After Brainiac completely replaced all levels of administrative staff, administrative efficiency increased several times, but it also meant that unless it was very specialized technical work, everyone had to do some extra administrative work.
Shiller needed to be responsible for the Christmas decorations in the two classrooms of the Psychology Department and the public office. Simply put, it was about arranging the decorations shipped by Brainiac, working on the bulletin board, and preparing various things for the celebration.
Actually, even during wartime control, it didn't stop Brainiac from engaging people in festivals. To be precise, he insisted on celebrating holidays for humans. People were begging him: Do something serious! With the crisis hanging over Earth that could destroy it at any time, do you still have the time for celebrations?!
However, Brainiac is a super artificial intelligence. This means he has a very comprehensive understanding of human physiological and psychological needs. He believes collective celebrations help reduce human mental stress, so even when the war situation is tense, he reallocates some redundancy to allow humans to celebrate.
Yet, the variety of festivals in different countries and regions is extensive, making it difficult to separate them; hence generally, a representative festival is chosen for a whole week. For example, Asia celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Americas celebrate Thanksgiving. Although no holidays are granted, at least mooncakes and roast turkey are distributed.
After victory, there's even more reason to celebrate properly. So preparations start ten days in advance, and because everyone must participate, the Christmas atmosphere is even stronger than before he came.
Shiller used not to celebrate Christmas: he had never hosted any Christmas dinner, exchanged gifts with anyone, or accepted gifts from students, just receiving greeting cards at most. It can be said this is the first time he's celebrating Christmas in over a decade here.
After lunch, there's no class in the afternoon. Shiller first went to the administrative building to collect props for decoration. Just as he entered, he encountered an unexpected figure.
"Victor, you're back?" Shiller quickly approached and called out to Victor, who was about to get on the elevator.
"Oh, Shiller, I was just about to find you. I just got back not long ago, and Brainiac already assigned me work. I have to get the Christmas decorations done in the physics lab building."
"So you came back for Christmas?"
"Yes, most people from Krypton came home to celebrate. But we only have a two-day holiday, leaving right after the festival."
"Not celebrating New Year's?"
"No need, these two days are too close together. We are among the first batch to return. My Eastern colleagues won't be able to go back for their festival for another two months."
"Spring Festival?"
"Yes, they have their own calendar there, and it seems the celebration is at the end of January or the beginning of February."
"I'm going to pick up Billy tonight; do you want to come with me?"
"Can't do, I can't even leave school today. A student in my Cryogenic Lab got injured while doing an experiment, and I have to visit him in the hospital."
"Even with Brainiac, he could get himself hurt?"
"Brainiac significantly overestimated my teaching level and undergraduates' safety awareness. Even a super artificial intelligence couldn't stop him from sticking his finger into the freezing liquid..."
The two chatted for a while and took the elevator together to the warehouse upstairs. It was crowded with people, mostly professors and teachers from various departments.
"The weather is so cold." Anna rubbed her hands and said, "Later, I have to go check out the stadium layout. The football game opens tomorrow; the field better not have any problems."
"Have the players all returned?" Shiller asked. During the war, many senior students from Gotham University had been transferred to Krypton and hadn't completely returned yet.
"Yes, most have come back for Christmas." Anna said, "They will go home first and then come to school. Without these strong players, even moving the Christmas tree goes slower than in previous years."
"I heard most of your students were transferred." Shiller said, "Is there any trouble with decoration work in your math department?"
"Yes, those damn brats, dived into the research institute and won't come back for the festival." Anna shook her head in complaint, "Many took this opportunity to abandon math and switched to physics; where can I reason with them?"
Victor laughed and said, "All the professors are complaining about having too many students, only you are complaining about having too few."
"That's right, be content." Shiller echoed, "Brainiac helped me dismiss three PhD students and had most other students switch directions. Just for this, he's the best principal in the history of Gotham University."
Anna sighed and said, "You don't understand, hardly anyone wants to study math, and even fewer understand it. Those who understand it slightly know there's not much future in this field. Seeing how few students I have left, they're embarrassed to switch departments, taking advantage of Brainiac's momentum to shift en masse to applied physics."
They chatted about students while waiting in line. Engineering has always been strong at Gotham University, the strongest among all departments; in theoretical disciplines, chemistry is the strongest, followed by cryogenic physics, and then art theory.
As for humanities and social sciences, although the ranking is decent, it's not comparable to Metropolitan University. Psychology is also in a middling position: most who can apply to this school would rather aim for Harvard, and those who can't apply are too far behind, making it impossible to force.
Brainiac tended to strengthen specialized fields in university construction, bringing out weaknesses. Although not abolishing comprehensive universities, niche departments didn't get much resources allocated.
The cryogenic physics field where Victor is isn't too bad, given that after Gotham became a logistics center, the job market for this major is quite broad. But for people like Anna and Shiller in purely theoretical departments, it's basically just a couple of cats hanging around, and it's hard to find anyone when there's work to be done.
After queueing for about 15 minutes, they finally reached the warehouse entrance. Once Shiller went inside, he found the shelf with the items for the psychology department by their number. Half a minute later, Shiller looked at the giant Christmas tree and was at a loss for words—so Brainiac expected him to move this tree?
This wasn't just a decorative Christmas tree, but a real giant fir, cut down less than two hours ago, and a full three meters tall. Even two football players couldn't carry it away, so how were a bunch of desk workers supposed to move it?
Just as he was internally complaining about Brainiac, a commotion erupted outside the door. Soon, several hulking students squeezed in and greeted the professor. Shiller recognized them.
"Are they members of the football team?" Shiller asked in a low voice.
At this point, a more familiar face squeezed through: "Hey, Professor, it's me."
Kara waved at Shiller and said, "We'll take care of transporting these large items to where you need them. You just take those packages over there."
Shiller breathed a sigh of relief, but looking at the manpower, there were only about six or seven people, and there were fifty or sixty Christmas trees piled up here; how long would it take to move them all?
The professors didn't mind; those with classes took the small decorations and left directly, those without just stood around playing on their phones. Brainiac didn't care.
They could wait, but Shiller couldn't. After class, he still had to pick up Billy. So he called out to the Gray mist internally.
The Gray mist didn't need to carry things. A fog covered Gotham University, and almost instantaneously, all the Christmas trees were placed in front of the doors of the various departments' buildings.
Shiller's figure appeared at the door of the psychology department's common office. Several students were already waiting there.
"Place these two trees in front of the office windows. Hang the ribbons over there. Place the gift boxes far from the door so no one trips over them. Each window decoration should have two on each side, make sure they're symmetrical. Almost everyone in this office has OCD..."
Shiller directed the students as they began setting up. Brainiac began frantically messaging him on his phone:
"What was that?"
"Professor, what was that mass of fog just now?"
"How did you move the Christmas trees, Professor?"
"Professor!!!"
Shiller impatiently set his phone to silent, but Brainiac then started yelling through the office's speaker system. Helplessly, Shiller took out his phone and replied, "That's my superpower, what's wrong?"
"You're a superpower user?! Why didn't you say so sooner?!"
"If I told you, would you have passed my psychological evaluation?"
Brainiac went silent. Shiller smirked inwardly—it's not that he didn't want to help with the war; it's because Brainiac insisted he was a mental patient and wouldn't let him onto the battlefield.
The funniest thing was that Brand's visa was also rejected by Brainiac, citing extreme myopia as a reason for failing the medical exam.
Even funnier was that Lucifer's visa was approved, but Brainiac didn't know he was an angel, and the medical exam didn't find anything wrong, so he was sent straight to the geological energy survey station on Krypton as a porter.
They certainly had an unconventional policy on talent deployment.
In truth, there are quite a few superpower users hidden on Earth, but the vast majority are easily discovered. For example, Lilith was recruited into Brainiac's think tank almost immediately, using her mind reading and prophecy ability to make judgments on the battlefield situation.
Previously, the students from the Mercury Base were pretty much the main force on the front lines. Clearly, this war had trained them well, and now they were still holding the last watch before Christmas at the temporary base on the edge of the Solar System.
The performance of the Atlanteans during the war was particularly impressive: they are naturally suited to the cosmos combat environment, have various superpowers, and are numerous. Mera is also a rare commander capable of orchestrating large army operations, and Aquaman Arthur went as well.
When fighting against Darkseid's legion, they took down quite a few tough opponents. Although the casualties were significant, it greatly boosted their reputation among the human race—after all, they were also protecting Earth and indirectly protecting humans.
Brainiac didn't govern them too strictly because the resources of the sea are practically infinite, they are still in a primitive tribal period, and they have no social system issues, making them easier to sustain than humans.
But due to their heavy casualties, Brainiac coordinated to provide them with some Green lantern energy for healing patients and, through Diana, obtained some special building materials from Mount Olympus to help them construct their underwater city.
The Gods of Mount Olympus did not participate in the war, but the Amazonian Woman Warrior also performed remarkably well in the war: charging at the front, retreating at the back, bravely blocking the enemy, and fearlessly risking their lives. It significantly improved people's goodwill towards the Amazons.