Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 441: A very obvious cameo role.

Clark's visit surprised Ma Zhaodi.

"I do welcome friends to visit me from time to time, although I'm currently considering removing those three bastards from my friends list."

Ma Zhaodi rubbed his eyes and gestured for Clark to close the door when he went inside: "But this time of day is a bit much, three o'clock? Clark, you're being a bit too familiar."

Clark looked embarrassed and explained, "Well, I know it's not good to bother people so late at night, and we just met during the day, but you've known me for so long, and I think you're a reliable friend, so I came to ask you for help."

Have I known you for a long time?

“You’ve known me for a long time—I’m sorry, but you know my hearing is natural. Before I left Gotham City, your conversation with Bruce was no different from a loud face-to-face conversation to me.”

"Your numbers are really too high."

Clark gave an awkward laugh.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on your conversation. Well, you know, after that accident where we swapped bodies, I spent some time in that disabled scientist’s body—although the experience was novel, I don’t know if it’s the machine’s influence, but I still have some aftereffects. I have to readjust to my own body, including my hearing, the strength of my movements, and so on.”

“I’ve been working on this for the past month or two, and I’m recovering very well now. However, the subtle sensory parts are still adjusting, which causes my brain to still actively capture some information and sounds that I originally wanted to filter out.”

Ma Zhaodi raised an eyebrow.

"So you're admitting you're Superman?"

"You two already decided on this, didn't you?"

Clark's expression was quite calm: "In fact, I'm glad you discovered my identity, because you are all good people."

"Ha, let me state first that Bruce's way of doing good deeds might be a little different from what you imagine—of course, I'm not much different either, but I was corrupted by him."

Upon hearing this, Clark instinctively looked towards the corner of the room.

"Did you fucking install a secret passage in my room?" Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but grab a cushion from the bed and throw it at him again. "I didn't even open the window tonight, you bastard, where did you get in from?!"

A large, dark hand reached out from the shadows and caught Ma Zhaodi's pillow: "This time, we'll go through the door."

"That's not the point at all!"

"Well, we know each other's identities now anyway." Clark shrugged. "It feels pretty good, kind of like one of those secret hero organizations of justice in comics."

Do you know who Batman is?

"He's Bruce. Don't you all know I can see through things?"

Upon hearing Clark's reply, Batman frowned beneath his mask.

"Can you see through everything?"

“Lead won’t work; my X-ray vision can’t see through lead,” Clark answered honestly. “But you don’t need to worry too much. I usually try to refrain from looking into other people’s privacy, and if I do see something, I’ll keep it to myself.” Batman, however, remained silent. He never placed his hopes on other people’s morality; whether he could or didn’t want to was a different matter.

Ma Zhaodi could easily guess that the Bat Cave would soon undergo a lead-lined exterior renovation.

“You two are really strange,” Ma Zhaodi concluded. “One knows the other’s way of doing things, but still tells the other directly about his own weaknesses; the other believes in the other’s sincerity, but still uses the weaknesses told to him by others to make countermeasures. There are very few friendships in the world that are stranger than this.”

“My making plans has nothing to do with whether we’re friends or not,” Batman said in a deep voice. “But from my personal perspective, I’m still very grateful for your nobility and honesty.”

“There’s no need to be so emotional. I just think you can’t persuade him.” Ma Zhaodi shook his head: “Deep-rooted, old habits die hard. This is how he is for life. You can’t persuade him. Forget it, he’s beyond help.”

"Let's get back to the original topic. I remember you said at the door that you needed my help—what's the matter that's so urgent?"

“Oh, right, right,” Clark quickly said. “Didn’t we meet this afternoon?”

"Yes what's the matter?"

"Actually, when we met, I heard some strange, faint noises coming from you, but the noises disappeared quickly, and I couldn't catch any information."

Clark's words puzzled Ma Zhaodi. He thought about it carefully but couldn't find any strange sound source on himself.

"Noise?"

Yes, until tonight, I fought Titano—well, you might not know who Titano is, it's...
“A gorilla exposed to space radiation, whose eyes seem to emit Kryptonite beams that could be used against Superman,” Batman replied. “It fought you for fifteen minutes in Metropolis today, and it was Louis who got it to put on special sunglasses—and then you threw it back to the prehistoric Jurassic.”

"What? Wait a minute? Where did you put it?"

Ma Zhaodi's eyes widened: "Thrown back to the Jurassic period? How did you do that?"

“Well, there’s a time machine over there that can create a time portal,” Clark replied. “I threw it inside the portal.”

"Oh no, Barry, oh no." Ma Zhaodi shook his head inwardly: "The outrageous settings of the old comics have struck again. The Flash's unique skills have become commonplace. I really can't imagine how disappointed Barry will be when he hears this news."

"By the way, where's that teleportation machine?"

"It's been destroyed. Scientists say the machine only started working by luck; it hadn't been able to operate successfully for three whole years before."

"This thing's background function is way too obvious. What happened to the machine you used to swap bodies with last time?"

“I destroyed it. I burned all the blueprints and data of the machine, along with the hard drive, to ashes. My X-ray vision ensures that I didn’t miss anything. The mad scientist was executed.”

“That means they’ve been incorporated into the government.” Ma Zhaodi concluded in a second: “At least it can serve as a foreshadowing of a major event in the future.”

“No, he really was executed,” Clark corrected. “After he returned to his body, he went hysterical and kept repeating that he was Superman. I saw a woman named Amanda Waller try to negotiate with him, but the two of them couldn’t communicate at all.”

"Under pressure from public opinion in Metropolis, he had no choice but to be executed," Batman added. "In the eyes of the Pentagon, this was probably the last bit of value he had left."

(End of this chapter)