mtl008 Chapter 4199 A Guide to Wandering the Galaxy (6)
Chapter 4199 A Guide to Wandering the Galaxy (6)
Chapter 4199 A Guide to Wandering the Galaxy (Part Six)
Gwen, on the other hand, is the complete opposite: she comes from a world very similar to the real world, where all superheroes are from comics—in other words, she's a time traveler. She believes she knows everything about the comic book world.
But precisely because of this, she has a deeper and more realistic understanding of the "popularity theory" in comics than Deadpool, namely: it's not just unpopular characters who die.
The more a character is liked by the audience, the more characters are drawn, thus increasing sales. Therefore, it's likely that only fans of less popular characters will criticize comic book companies for over-commercialization.
But that's not actually the case at all. Fans of almost all the characters are complaining, and the more popular the character, the more they complain. That's because the more popular a character is, the more value they need to extract from them, and comic book companies rely on these few popular characters to make money.
Even the most popular character won't sell if you keep drawing the same stories over and over again. However, the attributes that can be portrayed in a character are limited. For example, you can't depict scenes that conflict with the character's attributes, such as Superman working out, The Flash going for a morning run, or Batman performing a fast-paced monologue. That limits what you can depict.
However, in order to keep these characters appearing in the comics and keep making money, they have to come up with some outrageous stories, using the absurdity as a selling point to lure fans into watching and making them buy into the stories.
In order to deliver the manuscript on time and achieve the predetermined sales target, they would draw whatever was bizarre or eye-catching, completely disregarding the original character setting and relying on novelty to boost sales.
If you're too unpopular, you'll be forgotten, which is akin to dying out; but if you're too popular, the character becomes completely unlike yourself, isn't that also a form of death?
As a transmigrator who has read countless comics, Gwen is all too familiar with the tricks of comic book companies. Being too outstanding or too mediocre is both unacceptable. Not to mention, a character's appearance rate isn't solely influenced by fans, but also by political climate, investor opinions, media reviews, and so on.
It is precisely because Gwen understands these things so well that she chose the role that best suits her: a comedic character.
The adage "comedic characters are invincible" doesn't just apply to comics. In the public sphere, in the mouths of media critics, and in the mouths of other fans, everything she does can be explained as, "This guy is just there to make us laugh, don't take him seriously."
However, as I said before: once tragic elements are mixed into comedy, it's like a kite with a string; she will be controlled and become that kind of absurd character with dark humor—which is not what Gwen wants.
Therefore, she refused to conceal herself in any way: she wouldn't fabricate a painful backstory for herself, nor would she allow anyone to misunderstand that she had a hidden sorrow. So she always kept "comic book" on her lips, and when she encountered a character, she would use what she knew about their story to pokémon out of them, resolutely refusing to integrate and appearing to have no desires for the group or society. Only in this way could she be a kite that flies freely forever, unbound by any ridiculous backstory.
Of course, she does need to balance her popularity: if it's too low, she needs to raise it; if it's too high, she needs to lower it. Judging from Schiller's performance today, her popularity seems to be quite high lately, or perhaps a bit too high, so she needs to find a way to act a little annoying and, incidentally, get the more popular Shark Dog to her.
If nothing unexpected happens, she will cause all sorts of trouble during this trip, acting like a complete drag on the team and a "drama queen" in order to balance her popularity.
That's exactly what Schiller wanted. They didn't need to deliberately cause trouble—mutual dislike and hindering each other could likely cause more damage than meticulously plotting.
More importantly, if we were to assign this task to a highly organized individual, we would be walking right into the clutches of cyber life. Cyber life excels at logical reasoning and is faster than anyone else at patching vulnerabilities. This would not only fail to distract them but would actually help them reduce program flaws, making it a very unwise move.
But if you were to send these two completely incompatible comedic characters to wander around their territory, the sheer amount of bad luck caused by their comedic traits alone would be enough to give those inflexible electronic lifeforms a run for their money. And they wouldn't even realize something was wrong; this isn't something that can be fixed simply by patching up a loophole.
Schiller first bought some raw meat, then discovered that Jeff didn't eat raw food, so Schiller roasted the meat for him on the stove in the side yard. After feeding him a large piece of pork rib and half a chicken, Jeff was finally full. With his round belly, he lay on the gazebo in the garden, sunbathing and occasionally humming a little.
At that moment, the small spaceship and the otherworldly travelers who had come to help arrived almost simultaneously. Considering that mutants were in charge of receiving the goods, Schiller went to meet with the helpers from the other world.
They were gathered in the space station's arrival hall. Schiller walked in and saw a huge horde of Robins. This was even more shocking than seeing a room full of Batmen, since each Batman had two or three Robins on average, making it quite a large group.
Despite the somewhat delicate relationship between the Robins, after arriving in this unfamiliar universe, they still prefer to stay with their own universe's companions rather than seek out their counterparts. Right now, they are huddled together in twos and threes, talking quietly.
When Schiller walked in, everyone turned to look at him. Schiller felt a headache coming on: Batman really didn't treat him like an outsider. Back when the main universe's Batman sent Robin to the Pride universe for foster care, he only sent one team, but now dozens of teams had come to his side.
To be honest, if he weren't so desperate for manpower, he would never have sent so many Robins at once—they're far more lethal than Batman. Batman is a smart and cautious adult, while the Robins are intelligent, strong, and clever, but they're all teenagers.
This means that the first three advantages are all disadvantages: intelligence means acting on impulse, strength means being unstoppable, and cleverness means being full of mischievous ideas. And now, there's a whole room full of such teenagers.
The reason Batman agreed to send Robin was actually because they themselves were probably getting fed up with it.
In the previous multiverse war, the vast majority of Robins did not participate. For various reasons, Batman was unwilling to let them fight in this war, and he didn't even tell some of them.
But this kind of thing can't be kept secret, especially after the Battle Realm came into being. The whole world is discussing the multiverse war, but they haven't participated in it and don't understand it. Robins and the others are bound to have complaints.
The resentment only intensified after learning that many Batmen had sacrificed their lives in the war, encountered various difficulties, and ultimately lost the war.
In the period following the war, bat nests in various universes experienced varying degrees of disruption, causing uproar among the Robins.
That's not so bad. The worst part is those universes where Robins went, but not all Robins went. For example, in the Arkham Batman universe, Arkham Knight went to the battlefield, but Nightwing and Robin didn't come. How could those two not be angry?
Unfortunately, this is a critical stage in the transformation of the universe. Batman is busy setting up a magical defense network, reviewing the war, and analyzing various data obtained from next door. He is extremely busy.
Unable to cope with Robin's antics, they had no choice but to settle for a second-best option: to give Robin a multiverse trip as well. So they sent them to the Marvel universe. However, fearing they would cause too much trouble, they sent them all to Schiller's place.
Schiller happened to be short-handed, and since he was looking for able-bodied men from anywhere, he figured he might as well take them in. The Robins were excellent laborers, so he accepted them.
But making a decision and seeing it with your own eyes are two different things. Seeing so many Robins, Schiller sighed; he couldn't even imagine how chaotic things would become. God bless the galaxy.
"Ahem." He cleared his throat and began, "Now everyone take out the phones you've been given, scan this code, and download the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy app. Everyone, read the guide carefully. Then you'll have one day to form teams. Tomorrow night we'll start distributing spaceships..."
As soon as this was mentioned, the Robins erupted in chaos:
"There's a spaceship?!"
"Wasn't it supposed to be a tourist trip???"
Where are we going?
What is "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?
Schiller was taken aback. Hadn't Batman told them? He was probably too busy to tell them. So he said, "You're not here for tourism, you're here to work. We're working on a galactic construction project and we need people to explore various parts of the galaxy. You'll need to form teams of three to five people, and we'll provide you with the necessary equipment and a small spaceship."
"cool!!!!"
"The Milky Way? Is it the Milky Way I know? Or is it the name of some arcade?"
"But we don't know how to fly a spaceship..."
"Are we going to have a space war?"
Is it like Star Wars?
Schiller rubbed his forehead, feeling a bit of a headache. He thought that after experiencing the devastation of the Spider-Army, he would be able to handle this kind of situation with ease, but in reality, the Robins, who seemed much more reserved than Spider-Man, were just as noisy, keeping his head buzzing.
"Alright! Alright!" Schiller shouted, "All the questions you want to know are answered in the guide. Go back and read it carefully. If you still can't figure it out, go ask Spider-Man..."
"Spider-Man? Is it the Spider-Man I know?"
"Batman mentioned him, didn't he also write a book called 'A Travels in Gotham'?"
“I’ve been matched with him before. He has a very strong sense of danger. I fought him for a long time but couldn’t hit him.”
"That guy is also very strong, he's a formidable opponent."
"Hmph, Batman really likes him, you guys have no idea..."
The discussion inside the room grew even more heated. Schiller took a deep breath and shouted, "Quiet!!!"
Everyone finally quieted down and looked at him. Schiller continued, "Alright, now everyone follow me through the portal back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents will be explaining the precautions to you. Follow me."
Schiller waved, and everyone followed him. When they arrived at the portal, another round of discussion ensued, ranging from the portal's color to mages, and then to the space station... Schiller felt like he was leading a school field trip.
Back at S.H.I.E.L.D. after passing through the portal, sure enough, there was another round of chatter, with people discussing and taking photos, clearly just like tourists.
Schiller could only stand helplessly to the side, watching them take photos and upload them to the internet at the world's most secret intelligence organization base, while thinking viciously to himself: Batman should pay me for my work!
(End of this chapter)