"I'm really stupid, really." Lucifer sprawled in the chair and said, "Why did I brag to Shiller, saying that no matter how they plan to fight, we can handle it. Can this Apocalypse Star thing really be handled?!"
Beside him, Bruce was fanning him with his wings. Lucifer's anger flared up as he looked at him, and he roared at him, "I haven't slept for almost half a month, and you're just fooling around with cats and dogs, not doing anything serious! I finally understand why Arrogant doesn't like you!"
"Didn't I tell you? Even if you call me back, I can't be of any help." Bruce looked innocent as he said, "You guys don't really think that just because I have wings, I'm an Angel, right? My brain simply can't understand the structure of Cosmic Construction Science. From my perspective, you're just gesturing at thin air. Providing emotional value here is already nice!"
"Your way of providing emotional value is to fish in Lake Eden and then throw the fish into my office, causing me to be slapped by a fish?!" Lucifer swung him with his wings and sent him tumbling, then said, "Get out, stop getting in my way!"
Bruce staggered a few steps, shrugged, and walked out. He went to the communication room, looked at the rows of numbers hanging on the wall, and finally found Constantine in the blacklist area. Below, the numbers showed the increased number of deceived Angels. He found the number of Constantine from his universe.
"Hello?" Bruce said, "What have you been up to lately?"
"Writing a book." Constantine said, "Crawling Chaos 3's deadline is coming soon. Don't bother me unless it's important!"
"Wait, don't hang up yet." Bruce said, "Isn't there a war coming? Haven't you been drafted?"
"Are you still half-asleep? I can't even use Magic anymore. What am I going to do there, host a book signing event?"
"Even if you can't use Magic, don't you have Nya to help you? With his help, pretending to be a Magician is easy, isn't it?"
"But I still need to finish my manuscript first. Not saying any more, hanging up."
Constantine hung up the phone, looked at the 200 words he'd managed to squeeze out in 6 hours, and angrily threw down his pen, yelling outside the door, "Little Zha! Little Zha!"
Zatanna pushed the door open, poked her head in, and said, "What's up? Big writer? Are you hungry? I booked a restaurant on Brainiac for us to dine out tonight."
Constantine opened his mouth but forgot what he was going to say, nodded, and stood up to change clothes.
Constantine did have some skills in the arts, so Brainiac didn't require him to do anything else, only occasionally writing scripts for promoting stage plays, and he could write and publish his own works in his spare time.
The books he wrote about Outer Gods actually didn't contain much about them; mostly they were folk tales he collected from around the world. They had a broad audience and were quite popular, earning a decent commission.
This greatly improved his and Zatanna's lifestyle. After all, that worn-out bookstore wouldn't have much business even if Brainiac hadn't shut it down, and they couldn't open any other shop now, mostly relying on Constantine's manuscript fees to get by.
The two sat in the restaurant, each ordered their food, then Zatanna said, "I have some good news to tell you."
"Hold on a second." Constantine held out his hand, glanced to the side as if communicating with someone, then suddenly sighed with relief. Zatanna knew him too well and rolled her eyes, saying, "I'm not pregnant, rest assured."
Constantine smiled at her awkwardly, "After regaining reproductive ability, I'm still not accustomed to it."
"I think you're just paranoid." Zatanna shook her head and said, "Even if you've regained it, I'd advise against having kids. You deal with those mysterious beings, and it's impossible not to be influenced. If the kids don't have talents, it's fine; if they do, their entire childhood would be filled with terror. That's not a good thing."
Constantine nodded and didn't argue for once. Zatanna said, "What I'm saying is I've found a job with the theater, performing magic—uh, I mean, magic tricks as a resident actor."
"That's good," Constantine said, "So, you're colleagues with Catwoman now?"
"Sort of, but she's in the drama department, and I'm in the circus troupe. Although the workplace is the same, we don't have consecutive performances, so we might not meet. Why, do you want her autograph?"
"Not really. It's just, Nia wants her to play the lead in the Crawling Chaos series. But I think she might not accept. Anyway, that's not it." Constantine slapped his forehead, "Did you see the multiverse call to arms?"
"Oh, you mean the announcement to go to the Prime Universe? I'm not interested. Why, are you going to fight?"
"Bruce just called me, said I could go. Even though I can't use Magic now, but with Necronomicon and Nya always with me, it's not impossible to go."
"I see you're suffering from writer's block and just want to get out for a breather." Zatanna, though sharp-tongued, continued, "A change of scenery could do you good. But, I think you're bound to get beaten."
"No worries, I've been beaten up countless times before anyway," Constantine shrugged and said, "I see there's still two days left to register. I'll go tell the group, and we'll head to the Prime Universe in a bit."
As soon as Constantine's registration information was submitted, there was a "ding" on Lucifer's side. He turned to look, almost fainting on the spot.
"Michael! Michael!" Lucifer shouted, "We've forgotten something crucial—Outer Gods!! The Outer Gods haven't been optimized yet!!"
Michael, who was dragged over by him, looked a bit confused. He said, "Aren't the Outer Gods already able to travel freely between the two worlds? There's no real need to change anything, right?"
"Did you forget that in order to optimize our magic's performance in that world, we updated the particle visualization plugin for the visual system? Outer Gods also need to use this plugin. Are you sure their old programs can match the new plugin? Won't it result in noise all over the cosmos?"
"I guess it wouldn't be impossible," Michael said, "It might even be scarier that way."
"Scary, my foot," Lucifer said, "The neighboring world has administrators too, and they can see it's an issue at a glance. I don't want to embarrass myself over there. Quickly arrange for someone to optimize it!"
"But we already have no manpower available," Michael sighed, "Besides, why would the Outer Gods go to the neighboring universe? If they don't go this time, we can optimize it slowly after things are over."
It was then that Lucifer realized, yeah, why would the Outer Gods go to the neighboring universe? Batman recruiting teammates wouldn't involve them, right?
He took another look at the pop-up registration notice; oh boy, it was Constantine, and his reason for signing up was solid—"bored."
Lucifer couldn't help but call Constantine and said, "You don't even know magic, what's your purpose in joining the fun? Don't you realize we're almost dead from the optimization efforts?!"
Upon hearing this, Constantine got excited and said, "Sorry, I'm afraid I must go. Because people in the neighboring universe can summon Outer Gods too. If I don't go, it will affect the balance. Please, make sure to optimize well, thank you!"
After hanging up, Constantine happily went to report in. It can only be said that the happiest thing for a working person is watching other workers in disarray.
Toughing it out, gritting his teeth, Lucifer said, "Alright, I'll handle this part of the optimization. You go and catch Bruce back; it must've been him who incited this. Even if he can't work, at least have him sweep up the feathers on the ground... forbid him from nearing Lake Eden!"
The existence of Apocalypse Star is indeed related to a portion of the original force of the cosmos, and it's unique to DC. Optimizing it for the other side isn't easy, especially when it's the Prime Universe's Apocalypse Star.
On one hand, DC has a piece missing which is prone to issues, while on the other hand, the other side has an extra piece that's also prone to errors. The project of Apocalypse Star transit alone underwent testing for over three months, making even OAA scratch its head.
But fortunately, after countless day and night efforts from both administrators, this long-standing problem was finally solved. There's no need to delve into the specific principles; in essence, DC patched things up by robbing Peter to pay Paul, covering gaps first; Marvel created a power similar to this, then transcode Apocalypse Star over to achieve similar status and functionality as in its original world.
So now, the Apocalypse Star in the Marvel Universe uses a pseudo-original power, not an indispensable part of the universe, but it indeed has the function of origin power. For example, it can generate energy almost infinitely, adjust cosmic parameters in its region, and the owner within his domain is invincible, performing similarly to the dimensions of Mephisto and the like.
In other words, Darkseid is now equivalent to a Dimensional Lord, and these superheroes from DC regard this domain as their base camp.
In theory, if they were to bide their time, they could last forever. But since they're nominally there to stir up trouble, they naturally have to take the initiative to attack. So this domain primarily provides a base and logistical support.
Initially, they can entirely dispel the opponent's fast attack plans; Marvel's folks won't be able to breach the protection of the Apocalypse Domain in a short time.
Back at the base, Magneto said, "We can't break in forcefully; the consequences would be unimaginable. Even if we could break in, the resources needed would be unimaginable; it's really unnecessary."
"They'll have to come out sooner or later," Professor X said, "I'm more worried now about whether our star ships can gain an advantage since the owner of this domain also has star ships."
"You think they'll first send out star ships to test us?" Magneto frowned and said, "In our plan, star ships aren't meant to be used this early. Polaris and Quicksilver are ready; we can fully execute the original plan."
"Plans can't keep up with changes," Professor X said firmly, "We initially planned to use young mutants for the first round of probing because we knew Batman's weapons couldn't pose any real threat to the kids; at most, they'd get slightly injured and retreat from the battlefield. But the emergence of this mysterious domain means they might have more powerful weapons; we can't take risks. Ships can be rebuilt if lost, and I believe the command center at the rear also agrees with my choice."
He hadn't finished speaking when a General's face appeared on the holographic projection. He said, "Professor Xavier, immediately withdraw the mutants positioned at the front line. Now's not the time for close combat. First, deploy the three River-class escort ship squads for unmanned directed patrol. Note, do not take the initiative to attack; activate defense and counterattack mode, and wait for them to fire the first shot."
Xavier's voice appeared at the outpost: "Captains Bart, Mistras, and Chen Tu, please note, immediately proceed to the dock, use the cognition key to activate the 01, 02, 03 River-class escort ship squads, and set them to unmanned directed surveillance mode. The route map has been sent to you, please depart as soon as possible."
"Received!" The captains, who varied in skin color but donned the same captain's uniform, stood up and shook hands with their comrades, and successively left the battle preparation room to head to the star ship dock.