Peter found himself back in the Foggy Space again.
"What on earth is going on?" He asked, his voice filled with confusion, "Hasn't the universe been rebooted? Shouldn't I be put back into the universe? Or shouldn't I disappear and be replaced by a new self?"
"You should have, but you died for the others," came the reply.
Peter cocked his head, trying his best to decipher these cryptic words, but to no avail.
He sighed deeply and said, "You can just say outright that you saved me. I accept your kindness gratefully, thank you."
The Black Sun remained silent.
"Listen, I'm not implying that you're the kind of person who always expects to be repaid when helping others, but I believe…" Peter placed a hand on his chest, turned it outwards and then continued, "I personally believe, that it's justified to be rewarded for doing good deeds, and you did, right?"
"I'm still alive, and all the beings in the universe are as well. Regardless of your purpose, you made their conditions better…So, my meaning is, is there anything I can help with?"
Peter looked at the black sun with genuine eyes.
If his gaze could have been sharper to pierce through the strange patterns and see the inside, he would see someone in a lab coat pounding the table and telling his colleagues, "See! What is maximum score! What is an excellent graduate!"
Seeing the silent Black Sun, Peter sighed wearily and said, "Okay, even if I can't help, where should I go? No matter how good it is here, I can't stay here for too long, I should be doing something, right?"
All of a sudden, Peter noticed his head was filled with all kinds of knowledge which seemed like an explanation of the current situation.
Firstly, he was told about the basic principles of the Universe Reboot. In short, it was not an ordinary hotfix but more like a transition from a beta version to a public release.
This meant that the new settings replaced the old ones not by modifying a few lines of code, but by completely rewriting it, even changing the coding method entirely.
As a result, even though all beings in the universe still existed in the same way, how they were existing was fundamentally different from before.
And the reason why Peter was still alive was because their character settings, those who had contributed to the birth of the new era from the old, retained their original configuration, which was now stored in a temporary folder, this mysterious Gray Mist Space.
However, due to limited storage space, and in actuality, this transition only affected the Prime Universe's Earth, the temporary files stored in the Fog Realm only contain the Earth of Universe 616.
Up until this point, Peter was able to roughly understand what was going on. But things beyond that confused him, as this transcended what most characters in the comics could understand.
Bruce becoming Spider Man was because the situation was critical, and Peter voluntarily gave Bruce the power of Spider Man. It was also Peter who influenced White Can to blow up the universe engine, which led to the Big Reboot.
Although the Universe Engine didn't have that much power and was just a plot device, now that things had come to this, the entire script of the events leading up to the Big Reboot had been anchored, and Batman was now Bruce Wayne.
But Earth No.1 still needed a Batman. Now that Bruce Wayne had become Spider Man, who would be Batman?
Someone might say, why not make Peter Parker Batman?
Firstly, considering Peter Parker's mental state, the probability of him becoming Batman wasn't non-existent but extremely low.
Of course, some might argue if he can become Spider Man, why not Batman?
Spider Man was bitten by a spider to become Spider Man. Did Batman get bitten by a bat to become Batman? Obviously not. Batman dressed up as a bat solely because he was mentally ill.
Peter's a cheerful and outgoing young man. The chances of him becoming an exemplary student of Gotham are much higher than his chances of becoming Batman.
Even if thrown into Gotham, he wouldn't mysteriously don a bat suit, imprint bat symbols on all his equipment, and play games with the lunatics from Arkham Psychiatric Hospital.
Instead, it's more likely that he would immerse himself in Gotham University to pursue a second degree, then find a job after graduating.
So, it's best to let Bruce Wayne be Batman and Peter Parker be Spider Man.
But now Bruce is already Spider Man, possessing all of Spider Man's abilities. Regardless of his willingness to revert, Marvel has transitioned to a new version, and the old configuration files are no longer loadable.
Simply put, the old Earth 616 currently stored in the Fog Realm can't be placed into any universe in Marvel anymore, much like how you can't run a 16-bit program on a 64-bit system.
And if it's not returned, a program will remain a program. No one could manipulate the backend. Marvel's admin can't do it. Neither can DC's.
So, who can modify the backend?
Of course, it's Shiller who had preserved the configuration files in advance.
Now that Marvel has made such a large-scale movement, it must be launching a series of major events in succession, such grand events that could help promote the hype associated with this version update to its peak.
Like how the first major event following the launch of a game must be executed properly, otherwise, the freshness that players feel towards a new game or a new version would be wasted.
The product manager of Marvel's Life Court Adam proposed this requirement to Shiller, who just weighed his salary in his hand, thought for a while and said, "Let's do a crossover."
He went to Lucifer and explained the situation. Lucifer also felt it was a bit difficult, especially the problem of Earth being a stumbling block in the Universe 616.
Pulling Bruce Wayne back wouldn't change the spider-related abilities file in his body, so letting him go back with his abilities would require a copyright fee. But if you don't let him return, then Earth No.1 without Batman would have to be rebooted, wouldn't that be a loss for him?
Thinking about it, Lucifer went to God with Shiller's calculations. God did the math, thinking this cross-promotion was a surefire profitable deal.
Consider this, he didn't have to plan it. The chief planner for this collaboration was either Shiller, the group handling Battleworld, or Adam from the Court of Life.
All these people belong to the Marvel faction and are paid by Marvel, while Lucifer, the employee he sent, is his own son, a family member, there's not much issue about salary.
He didn't have to spend a dime on his side and could bask in the heat of the major reboot on the other side. God toyed with the abacus, thinking the idea was feasible.
God and Lucifer, as father and son, discussed it. They figured since things had come to this, creating a new universe was not only troublesome but also not cost-effective, it was more complete to directly link Earth No.1 in the storyline.
Lucifer thought this was a rather bold decision—Earth No.1 was not just some nameless backdrop for a major event. From the code, it was clear that this earth held significant meaning for the entire cosmos.
Earth No.1 can be regarded as DC editorial department's exploration of DC's new age comic style, and the exploration was quite successful. This weakest Batman in history helped many fans understand Batman better.
Even so, the status of this earth remained somewhat awkward thus far. Batman, devoid of his wish-fulfillment-like abilities, made it particularly challenging for the plot arrangement level of the writers.
How was a Batman who couldn't even pry open a chain lock suppose to deal with the devils of Gotham?
While this problem was interesting to contemplate, creating a reasonable story without damaging Batman's character image would either require mechanical deus ex machina, or dumbing down the opposition.
The editors chose to reduce the intensity of the Gotham villains concurrently. However, at most it only changed from a single blow destroying Gotham to blasting a building, or arranging a gun assassination, there was no significant improvement.
Meanwhile, Earth No.1 had more than just Batman, the stories of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern were also quite well-written.
Unfortunately, there weren't many characters that could be used to explore the relationship between God and ordinary people. The concept was troublesome and not liked by those readers who enjoyed seeing superheroes slaughter their way through.
Therefore, the story of Earth No.1 has been dormant for a long time. If there's no hope for a reboot of the standalone title, it's probably on the path to a slow death.
Now there's a chance to inject new life into this earth, both God and Lucifer are willing to attempt it, but they still feel this step is quite bold.
But Shiller is even bolder.
In fact, most Marvel DC crossover comics adopt a method where a crisis occurs in one universe, and the superheroes from the other side join the event. This is a classic and effective routine, proven to be reliable.
However, Shiller's proposed crossover idea is to merge the two Earths directly.
In other words, have the old Earth of the Marvel Prime Universe 616 go and merge with DC Earth One, using the DC universe as a backdrop to create an entirely new merged earth.
When Adam from the Court of Life and Lucifer got this plan, they were shocked. They really couldn't figure out who Shiller was trying to bring calamity upon.
But on careful thought, these two Earths really are like Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix, surprisingly well-matched.
Firstly, the old Earth of Marvel Prime Universe 616 has weathered many storms. Before the reboot, whenever a big event happened, eventually the crosshairs were always pointed towards the Prime Universe, if it wasn't villains punching holes to get in, it was superheroes requesting help.
The Earth of Universe 616, especially the people in New York of Universe 616, are worldly-wise. They could be dealing with an alien invasion while going work in the morning, have superheroes and zombie legions fighting during lunch, watch the collision of universes when returning home in the evening, and even witness twilight of the gods before sleep.
Although DC's style is often dubbed darker than Marvel, artistic achievement and intensity can't be generalized. Objectively and rationally speaking, while Gotham is far ahead in terms of mental state, Metropolis competes with New York only when it comes to frequency and intensity of catastrophes.
Then there's DC's Earth No.1, the beauty of this earth lies in the fact that most of its villains have been weakened. Although the settings are still classic, they have become somewhat normal along with Batman's normalcy.
In simple terms, once the feet were off the ground, the virus was shut down, and the artistic quality couldn't soar, making it slightly align the comic styles of the two sides.
New Yorkers are more accepting, while Gothamites are relatively stable, which wouldn't lead to misunderstandings, but provide an opportunity for assimilation instead.
The more both sides researched, the better they felt this was an excellent opportunity to expand their influence simultaneously, and they quickly came to an agreement.
And so, the old Earth of the Marvel Prime Universe 616, shrouded in a thick fog, flew like a meteor towards a universe in the vast disc of DC's cosmos.
The two blue planets gradually overlapped, with New York, originally located at the border of New Jersey and New York State, just about falling on Gotham and Metropolis at the easternmost part of New Jersey.
Coincidentally, New York precisely landed between the two major cities. Queens District and The Bronx, a pair of crime-ridden Sleeping Dragon and Rising Phoenix locations, fell on Gotham, and the most densely populated Brooklyn Area did the same.
The most prosperous Manhattan Area ended up in Metropolis, and Staten Island became an additional small island, floating not too far from the mouth of the Gotham River where it meets the sea.
The two earths, each with their share of trials and tribulations yet richly characteristic, successfully merged into one.
What followed was the "Battle of the Dual Cities" where one would take the stage only after the other concluded.