I, the anti-superman, have hacked into the chat group.

He and Superman have completely opposite energy sources, but their superpowers manifest in the same way. If the detection device created by Batman can detect Superman, then it can definitely detect him as well.

Even if he forced his way in, Batman probably wouldn't be able to do much against him, but

He and Superman have completely opposite energy sources, but their superpowers manifest in the same way. If the detection device created by Batman can detect Superman, then it can definitely detect him as well.

Even if he forced his way in, Batman probably wouldn't be able to do much against him, but there's still a serious problem.

That's the approach, which could very well cause Batman and Superman to go to war ahead of time. They are both prone to turning to the dark side, and once they start fighting, it would basically mean the birth of a dark hero.

This would cause the universe to enter the next stage, but the next stage doesn't exist at all, meaning the universe would be destroyed prematurely, and even if Carl found the Flash, it would be useless.

Chapter 318 Infiltrating the Bat Cave

Carl was helpless.

Batman is determined to seal off Gotham's underground, a move that exudes an atmosphere of impending doom. Carl could easily guess that Batman must have prepared a large number of weapons specifically designed to target Superman inside.

If he were to force his way in, he could easily become the catalyst, pushing the events of the universe into their final stages. Building is always more difficult than destroying, and Carl needs a universe with a slightly longer lifespan. Therefore, he would be better off finding a way to sneak into Gotham's underground unnoticed.

Carl disguised himself again and mingled into the streets of Gotham City. He was waiting for Batman to finish his patrol and return to the Batcave.

Gotham City's surface world doesn't seem to have much protection, but it's still off-limits to other superheroes—an unwritten rule in the main universe, but explicitly forbidden by Batman here.

Gotham is his territory, and he has to handle everything himself, including dealing with the villains. When Carl first arrived in this universe, he saw Batman chasing supervillains here.

At this moment, Batman is facing a burly, humanoid monster covered in green scales and sharp teeth.

This is Killer Croc, also known as Crocodile Man, a classic villain in Batman's stories. He looks like a humanoid crocodile, except he doesn't have a tail.

What's interesting is that, despite Killer Croc looking more monstrous than a monster, theoretically it is still human. The reason it looks like this is simply because it suffers from a very rare atavistic disease.

As a young crocodile, Killer Croc was quite normal, but as he grew older, he developed more and more reptilian features and became increasingly ferocious, eventually turning into a villain who would bite off people's heads at the drop of a hat.

As for why humans regressed to crocodiles instead of creatures like apes or monkeys, that remains unknown. After all, this is the DC universe, and perhaps humans evolved from crocodiles.

In short, this atavistic disease has given Killer Croc a powerful physique and impressive defensive capabilities, making it difficult for even bullets to penetrate its scales.

Such strength is certainly insufficient in various major events, but Gotham City rarely has villains who can destroy the world, so he can barely be considered average among Gotham's villains. Even without any equipment, he still needs to put in some effort to wear the Batman suit.

In the dead of night, Killer Croc, who had just finished his operation, chose a bad way to retreat, and now he was cornered by Batman.

"You damn bat, I'll eat you!" Killer Croc roared, suddenly turning around and biting at Batman behind him.

Run if you can, fight if you can't outrun him. Killer Croc is used to this kind of life. Anyway, he almost always loses to Batman. At worst, he'll just get captured and put in Arkham City. He can just escape when the time is right.

Similar situations have occurred countless times, but Killer Croc never imagined that this time would be different.

Batman doesn't carry out outrageous equipment when he's on regular patrols. He doesn't use things like large robots or anti-Superman armor. It's no wonder that the Joker sometimes says that Batman is playing games with criminals.

However, for Batman, most of the time traveling light is enough.

Faced with the Killer Croc's attack, Batman nimbly dodged with a backflip and threw several batarangs in the process.

The killer crocodile continued its charge, trying to use its scales to withstand the darts, but the darts exploded upon impact. The explosions weren't very powerful, but they were just enough to knock the killer crocodile back.

Killer Croc was a little dizzy from the explosion and quickly shook his head to clear his head. But when he looked ahead, Batman's figure had already disappeared from his sight.

"Where have you been hiding? Come out here!" Killer Croc roared.

Batman didn't keep Killer Croc waiting long. Just as he finished speaking, Batman suddenly descended from the sky and rode on Killer Croc's shoulders.

Before Killer Croc could struggle, Batman had already pulled out two stun guns and pressed them against his temples. With screams of pain, Killer Croc was quickly stunned.

Just as Killer Croc had thought, this kind of thing had happened far too many times, so many that Batman had already tailored some weapons for him, with the power of the bombs and the intensity of the electricity precisely calculated.

The outcome of the battle was exactly as it had happened countless times before, without any surprises. Usually, Batman would tie up Killer Croc and hand him over to the Gotham Police Department for processing, or if he wasn't busy, he would sometimes personally send Killer Croc to Arkham Asylum.

But this time is different.

Carl witnessed Batman defeat the Crocodile Man and then tie him to his Batmobile.

But as the car started, their destination wasn't Arkham Asylum. The Batmobile meandered through the city in the dead of night and soon entered an underground parking garage owned by the Wayne Group.

Shortly after entering the parking lot, a section of the driveway suddenly rose up, revealing a large elevator hidden there.

The Batmobile carried Killer Croc inside. Carl could no longer see what lay beyond that point; after the elevator descended three meters, the environment was filled with lead.

Seeing Batman's actions, a small question in Carl's mind was resolved.

"No wonder I haven't seen many supervillains in Gotham City. It turns out Batman has started vigilante justice and isn't sending prisoners to jail anymore."

Gotham City is a place of great potential, producing many talented individuals, but the number of villains in Gotham City in this world is much smaller than in the main universe.

Carl activated his super vision and gazed at Gotham City's two largest criminal encampments: Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison.

Arkham Asylum is very well-known; many people who don't read DC comics have heard of it. In contrast, Blackgate Prison is relatively unknown.

This is normal, though, because Blackgate Prison is really just a fairly standard prison. It mainly holds gang members and normal criminals, unlike Arkham Asylum, which sends all sorts of lunatics and monsters there.

Veteran prisoners at Blackgate may be sentenced to Arkham Asylum, but long-time inmates at Arkham Asylum are unlikely to be sent to the wrong place.

Carl glanced at the two places and immediately noticed the problem.

Blackgate prison was not unusual and was as full as usual, but Arkham Asylum was experiencing a serious brain drain.

Carl saw the Joker and Harley Quinn at Arkham Asylum, as well as Scarecrow and Bane, who were also regulars at the asylum, but many other familiar faces were nowhere to be seen.

Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Man-Bat, and other supervillains are not in Arkham Asylum.

Seeing this, Karl stroked his chin and began to think.

……

Time quickly passed to midnight on the second day.

Batman appeared in Gotham City as usual to begin his patrol. This time, he didn't drive the Batmobile, but instead used his grappling hook to move between the skyscrapers.

Not long after, Batman suddenly stopped and descended to the ground via a rope, or more precisely, to the vicinity of a sewer entrance, where there was a disgusting pool of yellow mud that stretched from the road surface all the way to the manhole cover.

Batman squatted there, pinched a little mud with his fingers, smelled it, and then suddenly, as if confirming something, he quickly lifted the manhole cover and crawled into the sewer.

The place is perpetually filled with the stench of decay and mold, but Batman is already used to it. In his early days, he spent a lot of time venturing into the sewers. He can not only ignore the stench but also extract the information he needs from it.

For example, Batman now knows that while the place smells bad, it's mixed with another odor. A stench that doesn't feel out of place, but is definitely not the smell of yellow mud from the sewers.

Batman turned on the spotlight on his belt and carefully crept around the area.

Suddenly, a huge shadow appeared behind Batman and slammed down on him!

The ability to roll and dodge was ingrained in his very being. Batman didn't have time to think; his body reacted automatically. Although he was a bit disheveled, at least Batman managed to dodge the attack.

Batman then shone the light from his belt at the attacker. As he suspected, the attacker was a lump of yellow mud, the size of two or three adults.

The other person was bloated and obese, but you could still make out his limbs and the seemingly melting features on his face.

Clayface, also a familiar enemy of Batman, possesses the ability to change the shape of his muddy body.

"Humph."

Batman snorted coldly. He didn't consider the mud-faced man in front of him a big problem. Just like Killer Croc, the man was a criminal he had defeated countless times. He knew all of the man's abilities by heart.

The mud-faced man transformed his right hand, made of mud, into a hammer, a process involving changes in density that made this mud hammer harder than most rocks.

The mud-faced man charged forward, swinging his hammer, but since his previous sneak attacks had failed to hit Batman, how could this blatant, unorthodox punch possibly work? Batman dodged left and right, looking completely relaxed.

Seeing this, the mud-faced man seemed to get angry. He opened his big mouth with several yellow teeth and spat out a large glob of muddy water.

Such wide-range attacks cannot be dodged by physical skills alone; unless there is sufficient distance from the start, one can only take them head-on.

Batman was locked in close combat with the Mudman and had no chance of suddenly escaping the mud's attack range.

But as mentioned before, Batman already knew all of Clayface's abilities, so his decision to engage in close combat was naturally well-prepared.

Faced with this large mass of muddy water, Batman suddenly threw a special bomb from his belt. The bomb exploded and released a large amount of powder. The mud quickly dried and hardened upon contact with the powder, losing its activity.

Batman could see that the Mudman seemed a little stunned, which was normal, because this hardening was different from the Mudman hardening a part of his body on his own. In a short time, the mud could only maintain a shape, which the Mudman could not control.

While the man finished spitting out muddy water and Jiang Dazui closed his mouth, Batman threw several of the same kind of bombs directly into the man's mouth. With a bang, the mud-faced man could no longer move, like a clay sculpture.

Batman chose close combat to accurately throw the bomb into the Mudman's body. The opponent was an old hand, and everything was under his control.

After defeating Mudman, Batman, as before, summoned a Batmobile and took Mudman back underground. This time, he also had no intention of leaving the criminal to the Gotham Police Department.

After Mudman took the elevator into the underground space, he quickly separated from Batman. This powder would harden Mudman's body for a long time, and there would be no problem for at least 24 hours, so Batman wouldn't have to keep an eye on him.

After Batman left, the group of researchers who took over Mudman's care were dressed in white lab coats and wore glasses; they looked very professional.

It seemed they had done similar work before, showing no fear whatsoever at the sight of the terrifying mud-faced figures.

The movement and handling of the clay figures were automated by the surrounding machinery. The researchers simply watched as the clay figures were transported to where they were supposed to be and recorded data from time to time.

It was a very tedious job. They had no interest in the mud figures at all. As they followed the machine, they chatted among themselves, saying, "Do you really think this disgusting lump of mud will be of any use to our research?"

"If that's the case, then at least it's more useful than the crocodile man we brought yesterday. That was just an ordinary person who had reverted to his ancestral form, while this lump of mud is at least a real superhuman."

"You're right, but I still can't muster any interest in studying it."

"Whatever you want. Anyway, the superpowered individuals sent to our area are all unimportant. You can study whichever one you like."

"Sigh, I really envy Dr. Stone. He gets to study The Flash, who was a former member of the Justice League! When do you think we'll be allowed to participate in that project?"

Another researcher didn't answer immediately. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt like the clay figure's eyes had moved slightly.

However, after looking closely, he found nothing unusual and could only conclude that he had misread it.

"Don't even think about it. They used to be from Star Labs. How can people like us compare to them?"

The two researchers, blowing water, quickly led the mud-faced man into a secret room.

Amazingly, the room is filled with glass cases, all of which contain various superpowered individuals, including the killer crocodile that was delivered yesterday.

"Alright, our work is done. Let's go. We still need to continue our research on Poison Ivy."

The villain was also placed in a specially made glass case, and then the experimenters quickly evacuated. After they left, the door closed, and the entire room was plunged into darkness again.

In this environment, the mud-faced man, whom no one paid attention to, suddenly underwent a strange transformation.

His body size continued to shrink, and his skin became increasingly green, eventually forming a robust, normal human shape, with only a thin green film remaining on his surface.

Chapter 319 Underground Area

Karl ripped off the layer of Martian cells covering his body; yes, the mud-faced man from before was actually him in disguise.

He had previously observed Batman and discovered that the latter seemed to be deliberately collecting superhumans. Gotham City's normal criminals were well-controlled, while a large portion of the supervillains were missing.