While sipping from her soup bowl, Natasha rolls her eyes at Shiller and asks, "What do you mean? What's this got to do with your refusal to change your appearance?"
"My appearance is an anchor I've set for myself, representing the different roles I play. It can't be changed on a whim," Shiller explains as he flips a pancake. "Even though it might seem like I don't, certain characteristics of autism are present in me. You'll notice that many with autism dislike change because they treat the things they've accepted as anchors."
"When the anchors are in place, they feel calm and relaxed. However, if the items they've treated as anchors change, it triggers feelings of anxiety and tension."
"For example, Arrogant prefers circles, hence his fixation on umbrellas. I, on the other hand, favor squares which is why you'd always see me with a patient's chart. The same applies to our appearances."
"Not to say we can't change completely, but that could lead to us becoming distracted. Providing psychological therapy to others in that state would be unprofessional."
Shiller's explanation was clear enough. In summary, he's got issues, so others didn't probe further.
"So what are you planning to do?" Lucifer sighed. "I can erase their memories from the Battleworld, but I can't modify their memories every time you make a name for yourself, can I? It would create chaos."
It was evident to Shiller that this was almost an unsolvable problem.
No matter which Shiller, his style always closely resembles that of the puppet master behind the scenes. Even his more violent personalities rarely resort to pure force to solve a problem. To Shiller, force is always the last resort.
However, this results in an issue of his grand plans inevitably involving many others. Compared to the players who use brute force, his rise to fame would be much quicker.
After all, even in a massive brawl, only about a dozen people can be involved in a massive war at a time. Only a small minority of those people would pay attention to you.
But every plan Shiller has made implicates many others. Not to mention Greed, who is renowned for his convoluted plans. Even Arrogant, who doesn't particularly enjoy making grand gestures, often entangles several factions with a single move.
Again, superheroes are not fools. Once or twice is fine, but if it happens too often, they'll realize that someone is plotting behind the scenes. They'll eventually discover Shiller's identity and figure out how to stay away from his schemes.
This world's strategy of fooling experts with stupidity always holds. The principle can be understood as such: standing still in the rain on a windless day has the least probability of being hit by a raindrop. No matter how you predict, as long as I don't move, I will be less easily targeted."
Time in the universe is fluid, and the people within it are constantly growing. They learn from their mistakes, and it's only a matter of time before Shiller's infamy spreads throughout every universe.
Since Shiller had thought about this early on, he must have already had a countermeasure. Thus, the others at the table were curious as to how he planned to continue deceiving in a situation where everyone was on guard.
Shiller gave his answer - he would no longer deceive, but blatantly rob.
"From tomorrow, the Battleworld's recharge system will be open with a limit of five games per round. Anyone who has played five games must either choose to buy a point card to stay, or get the hell out. Those who don't recharge will be kicked out immediately!"
Shiller waved his hand dismissively, "Want to enjoy the benefits of the multiverse exchange platform for free without providing me with emotional value? I'm not running a charity!"
Put another way, "I've already lost emotions, you want me to lose wealth too? Do server setups, game design, and operations cost nothing? Plenty of others want to play if you don't. If you want to play, play. If not, leave!"
Stark slapped his forehead saying, "Weren't you the one who previously criticized the universe administrators for being scammers?"
"Question the scammer, understand the scammer, become the scammer, surpass the scammer!" Shiller defiantly declared, "You're still scamming the old-fashioned way? The universe may be yours, but ultimately it belongs to the creator. You're living for others when you work, but you're living for yourself when you're off work and having fun. What's wrong with spending some money?"
"Wait on," Lucifer had a moment of realization. "You've had this planned all along, haven't you? Give them a free trial, then when they've started to get to know one another and found something they want in each other, something that could benefit themselves or their universes, then you start charging? Forcing them to continue playing?"
Shiller looked at him with a mischievous grin, "Only them?"
Lucifer and Owen were taken aback.
They only now realized that they had been duped as well.
Back when the Transcendent wanted some entertainment, Shiller had convinced him that treating the universe like a pool game wasn't that fun. Such games were fleeting and unsustainable. Instead, why not set up a platform and organize a variety of contests allowing universal contestants to participate? This way, he could enjoy the fights between them for a long time to come?
Experience shows that all sentient beings are interested in amusing activities. The Transcendent thought so too. A cosmic collision could only watch a momentary firework, whereas organizing a game could provide prolonged enjoyment. He would definitely choose a full meal over a single satisfying one.
But then Shiller made a suggestion. As the all-knowing and omnipotent being in this universe, competing with the superheroes here wouldn't mean much because you can see through time. Instead, it would be more exciting to invite unknown heroes from other worlds.
The Transcendent thought it was a good idea, but he didn't really know much about the situation outside of the major universe. Shiller immediately offered to help him establish connections.
Of course, Shiller went to communicate with Lucifer, the ultimate fun-loving character in DC.
Only after Lucifer returned to Heaven did he remember why he had originally left - Heaven was simply too, too, too, too, too boring.
For humans, a paradise where they can live forever without worrying about food and clothing and live freely without worries would naturally be considered Heaven. But angels were born with these traits. To them, Heaven is like a company.
Angels generally have no personal lives. Their everyday life involves handling daily cosmic matters, answering prayers, communicating with God, etc. Archangels are responsible for guarding the Holy City and Eden, but there's really nothing to guard here.
For Lucifer, staying in Heaven is basically like living 24/7 at his company. He grew up in the company. Going to the human world was merely for fun. After heeding Shiller's misleading words and showing off a bit, he was immediately immersed again in the tiresome and boring life of a corporate worker.
When he heard that Shiller had found another exciting thing, Lucifer almost immediately agreed. After all, God didn't have time to manage him now, and there was no harm in borrowing the souls of some superheroes.
Under Shiller's match-making, both sides agreed immediately. They found a place between the two major worlds and built a Fragmented Universe.
Since this is just for fun, it doesn't need to be too stable or complex; it just needs to be usable. After all, don't think that gods and angels aren't makeshift troupes; everyone's pretty much the same, just barely scraping by.
After establishing the basic structure, it was time to select the players. This part was mostly negotiated between Lucifer and Owen. The negotiation was essentially just random selection. Even though five or six hundred people may seem like a lot, it's insignificant in the grand scheme of the cosmos and completely fails to attract the attention of the two universe administrators.
Actually, they had planned to include more people at first, but Shiller stopped them. Now, they understood Shiller's intention: Not only to let the contestants get a taste of victory, only to reveal his hidden knife when they ran out of plans, but also to do the same to them.
Indeed, the last few days have brought a lot of joy to Lucifer and the Transcendent. The intrigue and fighting resulting from the endless combinations of sentient, intelligent life forms were truly entertaining.
Discounting Lucifer's extreme boredom, Owen too got a taste of fun. He realized for the first time the enjoyment of watching these 'circus acts'. If you were to stop him now, he would definitely refuse.
At this stage of the development, Shiller's contribution is minimal. But both Owen and Lucifer knew that if they didn't play by Shiller's rules, Shiller wouldn't let them play at all.
So they didn't oppose Shiller charging a fee. Lucifer just asked: "Are you sure people will be willing to pay to participate? It seems like they are all impatient to return."
Owen also nodded in agreement, sharing Lucifer's sentiment. He had heard many people at the camp discussing who was the hidden hand behind the scenes and how to break through the Space Stagnation to return to their own universe.
"People may not be willing at the start of the game, but now that might change." Shiller revealed a confident smile and then said, "That's why I suggested designing the game to be simple."
Everyone at the table looked surprised. Matt raised an eyebrow and responded, "That's not like you, Doctor. Isn't it usually the more complicated and difficult the game, the better?"
"Yes, in terms of the performance of the contestants, the more difficult the game, the more various situations they will demonstrate. But a simple game has another advantage: it greatly enhances the communication between contestants."
Everyone basically understood what Shiller meant. Even with just imagination, they could picture that scene.
If the game is very difficult, contestants will face a lot of psychological pressure. Even though elimination doesn't mean actual death, the terrifying death scenario will still stimulate the contestants, making them focus more on the content of the game.
But if the game difficulty is moderate and not just about violent killing games or zero-sum games where a certain number of people must be eliminated, but about being able to choose and select a mission suited to their own style, then the pressure on the contestants will be much less and they will be more relaxed.
In these conditions, people's attention would be directed towards interaction with other contestants. After all, everyone comes from a different universe so it's natural to be curious. You would ask about my universe's situation, and I would ask about your daily worries.
These exchanges will make contestants from various universes realize how different their worlds are from each other, but more often, they'll realize there are many similarities they can learn from each other.
Some are about science and technology, some are about development paths, some about organizational structures. Even those who don't care much about their own civilization would want to know what another universe would look like when different possibilities are realized.
Even the likes of crazies like the Joker would be interested in the different versions of Batman in other universes. Not to mention people who prioritize either profits or righteousness.
Five games is a reasonable number. After all, people in the Schiller team have only participated in three or four games. In other words, after one more game, their Point Cards will expire.