Super Detective in the Fictional World

2183 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 24

It had to be pointed out that Superman was already so old, and had never gone on a trip to outer space from Earth.

It could only be said that human habit was just that incomprehensible.

That was because ruling out certain predetermined standards before thinking about a situation was a more practical and efficient choice so that people didn’t have to refresh their understanding once again.

It was like when you wouldn’t immediately think of a girl with long, wavy hair as cute (except on special occasions).

!!

By the same logic, Luke had never considered that Superman might leave since the odds of that happening were too low, while the chance that Superman would run into an enemy that only he could deal with was even lower.

But even if the odds were one in a billion, it could still happen.

In any case, Luke never had Superman as a teammate back home, and Luke was the one who took the lead in taking down a bunch of supervillains.

Thus, he quickly adjusted his mindset. “Okay, it seems we really need a plan.”

After confirming that Luke wasn’t interested in Superman, Master Wayne was relieved.

He wasn’t Superman, who dropped everything to save people; his ordinary life and Batman were two separate things.

He was also a rich man, a big capitalist, and a member of the upper class, who had heard some talk of what Luke had done under his identity as ‘Bruce Bale.’

Master Wayne was confident he could take Superman or the Dark Knight one-on-one.

If they started working together and played off each other’s strengths, that would be a headache for Master Wayne.

That was because he realized that Luke was much better at conducting himself than he was. Or should he say, he wasn’t arrogant?

Even Master Wayne was a little embarrassed to target Luke because of Life 1, the nanosuit, and the arc reactor, let alone Superman.

After all… Luke had given too much.

Diana, who was the only one who didn’t need anything, seemed very satisfied with Luke’s exquisite and considerate afternoon tea today.

This wasn’t a small matter.

For a battle goddess who wasn’t short of money, strength, gear, looks, and lifespan, a man who could impress her was the most precious.

That was because most men weren’t even qualified to curry favor with her.

Superman was qualified, but he had a girlfriend, and their feelings were real.

Master Wayne was also qualified, but… he really didn’t move as quickly as Luke.

Seeing that Luke wasn’t going to take the lead, Master Wayne was secretly relieved.

If Luke wanted to steal the position, the chances of Diana objecting weren’t high, so it would be 2 to 1.

Master Wayne definitely wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against both of them at once.

Now that he had heard the best answer, his frown disappeared. “There are four very powerful existences in the classified files that Lex obtained.”

He then gestured at Diana. “One of them is Diana.”

Luke put on a show of being interested. “They definitely wouldn’t be weak if they are in the same files as Diana. But how do we know they’re trustworthy?”

I like that. Master Wayne raised an eyebrow. “I’ve already investigated. At the very least, they still have a lot of goodwill toward humanity.”

Luke nodded confidently. “Then what do you need me to do?”

Master Wayne said, “I already made contact with one. He didn’t agree to join us, but he didn’t refuse either. So, it’s best if we go together to see the other two.”

Luke rubbed his chin. “Will that increase the chance of them joining us?”

Master Wayne said, “The first one I found, Arthur Curry, should be half-human, half-Atlantean…”

When he said that, he couldn’t help but glance at the battle goddess, who was drinking tea leisurely.

Diana snorted and finally said, “Alright, I’m also half-Amazon.”

Luke looked astonished on the surface, but was secretly amused. He felt that he had done the right thing by not jumping out.

Look at Master Wayne, who got to the bottom of a person’s background and even revealed it in their presence. He could really draw aggro.

Luke often did this back home, but basically only with the enemy, while he saved his teammates the embarrassment.

Should Master Wayne be praised for being a righteous, ‘straight man’?

Of course, after feeling amused and slightly surprised, he immediately said to Diana, “Then you must be the most beautiful woman in the Amazon.”

Although she was unhappy about someone poking around in her private life, Diana’s lips couldn’t help but curve up. This person was really good with his words.

Master Wei: …D*mn flatterer!

Thanks to Luke’s flattery, everybody tacitly skipped over the subtle but inevitable topic of mixed bloods.

Luke had no objections to roping people in; he had even been waiting for Master Wayne to catch up.

Master Wayne was looking for teammates purely to fight, but Luke really wanted to see these teammates pass the system’s assessment.

After being here for half a year, what he regretted was that he hadn’t earned enough of a favorable impression with Superman.

Unless a coercive ability like mind control was involved, it was almost impossible for a teammate in the system to betray him.

It really wasn’t easy to reach that level of trust.

Luke had obtained so many teammates back home thanks to over ten years of an accumulated reputation.

In the wake of the Bat Squad, most newbies had the experiences of their ‘seniors’ as a reference point, and coupled with the impact of Batman and Knight being ‘deified’ for years, they passed the system’s assessment more quickly.

Here in the DC universe, he was still a newbie hero of unknown origins. Even though Superman was grateful to him, he still had some doubts.

But Luke was patient.

Compared with how he had started from scratch back home, he was at least a high-level bigshot here with abundant resources. It really wasn’t hard for him to win over his teammates.

He was confident he could obtain lists of the battle goddess’s and Superman’s abilities within five years — that is, if they were available to be learned.

...

Master Wayne? That was a mystery.

After all, the thoughts of mental patients varied widely. They might pass the system’s assessment tomorrow, or they might still be stubborn and doubt everything for years.

Doomsday didn’t have a list of abilities.

The very considerate system had explained: Crude manufactured lifeforms ≈ animals.

To put it simply, the weighting in the system was Earthlings > alien humanoids (human intelligent lifeforms like Thor and vampires) > animals (manufactured lifeforms like Doomsday and the Blood God Experimental).

Although alien humanoids weren’t protected by the system, they could still be considered to be the same kind to a certain extent.

Doomsday, who had been created out of General Zod’s body, and the Blood God Experimental, who was a human transformed, were definitely different.

Luke felt quite a bit of regret.

Putting aside the hard body that could withstand a nuclear weapon, Doomsday’s ability to absorb energy to strengthen its body would have been a perfect match for Intermediate Evolution.

If Luke combined the two, he might be able to come up with a new ability to evolve by absorbing energy.

To use Doomsday as the upper threshold, even if Luke had just 50% or even 30% of this ability, he could become a player on Superman’s level.

...

Even if he couldn’t beat Superman with the weak version of this ability, he could completely crush anyone below him — this was already much stronger than Luke’s current threshold.