Be Your Truest Self

Bai Lang fixed his gaze on the last line of text on the Blue Panel.

"Spend 50 Ability Points to draw another ability..."

Although Magnetic Field Rotation was an almost omnipotent superpower, that was only true in the mid and late stages.

Right now, he was merely a superpowered individual with Current Propulsion at a little over two hundred thousand volts. There was only so much he could do.

Thud!!

A muffled sound suddenly came from ahead, as though someone had fallen to the ground.

What was that?

Bai Lang's eyes narrowed. With vision far sharper than an ordinary person's, he tried to make out what lay ahead.

Yet all he could see was a thin figure stumbling unsteadily away from him.

The figure gripped a baseball bat in one hand, resting it on their shoulder as they wildly swung it at the empty air ahead.

"Die, little bat! I'm going to turn Gotham upside down and blow it into countless pieces!"

"Beat you to death... kill you..."

Only when Bai Lang approached did he realize there was someone there.

Red-and-blue twin ponytails, a filthy face, and bursts of crazed laughter slipping from her mouth every so often.

It was Harley Quinn.

She looked like she had lost her mind.

After all, the first Joker was dead, she felt nothing for the Second Generation Joker, and she could neither kill Batman nor let go of wanting to.

As Bai Lang watched the deranged Harley Quinn ahead of him, he caught sight of several figures nearby from the corner of his eye.

Several pairs of eyes reflected pale light as they stared fixedly at Harley, as though they would drag her into an alley and do something improper to her at any moment.

He stepped forward and snatched Harley's baseball bat away.

"Hey, Detective, give me back my baseball bat!" Harley wore a dangerous smile.

"You should get some proper rest first." Bai Lang shook his head and placed his right hand on her shoulder.

Under the stimulation of Current Propulsion, Harley Quinn rolled her eyes back and immediately fainted.

"Then I'll start with you as the first step."

Bai Lang hoisted the unconscious Harley onto his shoulder, glanced at the shadowy figures, and gradually walked away.

[Ability Points +3]

Bai Lang placed Harley Quinn on his bed, then sat down to cultivate the electric current within his body.

He had now reached Current Propulsion at 202,000 volts. He still needed to keep working if he wanted to reach Magnetic Field Rotation.

His progress was already extremely fast. In less than half a month, he had gone from bionic superpowers to this level.

In the Hai Hu comics, Hai Hu had taken three months to cultivate from Current Propulsion to Magnetic Field Rotation.

Bai Lang was much faster than him. Of course, the biggest reason was that he had cheats.

Time passed in the blink of an eye, and the night quickly went by.

[Current Propulsion 202,000 Volts] → [Current Propulsion 204,000 Volts]

Blinding sunlight streamed through the window and shone directly onto the bed.

Harley Quinn rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked around at her surroundings.

A cramped room, snow-white walls, a colorful television with a huge back sitting in front of the bed, and a figure seated beside it.

Harley Quinn looked over curiously.

Knotted muscles were covered by a T-shirt, their defined, attractive contours clearly visible. His tall body radiated intense masculine hormones.

His sexy cleft chin made Harley swallow unconsciously.

"You're awake, Harley?" Bai Lang opened his eyes, his dark pupils fixed on Harley as she swallowed.

"Oh! You're that cop. Your name was... what was it again?" Harley immediately sat up and looked at Bai Lang.

"Bai Lang."

At that moment, Bai Lang also shifted his attention away from the rapidly rubbing cells within his body and onto Harley across from him.

Her red-and-blue pigtails hung on either side, while her baseball-style T-shirt exposed her navel and toned abs.

"Wah... My Puddin' was killed by the little bat, and the little bat hurt Ivy too... Wahhh..."

Harley seemed to recall something sad and suddenly burst into tears without warning.

"Detective Bai Lang, will you kill the little bat with me?"

Tears blurred Harley's eyes as she looked pitifully at Bai Lang.

Any man in Gotham who saw her like this would be unable to stop himself from softening and joining her in killing Batman.

But Bai Lang was preparing to change Gotham, this city of such simple, wholesome folk. If Bruce Wayne died, there would be no Batman.

When that happened, he, the fake Batman, would have to step in. So naturally, there was no way he could agree to her request now.

"That's impossible. I won't let you turn Gotham into a complete mess."

Seeing that Bai Lang refused, Harley immediately moved beside him, draping her long legs over his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck, truly looking like a pitiful homeless girl.

"Then will you take me in? I can do anything..."

Harley leaned close to Bai Lang's ear, gently nibbling his earlobe as her warm breath brushed against him.

Bai Lang had been an ordinary person in his previous life, but he had one defining trait: persistence.

Or perhaps stubbornness. Obstinacy.

Once he had made up his mind about something, he would not change it unless he clearly realized he was wrong.

So even in the face of Harley Quinn's seduction, though he was deeply tempted and even had a physical reaction, he still refused.

"Harley, your proposal is very tempting, but I'm sorry. I still can't agree."

When Bai Lang continued to shake his head, Harley Quinn's lips slowly curled upward into an exaggerated smile.

It was a sign that she was about to slip into that crazed state.

Bai Lang promptly knocked her on the head, interrupting it.

"Joker is already dead. Why are you still so determined to burn Gotham to ashes?"

Harley Quinn clutched her head and replied, "Isn't everyone like that?"

"Joker, Penguin, Bane... aren't they all like that?"

"But Gotham wasn't like this in the beginning," Bai Lang countered.

"I know you, Harleen Quinzel, an intern psychologist at Arkham Asylum."

"You were very kind. You even researched the loss of empathy in criminals."

Harley laughed madly, shaking her head again and again, a trace of insanity showing in her eyes.

"But that was the old me. Now I've been reborn, and Joker is dead. I'm going to kill the little bat, I'm going to blow all of Gotham into the sky! Turn it completely upside down!"

Bai Lang continued, "Joker killed many 'Harleys' before. You don't actually need to avenge him. Wouldn't it be better to be like him and become your truest self?"

"Huh?" Harley stopped her hysterical laughter.

"Am I not already my truest self? I feel great, Officer Bai Lang."

Seeing the fleeting panic on her face, Bai Lang knew he had struck the mark. He continued:

"Do you know? In my hometown, many people spend all their time and energy from elementary school to middle school, then high school, on one thing alone: the college entrance exam."

"To get into a good university, to buy a house someday, to rise above others, to become someone superior..."

"So their parents willingly suppress their children's nature and shatter their dreams."

"The playgrounds where children should have played are turned into classrooms for cram schools; the game consoles they should have enjoyed are replaced by endless workbooks; the drawing boards they should have doodled on freely are replaced by page after page of densely written copybooks."

"During the more than ten years of their growth, they have none of the happiness they should have had. All they have is endless pressure and the urgency of getting into college, abandoning their own dreams to fulfill their parents' dreams."

"Tell me, when do people like that finally get to have a life that truly belongs to them?"

Harley seemed drawn in by the question as well, since she had gone through something similar.

After entering university, she had once worked several jobs a day to repay her student loans, forced to do things she did not like.

She tried to answer, "After getting into university? Or after starting work?"