In just a split second, Batman and that fellow named Reed had already exchanged two blows across the network.
Round One. The moment Dr. Helen Cho stepped into the lobby, the instruments there immediately detected the bugs and micro-trackers on her person and sounded an alarm. The speed was so fast that Batman failed to collect any useful conversation content.
Batman's listening devices and trackers had undergone camouflage processing—not just in physical appearance; ordinary electronic detection instruments shouldn't have been able to identify them either.
Yet even so, they were identified and discovered the instant Helen Cho stepped into the lobby.
However, the winner of this round was Batman. He now knew the opponent's location and identity, while the opponent knew nothing about him.
According to the micro-tracker's readout, Dr. Helen Cho was currently located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
There stood a thirty-five-story building named the Baxter Building. In Manhattan, where skyscrapers stand in rows like scales, it wasn't the tallest, but its design was relatively unique—it was the world's first building to utilize a "K-brace" structure.
As for that fellow named Reed, Batman hadn't paid him much mind previously.
——After Batman first saw Dr. Helen Cho, he had grasped almost her entire life history, knowing she had a classmate at Columbia University named Reed Richards.
Like Dr. Banner, Reed Richards also held multiple PhDs, and they were degrees in entirely distinct scientific fields.
But unlike Dr. Banner, who had the identity of the Hulk and thus had to hide in the shadows, this Reed Richards had a considerably clean record.
Because he had displayed wisdom far beyond the norm since childhood, practically every period—even every month—of Reed Richards' life could be pieced together through newspapers, books, and news reports.
Aside from necessary privacy, Reed Richards seemed entirely transparent; no flaws could be found in him.
Batman was monitoring Dr. Helen Cho because he strongly suspected this female doctor had come into contact with supernatural forces.
Although Reed Richards was brilliant, judging by the data collected so far, he was on the same level as Dr. Banner. Knowing him would be helpful to Batman, but not significantly so.
But starting tonight, this fellow named Reed Richards had formally entered Batman's field of vision.
Round Two. After Reed discovered Batman's bugs and trackers, he immediately attempted to hack into the Batcave.
Almost simultaneously, Batman was also attempting to hack into the Baxter Building.
This round ended in a draw; neither Batman nor Reed Richards succeeded.
The computing power of the equipment inside the Batcave could not resolve the fundamental algorithms constituting the Baxter Building's firewall, which were based on non-Euclidean geometry and imaginary time.
Reed Richards' equipment had sufficient computing power, but the defense system within the Batcave was not a defense based on complex technology or network techniques. Instead, it was like several nested mazes constantly changing themselves.
"The equipment in the Batcave is in dire need of an upgrade..." Batman frowned secretly.
The Alfred AI was not yet complete, and the construction of Bat-Island still needed time.
Moreover, both of these required massive amounts of funding, and Batman's Parker Industries did not have that much cash flow.
To conceal Dr. Otto's existence, Batman did not develop the artificial solar energy source without restriction.
Additionally, to help Harry Osborn bring back his father, Norman Osborn, Batman had burned through over a hundred million dollars in the battle in New Mexico—also from cash flow.
For a startup enterprise established less than two months ago, just taking out a hundred million in cash flow was enough to nearly kill it. Parker Industries had already done its best.
If he didn't consider Dr. Otto's safety, didn't save Norman Osborn, and Batman devoted himself entirely to business in New York, two months would have been enough for him to expand Parker Industries into a multinational corporation like the Oscorp Group.
But Batman could never do that.
Meanwhile.
Inside the Baxter Building, Reed Richards also couldn't help but frown:
"How can there be someone in this world who builds a defense core on a completely heterogeneous chaotic system fusing classical cryptography, psychological game theory, and even elements of the occult?"
"Even his location information is constantly changing."
"An interesting person. I hope to meet him."
Dr. Helen Cho was still in a daze. She only knew that she had taken the elevator up, and just as she stepped into the laboratory of her classmate and good friend, Reed Richards, before she could finish her greeting, alarms rang out in the lab.
Then came Reed shushing her, before diving headfirst into a computer, desperately calculating something.
"Can I speak now?" Dr. Helen Cho gestured with her hands while mouthing the words.
"You can, Dr. Cho." Reed Richards straightened up, sighed with some regret, and then spoke to Helen Cho.
"What just happened?" Helen Cho still looked bewildered.
Reed Richards smiled slightly, walked over to the coffee machine to pour a cup, and said to Helen Cho:
"Check your pockets or your satchel. Just feel around. Someone placed listening devices and trackers on you."
"Listening devices?"
Dr. Helen Cho was startled and hurriedly patted herself down. Finally, she found a bug inside the lining of her jacket, another in her pant cuff, a tracker on her hairpin, and one under her collar...
Reed smiled as he handed the poured coffee to Dr. Helen Cho and took those small devices from her hand:
"Don't worry, my lab has detection and jamming instruments. They are already disabled."
"When did you change into these clothes?"
Helen Cho took the coffee, set it casually on a side table, and recalled carefully:
"Noon, after lunch."
"Judging by the placement of these bugs and trackers, you..." Reed Richards' eyes held a strange look. "Forgive me for being blunt, but unless the other party had intimate contact with you, it would have been impossible for you not to notice."
A trace of anger flashed across Dr. Helen Cho's face:
"Reed, we are friends. You shouldn't slander me like that."
"It's not slander, I'm just suspicious," Reed said, tossing the bugs and trackers up and catching them. "Mind lending me these to study?"
"Whatever." Helen Cho looked at Reed, who had already thrown himself onto the experiment table with a fanatical expression, and asked, "Where's Susan?"
"..." Reed was no longer paying attention to Helen Cho, simply leaving his guest-cum-friend to the side just like that.
Dr. Helen Cho sighed. Only when she looked down did she realize that the little girl, Lunella, was still standing beside her.
"I'm going back to my room to redesign my gadget," Lunella said, looking up at Helen Cho, before turning around and skipping away.
Just as Helen Cho was caught in the awkward timing of neither leaving nor staying, a gentle female voice rang out not far away:
"Forgive them, inventors are all like that." The speaker was a white woman with long blonde hair and a figure slightly better than Dr. Helen Cho's. "You haven't been here since you dropped Lunella off last time. Tell me, what happened?"
"Susan!" Dr. Helen Cho's eyes lit up, and she walked quickly toward the blonde woman who had spoken.
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