Chapter 4918: There Is No Batman Here (Twenty-Three)

So the topic shifted to how to build a super sniper rifle — one fired at the sky, but whose bullet could land precisely on someone's head. Large caliber, long range, preferably with a mount and a firing button.

Once this topic came up, the atmosphere was no longer heavy, the barriers gone. The Robins were all close as if they'd grown up together as real brothers. Even "Harley Quinn" and "Poison Ivy" joined in seamlessly; one could only say it was a good thing one was blonde and the other redhead, neither black-haired and blue-eyed.

"We lack large machine tools," Damian said. "No matter what, those hand-built machine tools can't produce anything decent."

"Energy is also a problem," Nightwing put forward. "Even if we can get blueprints and materials by completing missions, ordinary energy can't support a production task like this. Gotham's power plants might not even be able to sustain it."

"Also, even if we don't make radioactive stuff, just where to get explosives of that yield is a problem," Red Robin said. "Brainiac shouldn't have a hobby of stockpiling explosives, right?"

"Precise electronic guidance systems aren't easy to make either," Red Hood added. "The enemy is an Outer God; we can't guide it manually, and even with superpowered individuals it's very difficult. The best way is to rely on electronic systems, but that's a very complex algorithm, and there's probably no one here skilled in it."

Unexpectedly, the Viscount Manor team exchanged a glance. Tim let out a light sigh and said, "You all come with me."

The others looked at each other, but still followed Tim toward the backyard. There was a door leading to a cellar. After they went down, below was surprisingly another world entirely.

Beneath the Rodriguez Manor was an Ark Reactor.

It was the large-scale Ark Reactor Bruce had built before. Originally prepared as Gotham's backup power source, but after Gotham's situation improved, no disaster came that could use this thing, so it became a decoration. Until the Young Avengers took over Viscount Manor, it finally saw use.

For the sake of humanity's mental health, Brainiac disliked using robots. But the GCPD armed by him could basically solve Gotham's problems big and small; the Young Avengers rarely needed to step in.

Still, occasionally there were a few times, after all Metropolis next door had no shortage of force majeure. Some minor human conflicts Brainiac would leave to humans to resolve themselves, unless the situation deteriorated too badly, then he would act. And at those times, a place was needed to train or manufacture and maintain equipment.

The underground space of Viscount Manor was sufficient, so they built a multi-functional underground base around the Ark Reactor.

The main-universe Robins came down and instantly felt at home — this wasn't the Batcave?

Familiar large-scale energy device, familiar underground training ground, familiar Batmobile and plane — Batman's legacy had already been inherited by Tim and them — even familiar Batsuits.

"You don't have a Batman here?" Damian asked.

"It's not like only Batman can build this stuff." Tim walked down with practiced ease and said, "The things here belonging to Batman are basically decorations now. The Batmobile seriously violates Brainiac's city driving noise ordinance, so it's not allowed on the road. Private planes even more so — flight paths not approved, leaving this door counts as illegal. The Batsuit can be worn, but walking on the street you'll get asked for photos, and if it causes a riot you might still get arrested..."

"Wait a second." Nightwing held out a hand and said, "First, how would the Batmobile have noise?"

The moment those words came out, unexpectedly it was the Arkham Knight who looked over. His expression was like he was saying "How could the Batmobile possibly have no noise?"

The Arkham Batman's Batmobile indeed had noise, and it wasn't small. This was actually because, in the setting, the Batmobile was meant to deter those bad guys, letting anyone thinking of doing wrong hear the commotion and be scared out of their wits, also a method for the Dark Knight to establish his authority.

The main-universe Batman's Batmobile didn't have much noise, and there was a reason for that too. After all, most of his work was investigation; this is like how agents don't like using Diana's Blessing — someone doing stealth investigation work can't drive a sports car that roars with one press of the pedal and nearly triggers an earthquake. Although it could be switched to roar mode, most of the time it was more like a silently gliding bat.

And the reason Bruce's Batmobile had extremely loud noise was rather bizarre. The story goes back to when Aisha wouldn't sleep. When Aisha was just born, she was a thoroughbred night crier; there was no quiet time at night. Later Bruce and Selina discovered that as long as they drove her around Gotham, she would sleep very soundly.

And it had to be that kind of loudly roaring sports car. So Bruce modified his Batmobile into that kind of extremely noisy vehicle. So this was actually a specialized baby-soothing, child-rearing car.

Actually in that era this car was also a public nuisance. Only, at that time Gotham was the mob's world, the nuisance was to the mob, and the mob wasn't that they didn't care, but that they couldn't do anything about it.

Bruce's driving skills weren't something he started practicing only after he stopped being Batman; he had already started practicing back then. His initial sparring partners weren't the GCPD's Four Heavenly Kings, but the Twelve Families' drift masters.

Back then, Bruce floored the gas and sounded the horn of the Battle Night. He drove in front, at least a dozen sports cars chasing behind. After he drifted and apexed corners all the way up Autumn Mountain, basically all of Gotham's mobsters were awake, and the second half of the night's main activity was calling each other to curse.

That group of mobsters who blocked Bruce driving a truck toward Falcone Manor back then weren't entirely doing it for official business; there was some personal grudge mixed in. They didn't think Bruce was going to ram the truck into the Godfather to kill him, but that this kid had gotten arrogant enough to prepare a drift cornering in front of the Godfather to prove he was Gotham's number one driving god. If they didn't stop him, it would be like saying the Twelve Families had no one.

And there's no greater coincidence than this. The one in the car with him back then was precisely Jason and a bunch of kids from the Curly Tail Gang. And the Joker Jack who should have been his mortal enemy was precisely a truck driver.

In short, this Batmobile wasn't just Bruce's mount, but more like a thread of fate he wrote himself, also like salt and the salt cellar, only this time the hand holding the salt cellar was his own.

Soon these Bat-equipments couldn't hold their attention anymore, because the giant Ark Reactor right in the center wrote its extraordinariness in every single structure.

"I find it hard to imagine what kind of mood your universe's Batman had when he built this thing," Red Robin trailed off. "If I only look at this, I'd feel you've already reached a life-or-death crisis. Batman didn't even care about safety anymore, or rather, he wanted to take the enemy down with him, which is why he built such a big bomb."

To most people the Ark Reactor is just a big bomb, with no way to whitewash it. The one in Stark's chest, because it's smaller, doesn't look that impactful to laymen, and Stark likes to show off, made that thing look like armor decoration, its lethality not visible. Bruce didn't have so many quirks; he built a pure industrial monster. The first time Brainiac discovered this thing, he even wanted to surrender a cyber white flag.

"I still have a question." Red Hood held up a finger and said, "He built this thing, then put it under his teacher's house. May I ask what their relationship is?"

"That's a long story." Tim was about to chant, but Brainiac interrupted him, "The Ark Reactor can only use minimum output; too high and I haven't done adaptation."

"What the hell are you doing?" Harley shouted in dissatisfaction. "This isn't adapted, that isn't adapted, what happened to the promised unlimited abilities?!"

"I'm already the least ability-restricting game system in the entire multiverse; if you're not happy, don't play." Brainiac was just as hardline.

Unfortunately he was telling the truth. Whether it was Doctor Manhattan's Playground or the Dou Jie, there were indeed very few with this unrestricted ability playstyle in a realistic setting.

Most of Dou Jie's unrestricted-ability instances are fictional — the kind where I'm strong, but the world's power system is even stronger — actually there's no sense of immersion.

The mode Brainiac made, although the monsters aren't weak either, the whole mode unfolds in the Gotham they're most familiar with, giving a feeling of showing divine might in reality. And the monsters are strong enough not only to not weaken this satisfaction, but to add a refreshing sense of evenly matched strength. The no-civilians setting also lets them go all out.

Harley deflated. She said, "I'm spurring you on too. Forget those superpowers most people can't figure out being unusable, how can the Ark Reactor also be unusable?"

"This thing is a product of another universe." Brainiac explained very patiently. "There are some restrictions from other universe rules that you don't understand. Even if I figure out the principle it's not necessarily doable; problems could indeed arise."

"And I advise you to also use less stuff from another world, especially those very iconic things, like Captain America's shield, Iron Man's armor, mutant symbols and such."

"Then how come them using our stuff is no problem?" Nightwing asked.

"Have they lit the Bat-Signal?"

This one question stumped everyone. Why would the neighboring world with nothing to do light the Bat-Signal? This thing can't cross universes. Besides, if there's some supervillain or the like, calling Batman over is fine, a big airport battle also calls Batman? Might as well bring Robin along too, perfect — one head ref, two assistant refs, one fourth official, absolutely no missed calls on any bad deed.

"Alright alright." Tim waved his hand and said, "Still better than nothing. This thing's minimum output should be enough to power the production line. Do your missions have blueprint rewards?"

"I have a bullet machine tool here," Damian said. "But looking at the blueprint's form it doesn't look like it can produce bullets; not sure if it'll work."

"To avoid suspicion of 'incitement to murder' and 'illegal arms manufacturing and trafficking' charges, all production line appearances provided by the system have been magically modified, but functions are fine." Brainiac said, "Simply put, you can't learn to manufacture this kind of machine tool through observation and disassembly."

"Wow." Tim rubbed his hands and said, "That means there must be really explosive blueprints later; won't we really be able to hand-build a spaceship?"

Everyone got excited. This kind of restriction isn't aimed at small-fry like bullet machine tools; there must be production lines that can manufacture big guys later, which is why Brainiac would guard so strictly, to prevent them from learning it here and going home to build it themselves. Then the Robins return to the main universe and hand-build a Lei Ting mega-nuke, and the main-universe Batman would definitely give them a red card and eject them.