2166 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 7
Of course, Master Wayne wasn't jealous of Alfred.
But the Dark Knight had inexplicably come to his remote lakeside villa.
He drank his coffee and ate his English muffins. Then, he injected Alfred with a life drug to 'heal' his body. He also gave him a high-tech nanosuit. Finally, he 'transmitted' a lot of top combat experience into the old butler's consciousness.
One who was unaccountably solicitous was definitely up to something.
Master Wayne, who had watched countless such tragicomedies in Gotham, knew this too well; there had to be some ulterior motive.
For the moment, however, he and the butler couldn't find any problems with this 'gift.'
The nanosuit could be taken off and studied in another secret lab, but Alfred couldn't throw away the life potion and combat experience which he had been injected with.
Thinking that, Master Wayne's head started to hurt. It seemed that he had to find this impersonator immediately and ask him what he was up to.
It just so happened that this guy had been causing a lot of trouble recently. If it wasn't for the fact that he had been investigating Superman's whereabouts, Master Wayne would've taken the time to deal with him.
On the other side, Luke didn't feel any pressure at all; he had given the gifts purely of his own volition.
After all, Luke had alternately taken out and used their identities back home; giving them the copyright fee was a trivial thing.
In any case, there was no rush.
Alfred was already past his prime; before a final outcome was reached, he would remain completely calm in whatever situation.
Master Wayne absolutely wouldn't dare put the old butler at risk.
But Master Wayne himself, who was still at the peak of his prime, still had the energy to doubt any abnormalities in his body.
As a super paranoid person with a steel will, he might do something over-the-top if Luke wasn't careful — not only was Master Wayne ruthless to bad guys, he was equally ruthless to himself when necessary.
As a big capitalist, Master Wayne didn't have as much trust in benevolence as he did in business transactions.
Luke would dress the copyright fee up as a 'business transaction' for Master Wayne.
So, this was Master Wayne's problem, not Luke's.
After laying low for two months, Luke had a clear understanding of this world, especially of Gotham and nearby Metropolis.
Gotham City was Mr. Wayne's territory.
Metropolis, on the other hand, had the Daily Planet newspaper and the reporter named Clark Kent who wore black-rimmed glasses and looked a little ordinary.
Luke didn't get too close, and just hung out in a nearby cafe for a whole morning, but the man didn't notice him at all.
This outcome was within his expectations.
Luke, who also had extraordinary senses, also did his best to dial them down in his daily life. Otherwise, he really wouldn't be able to live.
Just think about it – while enjoying their food, who would want to hear the sounds of farting, burping, vomiting and coughing hundreds of meters around them, or smell those disgusting odors?
Luke was fine. His true range of sensitivity wasn't more than a kilometer.
Any further and his senses would become hazy. As long as he didn't pay attention, it was like background noise.
He remembered that Superman's hearing seemed to be on a global scale? So, if he didn't suppress his senses, it would be as noisy as a congregation of billions of ducks in his ears.
Too much useless information was equivalent to no information at all.
Judging from Clark's relaxed expression, he clearly didn't have such worries. It could only be that like Luke, he had suppressed his senses.
Luke didn't go running over to leave an impression on this person.
Superman was a good person. The fact that he didn't do anything despite being provoked by a bunch of scumbags proved that he had a good temper.
Of course, this couldn't be put down to Superman being trite or saintly.
It was just that this 'god' chose to live like a normal person — at least, when he wasn't saving people.
It was like how Luke had saved Earth many times back home, but still opened an obscure detective agency, even if the agency only accepted one or two 'friendly' commissions every year or two.
Once Superman and Luke completely abandoned this sort of daily life, it would be very easy for the 'human' part of them to disappear.
Or they would become like the Kamar-Taj sorcerers, who basically had no contact with ordinary society and had become an isolated clique.
This life was too boring.
Luke still liked to go out to drink and chat with his old colleagues from the police department every now and then, or go to May's place to participate in gatherings with those from the food delivery and renovation businesses.
Selina would also have girls' nights with her former colleagues, Elsa and Elizabeth. Men and dogs weren't allowed to participate — that was right, after she sensed that the dog head often reported their drinking to Luke, Director Selina kicked it out.
In comparison, enduring minor inconveniences was nothing.
Reporter Clark had to listen to a lot of interviewees' complaints and dissatisfaction with Superman, while Luke had to listen to his colleagues in the police department complain that the Dark Knight had stolen NYPD's job.
This was life.
After that, the Dark Knight's actions on the surface decreased, and a young man called Bruce Bale started to frequent major social events.
In a chaotic world where the government couldn't do much about villains, Luke was too friendly.
More than that, he didn't have family here, so he didn't care about using the 'half-real' name of Bruce Bale.
So what if it was revealed that he was the Dark Knight? The authorities here didn't care about a 'small fry' superhero.
The invincible Superman was the 'big fry.' Unless he was suppressed, dealing with other superheroes would be useless.
And that was without considering whether the government was strong enough. In fact, the government here was much worse than back home, because there were too many supervillains here.
The news had gone crazy a few years ago reporting how the battle between Superman and Kryptonian General Zod had turned many places into ruins.
In the end, General Zod's target was Superman, and the damage to Earth was incidental.
If this general's target had been the city, he could have leveled it in minutes.
With this sort of supervillain who could easily lay waste to the city, nobody dared to target superheroes without any scruples.
The government was in a weaker position, so Luke had even fewer scruples. He used his mental abilities to control many companies and departments behind the scenes.
In just a few months, Bruce Bale became a member of the upper-class. Also, this alias had roots and strength, and wouldn't be treated like a rookie.
As part of his 'safety first' rule, Luke added a 'young genius scientist inventor' label to this alias.
Under this label, he traded the earliest version of Ivan's remote-controlled robot soldier tech for a lot of things.
This way, Bruce Bale's apparent net worth of hundreds of millions had an open and legitimate source.
If he wanted to make contact with a higher-up in a particular area, it was very easy for him to lock onto the other party's whereabouts.
Money was very useful back home, and in the DC world where crime was rampant, it was even more effective.
In short, with money, you could do whatever you wanted.
