseid, this overt major threat. That's the best timing for mutants to enter the stage."

Greed paused, then said: "Don't forget the Fusion Universe. I think you can go check that universe's mutant development first. If Batman wants to introduce external forces, that universe is also the best choice. He'll definitely choose to probe from there."

"I'm very impatient doing these things," Pride sighed, "makes even teaching become interesting."

"Doing this is to teach better," Greed smiled and said, "Sounds even more hopeless, doesn't it?"

"Don't think about sending me," Greed cut off Pride's words in advance, "If Batman knew I'd interfere, he'd probably reconsider bringing in forces from this side. Driving the tiger to swallow the wolf is fine, but leading the wolf into the house is not."

"Looks like I'll have to go personally."

"Good thing I prepared early." Greed rubbed the gray ring on his hand, "Don't forget, we still have a Holy Son."