Chapter 4966

"Sounds interesting," Shiler said. "I thought it would be simply divided into a Justice League Department, an Avengers Department, and an Intelligence Agency Department."

"Can't divide it like that," Carter said. "The prototype of the Renaissance League — the organization we called the 'New Earth League' at the time — split apart exactly like that. The two sides couldn't agree, not even three or four sides could agree. In the end they came to blows and nearly triggered a catastrophe."

"Later we discovered that if you just simply mash the superheroes and intelligence agencies of two Earths together, that's not integration at all. In the end there would still be civil war, and the whole organization would fall apart. To truly unify opinions, you can't divide according to the original personnel layout."

Shiler nodded. He said, "I'm just saying, going by their personalities, they might have wanted to divide it that way. But judging by now, they've learned their lesson."

"A very profound lesson," Carter shook her head somewhat helplessly. "Superheroes who are ordinary humans at base like Batman and Iron Man all ended up in the ER. Superman nearly got lost in spatiotemporal chaos. Captain America went mentally unstable. Mutants nearly blew up the moon..."

Shiler frowned. "That severe? What was the spark?"

Carter shook her head. "If you ask what major disaster there was, there actually wasn't one. It was just accumulated daily grievances erupting. Everyone wanted a different future for New York City and Earth, and that ultimately led to this war."

"Fortunately, everyone still had reason and pulled back from the brink in time."

"Not entirely pulling back on their own, right?" Shiler clearly knew them well.

"Indeed," Carter said. "We also have to thank Darkseid. He picked a good time to attack Earth. The superheroes were like they'd been doused with a bucket of cold water — they completely calmed down."

"And then they united and drove him off?"

"Not that simple. They tugged back and forth for several months. In the end Asgard couldn't stand it anymore, came up with a method, and drove Darkseid's army out of the Nine Realms. Thor was furious and had to put some pressure on Midgard."

"Thor isn't Zeus," Shiler sighed. "Theoretically speaking, he's the lord of the Nine Realms. His own domain ending up like this — of course he's not happy."

"I think it was Darkseid who gave Thor a sense of crisis," Carter sighed lightly. "Apokolips is indeed a huge trouble. And word is Darkseid has already become a Multiversal Darkseid. That means he can make preparations across the multiverse, while the human heroes most closely connected to the multiverse are busy with infighting. If Thor didn't intervene, the whole universe would become Darkseid's one-man show."

"What do the Three Great Empires say?"

"Barely holding on," Carter raised her head slightly, as if gazing at the distant cosmos. "Apokolips' momentum is fierce. The Shi'ar Empire and the Kree Empire bordering it have already committed over 3 billion troops, yet they're only just barely holding the line. If not for the Kree Empire's mechanical constructs being able to self-destruct, unable to be converted into demon-like beings, the Galactic Council would probably have to relocate."

Shiler understood. The fused universe's ability to transform so quickly from civil war to thorough integrated cooperation — the sudden appearance of a powerful enemy in the cosmos deserved immense credit. Besides Darkseid, the Little Blue Men and the Lantern Corps weren't easy to deal with either. Not to mention the Three Great Empires themselves harbored ulterior motives toward the universe. One could only say it was fortunate these people couldn't unite; otherwise Earth would truly be done for.

At the beginning, the exponentially growing crisis didn't reveal itself — or rather, the superheroes had no real sense of it. They just felt there were more troublesome guys around them. But when Darkseid's massive army pressed the border, they realized — it wasn't just superheroes that had doubled; supervillains had all been multiplied by two as well.

Actually, Earth-0's strength participating in the fusion was very low. Darkseid wasn't originally that strong. But he just had to fuse into a Multiversal Darkseid, even stronger than the previous main-universe Darkseid. This time Earth-0 really walked out the door and ran into the final boss. If the old 616 universe didn't genuinely have some strength, this wave would've taken Earth away.

"Still, let's continue talking about the Renaissance League," Carter grew happy the moment this organization was mentioned. She said enthusiastically, "After the League formed, they re-planned New York City — back during the fusion, who knows who drew the blueprint, it was a complete mess. All kinds of functional buildings were duplicated, yet residential areas were completely insufficient. Prices and the economy kept soaring. The financial bubble nearly burst..."

Speaking here, Shiler felt a bit guilty. If he remembered correctly, it should have been Greed who had Lucifer draw the blueprints. This angel apparently didn't understand how human cities should be built; he just arranged all the buildings according to his own ideas.

But it really could only be Lucifer who drew them — not because only he had the authority, but precisely because he didn't understand. He didn't grasp why this city didn't need two grand cathedrals, two deep-water piers, two downtown commercial streets. He just wanted to stuff all the original buildings in, so he expanded Earth's area this much.

Like someone who doesn't understand city-builder games, makes roads that constantly jam, so they cheat and enlarge the map, turn every lane into eight lanes — then there's no traffic. Greed originally gave the blueprint job to Lucifer with exactly this thinking. Doesn't matter if you can't draw it right; as long as you can cheat, it's fine.

In that case, the fused city taken over by the people of two Earths — although the urban planning was extremely chaotic — the land became very large. Anyway, everything on top can be demolished and rebuilt; the size of the land is the key.

If Lucifer were truly a planning expert, streamlining all buildings clearly and expanding area only to the minimum required for population — that would be a huge loss. Like now, this chaotic scribbling instead gave the New Earth more space.

"Fortunately, the Renaissance League intervened in time. Because they merged all superpower management organizations, the federal government was no match for them. The past two years have been spent in massive demolition and reconstruction. Fortunately the final result is quite good. In recent months, the land reclamation project has also been mostly completed. The city will only become more spacious and orderly."

As they spoke, they had already walked out of the new airport's arrival hall. The moment they stepped out, they felt a warm sea breeze. It was currently summer in New York City — sea and sky one color, clear and azure. The sea breeze carried a faint salty tang. Standing on the broad plaza outside the reception hall, they could clearly see the distant skyline's staggered buildings, unbelievably bright under the sunlight.

Carter suddenly fished out a pair of sunglasses from somewhere and handed them to Shiler, then said, "You're a Gothamite, right? You all need this. Right after the fusion, every sunglasses shop owner made a fortune."

Shiler smiled, took the sunglasses and put them on. But he really wasn't used to wearing sunglasses. Even though Carter's sunglasses had no tinting effect — they only blocked the sunlight — he still felt a bit uncomfortable, so he took them off again.

"Looks like I should prepare a parasol." While Carter was speaking, a group of people had already come up to meet them — clearly her team members.

An American team isn't really a team — just like a special ops squad isn't really a squad. A team's headcount might have a dozen offices. Besides management staff and formal employees, there are interns — a sprawling hundred-plus people.

When Shiler walked out of the plaza, the motorcade was already in position. There weren't many people on the surrounding streets — they'd clearly been cleared. Shiler and Carter got in the car.

"Because we don't know if multiverse visitors can adapt immediately, we're all receiving you according to the highest-level security and reception protocols," Carter explained. "The Anquan Force is under Batman's charge, but this time I've requested the Special Security Affairs Team led by Seeing Natasha. She might personally come see you later."

The car drove toward the city. Shiler looked out the window at the streetscape outside. What surprised him somewhat was that everywhere were the neoclassical buildings Carter had mentioned. This style was clearly meticulously designed — it looked very harmonious.

This style looked a bit like an "idealized Europe" — ancient buildings don't grow old and shabby, but always stay as brand-new as when just built, while also leaving space for modern equipment. And the modern equipment obviously made aesthetic compromises too — lampposts, shop signs, AC condenser units all leaned toward the ancient architectural style, letting the two blend perfectly together.

At the same time, they discarded the problems of narrow ancient city streets, dark alleys, and hiding filth — widened the streets, built many underground parking garages so few cars were visible on the surface. Simultaneously added large amounts of greenery. The whole city became like a forest city — lush green everywhere.

Shiler could tell the designer of this city put in great effort. Or rather, with the Renaissance League's backing, this kind of idealized design plan was able to be realized.

Not to mention anything else — just looking at it, it extremely tested Iron Man's technical level. The entire street had almost no electrical facilities visible on the surface — no utility poles, no power lines, no substations — greatly enhancing the city's classical atmosphere. Shiler could imagine Iron Man there huffing and puffing routing wires.

Actually, many cities' low urban construction level isn't because they can't design it — it's because it's hard to realize. They have no way to plan a city as a whole. Usually it's build wherever needed, build it, look — extremely discordant.

But if you want to plan as a whole, you lack such manpower and resources. Two-party governance makes it even more impossible to pull off such large projects requiring long-term planning.

And the Renaissance League, to cope with external pressure, clearly no longer cared about any shadow government legitimacy — completely treated New York City as their own turf to build. The federal government couldn't overcome them either — that's why there's such a city.

After quietly appreciating for a while, Shiler suddenly spotted a familiar figure. Spider-Man's silhouette swung up and dropped between buildings — but he was on the adjacent street, so he appeared intermittently.

"Oh, damn it," Carter cursed. She immediately picked up the radio. "What's going on? Why is Spider-Man appearing next to the motorcade?"

"Hold on, Boss. I'm checking with the Anquan Force... Sorry, Spider-Man has an emergency mission. Joker escaped again and fought Electro, and even dragged Kingpin into it..."

Carter slapped her forehead. "I knew it!"

"You go handle whatever you need to," Shiler said. "Give me the hotel address, I can go myself. Or... I could tag along and watch the excitement?"

"Oh, this isn't any excitement..." Carter stopped mid-sentence. "But if it's you, going to watch is fine."

Carter recalled her colleagues' repeated admonitions before she came. Simply summarized: Don't provoke Shiler. Whatever he wants to do, just let him do it.