Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 350 Barry's Taunting Ability

The woman carried her clothes into the elevator.

She hummed a song and casually put her phone back into her handbag—she had just spoken to her daughter on the phone and was in a good mood.

"Should we buy her a couple more outfits?"

She was preoccupied with her daughter's class reunion that evening and didn't notice a bald man walking quickly toward the elevator.

The elevator doors closed rapidly, but just as they were about to shut, a pair of hands suddenly grabbed them and pried them open again.

A figure barged into the elevator with an aggressive air and stood directly in front of the woman. She looked up in astonishment and saw a familiar face in shock.

The bald man in the black trench coat looked at the woman with a sinister smile on his face.

"Judge Howard, how have you been?"

The woman's shock quickly turned into extreme panic and confusion: "You...you were clearly dead."

"Thanks to you—yes, I almost died."

At this point, the man's smile deepened.

“I still remember the last words you said to me in court—May God comfort your soul, and now, I return those words to you.”

The moment he uttered those words, the man's body suddenly transformed into a strange cloud of green smoke, which lunged at Howard in horror.

At that moment, the elevator doors slowly opened behind him.

A golden bolt of lightning struck the cramped elevator space. Barry, wearing a gas mask, watched as the man followed the woman into the elevator, and was so anxious that he almost pressed the elevator buttons outside until sparks flew.

Fortunately, the two people in the elevator were busy catching up and neither of them pressed the elevator floor button, otherwise it would have taken Barry a while to open the door.

As he ran into the elevator, he found himself plunged into a strange green mist, and the man in the trench coat had vanished. He immediately realized that he hadn't been mistaken; this man was the culprit behind last night's murder.

Thanks to the mask's excellent protective properties, Barry was in good condition despite feeling a slight discomfort on his skin. He threw the corked bottle he was holding directly into the cloud of green gas.

After being released, the small bottle visibly slowed down. By the time it crashed into the green cloud, Barry had already taken several steps forward and grabbed Judge Howard.

Swah——

In the blink of an eye, Howard was carried out of the elevator by Barry, and even directly outside the mall. Barry stood her against the wall to prevent her from falling due to panic, and then quickly ran back into the elevator.

At this moment, the small bottle was still floating in mid-air, and its interior was filled with a thin cloud of green mist. Barry was very satisfied with this. He reached out and plugged the bottle with a cork, then put the bottle away.

He stopped and stood at the elevator entrance. At that moment, time began to flow normally again.

The green mist rampaged through the elevator, but two seconds later, he suddenly realized that after a flash of golden lightning, Judge Howard, whom he was supposed to have poisoned, had disappeared from the elevator.

Barry watched as the gas reformed into a bald man wearing armor. Only then did he realize that even the man's clothes were a disguise made of gas, a part of himself, rather than real fabric clothing.

The man turned around and immediately saw Barry standing at the elevator entrance. He was no stranger to this guy in the bizarre red suit who ran with sparks flying everywhere. This figure's recent presence on television news was almost on par with the Steiger Corporation lawsuit that was currently in the spotlight. Rescuing people from fires, instantly saving hostages, and taking robbers straight to the Central City Police Department—Barry had done a lot during this period. Since the authorities had long since acknowledged the existence of superpowered criminals, the name "The Flash" had already been reported on television and in numerous media outlets.

Although there are no photos of Barry in the media yet, the accounts of many rescued people are being pieced together to create an image of this newly emerged high-speed hero: a red afterimage, golden lightning, incredibly fast, able to save people from danger in the blink of an eye.

The moment the bald man saw Barry, he instantly understood what had happened, and his mood immediately soured.

"Kid, you're the one who rescued her?"

“You can’t hurt her anymore,” Barry replied. “Not with me around.”

"Kid, I advise you not to meddle in my business—don't try to be a hero, or you'll live longer."

"What else are you going to do? Poison me through the gas mask?" Barry chuckled. "I'm terrified."

"This is a classic case of killing the conversation." Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but comment on the monitor: "This person's words are too venomous; they're practically born to stir up trouble."

Sure enough, as soon as Barry uttered those words, the bald man's facial expressions immediately went out of control, and his face began to turn slightly red.

Looking at his twisted, angry expression, Barry felt that his plan to lure the enemy had succeeded, or rather, had been too successful.

So he turned around and ran straight into the fire escape.

The bald man, now deranged, stopped paying attention to where the judge had gone. His body turned into a wisp of smoke and drifted into the fire escape.

"Coward, all you can do is run?" The smoke reformed into the shape of a man, chasing after Barry: "So, the hero is just a coward hiding behind a mask?"

"Provocation won't work—you want me to take off my gas mask and fight you? You're dreaming."

After delivering his second taunt, Barry charged forward and threw a punch at the man's face, but his fist and body passed right through him, as if he were fighting against thin air.

“I can’t hit him.” Barry thought to himself that this was a tricky situation: “I can still keep his attention for now, but if he gets angry and starts releasing poison gas indiscriminately on a large scale, I’m afraid I won’t be able to do anything about him.”

With a flash of lightning, Barry disappeared again, this time running straight out of the mall through the passageway.

The bald man, once again transforming into smoke, gave chase. He was thoroughly enraged by Barry and relentlessly pursued him, determined to remove the gas mask and kill him. However, when he reached the bottom of the mall, he couldn't find Barry anywhere.

At that moment, Dr. Wells entered the hall of the Star Lab in his wheelchair.

“Sisco, Caitlin,” he asked casually, “If you’re going to drag me out of the meeting room, you’d better have a good enough reason.”

"Doctor, it's Barry—"

"I encountered that poison gas man!"

In a flash, Barry appeared in the lab and handed a small bottle to Cisco.

"Quick, Cisco, help us analyze the ingredients!"

(End of this chapter)