Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 383 Friend, I'm so hungry

"Barry, Barry?"

Suddenly, the doctor's voice came through Barry's earpiece as he quietly followed the two: "Did you run into that super-powered criminal? I think your uniform location is right in front of the Petersburg substation. What's he doing there?"

"I'm not sure, but I saw Donahue when I passed by the substation. He seemed to have left the substation ten minutes early today and looked like he was heading home. There was also a strange-looking person on the street who was following Donahue."

"Is it possible to get a photo of him?"

"Uh, that's a bit tricky, but I can give it a try."

Barry took out his phone and roughly surveyed the situation ahead. There were two rows of streetlights on both sides of the street, so the lighting wasn't too bad, but the man who was following Donahue clearly didn't want to be seen, and he tried to hide himself in the shadows.

"My phone's picture is blurry. Damn it, where am I supposed to find a camera with night vision right now?"

"Huh? You want night vision?"

Ma Zhaodi asked in a low voice, "I have a night vision camera in my bag, do you want it?"

"How come you have one of these things with you?"

"Is it normal for someone who spends all day setting up a stall to go to get off work, and usually has nothing to do at home, to like carrying around some strange and unusual props?"

Ma Zhaodi reached into his bag, and the three-wheeled vehicle's phone silently began to twist, disassemble, deform, and reassemble in his hand. With a series of tiny clicking sounds, when Ma Zhaodi handed the phone to Barry, it had transformed into an ultra-high-definition camera.

This isn't a new transformation that costs asset points; it's just a basic transformation achieved with the help of nanobots. As long as the volume difference isn't significant, this level of transformation isn't difficult for a three-wheeled vehicle.

Barry took the camera and instantly transformed into a bolt of lightning. He leaped from the wall of a nearby building to the rooftop, and then made several more leaps to a high-rise building in front of Donahue and the tracker.

Barry was clever; he knew that the golden lightning might be noticed at night, although the chances were slim. However, given the diverse abilities of superpowered individuals, the probability of being discovered was never zero. Therefore, he not only slowed down appropriately but also deliberately moved from the rooftop to avoid their line of sight.

"You can run on a wall at a 90-degree angle now?" Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but ask.

“I tried it when I was rescuing people before,” Barry whispered into his earpiece. “As long as my initial upward velocity is fast enough and the time it takes to climb the stairs is short enough, my speed won’t have time to be reduced to zero by gravity, and I can run on the wall—actually, I even tried it before, and it seems like I can run on the water too.”

"That's cool."

In the midst of their conversation, the two figures had already disappeared from Ma Zhaodi's sight, while Barry took the photo in an instant, quickly transferring it to his phone and then sending it back to the lab.

“Dr. Wells, this is the suspicious man who was following Donahue. I took a picture of him.”

“Okay.” The doctor replied instinctively, “Let me look for it. Hmm, there’s no such person in the Central City Police Department’s criminal database.”

“No?” Barry frowned. “That shouldn’t be the case.”

"Don't rush, let me check again. No, this person isn't a criminal, nor is he on the list of deceased prisoners. Wait a minute, let me check—"

Wells' voice stopped abruptly.

"Doctor? Doctor!?"

When the doctor suddenly went silent, Barry's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't help but whisper into his headset, "Are you alright, Dr. Wells?!"

“Uh, let me tell you this, Barry,” Cisco’s voice suddenly replaced the Doctor’s: “Caitlyn and I are back in the lab. I saw the search results for that person. He was found in the Central City Daily News. His name is Farooq Gibran, and he was one of the victims who were also seriously injured when the particle accelerator exploded.”

"He was like you, Barry, both of you were electrocuted that day and were in critical condition, but the difference was that his two friends were not so lucky that day—they were struck by lightning and died, right next to Gibran."

Barry then understood why Dr. Wells had been silent; at that moment, the doctor's guilt probably rendered him completely speechless.

"So, he's very likely one of the super-powered criminals?"

“If we follow the information provided by Old Ma’s informant and consider what he’s doing now, then he has most likely become a superhuman,” Caitlin replied. “However, he hasn’t become a criminal yet, so perhaps we still have a chance to have a proper talk.”

“That makes sense. We have to stop him to prevent him from going astray.”

Barry rushed back to Ma Zhaodi's side, only to find that he had changed into a strange outfit of a black robe and a white mask, and was now hiding in the darkness, quietly following behind Gibran.

"My God, where did you get this outfit?"

"It's normal for someone who spends all day setting up a stall and going to get off work, and usually has nothing to do at home, to like carrying around a cosplay outfit that they can wear to scare kids anytime, right?"

"That's a really bad way to act as an adult."

Thanks to the clothes, Ma Zhaodi's tracking went smoothly, but Barry had decided to have a serious talk with him, so he sent Donahue home in ten seconds.

Swah——

A golden lightning bolt flashed, and Donahue, who was walking down the street, vanished instantly. A moment later, he reappeared at his front door, looking completely bewildered, slapping his head and wondering if he had lost a few minutes of his memory.

How did I get home?

On the other side, Kahlil Gibran on the street was also completely bewildered.

"Where did that guy go?"

While he was still wondering, a red figure, crackling with lightning, stopped in front of him.

“Don’t bother, Gibran,” Barry replied. “Donahue is no longer here. Now, only I want to have a serious conversation with you.”

"I remember now, you're that 'superhero' Flash from the recent TV news, right?"

As Kahlil Gibran spoke, his body trembled uncontrollably. He stared intently at Barry with his bloodshot eyes, hidden beneath dark circles: "I don't care who you are or what you want to do, don't get in my way."

“I want to try to save you, Gibran,” Barry pleaded earnestly. “We’ve both been through the same thing, and I understand how you feel.”

"No, you don't understand anything."

Kahlil Gibran seemed unconvinced by Barry's persuasion: "Can you imagine how I felt when I woke up and found two friends who had been electrocuted by themselves? They tried to save me, to perform CPR, but the moment they touched me, they were turned to charcoal!"

"I'm so hungry right now!"

(End of this chapter)