Who knew what kind of trouble Dr. Hugo might stir up, but at this point, this was the only option left.
"Alright!"
Dr. Hugo's smile was exceptionally radiant.
Over the next few days,
Li Wei did not leave. Other than sleeping, he spent every day at Indian Hill Hospital assisting Dr. Hugo with alchemical experiments.
It could not be helped. At Arkham Asylum, only Li Wei could serve as the lab assistant.
Compared to Singed's original werewolf experiment, the procedure performed on Stan was far more complicated.
At least the test subject used in Singed's original werewolf experiment had been a whole, living human body.
It was like the difference between renovating a bare-shell home and renovating a secondhand house.
One could be worked on directly, while the other required stripping away all the existing renovations before work could begin.
The first issue to solve was the skeleton. Otherwise, Stan's mangled mass of a body gave them nowhere to start!
Using the Court of Owls' channels, Dr. Hugo first obtained a metallic element called promethium on the black market and used it to build Stan a skeleton.
That made Li Wei view the Court of Owls in a slightly different light, though only slightly.
Once the skeleton was complete, the next step was stitching it into Stan's body.
At that stage, Li Wei finally understood why Dr. Hugo was called Gotham's villain respawn point.
He displayed extraordinarily exquisite dissection skills.
Perhaps after integrating Singed's alchemical knowledge, it could even be called art!
That was right.
Art!
Although Stan's condition was miserable, and even his specific body parts had become nearly unrecognizable after Li Wei's "electric shock" treatment,
in Dr. Hugo's hands, the skeleton made of promethium was flawlessly installed into Stan's body.
Stan's body finally regained a human shape.
Actually, by this point, from a scientific standpoint, Stan was completely dead, with no possibility of revival.
After all, no one could survive after being cut open and dissected from head to toe!
But...
This was not science. This was alchemy.
Next came the question of how to restore Stan's heartbeat.
Dr. Hugo used a combination of alchemy and modern medicine.
Together, he and Li Wei created a small mechanical device to serve as an artificial heart.
But unlike the artificial hearts used in hospitals, this "artificial heart" was not an electronic device powered by batteries. It was a drug pump!
The pump was filled with Rage Potion and connected to his arteries, simulating the heart's function of pumping blood through the body.
The blood in Stan's vessels had long since been drained and completely replaced with Rage Potion!...
It was worth noting that although Viper Potion was green, the Rage Potion synthesized using Viper Potion as its base ingredient was dark red.
Compared with the bright red of blood, it did not stand out too much.
After all that was done,
by the biological standards of death, Stan could actually be considered revived.
Driven by alchemy and the pump-heart, the organs in his body had gradually begun functioning again.
But the only problem now was that Stan still had not woken up. He did not even show the slightest sign of consciousness.
The experiment came to a long-overdue halt.
Dr. Hugo was not worried. The essential ingredients for the werewolf experiment were all in place: death, alchemy, potion...
Li Wei was out of options too. He had done everything he could. All that remained was to leave it to fate.
Unless absolutely necessary, Li Wei would never grant Warwick's Hero Template to Stan before he regained his own consciousness.
Who knew whether the Stan who woke up that way would still be Stan!
And the closer the vessel was to the Hero Template itself—in personality, experience, and so on—the greater the power gained from merging with the template!
That was also one reason Li Wei had not made Dr. Hugo wait for Stan before beginning the werewolf experiment.
And so they waited for two days.
At midnight on the third day, which happened to be a full moon night,
just as Li Wei was about to sleep, a tremendous bang from beneath Arkham Asylum abruptly shattered his drowsiness!
It was immediately followed by a savage, shrill howl.
"Awoo..."
Mad Dog Unleashed
Hearing that long wolf howl beneath the moon, Li Wei's spirits lifted!
The werewolf experiment had succeeded?
Li Wei had no time to think further. He immediately got out of bed and ran toward the underground Indian Hill Hospital.
By the time he reached Indian Hill Hospital, Dr. Hugo was already waiting for him outside the laboratory.
What he saw before him taught him what true werewolf destructive power looked like!
Stan had regained his vitality.
Only... he seemed a little too full of vitality.
Stan had shed his formerly frail appearance and now possessed a body packed with fierce, powerful muscles.
His blood-red eyes were filled with vicious light, as if he wanted to tear apart everything before him.
Drool continuously flowed from his mouth, and every drop that hit the floor corroded tiny pits into the metal surface!
He howled savagely while repeatedly slamming against the laboratory glass.
The restraints that had originally secured him to the operating table had been ripped apart with brute force, every strap snapped clean through.
As for the operating table itself, it had already been thrown aside. The faint cracks on the laboratory glass proved what had happened here.
After waking up, Stan had attempted to break through the glass and escape!
The tremendous bang Li Wei had heard upstairs was the sound of Stan smashing the glass with the operating table.
Fortunately, Wayne Enterprises had used premium materials when Indian Hill Hospital was built. Otherwise, this beast would have escaped long ago!
But clearly, as Stan kept pounding on it, more and more cracks appeared in the glass, becoming increasingly obvious. This pane of tempered glass would not hold much longer!
"Stan! Hey! Stan!" Li Wei called out twice through the glass.
But Stan seemed completely unable to hear him. Li Wei's approach even made him strike the glass more violently!
"Dr. Hugo, what happened? How did this happen?" Li Wei frowned at Dr. Hugo beside him.
Dr. Hugo shrugged.
Clearly, he did not know either.
Dr. Hugo normally lived at Indian Hill Hospital whenever he had nothing to do, making it convenient to monitor the experiment's progress at any time.
But by the time he arrived, Stan had already been like this.
He had no idea what exactly had happened to Stan. All he could confirm was that, according to Singed's—
What gave Li Wei a headache was not the strength Stan had gained after the werewolf experiment.
If he wanted to, he could still easily deal with the frenzied Stan. After all, he possessed the combined powers of Khada Jhin, Singed, and Warwick!
What troubled him most was how to handle Stan in this state.
The laboratory's tempered glass would not withstand Stan's attacks for much longer. Once it broke, given Stan's current condition, it would probably be difficult to restrain him without blood being spilled.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
Before Li Wei could think of a solution, the sound of glass breaking rang out.
It grew louder and louder.
Crack!
With one sharp sound, the laboratory glass shattered completely!
"Roar!" Stan roared as he ripped apart the remaining window frame and leaped out.
In truth, neither Dr. Hugo nor Li Wei was afraid. Stan looked ferocious, but neither of them was weaker than him.
"Ah... I... became a monster..." The instant he saw Li Wei, a brief moment of clarity appeared in Stan's eyes, and he muttered indistinctly.
But that shred of clarity quickly vanished, replaced by endless bloodlust and savagery.
"Blood! Fresh blood!" An indistinct roar came from his throat.
The next moment, Stan suddenly sprang into action, but he did not attack the two men in front of him.
He unleashed astonishing jumping power, vaulting over Dr. Hugo and Li Wei before charging straight into the neighboring laboratory.
An ordinary iron door could not even last a second against Stan!
After tearing open the laboratory door, Stan lunged inside like a starving tiger pouncing on prey!
Li Wei and Dr. Hugo exchanged a glance.
Though neither knew what Stan was up to, they immediately followed him in.
Once inside, Stan's nose twitched as he pounced on an operating table and casually tore apart a cabinet sitting on it.
Then he pulled out blood bags from the cabinet and tipped his head back, drinking greedily!
Blood continuously spilled from the corners of Stan's mouth, mixing with his corrosive saliva as it dripped onto the floor and produced hissing sounds.
Li Wei and Dr. Hugo stood at the laboratory entrance, staring at the scene before them in bewilderment.
Li Wei felt somewhat pleased. For now, the werewolf experiment appeared successful, though it could still be made more perfect.
Dr. Hugo naturally needed all kinds of biological blood for his experiments, especially biological experiments, so his laboratory regularly kept various blood supplies on hand for emergencies.
Dr. Hugo felt some heartache over his experimental stockpile and wanted to step forward to stop Stan, but Li Wei held him back.
"Wait, Dr. Hugo."
Dr. Hugo could only stop helplessly and observe the situation alongside Li Wei.
Like a parched desert receiving a sudden downpour, Stan mechanically took bag after bag of blood from the cabinet. Regardless of what species it came from, he kept repeating the same actions—tearing them open and drinking greedily.
Li Wei and Dr. Hugo simply watched him quietly.
Only after every blood supply in the cabinet had been consumed did Stan turn to look at the two men at the laboratory entrance.
Perhaps the blood he had drunk had taken effect and soothed his body's craving for blood. At last, some clarity returned to his scarlet eyes.
"Blood... I need more blood..." Stan gritted his teeth, struggling to suppress his urge to attack Li Wei and Dr. Hugo.
Li Wei turned to look at Dr. Hugo beside him.
Dr. Hugo shook his head helplessly, indicating that there were no other blood reserves left.
Li Wei raised an eyebrow. No blood left?
Would Gotham ever lack blood?
Especially when Gotham's situation outside was currently changing by the moment.
After Stan exposed Weizhan Pharmaceuticals' illegal dealings last time, Gotham had remained calm for only two days.
Then City Hall proposed a motion—the Arkham District Development Plan.
Before you continue