I Create the League of Heroes in Gotham

Chapter 2: Absolute Loyalty

As the elevator doors opened, Dr. Hugo was already blocking the corridor outside, flanked by a group of menacing thugs.

One could only imagine the kind of people who worked security here.

Seeing Li Wei's bizarre attire, Dr. Hugo couldn't help but frown.

"Li Wei, didn't I tell you this isn't a place for you? Get back upstairs immediately!" Dr. Hugo snapped. "And what in the world are you wearing!"

Behind his mask, Li Wei's lips curled.

"Dr. Hugo, have you forgotten? I'm the Warden!"

"Hm?"

Dr. Hugo froze, his mind struggling to process the statement. He even thought he'd misheard.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I'm the Warden! You're just the Chief Physician! What business is it of yours why I came down here?"

At these words, even the thugs behind Dr. Hugo were stunned.

Was Li Wei insane? Or was he looking for death?

After all, the last person who angered Dr. Hugo had been transformed into a monster, neither human nor ghost, unable to find peace even in death.

Dr. Hugo let out a furious laugh, his eyes narrowing as he smiled.

"Warden? You are the Warden, yes, but if the current Warden dies, it's only reasonable to appoint a new one..."

He had already decided to kill Li Wei. The only reason he had chosen Li Wei as Warden in the first place was because Li Wei was utterly useless, an orphan, and easy to control.

But if Li Wei was now getting ideas above his station, Dr. Hugo wouldn't hesitate to replace him. It was no trouble at all.

Dr. Hugo let out a derisive laugh and waved a hand behind him.

"Take care of him. Remember to leave someone alive for experiments."

At his command, the thugs behind him surged forward like hungry wolves released from their cage, lunging at Li Wei.

At that exact moment, the countdown in Li Wei's mind reached zero.

"Now, the grand curtain rises, beauty descends, the carnival of the premiere night, the stage is set..."

A deep, hoarse voice emanated from Li Wei's throat.

Coupled with his opera-singer-like attire, it possessed a chilling, almost beautiful aesthetic!

"All will be captivated..."

Simultaneously, a violent explosion ripped through the corridor.

Purple lotuses materialized out of thin air at the feet of the thugs.

Explosion!

Purple light, dreamlike, bathed the entire corridor, drawing people into its intoxicating glow.

But in the next instant, wails and screams dragged everyone back to reality.

The explosion's power was astonishing; this single blast instantly killed a third of the thugs.

The survivors were all wounded.

No one knew what was happening, why there was a sudden explosion, or what this monstrous thing was!

But the one thing the thugs could be sure of was that this was no ordinary bomb!

Having operated in Gotham for so long, when had they ever seen a bomb that could turn a person into a flower?

Not metaphorically, but literally!

Those who had died in the initial blast were now contorting and transforming into Flesh Lotuses!

They covered half the corridor!

Everyone present was struck with terror at the sight.

Of course, those who survived in Gotham weren't easily frightened.

Despite their confusion, the surviving thugs' first instinct after the explosion was to find cover and retaliate.

They hadn't used firearms earlier, assuming Li Wei was just a weakling.

But now, it was clear that wasn't the case.

As for Dr. Hugo's order to leave someone alive? That was up to fate.

However, there was no cover to be found at the elevator entrance, only a straight corridor.

Li Wei had no intention of letting them go!

At some point, a short pistol appeared in Li Wei's hand, which he spun continuously.

"Dance for me, sing for me!"

Li Wei's tone grew increasingly fervent.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Pop!"

Every rotation of the short gun took a sinful life.

Even if some burly men tried to fight back as they died, it was a shame that the moment they pulled out their guns was the moment of their death.

"The killing spree, led by me!"

Accompanied by the gunshots, flowers of flesh and blood bloomed in the corridor.

If one ignored the blood splattered all over the walls and the desperate wails, it would have been a sea of flowers, beautiful and magnificent!

Dr. Hugo watched everything that happened, his eyes filled with fear, his mind a blank slate.

What in the world had happened!

Both the explosion just now and Li Wei's shooting had perfectly avoided him.

This made him feel both fortunate and despairing.

It was clearly a massacre, yet it possessed a unique aesthetic.

Dr. Hugo had never imagined that words like grotesque, magnificent, chaotic, elegant, terrifying, and brilliant could be used to describe a massacre!

In the end, he was just a researcher. Even though he was unharmed and the weapon was at his feet, seeing Li Wei, who was like a madman, he had long lost the courage to act.

Thus, he watched with his own eyes as everyone in the entire Indian Hill Hospital, except for himself, bloomed into flowers of flesh and blood amidst the gunshots.

When the gunshots ceased, Li Wei stood still in the sea of flesh and blood flowers.

He looked around, and there was no exception.

Except for Dr. Hugo.

Suppressing the urge to turn Dr. Hugo into a work of art as well, Li Wei approached Dr. Hugo after an elegant curtain call.

When Dr. Hugo saw the change in Li Wei's eyes, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He knew that the real Li Wei was back!

In fact, he was not only a biology doctor but also a very professional psychological expert.

What had terrified him the most just now was Li Wei's gaze; from his eyes, he could tell that Li Wei genuinely viewed killing as art!

His eyes were clear, like an artist meticulously crafting a work of art, thoroughly enjoying the entire process!

This kind of uncommunicative madness was the most terrifying!

Although he didn't know what had happened to Li Wei, he knew that he finally didn't have to die!

Isn't it good to be alive?

"Dr. Hugo, now, do you know who the Warden is?" Li Wei's voice had returned to its own, and he said with a smile.

Dr. Hugo chuckled awkwardly.

"Of course, Warden Li Wei, is there anything I can do for you?"

Dr. Hugo understood very well that since Li Wei had killed everyone in Indian Hill Hospital and left only him alive, it was not out of the other party's kindness, but because the other party must have needed him for something.

Since that was the case, perhaps he could find an opportunity to reclaim everything, or even... strike back!

"Of course, you are very smart, Dr. Hugo," Li Wei said without concealment. "But not now. I'm worried you'll betray me now, and that would be very troublesome for me."

Dr. Hugo's eyes lit up. "Warden Li Wei, I will be absolutely loyal to you! I will never betray you!"

It had to be said that Dr. Hugo was very good at assessing the situation.

Unfortunately, Li Wei was no longer a child, and he naturally wouldn't believe such empty promises.

"If loyalty is not absolute, then it is absolutely not loyalty," Li Wei shook his head. "Now is not the time. I will find you when the time is right."

"For now, I'll have to trouble you to stay in the asylum ward for a few days..."

Chapter 3 Restarting Arkham Asylum!

After binding Dr. Hugo to a wheelchair in a Kikko-shibari position and stuffing a mouse wheel into his mouth as a soundproofing measure, Li Wei pushed him into the elevator.

Li Wei swore that the reason he chose this binding method was definitely not because he had some perverted fetish.

It was because only in this way could Dr. Hugo be prevented from getting hurt, escaping, or making any noisy pleas for mercy.

He "escorted" Dr. Hugo all the way to the ward upstairs, locked him in, and then closed the door.

Only then did Li Wei put away the key, ignore Dr. Hugo's pleas, and leave his sight without looking back.

Being locked in the ward, Li Wei didn't need to worry about Dr. Hugo's safety.

Thanks to Dr. Hugo's caution with "test subjects," the wards at Arkham Asylum were all built to maximum security prison standards.

Not only were the doors made of reinforced steel, but the locks were also the highest security level.

Without a key, even the greatest thief couldn't pick the lock with their bare hands.

Of course, if brute force was used to dismantle the door, that would be an exception.

But clearly, Dr. Hugo couldn't do that.

Now that he had regained control of the hospital.

The first thing Li Wei needed to do was naturally take stock of his assets.

Even in the simple folkways of Gotham, daily life still revolved around money.

Li Wei walked through the asylum's corridors, the faint moans from the rooms on either side like the whispers of demons.

When you tried to listen closely, you would find these whispers pulling you into the abyss!

The entire asylum was divided into five floors: three above ground and two below.

Although the number of floors wasn't high, its footprint was as large as five football fields.

This resulted in an astonishingly large volume.

Even though the top floor was occupied by the Warden's office and administrative areas, and the two underground levels were entirely taken over by Indian Hill Hospital, the remaining two floors still contained nearly a hundred patient rooms.

In addition to these, there were medical rooms for treating emergencies, a dining hall, a library, recreation rooms, and even a visitation room for patients' families.

Of course, no one would actually come to visit.

On the surface, at least, it looked very much like a legitimate hospital—if one ignored the electric chair in the medical room and the steel security doors that appeared almost every ten meters in the hospital corridors.

After thoroughly familiarizing himself with the entire building, Li Wei reviewed the asylum's relevant accounts.

He ultimately discovered that despite Arkham Asylum's notorious reputation, its actual financial situation was even more dire than he had imagined.

Within the underground Indian Hill Hospital, aside from fixed research equipment, only a group of failed experimental subjects' corpses remained. From the experiment logs, it was evident that Dr. Hugo had succeeded in combining human bodies with animal organs, but the modified subjects had very short lifespans!

Perhaps the most valuable thing in the entire Indian Hill Hospital was a giant bomb, which Dr. Hugo had prepared in advance to destroy evidence.

However, Li Wei's actions were too swift, leaving Dr. Hugo no time to detonate the bomb and take everyone down with him.