Starting with Naruto, I'll become stronger through my own efforts.

Chapter 385 Catwoman and Poison Ivy

The night after Christmas, the explosions at Kuhn Manor in the eastern suburbs of Gotham gradually subsided.

Xia Zuo stood atop the collapsed castle spire, holding a severed head in his hand, sighing incessantly, "What the hell is this? Another substitute."

"Just how many lairs does this old bastard have, and how many decoys does he have?"

"Damn it, they're taking advantage of the fact that I haven't seen him in person and can't access his electromagnetic field information!"

"You forced me to do this, I'm fucking bored."

Xia Zuo is not a patient person. In his previous life, when playing Heroes of Might and Magic III, he often encountered situations where he couldn't beat the computer. At that time, he would open the map editor and start cheating.

In the DC universe, Shazam is mentally ill, and his mental stability is even worse.

After failing to capture Carmine Falcone 10 times in a row, he was also fed up with the failures and completely tired of the cat-and-mouse game.

So he began to resort to unreasonable methods.

[HeartNet]

Within a radius of 15 kilometers, all information is readily available.

Unlike other extraordinary powers derived from chakra, the [Mind Net], through repeated exchanges with pirates Xia Zuo and Misaka Xia Zuo, has long since broken free from the limitations of chakra and is infinitely close to a natural divine power.

In the DC universe, this ability, which originates from the essence of life, is not only accepted by the universe, but also strengthened like never before.

Within a 15-kilometer range of effective perception, Xia Zuo can read people's thoughts through the [Mind Network], and even read shallow memories.

This intelligence-gathering ability is absolutely phenomenal. No one can hide any information from Xia Zuo. For Du Fu, a regional gang leader, it's a complete game-changer.

The tone of the DC universe is gray and dark, tragic, and balanced; any powerful ability is inevitably accompanied by powerful negative effects.

【HeartNet】also has a huge problem: the amount of information it acquires is too large, and ordinary people simply cannot handle it and will be driven crazy by the massive data flow.

But Xia Zuo had already been driven mad by 28 years of suffering. Of course, a madman wouldn't go mad again. Moreover, his mental strength was extremely high after he developed mental illness, so this amount of data was nothing to him.

Even if we expand the radius by another 5 kilometers, that's just a drop in the ocean, right?

It's more than enough for now.

After simply running halfway around Gotham, Shazor found Carmine Falcone.

Even he, a mentally ill man, never imagined that Carmine would hide in the sewers and mingle with outcasts.

Gotham's sewers are very wide, and in some places they are even quite dry. In the cold winter, almost all the homeless people gather in the sewers to avoid freezing to death on the streets.

Especially in areas with heating steam pipes, the temperature can even reach above 18 degrees Celsius, which is quite comfortable in terms of temperature alone.

Carmine Falcone and his cronies occupied this section of the underground passage, and they covered it with a thick layer of plastic mats and carpets, nailed wallpaper around it, and even ran electrical wires and installed lights and a television.

At first glance, this place looks no different from an apartment; Carmine even has gin and rum to sample.

But Carmine didn't feel comfortable; his hair was disheveled, his cheeks were sunken, and his eye bags were so big they looked like they were about to droop.

It has been a full 10 days since I was hunted down by a madman whose power was terrifying.

From initially dismissively ordering his men to find "Kong" and torture him, to finding "Kong" and killing him, and then to later hiding and desperately trying to escape, Carmine experienced the biggest upheaval in his life.

For the past 10 days, bad news has been coming in every day. His children, relatives and allies have all been killed. Even with a security team of hundreds of people, they still couldn't save his life.

Carmine Falcone was afraid. The older a person gets, the more afraid they become of death. So he sent out all his doubles and left the family business to hide in the sewers.

On such a joyous day as Christmas, he had to endure the pungent stench, huddle in the filthy sewers, unable to eat or sleep properly, and could only drink endlessly.

Carmine felt he was about to give up; he was about to die!

He poured himself another glass of wine, his hands trembling, and downed it in one gulp.

But when Carmine put down his glass, he was shocked to find someone standing in front of him. He pinched his nose and said in a muffled voice, "Old man, you actually hid in such a stinky place. It suits your shady identity perfectly."

Carmine's glass clattered onto the table and rolled off the table with a thud.

There was a carpet, but it wasn't broken.

Xia Zuo looked at the wine glass, his eyes twitched, and with a flick of his finger, the wine glass flew up with a "whoosh" and landed on the cement ground a few meters away without a carpet, shattering into pieces with a "crack".

Xia Zuo immediately narrowed his eyes in satisfaction; it felt so good to have his obsessive-compulsive disorder cured.

Glass objects that fall from a table should shatter into pieces, like icicles or large blocks of ice in winter.

Carmine trembled when he saw Shazo's performance.

Gotham City has no shortage of lunatics, and Arkham Asylum is filled with them. Even the psychiatrist was infected and turned into Harley Quinn.

But the monster before them was most similar to the dead clown.

They're not the same in their madness, but the same in their degree of madness.

He asked, trembling, "Empty?"

Xia Zuo laughed: "Actually, my name isn't Kong, but I like to write the character Kong after I kill someone. You're very perceptive."

Suddenly his face darkened: "But you're also annoying, Carmine."

"You made me fail ten times with your substitutes and your lair!"

"You actually forced me to use [MindNet] to violently drag you out of Gotham City!"

"I'm very unhappy, and the consequences will be severe!"

Carmine's hands trembled as he struggled to control his emotions: "What can I do to earn your forgiveness?"

Xia Zuo said, "I can't forgive you, but I can give you a quick death instead of slowly torturing you."

Carmine took a deep breath and said, "Fine, dying a quick death is a good thing. What do you want?"

Xia Zuo smiled with satisfaction: "Very good, I want your connections."

Carmine replied without hesitation, "Sure, how should I give it to you?"

He placed his hands on Carmine's head and said softly, "You don't need to tell me. Just don't resist me and keep your network of contacts in mind."

, 7

"Once you've thought it through, you'll be free."

At this point, Carmine's eyes had rolled back, and his whole body was convulsing uncontrollably.

But this was just a natural reaction of the body when it sensed the threat of death; he himself felt no pain at all.

Under Shazo's control, Carmine even felt very comfortable, more comfortable than ever before.

His thoughts were exceptionally clear, and his mind was incredibly sharp. Many people and contact information that he would normally need to think about for a long time or even need to use coded reminders to recall were all clearly presented in his mind.

Chazo thus acquired the greatest wealth of the Falcone family, along with the network of connections he had built up through bribery, coercion, marriage alliances, and assassinations of political enemies.

These people include police officers, gangsters, drug dealers, big businessmen, government employees and officials, politicians, police executives, journalists, newspaper owners, prosecutors, tax officials, and so on.

This is an incredibly vast network that touches every aspect of Gotham City, capable of obtaining the most accurate intelligence in a timely manner, and also capable of pushing specific individuals to high positions.

If there's any problem, it's that it's limited to Gotham City.

But for Xia Zuo, this is good, very good.

However, he doesn't need all of them; those connections directly involved in crime and darkness are precisely the ones he needs to eliminate next.

Carmine Falcone slowly died, his last words being the names of his family members.

"Carmina, you've come."

"Alberto, you unfilial son, how could you betray the family?"

"Mario, Sofia, Vincent, Luisa, Rocco—you're all here—"

Carmine spoke to each name he called out, as if the souls of these dead men were right in front of him, talking to him, or even arguing with him.

Carmine Falcone is dead. Chazo drew his blood and wrote a large "empty" on the wallpaper.

When Xia Zuo returned to his abandoned factory base, he immediately discovered that it had been intruded upon.

The intruder was very professional, moving with unusual gentleness, checking every place thoroughly, but leaving not a single hair or fingerprint.

However, physical contact inevitably leads to the transfer and generation of electric charge.

In Xia Zuo's vision, a series of footprints, handprints, and hair marks, like dragonflies skimming the water, were all clearly visible.

Judging from the traces outlined by these electrical charges, the intruder was a woman who was light and agile, and possessed exaggerated jumping ability and amazing flexibility.

Hmm, that waist must be very flexible, very flexible.

Xia Zuo took a deep breath, savored it for a moment, and said, "It smells like cat, and also has the fresh scent of herbs and trees."

"Hmm, the cat smells a bit musky—"

"Meow!!" A dark figure leaped down from the rooftop, a sharp voice snarling, "You're the slut! Your whole family is slutty!"

Five white lights flashed, slashing towards Xia Zuo's neck, but stopped abruptly before they reached her, because Xia Zuo had already grabbed the shadowy figure by the neck, and her arm was a little too short.

Actually, this beautiful woman has a slender figure, legs that are 1.2 meters long, and arms that are longer than her hips. Her figure is top-notch, but unfortunately, her height is just too much for her to reach.

The beautiful woman, dressed in a tight leather outfit and wearing a black mask with her signature triangular cat ears, is none other than the famous Catwoman, Batman's love interest.

Since the catwoman couldn't reach Xia Zuo's neck with her two paws, she switched her target and scratched at the arm that was grabbing her neck, causing strips of cloth to fly everywhere and sparks to fly.

Of course, apart from tearing Xia Zuo's clothes, those fair and tender claws couldn't hurt Xia Zuo's skin.

Since there was no threat, Xia Zuo was able to relax and observe the catwoman in his hands. He was attracted by her curvaceous figure and then admired her with a rather improper gaze.

The cat girl is angry.

Just because she can dress like this doesn't mean Xia Zuo can look good in it!

But Catwoman's anger was only so-so. She used all her strength, but couldn't even hurt a hair on her head. Even her punches and kicks couldn't make the arm holding her neck budge.

The earliest T0 version encountered a mentally unstable character who could only resort to impotent rage and cursing.

However, as we all know, the vocabulary for swearing in English is limited, and foreigners' imagination for swearing is even more limited.

Moreover, the catwoman's voice was sweet, and her cursing sounded to Xia Zuo like, "Meow meow meow—! Meow meow meow, meow, meow meow!"

Even the harmless meows stopped abruptly when Xia Zuo retracted his left hand and tightened his grip on the catwoman's neck.

The catwoman's attack came to an abrupt halt. Her face flushed, and she weakly clung to Xia Zuo's arm, her large eyes brimming with tears as she looked at him pitifully.

However, Xia Zuo kept in mind the motto of a great beauty: the more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to deceive.

This catwoman is so beautiful and alluring; whatever she's doing, she's definitely lying.

Unless she stops breathing.

She was really about to die; her face was deathly pale, her eyes rolled back involuntarily, and even her struggles with her hands and feet became weak and powerless.

"stop!"

With a sharp shout, vines began to spread in from the warehouse doors, windows, and ventilation ducts.

The lush vines, adorned with colorful flowers and dense foliage, didn't seem particularly dangerous, yet they pounced on Xia Zuo with lightning speed.

Xia Zuo could tell at a glance that the pollen from those flowers was a neurotoxin; just a little bit inhaled could produce intense hallucinations.

Hidden beneath the leaves are sharp thorns, and the thorns are covered with dewdrops that shimmer with a faint purple light, clearly indicating a more potent and deadly poison.

A rather dangerous plant, but also a rather powerless one.

Xia Zuo snapped his fingers with his left hand, and the severely weakened Wood Release chakra surged out like a torrent.

[Wood Release: Descent from the Sea of ​​Trees]

The warehouse and factory buildings shook violently, large chunks of the dilapidated roof fell off, and tree roots and branches as thick as a person's waist pushed through the concrete floor and grew wildly from the ground.

Amidst the creaking and groaning of the wood, the trees grew rapidly, stretching their branches and leaves, unfurling their massive canopies, each vying for space at the top.

In the blink of an eye, the roof of the abandoned factory's warehouse was pierced, and then the walls were pushed down by the tree canopy, making a huge noise.

The trees spread outwards from the warehouse, quickly transforming the entire abandoned factory into a green ocean and a dense forest.

Meanwhile, Xia Zuo's right hand also grasped another red-haired beauty, who had been wrapped in a thick tree branch and brought to Xia Zuo's side.

The beautiful woman on the right is wearing a strapless, high-cut bodysuit made of ivy leaves, long gloves, bright green pantyhose, and tall boots.

She is Poison Ivy, known for her sexy and beautiful appearance.

Xia Zuo raised an eyebrow, looked at the catwoman on his left, and said, "Catwoman Selena Kyle."

He then looked at Poison Ivy on his right and said, "Poison Ivy Pamela Lillian Aisley."

"How did you two end up together?"