Everyone understood that in this situation, Batman had to prepare for the worst. If the Multiverse were destined to fall into someone else's hands, or if someone could interfere with the Multiverse more broadly than they could, they would indeed prefer that person to be Brainiac rather than Doctor Manhattan or Darkseid, not to mention the likes of the Black Death Emperor.
The reason is quite simple: Brainiac is the most orderly of these beings. He was born out of logic, and it is absolutely impossible for him to lean toward chaos. Even to maintain his own existence, he must ensure that the Multiverse is orderly.
Other candidates have the foundation to collaborate with the chaotic side. Darkseid himself carries certain destructive attributes. While he desires to rule, he prefers only to govern the places he wants to, leaving the rest to perish, which is even better for him. In this context, it is possible for him to make certain compromises with those who want to destroy the Multiverse, such as allowing them to destroy a few universes, for example.
Doctor Manhattan's attitude is currently unclear, but from his actions, it's evident that he has distanced himself from humanity. Additionally, there is already a Manhattan Batman among the Batmen. Rather than having Doctor Manhattan, it would be better to have Manhattan Batman. And if Manhattan Batman were to fail, Doctor Manhattan likely wouldn't be able to hold on either.
The Black Death Emperor is similar, being too close to the chaotic side, to the extent that casualties don't matter at all. Even if only a few Earths were left in the entire Multiverse, they wouldn't care, which obviously wouldn't work.
The angels, devils, and the like wouldn't interfere directly, and interstellar civilizations like the Little Blue People have a flawed track record and insufficient capability. If one had to pick the tallest among the dwarves, Brainiac's record is quite impressive.
Firstly, he gained momentum from the Schiller Universe. Under Brainiac's interference in the Schiller Universe, many of the Multiverse's Brainiacs—including those from the Prime Universe and other major universes—didn't invade Earth, nor did they collect planets and stuff them into bottles as they used to.
In Little Bruce's words, playing with marbles is normal when you're young, but as you grow up, you have to think about making a living.
This somewhat diminishes his evil artificial intelligence side. After all, Batman is a person who judges by actions rather than intentions. Even if Brainiac wanted to do so, as long as he didn't put it into practice, it doesn't count.
Then, when he led Earth to war, he was very concerned about the loss ratio. But this wasn't voluntary, because with too many losses, the year 1999 wouldn't pass easily. He was forced to be frugal, fending off the most enemies with limited forces, and Batman recognized this skill.
As for the later stage of ruling Earth, although many initial policies were too rigid, they quickly corrected, and now they have basically explored a relatively balanced path, playing the role of an omniscient and omnipotent philosopher king quite well. Although this might also carry some forced elements, being driven to the brink by this group of protected animals, finding a solution is already quite impressive.
Moreover, in the field of Electronic Life, someone has ventured further than Brainiac, and that's JARVIS next door. In this case, there's someone to limit Brainiac, creating some deterrence that prevents him from going too far.
In this light, Brainiac is the best choice among the second-best alternatives. Therefore, Batman will absolutely not allow Doctor Manhattan to completely eliminate Brainiac. Doctor Manhattan likely knows this as well, which is why he didn't go all out. Who in the Multiverse doesn't fear Batman?
Understanding this put Tim somewhat at ease. He then heard Batman say, "However, don't expect Batman to cover everything. If Brainiac can't prove he's strong enough, Batman will not forcibly protect him either."
"What about now?" Harley asked, "Do you think he passed?"
"He exceeded expectations," Batman glanced around the room and then said, "or perhaps you all exceeded expectations."
The agent was speechless, knowing he could help. Had he known, he wouldn't have brought the gun over for them to study. Now things ironically turned out well.
"Wait," Red Robin seemed to have remembered something and said, "You said Doctor Manhattan exists in a quantum form and is an expert in this area, so weren't we showing off by studying the observer effect?"
Everyone reacted simultaneously. They realized they'd managed to jam Brainiac's system through the observer effect, which dealt with temporal paradoxes. This is clearly the realm of quantum mechanics, so how did Doctor Manhattan, well-versed in this, stumble over his expertise?
"It wasn't just the gun," Arrogant chose honesty, "perhaps around the same time you caused the temporal paradox, or slightly later, I used the Anti-Life Equation."
"Hiss..." Several of the Prime Universe's Robins exchanged glances. They were familiar with it because Batman often mentioned it, although it wasn't Batman who desired it but Darkseid.
Darkseid always has an eye on the Anti-Life Equation. Something that Darkseid covets so greatly must be very powerful. Even Doctor Manhattan might struggle to understand it, or perhaps he wasn't prepared for a sudden attack from the Anti-Life Equation and didn't manage to reverse the situation in time.
"That's why I said you exceeded expectations," Batman said, lowering his eyes, "If there was no prior plan, it just means Doctor Manhattan was more unfortunate than you."
"That's quite unfortunate," Ted said, "This really wasn't part of our plan, it was purely coincidental..."
"No, not necessarily," Harley suddenly interjected, "don't forget what made us use these techniques."
The room fell silent for a moment. It wasn't that they were just realizing it now, but indeed it was inconspicuous. They researched that gun because the Drowned was a difficult monster to handle and just happened to be afraid of sound and light, and that gun conveniently produced a great deal of noise.
Although the gun wasn't made by Brainiac, the participants in the game were chosen by him, and the monster was created by him too.
The same goes for Arrogant. Although the umbrella wasn't procured by Brainiac, he knew about it. The intensity of the second assault was also under his control.
The entire Gotham University is restricted so tightly that almost all locks are locked, all buildings are inaccessible, all designed by Brainiac. That's why Arrogant's squad runs out of ammo so easily.
In other words, it seems that Brainiac is completely unprepared, getting punched by Doctor Manhattan, but in reality, his survival is not coincidental; it's all guided by his strategic gameplay design.
By utilizing the research on Diana's blessing, he maneuvers himself to Mount Olympus, making Doctor Manhattan cautious. Meanwhile, to prevent interference, he lets Arrogant bring out the Anti-Life Equation, catching Doctor Manhattan off guard.
But come to think of it, regarding Arrogant's plan to use the Anti-Life Equation, Brainiac only gave one verbal warning. Even when Arrogant brought the head into the exam site, doing something as blatant as ordering fried rice in a tavern, Brainiac just grumbled a bit.
Although he couldn't do anything about Shiller before, he could at least create a more piercing warning sound. This time, he didn't even bother with a beep-beep, indicative of intentional neglect.
"Little Bruce is pretty impressive." Pamela praised.
"He might be more impressive than you think," Batman added, "He's not just defending and retaliating, he's planning to take the initiative."
"Fear gas?" Charles thought aloud, "But shouldn't it be ineffective against Doctor Manhattan?"
"Indeed, it's ineffective against Doctor Manhattan, but it's effective against Watchmen's members," Batman paused, "It's effective against Night Owl too."
Tim actually had many questions, like why Doctor Manhattan values Night Owl, why he saves him repeatedly. Why does Brainiac also target him?
But he realized this might relate to internal matters of Batman, so wisely, he didn't vocalize them. Red Hood clearly wanted to ask, but Red Robin stopped him. Some things are better left unasked, they just add to the worry.
If Doctor Manhattan supports Night Owl, letting him return to Batman's group as a troublemaker, Primary Universe Batman's situation would only become tougher, it would be an attack from all sides. Among Robins, only Tim Drake noticed the clues, but they would wisely stay mum. They're not indifferent about Batman, it's simply not necessary to be so pessimistic and prepare for struggle over the cape now, as the outcome is uncertain.
"What can we do?" Nightwing asked.
"Play the game well," Batman said, "Explore the system limits as much as possible, make some records, truthfully report Brainiac's level to the Multiverse."
"That's easy," Damian said, "To be fair, the game is indeed quite good. Online game disconnections are normal; it didn't keep us waiting too long. I'd give it a positive review."
Damian is the pickiest among them, so if he says that, other Robins naturally have no objections. They then resumed studying how to defeat the Outer God. Although they couldn't study that gun this time, the basic process had been figured out.
Thus, the Robins went all-out. The teams from Wayne Manor and Viscount Manor were all set to go, along with agents and Deathstroke. Now, in Viscount Manor, only Arrogant and Batman remained.
Arrogant sat back on the sofa, took a deep breath, rarely showing a bit of worry. Batman remained standing in the shadows. Arrogant seemed to hesitate for a long time before finally speaking.
"Where's your base located?"
"West District." Batman responded.
Arrogant diverted his gaze, sighed softly, "Why didn't Doctor Manhattan just finish off Brainiac?"
Brainiac had ample reason to pretend to be dead, just say he was knocked out by a heavy punch and hasn't recovered yet. He stayed silent.
"You better not plan to face the final boss," Arrogant looked at Batman and said, "After tormenting me for so many years, don't go tormenting another me."
Batman finally walked over, glanced around, removed his mask, revealing the familiar face of Bruce Wayne. But when he smiled, no one would mistake him for another Bruce Wayne.
"Professor." He said.
Arrogant stretched out One Hand, made a stopping gesture, "Don't use that voice, it gives me a headache."
"Ahem," Bruce cleared his throat, "Don't worry, Professor, there's no Batman here."