Chapter 4903: There Is No Batman Here (VIII)

Moreover, Tim is also a DIY expert. He rigged up a simple flamethrower; although it only used ordinary gasoline, it looked quite convincing.

As for the monsters' side, that was miserable. These bat monsters are genuinely carbon-based lifeforms; they use bat equipment, which also means they basically have no magical defense, and their large bodies are a weak point.

Pamela directly grew a ring of trees — just ordinary beech trees, only planted more densely and grown taller — and it actually succeeded in blocking them. The squad members threw Molotov cocktails out from the gaps between the trees; despite the thick fog outside, it didn't affect the gasoline burning, and the monsters were soon burning and howling.

Harley had the only long gun among them, though it was just an old-fashioned hunting shotgun. Tim had a police pistol, good stopping power but insufficient lethality. The two took turns firing, shooting the gasoline barrels pre-arranged outside to blow them up; after the fire spread, the air was full of the aroma of barbecue — and natural fruitwood charcoal barbecue at that.

Blue Beetle, Ted, Cassandra, and Lilith didn't act, but they weren't idle either. Pamela needs plants to exert her full power; she brought seeds of offensive plants before coming. However, Shiler's backyard had been wrecked by Merkel beyond recognition, and certain biological fertilizers buried without composting had also scorched the ground, making it really hard to grow anything.

These people snatched corpse chunks from the monsters — also recovered some scattered equipment, but most were burned beyond use. Their main target was still the monsters' corpses — to use as compost for the backyard.

They had dug a large pit in the backyard in advance; Ted used a holographic projection to make a cover for heat retention and to prevent excessive odor. After several waves of attacks, all the corpses were collected by them and thrown into the pit.

After these several waves, no equipment was salvaged, but the corpses were indeed recovered without a single one lost. Although the composting process might be somewhat lengthy, as long as the offensive plants are grown, the base's long-term stability can be ensured.

"I feel Brainiac definitely didn't anticipate this playstyle of ours," Harley said. "I suspect his setting is that corpses despawn after an attack; otherwise, the bacteria and plagues from decay would be more than we could handle, and would also cause water source contamination..."

"Corpses can be used," Brainiac said. "However, only corpses that players have interacted with will be retained; unmarked corpses will dissipate into mist within 24 hours at most."

"This setting has some logic to it," Tim said. "I feel like someone's going to play with corpses again."

Gordon poked his head out from the doorway and took a look; visibility extended only to the doorway itself. Both sides of the road at the entrance were swallowed by fog, and the monsters' shadows seemed to be slowly approaching.

He turned to look at Shiler, then froze. Because Shiler had already put on a full protective suit — Gordon really didn't want to know why his house had this thing — and was currently putting on gloves.

"So you really did it on purpose back then," Gordon said, looking at Shiler. "If you wore this thing to the Mo Sen district, would Batman come after you?"

Shiler didn't say anything, just gestured with his eyes for them to take the other sets from the table. Charles picked up a set and examined it; this thing was very professional, a fully sealed biohazard suit with a gas mask and breathing apparatus. It would be somewhat bulky to wear, but the protective capability was maxed out.

"I'm not going out," Charles said. "It's not that I don't want to help you, but I suspect there might be mental attacks, so I'd better stay here and guard the house."

The other three had no objections either. Ethan looked at the protective suit and said: "I'm not wearing this either; do I mind getting my hands dirty when killing?"

Gordon hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to put it on. He wasn't afraid of dirt; rather, he knew that if Shiler decided to wear this, it meant the upcoming scene might really need protection. Especially the suit's built-in face shield — the eye portion was frosted plastic, possessing excellent mental protection capability.

When he saw the weapon Shiler picked up was an axe, Gordon realized he had bet right.

Ethan wasn't surprised either; right now the only gun among them was Gordon's, and it was just an old service revolver, not really useful — destined for close-quarters melee. He looked left and right, and grabbed a splitting axe from the backyard.

There was a chainsaw in the backyard, but chainsaws aren't actually easy to use; they jam easily and don't necessarily have much intimidation factor against monsters — not as good as a sharp splitting axe.

The fog gradually spread toward the doorway; strange shadows emerged from the mist. The West District monsters differed from the South District ones; by the time their figures became more solid and completely separated from the fog, Gordon sucked in a sharp breath.

They were all kinds of stitched abominations. Human limbs haphazardly pieced together; some were two people sewn together, some were one person grown with several arms, and there were even dozens of people spliced into a four-legged monster, with many stitched monsters sitting on top holding strange weapons.

*Bang* — a gunshot, not from Gordon, but from the monster on that human truck. The things they held looked like grenade launchers, but what they fired were actually dead people's heads. This thing splattered on impact with the ground, and Gordon wanted to vomit on the spot.

"Brainiac!!!" he roared. "How the fuck do you also play with corpses!!!!"

Then he glared at Shiler: "It's all your doing! Brainiac just learned bad habits from you!! *Retches*!!!"

Shiler didn't blink. He stared at the stitched monster walking toward him, seemingly studying how this thing was stitched together, and whether this body structure could even move.

Fact proved that the human body's current structure is the most suitable for upright walking; adding any extra parts would only be interference. These stitched monsters walked really rather slowly; Shiler grew impatient waiting and walked up himself, giving the double-headed monster at the front an axe blow.

This axe blow didn't have much force, but the stitching technique on this thing was indeed poor; one axe blow and a head fell off. Shiler kicked it with his foot, and it toppled crookedly.

Shiler was a bit speechless. If the monsters were this strength, they actually didn't need to come out to defend; just destroying the road surface and digging a big pit would stop these things from crossing.

Just as Shiler was considering whether to dig a moat, he heard gunfire behind him, and turned to hear Gordon cursing. Shiler looked up, and only upon seeing that big truck did he finally react a little.

The guns those monsters held were a bit like skull launchers, but not that portable — they required two people to operate, one to load, one to fire.

"James," Shiler's voice was a bit muffled under the protective suit, "shoot their grenadiers."

Gordon was disgusted, but after so many years as Commissioner in Gotham, his tactical literacy was still solid. He raised his hand and fired a shot at the front grenadier, but due to the distance the impact force wasn't enough, and since these monsters were dead to begin with they had no vital points, so it didn't succeed.

Shiler sighed, turned to Ethan and said: "Can you make a tripwire?"

Ethan was about to say there wasn't time, but he discovered this big truck moved very slowly. Because its six legs were entirely composed of stitched corpses doing sit-ups to move — equivalent to humans becoming this monster's muscles — but human whole-body mobility simply isn't that strong, and there didn't seem to be any coordination; it walked swaying left and right.

Moreover this thing didn't even have a head, much less eyes or similar organs, so no professional tripwire was needed. Ethan went back inside, got a rope, tied it to a tree right in front of these corpses, held the other end himself, and stretched it across the front of this big truck.

During this, Shiler dealt with the monsters approaching him — basically one axe blow shattered half of it, then he hacked a few more times, and no matter what it couldn't climb back up.

Gordon's gun was still effective against these small monsters; although it couldn't blow them apart, it could knock them back. Like this, that truck slowly walked to where the rope was.

Then, entirely unsurprisingly, the front legs had just lifted when they were tripped, and the whole thing crashed down with a clatter.

Logically this tactic succeeded and should be cause for joy. But such a huge human-assembly contraption falling down — the scene could no longer be described as mere mental pollution. Gordon directly flipped open his protective suit's face shield and started vomiting on the spot.

"Calm down, Commissioner." Charles began playing mental purification scenes in his mind — Hawaii's ocean, the Himalayas' snow-capped peaks, the Alps' meadows...

"Thanks." Gordon panted a few breaths.

He looked up at Ethan, feeling Ethan might not be as bad as him but should still have some reaction. Unfortunately, Ethan was unmoved. One could only say, the veteran-plus-doctor combo gave him double the defense against things made of corpses.

Subsequent attacks were much the same. Everyone had already discovered these monsters mainly consisted of three types. Melee monsters had poor legwork; timing the attack intervals, melee could completely repel them. Ranged monsters were more troublesome; the skull launchers' rate of fire was still quite high — physical damage from being hit might not be high, but mental damage was definitely maxed out.

Then there were the troop transports; these things' strength was rather random. The first was toppled very easily, but then two more came — one used flesh tracks, another was a multi-legged structure — neither was easy to trip. But fortunately, like real vehicles, they couldn't move on their own; they needed a driver, so as long as the driver was dealt with it was manageable.

"I really should've worn the protective suit." Ethan looked down at his clothes already soaked in blood plasma and various corpse fluids and said.

"There's a lake over there; you can go wash off." Shiler pointed to the side, then said, "Conveniently we need to go over there too. James, come lend a hand, drag this truck into the lake."

Gordon stared dumbfounded: "What are you doing?"

"Corpses can't be left here," Shiler said. "On one hand, if they rot the smell might be unbearable. On the other hand, it would also affect our own visibility."

What Shiler said did have some logic, but Gordon just felt he was obsessed with disposing of corpses the same way on different occasions. But he still pinched his nose and did it; otherwise he feared Shiler would turn this pile into defensive fortifications placed before his eyes.

Ethan jumped into the lake and rinsed off, basically getting clean. He saw Shiler throwing corpses into the water, frowned and said: "What if the lake gets polluted?"

"Thank heavens you still consider this." Gordon was quite moved.

"It won't," Shiler said. "This lake is very deep, and connects to the underground water system; the water body's self-purification speed is very fast."

Ethan was convinced; he nodded. Gordon fell into a new round of despair. Shiler looked at him and said: "Look on the bright side — if by some coincidence there's another stroke of luck, we might not have to fight monsters ourselves."