Shiller looked up from a hefty pile of student assignments, asking the person in front of him, Roy, "You want to build a portal?"
"I believe this is the best solution to the current traffic problem in Gotham." Desperation tinted Roy's voice as he spoke, "In other words, apart from building a portal, there is no other way to alleviate the traffic congestion in Gotham."
Shiller lowered his gaze back to his papers, continuing with his grading as he said,"You coming to find me isn't of any use then, I'm neither a traffic expert nor a portal expert."
"But you can't stand traffic jam the most."
Well, that's a killer argument.
About ten minutes later, professors from Gotham University and Gotham Magic Academy assembled in a meeting room. The large conference table was replaced with a circle of sofas, and standing at the front, Mayor Roy said, "This is a very sad news. After research by professionals from Gotham University and the municipal government, traditional traffic improvement measures are not suitable for this city. We may have to adopt some radical measures."
Strange shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about how absurd it is to use the Green Lantern's energy to improve city transportation. I heard Green Lantern Hal mention that this is not an energy that everyone can use. If we use it for creating pure magical entities, like the Earth's Magical Defense Network, it would possess excellent defensive capabilities. But, if we want to make it available for public use, how can we ensure its stability?"
"Gothamites have never pursued stability."
"But if it breaks down every few days, the efficiency would still be low, wouldn't it?" Strange pointed out, "Besides, only the Green Lantern can use this energy flexibly. Do you expect Hal Jordan to single-handedly maintain the transportation network of an entire city?"
With a hard pound on the podium, Roy said, "That's why I've gathered everyone here. We want to solve the problem with unconventional means, but now we need a feasible solution!"
Shiller turned to look at Bruce. He knew that Bruce wasn't idle after that day's meeting; there's no way he didn't instigate Roy.
It's easy to speculate about Bruce's motivations. The city's transportation network is a big problem, only second to improving the living conditions of the city's residents. From a certain perspective, restructuring the transportation network can be even more troublesome than improving living conditions.
Improving living conditions can be done in stages, one area at a time. For instance, renovating the East District hardly affects the South District, and if buildings are demolished in the West District, it won't disturb the North District.
However, a comprehensive transformation of the transportation network will affect everything. If a road in one place needs to be reconstructed, the traffic will inevitably be redirected to another road. Once that road is completely blocked, all surrounding traffic will come to a standstill.
This isn't a situation where patience will win out. Logically speaking, it's akin to playing a game of Hua Rong Dao; when you want to move one block, you have to consider the direction of movement of several blocks behind. The complexity of Gotham's transportation network is equivalent to a game of Hua Rong Dao with hundreds of billions of blocks. Only a brain like Bruce's could handle such computational capacity.
Apparently, Bruce currently has no plans to exhaust himself. He understands very well that if he takes on this project, what he has to offer won't only be his wisdom. Wayne Enterprises simply can't afford to carry the burden of reforming transportation while also improving living conditions for the entire city. Even the world's wealthiest man doesn't have that kind of money.
Bruce has already realized that it's better to pose challenges to others than to overwork himself. If he wants to manage both tasks simultaneously, he'll need to take shortcuts for one of them.
Sure enough, after Evans finished speaking, Bruce stood up and said, "I have a thought. I conducted an overnight inspection of the metals in Gotham last night..."
Bruce has long known that the Court of Owls is behind the scenes in Gotham. Observations of other universes have confirmed this. Even though Lucifer has annihilated the Court of Owls in this universe, Gotham hasn't seen any improvement, not even a minor change. This proves that Lucifer did not intend to save Gotham, he simply got rid of the Owls.
After such entities alter the script, all other code adapts accordingly. Without the Owls, nothing has changed. This shows that the influence originally caused by the Owls has been switched to another entity. The details of history may have changed, but the puppeteer has simply changed names.
However, Bruce currently lacks the time to investigate who has taken over the misdeeds previously done by the Owls. As long as the phenomenon persists, it implies it can be exploited.
The solid darkness still exists in the metals within Gotham, indicating that it must have a source, thus implying it can still be used.
Bruce briefly explained his viewpoint to everyone present. Although it sounded very fantastic, the test results didn't lie. After looking at the information provided by Bruce, the professors from Gotham University marvelled, but being professors here, they all possessed impressive adaptability. They immediately began researching the properties of the special metal alloyed into the metal.
Of course, their results were similar to the experts from Marvel. This so-called solid darkness should be a type of condensed energy. It was mixed into the metal to provide a city-wide dark radiation.
However, the difference is that in this universe where Shiller resides, there is a more professional team. After the normal experts and professors did their research, their brilliant, dark inspirations provided more professional answers.
Professor Pig made the following judgment:
"In the bodies of Gothamites that I have dissected, some individuals exhibit a strange brain structure. This can be taken as their inability to handle the changes brought on by darkness. They have not developed wisdom, but have instead become crazier, ending up on my autopsy table."
"The occurrence of these types of people does not display an increasing trend with age; the number of mutations failures remains consistent generation by generation."
"This proves that this dark radiation is not a reliable method of mutation artificially selected, it's rather crude and lacks sophistication. This indicates that the person who arranged this dark radiation doesn't possess a profound professional knowledge and doesn't understand the advancement of their technological means. There has been no progress for years."
"If their technological expertise is particularly primitive, it just proves the power of the unrefined and unprocessed energy, or it's also possible that the energy source is very close and easy to obtain. Therefore, they don't need to use it efficiently, and still achieve decent outcomes."
"Water circulation is the key," said Scarecrow Jonathan Crane. "The fear I first used to evoke in the hearts of Gothamites through special chemicals in rainwater should have originated from the dark radiation brought by the metal. One of the manifestations of this radiation is water circulation, and the best way to disrupt the water circulation is to affect the groundwater."
Pamela leaned with both hands on the experimental table, looking at a giant Gotham map.
"Without a doubt, the source is underground. Actually, I think the source of Dark Power is not pre-set artificially, it's more like a natural phenomenon that exists somewhere in the underground of Gotham. Some people have utilised it, and probably received revelations from it, which led them to do what they have."
"Why would you say so?" asked Shiller, who was standing beside her.
"Just a hunch," Pamela replied with a sigh, then turned to Shiller to ask: "Professor, you haven't yet told us about this so-called Dark God Barbados, what's his story?"
"Is it relevant to this?"
"I think it is."
Shiller simply narrated to everyone in the room about the tale of Barbados, no one questioned the source of this information, nor did they care. Lex, who was leaning back in a chair, said,
"This loyal dog of the World Forge could not have fostered rebellious thought just before it devoured its master. As far as I know, a beast like that must have been scheming for a long time. Perhaps the conspiracy was hatched even before he had turned against his master."
Meanwhile, Bruce, one hand on the experimental table, standing at the other end, speculated, "I guess, unknowingly, some other stuff was added into the cosmos created by the World forge."
Pamela turned to him: "Gotham should not have existed, right?"
She looked back at the map and said: "If it's as the tale goes, the World Forge would put the good universes onto the table and throw the bad ones away, then why would a universe containing Gotham be placed onto the table? It's an obvious flaw in an otherwise perfect product."
"Unless this flaw is hidden under the glaze," Bruce sighed and said, "During the process of forging the world by the World Forge, a small amount of Dark Source was added in, buried somewhere underground on the East Coast. Then when the world was included into the cosmos, humans, starting to explore what was beneath the earth, would eventually discover this darkness."
"The first ones to discover the darkness became believers," Lex added, "They expanded this darkness continuously, pumped it into the city being built, like the impurities in the porcelain gradually appearing on the glaze, the city turned into a small, inconspicuous crack on a wholesome piece of porcelain."
"One day, he will break these cracks all at once, shatter all the porcelain pieces, turning everything into his food, swallowed into his belly."
The room fell silent for a few seconds, then applause echoed. Everyone turned to look at Shiller, who was clapping.
Shiller stopped his applause, not to interrupt their continued discussion, but he was still thinking that the plot in a comic book is ultimately different from the real world. In the real world, everything needs a rational explanation, you can't just create a setting out of thin air, and even when there is a setting, the geniuses in this world will undoubtedly try to trace it back to the origin and find out the whole truth.
The so-called know-it-all Seers can only know the setting, which makes those who can infer a truly logical reason through subtle clues appear to be truly wise, even if they don't know the setting.
The privileged information from transmigrators does not make Shiller feel superior, but the wisdom of these geniuses gives him the satisfaction of witnessing miracles time and time again.
"But he does not lack vulnerabilities," Lex displayed a cold smile, "He has to figure out a way to maintain these cracks, or provide power to enlarge these cracks, to accomplish his plan of breaking them someday."
"Where does the power come from? There must be a channel, right?" Pamela squinted her eyes and asked, "City builders were able to use the Dark Power, so why can't Wayne, who is currently the biggest city builder, do the same?"
Bruce chuckled, then brought out a test tube from behind him, instantly attracting everyone's attention because that test tube contained a liquified darkness flowing continuously.
"He didn't say I couldn't do it. In fact, he has been more generous in approving budgets than I thought."