"Any word from Mike?" John's voice trembled.
A glimmer of joy crossed his face, and he asked eagerly, "Chief Bai Lang, have you seen him?"
Bai Lang looked at the white-haired old man in front of him, whose face was lined with wrinkles.
The other man's smile seemed to lift his spirits a little.
"No, but I have a pretty good idea where he is."
"Thank you, Chief Bai Lang."
John excitedly rummaged through his bag and pulled out a metal object.
"This is one of the keepsakes my father left me. Cough, cough... It isn't worth much, so please take it as my payment."
Bai Lang looked at the object John had taken out.
The metal piece was silver all over, about ten centimeters long, and looked like a bracer. Its surface was engraved with delicate patterns in an ancient Greek style.
He looked again at the smile on John's face.
Without wasting time on empty pleasantries, he accepted the old man's gift.
He knew that if he refused, John would just press it into his hands anyway. Better to accept it graciously.
But the moment the bracer touched his hand, he sensed a force clinging to it.
This force was considerably stronger than the ten-thousand-unit Magnetic Field Rotation power currently flowing through his body.
[Ability Points +5]
A pale blue notification box appeared before him.
Bai Lang looked at the bracer in surprise, and a striking figure came to mind.
A silver bracer with a mysterious power. Could this thing belong to Wonder Woman?
He examined the silver bracer closely, sensing Zeus's power slowly flowing through it.
Would Wonder Woman come looking for it?
If she did, should he refuse to return it? Or threaten her and then have his way with her?
What the hell was he thinking, threatening her? Bai Lang was a good man! A very good man!
He looked up at John and saw that the old man had begun packing, ready to go with him to look for his son.
Bai Lang put away the Guardian Silver Bracelet, then took John with him.
He planned to find John's son first, then have Mick, Gardner, and the others help John fulfill his last wish.
John still had the little blue notebook with him, writing in it with a pen that scratched softly across the page.
Bai Lang carried his bag and took him toward Farmer's Chinese Restaurant in the Upper District.
"What are you writing?" Bai Lang asked curiously, seeing him write for so long.
"My will," John replied.
"It's a habit I picked up from my father. Cough, cough... He left me a lot of letters before he died, so I want to keep the tradition going and write some for my son, Mike..."
Bai Lang looked away and said nothing.
"Chief Bai Lang!"
A police car pulled up on the road beside them, moving slowly alongside.
The window rolled down, revealing a familiar face: Ryan.
"Want me to drive you two there?" Ryan offered.
"Sure."
Bai Lang nodded, then got into the back seat with John.
"Take us to Farmer's Chinese Restaurant in the Upper District first."
"Chief Bai Lang, aren't we going to look for Mike?" John asked, puzzled.
"Uh... Mike asked to meet us there," Bai Lang explained.
It was such a flimsy lie that anyone who thought it through could see right through it.
But John didn't give it much thought. After spending these past few days with Bai Lang, he had already realized that Bai Lang was a good man.
And good men deserved to be trusted.
After dropping John off at Farmer's Chinese Restaurant, Bai Lang made a point of asking Gardner to prepare a few mild, stomach-friendly dishes for him.
After leaving the restaurant, Bai Lang instinctively glanced over his shoulder.
He sensed someone watching him.
What's going on? Maybe I'm just imagining it...
He found a secluded corner, smashed the surveillance camera Bruce Wayne had covered with a disguise, then put on a suit identical to Batman's.
He needed to hurry to the third unfinished building, disguise Mike, and bring him over.
In broad daylight in Gotham, that meant pushing his speed to the limit. Easy enough.
Bai Lang took off at once!
Ten thousand units of Magnetic Field Rotation power surged through his body, and his immensely powerful muscles bulged.
In the blink of an eye, his broad, black-clad figure raced toward Park Street at a speed of one hundred and fifty meters per second.
Even when captured by a surveillance camera, his form was only a blurry streak, even at one-tenth speed.
Soon, he appeared at the entrance to the same alley he had visited before.
The same few junkies were still there, their faces pale and dark circles ringing their eyes.
But Bai Lang could see they were in much better shape than they had been a few days earlier. It seemed their lives were beginning to improve.
Bai Lang flashed across the ground and appeared in front of the third unfinished building.
Beside it was an open space of about a hundred square meters, crowded with tents.
Garbage was piled haphazardly beside the tents, weighing down the corners of some of them.
It looked like a sprawling encampment of homeless people.
Still, it was much better than when Bai Lang had first come here.
At least, in the center of the tents stood a huge pot that would take three people to circle with their arms.
Harley Quinn was stirring the food in it with her baseball bat.
Several people holding plastic bowls were already lined up in front of the pot.
It looked like they had stolen plenty of things from rich people's luxury cars, including Rolls-Royces and Bugattis, over the past few days.
But Bai Lang knew this could only solve their problems for a while.
Among the crowd, he spotted someone who looked a lot like the person in John's photograph.
He resembled John, and his build was just as skinny as in the photo. His features had matured, but the disdain and youthful innocence in his eyes had been replaced by numbness.
Bai Lang recognized him at a glance. He was the young man who had been poring over a physics textbook earlier.
John's son, Mike Benjamin.
His face was sallow and gaunt, sores had formed around his mouth, and his eyes were lifeless. He looked just like the junkies outside.
Bai Lang's heart sank. In an instant, he appeared in front of Mike.
After Batman Bruce Wayne had been toyed with by the Riddler, he tracked down Mike Benjamin.
He discovered that Mike was just a junkie in a small gang. As it happened, the gang's leader was Harley Quinn.
That made him wonder what scheme Harley Quinn and the Riddler were cooking up.
The people he saw most often in the gang were junkies. Bruce Wayne had little regard for those who willingly threw their lives away.
So, naturally, he assumed Harley Quinn was plotting something.
He stood on the roof of the unfinished building, watching Harley Quinn cook some bread porridge below.
Alfred's voice suddenly came through his earpiece from the distant Batcave.
"Young Master Wayne, there's been a bombing during a bank robbery in the Upper District. Clayface and Black Mask have both shown up!"
Bruce's expression stiffened. He immediately took out a surveillance camera and set it up on the roof of the unfinished building, aimed at the scene below.
Then he drove the Batmobile to Gotham Bank in the Upper District.
By the time Batman Bruce Wayne arrived, Clayface and Black Mask's men were already preparing to leave in a van.
Bruce Wayne immediately activated the weapons on the Batmobile.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!
Two Gatling guns extended from the front of the car and opened fire on the vehicle carrying Clayface and Black Mask's men.
Bullets struck the van's hardened exterior with metallic clangs, sending sparks flying everywhere.
Clayface thrust out a gigantic arm, more than a meter long, to shield the tires and keep Batman from shooting them out.
But Bruce Wayne was wearing the Anti-Superman Armor, which was extraordinarily powerful.
He leaped out of the Batmobile, and the properties of N-series Metal immediately let him fly.
Farther ahead, Farmer's Chinese Restaurant.
"Thank you."
John set down his bowl and thanked Gardner sincerely.
Gardner had just gone out of his way to make him several delicious dishes.
Although Gardner had refused to take his money, John had repaid him by telling him his story, as Gardner had asked.
To his surprise, the burly man's eyes had turned red as he listened. John could even see tears glimmering in them.
Rumble!!
Just then, a tremendous roar came from outside.
Before you continue