Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 494 Lamplighter

The Sage Centre continues to operate smoothly today.

Suddenly, a strong gust of air rushed into the gate along with Storm Woman, causing the security guards and passing doctors and nurses to stumble slightly. They awkwardly bowed and greeted the young woman with black hair and black eyes, their faces stiff. They seemed to have gotten used to her way of making an entrance, but everyone was also afraid of her.

Storm ignored everyone else and asked a man in a caregiver's uniform who walked over, "How are the test subjects doing?"

"Things are all relatively stable."

The man wasn't very old, but for some reason, his hair was gradually turning white. His clothes looked no different from the other caregivers, and even his voice was hoarse when he answered questions. He seemed lifeless, like a machine or a walking corpse.

But Storm only communicated with him.

"Is everything stable? That's good."

Storm nodded in satisfaction: "It seems this version is nearing completion. Once we confirm that the condition of the next batch of injectors is stable enough, the research and development work can be put on hold."

"Research and development work? What kind of research and development work?"

Ma Zhaodi stood silently in the crowd, wearing a caregiver's uniform, which he had found in the changing room. It was probably a spare, and he could borrow it now.

Actually, with his stealth skills, he could easily walk around in his own clothes without anyone noticing. However, being a caregiver would make things easier, allowing him to stroll around the place openly. As long as he stands in the crowd, almost no one will notice him.

"Although everything is said to be stable, we still need to check it again. Let's go."

"Yes."

The two walked ahead, while Ma Zhaodi swaggered behind them, but he seemed so inconspicuous that everyone in the mental hospital just treated him as a normal caregiver and subconsciously ignored him.

"Master-level abilities, already showing signs of being at the extraordinary level."

Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but wonder, if mortals' skills reached their pinnacle, would their effects become increasingly similar to superpowers?
He hadn't considered this issue before, but there did seem to be an option to purchase skills above the Master level in the system. However, he didn't look at it because Master-level skills start at tens of thousands of dollars, and he couldn't afford anything higher.

click-

The sound of a door opening caught Ma Zhaodi's attention. Storm Woman and the male caregiver opened a patient room door, but there seemed to be nothing inside.

"What's going on? An empty room?" Ma Zhaodi frowned. "No, there's a third person's heartbeat and breathing in this room."

"Owen, come out."

The male caregiver shouted this, and a moment later, a person no bigger than a thumb crawled out from the gap between the mattress and the wall.

He didn't say anything, but his body kept trembling. It was clear that he was terrified of both Storm Woman and the male caregiver.

"How is it? Still can't turn back?"

Storm asked, "Are you sure your ability can only shrink you down, and not make you bigger again?"

"Yes"

"What a useless ability!"

Storm said this casually and then left the room.

The male caregiver immediately followed and locked the patient's room door. "This place doesn't even look like a mental hospital at all."

Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but silently complain about everything he had just witnessed.

The cramped and narrow wards are no more than six square meters in size; the facilities are extremely basic, with only a small single soft mattress on the floor and a steel toilet connected to a steel washbasin; the walls are covered with dust and grime accumulated over the years, making them look very dirty; even though there are ventilation vents, the smell in each cell is still not very pleasant.

That's right, prison cells. After seeing the condition of the room, Ma Zhaodi could almost conclude that all the wards here were like this.

"And they're not locking up the mentally ill, they're locking up people with superpowers."

He continued forward with Storm and the man, seeing more and more superpowered individuals: those who could teleport, those who could unleash shockwaves, those who could interfere with electronic devices, and those who could control objects with telekinesis. It was almost a chaotic mess.

He even saw a room full of people vomiting, dissolving stainless steel plates with their stomach acid—an ability more like that of an alien.

When they opened a cell door, the man inside roared and charged at the two men at the door. His fists were bloody, his skin torn and flesh ripped open, revealing the white bones beneath—and there were dozens of dents in the walls of the room, smashed open by his fists.

Iron Fist seemed to have lost his mind because of his superpowers. Even as Storm's body gradually began to be surrounded by lightning, he did not react at all and just rushed forward. As a result, he was roasted to a crisp by the bright high-voltage arcs and fell to the ground.

However, his wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"What a nuisance. If this kind of madman were around back then, he would have been dragged straight into the gas chamber and disposed of long ago."

Storm Girl instructed the male caregiver beside her, "Lamplighter, make him behave, but be careful with the heat, don't roast him to death."

The lamplighter nodded silently, then took out a lighter and aimed it at the iron fist.

Huhu——

The spark turned into a bright, raging fire in the next moment, mercilessly scorching every inch of Iron Fist Madman's muscles. Seeing him burst into flames, the Lamplighter immediately stopped, closed the door, and walked with Storm to the next cell, seemingly very confident in their firepower, or rather, neither of them cared much about the lives of these superpowered prisoners.

Ma Zhaodi held a piece of fruit candy in his hand and listened through the door for a while. Afterwards, the Iron Fist Madman's heartbeat and breathing gradually stabilized, showing his truly tenacious vitality.

But what truly surprised Ma Zhaodi was not him, but the male nurse with the superpower to use fire.

"Lamplighter"

Ma Zhaodi silently pondered the hero's nickname: "One of the original heroes of the Vought Seven, he left the Vought Seven eight years ago and was only recently replaced by Starlight. During that time, he disappeared without a trace. It is suspected that he was hidden away by Vought and ended up here as a caregiver?"

Why has a superpowered individual who should have been a world-class superstar fallen into such a state of utter despair, like a walking corpse? The Butcher seems to know about the Lamplighter, but why is he unwilling to speak of it?

What's up with Storm Woman? She's a relatively unknown third-tier hero, so why is she bossing around the Lamplighter?

There were many shady dealings at this mental hospital. Instead of following Storm Woman and Lamplighter to inspect each cell, Ma Zhaodi went directly to other parts of the hospital to look for information.

"There are security guards in the security room, and there's nothing important on the surveillance footage."

"A medical room, filing cabinets, and medicine cabinets—this medical room is huge."

Ma Zhaodi opened the cabinet door and began rummaging through it quickly.

(End of this chapter)