Chapter 2472: The Cape War (37)

This shop selling rubber ducks was clearly quite old. One could tell from the arrangement of the display window that it was the most old-fashioned type of gift shop. Thus, upon entering, one could see various shelves placed against the walls, with a large pile of messy counters in the middle, all stacked with a variety of gifts.

This kind of clutter should have been full of life; Peter liked browsing such gift shops. However, in the past, when he browsed such shops, it felt a bit like being a thief, because he couldn't afford most of the gifts there and was very worried about running into classmates and being mocked.

But today, he felt a little more at ease, and was even in a very excited mood to come and browse, because following behind him was Jason, and this guy was even stronger than Thompson.

Spider-Man thought secretly in his heart that if he ran into classmates this time, they definitely wouldn't dare to mock him for being a poor kid, at least not to his face.

But this time, as soon as they entered the shop, what caught their attention wasn't the pile of messy goods at all, but a person behind the cluttered merchandise counter.

That person was wearing a shop clerk's apron and was kneeling halfway on the ground, organizing the goods on the middle shelf. From Spider-Man and Jason's angle, he only revealed a head, but this head alone made it impossible to ignore; he was truly too handsome.

Jason recognized at a glance that this was the Batman of his universe. Although all Batmen looked very similar, there were subtle differences in the details. Every universe's Robin could distinguish them well, and Jason could distinguish them especially well. He felt that the Batman of his universe had more defined facial features than other Batmen.

The two of them shouted out in unison, but the man didn't react. He didn't even stand up the first moment the two rushed in, but continued to fiddle with the goods on the shelf.

It wasn't until he heard the commotion behind him that he turned his head, slowly stood up, and looked at the two with some confusion, saying, "Batman? Are you looking for some new toys with bats on them? Hmm, what do you think of that one?"

The man pointed to the little yellow duck behind Jason. It was exactly the Wan Shengjie-style little yellow duck Jason had seen before, with a bat on top of its head and sitting on a pumpkin. It looked a bit comical, but the bat was very cute.

Spider-Man and Jason looked at each other, both realizing that something was wrong. Why would Batman pretend not to recognize them? Could there be enemies monitoring nearby?

"Do you really think that looks good?" Spider-Man was a bit shaken. Jason immediately glared at him. Although the rubber duck with a bat was indeed good-looking, was that the point?

But just as they were hesitating, the man wiped his hands on his apron, took a doll from the side, and introduced, "Then what about this one, how is this? This is also a Wan Shengjie-themed doll. Look, its bowtie is a bat!"

Spider-Man saw that the man was holding a teddy bear. The teddy bear was wearing a little wizard hat on its head, holding a pumpkin bowl full of candy in its hands, and the bowtie was a bat. The overall style was very cute.

Spider-Man took a step forward and reached out to touch the teddy bear's head. Jason immediately pulled him back and said, "Don't touch it. There might be nano-monitors, nano-viruses, nano... anyway, there must be a whole bunch of things on it."

The man holding the bear and Spider-Man looked at Jason with the eyes of someone looking at a mental patient.

"No, we don't have any freebies." The man shook his head and explained, "Because this is a discounted item, a small Wan Shengjie limited-edition pumpkin teddy bear, only 19 dollars."

Spider-Man immediately showed a conflicted expression. He only had 20 dollars on him now. If he bought this, he definitely wouldn't be able to afford the rubber duck, which would cost at least seven or eight dollars.

Compared to Europe, Americans' wages were relatively higher, and basic commodity prices were relatively lower, but that also depended on which city. Spider-Man, after all, lived in New York. Even if it wasn't the most expensive Manhattan district, non-essential items like gifts were still much more expensive than elsewhere.

The Parker family's economic conditions weren't very good either. Even after entering high school, Peter only had 20 dollars of pocket money a week, and he wasn't an adult yet, so he couldn't work. His pocket money was often robbed by those school bullies. These 20 dollars were what he had saved for almost a month.

Jason's attention was now entirely on Batman. He instinctively felt that this Batman's eyes were a bit off. If he had to describe it, this Batman's eyes were a bit too clear.

Batman's beautiful blue eyes always contained lingering haze and storms; no one could see to the bottom. Jason once thought that perhaps even Batman himself couldn't. His overly heavy pasts accumulated on every line of his iris, weaving into an airtight net. When he looked in the mirror, it also blocked him from figuring out what he was actually thinking.

If there were enemies peeking nearby now, although Batman could pretend to be harmless, his eyes, his gaze, would never be like this.

Jason could even clearly read the urgency in his eyes, as if he wanted to sell a few more items before Christmas, and Peter looked like the kind of rich kid with money to burn. However, he certainly wasn't.

"Why is this discounted?" Jason asked, hitting the nail on the head.

The man who looked exactly like Batman immediately showed a kind of embarrassment on his face, as if he had been exposed. He swallowed a breath and then said, "This... well, the tag of this thing got rolled into the vacuum cleaner and ruined, so it has no tag and can only be sold at a low price."

Jason crossed his arms and said, "Actually, because you ruined its tag, you already spent money to buy it yourself, right? It's just that you feel that holding onto this thing is useless, and you want to find a sucker to sell it to, to recoup some losses."

The embarrassment on the man's face grew stronger. Jason narrowed his eyes and said, "I guess you didn't spend more than 25 dollars to buy it. You only intend to spend 6 dollars to pay for your mistake? Oh, I said it wrong..."

The man was just about to speak, but Jason said again, "19 is a very unique number. It's close to 20, but it starts with a 1, so many shops like to start with it to imply to customers that this thing is only ten-something dollars."

"However, these cunning merchants won't let go of money they can earn. They will definitely mark the price as 19.9, so there's no difference from 20, and they can still get the 1 at the beginning. Even the stupidest shopkeeper won't let go of those 90 cents."

"If you say the price of this toy is a round 19 dollars, this proves that this isn't the marked price in the shop. Perhaps it's more like a small concession someone is willing to make for their own insignificant mistake. Is 1 dollar really enough to fill your conscience?"

The expression on the man's face had completely turned into awkwardness. Jason carefully observed the changes in his expression and found that this really wasn't acted out. Even if it were acting, Batman wouldn't have so many rich little expressions. What was going on?

Jason immediately pulled Spider-Man and said, "Something's wrong. I think Batman might..."

He had just said this when he turned his head and found that Spider-Man's eyeballs were as if glued to that teddy bear.

And Batman's gaze was as if glued to Spider-Man.

Jason sighed and said, "Don't think you can fool us. No one is going to pay so much extra for your mistake. Since you've already bought it, this is a second-hand item. 10 dollars, and give us a Christmas duck from the display window."

"Impossible!" The man raised his voice and said, "That duck alone costs 8 dollars. How can this bear only be worth two?"

"Come on, it's not about how much this bear is worth, but how much we are willing to pay to slightly compensate for your loss. This is clearly out of humanitarian concern, not a commodity transaction. Anyway, you have no use for this bear, do you?"

The man looked at the bear in his hand with some hesitation, unwilling to accept this price no matter what, so he could only counter-offer, "15 dollars, bear plus duck, how about that?"

"No, that's too high. You have to know that we didn't need this bear in the first place." Jason reached out to block Spider-Man's longing gaze and said, "We just wanted to come and buy a duck. It should have only cost 8 dollars. It was you who got into trouble and came to beg us for help, and that's why we are willing to spend two extra dollars to help you settle the trouble."

In the end, the two bargained and decided to buy the bear and the Christmas-style rubber duck for 12 dollars. During this process, Jason verified a shocking fact: this Batman actually didn't like bats.

If it were the real Batman, Jason would dare to bet that even if that teddy bear with a Batman bowtie was of no use to Batman at all, he wouldn't sell it. Even if Batman wasn't the world's richest man, he was just short of those two dollars, he wouldn't sell it.

Regarding the fact that Batman was purely fanatically fond of bats, Jason had only just learned about it not long ago. A man approaching 30 receiving a bat doll about as tall as him at a birthday party brought him a huge mental shock.

He was directly hit in the face by Batman's fanaticism for bats and finally understood a principle he had never been able to figure out before: why bats?

What else could it be? Batman just likes bats. Those theories about bats being Batman's psychological shadow couldn't explain at all why he was obsessed with printing bat patterns on every piece of equipment. Who would print psychological shadows all over the world?

The new dollars issued by Batman were all bats!

Right, dollars. Jason immediately reached out to dig into Spider-Man's pocket. How could Spider-Man snatch it from him? He was directly stripped of the banknotes in his hand by Jason. It wasn't even whole money, but a whole bunch of change.

Jason flipped it open and looked. The dollars didn't have bats on them; they were still Franklin. In other words, this was the era before Bruce Wayne became president.

No, it wasn't that real. This was a dream after all. Anything could happen. This guy might be Batman, or he might just be a passerby in the dream.

Jason decided to test him. He pinched the money, ignored the longing gaze in this strange Batman's eyes, put one hand on his waist, leaned his other body against the counter, and said, "Actually, I'm more curious about how you managed to roll the toy's tag into the vacuum cleaner. Shouldn't this thing be sweeping the floor all the time?"

A more awkward expression appeared on the man's face. ===== CHAPTER 2473 =====