Chapter 6173 - 5184: Soul Machine Arcadia (41)

As the other two cats snapped back to reality, there were two more exclamations of shock. Peter was so stunned he stood still, even thinking he must have mistaken it. Where did this city come from?

More importantly, this city didn’t look like it was built by an Outer God. They had seen Yog’s abstract artistic style before, but this city looked like a replica of New York, wasn’t that the Empire State Building in the middle?

The cats were dazed for a while. Even if their vision wasn’t great, they were too familiar with human cities; just seeing the outline slightly, they knew, isn’t this like returning home?

But soon, they realized that since there was a human-style city here, it’s very likely that Iron Man left it, and he might even be living inside it. Otherwise, why build such a city?

The cats got a bit excited; after staying here for so long, they finally saw someone familiar. However, there was another familiar figure that appeared before Iron Man, or rather, a familiar cat.

Just as they were marveling at the city’s appearance, a subtle sound emerged from the bushes. The cats turned alertly, only to see a sleek shadow darting toward them. Peter’s fur puffed up instantly, letting out a howl and assuming an attack stance.

But in the next second, the shadow brushed past and stopped, turning around and fixing Peter with blue eyes, saying, "Quick reaction, aren’t you?"

Shiller focused and saw it—Bat Cat!

Appearing before the cats was the long-lost Bat Cat. Its blue eyes were bright, its fur shiny and black, and it was wearing a set of small mechanical devices, with a helmet on its head.

"Why are you here?" Shiller asked.

"Morpheus knows the Thousand Cats Dream caused trouble," Bat Cat said somewhat helplessly, "He sent me to apologize to you and to bring you some equipment."

"Of course, it’s not that he’s having a conscience, but he’s worried that if he doesn’t send you equipment, you’ll make a fuss looking for it. He doesn’t want trouble from other universes," Bat Cat said bluntly.

Shiller snorted lightly, knowing Morpheus wasn’t acting out of kindness. Bat Cat took some items out of its cape’s pouch; they were miniaturized mecha parts, all imprinted with bat emblems, evidently equipment developed by Bat Cat itself.

The equipment was a bit tricky to assemble, not a single piece but requiring self-assembly. As Bat Cat helped them assemble, Shiller explained the situation of this universe to him, only omitting some of Iron Man’s plans.

"I’ve heard of it," Bat Cat said, "I have only one question: Are you sure Iron Man is still in the Outer God’s hometown?"

"What?"

"This universe shouldn’t just be this, right?" Bat Cat said, "Besides the places where Outer Gods reside, there should be normal star systems here, right? There’s the Milky Way, the Solar System, and humans."

The cats all looked at Shiller, who unhesitatingly replied, "Of course, why do you ask?"

"There are humans here?!" Peter said with some surprise, "I thought there was no civilization?"

"Deep in the Stars, there’s no civilization," Shiller said, "This is the hometown of the Outer Gods, not where humans are."

In the Cthulhu Mythos Universe, of course, there are humans. After all, the creations of various novelists are based on human cultural backgrounds, most investigators are human, just like there are ordinary people in the American Comics Universe; even if the protagonists are superpower users, the backdrop remains ordinary human society.

However, the place they are in now is the hometown of the Outer Gods, set outside of time, space, and dreams, sometimes referred to as the Void or Ultimate Chaos, broadly understood as Deep in the Stars.

Contrasting this is the Material Universe, where ordinary people reside. The Material Universe is also part of the Cthulhu Mythos Universe but is located far from where the Outer Gods live. Other than Nya, the Outer Gods rarely frequent there; the cats even less so.

"Do you think Iron Man went to the Material Universe?" Shiller asked, puzzled, "I don’t think so. Compared to humans, he should be more interested in Outer Gods. Furthermore, his current state isn’t entirely human, afraid he can’t live within human society."

"I think he might want to observe," Bat Cat, familiar with a scientist’s mindset, said, "He wants to know what human technology would turn into under the influence of Outer Gods, which is also a worthwhile research topic."

Shiller thought about it and felt it was possible. Although he knew Tony Stark quite well, he was not a scientist and didn’t really understand the professional inclinations of such a super-genius scientist. He just felt that Iron Man should take on challenges and stay here to study the Outer Gods. However, Bat Cat is a professional, and his judgment should still be credible.

In fact, in this universe, humans’ views on the Outer Gods are very important, or rather, the way they observe and study the Outer Gods has high reference value. Because coexisting with the Outer Gods means that humans and human societies will inevitably evolve differently from our universe. The methods they use to explore the world are also different from ours, possibly developing ways that we neither have nor can imagine.

After a pause, Bat Cat said: "For example, in our universe, there are superpower users, and the entire human race and society coexist with superpower users. Therefore, we have a very complete set of methods to study and combat superpower users. But if it were a universe without superpower users, this method wouldn’t exist."

Shiller nodded because he had lived in a place without superpower users before. After coming to the American Comics Universe, he found that, although rarely depicted in comics, the American Comics Universe indeed has many laws targeting superpowers.

Many methods that suddenly appear like deus ex machina for creating superpower users, such as the technology of super-soldier serum, actually don’t emerge out of thin air. It’s a technology tree that has been developing since the industrial revolution and is part of human industrial civilization. This technology wouldn’t appear in a world without superpower users.

Similarly, humans in the material world of the Cthulhu Universe might also have developed complete methods to deal with these monsters. Such methods might serve as a reference for what Iron Man wants to do. These humans coexisting with the Outer Gods might have already perfected the biotechnology technology tree, allowing Iron Man to skip many preliminary steps by just taking a look. It’s quite normal for Iron Man to go there.

"Let’s wait a bit for this," Shiller said, "we need to first understand what’s going on in this city."

Actually, Shiller had planned to take a look at the material world anyway, but not to find Iron Man—just to get some souvenirs.

In the Outer Gods’ hometown, it’s hard to get anything. Even if Yog is good-tempered, he wouldn’t allow the sale of divine merch, and taking a Tindalos Hound would displease Morpheus, the Lord. But in the material world Earth’s ocean, nobody really cares. Picking a few creatures to raise in the High Tower shouldn’t be noticed. Since I’m here anyway, why not take something back?

This time it’s convenient to look for traces of Iron Man in the material world, and I can bring back some souvenirs. If there’s any spare time, I might also look for some data at Mi Da, which might be useful for Strange.

Bat Cat also turned to look at the city. He is different from the other cats; he is not a house cat but a resident of the Kingdom of Dreams. The creatures there only resemble real creatures in appearance but are entirely different in essence. Compared to house cats, Bat Cat’s stats are much higher, and with Batman’s abilities, he’s many times stronger.

He looked at the city and then said: "This should be built by Iron Man, right? Why do I feel like I’m seeing Stark Building?"

This is not his illusion because the other cats saw it too. It’s undeniable—they must check out this city. However, the city’s location is at the original cube site but floating in the sky. How do they get up there?

Fortunately, the gear provided by Bat Cat was very helpful. The equipment from Cat City Gotham can make cats fly, which truly enhances their abilities. After donning the gear, two jet devices popped out from the sides of their waists, making the cats float awkwardly in the air, still a bit unaccustomed.

Little Superman was the quickest to master flying among them, as he originally could fly anyway. Next was Peter, whose body coordination was excellent, and swinging around New York before wasn’t much different from flying, so he quickly grasped it. But Shiller and Constantine remained somewhat stiff.

The main issue was that this was an external piece of equipment, clipped awkwardly around their waist, which was really uncomfortable. Shiller scratched the air with his suspended paw—cats’ bodies just aren’t suited for flying; adding wings doesn’t always make things better.

Anyway, the four cats still flew toward the giant city. As they approached, Shiller saw humanoid beings and was somewhat surprised, but then considered they might be robots left by Iron Man.

Getting closer, indeed, they were essentially iron men, resembling Iron Man’s armor. But Shiller had a peculiar sense of déjà vu. These humanoid beings reminded him of a sculpture inside the neural network computer, composed of fungi manipulating metal.

Strangely enough, the cats had already landed on the Sky Island, but the iron men showed no reaction. They kept pacing, walking from one side to the other, turning a corner, and walking back. Some were sitting on chairs, others were standing by the streetlights.

Feeling a bit eerie, the cats didn’t dare to approach further. But upon closer inspection, they found the city wasn’t quite right.

The chairs these iron men were sitting on looked like park benches but were not structured like human chairs. They weren’t just four-legged; instead, they were supported by many small steel rods, distributed rather irregularly, with one side having more than the other. The streetlight poles were also odd. A streetlight should have lights, but these were just a stick with a round metal ball on top, with no bulbs at all, more like a streetlight-shaped ornament than a real streetlight.

Closer inspection revealed that what looked like shops were simply metal sheet designs. Not only did they lack shop doors, but there were no windows either. The windows were merely darker metal sheets, and the billboards were color-contrasting metal boards.

What seemed like brick walls was actually uneven metal sheets. Asphalt roads were black and white metal sheets, and even the flowerpots and plants inside them were made of metal, just shaped like their real counterparts. The flowers in the pots were just a bunch of green wires, arranged in strange shapes.

As the cats walked inwards, they felt an uncanny valley effect kicking in. Everywhere were familiar objects, with the street layout not much different from New York, but with very low resolution—lacking any details. Everything was made of metal, only mimicking the shape without any function, looking incredibly strange.