Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 495 Walter, who mass-produced super-powered madmen
"On October 23, five new mental patients entered the hospital today. It is rare for so many experimental subjects to arrive in one day. Storm is very happy."

The previous batch of Compound V had defects; three of the sixteen test subjects who received the injection died, and the remaining thirteen all awakened their abilities within six hours. Seven were men and six were women, ranging in age from their twenties to their fifties—five of them experienced a slight deterioration in their mental state, and three became almost unable to communicate. However, those who were not originally mentally ill seemed unaffected.

Storm was not satisfied. She still wanted to control the intensity of the superpowers gained by the experimental subjects. She said that consuming a dose of Compound V was a small matter, but having one more useless superpowered person in the world was a big deal. She didn't want the entire evolved Ya—”

The record here was suddenly crossed out, making it impossible to discern what words were originally intended to be written.

"She didn't want the new compound five to produce too many weak, useless superhumans, and then she'd have to go through the trouble of cleaning them all up, because these people were of no help to Vought's grand vision."

At the end of this section are the names and ages of thirteen people, the effects of the medication, their superpowers, and their survival status—the mortality rate of this mental hospital seems to be quite alarming, with only three of these people still alive, one of whom appears to be the one who went insane earlier.

This information was recorded by the lamplighter.

Ma Zhaodi flipped through the notebook, which resembled an experimental log, and couldn't help but complain about the lamplighter. This guy was a bit outrageous; instead of keeping this notebook, which contained potentially explosive information, in a safer place, he just left it in this chemistry infirmary.

He didn't know what to call it. The room was large, and it was fully equipped with chemicals, medicine cabinets, and filing cabinets.

He walked to the door, opened it, glanced at the two armed security guards standing guard and the overhead camera, and then checked the situation in the corridor—there was indeed no one there. Storm would probably need some more time to complete her prisoner inspection.

So he closed the door again with peace of mind and went back to continue flipping through the notebook.

Click.

The door slammed shut a little louder than usual, causing the two security guards, who were distracted, to turn around in confusion. But the corridor was empty, and the security guards in the guardhouse hadn't issued any warnings via radio. The sound of the door closing seemed like an illusion.

The security guard on the left couldn't help but ask, "Did you hear anything?"

"It seems so?"

Has anyone gone in?

"Have it?"

The two subconsciously began to think, their memories flashing through their minds: Storm, the Lamplighter, the Doctor, and the caregiver from earlier.
"There doesn't seem to be anything suspicious."

Just like searching for your phone in the dark while holding it in your hand, they subconsciously ignored the caregiver who had just entered the room.

"Indeed—never mind, I'll go in and check anyway."

A security guard turned around, pushed open the door, and carefully searched every corner of the laboratory before casually asking, "Any suspicious persons?"

"No."

"Row."

The security guard responded and went back out.

The other person at the door asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, there's no one inside."

Inside the room, Ma Zhaodi shoved the record back into the room. He was the one who had just replied with "No," and he hadn't expected the stealth effect of master-level stealth to be so outrageous.

"Being invisible is just for fun; to be truly invisible, you need to be a master of stealth."

He walked to the medicine cabinet on the side, wanting to see if there was any compound five—according to the experimental records, everyone in the mental hospital was originally just an ordinary person who was sent there, but after arriving here, they became test subjects and subsequently awakened superpowers.

Of course, many people also lost their lives because Compound V, which could transform adults, was only an experimental product. The most stable version was the one used for babies or children—which is also the origin of the natural superpowers that have emerged in the United States in recent years, including Starlight, The Seven, and other superheroes.

"They said superpowers were innate? Vought International is such a fraudster, they keep coming up with one lie after another."

After learning about the importance of Compound V to Vought, Ma Zhaodi understood why Vought was so cautious about transporting the compound. Leaking samples to create superhumans was a minor matter; if they were found to be secretly conducting human experiments on children, Vought would be condemned by everyone.

After quickly sniffing through several medicine cabinets, Ma Zhaodi found nothing else of value. Just as he was about to leave, footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor outside.

Has anyone gone in today?

"No, sir."

"very good."

Hearing their answers, the lamplighter breathed a sigh of relief. He took a document and strode into the room, heading straight for the filing cabinet. He carefully searched through it and found the familiar document cover in just a few seconds.

"Thankfully, no one saw us."

He breathed a sigh of relief, pulled out the document, carefully examined it, and only after confirming that the contents were intact did he fill in the blank space with the document he had brought in.

"How could I be so brain-dead as to mix up such important things? Next time I'll have to give it a more eye-catching cover."

The thumping footsteps gradually faded away, and after a moment, a door gradually appeared on the wall of the room, and Ma Zhaodi emerged from the wallpapered room.

"It's no use hiding it anywhere," he thought to himself. "Once I turn the hospital upside down, you can't possibly take the documents back and hide them at home, can you?"

So for the next half hour, Ma Zhaodi really turned the hospital upside down.

Because of the existence of superhumans capable of influencing electronic devices, Ma Zhaodi had to search room by room himself, but he didn't find anything more—most of the cases were the same as what was revealed in the experiment log, with no other valuable information. These documents could be picked up anytime, so Ma Zhaodi just took pictures for his records.

He also couldn't find any other Compound 5—the Compound 5 here seems to have been transported by Storm herself, who only makes the trip when experiments are needed.

"Tsk, the amount needed for the experiment isn't large; Storm can handle it all by herself."

Although it was a bit of a disappointment, he had already learned a lot about what was happening in this mental hospital. Of course, making things public would only have a minor impact on the Water Corporation.

Cleaning up those highly aggressive patients and erasing all traces of documents is far too easy for a superpowered individual. With a little public relations strategy and some legal maneuvering, the wealthy and powerful Walter might suffer some minor injuries, but he won't be crippled.

"Let's retreat first and then talk about it."

(End of this chapter)