Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Chapter 5768 - 4791: Battleworld Changes (Part 1)

Shiller placed the medical records on Strange’s desk. Strange glanced up at him, slightly puzzled, and asked, "You finished it so quickly?""Of course. When I was in the Shi’ar Empire with Main Universe Doctor Strange, I had him help you write it." Shiller shrugged and sat down beside him.

Strange picked up his glasses from nearby and put them on, scrutinizing the medical records with a critical eye, but he had to admit that the medical records written by himself were indeed very good, with flawless handwriting, and it wiped out all debts in one go, solving his major headache.

Strange obviously let out a sigh of relief, then said, "Thanks to our service, Elders Council Hospital is finally going to set up an electronic medical system. From now on, we can bid farewell to the era of handwritten medical records."

"Isn’t that great? Without handwriting, there’s no need to disguise the handwriting, and you can copy and paste."

"Don’t get too happy just yet," Strange shook his head and said, "While it’s common for surgeons to delay writing medical records, the last time with our case caught the attention of the hospital management. I might have to write them myself in the future."

"There’s nothing we can do about it. Every intern under your wing is also busy. Haven’t you considered recruiting a few more?"

"Anyone new would be just as busy," Strange said, "Forget about it, let’s not talk about this. How’s it going in the Prime Universe?"

"There’s quite a commotion," Shiller said excitedly, "Nick wanted to meddle in the Prime Universe to keep them from going out too much, and wouldn’t you know it, Iron Man and Doctor Strange had a falling out upon their return. The two had a big fight and shattered the Earth Magic Defense Network."

"Shattered?!" Strange raised his voice, "Completely shattered? What about the Temple?"

"That’s where the problem lies." Shiller moved a chair to the front of the desk, leaned forward with his hands on the desk, and said, "Nick instigated a conflict between the Prime Universe US Government and The Avengers, leading to the New York Temple being revoked by S.H.I.E.L.D., thus losing a crucial node. This caused the magic defense network to be underpowered and collapse with a single blow."

Strange frowned and said, "Then Earth is in danger, it could become another major incident. How could Nick be so inconsiderate?"

"I told you, it was Iron Man and Doctor Strange who shattered the magical defense network, it has nothing to do with Nick. The Temple, although faced with legitimacy issues, is not that easily disrupted. If Doctor Strange returns to repair and adjust, then has another battle with S.H.I.E.L.D., it should be fine. Who knew those two just focused on their argument and even took the fight to near-Earth orbit. The result is..."

Strange sighed deeply, "What now?"

"What else can we do? Doctor Strange is busy fixing the New York Temple, quickly restoring the magic defense network, while others keep watch over Earth to prevent anyone from taking advantage."

"Someone is bound to take advantage," Strange said, "There are so many things eyeing Earth. It would be strange if no one invaded."

"Do you want to take a look?" Shiller asked, "Even though the people of the Prime Universe aren’t too fond of us, they’re in a crisis now. If we go over and offer some care, they can only accept it grudgingly. Besides, the two most difficult ones are the culprits causing trouble, and they probably don’t have much say now. The ones left are quite reasonable. You might as well make the trip to prevent any major trouble."

Strange frowned deeply, clearly wanting to go but disliking the people of the Prime Universe. If it were any other universe, the teleportation portal would already be open by now.

"Don’t worry about Krakoa," Shiller said, "The mutants are completely settled in. The Shi’ar Empire has finally split, and the two sides are fighting fiercely. They’re probably too busy to bother with Earth. Once the remnants in the Solar System are dealt with, there won’t be any threat."

"Are Matt and the others still there?" Strange asked.

"Of course, he’s still there, along with Steve," Shiller explained, "Consistently leaving the kids with the mutants isn’t good. They’re on the island vacationing with their families. It’s a pity Peter is too busy to relax, otherwise, he could go there for a holiday too."

"Alright, I’ll go take a look," Strange finally decided, "Besides, they can’t outargue me. If they dare to criticize, I’ll show them a thing or two."

"Alright, I’m off to work on Battleworld. The big event for this season hasn’t been settled yet," Shiller sighed as well.

As time passed since the opening of Battleworld, not counting the test season, there have been eight seasons. Although a lot of money was made from selling the Battle Orders, and the objective of resource and information exchange between the Multiverses was basically achieved, the current problem is there’s nothing left to do. Shiller even thought about taking the money and running.

The problem arises because, after everyone became familiar with each other, the instances themed around major events in their respective universes practically no longer exist. The Multiverse superheroes are all connected; a shout in the communication channel is enough when something happens. Although you can have an extra life by running an instance, there’s a limit on numbers, and you have to wait, which is not feasible in emergencies. Most people just shout once in the communication channel and directly use the teleportation portal of Battleworld to get there.

In this way, the only instances left are the original ones. Despite the involvement of many designers, the number of instances released is still too low. On the contrary, to recover the currency held by players, the Battle Orders are getting more and more expensive. Although they include a lot of items, it still causes complaints among players, and many are unwilling to buy them.

Especially after public testing, each season has to have a theme, and this theme has to match a unique gameplay. For example, the theme of the first season was "First Encounter," with a hall specifically designed for greetings and duel arenas unique to players. These were meant to allow superheroes to get to know each other better.

The theme of the second season was "Construction." In addition to opening the terrain modification mode, the store also sold more construction materials and furniture packs, and launched the "Lego Brick City" instance gameplay, allowing players to freely create their liked city scenes in Lego Gotham or Lego New York, and even use them as a blueprint for real city renovations. This was to promote unity among players and prepare for stabilizing real-world situations.

The first two seasons were beginner seasons; the intensity ramped up starting from the third season. The theme of the third season was "Earth." It reactivated the previous Battleworld - New Earth and integrated realistic war gameplay, allowing many superheroes without modern warfare experience to enjoy a military fan’s thrill, while helping them understand how to fight in large-scale battles.

The fourth and fifth seasons focused more on further exchanges among players and solving puzzles. Most of them were instances that restricted identity and abilities. This allowed them to put aside their superheroes’ superpowers and get to know each other’s personalities and behavioral logic more deeply. It was basically in these seasons that the Batmen united.

The sixth and seventh seasons were duel seasons. The main feature was letting superheroes have big fights. Various arenas and player-vs-player instances were set up. The Multiverse wars also took place during these two seasons.

And now the eighth season, which Shiller is willing to call the "Dark Season." Simply put, it’s about continuously increasing instance difficulty, challenging the superheroes’ physical and mental limits. Although this design also aims to provide superheroes with a place to train, the main reason is because if you don’t increase the instances’ difficulty, they genuinely speedrun through them.

Arkham Batman is not one of the original players. When he joined, there were already quite a few instances accumulated. But he managed to clear six or seven instances overnight, and could still return during the day to serve as president. Those battle instances were no match for him, and the story-puzzle instances could only delay him a bit. He even left a terrifying reputation in the player-vs-player instances later.

With such a player, if you don’t release a few instances challenging his physical and mental limits to block him, he might stop playing soon. Although it’s not necessary for him to play, if he leaves a bad review among the Batmen, then the Batmen will probably think that instancing is a waste of time. If everyone stops playing, then this game is basically over.

Shiller ran into a problem all game producers worldwide face. If the game is too easy, hardcore players will feel it’s not challenging enough and will clear it effortlessly, failing to attract hardcore players or extend playtime, causing the game to be perceived as contentless. But if the game is too hard, most average players will complain, feel too much frustration, leading to a mass exit of average players, which also means no show to watch.

Furthermore, a continuously running game is more prone to crash due to balance issues. It’s only fortunate that Battleworld previously accumulated a large number of ordinary instances, providing newcomers with something to play. But if it continues like this, they’ll finish the previous content, start challenging the new season, and will find that most of the instances require you to be Batman or Superman, or sometimes even require Batman’s wisdom and Superman’s physical strength, making it seem not intended for actual people. Negative reviews will inevitably increase.

And, the ninth season, also part of the Dark Season, is about to start in a week. The whole design team is scratching their heads, still lacking an idea for a special gameplay. If they can’t come up with anything, even working overtime won’t make it happen.

Shiller returned to the Battleworld office, sat in front of his desk, and started sighing. Owen poked his head out from his adjacent desk: "...Have you thought it out?"

Shiller shook his head and said, "I need to go back and check the memory bank. I remember people suggested quite a few ideas before, maybe they could be useful."

Then he closed his eyes and began to relax at his desk, actually going back to check his memories. Because nearly everyone knew he was a designer and admin, many suggestions were sent his way, especially from Batman. He thought the Battleworld model was pretty good and didn’t want the game to shut down. Since Battleworld didn’t accept cash investments, Batman could only rely on his wisdom to make some suggestions. Many proposals were quite practical, and after adjustments, things indeed improved. For example, the previous terrain editing feature and improvement of various chat functions.

Shiller specifically went to review memories related to Batman. But precisely because Batman’s opinions were so useful, almost all of them were put into practice, and he was obviously a practical kind of person, who did not propose much in terms of large plans and creative ideas.

Shiller also recalled a previous escape room instance he participated in. He vaguely remembered someone proposing some suggestion at that time. So he reviewed it again and found out that it was suggested to bring out the feature for players to design instances.

Although they said that, it was basically just lip service. The release date was undetermined—it was practically like creating a new folder. Regarding whether this feature could be realized or to what extent, there wasn’t even a start.

However, this was indeed a good idea. Instead of creating a game, why not create a game platform, letting others design and release games themselves, earning a bit of intermediary profit. After all, the creativity of these few admins and designers simply couldn’t compare with that of countless Multiverse players.

"I’ve got it." Shiller shouted after waking up, and all the admins gathered around.