Chapter 61 Chapter 61 Let’s fight with our reputation at stake! (…
"Well, did I do well?" Benjamin said proudly.
Jason: "That's awesome, bro. You're really smart when you use your brain."
Li Hua: "Awesome brother, awesome."
"...Once the Omnitrix buffering is complete, the three of you will return to the Batcave immediately."
Batman didn't respond to Benjamin's question. He just handcuffed and blindfolded Willon Jones and carried him towards the sewer entrance, leaving everyone with a physical image of him carrying a heavy load.
"That's it? I did such a good job, and you won't even give me a compliment?" Benjamin spread his hands. Seeing Batman didn't respond but simply carried the new Killer Croc around the corner of the sewer, he said, "Oh, your father is really serious. He's a combat-oriented Azmis, indeed."
Li Hua: "Be more precise. If it was Azmis, you would have been scolded by now."
Jason: "Come on, Batman's pretty much the same. I think he was just confused by Ben's outburst, so he's speechless. But you're going to get a good scolding when we get back to the Batcave. Batman hates it when people act without notice or disobey orders."
Li Hua: "I have a very important question. Does Batman hit children?"
Jason: "Of course during sparring and martial arts training, but I'm guessing that's not what you're asking about, so no. At most, he'll ground you. Or worse, he'll forbid you from playing games. And that punishment will mainly depend on your stealth skills."
Jason didn't know if Tim was grounded or not, but he'd sneaked out during those times, and so had Dick.
Jason even remembered that there was a time when he was grounded. At that time, Dick, who did not get along well with him, was called back by Alfred. After talking with him, he and Alfred took Dick out for a ride in the Batmobile at night without telling Batman.
And Tim... Considering that Tim had been running away from home as soon as he came back, a traditional activity in Robin's era, he must have the courage and skills to sneak away when he was grounded by Batman.
In short, Batman can use his ability to ground Robin, and Robin can also use his ability to break into the house and escape. Everyone uses their own skills to maintain the unspoken rules of the house.
Jason: "But you don't have to worry about that. Batman is not your adoptive father. He can't ground you."
Benjamin: "Does that mean if I just take you to Blüdhaven, Batman won't be able to scold us?"
Li Hua: "...Are you sure about this? Won't he be even more angry when he comes looking for you?"
Benjamin, remember you originally picked him up from Blüdhaven? If Batman can go once, he'll go again. He doesn't seem like the type to just forget about something the next day.
"I know, I'm just thinking about it," Benjamin said. "But I wish he'd stop yelling quickly. I have to pick up the kids in the morning, and if he yells too long, I won't be able to sleep for a few hours. Do you think if I offer to write a self-criticism, it will shorten his yelling?"
"...I don't know. I haven't tried it anyway." This was the first time Jason saw someone admitting his mistakes to Batman tactfully, explaining and reflecting on his mistakes actively with a very good attitude, but then not changing his ways.
Benjamin: "So, magic boy, do you have any suggestions?"
"I don't have any advice on that. I've never been grounded...it's just that kind of punishment isn't popular in our area," Li Hua said. "If my parents found out I'd gone out late at night to pick a fight with some random people without even saying hello, they'd be waving their clothes around like crazy. Of course, I've never done anything like that, so I'm just guessing. They rarely hit me. The last time they hit me was almost ten years ago. But honestly, it was well deserved."
Benjamin: "Ten years ago, you were only six years old. What did you do to make your parents do that?"
Even now Li Hua still thinks he played well.
Li Hua: "...At the time, there was a river near where I lived. I heard you could learn to swim by jumping into it, so I wanted to try it out. But right after I took off my clothes and got in the water, a passing woman rushed over, grabbed my ear, and pulled me away. She called my parents to come get me."
The kind-hearted aunt even broke off two thin, tough, barbless branches while Li Hua's parents were rushing over to ensure that only the skin and flesh were injured.
There are still many good people in this world.
"...You know, I've always been against spanking children," Benjamin said, "but this time I'm on your parents' side."
Jason was even more blunt and decisive: "And you, my brother, you really deserve it."
Li Hua: "...Is the Omnitrix buffering ready?"
"No, if I were better, I would have taken us out of this stinking sewer long ago." Benjamin said, "Why doesn't Batman want to take us with him? The three of us can help him carry a person. That guy looks pretty heavy."
Li Hua: "There's not enough room. The Batmobile can only hold three people, including the driver. Unless you want to ride on the roof of the Batmobile."
Jason had been Batman's partner for so long that he could guess what Batman was thinking: "Because I don't want those psychopaths in Arkham to see you."
Given Benjamin and Li Hua's situation, it would be too easy for them to be played to death or driven crazy by that group of lunatics.
Although the people in Arkham are in prison, those who are capable have their own channels to obtain information from the outside world, and those who have no channels will try to get intelligence from their roommates and prison guards.
As for those who can't even gather intelligence, they are generally ordinary mental patients who are not harmful and are not included in this statistics.
After Killer Croc was turned back into a human, the fact that Benjamin had the ability to repair genes was confirmed. God knows what kind of unscrupulous ideas those lunatics would have towards Benjamin and whether they would incorporate him into their evil plans.
Luckily, Benjamin was careful at that time and knocked Killer Croc unconscious before trying to transform back into human form. In the end, he failed to transform. Otherwise, if those lunatics knew that Benjamin's true form was human, and a child at that...
Jason didn't dare to imagine what would happen.
Why else would he have been staying in Blüdhaven with Benjamin Lihua? And why, even though staying in Gotham would have given Batman more instruction, Batman had no objection to their collective trip to Blüdhaven? It was because the lunatics in Gotham were too much for them!
Benjamin and Li Hua are not from this world. Their personalities are incompatible with the city of Gotham. The sludge in the sewers loves to see such people fall into depravity.
Bruce and Jason both had the same idea: although Gotham's environment and dungeon difficulty were suitable for Benjamin and Li Hua, the risks and mental pollution were too high. Sunny and cheerful people should stay away from gloomy and neurotic people. Blüdhaven was safer than them.
It is better to make slow progress in learning than to create two lunatics whose Taoism hearts are shattered, or even two physically dead people!
As he was speaking, the Omnitrix made a mechanical sound, which meant that it had buffered enough time to continue transforming.
"Don't think too much. Let's go back to sleep." Benjamin pressed the dial, and a young version of Superman with a similar appearance to Green Lantern without a cape appeared in the sewer. He picked up his two friends in each hand and turned into a green meteor invisible to the human eye and flew towards Wayne Manor.
Li Hua originally thought that Benjamin would definitely be scolded by Bruce, but when he and Jason got up in the morning with the ice ghost cubs on their heads and met Benjamin at the breakfast table, Benjamin said that he had not seen Bruce since he went to the sewer.
They didn't even see Bruce at the breakfast table, and there wasn't even a plate at his table.
"Master is still resting." After noticing Li Hua's glance at Bruce's empty seat, Alfred said humorously, "Master Bruce always has a wonderful time compression technique, which can compress several hours into 'five minutes', so sometimes he will miss breakfast because of this."
Li Hua thought about the meaning of this sentence and finally understood that the old man meant that Bruce would stay in bed. He suddenly felt that the distance between him and Bruce was shortened a lot.
It is human nature to stay in bed, but people who can't or don't want to stay in bed are very scary.
"Where's Tim? Why can't I see him?" Jason asked. "Did he have a fight with Bruce and run away from home again?"
"Master Tim has been staying at the company these days to handle corporate business, so he can handle the public relations for your reinstatement," Alfred said. "After all, your misfortune is well known in Gotham. We need a convincing explanation and evidence that will convince the public and the police."
Jason thought about how he died. He realized that the son of Gotham's richest man had died in an explosion, and his body had even been found. It would be very difficult to convince the media that he was still alive. "How about creating a fake identity for me and letting Bruce adopt me again?"
If we use a game as an analogy, his original identity is already a dead file in every sense. Rather than bringing a dead file back to life, it is more convenient and quicker to just create a new file.
Alfred poured Jason another glass of milk: "You are you, Master Jason."
A fake identity is a fake after all, and "Jason Todd" is still dead. All the achievements of "Jason Todd" will be buried forever and have nothing to do with the resurrected Jason.
Li Hua, who was trying to stack the bread, bacon, and fried eggs on his plate to make a sandwich, looked up and said, "I understand. Your family's point is this: Jason Todd was dead before your resurrection, and he's still dead after your resurrection. Wouldn't that mean your resurrection was in vain? That's absolutely unacceptable!"
Jason shyly avoided Alfred's gaze, concentrating on cutting the bacon on his plate, as if he wasn't the one who rolled up the bacon and put it in his mouth with a fork.
Alfred laughed: "Mr. Li Hua's language skills are very worth learning."
After dinner, the three of them did not return to Blüdhaven. After all, compared to the cramped rental house in Blüdhaven, the spacious Wayne Manor was more suitable for the activities of 14 ice ghost pups.
Benjamin watched the children in the yard fluttering around trying to catch the batarangs that Li Hua had used the [Shift] card on, and asked Jason, "Besides Killer Croc, are there any other villains in Gotham who could use the Omnitrix's genetic repair?"
"Yes, brother, yes," Jason said. "But the Omnitrix can fix genetic problems, not psychological ones. Take Man-Bat, for example, the scientist who can transform into an insane humanoid bat monster. It's not like he hasn't turned back to human before, but he couldn't resist using the serum, so he keeps going back and forth."
"Killer Croc is the most suitable. He was born with a genetic problem of reversion to his ancestral state. He originally rejected this change, and his path to becoming a villain is related to that genetic problem."
The most important thing is that Killer Croc's problem was one he was born with, not one caused by external factors like his roommates. Even if he wanted to get his crocodile weapon back, he couldn't because he couldn't be born again.
"What about Poison Ivy? I looked at her information. She also had her genes artificially modified, right?" Benjamin said. "I turned her into a human. I don't believe she can change back."
"She might actually be able to do it, and she's a classic example of a twisted plant-based supremacist," Jason said. "You have no idea of the technical capabilities of those people at Arkham Asylum."
Academic qualifications are not necessarily a passport to a big company, but they can serve as a stepping stone to Arkham.
Of course, it wasn't that Jason completely rejected Benjamin's proposal. The situation of the Arkham residents was indeed complicated, and there was no way to prevent them from changing back on their own. But if Benjamin could really make some of them temporarily become ordinary humans, it would greatly slow down their speed in causing trouble.
But the prerequisite is that this must be planned.
After witnessing Benjamin's ability to act yesterday, Jason was certain that if he spoke with even one word of agreement now, Benjamin might act on his own and turn the tables.
"Plus, repairing the genes of people like Poison Ivy and Man-Bat whose genes were altered by external factors isn't as difficult as repairing Killer Croc's," 666 said. "Rehiding abandoned draft documents that accidentally appeared in the actual game is much easier than extracting the massive amount of add-on content evenly distributed throughout the game files, practically a whole new game. Genetic repair isn't the Omnitrix's primary function, let alone isolating a different type of DNA it's never seen or cataloged. The cost would be enormous."
Compared to him, Killer Croc is simply the chosen knife tester, simple, quick and without recurrence.
"As expected of me, I'm just lucky. Every time I draw, I pull out a villain that can be dealt with once and for all." Benjamin noticed Li Hua squatting by the flower bed, scrolling on his phone without saying a word. He moved closer and asked, "What are you doing?"
I hope you don’t feel uncomfortable visiting someone else’s home again. If that’s the case, just go back to Blüdhaven after lunch.
"No, I'm watching the news." Li Hua said, "Ben, I have good news and bad news to tell you. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Benjamin: “Good news.”
Li Hua: "The good news is that everyone now knows that Killer Croc turned back into a human. And someone posted the fight between the Mighty Tyrannosaurus and Killer Croc online, so now everyone knows that Killer Croc turned into a human after being defeated by the Mighty Tyrannosaurus."
"Yes! I told you the Wonder Rex is awesome!" Benjamin cheered, then asked, "What's the bad news?"
Li Hua: "They think your battle on the riverbank was a fight with Killer Croc's name on the line, so the citizens of Gotham and the media think it wasn't the Wonder Tyrannosaurus, but the second-generation Killer Croc with a different skin."
Benjamin: “…Ah?”
"Wow. This deduction is absurd yet has a hint of rationality. It's worthy of a Gotham citizen who has been guessing urban legends for more than ten years and has a wild imagination."
Jason searched the internet on his phone and after quickly browsing through the comments from Gotham netizens in a few seconds, he found the five-star reviewer Red Hood Jason Todd.
"But their thinking is still too rigid and conservative. I think the citizen's idea last night was a good one—why couldn't it be the Jurassic crew? Obviously, the Tyrannosaurus Rex looks more like a dinosaur than a crocodile. Since we already have the Jurassic period, why can't we guess the Triassic or Cretaceous period? And since we already have the Triassic and Cretaceous periods, why can't we guess that the Tyrannosaurus Rex is actually an underground survivor from the dinosaur era?"
"Wow, I see they've started a new discussion. They're intensely discussing and betting on who will be the next pair to compete for the title. Will it be Poison Ivy and Poison Ivy, who are currently known as Swampfire, or the three-toned, icy Batmobile with the suspected dyed-in-the-dark Mothman and Mr. Freeze?"
Li Hua: ...
Benjamin: ...
I say, you Gothamites, this is outrageous! How can you even get meal replacements here? And the meal replacements are even stacked! Is there a bonus pool for you guys getting meal replacements?
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The author has something to say: In Benjamin’s eyes: punish evil and promote good!
Pure spectators who don't know the truth: Kougua! He beat Killer Croc (or whoever) to his knees, he must be trying to take over Killer Croc's (or whoever) nickname, Kougua!
Batman: ...I'm so tired. You guys go back first. I'll find you after I'm done with this.
As to why Batman didn't go to Benjamin to lecture him at night -
Batman: Busy dealing with this emergency, proving to the people in Arkham that this is Killer Croc, examining Killer Croc to make sure he's completely transformed into a normal human... Lecture? The kids are already asleep when I get home. I can't wake them up and yell at them, can I?
【Catch the bug twice】
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