In the filming room of the BBC headquarters building in London, England, Bruce took a cup of hot coffee from his assistant and smiled at him.
The blond female producer came over, shook hands with Bruce and said, "Thank you so much, Mr. Wayne. If it weren't for you, this variety show project would probably not be available to the public for five or six years."
"No, it's precisely because I had a similar idea that I set up this black diamond puzzle many years ago. I can cooperate with the BBC to meet outstanding talents from around the world and compete to become a millionaire. It can be regarded as getting what you wanted.”
The female producer smiled, squeezed Bruce's hand, and said, "It's an honor to work with you..."
···Oh, the manuscript is ready, let’s get started. "
Bruce nodded, adjusted his suit one last time, looked at the camera under the guidance of the director, and showed a standard smile.
"Hey viewers, hello, I'm Bruce Wayne.
"Yes, I'm the "rich bastard" you always talk about. I don't think anyone wants to see me on such a beautiful morning - but what if I add a million dollars behind me? "
"Good news, guys, I've long wanted to see you poor guys fighting for money, so a few years ago, I cut a precious black gem into a thousand parts and buried them all over the world. In this program you will see experts from all walks of life come up with all kinds of tricks to compete for this million dollars."
"The conditions for victory are very simple. Find the fragments and bring them to me. Whoever brings the most fragments will win, but the premise is that there must be no less than a thousand fragments."
Bruce stood up, walked to the camera, and lowered his voice.
"According to the rumors when I obtained the gem, there is a terrible curse on this precious black gem. Only the most daring adventurers can participate. Because of this, don't even think about cheating. I will not be deceived by your little tricks. "
"However, I cannot bear the responsibility for you being cursed, and no one wants to see you explode and die during the show, so anyone who physically touches the black diamond - you are eliminated."
"Cooperate, compete, or simply fight... it's up to you. Now, the game begins!"
The TV was turned off with a click, and the Red Hood sitting at the table covered his face with his hands. He sighed and said, "I often think Batman is a bit too old-fashioned, but this... he is a bit... Too trendy!"
Then he said with some confusion: "I remember that the variety show "Millionaire" was only broadcast on TV in 1998, right? Well, it seems that he spent a lot of money to buy people from the TV station."
Schiller, who was sitting by the window, closed the book in his hand, pointed to the seat opposite, and said, "You have been studying it for a few days. How is it? Is there anything you don't understand?"
""About the skills of conversation guidance, I think I have learned pretty well, but the macro part..." Red Hood frowned and shook his head. He gestured with his hand, and then said: "I spent the first half of my life. Most of my life experience is gained in practice. Although I also like to read some miscellaneous books, I rarely learn techniques from books. If possible, professor, I think I may need some practical guidance."
Schiller nodded with satisfaction and said: "The reason Jason Todd is my favorite student is that he has a long mouth. When he doesn't understand, he will ask. When he doesn't understand, he will tell me. Some people have you." If you have half the communication skills, you won’t wait until now to graduate.”
The red hood opened his mouth and showed a bright smile. Only then did he show some naivety of youth, like a bird nestling next to an eagle trying to puff up the fluffy feathers on its chest.
"Well, how about I take you to hell and you can see how I communicate with the devil in hell?"
Red Hood nodded vigorously, but soon he asked hesitantly: "I heard that you came here to teach Bruce magic?"
Schiller closed the book and stood
He stood up, glanced at the TV that had been turned off, and said, "If he had studied as hard as you did, he wouldn't have graduated just now."
Schiller walked to the cabinet and took out a piece of paper with a string of numbers left by Constantine on it. After Schiller dialed the string of numbers, the phone emitted a burst of light.
Then Schiller picked up the radiant receiver and dialed Constantine, and said: "John, open the passage to the dream world, I want to take Jason to hell... Yes, right now, okay Yes, goodbye."
After Schiller put down the phone, he took out another bottle of wine from his wine cabinet and said to the Red Hood: "Theoretically, we can go to hell through the magic circle, but it is a bit slow. When I went to hell before, Beacons have been left in many places. Constantine has authority over the dream world given to him by the God of Dreams, so he needs to go faster."
"Come on, drink up. I'll take you to meet an old friend that one of my personalities met in hell." The Red Hood knew that what Schiller said "walking through the dream world will be faster" should be faster. Unexpectedly, but he didn't expect that after he drank the wine, he felt dizzy, followed by a terrible feeling of weightlessness. When he lowered his head, he found that he was free falling above a demon king's castle.
"Bang!" "Ouch!"
The red hood fell heavily to the ground. It didn't hurt, but it was quite scary. The overall feeling was a bit like a dream, but he was not awakened by the sight of falling from a high altitude.
When he got up, he found that Schiller was already standing in front of the gate of the Devil's Castle waiting for him.
The two walked into the grand gate from the suspension bridge, and the blood-red battle flag hanging on the city wall read "Long Live Azazel" in devil's universal script.
Azazel is a black mist floating in the air. There are countless pairs of eyes in the black mist emitting golden light. When he saw Schiller walking into his throne room with a red hood, he used that kind of asked in a low, vague tone.
"Schiller, what are you doing here?"
"Of course I came to talk to you."
"I have no need for a pope, no trading of power, no waging of wars, no vengeance to seek, no jealous demons or angels, and no interest in anything outside my palace."
If Azazel had a head, he would be shaking it like a rattle by now.
Just when Schiller was about to speak, Azazel stared at him with several pairs of eyes, and then said: "If you say that you or your students want to be my pope, my name will be Lucifer now."
"No wonder you can live for so long and still share the power of Satan from Lucifer, Your Majesty Azazel. "No need to praise me. If you have nothing to do, just leave as soon as possible."
"I really have something." Schiller began to pace in Azazel's palace and lowered his head and said: "When Lucifer came to hell and seized the position of Satan, he will do his best to educate the two people in hell. The two demon kings formed a new trinity, and these two demon kings are you and Beelzebub."
"Later, the ancient demon king Belial was unwilling to accept this, and even wanted to monopolize the position of Satan, and that idiot Archduke Astro provoked a protracted war in hell."
"Everything is over." Azazel said in a deep voice: "Thanks to you and your student Batman, hell is extremely peaceful now, so no matter what conditions you offer, I have no need to negotiate with you. I enjoy the power and status I have now and don’t need to go any further.”
"Really? But you have many agents in the human world."
Although Azazel did not have eyebrows, the Red Hood could still see that Azazel's mood immediately became bad as soon as Scheler said this.
"Are you threatening me? But I did not break the agreement between heaven and hell. All my agents voluntarily signed contracts with me, and I did not treat them badly, at least compared to those demons who like to torture believers. Than, I am tolerant enough."
"Of course, Your Majesty, but have you ever considered that you are a little too tolerant."
Azazel's eyes narrowed slightly in the black mist. Schiller stopped, turned to look at him and said, "I know what you have done to humans. You keep lowering the contract threshold, borrowing more and more." The more power,
Let the power adapt to the human body more and more, and continuously expand the base of mage so as to collect more interest. "
"This is indeed a good idea. You are making the magic world more and more dependent on you. The longer this goes on, the lower the autonomy of the magic world and magicians will be. In the end, they can only kneel at your feet and bow to you. Pray for strength.”
"Do you want to stop this?" Azazel's tone became deeper and deeper, even threatening. Unexpectedly, Schiller shook his head easily and said, "No, I want to contribute to all this."
Azazel's countless eyes hidden in the darkness widened, and then he heard Schiller say.
"If I guess correctly, your plan has reached a bottleneck. If the number of mages continues to expand, it will attract the attention of angels. And in your contract with heaven, it should be written that you cannot interfere with the human world. Normal order."
"What the normal order is is determined by angels. In this regard, you have no initiative. Once you cross the line, they have reason to attack you at any time. The church is the best knife in their hands."
"Your Majesty Azazel, you invested a lot of effort in the early stage to expand the base of believers. But now, because of the agreement with heaven, the number and scale of believers have reached a bottleneck period. If you want to recover the cost of the early investment, , what are you going to do?"
Azazel was a little confused by him. It wasn't that the situation Schiller was talking about was so difficult to understand. Azazel knew the current predicament of hell better than Schiller.
Since the emergence of mankind, demons have been labeled as villains, so it is more difficult for them to expand their followers than angels. The devils of hell spent a lot of money to open up this shortcut to the magic world.
Not only are magicians not ashamed of borrowing power from demons, but they are proud of borrowing a lot and borrowing quickly. This is an important base for the demon kings to compete with the angels, and there is no room for loss.
But as Schiller said, the number of people and power levels in the magic world are basically saturated now. If it continues to expand, it will most likely be suppressed by the church. The witch hunts back then were the consequences of the demon kings testing the bottom line. .
On the surface, the demon monarch cannot compete with the angels. The human world is still the territory of the church, and the demons can only engage in private transactions. If they are not given stronger power, why should people believe you or not the church?
The devil can only buy horse bones with thousands of gold, which is why the church always prohibits people from studying forbidden power. Although the forbidden power provided by the devil is evil, it is really strong.
The previous war provoked by Archduke Astro also consumed a lot of energy from the demon kings. On the one hand, it was the export of power from the human world, and on the other hand, it was the internal war. After so many years, the demon kings who had accumulated a lot of strength were also somewhat stretched. .
But there is no good solution to this situation. Most demons can only spend so much, and they can only fight to see who has the richest family. But in this way, the living power of hell will be continuously consumed, playing into the hands of those angels.
The human world is like a chain holding the devil, and also like a thorn piercing their heart. Sooner or later, all the power will be drained by this blood vessel. Azazel can see such a future, but he is powerless. Change.
"What can you do?" Azazel had to ask. He knew how dangerous it was to cooperate with Schiller, but he had no choice.
"Your Majesty Azazel, you must have established a solid base of believers in the human world through your hard work over the years, right?"
"certainly."
"So, your believers are all devout to you?" "You can say that."
"Then why don't you harvest them?"
Azazel's countless pairs of golden eyes penetrated the black fog and stared at Schiller. He observed the indifferent expression on Schiller's face. He was silent for a long time before speaking.
"Do you know what you are talking about? You want me, a demon, to take the souls of your kind?"
"That's too low-level, Your Majesty. Souls can only be harvested once, but if you only give them a little power and let them find other powers for you, you can harvest more."
Schiller looked up at one of Azazel's eyes and spoke his true purpose in a cold tone.
, like taking out a sharp dagger that has been hidden for a long time.
"Or, we can also unite all the demons in hell and harvest the entire magic world. The monopoly step has been completed. The next step is to refuse to deliver, breach of contract and collectively raise prices."
Azazel stared at Schiller, and Schiller looked at him and said, "Beelzebub and Astro are dead and Beelzebub is on our side. The remaining demon kings are useless."
Schiller looked down at his palm, and his deep voice echoed in the throne room.
"As long as you give an order, the demons will collectively break the contract - the noble birds in the magic world who are accustomed to flying will never be able to endure the loss of their wings, crawling clumsily on the ground, and letting the soil soil their feathers."
"When the time comes, they will fall at your feet, pray to you for strength at all costs, and repay the price they should have paid for being weak creatures who tried to stand side by side with the gods."
In the rainy night of Gotham, a female figure carrying a cello case slowly walked through the street. She heard the sound of a variety show advertisement coming from the store window, but she did not stop for it, only because of the cold and sadness. Makes her want to hurry back to her rented apartment and enjoy the warmth of the fireplace.
And just when she hurriedly opened the door, the enchanted phone floated up and made a shrill ringtone. She put down the violin box in her hand and walked over to answer the phone. .
"Zatanna! Zatanna! It's me, I'm your Uncle Scott!" An inhuman scream came from the other side of the phone: "Zaatanna! My contract with Lord Stros has broken the contract! I can't I used magic! I became a normal person!"
The man opposite's voice was trembling. He was almost crying as he said, "And your Uncle Poker, Aunt Stewart, and your cousin and nephew. The Magical Family is finished! We are finished!"
"The devils collectively broke the contract! The magic world is completely over!!!"
With a "pop", the phone receiver fell to the floor, and Miss Magician was no longer in the dark apartment room.
No one sleeps tonight in London.
