Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 289 The Prelude to the Storm

While the police were conducting an on-site investigation at the bank, Ma Zhaodi had already found a hotel.

"It would be best to find a long-term rental," he thought to himself. "But there's not enough time today, so I'll set off tomorrow. I'll check the news for now—see if there's anything related to Drake."

After working various jobs, he had gradually developed a set of routine methods for gathering information. Newspapers were always one of his reliable sources of information about major news events, and when he had some understanding of certain plot points, these major events could usually play an important role in helping him pinpoint the current timeline of the world.

However, when Ma Zhaodi turned on the TV news, he saw the headline read, "Dr. Wells announced that the first particle collision experiment at the particle accelerator will start on time tonight."

"Damn it, why now?!"

Ma Zhaodi's eyes widened. Central City was the Flash's territory, and he had watched the first few episodes of The Flash, so he knew what the particle accelerator meant—it meant that tonight was the official birth of The Flash.

At the same time, it was also the time when the particle accelerator exploded.

"Where did those Drakes go?"

He wasn't worried about anything else, but if the couple really did settle in the central city of this world and planned to participate in the particle accelerator experiment tour that night, then they could potentially be killed by the particle accelerator explosion.
"What if I went directly to stop the accelerator from exploding?"

[Please note that the birth of "The Flash" is a core and necessary event in this universe. Attempting to sabotage the particle accelerator explosion will disrupt the entire timeline—your unauthorized entry into the universe will be immediately detected, and you will be forcibly deported and unable to return.]

"Okay, okay"

Faced with the system's warning, Ma Zhaodi sighed: "Well, anyway, there's still an old fox monitoring the whole process, so I probably don't have the ability to stop this—I'll just have to put in some effort to find out where those two went."

He looked at the other news articles more carefully, but the rest were probably not important events, and he had no recollection of them.

Since there is no news about the Drakes, we can only use other means, such as the city's population database, to investigate.

“They probably won’t have legal status after they come into this world. That means there’s a high probability they’ll become homeless, illegal workers, or they’ll simply be discovered by the police,” Ma Zhaodi thought to himself. These were the directions for his future investigations.

He turned on his computer and quickly searched for the agencies that recorded citizenship in this world—he was about to embark on a long-term operation in this world, and the sooner he began to disguise his identity, the better.

Fortunately, his advanced computer skills are applicable in both worlds, which made things much easier for him.

"Let me see how easy it is to forge identity records in this world."

Ma Zhaodi was full of confidence. He felt that his advanced computer skills were enough to hack into the databases of various institutions, and it wouldn't be difficult for him to forge an identity for himself.

But a few minutes later, he realized he was wrong.

"Holy crap, why is it still made of paper?"

In despair, Ma Zhaodi slammed his laptop shut. He searched through all the relevant information and found that both the Midtown Police Department and government agency databases were temporarily using paper documents for management, and the computer management system would not be implemented for several months.

"What else can I do? I can only wait for the data archive to be implemented, or maybe I should just infiltrate it."

He didn't want to waste any more time, so he walked out of the hotel and onto the street.

"There's nothing to do right now," he thought to himself. "Reverse Flash is watching over the particle accelerator; I'd better not appear in his sight—should I go find some long-term housing now?"

Just as he was thinking this, two people walked by on the side of the road. One was tall, older, and dark-skinned; the other was white and was holding a cup of coffee.

"Hmm?" Ma Zhaodi immediately sensed something was off; the black man looked vaguely familiar. "Hey Joe," the man with the coffee asked, "do we really have to go in pairs? We should at least get a few people from the police station."

“We can’t do that.” The black detective shook his head. “We’re not even sure if Barry is right. We need to investigate ourselves first, and only ask our colleagues for help after we find some clues.”

"Well, you'd at least need to bring a car, right?"

"Of course, there's plenty to run tonight."

As Ma Zhaodi listened, he secretly followed behind the two men—he thought of these two people and what they were going to do that night.

He thought that if everything went well, he would be able to have his own safe house and long-term emergency shelter.

squeak-

As the car engine started, Detective Coffee Cup in the driver's seat casually asked Joe next to him, "So, where are we going?"

"farm."

“No problem.” Detective Coffee Cup stepped on the gas. “But how did he know it was a farm?”

“Remember the feces in the tire tracks?” Joe replied, “Barry tested it; it was cow dung.”

"Okay, I guess we're going to be busy for the next few days. You know how many farms there are in Central City, right?"

“We don’t need to search the whole place, and the Ma brothers might have escaped overnight.” Joe shook his head: “Tetramycin, ever heard of it? Barry said it’s found in cow dung.”

"What the hell is that thing?"

"That's what I asked at the time—he said it was an antibiotic used in feed to prevent cattle from getting sick."

The detective with the coffee cup suddenly understood.

"So what we're looking for are farms that are still using feed containing tetracycline?"

“That’s right, our target has been reduced to four farms.” Joe patted him on the shoulder. “Barry said we’re sure to find a Mustang with a bullet hole and a flat tire on one of the farms. Don’t worry too much, man, I guarantee you’ll still make it home for dinner.”

"Okay, let's go."

When Joe and his partner went to work overtime, Barry Allen had already arrived at the Star Labs press conference venue for that evening.

He didn't come alone.

"How's the trip, Barry?"

The young woman linked arms with Barry, chatting and laughing as they strolled together. Her long, flowing, dark golden hair cascaded over her shoulders, occasionally brushing against Barry's cheeks, making him blush slightly.

With her fair skin and beautiful blue eyes, every smile and gesture of hers could captivate the heart of a bookworm like Barry.

"Didn't you go to Xingcheng? Did you find anything amazing there, or were you just trying to annoy my dad?"

(End of this chapter)