Chapter 2916: Prince Jade (Part 1)

The Joker corresponding to brick Batman did not disappoint the Shillers, as he was also a natural at assembling bricks and, unlike Batman, who preferred an orderly method of construction, the Joker was more adept at using the brick cubes for artistic creation.

He wasn't a modernist supporter, but he didn't like overly complex Gothic styles either. If anything, he was committed to combining naturalism with Bauhaus style, which sounded quite mad.

But he really did it. Maybe it was also because the base that the Shillers obtained indeed had a unique geographical advantage—a staggered jungle, which was perfect for some bold architectural structure experiments.

The Shillers unanimously decided against high towers—they sought more flat and spacious personal space, or in human terms, perfect large flats that fully met human living needs.

Due to some insurmountable forces, high tower structures had certain flaws, such as important personality traits like arrogance that often floated to the top and mostly did not have very spacious living spaces.

Arrogance had a two-story loft bedroom, but anyone who has lived in a duplex knows all too well how uncomfortable such a structure is to live in. It's not too bad if it's a villa with a yard, but crammed into an ordinary building, it's a disaster.

The Shillers had longed for a large flat, but the high tower could only be stacked upwards and had basically no way to expand sideways, so they decided to realize their dream at the Battleworld base.

The Joker didn't just construct a block building; he cleverly used the difference in cliff elevation to build a huge brick cliff villa composed of twelve interleaved octagonal levels.

Except for the one or two edges facing the cliff, the remaining edges were all floor-to-ceiling windows, and nearly every Shiller with an independent body was able to get a perfect, spacious room with a view.

Gazing out of the bedroom window was an endless green ocean, where countless ancient plants glinted under the sunlight. When the wind blew, waves of lush greenery swept in, and the excessively vibrant blue sky gave this greenery a layer of coolness. By sunset, it turned into a vivid, fervent red.

Sitting at the desk by the window, Arrogance watched the energetically dancing minifigures, nodding nonchalantly as if he was earnestly listening to the conditions proposed by the Joker, but it seemed his mind had been gone for a while.

For a recent period, his situation had completely swapped with Greed's; for the past few years, Arrogance had been terribly idle.

Gotham might have been in bad shape, but it didn't really concern him, as most of the time Arrogance's life was a predictable path from the manor to school and back again.

Though the oddly-shaped students were a headache, when it came to workload, Arrogance couldn't compare to Greed, who was always busting a gut for Earth.

His routine was consistent: classes from Monday to Friday, grading on Saturdays, Sunday mornings spent drinking coffee and writing papers, Sunday afternoons relaxing with colleagues at the clubhouse.

Only very occasionally would he venture into the rainy night with an umbrella on a Friday or Sunday evening, invited to investigate a mysterious murder case.

Meanwhile, at that time, Greed was juggling S.H.I.E.L.D. reimbursement forms in one hand and Hydra's evil plans in the other, pacifying one after the other, cheating and ambushing, with his Lightning Five-Chain Whip, showing the Cosmic Sorcerer what a real underhanded move was every day.

But as the saying goes, it's only a matter of time before you reap what you sow.

Greed had now accomplished a great deed; he had essentially taken care of all the trouble on Marvel Earth, and there wasn't much trouble in the universe, most of which required time to make progress.

The superheroes were pretty much pacified by him, except for a few terminally ill ones; there weren't any major issues mentally, and they could even shoot a documentary themed on bickering without actually fighting in the process of joking with each other.

But Arrogance was encountering some troubles; the rare economic depression completely broke the routine of his teaching life. He had to figure out a way to make some extra money and also deal with various complaints about life dissatisfaction around him.

It just so happened that during this downturn, both he and Bruce saw the possibility of completely changing Earth's structure through external pressure, so he also had to plot that, leaving him busy from dawn to dusk lately.

So when he finally had the time to lean back in his chair, drinking coffee while looking at the scenery, it didn't matter much what was said around him.

Greed saw the expression on his face and knew he was physically present but his soul wasn't, so he had to pick up the Joker to discuss things in detail elsewhere.

Most of the other Shillers were visiting the house; truth be told, not all of the Morbids liked living in the basement—it was just that there was really no space left in the high tower, and it was a bit dangerous up there, so they squeezed into the Abyss.

Manipulation really liked the first-floor bedroom, as it wasn't so high and was almost level with the canopy. The angle of the sunlight entering was just right, leaving mottled tree shadows in the spacious room, softly drifting about, and the first thing he did when he moved into the bedroom was to organize his wardrobe.

The other Morbid traits generally wouldn't choose separate rooms, mostly pairing up in twos. Worth mentioning is that Moonlight returned to where he belonged, staying with the Morbids again.

The personalities from the Magic Side had taken over the top-floor library; although books made of blocks were really not worth reading, the atmosphere of discussion and study here was very thick. The Bishop thought this was the life he should have, and if he knocked on Nya's door again, he'd be a dog.

Greed put the Joker back in the hamster cage, waiting for the next time in the dungeon to meet other Jokers to pack and send them over.

He sat down opposite Arrogance, who still hadn't come back to reality, so he began browsing his own chat interface, which in fact belonged to all the Shillers.

The unique thing about Shiller was that they were actually one person, and the vast majority of people who knew him couldn't tell what personality traits he had, which meant that apart from a few individuals, many people couldn't send targeted messages, and they would simply fill in "Shiller" in the recipient field of the emails.

So their so-called private chat interface was actually a group where the personality traits could see all emails sent to the name "Shiller".

Greed found many interesting things in it, only he had been too busy to look at them before. The first thing he saw was an email marked as urgent.

As soon as I opened it, it turned out to be from Green Lantern Hal.

Hal from the Schiller Universe ran into a little problem.

As everyone knows, the Green Lantern Corps is a collective, so it's impossible to assemble all Green Lanterns into one team, or it would be complete chaos. Therefore, the designation 'Green Lantern team' mainly refers to the Earth Green Lanterns, most of whom are Hal Jordan.

Also well-known is that, in most works involving the Green Lantern, Hal faces a very awkward situation, which is that his ring runs out of power.

Typically, when the Green Lantern ring runs out of power depends on the needs of the plot, whenever the editors don't want Hal to be involved in the storyline, that's when they'll say his ring has run out of power. So, this is completely a metaphysical problem.

Once the ring runs out of power, it has to go back to the Lantern Furnace to recharge. Hence, Green Lantern Hal participating in Battleworld faces a more awkward situation than other superheroes.

When Iron Man's battle armor runs out of power, he can still hammer on the Ark Reactor, but the Green Lanterns can't just create a Lantern Furnace—they run out of power, and all they can do is go their separate ways home.

Green lantern energy has a magical quality that's different from other types of energy, which is the ability to create objects, meaning it can turn things constructed from Green Lantern energy into physical entities.

The Green Lanterns appeared in a desert and, looking at the harsh environment around them, naturally thought to quickly build a shelter, so they all started busily constructing it.

After the house was built, they realized that their power was limited and once depleted, they would have to go offline to recharge. Though they could always come back online at any time, making the trip was quite troublesome.

Some diligent Green Lanterns who hadn't been lazy with their work were already running low on energy and were discussing whether to go back and recharge first.

Hal from the Schiller Universe wasn't very clear on the situation of his counterparts from other universes, still thinking that everyone was more or less in the same boat. He casually pulled out two pieces of Green Lantern energy stone and handed them to the Green Lanterns who were running out of power.

So, what is the situation with Hal from the Schiller Universe now?

Let's just say, if the Little Blue People were the Emperor, then Hal would currently be the equivalent of the Prime Minister, a Grand General, the Head of the Six Doors, and the Commander of the Imperial Secret Police. He shouldn't be called the Green Lantern; he should be called the Green Lantern Equal King.

The only universal project that Arrogance was involved in and initiated—the Green Lantern energy theft plan—was going quite smoothly. A few years passed, and Hal, as the Ion Lantern, had already amassed great power and began using the stockpiled Green Lantern energy to trade with various civilizations in the cosmos.

Being in the position, he did what he had to do. Over the years, aside from engaging in the revolutionary work in Mexico, Hal was basically aligning forces of different civilizations throughout the cosmos, making big deals.

Since it all came down to business, you couldn't expect this Hal to have any reverence for Green Lantern energy, so when he casually handed out the Green Lantern energy stones, it was more or less like handing out cigarettes before discussing business.

But the other Green Lanterns weren't like that.

The younger Green Lanterns were generally still at the stage of diligently maintaining cosmic peace and believed firmly in the Green Lantern oath.

The older Green Lanterns may have learned their lessons, but they knew better than anyone that the Emotional Spectrum was an important force they relied on to survive and protect their homes. So, no matter how foolish the Little Blue People were, as long as they controlled the technique to extract the Spectral Energy, one had to bow down under their eaves.

But Hal Jordan from the Schiller Universe was just too unique.

Compared to the Little Blue People, Schiller found him first, and compared to Schiller's setup, the approach of the Little Blue People seemed insignificant. This Hal Jordan had never been fooled by universal peace.

Towards Green Lantern energy, his initial attitude was similar to Schiller's, considering it merely an important resource.

Later, he was dragged by Green Arrow to Mexico, and he gained a deeper understanding of certain matters.

He realized that revolution was not a dinner party, and that it was impossible to properly manage the cosmos with the Little Blue People and their ilk—who held the guns but lacked the ideology to guide these dangerous weapons—making it fundamentally impossible to maintain cosmic peace.

Therefore, the only way to ensure cosmic peace was to hold the most important resources in one's own hands.

The years spent in Mexico made Hal give up illusions prematurely, so even though he hadn't experienced any Green Lantern Corps crises, he was clearly aware that putting aside anything to collaborate with others was not as good as holding the gun himself.

A revolution that swept through the Americas changed everyone caught in the storm but blew them in different directions, to stand on different grounds.

Green Arrow Oliver became a true liberator, hence he chose to let go; Superman Clark saw himself as a guardian of the land, dedicated to carrying out the justice of the food; Lex Luther was a red pragmatist, who only used the ideology as a weapon to achieve his own goals.

And Hal Jordan, the "champion of willpower" in the Justice League whose personality wasn't too conspicuous, inevitably embarked on a path of green dominance, contrasting with the red hegemony.

Hal Jordan of the Schiller Universe resembled a powerful minister more than a hero.

If every Green Lantern had to have their unique code name, then perhaps Hal's would be—"Prince Jade".