Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 282 Are there any masters?

Titan?

Drake had heard the name from the residents of Metropolis before. It sounded like a hero organization made up of superpowered heroes, but most of the heroes seemed to be young people, and heroes like Superman or Batman were not among them.

Even the half-human, half-machine steel skeleton in front of us doesn't look very old in its human form.

Are you Superman?

Steel Bones frowned: "Then who is that guy in the city center who can fly and teleport, whose eyes shoot lasers, and who has a body of steel?"

“I know what you’re trying to say—but that’s just my body, which is why I have these abilities. The soul inside is David Ganderson.”

"And who is David Gunnarson?"

"He claimed to be a scientist, and that day he publicly declared that he was developing a clean new energy source and was close to success, but he needed a little superhuman help—so I went to his house."

"but?"

"But his machine had nothing to do with clean energy; it was just disguised to look like it. The whole thing was a trap—and I was too careless. After discovering that he was a frail scientist with mobility issues and using a cane, I completely let my guard down."

"You mean, his machine can swap the souls of Kryptonians and humans?"

“That’s right. After he succeeded in his scheme, he locked me in the basement, but he didn’t dare kill me because he didn’t know if it would disrupt the current state of the soul exchange. In a sense, David Gannerson was indeed a groundbreaking genius—but also a madman. I guess his congenital physical disability brought him a lot of discrimination, which made him cynical.”

Steelbone paused for a moment, looking at the devastated streets, the buildings billowing with smoke, and the Metropolitan Citizens who finally dared to flee into the streets.

“If you ask me, I probably wouldn’t sum it up as simply ‘cynical’,” he said. “It’s an antisocial act of terrorism, and you have to figure out how to explain it to people—if they believe you.”

“I’m sorry, Victor. I came over as soon as I picked the lock on the basement door. We can use the machine one more time and then destroy it. Fortunately, he doesn’t use a Kryptonian body, so it hasn’t caused too much damage yet.”

Cyborg fell silent again, unsure what Superman meant by "not causing too much damage."

"Uh, what I mean is, he doesn't know how to use Frost Breath, nor does he really know how to use biofield. I guess he might even be wearing earplugs to suppress most of his hearing—he probably can't stand my body's sensory sensitivity, so he was able to be ambushed successfully."

“Okay, okay, let’s leave this topic at that.” Cyborg waved his hand. “Let’s catch him first, then lock him up to prevent him from falling into the hands of the military—those guys can’t resist using this kind of technology against you.”

Drake watched as Cyborg and Superman were taken away by two other superpowered individuals, along with Superman's body. He breathed a sigh of relief and said to Camilla, "Honey, it's over. I guess Metropolis still has some security. At least those little heroes of Titan are pretty good."

“Drake, this will be all over the news by tomorrow.” Camilla sighed. “If we’re lucky, Superman’s reputation can be salvaged—but what about us? We’ll have to move again for a while. Remember? The house that was only renovated a few months ago is already uninhabitable.”

“On the bright side, Camilla, this is our chance to choose a safe house again—this time, we can choose a suburban location away from the city center so we won’t be affected by the aftermath of those superhuman battles.”

"That's not cheap."

“Don’t worry, our house is insured—at least ‘superhuman damage’ is covered by the policy.” Camilla nodded helplessly.

“Great, now I’m even more confused.” Ma Zhaodi looked at the video repeatedly, along with screenshots from the Daily Planet about “mind swap, Superman is innocent” and “Titans are safe, Jericho has done a great job,” and scratched his head in frustration.

"Which universe is this? And who is David Ganderson? Is there such a character in DC? This kind of overpowered body-swapping mechanism must have been written by the developers with their feet, right? How can such an alien-like inventive ability go completely unnoticed?"

"And Titans—isn't Cyborg a Justice League member in the movies? Who are all these people in Titans? Beast Boy? Wonder Girl? Jericho who can control Kryptonians?"

"Could this be some old comic from the Silver Age?"

After thinking for a long time, Ma Zhaodi's mind was buzzing. He just hoped that Ganderson could be kept under control and not replicate this machine again. Otherwise, if supervillains or the military caught him and got their hands on some superhero body with insane stats, the world would be in for another major event.

"But judging from the situation, Drake and the others aren't planning to move away. Didn't they move to the suburbs?"

Puzzled, Ma Zhaodi went back. He wanted to click on yesterday's news, but found that below the two news items, there was a small message from two days ago.

"Huh? What's this again?"

Strange celestial phenomenon appears over the metropolis, accompanied by a deafening explosion!

Ma Zhaodi: "...There are more experts?"

He clicked into the news and saw a video there.

"Friends, I'm sure you all saw the news reports about yesterday's disaster in Metropolis, but I want to tell you that the damage done to Metropolis by the evil scientists has already begun to be rebuilt today, and at a very fast pace—we have plenty of experience with building repairs."

"What are you so proud of?" Ma Zhaodi's lips twitched.

“Look up, my friends. We can see that the reconstruction of this city is proceeding smoothly, so there’s no need to worry. Metropolis remains one of the safest cities in the United States.”

Boom!

Suddenly, a violent clap of thunder rang out in the video. The host, who was introducing the scene to the camera, looked up blankly and was then frozen in place for three seconds by the sight in the sky.

Above the skyscrapers under reconstruction, the sky turned from bright to dark in a matter of seconds, and strange halos of energy radiated a deep and shining light, crackling and popping as their range began to expand.

Dark clouds loomed over the city, and the deafening roar was almost comparable to the apocalypse in a disaster movie—at this moment, not only was the host speechless, but even Ma Zhaodi fell silent.

"Is this really not a portal to the Chitauri invasion of New York?" he wondered. "Seeing Marvel movie content in the DC comic book universe—why am I having this dream?"

(End of this chapter)