Shiller and Billy got off the car, Shiller took down Billy's backpack, then said, "Wait here for me a moment, I'll bring the backpack inside, and then we'll go to the community cafeteria for dinner."
Billy nodded, standing in the courtyard looking around. Shiller went inside to put down his backpack, changed into a trench coat, and led Billy towards the cafeteria.
Now basically every community has a cafeteria transformed from an original restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On weekdays, it only provides breakfast and dinner, which you can eat there or order meals.
Shiller goes to work quite early, so he generally opts to have breakfast delivered while he walks over for dinner.
He chooses to eat dinner there because the community cafeteria was transformed from a high-end lakeside restaurant, with quite a nice environment. The original chef is still employed there, so although the dishes are the same, the chef pays more attention to detail, making even a sandwich taste better than those from the school cafeteria.
Entering the restaurant, Shiller found the seat Brainiac reserved for him according to the number. Since there aren't many people in their community, and they came early, this time the seat was right by the lake.
Shiller specifically opened his phone to look at the menu and found that you could now add dishes to the order, and the additional dish menu was different from the school cafeteria one. He saw a few familiar dishes there, all signature dishes of the chef, which seemed to be based on the chef's ability to change the menu.
The chefs at Gotham University have never been great, their food isn't bad, but it's also limited to not being bad. However, Shiller isn't very picky about these things, so he usually eats at the staff cafeteria.
After all, the lakeside restaurant used to be a private restaurant, the level of employed chefs cannot be compared. But Brainiac is not easy to deal with either, the menu prices are completely restored to this restaurant's level. Shiller's favorite black truffle short ribs cost four times what he spent on the cod he ordered for lunch!
Shiller calculated that just this one dish is nearly equivalent to his week's wage points, and he is, after all, a professor, so his wage points aren't low. It seems Brainiac is still quite opposed to extravagant consumption.
Despite this, Shiller still chose to add a dish and ordered another dish of fried fries that Billy liked, which was much cheaper.
Speaking of Brainiac's wage system, Shiller actually thinks it's quite reasonable. What Brainiac provides is not a dead wage, it's not the same price whether you work more or less. Even for someone like Shiller, who is a clerical worker, it's piecework payment.
Now Shiller has weekends off, he has thirteen classes a week, meaning there's an average of two to three classes every day. Wages are calculated based on the number of classes, if the classes are rescheduled this week, then one class's wage is deducted.
And the wage for a class is not fixed, it is multiplied by the coefficient based on students' grades, multiplied by the base wage for one class, and then averaged with the results produced to obtain a comprehensive wage standard.
The calculation is very complicated, and Shiller hasn't bothered to calculate it carefully, but anyway, the better the students' grades, the more results the graduate students and Ph.D. students achieve with Shiller himself, the more class hours, the higher the wage.
The benefit of Brainiac's rule is manifested here, if the ruler were human, issuing wages this way would require hiring a large number of administrative staff to calculate daily. But Brainiac doesn't need that, calculations are his forte, and no one can find any fault regardless of who it is.
Other industries are basically the same. For example, when Waylon moves to East District, the driving time, the number of items moved, the weight of the items, even the road conditions and the temperature at the time, all will be turned into data and counted into the wages, which precisely matches his labor intensity.
Moreover, Brainiac does not encourage domestic labor because the implementation of socialized education basically eliminates the need to become housewives just because you have many children to raise. Everyone has to go to work regardless of gender.
Of course, there are also some diehards who are absolutely unwilling to work. Brainiac's solution for them is to build a human breeding ground, providing them with minimal resource accommodation.
This minimal resource accommodation doesn't mean providing food for them to eat to their fill but only providing nutrients that prevent them from dying.
The difference in this is significant. The nutrients needed by the human body are just those, most of which can be supplemented in the form of supplements. Brainiac provides nutrients in the form of supplements, two bars of nutrient solution a day. The taste of the nutrient solution is a bit like eating damp chalk.
Their living space has been changed to survival space, simply put, it is a space just large enough for survival, about the size of a single bed, eating, drinking, and excreting all in this one space.
Entering this breeding ground is completely voluntary, as long as you have labor conditions but do not wish to work, you can come in. Initially, quite a few people went in, including some protesters, but basically, no one could stay inside for more than a week before running out crying for their parents.
But these measures are targeted at able-bodied people who do not want to work, waiting for others to pay taxes to support them. Some who lost labor conditions or do not meet labor requirements receive free medical care and upbringing, while those with partial labor ability are placed in relatively suitable positions.
In fact, Shiller is one of those who do not meet labor requirements because he is a psychiatric patient. Brainiac once wanted him to undergo treatment in the hospital, but unfortunately, the doctors and nurses at Arkham Mental Hospital all expressed that if Shiller came, they might not be able to meet labor requirements, truly incurable in the slightest.
Although Shiller doesn't really want to teach, he would rather not be hospitalized. So he had Brainiac give him a very in-depth psychological test, from the High Tower down to the Abyss kind.
Then this quite logical, mostly rational AI Brainiac had to admit, Shiller is thoroughly insane, throwing him in any hospital is merely consuming resources meant for other patients in vain and would cause psychological harm to the doctors and nurses there, better not to go.
However, this does not mean Shiller has labor conditions, so Brainiac suggested he stay at home. Shiller did stay home for two days, but ultimately Brainiac let him return because, besides him, no one could manage his rebellious students.
If Shiller were not allowed to return, it would cause more people to lose labor conditions and emotionally harm future professors, better to let these mental patients harm each other.
We can't help but mention those who have always existed in human society, the naturally born madmen, otherwise known as group members.
Brainiac has yet to achieve genetic screening, even if he could, congenital mental problems don't necessarily manifest in the genes.
Brainiac's approach is to keep a close eye on them once discovered. He makes an effort to teach these people to behave like humans, as long as your behavior is indistinguishable from normal people, you will be treated as a normal person. But if you insist on going mad, then go to jail.
Brainiac is not a human police officer, he is currently the world's greatest detective, no carbon-based being can commit a crime under his nose without being caught. Even superpower criminals, if they have ever operated in society, can't escape Brainiac's watchful eye.
Unfortunate as it is, our supervillain Scarecrow hit the target. In fact, he did play a certain role during the war, as his fear gas is useful for any brainy creature.
But he is inherently antisocial, having conflicts with his neighbors, he resorts to poisoning them, ending up caught red-handed by Brainiac.
Fear gas has no effect on Brainiac; he directly dispatched War Machines to arrest Jonathan.
Fortunately, the poison he used was not lethal, at most making people have nightmares for two days, so he got a lighter sentence but was still thrown in prison, probably not getting out before New Year.
In contrast is Edward Nigma, who belongs to true psychiatric patients. His condition had stabilized and he was discharged previously, but Brainiac's standards are quite strict, and after some tests, they determined Edward's mental state was still unfit for social life, so he was readmitted to the hospital.
Cobblepot visited him a few times, finding Edward's mental condition relatively good; he can actually take care of himself, but because his severe obsession symptoms haven't improved, it looks like he'll have to stay there for at least a while, perhaps until after Christmas.
The torment from years of mental illness has severely weakened his mother's organs. Modern medicine is already powerless. Upon Cobblepot's inquiry, medical professionals revealed that his mother's health condition has seen a bit of improvement, and she can communicate with him normally now. There's still some time before he has to face the fact that she'll leave for good.
Shiller watched as Billy played in the snow in the grass with other kids. On the other side of the street, every household hung their Christmas lights, and when night fell, the colored lights illuminated the night. The sight seemed more precious, perhaps because it had been a while since Shiller last ate this dish, but today particularly, the taste of the ribs was remarkably good, and the restaurant's fireplace unusually warm. The rarity seemed to make it all the more precious, especially as Shiller neared the last few bites of his meal.
Just as he was about to finish, his phone rang. Pamela, sounding slightly tired, asked, "Can I stay at your place tonight, Jonathan? I have another guest room. But is there still a ride?"
"No problem, I have another guest room. But is there still a car?"
"""