Everyone thought Shiller would be the first to speak, but surprisingly, it was Bruce who spoke first, and he very readily admitted that this was actually his plan from the start—the Cuckoo Plan.
"Don't look at me like that. I know the name of the plan is weird, but you can't expect me to name all the plans Bat 1, Bat 2. I would get them mixed up," he said.
"It's hard to imagine what kind of state of mind you were in to give each of your over 3000 plans an individual name," Diana mused, shaking her head.
Because everyone was a bit drunk, the conversation flowed more freely; normally the Amazon Princess wouldn't have made such a comment.
"But this actually makes it a lot easier for you to understand," Bruce stated, raising a finger. "When you hear 'cuckoo,' what do you think of?"
"A very mournful cry?" Pamela frowned, clearly not fond of this kind of bird because cuckoos in Gotham usually create ten times more disturbance than ordinary cuckoos.
"I'm afraid it's their breeding habits," Clark, who hadn't drunk enough to affect him, analyzed: "Cuckoos like to lay their eggs in other birds' nests. The cuckoo's eggs often hatch earlier than other eggs, and the chicks will break out of their shells and get food sooner."
"Different cuckoos will mimic the appearance of other species' young to numb the parent birds, letting them get fed as soon as they hatch."
"Because they hatch early, they can monopolize food for a long period of time, and thus develop faster and grow stronger. By the time the other chicks hatch, the cuckoo has already grown quite large."
"They have an innate behavior of spreading their wings and arching their back to crowd out other chicks from the nest. Cuckoos are naturally larger, and with this action, they quickly push out newly hatched chicks and cause them to fall to their deaths."
"Sounds like some alien," Lex remarked pointedly.
Clark covered his forehead with his hand, glanced at Lex, then Shiller, then back at Lex, but he still couldn't bring himself to say "Can't you learn something positive?"
"I don't think it's despicable," Clark commented: "The biggest difference between humans and wild animals is that humans have social order and moral standards, so we can rightfully condemn those who defy the order and lack morality."
"But in the bird world, they neither enjoy the benefits of social order and contracts nor adhere to any moral standards to enhance solidarity. All their habits stem from evolution, aimed at survival, so naturally, there is no distinction between good and evil."
"If anything, it seems like a survival wisdom evolved over many years, showcasing the wonders of nature."
Diana partly agreed with this view, but her reasoning was different: "In fact, if everything an animal does is for reproduction, then this breeding habit is incredibly risky."
"Not all parent birds are deceived by the cuckoo's disguise. Some of the more intelligent birds will kill the invasive cuckoo or simply starve it, waiting for it to die of hunger."
"There are also cuckoo chicks that accidentally fall and die while trying to push other chicks out of the nest or become prey for other birds of prey because they are the biggest, thus taking the disaster for other chicks."
"So it can't be called a very good breeding habit, even from an animal behavior perspective. It's peculiar, but not efficient."
After she spoke, she directed her gaze at Bruce and asked, "I guess the reason you named your plan after the cuckoo is because your actions fit their breeding habits, so what exactly did you do?"
Lex and Pamela were thoughtful because, having spent a lot of time in Gotham, they knew what Bruce had been up to lately.
"The Court of Owls," Bruce said. "We have built a new Court of Owls, and I am the biggest and strongest cuckoo chick in it."
The others all furrowed their brows.
Then, as Bruce explained, the others got a glimpse into the vastness of this plan, and they found that they couldn't describe it with any existing words—if anything, it was too trendy, an old topic.
After Lucifer had completely erased the Court of Owls, Bruce rebuilt the Court in this cosmos, led by Alberto Falcone, with members of the gangster families joining one after another.
The level of erasure by Lucifer was something Barbados would not notice, so he only thought the Court of Owls in this universe started later. But the fortunate thing was that the Bruce of this cosmos was also a lump of coal.
How powerful could the Court of Owls led by Batman be? Barbados had imagined it; he always wanted a true Batman—sane, logical, with strong execution. But often such Batman would only appear in the Light Universe, the unattainable love of his life.
Finally, a Batman completely to his liking appeared, and Barbados was delighted for a while. But soon he realized that he did not find a son for himself but invited a father home instead.
Actually, that's not quite accurate. He found himself an outstanding employee, just a bit too outstanding.
Bruce initiated the Court of Owls with the slogan that if they were going to build something, it had to be the best Court of Owls in the entire cosmos—work hard, push forward, and outwork every Owl in the universe.
When it comes to being a workaholic king, Batman declares himself second to none; he is the top overachiever among all the universes combined.
Bruce working himself and his employees to the bone was one thing, but the craziest part was that he even worked his boss to the bone.
Ever since they got such a "good" employee, Barbados never had a moment of peace; he genuinely didn't understand how Batman managed to find so much work to do.
If it was making work out of nothing, that would be one thing, but the problem was that all the tasks Batman found were actually useful: building the fundamental labyrinth, expanding the headquarters, adjusting the personnel infrastructure—each required writing a lengthy report.
And it wasn't fashionable to rely on secretarial assistance on his end—reviewing all the reports himself made Barbados's head spin.
Barbados had suggested not writing such lengthy reports every time, but Batman was very righteous and insistent, "If I don't write down every detail, who's to blame when something goes wrong?"
Moreover, he kept hinting, both openly and covertly, "Look at how you handled the invasion of the Light Universe—it was rough! How else do you think everyone else got in and you're still stuck at home? Can you achieve greatness without focusing on details? You don't even want to spare that bit of time and effort, so why don't you just go home and sell sweet potatoes?"
"Who's the boss, you or me? Whose company is it, yours or mine? Who's the work for, you or me?"
"I don't need to invade the Light Universe; I wasn't born in the dark universe in the first place. I didn't say anything about your poor start. I'm not tired of writing reports, but you find reading them tiresome? You're the worst batch I've ever led!"
Barbados had nothing to say because damned Michael actually read through all of Bruce's reports!
Barbados didn't want to go through the reports with a fine-tooth comb nor did he want to be scolded by Bruce. He figured if he could find Bruce enough work to do, he probably wouldn't have time to write those darn reports. So, he handed over the management work of several stable universes in the Light Universe to Bruce.
That worked out well. Bruce took the approach, "I'm smart, and I'm amazing," launching multiple battles on numerous fronts.
"I don't delay the tasks assigned by the organization. I also take initiative to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the employees, engage in massive production and cooperation, and maximize efficiency."
As a result, Barbados was driven crazy answering phone calls for over a month.
"Hello, boss, did you read the 13th version of the renovation blueprint for the Owl Labyrinth structure in universes No. 6 and No. 12 that I sent you just now? If you check page 681, see the diagonal line marked with a 'p'? There we plan to use the latest material infused with Dark Energy, mainly to address the load-bearing issues in the F201 area..."
"Hello, boss, did you finish reading the report on the Court of Owls in Universe No. 26 about elevating security awareness and spirit based in Gotham following the intelligence leak three days ago? Nothing major, everyone's comments are important!....The report for the second meeting has been sent to your email; please review it soon! Reply to me before 3 PM; I still have to hold a summary meeting later!"
"Boss, what about my recommendation on the industrial transformation direction for the Owl Group in Universe No. 7? Why haven't I received a reply yet?... Of course, you need to reply! What, do we just pump Dark Energy into vitamin bottles according to the Cosmic Owl's suggestion? To reduce costs and improve efficiency! Reduce costs and improve efficiency!...Reply to me as soon as you can; personnel and equipment are all waiting. A day's delay means a loss of around a million!"
"Hello, boss, you need to attend the maze completion ceremony in Universe No. 12 on Saturday morning, then immediately take a work report call from Universe No. 6 after that. The Priest from there has been trying to reach you for two weeks without getting through. Also, remember Universe No. 15 said they had issues with their prayer passages? Have you tested it since I fixed it? Hurry up and test it out so they don't ruin it again and blame it on me for not fixing it properly!"
"Hello? Boss! Hello?!... Why are you sleeping again? Aren't you supposed to be a dragon? Get up and work! Can't you wake up to the big picture of the cosmos? You don't think you're at an advantage, do you? If you started late and still don't work hard, you'll just sleep forever once someone kills you!"
Barbados swore that he really didn't want to deal with those three unfortunate beings hanging in the sky, but he truly wanted to share this genius Pope with them.
"Let's quickly introduce ourselves, quickly get to know each other, and quickly establish a Mysterious Dark Organization. You quickly register an email and phone number, then quickly contact him, and he'll quickly draw up a plan for you to conquer—or save—the world, that works too!"
But unfortunately, such enigmatic Outer Gods from nature usually have little interest in conquering or saving the world, yet Barbados suspected they were quite interested in watching him frantically reply to emails.
Barbados wasn't human, and his thinking organ didn't operate in a single-threaded manner like humans do; it actually could operate with infinite threads—but Batman was infinite upon infinite.
And this Bruce always seemed to have too much time on his hands. His plans were very effective, but from alien invasions to a garbage can being kicked over at some corner, he couldn't help but feel itched all over if he didn't fuss over them.
He liked micromanaging himself, but he insisted on dragging Barbados into it too.
Barbados wondered, if he had the ability to micromanage, would he still be stuck pupating in the dark universe?
But what could Barbados say? He could only acknowledge Batman's superior insight.