Cracks and New Opportunities

When Bruce stepped out of the shower with only a towel wrapped around his waist, he felt noticeably more relaxed. Even this body, strengthened by the system, felt deeply exhausted after the relentless high-intensity battles and constant mental strain.

He walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of bourbon, but did not drink it. He simply gazed silently at the amber liquid in the glass.

He spread out his hand. The ring emitting an eerie yellow glow lay quietly in his palm.

"The Yellow Lantern Ring... a cosmic weapon powered by spreading immense fear."

Bruce could feel the ring yearning for him. It yearned for the alienation he felt toward this unfamiliar world, born from another soul, as well as the almost tangible fear he had spread throughout Gotham as the Arkham Knight.

But in the end, he clenched his fist and put the ring back into the storage compartment on his belt.

It was not time yet. He knew too little about the thing; using it recklessly carried uncontrollable risks. Besides, his current equipment and abilities were already more than enough to deal with Earth's monsters and madmen. This ring would remain one of his trump cards, one reserved for any cosmic-level crisis that might emerge in the future.

He sat before the Batcomputer and took a sip of bourbon.

"The system..." He began sorting through his thoughts. This cheat that had accompanied him across worlds seemed different from the systems in the novels he had read in his previous life. There was no noisy system sprite, no dazzling exchange store, and certainly no lottery wheel.

Its logic was simple and pure—complete main quests, then receive rewards based on the evaluation. Those rewards all seemed closely tied to the concept of "Batman." This time, it had been the Peak Arkham Knight template and equipment. Next time, would it be Joker Batman's intellect? Or Flashpoint Batman's ruthlessness?

He felt a measure of anticipation.

He refocused on the screen. Gotham's crisis had temporarily come to an end. Now he needed to understand exactly what kind of world he was in.

As Bruce Wayne, he possessed the world's finest hacking skills. Countless government and military firewalls were like paper in front of him.

Before long, an enormous volume of information had been collected, analyzed, and displayed before his eyes.

"So that's how it is..."

This world's history had developed largely like that of his previous life, but the details differed dramatically. The most critical difference was the appearance of superheroes.

According to the information he had gathered, Bruce Wayne had been active in this city as Batman for more than a decade. He was one of the earliest and most mysterious "Urban Legends." This body of his was at the peak of its strength at thirty-five, and its appearance was unmistakably that version of Batman fans jokingly called "Big Ben"—the biggest and most powerfully built of them all.

Most other superheroes, meanwhile, had only begun to emerge over the past year or two.

The most eye-catching of them was undoubtedly the "Man of Steel" who had appeared out of nowhere in Metropolis three months ago—Superman. He looked at the figure captured by satellites and bystanders' phones, dressed in a blue-and-red suit and a red cape, with a handsome face like a Greek sculpture...

"Henry Cavill's Superman... interesting."

Bruce committed every detail to memory, then shut down all the intelligence interfaces.

He stood and changed into an expensive custom-made suit. Gotham's crisis had been dealt with, but Bruce Wayne's "crisis" was only just beginning.

He had to see Tim Drake.

The boy had flown into a rage because Bruce had hired villains and refused to let him join the fight. He had locked himself in his school dormitory for days and would not even answer the phone. According to what Alfred had learned from the principal, Tim was in an extremely low and... frustrated mood.

Bruce knew this was more than a childish complaint. It was a clash of ideals. He had to repair this relationship. Or rather, make Tim understand and accept that the Batman he protected was no longer the naïve Batman of the past, with his no-killing rule.

That might be harder than dealing with a hundred Banes.

Just as he was about to leave Wayne Manor by car, an agile figure silently vaulted out of the woods around the estate and landed in front of his vehicle.

The newcomer wore a black bodysuit with a blue bird emblem on his chest. It was Dick Grayson, the first Robin, now known as Nightwing.

"Bruce." Dick's expression was complicated as he looked at this "father" who was both familiar and unfamiliar. "I heard what happened in Gotham. You settled everything overnight... I'm not surprised at all."

He paused, and his tone turned strange. "But hiring Deathstroke and Deadshot... Bruce, that isn't like you."

"The times have changed, Dick." Bruce looked at him calmly, his tone even. "Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. The results proved that my methods worked."

Dick sighed. He could not argue with that. In truth, when he saw on the news that even the National Guard had been beaten into complete disarray, he had nearly rushed back to Gotham without a second thought. But now it seemed Bruce had solved every problem in a way Dick could not understand, yet one that was astonishingly effective.

"Fine... I understand." Dick rubbed his brow. "I came to you because I wanted to ask for your help. My city, Blüdhaven, has been having some problems lately."

Bruce opened the car door and gestured for him to get in. "Get in. Talk on the way."

Once seated in the back of the Rolls-Royce, Dick's expression turned serious. "Recently, the criminal gangs in Blüdhaven suddenly acquired a batch of high-tech weapons from unknown sources. Their firepower is even stronger than the police's. At the same time, a newly established tech company has been using every means possible to maliciously acquire old local businesses. Their methods are filthy. Strangest of all, the media has begun running a huge number of negative stories smearing Nightwing, saying I'm a violent maniac and a destroyer of the city..."

Bruce listened quietly, his fingers lightly tapping against his knee.

Hostile corporate takeovers, high-tech weapons supplied to criminal gangs, and media manipulation to smear the local hero...

All of it pointed to one name.

A mind as brilliant and arrogant as his own, one of the smartest on Earth.

Lex Luthor.

"How interesting. I just finished dealing with Gotham's troubles, and the city next door has sent me a new opportunity." The corner of Bruce's mouth lifted in an almost imperceptible curve.

Luthor stirring up trouble in Blüdhaven had to be aimed at his godlike opponent—Superman.

For Bruce, this was the perfect opportunity to enter Metropolis and make his first formal contact with that visitor from beyond the stars.