Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4583 - 3655 - A New Christmas Atmosphere (2)

After sending Waylon out the door, Shiller surveyed the newly arranged children's bedroom, thinking that tonight he still had to go to the station to pick up Billy's personal belongings that Victor had packed, and then bring him back from school.

After Brainiac took over Earth, he initiated a socialized child-rearing system. In simple terms, humans were only responsible for giving birth; after that, the children would be handed over to be raised in nurseries until they were old enough to attend school.

This was clearly because the range of capability among human parents was just too vast. If full implementation of family education were allowed, the potential of the majority of the human race couldn't be realized. This race was already weak enough, and without proper education, Brainiac, as an artificial intelligence, felt there was no future.

So, although it was hard for humans to accept this approach, Brainiac resolutely enforced this policy.

But after a period of execution, humans found there were certain benefits to it. This was because Brainiac wasn't the unfeeling, purely logical machine they had imagined; he was far more advanced than that. While he couldn't experience things like kinship, he could understand the human need for it and would try to meet that need as much as possible.

Thus, the socialized child-rearing system he established actually had society, under his governance, take on the most challenging part of raising children, ensuring the children's physical and mental health and providing quality education. Less important aspects, such as playing with the child, were left to the parents.

Newborns were pretty much fully cared for by Brainiac. Initially, many parents who had only one child strongly opposed Brainiac taking their children, but the majority of parents with multiple children and older generations who had been through it advised them to hand over the children obediently, saying, "Otherwise, you'll be the one crying during night feeding."

In essence, Brainiac created a large postpartum center that cared for both mothers and children. Most tasks were completed by professionals, and the quality of child-rearing and postpartum care for women far surpassed what most families could achieve.

After all, for two humans needing several hours of rest a day, raising a newborn is a laborious and tiresome task. But for an artificial intelligence capable of taking down both the Legion of Brainiac and the Emotional Spectrum Army, child-rearing is not a difficult task.

This was also part of Brainiac's procreation encouragement policy. It proved somewhat effective, as many parents hesitant to have another child were actually unwilling to raise another child. If all they needed to do after childbirth was hand over the child, it would sway many people.

Additionally, because Brainiac took on the most difficult and complex parts of child-rearing, biological parents only needed to provide emotional companionship, thereby reducing pressure on both sides.

Most parents are not unloving; they're simply too exhausted by the combination of daily work and family care to devote more energy to accompanying and educating their children, possibly transferring their external stress onto the children, allowing the children to experience the same pressure. This is unhealthy for both sides.

But if they don't need to care for, supervise, or educate them, but only need to spend a few hours a week with the child, then most people have the patience for that, and their attitude would be much better.

For children, when they are young, they often don't understand why parents educate and urge them. They don't get why, when they don't want to do their homework, their parents force them to do it, failing to appreciate their parents' good intentions, leading to lots of complaints and believing their parents aren't treating them well.

However, if this part of the responsibility is handled by Brainiac, then their complaints would be directed at this unempathetic AI, and they would instead see their parents, who spend rare rest time with them, as the understanding and caring ones, which could improve the parent-child relationship.

Moreover, altering the relatively closed family model helps sift out those with mental illnesses. Those lousy parents who aren't willing to spend even a few hours with their children on weekends, are extremely unstable, and even vent their stress on their children can have their custody rights directly stripped. This at least ensures the child isn't harmed.

So although Shiller needed to have Billy stay over for a while, he didn't need to be responsible for educating him or helping him with homework. The homework was finished in after-school programs, and breakfast and dinner would be delivered by catering staff. Shiller just had to provide a place to stay, and in the evening, accompany him by reading some extracurricular books.

After tearing off a page from the calendar, he realized there were exactly ten days left until Christmas. It seemed Brainiac intended to hold a grand celebration of victory during this Christmas, with the media already warming up to it.

Though Brainiac essentially won the battle, humans did play a crucial role. Before this war, almost no one thought they could win, even the outstanding humans who had reset alongside Brainiac several times had little hope, but they ultimately won.

This indeed was a victory worth celebrating. After all, a weak Earth Surface Civilization had defeated an alliance of the strongest opposing forces in the cosmos. Though they didn't exert their full force, for humans, defeating a powerful enemy was enough to boost their spirits.

Due to time constraints, Brainiac's methods of ruling Earth were somewhat abrupt. During the entire war period, humanity had to accept his rule under pressure, though there were some complaints.

To prevent these negative emotions from festering or spreading, Brainiac adjusted various measures to partially reduce the control in less important areas, lowering human pressure; on the other hand, he used media tactics to continually brainwash humans into accepting the status quo and even progress further.

In fact, many smart individuals believed that maintaining this system was beneficial. During the combat, they realized the Invaders weren't fighting chaotically; they came prepared and clearly didn't fight at full strength.

They thought, what if the invaders return tomorrow or come every day? What if one day, they finally decide to exterminate Earth?

The crisis sense from external threats prompted them to call for coexistence with Brainiac. Most of these people were battle heroes from the war. Brainiac also needed to give them a platform to voice their opinions, allowing these respected human pioneers to change humanity's perception of him. The Christmas celebration was a good opportunity.

But this had nothing to do with Shiller; he didn't participate in combat at all. Although he'd rather be sent to Krypton to fight or screw nuts than teach, Brainiac didn't allow minors and mentally ill individuals on the battlefield, so Shiller had no chance to become a combat hero.

However, Gotham did produce several combat heroes. One was Super Girl Kara, which wasn't surprising since she was a Kryptonian, and a great fighter. She led a frontline brigade that directly repelled Kindly Granny's special forces, and when the results were announced, many couldn't believe it.

Kara didn't reveal her Kryptonian identity, meaning she participated in battle as a human. This victory was the first piece of good news during the grueling resistance process, greatly boosting morale at the time.

To avoid accusations of the Justice League fleeing, Clark and Pamela also returned to make appearances. Both also achieved commendable results. When Pamela's vines fought against the Demon-like Army, it was as if the very road was worn away by battle.

After Superman, Pamela could report to All Things Green that she now had the power to defeat the Darkseid Legion. Why the need to fight the Darkseid Legion, you needn't care for now.

Kara and Pamela were both students of Gotham University, and their outstanding performances improved the reputation of Gotham University. If this year's football match goes well, joining the Ivy League seems hopeful.

Around eight o'clock, Shiller boarded the shuttle bus heading to Gotham University. To alleviate traffic congestion in Gotham, Brainiac opted for an all-or-nothing approach: no one should drive private cars, everyone should take school and shuttle buses.

Initially, there were many complaints, but people eventually realized they didn't mind so much not having to drive themselves and being able to sleep on the ride.

Shiller also closed his eyes to catch some sleep on the shuttle bus. Nearly all professors were the same, some reviewing teaching plans.

Under Brainiac's rule, Gotham University was hell for slackers. To be precise, all universities under his rule became a nightmare for slackers.

Brainiac's teaching evaluation system was far more scientific and comprehensive than the one humans used. He required all teachers to regularly submit teaching plans, with no delays allowed; every class was monitored in real-time, teachers had to meticulously teach, or they would be penalized, and if the penalties accumulated, they'd be fired. Fired professors had the option to work as ordinary clerks or engage in physical labor.

However, student requirements were also stringent. Not only was skipping class not allowed, but every class also had in-class assessments, and under his comprehensive monitoring, cheating was impossible. If students failed exams, they would lose points, and accumulating too many would lead to expulsion.

However, this was mainly targeted at undergraduates, since sometimes producing research results at the postgraduate level depends on some luck. Nevertheless, a large number of master's and PhD students perpetually unable to graduate were cleared out.

Three under Shiller were removed. Unfortunately, Bruce wasn't among them; those removed were the hopeless cases who had been there for over a decade.

The good news was, research slots for the Psychoanalysis Method were restricted. This meant Brainiac didn't allow too many people to research this direction; currently, Shiller had three slots. Bruce was also transferred to research Behavioral Science.

In fact, the three currently researching the Psychoanalysis Method under him had no particular talent. Fortunately, Jenna, the sister of the Magic Twins, joined Gotham University this year, and if all goes well, she should choose this research direction.

Shiller considered this the only good thing Brainiac had done for him. He could even overlook Brainiac calling him a terminally ill patient and denying his visa three times because of it.