American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

The firefly ignored Xiu En's question and shouted with its eyes closed.

"Who are you?"

Xiu En glanced down at Ivy.

"Ahem, I'm Batman!"

To match this line, Xiu En deliberately suppressed the guttural sounds in his vocal cords to the lowest possible level.

To increase his intimidation factor, Xiu En even tried to conceal the golden aura emanating from his body, but in the dark, abandoned factory, he looked like an uninvited guest who had wandered into a bedroom in the middle of the night and forgotten to turn off the lights.

It was so bright that even with your eyes closed, you could feel your retina hurting.

The firefly, suspended in mid-air with its goggles still smoking, was probably hearing such an unconvincing lie for the first time in its life.

The excruciating pain even paused for a moment because of this absurd confession.

"Do you think I'm stupid?! Huh!?"

The firefly writhed wildly, and if it weren't for the steel bars and vines binding it so tightly, it probably would have jumped up and pointed at Xiu En's nose and started cursing.

"Have you ever seen a Batman dressed in bright gold? And with built-in heat sensors? Besides... everyone knows Batman never uses the front door! I hate that flying black rat too, but your outfit is the kind of light pollution only nouveau riche would have. Who else in Gotham could have that except Wayne's new bodyguard?"

Garfield Lynns may be crazy, but he's not blind, at least not just now.

The most widely circulated story among Gotham's villains recently is that Bruce Wayne hired a glowing monster who can also eat bullets and guns.

"Tsk."

Xiu En did not feel embarrassed by being exposed.

He slowly removed the sunglasses that no longer provided any protection from the light, his pupils filled with regret that this generation of villains was not up to par. This look was even more piercing than the searchlight from before.

"Since you already know who I am, why ask such a pointless question as who you are?"

Xiu En spread his hands.

"You're asking a question you already know the answer to. Either that last bit of your brain, damaged by the incendiary agent, was completely burned away, or you're trying to stall for time with this kind of low-level question."

"No, no, no... I... uh?"

The firefly was speechless for a moment.

Yeah, I already knew he was the third wheel, so why did I shout that just now? Is this the usual procedure when I get knocked down?

Just as he was struggling between self-doubt and physical pain, Hugh did not give him a chance to reflect.

"Ha, the punishment for wasting time."

Xiu En casually reached out, and with a snap, as if breaking a cookie, easily ripped a green-glowing conduit from the fuel backpack connection on the firefly's back—the core valve of the depleted uranium injection system.

He tossed the still-hot valve into his mouth like a spicy snack, crunched it twice, and frowned even more.

"Pah. It tastes too strongly of industrial saccharin."

Xiu En spat out a mouthful of iron slag with a faint green glow, his tone of disgust clearly not a joke.

"This modification method... not only lacks aesthetic appeal, but also excessively pursues that short-term burst of power. You didn't do this yourself, did you, Garfield? With your brain that only knows how to burn, burn, burn, you definitely couldn't have made this kind of depleted uranium atomizing valve, which is precise down to the micrometer level even though it tastes terrible."

The firefly watched as the golden light approached it again. This time, the playful atmosphere was gone, and the entire luminous figure appeared infinitely larger in its eyes.

"Tell me, which tasteless, incompetent chef added such dangerous seasonings to your inferior ingredients?"

Firefly's mental defenses crumbled: "It's the batch of goods stolen from the interstellar laboratory! It came through the underground transit station!"

"Does this involve analyzing the employment environment?"

Xiu En didn't immediately ask who the chef who could make the spicy valve was. Instead, he pulled over a rusty oil drum next to him, sat down like an old man at the village entrance, and even crossed his legs.

He tapped the Firefly's strangely deformed helmet with his finger.

"Hey, you're a respectable figure in Gotham, though maybe only ranked third or fourth, so what are you doing coming all this way to Central City? To support the arson industry here?"

Xiu En's eyes held a hint of genuine doubt: "You know, recently there's been a kid here wearing a red bodysuit who runs faster than sound and faster than light."

"At most, you'd be hung on a dripping beast by Batman and exposed to the cold wind all night in Gotham. But here? Before you even pull the trigger, that kid could dismantle you into pieces and wipe away all your fingerprints for the rest of your life."

The firefly, hanging upside down, had its face turn a deep liver color, whether from the pressure of gravity or from excessive grief and anger.

"Damn it, you know nothing about Gotham's situation!"

Even when faced with this monster, Garfield still defended his dignity as a professional criminal.

Or rather, they couldn't help but roar because they felt so wronged.

"Do you think I'm crazy?! Who would want to come to this sunny city where you can barely find a dark alley if they could make it in Gotham?!"

He coughed violently twice, and a tear actually welled up in his eye behind his goggles.

"Gotham is no place for humans now! Batman used to just break your bones, but now that bastard's started playing mind games, and he's getting increasingly ruthless! He beats you to death the moment he sees you!"

He tried hard not to let the tears fall.

"Even the gangs have started to monopolize things. I've even seen demons, real demons eating people in the city. Besides the existing Duma Knights, there's the Black Flame Cult and other strange cults. Recently, a bunch of insane lunatics have appeared, shouting 'For the sun' all day long and then charging at me..."

At this point, the firefly suddenly choked up, its gaze involuntarily focusing on the golden light before it.

"I finally managed to sell all my belongings and acquire this new equipment, supposedly capable of generating quantum retention fields to counter speedsters, at a high price. I was thinking of robbing a few million in a simple place like Central City before heading back to Gotham to show off... Who knew I'd run into you, a demon who can even eat depleted uranium, the moment I stepped out the door! What kind of speedster nemesis is this?! This is practically a special attack targeting my bad luck!"

Xiu En and the sunflower on his shoulder exchanged a glance, and the sunflower helplessly spread its leaves.

"It sounds like Gotham is experiencing a serious brain drain."

Xiu En sighed, then changed the subject as if he were having a casual chat.

"I'll ask you one more time!"

"So, the seller who not only sold you this quantum retention valve that can deal with speedsters, but also made it taste so awful, is it that old geezer Falcone who's about to go bankrupt clearing out his inventory, or has a new player entered the market?"