As summer gradually arrived, the scorching sunlight on the New York coastline caused hurried city-dwellers to sweat down the back of their necks.
The shuttles and sky trains quickly crossing the skyline provided a fleeting shadow, temporarily blocking the heat and giving pedestrians a moment to catch their breath.
At the top of Stark Building, in Tony Stark's dedicated laboratory, Shiller propped his head up with his hand, struggling to keep his leaden eyelids open. In his hazy and confused vision, Peter with black-framed glasses and Stark half-dressed in battle armor were engaged in their third round of technical debate.
"No, Mr. Stark, you have to listen to me. Miniaturization and civil use are the way of the future. Just imagine, nanocoating technology for spaceships can be completely applied to many civil goods production fields. We should reduce cost and expand application fields in the next phase."
"Yes, but that can't stop us from deepening research. Listen to me, Peter. You can't waste any more time in experimental group number three. Doctor Connors needs you, needs your genius mind and inspiration."
"But you clearly promised me before, let me participate in the Magic Experiment Group. You forgot? The Symbiotic Red Peak in my body has absorbed a lot of the Morlun Family's Faith Power. I am fully capable of exploring the Magic Domain..."
""Stop talking nonsense, Kid. I am not going to let you go. That damn Long-faced Supreme Mage has been planning to target you for a long time. I am planning to find a tabloid reporter next week to write a report, saying that he is seducing genius researcher Peter Parker and wants to be your sugar daddy..."
""You can't do this, Mr. Stark. You're too childish."
Inside Shiller's Thought Palace, Shiller, who had just descended from his surface consciousness via the elevator, walked into the corridor while muttering to himself, "What the hell, what do spaceships' coatings technology and which research group Peter Parker should go to, have to do with me?"
""Well, I can pretend to sleep and be lazy during this time." Greed yawned, stretched at the door of his room, opened the door and went in.
Just as he took off his jacket, he heard a knock on the door. Greed looked puzzled, but still glanced at the door and asked, "Who is it?"
"Arrogance sent me to deliver something to you." A slightly deep voice sounded from outside the door, and Greed's eyes widened in shock.
He hurried to the door, grabbed the doorknob, and opened the door. The face of Bruce Wayne appeared outside the door.
Before Greed could shout, Bruce quickly stepped forward and squeezed himself in through the door crack, then banged the door shut.
"Oh my God, didn't Superego clean the interior of the Tower of Thought when crossing worlds? How could you be stuck here?" Greed's eyes were about to bulge out, he raised his voice, "Do you know what you have done?"
As he spoke, Greed paused for a moment, then somewhat panicky, grabbed Bruce's arm and tried to push him out the door, saying as he pushed, "No, it must be that guy Arrogance who was negligent and forgot to send you back, oh my God, this is no joke, come with me quickly, I have to send you back before Superego discovers."
But Bruce stood still. Greed looked surprised and turned his head back. As he made eye contact with Bruce's deep blue eyes, he retreated in horror and shouted loudly.
"Batman??!!!!"
Greed froze on the spot. After staring at Batman for a few seconds, he darted to the corner, his hands on the walls on either side, and said in an extremely frightened trembling tone,
"You're not that little bat, you're the Batman from the Prime Universe!!!!! How are you here???!!!!"
"As I said, Arrogance sent me to deliver something to you."
"Ah??? !!" Greed let out a cry full of confusion, then put his hand on his forehead, took a few deep breaths on the spot, shook his head vigorously and said, "Wait, I have a few questions. First, how did you get in?!!"
Bruce's gaze turned to the floor, Greed followed his gaze and looked down, then Bruce looked into Greed's eyes and said, "That hole down there."
" I know, I know that of course you couldn't have come in through the main door, but the question is you are a person from another universe, how can you ... I mean, okay, you've come in once before, but you also can't..."
"Lucifer." Batman uttered a name.
"Ah???!!"
"They rebooted my universe, making all my efforts during this period in vain, and also deleted all memories related to Shiller in that universe. They blocked the spelling and syllables of his name, leaving him unable to appear in any way in my universe."
Batman said calmly as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with himself.
"But I think this is neither just nor fair. Shiller is my friend, and I don't want his existence to be erased from my universe. So I started trying to get his name back, until an angel-like illusion appeared before my eyes."
"That angel said I was crazy, but I know I wasn't, because the ones who arbitrarily reboot the universe are the crazy ones."
Greed stared at him somewhat blankly, slowly stood up straight, and looking into Bruce's eyes said, "Arrogance really told you everything, huh?"
"The angel who appeared before me was helpless. So, he called upon an angel named Lucifer, who happened to be a friend of Shiller, and we reached an agreement."
"Shiller and I can no longer meet in reality especially not visit the Joker, none of them are allowed. But considering our friendship, we can use dream as a bridge, and enter each other's Psychic_Battlefield via soul resonance."
"This…" Greed stuttered, he grinned, looked complicated and said, "Sounds a bit like... Cowherd and Weaver Girl?"
Then he rubbed his eyebrows and said, "Alright, I understand this part. But why did you run here? I mean, you should know that you can't just come and go in the Tower of Thought, right? Superego routinely cleans things inside the tower. No outsiders can escape his eyes."
"Unless other Schillers help." Bruce added to his words, blinked, and said in his usual straight tone: "Arrogance told me that there is a being with authority on par with the Superego, the overseer of the High Tower. This being is called Morbid. Arrogance found a new toy for Morbid, so Morbid used his authority to bring me in."
Greed opened his mouth, seemingly wanted to say something, but didn't seem to know where to start. After a while, he spoke with some anger, "Why does Arrogance always have the upper hand?!"
Suddenly, he realized something and widened his eyes at Bruce, "The 'gift' Arrogance promised me isn't...you, is it? God, have mercy on me. I am not so sinful as to deserve being tormented by Batman?!"
Greed's shock was mixed with helplessness. He didn't think he was as mad as Arrogance, who seemed to enjoy mutual torture with Batman.
Everyone in the world knows that Batman is a huge troublemaker. But he's just a mediocre wealth builder who only wants to make some money. If he gets caught up with Batman, how could he continue to study and practice under the reimbursement system in macroeconomics?
"He asked me to give you a message." Batman said monotonously, "He hopes that you would lock the door as quickly as you did when you locked the Tower of Thought. Otherwise, you will see a lot more surprises like me."
Greed stood still, and after taking a deep breath, his despair echoed throughout the Tower of Thought.
"Arrogance, you Schiller with the smallest worldview in the world!!!!!"
"Schiller? Schiller? Wake up...Schiller!"
"What's happening?" Schiller suddenly woke up.
In his sight were Peter and Stark's worried faces. Peter's voice was filled with concern as he looked at Stark and spoke: "Okay, Tony, at least on this point, I fully agree with you, we really need to keep an eye on Doctor Schiller's mental state. He even falls asleep during our arguments, which is horrifying."
"Oh, c'mon. I think he's just sleeping because he doesn't understand those technical terms." Stark frowned and took two steps back, showing a somewhat disgusted expression.
Schiller rubbed his eyes a little, so the view wasn't so blurred. As his eyes focused on Stark's face, a deep voice echoed from deep inside him.
"Who's he?"
Schiller widened his eyes in shock and looked back at the room in the Tower of Thought, only to find that Batman was gone.
Schiller gasped, and before Peter and Stark could react, his expression became dull. He quickly returned to the Tower of Thought, took the elevator down, rushed through the crowd in the hallway, and ran into the theater.
"My God, what are you doing here?!" Greed looked at Batman, who was sitting in the center of the theater, and exclaimed.
"Why can't I be here?" Batman acted as if he was at home. He slightly tilted his head and glanced at Greed, "Arrogance invited me here as a guest. He said I could take a look around. He is the host here; he should have that right."
"And he told me to come to this room to see what this body is experiencing."
Greed opened his mouth, inhaled deeply with hands on hips, and said to Batman: "Arrogance told you about what I'm experiencing? Why didn't he just tell you how many clothes he has in his wardrobe and which side he sleeps on and the first thing he does when he gets up?"
Then, Greed sighed helplessly, looked at Batman and said: "That damned madman Arrogance! He's crazy enough to use Batman to fight himself. And you're helping him in this?"
Just as Batman was about to say something, Greed waved his hand and interrupted him, "I know what you're going to say because you're Batman, and nobody can stop you... You DC guys are too gloomy!"
"Listen, Batman." Greed extended one hand and said: "This isn't your turf. Not just my Tower of Thought, but this world as well. If you want to look around, just sit here and don't trouble me. Got it?"
Batman was silent and did not answer. Greed could do nothing about it because he could hear Peter and Stark in the real world calling him. He had to get back to handle them right away, otherwise, he would be sent to the hospital again.
As Schiller's consciousness surfaced and took control of his body again, he saw Stark's face growing bigger and bigger in his field of vision. Schiller instinctively dodged, and Stark waved his hand in front of his eyes.
"Peter! Peter!" Stark took two steps back, called Peter's name, and said: "Contact Elders Council Hospital, something's wrong with Schiller again!"
"No, wait, I'm alright." Schiller spoke up.
"Who is he?" Batman's voice again echoed in Schiller's mind.
"None of your business." Schiller gritted his teeth.
"But he seems like a moron."
"Shut up."
"Peter, call the doctor quickly, Schiller is having hallucinations again."
"You shut up too, Stark."
"Showing aggression to a hallucination, Peter, call the doctor immediately!"
"You're right, he's a moron!"