Chapter 1711 - Two Important Partners

Luke and Richard talked sincerely for half an hour.

The other party indeed sensed his sincerity and was very happy to work for the Dark Knight.

That was right. Richard would only be responsible for the Dark Knight and Black Cat; he would have no contact with anyone else in the Bat Squad.

It wasn't that Luke didn't trust his teammates, but that Richard's abilities were too annoying.

Luke called it the Internet Spirit Form, but still couldn't learn it.

Richard could send part of his consciousness into the Internet without obstruction.

This ability had many shortcomings, including the fact that it couldn't be transmitted wirelessly or via a high-powered electric line.

In addition, it was very hard for it to break into the various security systems of corporate servers; even a very skilled personal hacker might not necessarily be able to do so.

Even if Richard could break in, it would consume a lot of his mental energy, which would slow him down and lower his endurance.

But this ability was still very powerful.

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He couldn't break into corporate security systems head-on, but he could break into most people's personal network security.

He couldn't use wireless connections, but he could enter routers and signal towers to intercept data.

For Richard, 99.99% of Internet devices in the world were wide open for him to come and go as he pleased.

If he really wanted to target someone, the worst that could happen was that he would just need to take a small detour.

The few people whom he couldn't do anything about at all were tech whizzes like Tony and Luke, who also didn't have to worry about burning money.

What this meant was that the secrets of most people in the world weren't secrets to Richard.

As long as he had confirmed a target, he would be able to find some information on them. The worst at most was that the time and effort he spent on it might not necessarily be worth it.

So, this ability could easily arouse suspicion and lead to disaster.

When Richard had been under Amanda's control, she kept his identity and ability a secret – he had been a "personal tool."

If disaster struck and she couldn't keep him under control, the first thing she would do was kill him.

Luke had used this to recruit Richard.

The Dark Knight title just made Richard less resistant to negotiations.

What really moved him were the work requirements and treatment.

Once he started working for Luke, he would still be in charge of gathering intelligence, and just needed to abide by safety rules.

He had to take ten "commissions" every year, no questions asked – any more than that was up to him.

Whatever job he completed, he would be rewarded for it. If he didn't complete it, he would get nothing.

In return, the Dark Knight would give Richard a certain level of protection and could selectively accept commissions from him.

After the Dark Knight completed a commission, Richard had to pay him.

Richard was already very satisfied with this "bare minimum."

Ever since Amanda caught Richard when he was 17, she treated him purely as a tool.

He could get good food and drink, but not freedom, nor could he reject her orders.

When she wanted information, he had to follow her orders. If he didn't complete them or do them well, a lot of pain would be waiting for him.

Richard had cursed that Amanda was an animal because she was black-hearted and even more inhumane than one.

On top of that, she had been like an animal tamer, who treated him like a chimpanzee.

Although she gave him food and water, she kept him in a cage and beat him if he resisted.

The Dark Knight, on the other hand, had a much higher moral bottom line.

The terms of their deal were the same. In essence, they were equals.

As for the Dark Knight's threat that he would be keeping an eye on Richard and that he couldn't do anything bad, Richard wasn't angry.

The Dark Knight was a super cosplayer who had inherited Batman's convictions. If he talked law and equality with the bad guys, that would be a betrayal of Batman's convictions.

Richard could only be glad that everything he had done in the past was basically Amanda's fault, and that his abilities were still useful to the Dark Knight.

Otherwise, if the Dark Knight blamed all that on him, he could suffer anything from broken limbs to becoming a paraplegic.

As a partner and not a prisoner, Richard wasn't stopped from moving to live in Silicon Valley, California.

Luke had come to Los Angeles to drop in on him and use his powerful Mental Hypnosis to ensure that Richard didn't run off.

This guy had swiped a lot of money from Amanda's stash, but it wasn't clean, and he didn't dare use it carelessly.

Now that Richard had the Dark Knight backing him, Luke had him open an Internet technology company, and then laundered Richard's millions back to him in funding. Luke didn't even charge him a processing fee.

Luke had shown his sincerity, and Richard needed to prove his worth as a partner to avoid being underestimated.

He had helped Luke complete many non-mandatory investigations in the last few months, and had earned hundreds of credit points.

If this went on, he could use his identity as the boss of an online company to live a lavish life.

After meeting the guy, Luke was certain that his mood was stable.

However, if Richard dared to cross the line, Luke didn't mind using drugs, Hypnosis and Illusion on him.

…

After inspecting Richard, Luke looked for Hank Pym, that stubborn old man.

He was still in the guise of the bigshot who sold everything, but Dr. Pym still had no intention of selling the technology, nor did he care much for what Luke was offering.

The old man was just as fixated on his Pym Particle research as Tony was on his Iron Man suit – price wasn't the most important thing.

Thankfully, Dr. Pym was much less arrogant than last time when he saw the technology which the bigshot took out.

This proved that the bigshot didn't just have money or power, but also technology.

The only thing Dr. Pym really respected was technology. He hated capitalists the most.

The bigshot wanted to buy the Pym Particle from Dr. Pym.

Dr. Pym didn't want to agree at first, but Luke mentioned that Darren, the CEO of Pym Technologies, was selling the Pym Particle at a high price.

With that huge amount of funding, Pym Technologies would be able to speed up the development of the Pym Particle.

Dr. Pym's face immediately darkened.

He knew that Luke wasn't threatening him, but was stating a fact: The student who had betrayed Dr. Pym was using his results to earn money to build up his own power.

If Dr. Pym wasn't selling, all the benefits would go to Darren.

It was clear who would suffer.

Luke also said that he could provide funds, raw materials, equipment, and intelligence in exchange.

After mulling over it for a few months, Dr. Pym finally agreed to provide the Pym Particle, but not in excess.

The old man wasn't stupid.

During this period, he discovered that the sales of Darren's Pym Particle were actually very low, and it wouldn't have any market value for the next few years at least.

Thus, he only provided half of what Darren had, and at an even higher price.