2229 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 70
It wasn't that Shower was being cold-blooded; not many people in the city had truly run into supervillains tonight.
She had called some acquaintances and asked around, and most of them had gained a lot, and gone home in high spirits.
However, Fisher and the others returned later than many people, so she panicked a little and called them halfway to confirm what was going on.
In fact, each villain basically only had ten or twenty criminals to back them up.
A small team of this size could only threaten three to five hundred people. Any more… did they really think this was an army that followed orders?
The people at the bottom in Gotham weren't stupid. Once they realized that the villains couldn't control the situation, they immediately scattered. They weren't stupid enough to stay as hostages.
Besides, Luke, who was secretly capturing people like crazy, was swiftly reducing the amount of criminal activity.
Hundreds of villains of all shapes and sizes poured out of Arkham, but only 10,000 to 20,000 people had been caught up in things.
It was absolutely next to impossible for 'lucky' nerds to run into supervillains three times in a row without getting hurt.
Even though they reeked, they hadn't gotten a scratch from the supervillains — the only scratches were on their hands from their own carelessness when looting, which really couldn't be blamed on the villains.
Lawser was lost for words at Shower's blunt statement.
Thinking about what happened tonight, he could only nod and admit, "Fine, we really were lucky. Before tonight, I've never heard of anyone who is still alive after running into three supervillains in an hour. We did it."
Shower asked, "Who saved you? My first husband?"
Lawser: "… It would've been great to see Batman save us with our own eyes, but it really wasn't him who saved us tonight. It was…"
Shower: "Who was it? Was it the Dark Knight? You keep saying that he's Batman's lackey, but I actually think he's definitely very handsome."
Lawser: …You've never seen his face; how can you be sure he's handsome? What if he looks like that thin baldie?
Even as he grumbled inwardly, he still replied, "It was Stick Man who saved us."
Shower frowned. "Stick Man? Why does that sound like a villain's name?"
Lawser: "…He used a stick. He beat up the Riddler with a stick, and then beat up a fierce, bald, thin man. Hm, I helped him come up with this name."
Shower was immediately enlightened. "I was wondering why the name was so tacky."
Lawser was unconvinced. "He's a workman. Isn't that even more tacky?"
Shower: "… I don't believe you. You must be lying to me."
Lawser raised his hand. "I swear on my wife's name that I'm not lying."
Shower was unable to respond. Their wife's name was much more important to the nerds than their own honor. It seemed that he was telling the truth.
Only then did Lawser tell her the details, especially about Luke's typical laborer outfit. In his narration, Luke's weapon turned into a crowbar, which proved his identity as a laborer.
Stumped, Shower shook her head every now and then and mumbled, "That's impossible. That's too fantastic and unscientific."
She couldn't accept that the hero who had stepped forward in a crisis to beat up villains and save a large number of commoners was actually a commoner himself.
It was much harder to be a superhero in Gotham than to make a fortune.
At the very least, a person didn't have to go all out all the time to make a fortune, while superheroes were a thorn in the side of supervillains.
Batman was awesome, but he couldn't stop the simple and honest folk of Gotham from wanting to step up.
Many people wanted to follow in his footsteps, but in the end, they died on the streets, and word spread of these people who had wanted to be heroes.
The supervillains and their lackeys used this bloody reality as a way to tell everyone that heroes could feel good for one moment, but were cremated the next. Acting like a hero was risky.
After decades, there were fewer and fewer people who dared to step out.
Even though Batman became fiercer and fiercer, and had put enough villains in Arkham to form a military troop, he couldn't change the culture in Gotham.
That was because Batman was a one-man show, while supervillains were pouring in from all over the country.
There were more than 20 million people in the metropolitan areas around Gotham and Metropolis, which was about 5% of the population of this dark America.
There were busy and stable trade routes between America and Europe here, so this region was an important transport hub.
Only those who were a little more conspicuous or who were stupid fell into Batman's hands.
In fact, there were even more underground forces in the areas around the two cities, but Master Wayne didn't bother with them.
The outstanding members of these forces would naturally be drawn to the two richest cities.
That was just the helpless reality.
Batman's existence dealt a blow to evil, but at the same time, he cleaned up low-level gangs, leaving ample room for stronger gangs to expand.
It was like Luke cracking down on illegal drugs and gangs back home, which were then replaced with all sorts of small but sophisticated organizations.
They used the skyrocketing prices of goods to make huge profits from small sales. They even developed a 'guerrilla warfare' strategy and carried out multiple transactions in vast remote areas to minimize losses, which impacted Ursa Minor's 'work efficiency.'
The criminals back home were getting more and more cunning, and harvesting points was becoming harder and harder.
Although there were still a lot of idiots who delivered themselves on a platter, those who were really stupid wouldn't be big fish anyway.
That was also one of the reasons why Luke had his clone come to the DC universe to establish a new 'farm' for harvest.
It had been a long time since Luke had enjoyed a supervillain sending himself to his door.
Unfortunately, time waited for no man. He took two remote-controlled androids with him and quickly swept through the villains who weren't Master Wayne's targets.
Space 2, which had always lacked heavyweight players, finally had the good stuff.
Many had higher research value, like the man Luke was chasing.
The guy was wearing a protective suit that was covered in tubes, and he was holding a huge Freeze Gun.
Compared with trash like the Riddler, Mr. Freeze was the one with real IQ. At the very least, he knew how to use science and equipment.
After Luke targeted him, the guy actually still relied on his flight gear to run for a while.
But that was all.
The man only flew a few kilometers out of Master Wayne's surveillance range, when Luke shot him down.
Dizzy from the fall, he got up and fired furiously.
These shots were purely to vent his anger, because Mr. Freeze had no idea who had ambushed him.
Seeing this, Luke threw a few non-lethal darts from a distance.
Swoosh!
A paralysis dart hit Mr. Freeze in the neck.
He angrily pulled it out and threw it into the ground. He fired a few more shots in the direction he thought the darts were coming from.
Swoosh! Zi! Zi! Zi!
Mr. Freeze twitched and then fell to the ground.
Luke finally relaxed. "It seems that ice men are still afraid of electricity."
