At this moment, Arkham Batman has only one thought in his mind - "Is this still English?"
What does "Giving high-interest loans to the Assassins' League" mean?
But he doesn't hesitate even for a second, turning to look at Shiller. Shiller steps forward, clears his throat, and says, "Madam, I am Mr. President's financial advisor. You can ask me any professional questions you might have."
Talya throws out a stack of contracts, folds her arms, and says, "You have raised the interest on this loan to 22% through hidden contracts, which is 10 points higher than the black market rates. Has the Federal Government become so short of money?"
"More than that, I'm more concerned about why the Assassins' Union needs to borrow money," Arkham Batman says, "Your father should be quite wealthy, right?"
"Cough, cough." Natasha suddenly coughs twice. Arkham Batman turns his head to look at her.
Before his gaze shifts, he hears Talya speaking through gritted teeth: "Someone messed up our assassin list, and many bases ambushed across various continents have been taken down, with many meticulously trained assassins killed. Although my father has considerable investments, his liquid assets are insufficient. Governments seem to have gotten wind of this and take advantage of the gap to press down hard on the Assassins' Union. We need money to quickly restore our defenses, or we'll be forced to retreat to the desert like those losers."
Now, Arkham Batman understands why Natasha coughed - this looks like a deed of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Then it dawns on him: Shiller and Natasha form a classic duo of profiting and destroying. Shiller is responsible for making money, Natasha for causing harm. Adding Nick who manages everything, they're truly invincible.
"Sorry, Miss, this isn't some hidden contract," Shiller pretends to look at the contract and says, "All signing processes were rational and legal and carry legal effect. If you have any objections to this contract, you can file a lawsuit with the International Court. But our agreed second-phase loan will be off the table."
"We can't afford such high interest!" Talya says through gritted teeth, "If you don't give the second-phase loan, we won't repay the first phase either!"
Shiller remains unfazed, giving her a smile and saying, "I guess you've been too busy traveling to watch the news recently. Just yesterday, America's first sky carrier successfully launched. I doubt you'd want us to use this killer weapon to collect debts, right?"
Arkham Batman sighs inwardly again. No wonder those academics and scientists don't release their results earlier or later, but choose this timing to do so.
Talya clenches her fists but slowly relaxes her grip: "Fine, we'll take the terms for this phase. But the second-phase loan must be altered; we absolutely cannot accept such high interest."
"Sorry, we won't lower the interest. After the sky carrier launched, there are people clamoring to borrow our money. Considering you're an old client, we're giving you a priority slot. If you don't want it, then don't waste your time here."
Arkham Batman can clearly tell that Talya is furious, but obviously, there's nothing she can do. If her dad can still barely be considered an investment expert, Talya has little experience in this field.
But Shiller is also stating the truth. With the sky carrier lifted off, it's more protection money than high-interest loans. Many people are eager to pay it, and it wouldn't hurt the Assassins' Union.
Just as Talya is about to say something, her phone suddenly rings. She answers it, and a man's roaring voice, sounding like her father's, comes from the other end.
Then Shiller's phone rings too. The voice of Ra's al Ghul comes through, sounding much calmer. After hanging up, Shiller says to Talya: "I have to say, your father is indeed professional. Our cooperation with the Assassins' Union will continue."
Talya walks away with a cold face. Arkham Batman looks at Shiller and asks, "How much trouble have you caused?"
"I told you this is macroeconomics..."
Again, his words aren't finished when Green Lantern flies in, holding a big stack of documents, and hands them directly to Shiller, saying, "So you're here. I couldn't find you in Gotham. Here's the list you wanted; all the contracted civilizations are on here."
"How is the tracking in the remote sectors going? Don't underestimate those areas' development; many civilizations have great potential. We need to handle short-term investments while also looking at long-term returns..."
Arkham Batman squints, staring at the stack of documents in Shiller's hands. His gaze is so focused, it becomes almost tangible. Shiller reluctantly pushes up his glasses and explains: "We obtained some energy through the cosmic environmental cleanup plan and have made some investments in the cosmos. This is a list of the investors."
Arkham Batman takes the list. It records the names of civilizations and units of Green Lantern energy. The only puzzling part is there's still an interest percentage noted at the end.
"Isn't this still high-interest loans?!" Arkham Batman looks at Shiller and says, "You really went through with the 22% interest!"
"This is just an angel investment to help low-level cosmic civilizations develop. Don't think I'm exaggerating; all contracts were signed voluntarily by them without any fraud, otherwise, the Green Lanterns wouldn't agree. Even so, they're thankful to us."
Green Lantern nods along on the side. Arkham Batman sighs; he of course saw this coming.
The survival of civilizations in the cosmos is extremely difficult. Even a place like Earth, where humanity has existed for so long, yet shows hardly a trace of the interstellar era. The majority of civilizations fare far worse than Earth, with only a few managing to break through.
In such circumstances, Green lantern energy, this universal power, is incredibly valuable. Forget 22% interest, even 122% would have people willing to borrow. The issue is high interest doesn't matter; previously no one wanted to borrow, but now finally someone is willing, and they are indeed grateful.
Not to mention, if someday the Green Lantern Corps approaches Arkham Batman, offering this interest rate as a loan of Green lantern energy, Arkham Batman knows he would likely accept it too.
With such versatile energy, the limitations of materials science cease to exist, allowing spacecraft to launch instantly and go to nearby planets for resource mining, effectively a one-step solution.
Thinking about this, Arkham Batman coughs twice. Shiller immediately takes out another document from the side, saying: "Earth is also one of the support targets; this is the agreement."
This contract is so thin it doesn't resemble any terms. Arkham Batman took it with some doubt. He didn't necessarily expect Shiller to offer many discounts to Earth, but seeing the three-digit interest rate on it, he was still taken aback.
"This is to secure multiple loans in the future," Shiller said calmly, "You just need to sign, and we'll handle the rest."
Arkham Batman looked at Green Lantern. Green Lantern nodded at him and said, "Don't worry, the Guardians of the Universe trust me now."
Arkham Batman had trust in Green Lantern. However, why the Guardians of the Universe trusted him might involve some complications. But Arkham Batman didn't really care. He signed the contract, and Green Lantern then pulled out a box of Lantern Furnaces from somewhere.
"Use these for now, and I'll bring the rest over later. Oh, Shiller, about the defense line around the Solar System you mentioned earlier..."
"We'll discuss that in the meeting later," Shiller said, "You go to the base and wait; I'll be there shortly. Also, you, Superman, go with him; there's a task for you too."
After the two of them left, Arkham Batman rubbed his temples and said, "Looks like you became the leader of the Justice League."
"Not really, it's just that I'm so short-handed I have to find them something to do. Oh, by the way, you shouldn't be idle either," Shiller pointed outside, "I've brought a production crew to make a documentary for you. Your personal network account has been set up, so go record a greeting video later."
"And you, Natasha, when recording the video later, pretend to accidentally walk past behind him. I'll buy a trending topic, then you post a clarification video, then he'll post an apology video, then you post another apology video, then he'll post another clarification video..."
Arkham Batman covered his face and said, "I'm a true executive president, I don't need to be an internet celebrity!"
"Alright, Mr. Executive President, now, take this and sit in your seat. Natasha, you go to the lounge and ready yourself. Production crew! Production crew! Come on, in here..."
Gotham, Batcave. Stark leaned against the wall looking at data. Doom was still adjusting things. After tapping twice, he sighed and said, "The metal strength is completely inadequate; it needs upgrading and optimization."
"Then what should we do? This cosmos doesn't have vibranium, impact resistance is inadequate. The previous soft cushioning plan also had significant drawbacks, now it's just choosing the lesser of two evils..."
"Find a way to get some," Doom suggested, "In the worst case, have Black Panther send people to carry some over on foot, it'll just cost more money."
"You're making it sound easy. Not only has vibranium transitioned to luxury gemstone status, being sold by the gram, just the cost of having Wakanda people make such a trip would be astronomical."
"Do you know how much budget we have?"
"It's not about money, and money from two universes can't be interchangeable; what's the use of having so much money?"
"Look at our research accounts first."
Stark scoffed, picked up a tablet from the table nearby. As soon as he opened the account funds, he nearly shook his hand and threw the tablet away.
"Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions, billions, ten billions, hundred billions... Where did all this money come from?!"
Doom couldn't even be bothered to answer his question. Stark thought for a moment and said, "This Batman is truly crazy, daring to bundle Nick and Greed together. I'm afraid they might directly allocate next year's military budget to us."
"Good idea," Doom said, "It would be much more useful with us than the military. Now, think of a way; we have to get some vibranium."
"Our universe is certainly not going to work, let's buy from other universes," Stark suggested after thinking for a moment, "I'll send a message to Peter, asking him to let Spider Man from other universes connect us and see if we can buy some."
"There's also the adamantium alloy," Doom said, "Perfect for making the Cold Ice Device, I'm planning to install a Wolverine-style claw here..."
"Do we really have to use metals from our universe?" Stark frowned, "Don't they have any useful local metals here?"
"I just looked up some papers, didn't find anything suitable. Their material science level here is lower, not only do they lack vibranium and adamantium alloy, but there are many gaps in particle research as well."
"Wait," Stark suddenly said, "I've heard Shiller talk about some things here, do you know the Court of Owls?"
Doom shook his head. He didn't even have a ticket to Battleworld, naturally he knew very little about here, maybe just heard of some famous characters, villains are practically unfamiliar.
"The Court of Owls is a criminal organization here. One of their methods of controlling Gotham is to mix a strange metal into the city's structures, causing the whole city to emit an evil magnetic field, which drives people here to madness."
Doom paused his actions and said, "Do you want to use this local metal? But if it truly generates an evil magnetic field, wouldn't it be weakened?"
"Metal is just material, and the nature of materials can be changed through forging. We can completely discard the bad parts and keep the good parts, depending on the forging quality. If we really create a metal with good performance, it could save some budget to be spent on more useful places."
Doom nodded and said, "I think that's good. Let's look for abandoned buildings or construction waste recycling yards, then find a place to melt down the materials."