Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 454 The World of Commercialized Heroes
"Is that what a superhero looks like?"

Hughie's explanation surprised Clark. He subconsciously thought that the guy who almost killed Robin and ran away was a supervillain, or at least a superhuman who hadn't committed any crimes yet. He never expected that the guy would be a superhero.

“But how could a superhero do something like that?” he retorted. “He’s nothing like a superhero.”

"No, no, I know what happened was very strange, but man, that's A-Train, one of the heroes of the Seven. He must have had a very important mission to do, or he wasn't feeling well or something."

"What is the Super Seven?"

Hughie was shocked by Clark's reaction.

"Dude, don't tell me you don't even know the Group of Seven—I mean, do you know who our current president is?"

“Anyway, he’s not a superhuman.” Luo Bin retorted to her boyfriend, “You’re always idolizing superheroes and the Seven. But those guys almost killed me just now.”

"Luo Bin, can we stop arguing for now?"

"How can I not be angry? You were just making excuses for the locomotive, but didn't I almost die? What exactly is our relationship?"

Robin's words left Hughie stunned for a few seconds. As a young working-class man who loved superheroes, he had an almost worshipful affection for the currently most famous Seven Heroes. In so many news reports and coverage on television, these heroes were always portrayed as warriors who maintained safety and fought against evil, and such news coverage had become a daily occurrence.

He instinctively refused to admit that the image of his favorite hero had collapsed, so he made excuses for him in his mind, but Robin's words made him realize that no matter what the reason, his girlfriend had indeed almost died.

One of Hughie's strengths was his ability to listen to reason and make sense.

"I'm sorry, Robin, I'm so sorry, I..."

Hughie apologized, looking dejected, "You're right, what the locomotive did just now was wrong."

Luo Bin's expression finally softened.

“Alright, Hughie,” she said. “I’m not in the mood anymore. You should go back to work and tell Gary what you need to say.”

Hughie's face fell: "Robin."

"Not today, I'm not in the mood—do you remember? You still have that locomotive poster on your room. I don't want to see that thing again when I come to see you tomorrow."

Robin waved to Hughie, then to Ma Zhaodi and Clark: "Anyway, although I don't have any feelings for the Seven, Superman saved my life, and you're a great superhero."

Clark smiled broadly; being praised is always a happy thing.

“Do you guys have Twitter or Facebook or something?” Robin asked. “I can follow you guys, you know, to boost your popularity and stuff.”

Clark scratched his head: "Uh, I didn't—"

“Yes, brother, yes,” Ma Zhaodi replied immediately. “But my friend’s phone is broken, and I originally brought him out to pick out a new one for him.”

“Hey, that’s a coincidence.” Hughie’s face lit up. “I work in an electronics store. I can pick out a cell phone for Superman.”

“Ha, Superman is the hero’s name,” Ma Zhaodi added. “His name is Clark Joseph Kent, you can call him Clark.”

Clark turned to look at Ma Zhaodi, quite surprised by his sudden loudspeaker-like behavior. However, after thinking for a moment, he did not stop Ma Zhaodi. His teammate had already demonstrated strong adaptability and planning skills in actual operations, and he believed that the other party would not make a meaningless leak without thinking.

Moreover, this isn't my own universe.

Seeing that Superman didn't stop him, Ma Zhaodi patted him on the shoulder with satisfaction. Superman was definitely a reliable teammate who would cooperate well.

Hughie and Robin showed no surprise at Ma Zhaodi's words: "Oh, Clark, nice to meet you—you have a great hero name." "These are my and my friend's Twitter and Facebook names," Ma Zhaodi scribbled on a piece of paper and handed it to Hughie and Robin: "See you next time."

Luo Bin replied with an "okay" and left immediately.

True to his word, Hughie led the two back to the electronics store. The owner, seeing him, asked with some surprise, "Hughie, why didn't you come with your girlfriend today?"

"Ah, Gary."

Hughie greeted the shop owner: "Robin left early today. Two customers wanted to buy phones, so I brought them back to the shop."

"Ha, you're not bad, kid. You even know how to drum up business when you're out and about."

Hughie seemed unresponsive to his boss's praise, offering only a lukewarm reply before taking a cell phone from the shelf and handing it to the two men.

"Did you bring your SIM cards?" Hughie asked. "I'll replace them for you right here."

"no problem."

Ma Zhaodi pulled a phone card from his pocket and handed it to Hughie: "This is my friend's card. How much does this call cost?"

"Put it on my tab," Hughie replied. "After all, I owe you a favor, so this is my way of thanking you."

“Oh, there’s no need for that,” Ma Zhaodi replied. “Neither Clark nor I are short of money. Hughie, it’s not Clark’s style to take advantage of someone’s kindness. That would make him very uncomfortable.”

"Ha, that's quite heroic."

Hughie smiled and handed the phone back to Clark: "Try it out and see if it's easy to use."

Clark glanced at Ma Zhaodi, now very eager to know where the phone card and the so-called Twitter and Facebook accounts came from—after all, no matter how hard he tried, it was impossible for a phone card and social media account from the original universe to be used across universes.

Moreover, while Ma Zhaodi's action of reaching into his pocket might fool others, it couldn't fool Clark, whose X-ray vision could immediately reveal that a phone card had appeared out of nowhere in Ma Zhaodi's hand.

"Does he have other abilities?" Clark thought to himself, "Old Ma seems to know a little bit about everything."

Ma Zhaodi smiled and took out his phone to pay—the overdraft payment system has some advantages in this respect.

The two said goodbye to Hughie and left the store. Ma Zhaodi then took out a driver's license, some other documents, including a bank card and a note, and handed them to Clark: "Identification documents for this universe. Don't lose them, or you'll have to get them replaced."

"Where did all these things come from?"

"Ha, I can't say that."

"Okay, then I won't ask."

Clark took the items handed to him by Ma Zhaodi and examined them carefully one by one: "Don't the heroes of this universe need to live in anonymity?"

"You guessed it? There's more to this universe than that."

Ma Zhaodi smiled. He hadn't watched the show, but he still knew something about the world and some of the characters.

"This world has commercialized heroes."

(End of this chapter)