Godslayer in the Marvel Universe

Chapter 56 Father's Grief and Son's Howl

Surprised? Unexpected?

If the necklace had been given to Selena by Ang himself, the beautiful catwoman would have only seen him as a sycophant, one of those lustful politicians and tycoons, accepting it without a shred of pity and then secretly mocking his stupidity and lack of common sense.

Ang made no move to give her the necklace, since Selena was already wearing one while they were dancing. Giving her the same gift would obviously be inappropriate. The problem was, the note in the box was written with her real name—meaning Ang knew all along that she would steal his things, and even calculated that Bruce Wayne would take back the stolen necklace, thus presenting this one as the real gift.

That's fucking terrifying!

On Selena's exposed skin on her chest and back, every fine hair stood on end in fright.

steal?

Hilarious! Ang clearly doesn't care about such a small amount of money.

But is this really a gesture of goodwill?

Or perhaps there's some other reason?

For the first time, Selena, who prided herself on having all sorts of lecherous men under her thumb and walked a tightrope between two sharp edges, felt a sense of loss and impending doom.

The thrill of stealing Bruce Wayne's luxury car tonight vanished without a trace.

She even felt there was something dirty on the necklace and didn't want to touch it.

For a fleeting moment, she even considered throwing the chain out of the car window.

She held back.

As a master thief, she never had the habit of wasting money. If she did that, how would she be any different from a spendthrift like Bruce Wayne?

On the other hand, when Mr. Wayne walked out of the charity ball, he fumbled around, searching left and right, but couldn't find his parking ticket. Only after he confirmed with a waiter that his luxury car had been stolen by Catwoman did he finally show an extremely embarrassed expression.

Just then, Ang drove up in his luxury car.

"Wow! Mr. Wayne, the ultimate Casanova, generously gifted his new girlfriend a sports car worth over ten thousand dollars, and then took a taxi home?"

Ang's mouth, brimming with sarcasm, finally managed to soften Batman's eternally indifferent expression.

He held back.

"Young man, you need to learn what it means to be a gentleman."

"I warned you, gentleman, before you cuddle the kitten, count your fingers. It wouldn't be good if you only realized after you'd finished holding it that it was a Siberian Golden Shaded and you were missing a few fingers. Hahahaha!"

With that, Ang stepped on the gas, and the McLaren roared to life. The powerful engine propelled the car from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in just three seconds.

The key point is that exaggerated exhaust fumes sprayed onto Mr. Bruce Wayne's face.

Watching Ang drive away in a cloud of dust, Bruce felt, for the first time in his life, the urge to slap Ang to death.

Regardless of how Ang listened to "A Little Tune to Keep You Going" and happily rolled back to the villa his father had given him.

Meanwhile, poor Bruce finally got to ride in the Bentley driven by his butler, Alfred. As soon as he sat down, he heard the butler's concern (and teasing).

"Young Master, are you all alone?" Noticing Bruce's dark expression, the butler comforted him, "Don't worry, it won't be long before you're surrounded by beautiful women again."

Bruce was clearly taken aback, so he decided to change the subject: "I just met Ang. He saw through Selena Kyle's identity. His insight is definitely not at the level of an ordinary person. Upgrade his file level to C."

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 202ᴋᴋs.ᴄᴏᴍ]

Class C—that's about the level of many Gotham City mob bosses. Aside from Batman's "true love," like the Joker, very few are qualified for Class A.

Alfred frowned upon hearing this, subtly changing his form of address: "Sir, I have no intention of questioning your decision. I am merely reminding you that, should something happen to you as the head of the Wayne family, the only one qualified to inherit the Wayne Corporation is this Class C suspect you mentioned."

"I have no intention of leaving the company to this person."

"Then why don't you have another one! A legal child born in wedlock or an illegitimate child, it doesn't matter. This old-fashioned person from the old era only cares about this."

For once, Bruce was speechless after being rebuked.

He could be ruthless and cold-hearted to anyone, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything cold to the old butler who had served three generations of his family.

Indeed, no matter the world, even great heroes are not immune to the pressure to get married and have children.

After a long, awkward silence while driving, Alfred finally said, "Mr. Fox is looking for you. You'd better go see him tomorrow."

The next morning, at Wayne Building.

Bruce met Lucius Fox—his most trusted subordinate.

When Bruce left home, Lucius suffered great injustice. It was Bruce's return that saved his career. As a result, Lucius became Bruce's most staunch supporter in Wayne Enterprises, providing him with all sorts of high-tech support that outsiders couldn't even imagine.

The key point is that Lucius is essentially Bruce's private treasurer.

"Oh, Mr. Wayne, what a rare guest. What woke you from your hibernation?"

Bruce said expressionlessly, "You lost my money."

"It's not me, it's yourself."

Bruce shrugged.

Lucius continued, "You poured all your R&D funding into that energy project, and then you just left it sitting idle. How can the company possibly make a profit like that?"

"What should I do then?"

"You can choose to start 'that machine'."

Bruce flatly refused: "No, that won't do."

As the machine's owner, Bruce knew perfectly well that the thing had obvious flaws; one wrong move and it could blow up the entire city.

"Then you can do nothing. You are the largest shareholder, and even the second largest shareholder, Dagate, cannot shake your control over Wayne Corporation."

"What if I need money?"

"You can choose to collaborate with Ms. Miranda Tate on the energy project. Or... accept Mr. Ang's offer of investment."

"What did you say?"

"That Wall Street star, Ang! He recently publicly acquired Wayne Enterprises' scattered shares on the stock market, and then made acquisition offers to other minority shareholders. Hmm, 20% above market price. Latest news: he now holds a 4% stake in Wayne Enterprises and has officially become a board member."

Bruce's lips twitched slightly, a rare occurrence for him: "What's that little brat up to?"

Lucius shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's another short-selling stunt? Or maybe they're taking the opportunity to take over Wayne Enterprises."

"..."

"If it's short selling, Wayne Enterprises isn't in such dire straits that he'll destroy it. If he just wants to seize control of Wayne Enterprises, once he agrees to exchange it for Stark Industries stock, few shareholders can resist the soaring Stark stock."

Bruce calmed down completely, so calm that he wished he could have shot that little brat against the wall back then.

Lucius leaned closer: "Mr. Wayne, I have no right to interfere in your family's private affairs. Considering that Mr. Ang's primary school tuition was paid for through my slush fund, I don't think you need to make things so tense with him. A family-run stock battle will only benefit outsiders in the end. Please note, Mr. Wayne, your cash flow is running low."

Having assets and having cash are two different things for a company.

Many large banks with market capitalizations in the hundreds of billions have gone bankrupt due to cash flow problems.

Wayne Group is ultimately a real business, unlike guys like Ang who are essentially financial snipers. Ang currently has all cash on hand.

Mr. Bat hadn't been this angry in a very, very long time.

He has indeed never cared about this illegitimate child, only giving him money and showing no affection whatsoever.

It's understandable that Ang would be angry.

If this kid were a good-for-nothing, it would be one thing, but somehow he's become a behemoth capable of shaking the world, openly demanding an explanation from his father.

Bruce now faces two clear paths:

If Bruce were to acknowledge Ang as his biological son and publicly announce that Ang would be allowed to change his surname to Wayne, it would be a win-win situation for Bruce's supporters—Ang's wealth, even if not used, would still be Wayne Enterprises' biggest asset. Anyone who dared to touch Wayne Enterprises' stock would have to ask Ang first. The Stark stock and billions of dollars in cash that Ang held were a financial nuclear bomb that would bring disaster to anyone who touched it.

Either Bruce will stubbornly refuse to acknowledge Ang, no matter what. Who knows how this enraged illegitimate son will deal with the father who abandoned him and his mother? Ang's previous actions in causing the Osborne Group to go bankrupt and be liquidated prove that he is no soft-hearted guy.

Things will get interesting once the father and son turn against each other.

Even if we take a step back and assume that Ang doesn't cause trouble maliciously, once he becomes the second largest shareholder after Bruce, he will have the right to inquire about the company's funds and interfere with Bruce's various investments.

The key point is that no one can get away with diverting large sums of money to develop some kind of bat-shaped aircraft right under Ang's nose.

This also severed Bruce's lifeline.

How could he possibly tolerate it?

(End of this chapter)