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75.4% Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics / Chapter 3234: Chapter 2378: Gotham Music Festival (80)_1

章節 3234: Chapter 2378: Gotham Music Festival (80)_1

"I thought Gothamites were all very stiff," Shiller thought to himself, "but this only makes it more unexplainable how they managed to turn this city into what it is."

"Wasn't it said that there are magic powers and certain rules involved?" Gray Mist said, "This prevents most people from realizing what the problem is, and even if they do realize it, they can't change anything."

"But things are different now, do you think we should fuel the fire?" Shiller considered, frustrated by the sluggish pace on their side, "I find it hard to believe that they are still using dial-up internet connections."

"I believe they are on the right path, and we shouldn't interfere too much, but if you decide to take action, that could change things," Gray Mist said with an evident pessimistic tone, "A train may be slow, but you can't turn its tracks into roller coaster rails just because it's moving slowly."

Shiller thought about it and agreed; after all, he was just coming to work, not a shareholder of the company, so why bother working so hard. He had already found his entertainment; it was time to go back to sleep.

However, on Shiller's way back to the city, events seemed to hit the fast-forward button, or perhaps the long-standing foreshadowing had finally erupted.

Feeling a bit bored on his drive back to the city, Shiller turned on the car radio, and the host's voice came through in a panicked tone, as if disaster loomed: "We interrupt this broadcast with an urgent international communication. Anti-government Army leader in Mexico, the well-known terrorist Oliver Queen, has arrived in Moscow at two o'clock this afternoon. The Kremlin has released news that this meeting with Queen aims to discuss the re-establishment of the Fourth International."

"13 minutes ago, Washington sent a message to Moscow, urging them to recognize the widespread situation of international terrorism, and indicating they do not wish to see the mistake of authoritarianism repeated in any country..."

"The White House spokesperson announced that within a short span of 30 minutes, Moscow has sent out 172 telegrams, and the President is considering whether to view this as a signal of the Cold War turning into a hot war, with the other side planning to unify the front first."

Shiller was stunned. He glanced at his watch. It was 2:40. How did Oliver get to Mexico?

Although Oliver had left early in the morning, it had only been four or five hours since. Even with a direct flight from Gotham to Moscow, it would take around eight to nine hours. How did he manage to travel there?

And more importantly, how did Oliver make contact with Moscow?

This wasn't as simple as making a phone call and saying who you are. In such connections, the most important and troublesome part is verifying identity.

For instance, if I say I'm Oliver Queen, and I need your help, come pick me up, Moscow would have to verify that he is indeed Oliver Queen. If it was the Federal Bureau of Investigation or someone from Moscow they were meeting, they surely wouldn't be able to return, and they would end up as leverage in the hands of the FBI.

Therefore, unless there is absolute certainty that the person on the other end of the phone is indeed Oliver Queen himself, lucid and free, and genuinely in need of help, Moscow would definitely not come to pick him up.

Moreover, if Oliver had made contact with Moscow well before today, planning to leave early this morning, he would not have sought out Shiller to discuss renting a house. But if he hadn't made contact in advance, then four or five hours is simply not enough time for Moscow to confirm his identity.

Spy dramas oversimplify the process of making contact. In reality, receiving information, passing it down, making multiple contacts, sending people out locally to communicate, and then relaying the information back—these necessary steps would take at least two days. None of it made sense.

Wait, Shiller thought. There was one exception—that someone vouched for him.

The vouching and introduction system was the mainstream way of handling relations among many countries' organizations for quite an extended period. This system was designed to address the issue that most organizational relationships could not achieve both reliability and efficiency.

As long as one person is verified as reliable, whoever they introduce is very likely to be reliable as well. And since the introducer's identity is public, should the person they vouched for cause any trouble, they themselves would be implicated, making them reluctant to guarantee anyone unless they were absolutely certain of the person they were introducing.

Shiller thought of that phonebook.

In fact, even to this day, he wasn't very clear on where exactly Arrogant had placed which phonebook, or rather, his information was outdated, his recollection of most local habits having remained from when he first arrived.

Shiller suspected he might have given the wrong phonebook, but at the same time, it seemed too coincidental that the one he provided was from the sixteenth bureau, and weren't they being too lax? Don't they check with the introducer when they receive a referral?

Wait a minute—they would have called a mobile number, right?

Shiller took out his mobile phone, and in the instant he saw the keyboard, he realized that during the era when he left his contact details for the sixteenth bureau, mobile phones probably didn't exist.

Shiller floored the gas pedal, eager to get home quickly to check the landline, when suddenly, a loud crash echoed as a utility pole fell, smashing directly onto the hood of the car in front of him.

Shiller slammed on the brakes, his forehead hitting the steering wheel. He immediately pushed open the car door and got out—fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh—three fireballs flew towards him.

Shiller turned his head and saw a group of people in trench coats standing on the rooftop, while another group swiftly crossed the road blocked by the fallen utility pole, their guns revealing they were from a law enforcement agency.

Shiller was baffled.

The FBI was being pursued, but it wasn't by Batman or Deathstroke; it was a group of magicians unrelated to them.

Weren't the magicians fighting with the assassins on Black Island? When did they get into a conflict with the FBI? And how dare they openly throw fireballs at these agents in broad daylight?

It was only when Shiller heard someone yell in Russian, "Catch them!" that everything started to make sense.

Shiller was even more bewildered, the ones chasing after them were Soviets, a group of Soviets using magic, Soviet magicians???

Could this make sense???

Shiller looked at his phone involuntarily, but at this moment his phone rang. He answered the call and heard Mayor Roy shouting from the other side, "Professor, what's going on? Why are there fights everywhere in the city? The most grand music performance of the festival at 4:00 is about to start checking tickets. Tourists are here for this, how can they even leave their homes?"

Shiller really wanted to say, why don't you ask the turtle in the wishing well? It's not like I've installed two kilos of cameras under every eave in Gotham, how would I know how to get the tourists out in this situation?

But Shiller decided to first find out what exactly was going on. He took a deep breath and asked, "Who are the fighting parties?"

The Mayor was clearly stunned, speaking in an incredulous tone, "You're asking me?"

How come, shouldn't I ask you? Shiller was very dissatisfied with his attitude but he didn't voice it out. After sneering in his mind, he thought, even Arrogant is no better than me; it's always suspected to be his doing, whether it's an alien invasion or a street-side trash can getting kicked over.

"This is a clash of multiple forces," Shiller said with a grave tone. "Wayne Enterprises, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Moscow, Washington, even magicians from both sides of good and evil."

The Mayor immediately fell silent. Just hearing these few names told him this was not something he could handle.

"I only hope the final concert can be held as scheduled and be grand and spectacular, Professor..."

"Don't worry, I have a plan."

What kind of plan could I have, Shiller thought after hanging up the phone. He didn't even know what was going on, so now he must first understand why everyone was fighting each other.

"Just look." While turning into mist and flying towards the center of the incident, Shiller said to Gray Mist in his mind, "The roller coaster tracks I twist might be thrilling, but they're safe. In the world of superheroes, if I don't twist, someone else will, and they'll just twist it into a tangled mess."

"All I want to know now is how you're going to explain this to Superego," Gray Mist said. "He will definitely think it was you, definitely."

"But it wasn't me," Shiller cried in his mind. "We share a memory bank, he can see for himself."

"But Superego says you have a history of deleting memories from the bank."

"I didn't do it, I didn't, stop talking nonsense."

Shiller first went after the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents being chased by the Russian-speaking magicians. These agents were indeed skilled, pursued by a group of magicians for so long without a single casualty.

That's also why Shiller sensed something wrong: these Soviet magicians were not weaklings. The decisive way they blocked the road showed that they must be professionally trained agents who possessed magical powers as well.

In this situation, ordinary agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation couldn't possibly escape, but the present time was indeed quite different from the Marvel World, so Shiller couldn't be certain whether the FBI really had such an elite squad.

After thinking for a while, he decided to call Amanda, but the call wouldn't go through. When Shiller turned his head, there, Amanda was on television.

"Sorry to take up a moment of your time, I'm Amanda Waller. Some may recognize me because my agents and I often appeared at major case scenes," she said.

"The only proof of my identity now may just be my face, as all my uniforms, weapons, and credentials have been seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The reason for this is because, even under immense pressure and threats to my life, I was compelled to disclose something to the public."

The broadcast flickered for several seconds, but this only drew more attention. Amanda moved her face closer to the camera, holding it steady, "They're trying to jam the signal now; I'll make this brief. The Federal Bureau of Investigation hired drug traffickers from the cross-national Penitent Cartel to fabricate a series of serial killings within the Federation."

"I know this doesn't sound like big news, but the key is their motive. This is a sacrifice, they're trying to...zzzt...Mexico...zzzt...run quickly...zzzt..."

Shiller saw the magicians chasing the agents stop instantly. They stood there, looking at each other, furrowing their brows deeply, their expressions growing more and more solemn.

They rapidly exchanged words in Russian, watching the agents get further and further away. They chose not to continue the pursuit but turned and walked back instead.

Shiller sighed. Without thinking, he knew Amanda must have had Bruce standing behind her. This was his revenge on the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Seeing the skills of those agents just now, the desire of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to infiltrate Gotham was probably much stronger than anything Bruce had imagined. These elite agents were capable of posing a major threat to the city.

It was likely Bruce had confirmed this before he decided to take drastic actions, but how did he confirm it?

The key probably lies with Oliver, Shiller thought.


next chapter

章節 3235: Chapter 2379: Gotham Music Festival (81)_1

Although it was possible that he had given the wrong phone book, they still matched up the passwords through inexplicable communication, and Shiller thought the situation might have gone like this.

In the call, Oliver somehow convinced these Soviet people, and out of the caution required of an agent, they would definitely ask Oliver to come for a face-to-face meeting. Unaware that this was a meet-up for agents, Oliver went without any guard up.

Thus, due to a mix-up, the two sides met, and after a chat, it turned out they had indeed connected successfully.

Shiller felt he hadn't said anything, just handed out the phone book, and the act of the phone book just so happening to have the KGB's number in it could have been interpreted by Oliver as me suggesting he rent a place in Moscow.

Upon reflection, Oliver figured that since he wasn't planning on returning to Mexico anytime soon, and Gotham wasn't a place where he could prosper, he might as well check out Moscow.

In fact, Moscow needed Oliver more. To say that the Soviet Union was hanging by a thread was almost an insult to the human respiratory system. Apart from being called the Soviet Union, it had nothing to do with the real Soviet Union and could only be seen as an ordinary major country.

But that didn't mean they didn't want to survive. Pressured too much by America, compromise was no way out. As always, they needed uplifting news, a hero, someone to show the people that there were still those persevering, so they too could not give up. This was how the government could continue to sustain itself.

The appearance of Oliver was like a traveler on the verge of dying of thirst who sees an oasis in the desert. It had been too long since such a hero had emerged among them.

And he was an American, the most wonderful thing was that he was an American.

Therefore, regardless of the considerations, once Moscow learned of Oliver's identity through people on the streets, they would certainly be desperate to bring Oliver back to Moscow immediately.

As for how Oliver returned, that's easily explained. These Soviet people used magic, so the four or five hours probably included all the time spent making arrangements, the actual travel lasting no more than five minutes.

Then Shiller recalled another matter that left him speechless, the very KGB Sixteenth Bureau he nominally directed was the one involved in researching magic. This move was akin to performing ballet with a rock in hand, only to end up hitting one's own foot.

However, on the other hand, because the connection was completely accidental, neither side was prepared. No counter-surveillance or counter-espionage systems had been engaged, and the news was bound to leak out.

On one hand, this era's KGB was not a monolith, including the Sixteenth Bureau, and on the other hand, the leak on Oliver's part was too big, as he was followed by a string of assassins.

Shiller speculated that this group of elite agents might have followed Oliver there, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation probably knew that the ineffectual Penitent Cartel drug dealers would find it difficult to take down Oliver inside Gotham, and eventually would have to send highly skilled and experienced elite agents.

Since they were elite, they understood the importance of taking action, so it's likely that this group had been following Oliver, waiting for the right moment to strike.

At first, they were not in a hurry because Oliver was clearly unable to sort out his business in Mexico before coming back, meaning he couldn't return there in the short term. With him lingering in Gotham, accidents were always bound to happen, weren't they?

But once they overheard that Oliver was going to Moscow, the situation escalated greatly. If Oliver managed to arrive in Moscow safely, it would be like giving a dying Soviet Union a shot of adrenaline, or even like hooking them directly up to a high-tech respirator.

One must understand that even though one's legs may no longer kick and breath is no longer drawn, there are still a multitude of living cells within a dying body. The same held true inside the Soviet Union, where an entire generation raised in such conditions and atmosphere existed. Even with corruption and degeneracy, not everything and everyone could be fully tainted; there were bound to be exceptions.

Oliver would undoubtedly become their banner and benchmark, rekindling their hopes. This could actually lead to their revival.

How could the Federal Bureau of Investigation not be anxious? They had waited for an opportunity only to see a potential disaster brewing. If things really did develop that way, the primary responsibility would lie with the FBI. Why didn't you act swiftly to kill Oliver when you had the chance?

The FBI couldn't afford to take this lightly, they would certainly deploy all resources as quickly as possible to ensure that before Oliver left, he would remain on this land forever.

But they miscalculated one thing, this group of KGB could use magic.

The scene then was probably these elite agents hastily formulating a battle plan before storming into the KGB base. They thought they were facing normal agents, but the KGB also assumed they were up against normal agents. When they clashed, both sides were immediately shocked.

The elite agents must have felt astonished that these cooks had deviated from recipes to military strategies. You tell everyone you're a materialist, yet you've taken up magic behind the scenes, is there no law left?

The KGB would certainly be even more shocked. Weren't there no FBI agents inside Gotham? Where did these formidable people spring from?

Since both underestimated each other's strength, neither went all-out at the start, leading to both sides taking a hit. After adjusting their assessment, they both went overboard using excessive force, making the fight intractable.

These Russian operatives must have only sent a few agents to escort Oliver away, leaving the rest to engage in the fight, hence the ridiculous scene Shiller witnessed, a magic battle between KGB magicians and Gotham's elite FBI.

But it could also be during this process that Bruce noticed the situation here. In fact, he probably couldn't ignore it even if he wanted to. Apart from the two pounds of cameras he had installed under the eaves, the noise from the mages fighting was quite loud. Whether it was fireballs or streams of water, both came with their own light effects, making them too noticeable.

In Batman's view, the most absurd part of this scene wasn't the Russian-speaking people using magic, but rather the group being chased pulling out weapons from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Bruce's illness had greatly improved, but he was Batman, and even if he wasn't, just an ordinary wealthy capitalist, he could never allow a group of super-armed forces to loiter around his home every day.

So Bruce had to ask, if you're going to send agents, why send the particularly strong ones to my side? Who are those agents intended to fight against? Who else could match their strength?

In this era, there's a ridiculous fact that if one must choose a neighbor between a KGB agent and an FBI agent, the richer one would tend to prefer the former, because the adversaries only want you to lose, while your own people are more likely to want you dead.

Bruce's countermeasures are also straightforward: Amanda appears on camera and exposes some of the FBI's misdeeds while not making her point clear, because these statements are not actually meant for the American public, but for Moscow's ears.

That America has concocted another grand conspiracy is not surprising, but what is strange is the connection to serial murders and sacrifices. Surely those chefs in Moscow have stopped following recipes and started studying military tactics. How have you also begun to investigate magic?

By the time the news of these magic-wielding KGB agents reaches Washington, both sides will find themselves in the same awkward predicament. After so long into the Cold War, it turns out that not only can I no longer keep up in the scientific field, but you've also started to secretly study magic, haven't you?

Combined with Amanda's mentions of Mexico, the people of Moscow would surely believe that the US used extremely despicable means to meddle in the Mexican revolution, further highlighting Oliver's tragic heroism.

Let's be honest, the fact that Oliver is leaving at this stage is somewhat unsightly. After all, the revolution has not been fully successful yet, and he's already rushing back to take the credit. Malicious people could easily make a big deal out of this, painting Oliver as a deserter.

But if America used methods outside of social order, then it's no wonder Oliver would need to temporarily relocate. Most people in Moscow don't even know their own country is researching magic; they will simply think that the Americans are cowardly, too scared to compete with the Soviet Union in science and technology, thus choosing to oppress the revolutionary hero through unsightly means of heresy.

This would enable Oliver to gain more sympathy and praise from others, and that's what would be most fatal for America because it's akin to adding a healing potion to the oxygen in a ventilator.

Trouble in Mexico could at worst be considered a fire on the butt, and even if all the feathers there get singed off, it would only be embarrassing. The chicken's rear-end being ugly is far from causing a deadly wound.

But it's different with the Soviet Union. The mighty bear has penetrated the eagle's feathers with its sharp teeth several times, nearly suffocating it. Just as it manages to pull its head back for a breath, a large breath from the resuscitation starts it off again; severing the head would only take one bite.

This could certainly be considered the harshest revenge on the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Every day thereafter, every distressing incident this country experiences could be blamed on the FBI's failure to decisively finish off Oliver on home soil.

Having realized the crux of the issue, Shiller no longer hesitated. He needed to quickly settle these affairs, lest they impact the upcoming grand concert, which would be as severe as ruining Arrogant's umbrella.

But as they say, when it rains, it pours. Just as Shiller got back to the manor and wanted to check the phone, he saw his butler Merkel with an expression full of astonishment.

Approaching, Shiller saw Merkel watching a video clip. At the sight of Shiller coming over, Merkel jumped in alarm, almost throwing his phone away.

"What is this?"

"Uh, nothing, Professor."

Shiller narrowed his eyes.

"Alright, this is a video that's going viral on the internet. If you want to see it, you can go to the official Gotham website. Someone uploaded it there."

Shiller turned on the computer with some effort, accessed the internet, and logged on to the website. After opening it, he found the video had been pushed to the top comment, visible as soon as one clicked on it.

Batman is pole dancing.

To be precise, Deadpool is wearing a bat suit and pole dancing.

Shiller, feeling as though he had seen a ghost, slammed the computer shut.


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