Capítulo 3149: Chapter 2297: Jin Cheng Comes to Autumn in the Evening (50)_1

It's the same old saying, "How big your heart is, that's how big your stage will be, and how big the stage is, that's how big the mouth that eats the budget will be." The larger the operation, the more convenient it is to fabricate all sorts of reasons to not only request a larger budget but also to make it harder to track the budget's actual allocation.

Bruce first confused Barbados with all sorts of reports until he was dizzy, then kept a 800,000 to 600,000 advantage over me, fueling Barbados and the Owl's ambitions. In the end, with a vast variety of complex nominal reasons, he redirected much of the dark energy for his own use.

Some might say that Barbados himself is the source of darkness, that all dark energy is part of him, so how could he not know where his own energy is being used? In fact, dark energy is not infinitely recyclable; it can be consumed. With just a few manipulations to exaggerate the losses, the energy that wasn't actually consumed can be slyly funneled into a black box, leading Barbados to believe that the missing energy was expended.

Speaking of black boxes, we must mention Constantine, but in fact, transferring the energy to Constantine still had risks, as it was unpredictable when a wandering Constantine might stumble upon the Court of Owls. Bruce adopted a more reliable method.

Previously, in the merged New City, he encountered the Supreme Magician Strange from there. Bruce told him at the time since they were not from this place, the magicians of the merged Earth were actually more secretive black boxes than Constantine.

Since the magicians from Old Earth 616 came over without their entire universe, they were effectively cut off from their source of power and, aside from the energy they stored, could not obtain new energy to use for magic.

Thus, the Strange of the merged Earth and Bruce hit it off immediately. Bruce lent the dark money he had siphoned off to the magicians of the merged Earth, and in return, they used this power to help him with his work.

The work they had to do was simple, that was to harass the magical forces of various universes, such as Hell, Spirit Realm, and Maya, with a portal opened leading to major upheavals, and afterward, some energy had to be left to prove their identities.

"Hold on, why do it this way?" Diana asked as Bruce explained, "Although Hell and the like sound evil, they're not enemies if they don't actively attack the Human World, right?"

Lex snorted coldly and said, "They will be eventually, because obviously, they won't be able to refrain from attacking the Human World, these non-human creatures are all the same."

Clark and Diana looked at each other, clearly feeling insulted, but they indeed had no grounds for rebuttal, especially Diana, who was well aware of how many times the Olympians had stirred trouble on Earth.

They looked back at Bruce, clearly because they believed Bruce would not take the plan to this step for that reason alone, although they knew that Batman was a human supremacist, he usually defended and retaliated rather than be an extremist proponent of alien life extinction.

But Bruce looked at Shiller, drawing everyone's glance to Shiller. Shiller nodded and said, "Well, I always like to plan ahead, unlike some people who make their habits so well-known to the world that in the end, others have to clean up their mess."

"What do you mean?"

"I need a behind-the-scenes mastermind." Shiller tapped the armrest of his chair with the tips of his fingers and said, "Don't stare at me, this person is not me, and it can't be me."

The experience in the Battleworld made Shiller realize that sometimes they made too much noise, attracted too many spectators, and their actions spread from one to ten and from ten to a hundred, affixing wildly exaggerated titles to Shiller, prompting a widespread defensive reflex against him throughout the cosmos.

Fortunately, Shiller was well aware that intelligent life forms are forgetful and suspicious. What you see is believable, what you hear is not. Most people's knowledge of Shiller came from hearsay from a few big mouths, and they were unclear about his abilities, having never witnessed Shiller causing trouble.

This left Shiller with a small chance to turn the tables. As long as there was a behind-the-scenes mastermind with more concrete evidence than him, then his chapter would naturally come to an end, and there might even be doubt - perhaps Shiller was just a decoy, a target used by the real mastermind to divert everyone's attention?

It sounded ludicrous, but Batman would be the first to suspect it, because usually, Shiller was far from them, but some things were very close to them, even omnipresent.

This was the main reason Shiller chose Barbados.

Batman is a core pillar of DC comics. Any character related to him, especially villains connected to his origin story, makes for a perfect candidate for the behind-the-scenes mastermind.

Leaving aside whether it was indeed Barbados who influenced Gotham, leading to the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, the slightest possibility would ensure Batman would not let go of this behind-the-scenes figure.

Although it seemed like personal vendetta, given Batman's capabilities, the fight between the two would sooner or later become common knowledge. When people saw that Batman relentlessly pursued and strove to defeat an opponent, could that opponent be a simple character?

All of Shiller's plans were designed for this purpose.

First, Bruce channelled dark energy into the lake of Eden, infuriating Uriel and tricking Barbados, so that Michael could temporarily seal off the Dark Source, all in order to silence Barbados.

As I mentioned before, this guy isn't too smart, and he tends to give himself away the moment he opens his mouth. By keeping silent and maintaining an air of mystery, he actually fits the image of the mastermind behind the scenes. If he wouldn't shut up voluntarily, of course, he had to be muted manually.

Immediately after that, Shiller took matters into his own hands, blowing up Constantine's black box, causing the demon kings of Hell to suffer a significant loss. When they followed the trail to Constantine, they only found traces of Barbados's dark energy in him, ensuring that Barbados would become notorious among the demon kings.

The Demon Kings would not let this slide; surely some of them could find Barbados. But the very power that isolated Barbados came from Michael, whose combat ability was personally endorsed by Lucifer. The barrier he created, the demon kings couldn't breach it at all.

This further reinforced the image of Barbados as a formidable entity. You see, all of Hell was in an uproar, not only did established demons such as Azazel and Beelzebub make personal appearances, but even hermits like The First Fallen and Elias stepped out to Barbados's doorstep to assess the situation.

But not only did they fail to give Barbados a lesson, they couldn't even open the door. None of them could figure out what exactly separated them from Barbados—it was like not being able to identify what's a folder on a computer.

After the demon kings of Hell dispersed, a rumor began to spread in this vast kingdom. A powerful being from the depths of darkness was completing his metamorphosis, and when he returned, every corner of the cosmos would succumb to darkness.

Such vague rumors were actually more likely to be accepted by insiders, and with the Demon Kings neither confirming nor denying the tale, its credibility grew stronger.

The demon rulers of Hell still played the faith card, vying for Satan's throne, endlessly boasting about their own power and evil. But they allowed the mysterious message to spread, clearly in an attempt to gauge Heaven's reaction.

Heaven didn't respond, but it hardly ever does for anything. Yet this time it was unusually quiet—people didn't know it was because Uriel was cracking down on discipline, almost completely cutting off all private channels of communication between angels and other realms, leaving the angels almost silenced.

The reason he could close every channel of angelic communication with the outside world insists on bringing up Bruce, who had completed the new runes and Prayer System. I built the communication systems, so checking how many calls you made is a breeze.

Thus, Barbados's notoriety skyrocketed within the Magic realm, with some even inquiring with Lucifer about it.

Azazel tentatively asked a question, and Duma, the angel on good terms with Lucifer, also probed indirectly.

Lucifer, busy seeking God, regarded Barbados as inconsequential, like an ant; he was unlikely to bother. However, since friends had asked, he shared what he knew.

Lucifer didn't understand Barbados, but the Court of Owls left a deep impression on him, and yes, it was because of Shiller.

So, he casually mentioned having eradicated a universe's Court of Owls, which was indeed true; after all, they once blew up Shiller's car when he was on vacation.

To others, this was a huge deal—if Lucifer, such a supreme being, had to personally descend to annihilate the minions of Barbados, what standing must Barbados have?

For a moment, the demon kings were skittish and hastily censored the rumor they had spread, deciding not to make statements rashly without understanding the situation first, lest they truly attract the attention of a great existence lurking in the darkness.

As everyone knows, any rumor that isn't suppressed by official authorities is not trustworthy. Their reluctance to suppress something usually suggested a probing attempt, but their ambitious and ceremonious effort to seal away a particular message significantly increased its perceived authenticity.

Hell was a frequently visited place by individuals from various universal magic worlds. Hearing about Lucifer's encounter with the Court of Owls, demons started enlisting their followers to inquire about the Court's existence within human society.

The majority of followers had no clue and had to investigate, given that most DC magic realms were a mess, with mages almost eager to wear their demon allegiance on their faces. Such a group of monsters pouring into Gotham, Batman couldn't possibly remain unaware.

That's right, all of it was just a setup. Regardless of whether it was Hell or Heaven, even if they heightened their vigilance against Barbados, they were just side dishes. Shiller's real concern was to awaken Batman.

Even though it's always said that Batman inevitably loses in ambushes, the follow-up axiom is always that he always wins when not ambushed. Since Batman is the protagonist, his victories are taken for granted, and it's only his rare losses that make a lasting impression.

Although Mad Laugh is said to belong to the Matryoshka-type intelligent heroes, Batman, when not ambushed, is much the same. "Because I'm Batman" isn't much different from "I anticipated your anticipation."

Therefore, Shiller knew well that the best way to deal with Barbados was to turn what would have been an ambush into a non-ambush situation with everything going according to Batman's plan—for Batman also had an almost unbeatable protagonist's halo.

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