Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 428 Time-Space Dislocation
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Ma Zhaodi rolled his eyes. "The explosion and hallucination happened in the middle of the night, and I came to find you two days later during the day. Don't you have any memory of that time in between?"

“It wasn’t that long ago.” Drake shook his head. “The fire was quite spectacular. We were momentarily blinded, and when we opened our eyes, we found ourselves on the street. There was also a huge vortex overhead, and you fell into it. We never expected you to come to Central City right after us.”

“That’s not called a vortex,” Ma Zhaodi corrected. “According to the doctor, that’s called an accretion disk, which comes from spacetime—oh, right, that thing was born because of a spacetime wormhole.”

Having seen the original timeline, Ma Zhaodi always thought that the accretion disk's function was only to connect the spaces of various universes, but now that he thinks about it, it could certainly involve both time and space at the same time—that's why the entire Central City could see the explosion projection of the particle accelerator in Barry's universe, and that's also why Drake and Camilla were pulled to another timeline.

Logically, they should have been transported to the night the particle accelerator exploded, because what they saw was the firelight of the particle accelerator explosion. However, their arrival was delayed by nearly a year, and they ended up in another parallel universe outside of the Barry universe.

"Couldn't you just pinpoint the universe to me directly?" Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but complain to the system. "I turned the central city of Barry upside down, but found nothing. It was such a waste of my time."

[Note: The timeline and spatial structure of this universe are complex and ever-changing. Furthermore, this operation is a smuggling mission. The system can only lock onto the central city and cannot further determine the timeline and spatial location. Taking you to the central city of the main universe is the most suitable and safest option.]

I've told you everything.

Ma Zhaodi muttered a couple of things, but in his heart he agreed with the system's judgment. The Central City universe where Barry was located was indeed the safest among all the universes, and if a time and space travel search operation was to be carried out between universes, Barry and Cisco were indeed the best people to ask for help.

"This kind of thing is easier said than done."

Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but sigh.

By the time Ma Zhaodi had finished explaining things to the Drakes, it was already nine o'clock in the morning.

“I have to go back to Gotham City.” He scrolled through his phone, booking tickets online. “Ah, lucky me, there’s a flight to the Metropolitan Area this afternoon with a connecting flight to Gotham—what about you guys? What are you planning to do?”

"We want to stay in the city center for a while longer."

Drake gave Ma Zhaodi a big hug: "Although I still don't quite understand what you're talking about, like the Speed ​​Force, the Flash, and parallel universes, we think Central City is pretty cool."

"We'll probably stay here for a while, maybe a year or two, and then we'll go back to Gotham City."

“According to you, Gotham City has become much better, hasn’t it?” Mrs. Camilla laughed. “Thinking about it carefully, Metropolis has really changed a lot over the years. Central City may be a good place to settle down, but we encountered this kind of thing as soon as we arrived here. So, perhaps this place is not suitable for us either.”

“Let’s go back to Gotham. According to you, it’s gotten a lot better there. Maybe I can find a suitable job there.” Drake shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe I’ve gotten used to that somewhat crazy city.”

"Anyway, I'm glad to see you, old friend. Thank you for remembering us both."

"Oh right, remember the money you borrowed from me before? After Superman demolished all the buildings in the city center, I moved my Metropolitan residence to a cheaper location far from the city center, and I also used that money to insure the house."

"Then you really understand venture capital."

“What do I know about venture capital?” Drake shook his head. “It’s just in case. Even the insurance companies thought that since Superman had already caused a problem once, he wouldn’t blow up Metropolis again so soon, but they just took my policy.” Ma Zhaodi couldn’t help but laugh.

“I used to see those self-help gurus on the internet trying to fool people, saying things like ‘going all in is a kind of wisdom’ or ‘choice is more important than effort.’ At the time, I thought these people were kind of interesting—they didn’t even have a well-known company of their own, yet they went around teaching others how to succeed, spouting all sorts of methodologies and jargon, all very convincing.”

"Now that I see you, I realize that all those fancy tricks of this group are not even as good as the insurance policy you bought."

“It’s not just one insurance policy,” Drake corrected. “Anyway, I have some money now. When the time comes, I’ll take this money back to Gotham and take on part of the reconstruction outsourcing work. Your part will be considered an investment.”

"Not writing code anymore?"

"Nobody wants me anymore."

That's a pretty honest answer.

When Ma Zhaodi flew back to Gotham City from Central City, twelve hours had already passed.

"Another rainy day."

After getting off the plane, Ma Zhaodi took a deep breath of the rain-scented air. Gotham City is known for its rainy nights. Bruce had previously mentioned that he would try to clear the clouds over Gotham in a while and bring some sunshine to the citizens—this would help alleviate people's gloomy mood and reduce the crime rate.

Of course, Ma Zhaodi had already seen Gotham City under the bright sun, although he wished he hadn't—in those normal universes, a sunny day in Gotham was never a good thing; when he went there, he was caught up in the Laughing Mist War.

He walked along the street—the atmosphere in Gotham was different now; there were more pedestrians on the streets at night, some wearing prison uniforms, some not.

The faster the reconstruction of Gotham is done, the better. So those prisoners probably won't have to work night shifts anymore. Anyway, they're paid by the hour, so those people walking the streets in the middle of the night are actually out working.

In a sense, this is also a horror story.

As Ma Zhaodi walked along, he keenly noticed two familiar faces among the prisoners: Clyde and Gibran, whom he had smuggled over. Judging from their appearance, they seemed to have adapted to the life of working part-time and being imprisoned part-time.

Interestingly, Susie was following behind the two of them, holding two handfuls of soybeans in her hands, clearly to control the amount.

"She has learned to control her abilities."

Just then, Susie spotted Ma Zhaodi on the street in the distance. Her expression immediately turned to surprise and delight. She wanted to run over, but then realized that she was currently at work.

Ma Zhaodi waved to her, indicating that they could talk another time.

(End of this chapter)