The spectacular visit of Batmen to the laboratory was learned by Shiller from Natasha's mouth. And precisely because these crazy scientists go all out, lose themselves, and forget their lives when doing research, what was supposed to be a three-day visit was extended to half a month; not only did they go abroad, but also to outer space, and were even taken by Magneto to the Andromeda Galaxy to give many valuable suggestions for the construction of the capital's Sky Island.
In fact, half a month is not much, not enough to produce any real results, at most providing a little thought. However, all parties are smart; although Batman cannot visit often, communication can still happen through the Battleworld, so everything can be switched to online work.
They hired Batman for some kind of research, agreed on the remuneration, and unified the real-world resources in advance with Stark converting them into Battleworld Points, giving a deposit, and the remainder to be paid after the research is completed.
In fact, real-world currency can be exchanged for points, but it is very uneconomical. The most economical way is to use energy and materials, namely cosmic quality. After all, building those Battleworld instances also consumes these things, which is a way for the founders of Battleworld to raise funds.
Since humanity in this universe has entered the interstellar era, resources have never been lacking. There are no decent high-level civilizations in the Milky Way, and the Nine Major Kingdoms are even more unobstructed. Humanity's current mining methods are not very advanced, and they cannot exhaust a corner even after digging for billions of years.
To further interstellar colonization, they also know that the Three Great Empires may not swallow their pride and are likely to retaliate later. Recently, humanity has been accumulating plenty of grain, excavating a lot of resources from the Solar System and surrounding star systems for transactions with Batman.
Shiller is trying to persuade other founders of Battleworld to make the transaction two-way, which means resources can be exchanged for points and points can be exchanged for resources. This channel should be opened soon.
Exchanging points for resources is a real loss for Shiller's universe. After all, with interstellar navigation capabilities, resources are everywhere. If they upgrade their mining equipment a bit, they will not worry at all.
However, for Batman and the Justice League, it is extremely important. With Batman's wisdom, what space facility cannot be developed? He hasn't ventured into the cosmos likely because even a clever woman cannot cook without rice.
To build a fleet capable of interstellar exploration, technology and materials are both needed, or rather, materials are more important. When materials science reaches a certain level, even a three-year-old child could build a spaceship out of block toys.
But many materials used for fuel and hulls are not available on Earth. With the appearance of Gotham that cannot do without someone at all times, Batman could not possibly spend a lot of time going to alien planets to dig materials.
But if he can directly use Battleworld Points in exchange, and does not need to exchange much, just enough to build an interstellar ship and some mining equipment, Batman will have his own way of snowballing, making more and more.
With resources and fleets, Batman will gain greater voice and authority among the Justice League and Earth's superheroes. He will have more power, not being constrained everywhere, allowing him to make some decisions more decisively.
There is no fear of dumb ideas, only a lack of ideas. After entering the multiverse era, only one voice should exist within a universe. Comparatively, letting Batman lead the cosmos is more reliable.
Of course, not all Batmen come to New York for serious matters. Many are just here to tour, like Big Adventure Batman and Lego Batman. They really came here to play.
While other Batmen were busy visiting the laboratory, they were busy sightseeing. From Times Square to Wall Street, from Central Park to Fifth Avenue, they thoroughly enjoyed New York's famous spots.
Many might think Gotham and Metropolis are the night and day of New York, but in reality, the geography of these two cities bears no relation to New York. On the official map, Gotham at least somewhat resembles New York, vaguely showing Manhattan Area's shape, but Metropolis is entirely different, more like a West Coast city.
Actually, DC also has New York, and the predecessor of the Justice League, the Justice Society, is based in New York. However, this setting makes New York a small city, probably similar to Brude Haven. But even without this setting, there really isn't space for a third metropolis on the East Coast. Don't forget there's an Emperor City above, and if you squeeze further down, Baltimore would be gone.
So the new arrivals in New York, the Batmen, felt fresh, and many took photos at famous sites, posting plenty of memorabilia in the group. Even though using magic isn't allowed outside school, Lego Batman, relying on his small body size, wouldn't be noticed by security, climbed up to the Statue of Liberty's torch and controlled a drone to take a picture of himself.
Many Batmen are very interested in this universe's superheroes. Conveniently, superhero culture here is also very popular, with almost every notable superhero having their own video account, online homepage, and merchandise. It can be described as a paradise for celebrity fans.
Earth's most popular superhero is Captain America. Because the commercial operations of Captain America's image are done best, and he himself is quite upright, making him accessible to all ages. His posters and merchandise cover almost every street.
Since most people were focusing on the Batmen visiting the laboratory, Lego Batman and Big Adventure Batman, who were meant to be free travelers, ended up causing trouble due to Lego Batman's extremely whimsical thoughts. Nick had no choice but to throw Shiller over to watch them.
Shiller took the two to go shopping in Hell's Kitchen. Now, Hell's Kitchen is no longer a slum, more like a cultural district, filled with graffiti, parkour, racing, street art, cocktails, and coffee, as well as superhero specialty stores.
Shiller parked on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen. Before he even got out of the car, Lego Batman cheered and dashed out because he saw a giant graffiti mural depicting dozens of Spider Men.
He rushed up to take photos and check-in, but due to his short stature, he couldn't capture the entirety. Big Adventure Batman walked up to lift him, finally capturing the gigantic mural on camera.
The street behind this wall mural is full of Spider-Man merchandise. Since it's a day off, there are quite a few people shopping. Spider-Man fans from all over the world come here to check in, and there's a high probability of encountering Spider-Man himself here. It doesn't matter which Spider-Man you bump into, either way, it's Spider-Man, just grab him for a photo.
This whole street actually sells small commodities, like Spider-Man's Spider Silk Launcher, headgear, masks, various red and blue themed clothes and shoes, and small badges, necklaces, pencil boxes, and the like. Lego Batman bought one of everything.
Shiller picked up one of the small badges and flipped it over, unsurprisingly seeing the place of manufacture. Then he took out his phone, logged onto a Chinese app, and used it to check the price. He found out that not only had the price been directly converted into US Dollar, but the decimal point had also moved a place to the right.
Seeing the price difference, Shiller quietly put down the cute Spider-Man badge. Sure enough, tourist spots are the same all over the world.
But Lego Batman bought happily, not caring at all about being fleeced. After touring the Spider-Man district, they went to Captain America's district. The products here were even more varied, even selling 1:1 replica Metal Shields.
Lego Batman insisted on buying that Metal Shield, not caring that the size of that thing for him was almost as big as a flying saucer. Shiller could only buy it for him, and then quoted its price per weight in Vibranium.
Iron Man's exclusive store was much more upscale. Since the image rights of Iron Man and Tony Stark were owned by the Stark Group, all the exclusive stores were independently operated by the Stark Group, and the decor was naturally much better than those contracted ones. Moreover, there were two real mechas at the door, leftover from Stark, where a lot of people were taking photos.
There, Lego Batman found his most desired gift—a complete set of Iron Man Armored Units from Lego blocks.
Although there was no Lego in the Marvel cosmos, there were indeed similar block brands. However, this stuff was relatively expensive, and ordinary operating companies wouldn't choose this category. Stark Group, bold and daring, launched a series of block mechas, not only could they be worn by minifigures, but they also made sounds and lit up.
Lego Batman put it on immediately after buying it; unfortunately, the size wasn't quite right, and wearing it didn't make him fly like Iron Man, just made some boring sounds and lights.
"I'm going to modify it!" Lego Batman roared, "I will turn it into my own unique mecha!"
Shiller and Big Adventure Batman nodded and applauded him.
What surprised Shiller a bit was that there was actually a Moon Knight exclusive store here, and some folks had even replicated Moon Knight's outfit and Magic Wand, putting it on a plastic model that looked quite authentic.
However, the most popular items in the Moon Knight's store were the action figures, and Khonsu's figures sold better than Moon Knight's. The skull-headed falcon indeed fit the young people's aesthetics better.
Then they immediately went to the "Ilvermorny" exclusive store, which was full of postcards, magic wands, Crystal Balls, and feather pens from various characters. Although incomparable to the genuine goods from the magical school, they were quite finely made.
The most unbearable for Shiller was the wall with a row of his photos, to be precise, a row of the school doctor's photos, all movie stills. Below was a row of potions he had brewed in school, same feather pens he had used, and similar desk ornaments, with quite a few people crowded there choosing and taking photos.
Fortunately, Shiller wore a mask when he went out today, otherwise, the three of them would be surrounded in the store all day. Even so, Shiller always felt like someone was staring at him. He had no choice but to urge the other two to leave quickly.
Then they saw the Ghost Rider store. This was naturally very popular too, especially the flaming motorcycle ornaments and the fiery warhorse. There was even a human-sized standee of Johnny at the entrance.
All these items required a licensing fee, and it wasn't a buyout, they got royalties for each one sold. So now Johnny and Danny's financial situation was much better, although they still couldn't afford a house in New York, at least they could rent a nice place.
The store even had a large poster of Mephisto and a specially made over one-meter-high bust right in the center. Shiller didn't even need to look to know that the cashier at the front was definitely one of Mephisto's Angel Envoys.
"I think this model is pretty good," Big Adventure Batman said, "I'm quite popular in our cosmos too, do you think I should open an exclusive store?"
"It's not a new idea," Shiller said, "You should check out Bruce's cosmos, there's a whole street full of Batman merchandise. Headgear, capes, action figures, mechas, dolls, badges, postcards. If you want to open a store, you can go learn from that."
"Sounds good," Big Adventure Batman said, "I'll go ask Bruce in a bit. This should be quite profitable, right?"
"More than that, Bruce's financial deficit is almost turned around."