"Dugan, something's come up in Gotham. I'm heading out first. Just tell Watos if anything else happens."
Qingshui spoke to the accountant, who was engrossed in a financial newspaper.
"Alright."
The accountant adjusted his newly acquired black-rimmed glasses and nodded at Qingshui.
Just a few years ago, no one would have imagined that a punk who dropped out of a church university in Gotham, entered the underworld, and crunched numbers for gang bosses could become the COO of a large commercial group with a market value exceeding a hundred billion dollars.
Qingshui was the chairman and founder, also serving as CEO, and the accountant was the COO, assisting the CEO.
One's innate education and background are important, but they aren't everything.
Butchers who slaughtered pigs and dogs, minor officials in county yamen, date vendors, and young men who crawled between others' legs eventually became among the first great meritorious officials to establish empires. They weren't initially groomed for such roles, yet they still achieved great feats, becoming renowned ministers and fierce generals throughout human history.
It just required enough luck and far more effort than those with better innate conditions.
The accountant's luck was clearly good.
To be honest, Qingshui hadn't expected the accountant to still manage the company's affairs so meticulously.
While part of this was due to the unique technological advantages Qingshui and Victor had given the company, the accountant's natural talent and tireless learning were also crucial.
Of course, by this point, the accountant was already struggling a bit, as human energy is limited.
If it weren't for Watos, the powerful AI, emerging in time to take over most of the trivial tasks and free up the accountant, Watt Group's development would have hit a bottleneck and stagnated by now, instead of continuing its current prosperous trajectory.
Qingshui was currently very short on talent, especially trustworthy talent.
So he didn't mistreat veterans like the accountant and Aman. Each of them now had a net worth that was top-tier among the working class. He just feared that this wealth would make them lose the drive they had when they had nothing.
Fortunately, people from Gotham were very good at thinking about potential dangers in times of peace and didn't give up easily.
Without clinging to Qingshui's coattails, it would be difficult for them to hold onto the wealth they had accumulated.
On his wrist, the watch rotated and pressed, a puff of white smoke rose, summoning White Knight, which instantly enveloped Qingshui.
Qingshui strode forward, pulled open the plane's cabin door, and leaped out, soaring into the vast sea of clouds.
When Qingshui arrived, he saw several of Batman's Bat-Family sidekicks lying on the ground, and Wonder Woman was also bound by the Lasso of Truth and tossed aside.
The Flash lay unconscious on the ground, his legs frozen in a block of ice.
And Superman was battling a robot whose eyes glowed red.
The robot's performance was extremely strong, and more importantly, small knives made of Kryptonite had popped out of its arms, making Superman wary and hesitant to approach. He could only keep his distance and feign attacks with his heat vision.
Only when an opportunity arose did Superman unleash his super speed, instantly flying behind Fault Insurance, attempting to smash it with a single punch.
Then Superman got a GG.
A larger, thicker Kryptonite blade popped out from Fault Insurance's back, piercing straight through Superman's abdomen.
Batman, wearing a purplish-red uniform, lay in a pool of blood.
"Shit… that guy, why did he retreat after explaining the method?"
Batman weakly covered his forehead.
Great. Fault Insurance wasn't just for Batman. Zur-En-Arrh must have considered the possibility of the Justice League and Batman collectively going rogue when designing Fault Insurance, then integrated a combat protocol specifically for Justice League members.
Wonder Woman was bound by her own Lasso of Truth, and the binding method was so complex that it would be difficult to undo quickly.
The Flash had his legs frozen by the coolant contained within Fault Insurance, then was knocked unconscious by a bomb.
This coolant was something Batman had created after deciphering Mr. Freeze's coolant in the past. While not as strong as Mr. Freeze's later upgraded formula, its effect was still significant, as evidenced by The Flash's current state.
As for dealing with Superman, it was definitely Krypton and lead.
Fault Insurance must have been coated with a layer of lead beneath its surface, otherwise, Superman, with his X-ray vision, wouldn't have been so easily hit by a hidden Kryptonite weapon.
As for Qingshui…
Batman silently watched Qingshui descend from the sky and begin fighting Fault Insurance. Enduring his severe injuries, he crawled to Superman's side and pulled the Kryptonite out of his abdomen.
That nearly killed Superman.
"Bruce, this guy… what's his origin?"
Superman said weakly.
"Sorry."
Batman uttered two words, helped Superman to a spot where sunlight could reach him, then quickly went to help Wonder Woman untie herself, while also directing some attention towards Qingshui.
"There's no need to ask about its origins, alright! Besides you, Bruce, who else could have made this thing? Lex Luthor doesn't have such bizarre Batman aesthetics."
Qingshui extended his hand, clashing energy blasts with the tall, black Bat-robot, grumbling as he spoke. Then he flew into the sky, trying to create distance and draw out the fight.
No one knew what surprises Batman had prepared for him in this thing; he'd best be careful.
Then, he saw the thing's legs deform with a series of clanging sounds, then blue plasma jets shot out, and it flew up.
Wait, what?
Qingshui looked at the thrusters on White Knight's legs, then at this thing's, and then scanned it with Transparent World.
That Arc Reactor in the robot's chest… why does it look so familiar?
"Bruce, tell me the truth. My internal database is disconnected from the outside network, so how did you steal this technology?"
Qingshui withstood an energy blast, returned fire with another, then activated his Speed Force Dagger to pick up speed and look for an opening, shouting down below.
It's infuriating.
He'd racked his brain trying to solve the final critical step of the Arc Reactor, and now Bruce Wayne had not only stolen the technical data from his private, hidden database, but it also looked like he'd actually managed to break through that final step?
Batman, who was in the middle of untying Wonder Woman, looked up.
He'd never seen this type of binding before; it was extremely complex and would take some time.
He had no choice; the Lasso of Truth wasn't easy to cut, so he just had to work at it.
"Bruce, stealing isn't what a warrior should do."
Wonder Woman looked at Batman with disdain.
"I'm not a warrior; I'm Batman."
Batman replied without a trace of embarrassment.
-----------
Machine Translation by: https:// beta.randomtranslator.com/
Read 1111+ original & fanfic translations in English, Español, Português, Deutsch, Français, or Русский at: https:// beta.randomtranslator.com/
Join our Discord: https:// discord.gg/NSWvfN7vua
-----------