Physical Testing

Inside the secret laboratory on the top floor of Wayne Enterprises, cold white light evenly spilled over the smooth metal floor, and dozens of precision instruments were emitting a faint hum.

Bruce Wayne shed his previous easygoing manner, changing into a white lab coat with a bit of added composure and sharpness to his face.

This was the expression Shane thought Batman ought to have.

"First item, basic strength test."

Bruce pressed the console's button, and the load-bearing platform in the center of the laboratory slowly rose. Behind the load-bearing platform was a massive buffer structure resembling a mountain, with hundreds of mutually nested piston metal tube structures looking like a ferocious monster.

The screen in front simultaneously displayed the initial parameters.

"Strike the load-bearing plate with all your might, no need to hold back."

Shane frowned slightly. Although this metallic behemoth looked terrifying, he had torn apart things far more horrifying than this in his past combat career.

"Are you sure?"

Bruce chuckled twice instead.

"This is custom-made. Superman has tested here as well."

A single sentence directly dispelled all of Shane's doubts, straightforwardly categorizing it among the incomprehensible pieces of high technology.

Nodding, he walked over to the load-bearing platform.

Shane took a deep breath, the dormant power within his body slowly awakening. His right arm muscle lines instantly tightened, and his originally well-proportioned arm visibly swelled by a fraction.

The next instant, his fist smashed against the alloy plate with a breaking sound, and a dull impact echoed within the confined space.

The machinery behind the load-bearing platform hummed, and many lever-structured piston metal components began to move at a uniform speed, dispersing the force.

Boom--

The numbers on the console screen leaped wildly, finally settling on a terrifying figure.

Bruce's pupils suddenly contracted, his fingertips sliding rapidly across the screen to repeatedly confirm that the data was correct.

"Single-impact force of 127,000 tons... converted, the static load-bearing limit is at least over 800 million tons."

He muttered to himself, his tone carrying undisguised shock.

"This magnitude is enough to lift a medium-sized island tectonic plate—you know, the smallest Australian subsidiary island weighs no more than 600 million tons, and I heard you haven't fully adapted to your current strength yet."

"Uh, yeah. Before escaping, I probably went through an unprecedentedly cruel battle. Viltrumites can acquire very dramatic strength growth through combat."

Shane wasn't surprised by this. The physique of a Viltrumite was naturally strong in power, but he just hadn't expected that after recovering from this severe injury, his strength would skyrocket to this degree.

He moved his wrists, feeling the surging power within his body.

"I can feel that this still isn't my true limit."

Next was the speed and nerve reaction test.

The track on one side of the laboratory instantly lit up, and high-speed moving targets shuttled at several times the speed of sound, leaving behind trails of afterimages.

Shane's figure moved, turning into a blurred black shadow as he gave chase, but several of his strikes were half a beat too slow, and even once, because of excessive speed, he directly smashed several targets to pieces.

Fortunately, the flight capability of Viltrumites was outstanding enough, even capable of making high-difficulty curved turns in extremely narrow spaces.

This avoided him directly losing control of his flight, smashing into the wall, and tumbling out.

Yet this also showed that the flight principle of Viltrumites differed from Superman's. Superman's method of cutting magnetic field lines for flight couldn't achieve such flexible, curved backtracking in extremely cramped spaces.

That guy usually flew and landed with broad, sweeping motions.

Yet Shane's timely braking after smashing the targets and his arc-like counter-rush within fractions of a millimeter looked more like a nimble elf.

"Speed test results: maximum instantaneous speed 5.7 Mach, far exceeding ordinary Metahumans, but nerve reaction speed can only match a 3.8 Mach movement state."

Bruce analyzed, staring at the dynamic trajectory on the screen.

"Your nerve reactions cannot keep up with your skyrocketing speed, presenting an obvious adaptation fault."

The moment those words fell, Shane had already adjusted his posture and started up again.

This time, he deliberately slowed his starting speed, adapting bit by bit to the limits of his body.

As the test progressed, the deviation values on the screen grew smaller and smaller. Just ten minutes later, he could accurately capture all targets at a speed of 5 Mach, but every time he struck, that target inevitably ended up shattered beyond recognition.

The astonishment in Bruce's eyes grew even heavier.

"Adaptive growth speed is extremely fast, far surpassing known superhuman races. Is this a Viltrumite's innate talent?"

Shane didn't answer, merely stopping his movements to await the next test.

He was very clear that this rapid adaptation ability was forced out of him by life-and-death trials on the Thanagar planet.

People who couldn't keep up with the enemy's speed had long since become corpses.

During the defense test phase, after Shane took off his upper garments, Bruce first activated the high-pressure energy cannon.

The energy beam struck Shane's chest, emitting a sizzling sound, yet it failed to leave behind even a trace of a white mark.

Immediately afterward, he fetched an alloy box containing various weapons.

"Next, we test penetration defense. These weapons are all mixed with N metal."

Seeing Shane's puzzled expression, Bruce explained.

"N metal originates from the Thanagar planet, which is Hawkman's homeworld. This metal possesses anti-gravity, energy conduction, and strong penetration-enhancing characteristics, capable of interfering with most Metahumans' Bio-Force Field, and can even inflict damage on godly bodies. It is a rare armor-piercing material in the universe."

A mechanical arm rising from the floor grasped a long saber blended with N metal and slashed toward Shane's arm with all its might.

The moment the blade made contact with the skin, it emitted a harsh metallic scraping sound. A shallow bloody scratch appeared on Shane's arm, but it immediately healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"The blade can pierce defenses."

Bruce recorded the data, then operated the mechanical arm to switch to a specialized handgun.

"Now testing N metal bullets."

Bang!

The gunshot rang out, and the N metal bullet shot toward Shane's shoulder at high speed.

After the bullet struck the target, it was instantly bounced away, smashing a small pit into the wall, while only a faint red mark was left on Shane's shoulder, vanishing in a flash.

"Strange."

Bruce furrowed his brow tightly, his fingertips tapping against the console.

"The blade can pierce defenses, but bullets cannot? The N metal content in both is identical; the only difference is the contact area and impact method."

He pondered for a moment, a flash of realization crossing his eyes.

"The core of your superpowers might be related to the unique microscopic bodily structure of Viltrumites. This structure can disperse point-style impacts, yet it struggles to withstand linear cutting force."

This discovery made Bruce all the more vigilant; the bodily structure of a Viltrumite was far more complex than he had imagined.

However, he didn't continue probing deeply, merely taking out a sterile syringe and speaking to Shane.

"I need to draw a small tube of blood sample for basic analysis. It won't cause you any harm."

Shane extended his arm without resisting.

As a switch was flipped, the needle tip made of specialized material began vibrating at a high frequency invisible to the naked eye, and then still pierced Shane's skin with some difficulty.

Even so, the subsequent blood-drawing process went smoothly.

Once the blood was drawn, Shane suddenly spoke up.

"Viltrumites have one public weakness: sonic weapons."

Bruce froze for a split second.

Shane continued speaking.

"Excessive sonic energy will interfere with and stimulate our eardrums and brains. In severe cases, it leads to a loss of bodily control and the ability to fight."

Bruce fell silent for a moment, lifting his gaze to look at him.

"I know you want to test your limits, but the blade and bullet tests were safe test ranges calculated based on strength data. Their purpose was to understand the boundaries of your capabilities, not to harm you."

"Using sonic weapons would directly inflict heavy trauma on you, deviating from the original intent of the test."

"I need to know where my limits lie."

Shane's tone was firm.

"On the Thanagar planet, people who didn't know the limits of their weaknesses didn't survive their first trial."

Bruce shook his head, however.

"I don't have ready-made sonic weapons here. The research, development, and storage of such weapons are all in Batman's secret base. If you insist, I can arrange for it later, but not now."

Seeing his attitude was firm, Shane stopped pressing the matter.