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"Doctor… how much funding do you still need for your experiment to continue?"
Batman placed the Daily Bugle aside and looked directly at Dr. Otto Octavius.
For a moment, the scientist didn't answer. His fingers tightened around the edge of the desk, and deep worry was etched across his tired face.
"That's the most painful part," Dr. Otto finally said. "My research has already reached its final stage. The core theory is complete. The data is stable."
He laughed bitterly.
"All that's left is maintenance costs—electricity, equipment upkeep. Compared to the hundreds of millions already invested, it's almost nothing."
His voice suddenly rose.
"But that 'almost nothing' has become an impossible mountain."
"Thirty million dollars."
Dr. Otto clenched his fists.
"I only need thirty million U.S. dollars more. That's all. With that amount, nuclear fusion clean energy will truly become reality."
Batman remained silent.
At present, his total assets amounted to 7.6 million dollars—not even close to half of what Dr. Otto required.
Dr. Otto shook his head, already knowing the answer.
"I'm not asking you for help," he said quietly. "I'm just venting. Osborn cutting the funding at this moment… it's cruel."
But Batman's mind was already racing.
Thirty million dollars.
In Gotham, that sum wouldn't even cover the cost of a single advanced Batmobile prototype.
In New York—
It was an impossible wall.
Yet Batman's eyes did not waver.
"Give me three days," he thought.
"Three days is enough."
Outwardly, he looked calm as he spoke.
"Doctor, I have an idea," Batman said. "Before the project began, could you show me the contract you signed with Osborn Group?"
Dr. Otto frowned.
"You want to solve this legally?" he asked. "It's useless."
Still, he stood up and retrieved a thick paper contract, placing it in Batman's hands.
"According to this contract," Dr. Otto said bitterly, "even if Osborn breaches it, I only gain five years of usage rights to the equipment."
Batman read carefully.
As expected, the laboratory did not belong to Dr. Otto. He could use it—but not sell it, dismantle it, or relocate it.
Worse still, he was required to maintain the equipment at his own expense. If Osborn later resumed funding and found any damage, responsibility would fall entirely on him.
Batman closed the contract and handed it back.
"Doctor," he said calmly, "you should hire a professional lawyer. Someone who can completely separate your laboratory from Osborn Group."
Dr. Otto smiled bitterly.
"I don't even have money for a lawyer," he replied. "Right now, finding thirty million matters more than contracts."
Batman rubbed his temples, pretending to be troubled, then casually glanced toward the corner of the lab.
Four metallic tentacles stood silently there.
"What are those?" Batman asked.
Dr. Otto followed his gaze.
"Auxiliary devices for the experiment," he said indifferently. "Now that funding is gone, they're nothing but scrap."
Batman nodded.
He didn't stay longer.
---
On the streets of Brooklyn, Batman hailed a taxi.
"Lower Manhattan."
He planned to find a lawyer himself.
Black Cat needed legal assistance to deal with Kingpin's money laundering. Dr. Otto needed legal separation from Osborn Group.
One stone. Two birds.
He couldn't meet Black Cat as Peter Parker, which meant first returning to Manhattan, putting on the Batsuit, and heading to Hell's Kitchen.
---
After Batman left, silence returned to the laboratory.
Dr. Otto sat alone.
"Thirty million dollars…" he muttered.
His brows were tightly knit, his mind spinning—but no solution appeared.
"Robbery?" he scoffed. "Ridiculous."
Unless he robbed a bank, no one carried that kind of money. And stolen money could never be used openly.
He dismissed the thought immediately.
Then another idea surfaced.
"If I ignore maintenance costs… all I truly need is electricity."
He froze.
"Underground power cables…"
"No," he said sharply. "That's illegal."
But the thought lingered.
Images surged into his mind—memories long buried.
His father.
A power plant worker.
Exhausted. Poor. Always on the edge of death.
The man drank heavily. His frustration turned into fists. His mother and young Otto bore the consequences.
"I will never become like him," Otto whispered.
He had studied nuclear physics for one reason.
To free humanity from energy scarcity.
So no man would ever again beat his family because of exhaustion and poverty.
"I am benefiting all of humanity," he told himself.
"And if that's true… then I have no choice."
Once he tapped into underground power lines, the police would come eventually.
That meant moving the equipment.
Finding a safer place.
Dr. Otto slowly stood up.
His gaze drifted across the laboratory—and finally stopped on the four metal tentacles.
This time, there was no hesitation.
The despair vanished.
Only determination remained.
As he stepped forward, the mechanical interfaces slid into place, connecting directly to his nervous system, inch by inch, fusing with his spine.
Pain surged.
But Otto smiled.
"These were inspired by Squid Man," he muttered. "I'll need to… visit him more often."
"But I must never provoke him."
---
Deep within the abandoned shipyard, Batman stood alone.
He put on the new Batsuit—modified from the Spider-Slayer armor.
Compared to the refined suits in the Batcave, this one looked rough.
Angular. Gray-black. Scarred.
The bat emblem on his chest, forged from the Spider-Slayer's four talons, could detach and function as a weapon.
The original arm blades were removed, replaced with three retractable combat blades under precise control.
His gauntlets integrated Batarangs, combining web-shooters and grappling hooks into a single system.
There was no cape.
Instead, the Spider-Slayer's glider had been dismantled and reshaped into a compact back-mounted structure. Normally folded like armor, it could deploy for gliding, though true flight was not yet possible.
Given time, Batman could perfect it.
But time was a luxury.
His boots were ordinary combat boots.
His belt—a second-hand military utility belt bought on the streets of New York.
Compared to the dozens of suits in Gotham, this Batsuit looked crude.
Temporary.
But Batman's eyes were steady.
"This is enough," he thought.
"For now."
---
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