Chapter 16: The Invitation to Walk into a Trap

"You mean, after you guys staked out there for a few days, the biggest problem you found was... he might steal electricity?"

Nick Fury stood in the S. H. I. E. L. D. office, holding a report and asking Coulson.

Coulson also knew that this report really looked like something written in a rush early in the morning because he had a hangover the day before and didn't have time to write it. The conclusion on it was only a bottle of whiskey away from nonsense.

Nick Fury held the report and took a deep breath. His mouth was open, but he still paused for a moment, clearly speechless.

He said: "Actually, I have never agreed with S. H. I. E. L. D. agents' rating standards. Coulson, I think you are the most powerful argument against this standard, aren't you?"

"Uh..." Coulson rubbed his hands awkwardly and said: "Actually, we didn't observe nothing. We found that there might be a tunnel under his clinic..."

"I really should call Nurse Jenny to test you for drunk driving. Coulson, you wrote here 'observed the target frequently appearing in other places about a hundred meters outside the clinic,' and your conclusion on this is... there might be a tunnel under the clinic?" Nick Fury said.

"Actually, I know he might have the ability to teleport," Coulson said, hugging his arms and frowning. "But according to the cases we've encountered, teleportation always has a moment of landing. We set up hundreds of micro-cameras around, but none of them captured any abnormalities."

Nick Fury said: "Then go add a few hundred more. He is very important to us right now, and he is the most difficult type of opponent to deal with. Don't be careless..."

At this time, on the bed in the Cat Getan University professor's apartment, Schiller had just woken up and found himself holding something fluffy. He looked down and saw: Pikachu!

"Oh, what's wrong with you? What time is it now?" Pikachu was so sleepy it couldn't even open its eyes. Schiller rubbed his eyes. How did this mouse come over with him??

Pikachu looked around in a sleepy haze and was startled, instantly waking up, saying: "Where is this?! How did you bring me here? Are you actually a human trafficker???"

Schiller said while folding the quilt: "You'd better explain to me first why you are in my bed?"

"You have the nerve to ask me??" Pikachu roared. It said: "Three floors, you only turned on the heater in your room! If I hadn't known how to pick locks, I would have frozen to death by now!"

"Oh, is that so?" Schiller had no sense of guilt. He said: "Freeze-dried mouse is not a good idea."

"So why are you here? Where is this?"

"As you can see, I can travel through time and space, so I arrived here when I woke up," Schiller said. "This is a very dangerous place. If you run around, you'll be stewed in less than three minutes."

"Tsk." Pikachu made a disdainful snort. It said: "You can travel through time and space? Then I can also use Splash."

Schiller wasn't lying. It didn't matter if Pikachu knew. After all, it was a mouse. In the eyes of these superheroes, the credibility of its speech was not even as good as a repeater. If it went to Batman and blabbered, Batman would definitely stew it immediately. Batman didn't kill people, but that didn't mean he didn't kill mice.

Faced with non-human creatures, few Earth heroes had any trust in them. Although Pikachu spoke no differently from humans and even had a strange Canadian accent, this yellow mouse that clearly looked like some kind of genetically modified creature was obviously hard to take seriously by any normal person, so Schiller wasn't worried at all.

While Schiller was tidying up the bed, Pikachu jumped around, sniffing the room, wrinkling its small nose and muttering disdainfully: "It seems you really have some skills. This is indeed not the original world."

In the morning, Schiller went to class. He carried Pikachu in his bag. It wasn't that he wanted to take Pikachu to class; it was mainly because if he didn't take it, Pikachu would definitely sneak out by itself and then be stewed.

Pikachu poked its head out in Schiller's bag and was pushed back by Schiller several times. In the afternoon, Schiller put the bag on the table in the psychological consultation room, pressed Pikachu's forehead, and said: "Listen, even if I don't care about others seeing a strange yellow creature in my bag, I think you should understand what I told you about superheroes. Every one of them takes 'meddling' as their life creed. No one will let go of the chance to study you, this yellow mouse, especially..."

Just as Schiller was speaking, the door of the psychological consultation room was suddenly opened. Bruce said: "Professor, I..."

As soon as he entered, he saw his professor pressing his hand on the forehead of a strange yellow creature.

Pikachu was startled and instantly darted into Schiller's arms. Schiller pursed his lips, looked at Pikachu, then at Bruce, and said while holding Pikachu: "If I said this is a new breed of albino mole, would you believe it..."

"You don't believe it, so you plan to make up another one, right?" Bruce said, hugging his arms.

Pikachu bared its teeth at him and was covered by Schiller's hand. He said: "What's the matter? Mr. Wei En?"

Bruce walked over and said: "Actually, I'm very sorry... It's like this, I want to invite you to visit Wei En Manor..."

Visit Wei En Manor?

What kind of invitation to surrender is this?

Bruce was clearly a bit awkward, because Schiller knew his true identity, so he couldn't grasp whether he should be Bruce or Batman. And the current Batman wasn't as cold as he would be in the future; he would even take the initiative to find Gordon for cooperation, so Bruce was in a very conflicted state right now.

Schiller could feel a little bit through telepathy. He tapped the table and took the initiative to say: "I can tell, Bruce, you are very conflicted right now. Sit down."

"Actually, you did very well before. Bruce is not Batman; he is just a playboy who doesn't study, likes to go to bars and drink, and is surrounded by beauties. But Batman is the exact opposite..."

Bruce sat down, pressed his brow with his fingers, and said: "I don't understand the point of doing this. I don't think I can hide it from anyone."

Bruce wasn't stupid either. He was the richest person in all of Cat Getan City, and only he had the financial resources to manufacture Batman's equipment. He didn't think criminals were all idiots who wouldn't know he was Bruce Wei En.

And just from his physique, one could infer a thing or two. Bruce played in the flowers and wouldn't be wrapped up tightly at certain times. It wasn't hard to figure out some physical details.

Especially since Schiller had seen Bruce go out to mess around in the middle of the night more than once, and his female companions were never the same. Half of the famous Nightingale cheerleading dance troupe had been with Bruce.

In fact, Schiller speculated that many high-IQ villains in the comics shouldn't be completely kept in the dark. This reasoning really wasn't difficult, but they still acted as if "Who is Batman? How can I not guess it?" There must be a reason for this.

"Yes, this doesn't really count as a secret, but as long as you want it to be a secret, it will be your weapon when necessary."

"You show that you value a certain secret very much, and others will think this secret is very important to you. You try your best to hide it, but if it is revealed at a critical moment, it can naturally prove your sincerity, even if it is actually not important."

Schiller was talking about Batman's operations for the Justice League in the future. To gain the trust of the Justice League, Batman took off his mask—revealing a secret everyone actually knew: Batman was Bruce Wei En.

But everyone still strengthened their trust in Batman, because Batman always showed that he valued this secret and was willing to reveal it for his companions. Of course, it could gain people's trust. Although this secret could be guessed with a little brain, that wasn't important. What was important was the attitude!

Bruce touched his chin and followed along: "For example, if a criminal wants to use this to threaten me, I can calmly set a trap for him..."

"Alright, Mr. Wei En." Schiller looked at his watch and then said: "The time for psychological consultation is up. Regarding your invitation, I will consider it carefully after receiving the invitation letter."

Bruce didn't quite understand why Schiller wanted to consider it carefully. In the United States, a verbal invitation meant it was a private visit, not formal, probably just having a meal together in private.

But when Schiller mentioned the invitation letter, Bruce felt that Schiller might think this kind of invitation wasn't formal enough and didn't show enough respect, so after he left the consultation room, he asked the butler Alfred to prepare the invitation letter and the banquet.

In fact, what he didn't know was that for Schiller, being invited by Batman to his home was like saying to him: "Are you interested in walking into a trap?"

He needed too much psychological preparation.

Although Schiller knew that the current Bruce was far from being the Batman of the future, his two identities hadn't even been completely distinguished. If it were the Batman in the comics, Bruce would only bring a bottle of wine and say he wanted to introduce him to a few beauties at the party.

Instead of acting serious and awkward.

But Schiller had too deep a stereotype of Batman. He even suspected that this was a trap set by Batman specifically to get his DNA. This was definitely something Batman could do.

In addition, although Bruce didn't say it, clearly, Pikachu, this yellow mouse, had caught his attention.

Schiller picked up Pikachu by its tail and said: "Did you see the person who just came? That's the big boss of Cat Getan. If you want to eat and drink well in the future, you'd better not offend him."

Pikachu struggled desperately in mid-air with its short hands and said: "Put me down! That person just now was really terrifying!"

Schiller picked up Pikachu by its tail and brought it in front of him, saying: "How do you know?"

"Detective's intuition!" Pikachu shouted. It said: "You really should consider not staying here. This place makes me cold. Wouldn't it be better if we went back to the place yesterday? I can even tolerate you eating strawberry jam!"

Schiller looked Pikachu up and down and felt that it wasn't telling the truth. ===== CHAPTER 17 =====