Chapter 58: World within the Ring_1

"Later, you should deliver this report to Mrs. Felton at the Academic Affairs office. As for the club related matters, we'll organize them after the final exams. I suppose the students don't have that much leisure time to deal with these things now."

With files in his arms, Evans nodded and said, "Indeed, almost everyone is studying hard, even those who used to skip classes are now frequently visiting the library."

Shiller flipped through his desk, then handed him a stack of papers saying, "Though I've told you that every part of the book is key, but I believe at your current level, memorizing the entire book may seem like a pipe dream. These are the scope of the research topics. Have them finish it as soon as possible..."

As he spoke, Bruce knocked on the door. Evans said, "Then I won't disturb you, Professor, I'll arrange everything as quickly as possible."

After Bruce came in, he naturally found a chair and sat down. Shiller was tidying up the teaching materials on his desk while he asked him, "Have you finished your revision?"

"Of course, it's not that much." Bruce was quite proud of his own intelligence and memory.

"You'd better make sure your thesis can pass, or else I'll call your butler... what's his name again?"

"Um, Alfred, professor, my butler's name is Alfred."

"Oh right, if you fail this exam, I'll give your butler Alfred a call."

Bruce paused for a while and said, "Alright, maybe you should give me some more materials..."

He had a subtle feeling that Shiller's indifferent 'call-your-parents' attitude made him feel like a child, which he resented. But upon imagining this scene, Bruce decided he'd better go back and hit the books some more.

"What are you planning to do during the holiday?"

"I have a lot of things to do, as you know. What about you?"

"The chief physician at Arkham Mental Hospital called me yesterday. We are old classmates. He's swamped with work and invited me over to help. I plan to take two students over for an internship."

"Oh? Who are you planning to take?"

"I've already spoken with Falcone, Evans is definitely going, his results are pretty impressive, now he's the top of the class. As for the other, I haven't decided."

Bruce was about to speak when Shiller interjected, "But it's definitely not you, your grades are terrible."

Bruce shrugged. He said, "The situation at the East pier hasn't settled down yet. Without the Edward Family, it's a bit chaotic over there. I've been busy at night recently, so has Gordon."

"I reckon your nocturnal activities involve more than just your heroic deeds. How's that heart-stealing female thief?"

Bruce said, "Right now I am busy only with my other half's affairs, Selina's close friend Maggie hasn't been feeling well recently, she hasn't been active."

"However…" Bruce smiled, "Our justice-serving lawyer, Mr. Harvey, seems to be making some moves."

Shiller raised an eyebrow and said, "He's come to fancy a girl from Gotham? Now that's rare, who has such immense charm?"

"Christine, it's Christine."

"The cheerleading team captain? Isn't she a fan of Batman?"

"The former principal was prosecuted again because Harvey helped Christine testify against him. This time, because of Harvey's defense, the old principal had no excuse for bail or medical parole. He was sentenced to 137 years, he'll probably never get out."

"As you know, in court, being eloquent and revealing your manica can surely gain a lady's gratitude and admiration."

Touching his eyebrows, Shiller remarked, "Tsk, our lawyer really has quite the good fortune."

After Bruce left, Shiller returned to his apartment. He was still chatting with the Green Lantern in his mind.

He was very experienced with such situations, because the current Green Lantern's state was exactly the same as Little Spider's when he first acquired his superpowers.

Apparently, he had obtained the Green Lantern Ring from that alien.

Compared to Peter, Hal was more mature, after all, he was older and even had a pilot's license. His mental quality was much better than that of a high school student like Little Spider. So even though he was chatting with his online friends excitedly, he didn't reveal anything about the alien and the magical ring.

Shiller chatted with him for a while, then clicked on his avatar and found that the Green Lantern's power was indeed replicable.

Shiller clicked on 'replicate', but unexpectedly this time it was delayed for quite a while. There was no prompt from the system either.

After a while, he suddenly discovered that the symbiont in his brain was emitting a slight hum.

He called out for the Symbiont multiple times but received no response. After a while, a system notification finally came:

'the world within the ring is now loaded.'

As Shiller remained puzzled, the Symbiont suddenly transmitted a series of excited brain waves. Then Shiller felt something new in his fingers. He looked down and saw a silver-gray, antique ring.

Shiller felt very strange. He knew the system's ability replication shouldn't be able to duplicate an object outside the body. Even if it replicated the Green Lantern Ring of the Green Lantern, it should be green. So why did it turn gray?

Then, the Symbiont gave Shiller the answer.

The Green Lantern is a very special hero, with the vast majority of his powers coming from the Green Lantern Ring. This includes constructing weapons from green energy, generating a force field of green lantern energy, teleportation ability, and healing abilities. These are all special abilities granted to him by the Green Lantern Ring.

Thus, what the system replicated from the Green Lantern's abilities also needed a carrier.

Shiller did not have a Green Lantern Ring, so the system turned the symbiotic gray fog into the carrier of these abilities.

'So if you are the carrier, what is the use of this ring?' Shiller asked.

'It's not useful, but pretty,' replied the Symbiont.

'Okay,' said Shiller.

He glanced at his finger. The ring was actually quite simple - just a silver-gray ring with wave patterns. It didn't look out of the ordinary. The only odd thing was that it was on the ring finger.

'So how do I use this ability?' asked Shiller to the Symbiont.

'Think about it in your head.'

Shiller closed his eyes and concentrated. He quickly found himself enveloped by grey mist within his field of vision. After a moment of white light, he found himself on an island shrouded in gray mist.

The island was not large. Shiller took his gaze to the edge, where he could see its limits, and looked down.

Below the island was an endless, enormous city.

The city and the island were still shrouded in layers of hazy gray mist. The city was absurdly large, with all the buildings appearing in bizarre shapes. Occasionally, Shiller could see giant creatures of indiscernible shape appearing and disappearing in the city.

This was an island floating above a giant city.

Shiller started to recall the world within the Green Lantern's ring. In the comics, the Green Lantern's ring houses an independent world where the Lantern has trapped his enemies by shrinking them inside it. The Lantern himself was also once trapped in the jade dunes within his ring.

It seemed that even the bearer of the ring itself couldn't fully control their internal world. Like Shiller, his consciousness could only stay within the island, and the enormous city below him couldn't be seen in detail, nor could it be controlled.

Fortunately, the island seemed to have no connection to the city below, and the large figures suddenly appearing and disappearing in the mist didn't seem to realize something new was overhead.

Shiller was surprised to find that it seemed like he was physically present in this world. In this world, he could still communicate with the Symbiont.

He disconnected his consciousness and returned to reality. Checking his watch, he saw time was flowing normally.

This suggested that the world was like a separate refuge. Theoretically, if he encountered a threat he couldn't resist, he could enter this gray mist world and wait for the crisis to pass.

Shiller thought that the enormous city below the lonely island, and those immense figures that occasionally appeared and disappeared in the gray mist, must hide enormous secrets and dangers. It wouldn't be a good idea to linger there. Unless his life was in danger, it would be best to avoid this strange and bizarre world within the ring.

Late in the day, Mrs. Felton from the Registrar's Office came by. She was originally coming to check with Shiller on teaching expenses for the next semester. But being quite an enthusiastic woman, she also informed Shiller that their new principal had just been discharged from the hospital and might return to his office tomorrow.

She subtly reminded Shiller, 'he seemed to be in a hurry, probably planning something big.'

As Mrs. Felton had said, Shiller received a phone call from Principal Sheldon that night. Sheldon seemed to have learned this time. He didn't demand Shiller complete any tasks as he previously had, but instead gave him vague encouragements to work hard. Finally, he told Shiller that there might be changes to some faculty positions at Gotham University. He had invited some old friends he had known from Princeton to introduce experts and professors in order to form a new faculty team at Gotham University.

It seemed he wanted to make Shiller feel pressured. After all, in academia, the resources a professor has access to depends on the university's emphasis on their subject. Shiller was indeed a prized asset of Gotham University. His credentials were impressive, so impressive, in fact, that some out-of-state students had enrolled at Gotham University specifically for him.

However, if more world-renowned experts and scholars were to join the university, organize their own labs, and lead students in world-class research projects, it wasn't certain whether the school resources would still favor the psychology department.

Shiller didn't initially have any objections to this. After all, he hoped Gotham University could become better, adding to his own educational track record.

That is, until he saw Victor Fries's name on the list of the new professors hired by Principal Sheldon.