amaotonovel Chapter 4627 Prelude (Part 2)
Chapter 4627 Prelude (Part 2)
Chapter 4627 Prelude (Part 2)
Thomas didn't give Bruce a friendly look, first glaring at him, but then Martha glared back. Thomas cleared his throat, walked over, and patted Bruce on the shoulder: "Don't do that again. Otherwise, your mother and I won't be able to take you away."
Bruce didn't argue, he just smiled at him. Thomas said, "Considering that the Justice League in the multiverse isn't too keen on seeing you lately, you'd better not go to the real world. Just stay in your mother's mental world; she'll take good care of you."
“Of course, of course I want to too.” Bruce took Martha’s hand. “But I can’t stay in Mom’s mental world for too long, and my thoughts will also wear down her spirit. Let’s go to the Battle Realm.”
"Can spiritual entities also go to the Battle Realm?"
"It shouldn't have been possible, but don't I have some acquaintances in the fighting world?"
So Thomas and Martha arrived at the Battle Realm teleporter. They stepped inside. And as they entered the Battle Realm, Bruce appeared. Martha went over to shake his hand, but touched nothing.
"Oh, don't worry, I'm a spirit now. It's actually an illusion, it doesn't have a physical existence, but I can still move around with difficulty."
"Is this really not going to have any impact?" Martha asked worriedly. "Or maybe we should..."
"It's okay, Mom. You and Dad go back first. I need to go to the office to say hello to an old friend, and I'll be there soon."
Martha left, glancing back every few steps. Bruce then went to the Battle Realm Administrator's office. As soon as he entered, the entire office erupted in cheers, and crumpled paper and paper airplanes were thrown at him.
"What should I call you? The greatest crisis in the multiverse?" the Beyonder shouted. "You've really messed things up this time!"
“It’s not any bigger than what you guys broke into.” Bruce said, turning his head to look at the wall next to him. There was a circular area on the wall that was a different color from the surrounding walls.
"Stop looking. That was caused by the greatest crisis in the multiverse," the Beyonder said irritably. "The Creator created you two because he thought the administrator's job was too easy."
"And greed?"
“He won’t be here for a while,” the Transcendent said, shaking his head as he sat down. Greed entered shortly afterward, but he wasn’t using Schiller’s body; he was using Neog Sohip’s.
“My God, you have no idea how hard it is to escape from Charles’s clutches!” Greed exclaimed almost immediately. “I’ve pleaded and begged, even bringing up Eric and several other statues…”
"Did you sneak out?"
“Of course. We can't let the other personality traits find out, otherwise they won't stay in the tower.” Greed shook his head. “Are you alright?”
“What could possibly happen to me?” Bruce said. “But I did manage to catch a big fish outside the Origin Wall.”
"What happened? Who did you manage to rescue?"
They were both at the desk, elbows propped on the surface, leaning forward. Bruce glanced around, then said somewhat furtively, "Perpetual Papetuah!"
"Really?!" Greed exclaimed in shock. "It's directly the Goddess of Creation? Didn't you encounter any inverted beings?"
"No, I originally thought it would be the upside-down man who came, since I had done business with him before. But I didn't expect a big one to come."
“My goodness, now you’ve got some work to do,” Greed said. “But you have to be careful, that guy is strong. I’ll send you the information later.”
"What are you two doing here?" the Transcendent asked. "Did you two plan this all along?"
“That’s not entirely true,” Bruce said. “This whole thing wasn’t a pre-arranged plan, but we’ve wanted to go outside the Origin Wall for a while now. He even gave me some information about what exists outside the Origin Wall before, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to find the Upside-Down Man.”
"So what are you after?" the Beyonder asked. "Just to find some work for the administrators of the neighboring universe?"
"How could that be? Our two universes are inextricably linked, sharing weal and woe. It's not enough for me to develop here alone. Pride simply won't budge. What else can I do if I don't consult with Bruce?"
“I have doubts about the word ‘development’.” The Transcendent sat down again.
“Alright, let’s discuss the matter concerning the Goddess of Creation,” Greed said. “Using her power is indeed like asking a tiger for its skin, but for those of us in this line of work…”
Greed paused abruptly, and Bruce gestured for him to continue. Greed's words took a sharp turn: "But in our line of work, we still need to actively absorb experience and lessons learned, and learn from our seniors..."
Bruce noticed him staring intently behind him. He turned around and saw a pair of blue eyes.
“Go on, what happened to the Goddess of Creation?” Anatoli asked, arms crossed. “What are your plans?”
"Well... there's no plan. But... I do want a budget..." Greed began to stammer.
Bruce watched Anatoly walk into the room and sit down, and asked with some confusion, "Who is this?"
Greed then remembered that the faces of the doctor and nurse in his memory had been deliberately blurred to prevent mind-reading abilities from seeing them directly. Bruce might know of the doctor and nurse's existence, but he didn't know what they looked like. While the entire multiverse was gossiping about Lucifer and Anatoly's messy affair, Bruce and Earth were still hanging on the wall. He didn't even get a piece of the story.
Greed felt a pang of regret. So, he gave Bruce a wink. The two walked together to the coffee machine. Just as Bruce opened his mouth to ask, Greed shook his head, flicked him with his gray mist, and sent him a whole compressed file.
This compressed file is the complete version, without removing the parts related to Schiller. Therefore, it's exceptionally long and complex. Even at Bruce's reading speed, it took him quite a while to read it.
But he didn't even have time to finish reading. Just then, the office door was flung open with a bang. Lucifer, flapping his wings, stormed in angrily.
"Anatole!!! How dare you say I drank with Constantine?! And what's with Reed?! How did he know about you and me..."
“What did I do to you?” Anatoli asked.
This completely interrupted Lucifer's chanting. He slammed his fist on the desk: "You lied to me, yet you use Constantine to accuse me. And in the process, you made a new friend. Reed Richards! He almost blew my wing out of me!"
“It wasn’t for me,” Anatoly said casually.
Everyone present was stunned. The Beyonder stared wide-eyed at Anatoly. Greed also looked on in disbelief. Bruce, who had just finished processing that huge amount of information, was about to exclaim when Greed covered his mouth.
Everyone's feeling right now is the same – how dare you?!
Greed had lost all interest in watching the spectacle. He took a deep breath, walked over, and pulled Anatoly outside: "Are you crazy? How could you do this..."
"What do you mean?"
“This will hurt him deeply.” Greed’s expression turned serious. “You know perfectly well…”
“Acharya. That’s why I don’t want him to know I’m back.” Anatoli’s expression was also serious. “Because if he knew, I would have to push him away this way.”
"Then why did you..."
“You erased your memories, that’s why you don’t know,” Anatoly said, looking into her greedy eyes. “And you can’t know anyway.”
Greed took a deep breath. He shook his head and said, "Whatever we're planning, there's definitely no such element. You would never agree to do anything at the cost of hurting your friend."
“This is the gentlest approach I could take,” Anatoly said, looking somewhat helpless. “I didn’t even bring up those old stories about hell with him.”
"There's more to the story?!"
"Why do you think that when I first met Lucifer, who represents arrogance, the commotion I caused was less than that caused by Bruce and arrogance? How do you think Hell was emptied?"
Greed was dumbfounded. Did he not know the commotion Bruce and Pride had caused? But then again, it made sense. Lucifer was the epitome of Pride; the word itself seemed to have been created for him. But Anatoly wasn't Batman; he had plenty of strength and cunning. If these two clashed, even God would have a headache.
Greed went through the timeline again. When Anatole first met Lucifer using his body, he was filled with resentment over the collapse of the Soviet Union and had just plucked a feather from Lucifer.
This is the information we have so far. But another piece of information we do know is that Lucifer has a really bad temper.
If he were a truly patient person, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to antagonize God. In other words, he and God are practically father and son, yet they've already reached this point. How could he possibly be friendly to someone who has plucked his feathers?
Greed then recalled that in the Sandman's story, his lover Gara was imprisoned in Hell by Lucifer. But the two had no prior grudges; Lucifer was just doing it for fun.
Furthermore, as mentioned in the comics, Lucifer instigated a massive war in Hell as soon as he arrived. The fighting was so fierce that the heavens and earth were plunged into darkness, the sun and moon obscured. He did this for no other purpose than to have fun, not even to seize the throne of Satan. This demonstrates just how wicked he is. Would he really let those who have plucked his feathers go unpunished?
How guilty must someone be to remain silent and not retaliate when insulted? Greed kept glancing into the room; why did he feel more and more that Lucifer might deserve what he got?
After reviewing the entire timeline, Bruce naturally deduced this as well. He pulled Lucifer aside and asked, "What have you been doing?"
"What? What did I do? Why don't you ask him..."
“I know you.” Bruce gave him a look that said, “Stop messing around.” “If you weren’t guilty, would you have put up with this?”
Lucifer opened his mouth, but finding himself unable to refute, he became angry and embarrassed, shoved Bruce away, crossed his arms, and leaned against the wall without saying a word.
Greed, who had approached, gave Bruce a wink. Bruce went to find Anatoly. Anatoly was clearly pleased with him, after all, he was the Gotham Batman he had saved.
Bruce wasn't quite sure of his stance. But Anatoly quickly walked over, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Hanging those guys on the Origin Wall is a good idea. But the process was a bit rough. You should know something about cosmology, right? Actually, you didn't need to use the Dark Realm's portal back then. That was too dangerous; there were better methods..."
Greed grabbed Lucifer, who was trying to rush over, narrowed his eyes at him, and said, "I advise you to confess now, or don't blame me for making a big fuss."
"Tch, your approach doesn't work on me..."
“I know where Gabriel is.”
Lucifer closed his eyes tightly: "What does he have to do with me? He can be wherever he wants."
“Admit it, Lucifer. Everyone in your life drifts away from you. You’re always powerless to hold onto them,” Greed said, looking at him. “Anatole lied to you, but in the end, he came back to you. Didn’t he?”
(End of this chapter)