Holy shit guys! Like 3 other people are already translating this FIC!! Crazy! Lol but don't worry, seems like I'm ahead of them. Drop power stones.
Chapter 18: New York's Urban Legend
"You mean there's a vampire in the city? Like in the movies—active at night, drinks human blood, that kind?"
George Stacy looked at the prisoner in the interrogation room.
Following the day before yesterday's gang members and yesterday's Squid-Man, this morning another group of bound criminals had been discovered at the police station entrance.
These people were all injured. The lighter cases had broken arms, legs, or ribs. The severe cases had fractured spines, broken necks.
Whoever struck them seemed extremely knowledgeable about human anatomy. They'd completely eliminated these gang members' combat ability while leaving them barely breathing.
"Yes, a vampire! I saw it with my own eyes!"
In the interrogation room, Paul shouted desperately with handcuffed hands. But no matter how he explained, no one in the police station believed this so-called "vampire" truly existed.
"He might be delirious from the beating that unknown vigilante gave him. Have a doctor give him a sedative."
George Stacy shook his head, no longer paying attention to this small-time thug named Paul. He called his assistant Auggie over:
"Have we investigated the identities of all victims killed by Squid-Man? Court's tomorrow. With complete evidence, only the death penalty awaits him."
"Also coordinate with other precincts to strengthen night patrols."
Auggie nodded, hurrying back to his desk, only to discover the victim list he'd spent a day and night investigating had vanished.
With clues provided by the mysterious person who caught Squid-Man, the police station had saved considerable effort investigating this case. If the list was lost, they'd have to work hard all over again.
"Who took my list?" he shouted at his colleagues.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Damn it, I remember clearly—I put it on the desk?"
Auggie looked thoroughly puzzled, bending down to search everywhere without finding it. Unwilling to give up, he looked at his desk again. That list lay perfectly on the desktop.
He instinctively looked toward the police station entrance, only catching sight of someone in black clothes and a hat quickly walking out.
"Hey! Stop!"
Auggie shouted, hastily giving chase. Other officers didn't understand but grabbed their sidearms and followed.
"Auggie! What are you doing?" Chief Stacy also chased out, seeing Auggie having lost his target.
"Just now someone stole my investigation report... well, not exactly stole—he put it back on the desk." Auggie looked thoroughly confused. "It's all victim data. What does he want?"
"Whatever he wants, arrange personnel to protect those victims these next few days." George Stacy patted his assistant's shoulder.
Turning three street corners, Batman casually tossed the black clothes and hat into a trash can, walking Manhattan's streets in plaid shirt and casual pants.
"Hired by gangs, Squid-Man received payment for eight murder contracts total. Seven were members of various New York gangs..."
Batman recalled the victim list he'd seen at the police station, momentarily unsure what to say.
The only non-gang member was Batman himself.
Buying a Daily Bugle at a corner newsstand, Batman didn't rush to read the content. Instead, he first returned to the abandoned shipyard.
While using the abandoned industrial equipment and various counterweights to train his body, he simultaneously contemplated his next plan.
According to his original goal, he'd use all seven million six hundred thousand dollars obtained from Squid-Man's hideout to arm himself and continue striking gangs—especially Kingpin—to obtain more capital.
But currently the suit problem had been solved via the Spider Slayer. Batman felt this matter could be postponed.
That left striking gangs, continuing to save money, and meanwhile checking whether market opportunities existed to double this money.
In Gotham while being Batman, he'd always simultaneously played wealthy businessman Bruce Wayne. He couldn't be more familiar with capital operations.
"When this money becomes sufficient, I can establish a company and invest in Dr. Otto's fusion energy."
With a dull thud, Batman dropped several stacked counterweights totaling twenty-five tons—Peter's maximum strength—onto the ground.
His training wasn't solely to continue familiarizing himself with this body, but also to avoid potential problems with Peter's genetically mutated physique someday losing all strength.
Even if this was an extremely low-probability event, Batman had to take it seriously.
Through training, even if this situation truly occurred, Batman would possess controllable strength. Combined with specially manufactured suits, he'd still display formidable capability.
Though such a suit would require tens of millions in funding per unit—impossible to realize without his own commercial empire.
"Oscorp announces major breakthrough in scientific research project 'Fusion Clean Energy' led by Dr. Otto, officially seeking outside investment."
After finishing training, Batman picked up the Daily Bugle. The front page headline made him instinctively stroke his chin.
"This is fake news. Yesterday Norman just stopped all experiments including Otto's research, focusing on developing super soldier serum..."
"Is this some kind of signal misleading the outside world? Using fusion energy as a gimmick to attract outside investment, then diverting invested funds elsewhere?"
"Nobody's a fool. Norman is merely attempting to struggle."
Batman stacked the newspaper neatly with previous purchases. As usual, he first showed his face at Peter's rented apartment, then headed straight for Otto's laboratory.
Though the Bugle's headline was a smokescreen, Otto's fusion clean energy was genuinely part of Batman's plans.
"Hope nothing's wrong at Otto's."
Otto's laboratory was located in Brooklyn, about an hour's walk from Peter's apartment.
"If I wore Spider-Man's suit to disguise my identity, swinging on webs would get me there quickly..."
Batman immediately expelled this thought from his mind, going to the street to hail a taxi.
"Peter."
In Otto's laboratory, this middle-aged man who'd been high-spirited days ago now looked haggard. Seeing Batman, he only greeted him listlessly.
Laboratory instruments had all been shut down. Otto slumped in his chair, staring blankly at everything in the lab.
He'd already discovered the problem with his fusion experiment. Given time to systematically troubleshoot, he could complete this research.
But yesterday, Oscorp—which had been funding his experiments—suddenly cut research funding. This made all Otto's efforts come to an abrupt halt.
"Doctor, what are your plans?" Batman sat down beside Otto.
"I intended to seek sponsorship, but look at this." Otto handed Batman today's Daily Bugle. "Oscorp has already cut off my path to seeking private sponsorship."
The Daily Bugle contained precisely that fake news. Batman accepted the newspaper, pretending to read carefully for a moment.
His gaze wasn't on the newspaper at all, but on a completely new device in the laboratory that hadn't been there last visit... four metal tentacles, very similar to the tentacles behind Squid-Man whom Batman had personally delivered to the police station.
***
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