Chapter 1776 - The Joker's Little Secret

Luke and Selina didn't return to New York for the time being. Instead, they stayed in Los Angeles, since it was close to San Francisco.

At a distance of 500 kilometers, relay drones weren't even needed for the remote-controlled robots.

Or, if they put on their armor and flew over in stealth mode at night, it would only take 10 to 20 minutes.

The Level 1 clone was still in San Francisco; there was no need for Luke himself to keep watch.

The people from the Life Foundation who had gone to San Francisco to clean up the mess were tagged one by one.

They were in the limelight right now, and it wasn't the right time to touch them.

Luke would give the names in his blacklist a buffer of a few months; just enough time to investigate the mastermind behind the scenes.

However, based on current intelligence, the Life Foundation had ties to several national defense suppliers, two of whom had been close to Hydra before.

Unsurprisingly, these two organizations were still in cahoots with capital groups.

It could only be said that all established corporations in America were like this — made up of complicated relationships and entwined interests.

Basically no one from these two organizations was Hydra, but for the sake of their own interests, they could absolutely sell the rope to hang their own people.

It could only be said that it mainly boiled down to interests for these corporations.

For example, the matter with Killian had involved a power struggle inside Roxxon Corporation.

The faction which Killian had been against was no friend of Luke's either – they were also people who had done a lot of bad things.

America was a holy land for harvesting points, and Luke was confident he could reach level 100 — provided that the country still existed after he accumulated enough points.

2

…

In the meantime, Haley was sitting on the balcony of an apartment building on the west coast of San Francisco, enjoying the warm October afternoon sun.

She had been free for a few days, but was growing more and more doubtful.

She touched her face; she didn't feel anything unusual about it, but it was another face. It even matched the face on the driver's license.

This meant that as long as she wasn't stupid enough to expose herself, she could continue living freely as Molly Quinn.

4

There was no need to rely on mind games anymore to make money, since she had woken up with a box of cash that contained 200,000 dollars.

That wasn't what Haley was concerned about.

She could only use these arrangements to speculate about the Joker's personality.

In the beginning, she had thought that he was just a lunatic with superpowers.

Now, he could take out a mask to change her appearance, and could casually throw out 200,000 in cash, which proved that he wasn't an idiot who only relied on superpowers.

He knew very well how this country worked: It ran on money.

Whether it was the cash or the high-tech mask, it was all about money.

What made Simon strong? His strange ability to possess others was just one part of it.

But according to information he had once divulged, the American government had ways to resist mind control.

So, Simon built up his stepfather's pharmaceutical company and successfully used it as capital to join the project at King's Park Sanatorium.

Only in an organization under his control would Simon have enough time and opportunity to slowly use his possession ability to obtain the superpowers of others.

Superhumans caught by organizations like Sentinel Services, ARGUS and SHIELD, on the other hand, had interference equipment used on them to ensure that they could only obediently be test subjects.

Luke often used Mental Hypnosis and Illusion, but he always used physical strategies first to deal with his opponents.

In a game, this was equivalent to using something to break through the other party's magical defenses and then using magic attacks to crush them.

That was also why Luke had always valued equipment.

For now, there was no one on Earth who could crush Tony in terms of technological combat ability or Luke in terms of superpowers.

As long as it wasn't against some powerful, otherworldly existence, his ability to survive was definitely the best in the world.

It was hard to beat a money + superpower combo.

As an academic elite, Haley naturally understood this.

She had been amazed by Simon before, and had even worshiped him a little.

Then the even more powerful Joker had popped out of nowhere, and he seemed even stronger and more mysterious.

Despite knowing about the huge benefits of a symbiosis with Agony, the Joker had thought nothing of them and had "given" this symbiote to Haley.

Agony's immunity to mental abilities had been in effect for the past few days, and the mental door which Simon had planted was wiped out.

Haley's love and admiration for Simon instantly plummeted.

The female doctor understood that this meant that her feelings for Simon had basically been produced by his mind control, and hadn't been real.

Also, if she ran into Simon again now, she would be able to beat him up since she was immune to mind control — provided that Simon didn't run.

Would Simon fight to the death and not retreat? Of course not.

He had fled once when he faced the Joker at the seaside villa in Tijuana, and would definitely do so again.

How could she like and admire a man who couldn't suppress her?

During the past few days after she came out, Haley had watched the video of the battle between the Joker and the Dark Knight.

Although the Joker left in the end, nobody thought that he had lost.

He went up against the armor with his own flesh and blood, and had only retreated after the Dark Knight's armor cracked.

This was definitely the strongest enemy the Bat Squad had ever faced.

Also, Haley had been released three days after the battle.

The broken arms and sternum she had seen in the video were gone by then; they were absolutely intact.

She knew that she had discovered a "little secret," and he didn't mind sharing it with her.

He didn't need Agony; his physical recovery was far faster than that of an ordinary person.

Compared with relying on the symbiote to increase his combat ability, he might hate it more for an alien creature to discern his thoughts.

Thinking that, Haley couldn't help but sigh. She had no choice but to accept it, and had to keep Agony.

Otherwise, she really didn't have the confidence that she could keep up with the Joker.

The Joker's opponents were Simon, who represented the capital groups and was an evil superhuman, and the Dark Knight, the mainstay of the superheroes.

She would enter this mysterious and bizarre world with him, and would no longer be trapped in that ordinary, stagnant life.

Suddenly, she turned around.

She saw a person standing in front of the couch in the living room. The person bent down and examined the two pieces of lingerie on the couch with great interest.

Haley smiled. "I took those off just now."

Luke straightened up and casually slicked back his hair. "I know. So, you only woke up in the afternoon?"

Haley walked inside and closed the balcony door. "It seems you're focusing on the wrong thing."

Luke didn't look at the two "dots" under her pajamas at all. Instead, he stroked her cheek with his fingertips, then nodded before he sat down on the couch.

Haley was stunned. Wait, wasn't there something wrong with this plot?