Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Chapter 5921: Chapter 4942: No Batman Here (29)

This farce is far from over.

Shiller also realized that he indeed lacked the basic knowledge of experimentation. As it stands, he might not be able to finish learning and then go back to teach Gordon and Ethan. So, their team collectively logged off and ran to Jonathan to learn how to conduct experiments.

Jonathan was really about to collapse. He now felt it was a new form of torture devised by Brainiac to get revenge for the destruction of his computer room. Unfortunately, this evil AI always goes unread and unresponded to regarding these issues, and Jonathan had no way out.

The good news is, after interacting with Ethan and Gordon, Shiller had become quite a scholar who respected safety rules and was in awe of them.

Shiller was "not knowing," Ethan was "not knowing and not asking," whereas Gordon was "not knowing and not asking, let me try first." If mathematics is the ladder to Heaven, then chemistry is the ticket to Hell. Physics stands on the shoulders of giants, while chemistry stands on the corpse of giants.

You can’t say they are fearless out of ignorance. Except for Ethan, the other two know Jonathon’s prowess. Shiller is the evaluation specialist for the fear gas and hasn’t missed any version since Jonathan started making it. Gordon is a benchmark in fighting crime and has confronted Jonathan numerous times, not only breathing in the fear gas himself but even overcoming it.

But, perhaps influenced by Gotham’s Feng Shui, once these two people entered the lab, what counted as a super villain Scarecrow, and what path led to fear gas? I would surely use a witch’s potion-making method to concoct the most poisonous poison in this world.

Shiller is still somewhat better. At least he is a scholar and can have the patience to listen to Jonathan’s long string of principles. Gordon couldn’t listen at all; he was very curious about how the fear gas was made. His understanding of chemical experiments essentially remained at the level of magic potion making—cut this a bit, chop that a bit, put it in a cauldron and stir, then you can get a potion.

Before Jonathan finished speaking, Gordon was already impatient to mix the test tubes together. He ignored distillation extraction, catalytic reactions, and chemical equations completely, and just added whichever Jonathan said was more corrosive or dangerous.

But no wonder Jonathan could be called a super villain and very wisely dual-majored in psychology and chemistry. If his psychology level were just a bit lower and he hadn’t read Gordon’s intentions and stopped him in time, they might have already met their maker.

Jonathan stood before the chemical lab bench like he was playing whack-a-mole, stopping them from touching the experimental items after every few words. After finally explaining the principles, when it came to letting them do the mixing themselves, it was truly thrilling, full of ups and downs.

They didn’t use any racks or fixed equipment. All flasks, test tubes, and beakers were held by hand, and everything was poured in like putting olive oil in a pan. A basic dyeing reagent was done over and over, the color wouldn’t wash out, and the fabric melted as soon as it was put in. It can only be said that Jonathan’s erosive agent used to corrode Brainiac’s computer room was kind of conservative; with Gordon’s formula, not even a trace of evidence would be left.

At the end of the experiment, Jonathan let out a long sigh. He truly carried the title of crazy scientist very unfairly. A layperson’s casual wave of the hand surpassed a lifetime of many super villains. The explosives Joker dares not touch, perhaps passing teenagers wouldn’t dare either, the dangerous chemicals Scarecrow can’t make, maybe the Gotham Police Department’s chief can concoct.

"Alright," Jonathan yelled, "that’s it!"

It’s not that their experiments were done well enough or the process normative enough to pass, but rather if any stricter teacher saw their experiment methods, they’d be reassured. Not that many people want to challenge their lifespan.

Among them, Shiller indeed learned the best. But he also relied on rote memorization, just memorizing the process. Although some operations weren’t very normative, this is a game, not a real exam, so it’s good enough.

Ethan also learned well. Even though his operations were exceptionally non-normative, he did remember the process. Gordon truly had no solution, as he wasn’t material for learning, and in the end, didn’t quite remember the process.

So, unsurprisingly, Shiller and Ethan passed, while Gordon didn’t. Those who passed were qualified to enter the chemistry department’s teaching building for exploration, while Gordon was directly thrown out.

But he just didn’t buy it. In chemistry, he indeed had no talent, as experimental operation exams were indeed a bit too much, who could figure it out without any base? He decided to try his luck in other departments.

Even though Ethan passed, he thought exploring the teaching building together with someone else was a bit inefficient. After all, he was a medical student and was confident in his medical skills. So he decided to check out the medical school.

Originally, Shiller also planned just to get the fear gas and leave, but unsurprisingly, the monster that looked very much like Scarecrow was the regional boss of this area. When Shiller broke into his lab, a battle was on the verge of breaking out.

"Run, run fast!" Ted used a holographic projection to support a shield, urging his teammates to run quickly. And behind the others, two figures, one big and one small, rushed quickly through the sewer.

The sewer exploration trip was originally going fairly smoothly, but trouble arose when it turned out there was more than one boss in the sewer. Just less than two miles from their target, a thunderous crocodile popped out.

Looking somewhat like Waylon, but actually much bigger and heavier than Killer Croc, it almost filled the entire sewer, and clearly lacked reason, with an extremely strong desire to attack. Running full-speed with a set of EAWAQE, nearly shattered Ted.

Ted also used a flamethrower, but the surface of this alligator monster was covered with a layer of mucus, which prevented the sticky gasoline from adhering well to its body, so it stopped burning after a while, and the pain instead stimuled it to chase even more ferociously.

If it were just this one, there would still be a way, but on their way forward, they encountered another monster, the ice attribute monster they were previously preparing to deal with. It seemed to be a member of the Mob from the North District, just transformed into a presence similar to Mr. Freeze, equipped with frozen spray and an ice cone gun.

Strangely, these two monsters weren’t hostile towards each other for some reason, teaming up to fight them. Deathstroke intended to make a move, but he needed to clear the small monsters first, otherwise there was no room. Among the remaining people, aside from Ted, it was very difficult to inflict damage on the monsters; in fact, it was easy to get hit by the monsters accidentally.

The skill set of these two monsters was really nasty, and their cooperation made them invincible. Mr. Freeze hid behind Killer Croc, shooting whoever tried to approach for close combat, freezing them in place. Killer Croc stood firmly in front of him, firmly shielding him from behind. Unfortunately, the sewer space was narrow, allowing only frontal combat and no side shooting. So it’s fair to say the fecal monster combo is indeed an integral part of this game.

"Retreat from the sewer first!" Deathstroke said, "We can’t fight them here; let’s head upward first."

Their original plan was not to surface, to avoid encountering the final boss. But now they couldn’t afford to think much about it; they had to go up and deal with these two monsters first.

Arriving at the nearest sewer exit by the Wayne building, a few people hurriedly climbed up. Deathstroke didn’t forget to turn back and say to the agent, "I should have let you use that cannon."

The agent snorted lightly, without saying anything. It was much easier to fight once they reached the surface. Deathstroke led the way, first slashing off the right arm of the alligator monster, almost chopping to death the remote monster behind. If it weren’t for the interference of the ice mist, it would already be resolved.

Nightwing used the hook to restrict their movements, while Ted, equipped with the flame launcher, constantly disturbed them, and the agent cleared the surrounding small monsters with a shotgun. These two monsters soon became severely injured.

As Deathstroke leaped to finish them, the sky suddenly darkened, as if clouds obscured all light. A black shadow appeared at the street corner.

"Hiss..." Nightwing glanced back, "Batman!"

No one would doubt Robin’s judgment in this matter. And now they faced an awkward situation; both of these bosses were weakened to critical health, seemingly ready to be defeated and drop loot, but now came an even more formidable monster. What to do?

It was apparent that both Deathstroke and Ted wanted to be greedy, but the agent decisively said, "Retreat!"

Deathstroke hesitated for a moment, but still followed the agent. With them leaving, the remaining people had no objections and could only follow suit. The group quickly returned to the sewer, as most monsters there had been cleared, making it easier to escape.

After leading them down, the agent did not immediately leave but waited there, listening carefully to the movements above. It wasn’t long before a scream was heard, presumably from the alligator monster.

"They are fighting!" Ted said excitedly, "Is Batman fighting those two monsters?"

"It seems so." Nightwing listened carefully, too. "It appears there’s indeed factional differences between monsters, like those two monsters before were of the same faction, hence they didn’t attack each other, but Batman is different from them..."

"Let’s go." said the agent.

They left the Wayne building area as quickly as possible. Clearly, it was a very correct decision, as soon the dark figure appeared at the sewer entrance. But due to limitations on the activity area, it didn’t stay long and soon departed.

The team members sneaked back, opened the sewer door, looked up, and instantly saw equipment scattered all over the place.

"We struck it rich, struck it rich!" Ted was almost unable to contain his excitement, "My god, am I seeing things? Does it look like there’s a golden item?"

"You’re not seeing things," Nightwing said in a low voice, "It looks like there’s a golden explosion suit. Could it be..."

After confirming the situation above, they went up, unsurprisingly discovering that the ice weapon in the remote monster’s hand had dropped, and its quality was indeed golden.

"Oh my goodness," Ted was so happy that he almost jumped up, "It really is a freeze gun, we got a freeze gun!"

"But this thing needs ammunition, right?" Nightwing frowned, "Where can we get it... ah, wait, didn’t Arkham Knight open the underground cold storage at Gotham University’s Cryogenic Lab? So we have ammunition too?"