The aliens who were picked up by Superman at the beginning

Chapter 199 Targeting Evolution

Jason Todd, who had just been infected, did not lose consciousness.

He forced himself to put his red helmet, which already possessed purifying abilities, on the head of Batman, who was bleeding heavily and nearly fainting.

Jason then carried Batman on his back, coughing almost every step he took, and staggering as he tried to escort Batman back to the Batcave for treatment.

But to everyone's surprise, the rest of the Bat Family arrived to provide support much faster than expected.

Jason encountered Nightwing, who came to his aid halfway there. Upon seeing Jason's face and the unconscious Batman, Nightwing immediately fell into a state of brain hypoxia and could not function.

"Jason?! How could it be you—you're still alive!"

Nightwing leaped from the high-rise building, performed a graceful spin in mid-air, and landed lightly. He then rushed forward, greeting Jason, whose face was beginning to turn pale, with eager excitement.

But Jason, amidst a violent cough, shouted at Nightwing, telling him not to come near him.

Nightwing finally noticed that Jason seemed to be in a bad state. Fortunately, as a warrior of the Bat Family, he was never short of ways to deal with all kinds of situations.

Nightwing's all-purpose belt also contained a simple respirator that could purify the air. After putting it on, he went up to Jason and suggested that he come back to the Batcave with him so that they could work together to make an antidote.

However, everyone, including Jason, underestimated the power of the Astora virus.

It is neither the clown's laughing gas nor the scarecrow's fear gas.

It has its own consciousness.

Moreover, after incorporating semi-nanomechanical structures, all human creations became powerless in the face of the Amozzo virus.

The virus deliberately blocked and deceived Oracle's scanning system. It wasn't until Nightwing carried Batman and helped Jason back to the Batcave that Oracle suddenly realized something was wrong.

But it was all too late.

Nightwing, Oracle, and Huntress were infected one after another and lost their minds. Jason, who still retained his sanity, finally realized that his own existence was the source of the virus mutation and spread.

Before Jason, as Infected Zero, completely succumbed to the virus, he and Alfred sent Batman to a treatment ward with isolation facilities.

The Justice League discovered that Gotham City was covered by some unknown and dangerous virus, and Superman contacted Batman to ask if he needed any support.

Batman did not respond after being called three times.

Superman realized something was wrong and quickly informed the other members of the Justice League. They began trying to contact the Bat-family members they knew, but received no response.

Cyborg was responsible for communicating with the Oracle, and the two had exchanged views on network technology many times in the past, so everyone was looking to Cyborg for the final hope.

"Wait a minute, it seems the oracle left me a special signal."

After three minutes of flickering, steel-boned electronic eyes finally looked up again.

No one noticed that Cyborg's expression had become stiff, as everyone's attention was diverted by Batman's disappearance.

"The Oracle said she is trying her best to analyze the virus's infection mechanism, but Gotham City is currently ruled by a crazed infected. Batman is already seriously injured."

Superman looked anxious and, without saying a word, tried to turn around and leave for Gotham.

But Cyborg called out to him instead.

Following Cyborg's warning, the Justice League members donned gas masks and then set off in full force to provide support to Gotham City.

"In fact, ordinary anti-virus measures are completely ineffective, and Cyborg was already under the control of the virus when he received the oracle signal."

Tim listened to everything Batman said in shock, his mouth agape in disbelief.

"Scythe was in the watchtower, so far from Gotham City, how could he have gotten infected?"

"That's why I said Lee Jung made a smart decision."

Batman was sweating profusely from his lower back injury, but thankfully Tim didn't notice because of his helmet.

After a long silence to calm his breathing, Batman finally spoke again.

"By retrieving the footage from the Batcave, I roughly saw the scene before Jason and Alfred left. Blue feathers grew on Nightwing's body, Huntress's bones and figure became more slender, and the Oracle grew together with the notebook installed on her wheelchair."

"They all gained superpowers under the stimulation of the virus, and the Oracle was even able to convert that strange virus into data signals and send them out."

Tim and the others were utterly shocked, while Rachel silently raised her head and used magic to transmit her words over a long distance to Li Zhen, who was hiding.

Lee Jung finally understood why Lilith had asserted that if he tried to circumvent fate and prevent the two of them from embarking on a future that would inevitably lead them into Gotham, he would still face inexplicable life-or-death crises.

Who would have thought that the oracle would evolve such an ability?

Even if he and Rachel hide inside the Titan base, once the entire Earth falls, Cyborg and Oracle can secretly send the virus into the Titan Tower in the form of data. Li Zhen and Rachel, who are completely unaware of this and have no defenses, will probably be in serious danger in an instant.

The guy secretly simulating Cyborg's signals to mislead him is most likely the Oracle who evolved this outrageous superpower after being infected with the virus.

However, this also raises a new question.

If even the oracle possesses such power, and considering the abundance of talent in Gotham City, why has the virus remained firmly contained within the city's borders until now?

The only time it almost leaked was when Tim used the Titan submarine's collection robots to forcibly collect samples and evade the city.

That tiny sample almost allowed the virus to spread rapidly throughout the ocean by corroding the Titan submarine.

In reality, even the neighboring Metropolis is completely unaware of the situation in Gotham.

Logically speaking, since the virus can be converted into signal data and transmitted, the progress should be similar to the global infection in the DC arc of Heroes of the Fallen.

The group of young Titans shared the same question as Li Zhen.

Batman finally slowed down, and his tone seemed to be forcibly suppressing some emotion.

"Actually, after I woke up, I went to find Jason once."

"As the first infected person, he seems to have a certain ability to control the activity of the virus; he did not completely lose consciousness and become a zombie subjugated by the virus."

"But Jason doesn't have complete control either. The reason he can still barely keep the viruses from escaping Gotham is because the viruses have already gotten what they wanted to a certain extent."

"The entire Justice League."

Batman's tone was more somber than ever before.

"Li Zhen must not appear in front of Jason until we find a solution."

"I witnessed firsthand how the Justice League fell—the evolutionary patterns of those viruses are so complex that they can evolve not only through desire, imagery, but even through targeted evolution within adversarial relationships."

"Superman wiped out a group of infected people. Among the infected people who reappeared afterward, some had Superman's powers, while others had grown kryptonite skeletons that pierced through their skin."

"The Flash's appearance allowed the infected to also evolve the ability to access the Speed ​​Force. Some of them evolved a strange force field that could break the balance between the speedster and the Speed ​​Force, preventing their metabolism from being protected by the Speed ​​Force, thus causing them to age continuously while running."

"Steelbones and the Oracle stimulated a group of infected individuals who were integrated with machinery, and some of these infected individuals evolved to secrete a strong oxidant that could make the parts where metal and flesh meet toxic."

Hawkman gave wings to a group of infected individuals, allowing them to soar through the skies, and another group could create chaotic gravity fields with internal pressures strong enough to shatter Hawkman's bird-like skeletal structure.

Mar looked slightly puzzled.

"But why haven't we seen any of those strange zombies you mentioned?"

"They were all recalled by Jason, and the original virus that controlled Jason's body gained control of their power by coming into contact with those evolved infected."

"Jason now possesses at least fifty different superpowers, including an entire Justice League."

"If Li Zhen lets any infected person see this, they will not only be able to replicate the power of the Witrum people, but there is also an 80% to 90% chance that they will evolve the ability to kill the Witrum people."