The next day, all of Gotham's major newspapers ran a bombshell story.
[Real Footage of Batman Slaughtering a Gang! Knight of Justice or Bloodthirsty Executioner?]
Several blurry photos accompanied the article.
They showed Bai Lang, dressed in the Batman suit, fending off gunfire from Bane's men the night before.
There were also scenes from the abandoned factory complex: blood and gore everywhere, with one shattered corpse after another strewn across the ground.
Wayne Manor.
Bruce Wayne was carefully analyzing the clues the Joker had left behind.
Frowning, he studied the map of Gotham displayed on the screen before him. Several locations had been circled in red.
Every one of them was connected to the Joker's previous crimes.
Just as he was struggling with the problem, Alfred, the butler, brought in that day's newspaper.
"Thanks, Alfred." Bruce Wayne took the paper and set the breakfast Alfred had brought on the table.
He picked up his glass, intending to drink some milk while checking whether anything major had happened the day before.
But the moment the milk touched his lips, the headline caught his eye—and he spat it right back out.
What the hell?!
Bruce Wayne stared at the report in disbelief.
[Real Footage of Batman Slaughtering a Gang! Knight of Justice or Bloodthirsty Executioner?]
The photos showed corpse after corpse piled inside an abandoned factory building.
A quick estimate put the death toll at more than a hundred. It was unquestionably a massive case.
Wait! I killed all these people?!
Bruce Wayne's eyes widened in shock. Then his gaze sharpened as he looked at one of the pictures.
A gaunt man lay there, wearing a gas mask that looked as if someone had smashed it. He was dressed in a black bodysuit, and his chest was caved in.
It was none other than the supervillain he knew all too well—Bane!
Judging by the look of him, had Bane... died?
Bruce continued reading. According to the report, this gang had been behind the police station bombing.
Batman had wiped out Bane's entire gang the previous night and killed Bane, avenging the fallen officers.
What was going on?
He'd gone after the Joker yesterday. When had he ever gone after Bane?
Let alone killed more than a hundred people.
"Could it have been him?" He remembered the fake Batman who had slaughtered everyone at the Red Rose Bar a few days ago.
The man had worn the Batman suit and gone on a killing spree in that guise. Bruce, who held fast to his no-killing rule, had found it deeply repugnant.
"Whatever else he is, he's a bloodthirsty executioner." Bruce murmured as he looked at the muscular figure dressed in black in the newspaper.
He didn't know whether the man was a Batman fan, but there was no question that his behavior needed to be corrected.
Killing wouldn't lower Gotham's crime rate, much less make the city prosper.
"I need to find him and stop him!"
Bai Lang assigned the remaining members of Bane's gang to a video arcade and a restaurant.
The arcade was on the verge of closing, so Bai Lang had been able to take over the whole place for just three thousand dollars.
He put some of the men in charge of running it. The restaurant next door was handled the same way.
Fortunately, his original body had more than ten thousand dollars in savings, giving him a little spending money.
After sorting out things for Mick and the others, Bai Lang finally went home to rest.
[Ability Points +3] [Ability Points +5] [Ability Points +10]
Bai Lang opened his eyes. A series of notifications informing him of the Ability Points he had gained appeared before him.
He brought up the Blue Panel, and his current stats came into view.
[Name: Bai Lang] [Lifespan: 23/120] [Abilities: Level 1 Firearms Mastery (71%), Level 1 Combat Mastery (74%), Current Propulsion 62,000 volts/500,000 volts (Upper-level ability: Magnetic Field Rotation)] [Ability Points: 23 (Gained by creating ripples of change in the world)] [Spend 50 Ability Points to draw another ability, or unlock one feature]
He had gained five Ability Points for killing Bane last night, but why had he gotten so many more after waking up?
He went to the door and took the newspaper out of the mailbox.
"No wonder... Batman slaughters a gang..."
The newspaper had correctly guessed most of what he'd done the day before, and included a few photos that had been pixelated.
Bai Lang immediately understood where his Ability Points had come from.
By now, every criminal in Gotham probably knew that Batman had broken his no-killing rule and become a bloodthirsty executioner.
Of course, this Batman wasn't Bruce Wayne. It was him—Bai Lang, the fake Batman.
The gangs were probably looking into it too...
Bai Lang shook his head and put down the newspaper. After breakfast, he began allocating the Ability Points he'd gained.
"Combat Mastery is closely tied to how well I understand the essence of Current Propulsion, its techniques, and how efficiently I use the current."
In his view, Combat Mastery meant more than the words suggested. It encompassed something deeper.
Perhaps it could be called the Perfect Realm of a Magnetic Field powerhouse.
The Perfect Realm was a state in which one gained a deep understanding of a superpower's mysteries and how to use it most effectively.
Those who truly grasped this realm could defeat someone whose power index was ten times greater than their own, as long as that person hadn't mastered the realm.
Put simply, it was a measure of one's technical skill in using power.
The Perfect Realm was an advanced ability to wield power and techniques, as well as the highest realm of combat.
It let one see an enemy's "weakest point" and kill them with one's own "greatest strength."
Some had even used their mastery of Current Propulsion to defeat powerhouses with a Magnetic Field Rotation of eight hundred thousand horses!
That was what Bai Lang lacked.
At the moment, he only knew how to instinctively use Current Propulsion to stimulate all the muscles in his body and release electricity outside himself.
As for how to skillfully use all the power he possessed, he was still like a blind man trying to understand an elephant, with only the most rudimentary grasp of it.
So he planned to spend three Ability Points to raise [Level 1 Combat Mastery], then go all in on Current Propulsion with the remaining twenty.
He still couldn't withstand bullets, and that left Bai Lang feeling deeply insecure.
Take the previous night, for example. If there hadn't been a car in the warehouse that could stop bullets, he would have been forced to duck and cover under Splinter's machine-gun fire. He might even have lost his life.
Improving Current Propulsion was the top priority!
As his Ability Points dwindled, memories surfaced in Bai Lang's mind: endless practice in all kinds of martial arts.
[Level 1 Combat Mastery 74%] → [Level 2 Combat Mastery 4%]
He mastered hundreds of martial arts from around the world and even tried incorporating Current Propulsion into them.
Before, he'd only known how to release the current inside his body in crude bursts. But after leveling up Combat Mastery, he found that he had gained a little more control over his inner strength.
He could also make the current rise to the surface of his body and cling to every part of him.
He might even be able to craft a weapon later and channel the current through it, just like Thor's hammer next door.
His Ability Points gradually ran out, and Bai Lang's body was undergoing a tremendous transformation.
His cells rubbed together like mad, producing a constant stream of electricity.
[Current Propulsion 62,000 volts] → [Current Propulsion 102,000 volts]!
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