Barry's Story

Wells sensed that Caitlin's attitude was a little too aggressive and stepped in to smooth things over.

Dr. Wells said gently, "Barry, what Caitlin means is that your body is a treasure trove, containing countless possibilities involving medicine, vaccines, genes, cells, and more. We need to study it further. What we uncover could benefit all humanity, perhaps reduce diseases and hereditary illnesses, or even solve various forms of cancer. Humanity's optimization—or evolution—may be deeply buried within your body."

"If anything happens to you, it will be a loss to the entire world. And now you want to risk all of that just because you want to be a hero? Do you understand?"

Barry fell silent for a moment, then continued, "Lin Li can help with your research too. He and I both got our abilities after being struck by lightning."

Caitlin continued, "Lin Li is different. His cellular genes have already mutated. He is an independent life-form and no longer possesses any of the traits of an ordinary human. He has already gone beyond the scope of humanity. Lightning turned him into something else."

"Only you are special. Your cellular genes may still be applicable to ordinary humans."

Barry's lips moved, but no words came out. He could not refute them. Such righteous reasoning struck directly at his kind heart. If he insisted on going his own way, he might instead be causing a loss to himself and the world.

Barry lowered his gaze, deeply dejected, tears glimmering in his eyes. He said slowly, "When I was eleven, my mother was murdered."

Everyone fell silent, listening to Barry's story without speaking.

"It was late at night. I was awakened by a sound. I went downstairs, and then..."

"I saw something like lightning circling around my mother."

"There was a figure inside it. He killed my mom."

"The police arrested my dad. They thought he had murdered my mother and locked him up in Iron Mountain Prison."

"No one—the police, the psychiatrists—believed us."

"For fourteen years, I studied every abnormal case and person, searching for miracles."

"Until yesterday, when I gained super-speed. I believe there must be others who have also encountered miracles."

"Maybe someone else has super-speed too. Maybe that includes the man who killed my mother."

"I will fight crime. I will not let people like that harm anyone else. I will find out who killed my mother and clear my father's name. I will not give up."

Kind, righteous, stubborn Barry—once he made up his mind about something, no one could change it. At least, none of the people present had what it took to change his mind.

Everyone present fell silent.

Lin Li gave Barry's shoulder a heavy pat, hugged him, then said, "I support you. I can see the justice and kindness in your heart. Like I said, if you ever need help, I will help you."

Barry nodded and embraced Lin Li.

Dr. Wells took off his glasses and looked directly at Barry. "Barry, you may be the only one with super-speed. Fourteen years ago, there was no Particle Accelerator, no Particle Accelerator explosion. Nothing was like it is now..."

"Not necessarily..."

Lin Li interrupted Wells. He hesitated, his lips moving, but in the end, he did not say anything.

He fully conveyed that he knew there was someone with super-speed, but did not know who it was. To avoid unnecessary complications, it was not suitable to say it now, so he said nothing, merely hesitating without uttering another word.

Lin Li had thoroughly whetted their appetites. Barry even gripped Lin Li's arm tightly, looking at him with anxious expectation.

Wells narrowed his eyes, his heart suspended once more as he stared intensely at him.

"Not necessarily. What happened to Barry and me was too miraculous. Anything is possible."

After much effort, Lin Li finally forced out a vague statement.

The tension in their hearts eased, and all of them felt like slapping Lin Li.

Disappointment was written all over Barry's face.

After that, no one openly expressed support for Barry, nor did anyone strongly oppose him. Their attitudes remained ambiguous and impossible to read.

Then they packed up the equipment and other things and returned to STAR Labs.

Because of his grief and dejection, Barry had already run off somewhere.

Lin Li helped dismantle all the equipment and put it away according to Cisco's instructions.

In the main control room, he found Dr. Wells.

With a thoughtful yet troubled expression, Lin Li said to Wells, "Dr. Wells, I want to talk to you."

After parting ways with Cisco and Caitlin, the two of them went into a corridor.

Lin Li said solemnly, "Dr. Wells, if someone appeared with super-speed like Barry's, how should we deal with him?"

It was time for Wells to show off his acting skills.

Wells did not answer directly. Instead, he asked Lin Li in confusion, "Could there be another person with super-speed like Barry?"

Lin Li said with an unreadable expression, "No. I was just asking."

Dr. Wells smiled at just the right moment. "Barry and you are both miracles. How could there possibly be another one? If there were, then just restrain his speed."

Lin Li cursed inwardly. Easy for him to say. Once Reverse-Flash or Barry entered Speed Mode, they possessed ultimate speed and Super-Speed Thinking. That kind of thought process was definitely even more powerful than Lin Li's own Super-Speed Thinking, so powerful that everything they looked at seemed frozen.

Any attack would be seen through clearly in advance. Unless someone ambushed a speedster while he was out of Speed Mode, there would be no chance.

In fact, in the television series, The Flash had often exited Speed Mode and then carelessly been successfully ambushed by his enemies.

He had even been successfully ambushed by ordinary people, which Lin Li could not understand at all.

After all, even outside Speed Mode, Barry still had a body at the peak of human capability. If an ordinary person could defeat him like that, Lin Li could only conclude that Barry's fighting ability was unbelievably terrible.

For the first time, Lin Li realized how difficult speedsters were to deal with. There were too few speedsters like Barry, who was foolishly adorable and charged head-on. For a while, he felt that speedsters were truly absurdly overpowered. They could fight whenever they wanted and leave whenever they wanted, and there was no way anyone could catch them. You had to set a trap in a specific situation; otherwise, if one dragged you along while running, you would be like a puppet on strings, hauled into the air.

Independent of the four fundamental forces.

No wonder there was an old martial arts saying: under heaven, no martial art can overcome speed.

It would not be easy to get any useful information out of Wells.

Nothing happened over the next few days.

Barry came every day for examinations and to be studied. Secretly, he happily told Lin Li how many criminal groups he had destroyed and how many people he had saved. But he was not without worries. His biggest problem now was that he had already burned through seven or eight pairs of shoes and more than a dozen sets of clothes. It made him miserable. He felt that he needed a suit that was friction-resistant, fireproof, and heat-resistant. Lin Li strongly agreed.

The person causing the biggest stir at STAR Labs was Lin Li. He cleared out a training area in the basement. Every day, he spent five hours studying science with a tablet, two hours searching online for different fighting techniques, then set up dozens of punching bags to practice close-quarters attacks. He also practiced controlling electromagnetic fields, memorizing each kind of magnetic field, distinguishing magnetic fields, strengthening his body, and practicing electrical energy. Doing this every day benefited him greatly.

Late one night, at two in the morning, after finishing his shower, he detected someone in the research room through electromagnetic sensing. It was Cisco. By now, he could precisely distinguish every person's unique electromagnetic field.

Still in the research room this late? Cisco loved inventing, but was he not taking it too far? For the past several days, he had been in the research room at two in the morning almost every night. What could possibly be worth studying so desperately?

Lin Li decided to find out. He walked straight to the research room door and called out, "Cisco!"

"Ah!"

Cisco jumped in fright, his face a little pale.