American comics: Starting in Arkham, a system-based Batman

Chapter 92 The Killer Crocodile's Fear, Secrets, and Confession

Chapter 92 The Killer Crocodile's Fear, Secrets, and Confession

There's not much to say about what happened next: screams, fighting, fists colliding and impacting each other violently, breaking ribs, snapping arms, and the head buzzing as if a hundred flies had entered.

The scene before my eyes kept changing, and through my blood-covered vision, I could see countless distorted faces and split tongues.

"Monster," "freak," "lizard boy," "reptilian psychopath" —

One after another, people who had previously reacted strangely to his appearance came to mind before Wellen. Humans were incredibly harsh towards those who were different, and children were even more blunt.

Mocking, grimaces, and stone-throwing—undisguised malice was poured upon him. Wellen wasn't the type to swallow his anger; this one-sided bullying often escalated into a fight.

Thanks to his good genes, he was taller and stronger than his peers from a young age, and even if four or five children swarmed him, they couldn't get the better of him.

He could beat them, but even if he did, it wouldn't matter.

The parents of those children would come knocking on his door, and his aunt, who had gained custody of him, would only verbally abuse and beat him.

Wellen thought he had long forgotten them; after all, it had been five or six years. He had escaped shortly after puberty, when he was strong enough to rebel against his aunt—a third of his life for a teenager.

But the past only haunted him like a nightmare. The faces of those people, their disdainful expressions, their disgusted gazes, took turns appearing, while his aunt's incessant insults and the chatter of others buzzed in his ears, disturbing his peace.

Those humiliations and embarrassments suddenly erupted that night, and a fury so intense that it could burn away all reason rose in Wellen Jones's mind.

He just wanted to destroy everything he could see.

In a sense, it was a good thing that he encountered Solomon Grundy. Although for Grundy, who simply roamed the sewers, it was an undeserved misfortune.

But if it weren't for the fight that held him back, Wellen would have continued his advance through the sewers, killing everyone who came his way.

The two fought for a long time. Logically speaking, Grandi was incredibly strong and immortal, while Wellen had not yet fully reverted to his ancestral form. He was no match for Grandi in terms of size and strength and should not have lasted long.

But Wellen, enraged by Fear II, completely disregarded his wounds. His sense of pain became dulled, and he was single-mindedly focused on killing Grandi in front of him, and killing the countless humiliating moments of the past.

Normally, victims who only eat a few candies wouldn't be affected as deeply as Wellen, but Wellen ate far too many. He felt one wasn't sweet enough, so he simply peeled off all the candies and threw them into his mouth. Dozens of candies brought dozens of times the toxins, even though the fear toxins in the candies were diluted, the quantitative change led to a qualitative change.

Ordinary pain could not awaken Wellen's senses until it accumulated to its peak, at which point his consciousness became somewhat clearer.

Grandi didn't actually intend to fight him; the other man was just mindless, but not insane.

Compared to Wellen, he actually seemed more normal.

Grandi will attack anything that comes his way, but only to drive it out of his sight; he won't relentlessly pursue it.

But Wellen, who was poisoned by the Fear Gas, was different; he genuinely chased after Grandi and relentlessly attacked him.

Grandi couldn't run away even if he wanted to. He wasn't much faster than Wellen, and he would often be caught up again after only a couple of steps when he turned his back to run away. They could only continue fighting each other.

He was only able to leave after Wellen had cleared his head a bit.

Seeing that there was no one around, Wellen's expression became dazed again; the pain was not enough to bring him back to his senses.

He still couldn't distinguish between reality and illusion, and just crawled out of the sewer based on his instinctive memory, heading towards the rented house.

He was momentarily stunned when he saw someone blocking his way.

The person wearing glasses showed a look of disgust.

"I knew it! How could a crocodile monster like you possibly have a kind heart?"

"The person who helped me wasn't you at all."

The glasses spun and twisted like a vortex, and countless noisy sounds seemed to come from all directions.

"How shameless! They dare to claim to have done something they didn't do."

"Get out of here right now! The Wayne Foundation won't tolerate scum like you!"

His head was buzzing, and Wellen's eyes reddened. "Shut up! Don't say another word!"

"If I were there, I would help you too!"

Claiming a favor without consent is like a landmine; he doesn't know when it will explode. Although it's not a large amount, he is sometimes afraid—afraid of the moment it explodes, afraid of the consequences.

Wei Lun didn't understand why Zheng En thought he had saved the other person, but that didn't stop him from taking advantage of the situation and agreeing to accept the job.

He wanted the job, but he didn't believe in free lunches and was afraid that a large corporation might want to use his body for something. So when Jung Eun gave his reason for wanting to repay a favor, he quickly agreed.

The Wayne Foundation's treatment was indeed very good, enough to allow him to stop being homeless and live a normal life.

Wellen didn't want to lose his job, but his previous misunderstanding had become a thorn in his side.

He wasn't sure if Jung Eun would expose his lie, or if he would be fired because of it.

The fear that had been triggered surfaced, and Wei Lun only wanted to tear Zheng En to pieces, so that he would never be able to speak again.

Seeing Wei Lun's state, Zheng En, who was being attacked, knew that Wei Lun was still trapped in the hallucination of fear of the poison gas and could not get out. He then pulled out a vacuum cleaner.

Once the vacuum cleaner was on, Wellen's eyes returned to normal, no longer as unfocused as before.

Before he could fully recover, Zheng En put away the vacuum cleaner again, so quickly it seemed like an illusion.

But Wellen's attack did not stop.

"Hey! Wake up!"

Zheng En didn't hold back and threw him heavily to the ground with an over-the-shoulder throw.

Rather than wasting time and effort trying to convince someone, he preferred a more direct and efficient approach.

So many people in the East District woke up in pain during fights; one more Wellen wouldn't make a difference, and one less Wellen wouldn't make a difference either.

"Are you awake now?"

Zheng En crouched down to look at him, holding up various numbers with her hands. "What's this?"

"One." Wellen was stunned, not yet realizing what had happened.

Jung Eun gestured to a new number. "And now?"

Wellen: "Five."

Only then did he truly come to his senses, realizing that Zheng En in front of him was not an illusion, nor did he intend to ask him to resign.

But he also remembered what he had just blurted out.

"If I were there, I would help you too!"

Wei Lun wasn't sure if Zheng En had gleaned anything from those words, so he could only pretend to be still in a daze and lie on his back on the ground.

It wasn't that he didn't want to get up, but he hadn't felt anything during the fight. Now that he'd come to his senses, the pain from the fight was sending signals from his body to his central nervous system, making it difficult for him to move.

Zheng En could also tell that he was seriously injured.

Although Wellen usually dresses very conservatively, even covering his face with a hood, after fighting Grandi all night, his clothes, elbows, and knees were severely abraded, the exposed parts were bloody and mangled, and the edges were vaguely visible as scales.

Noticing Zheng En's gaze, Wei Lun tilted his hand to the side, trying to make the wound and scales on his elbow face the ground.

"No, the dust will get into the wound."

Zheng En reached out and grabbed Wei Lun's forearm. Because of his movement, the damaged area shifted from the wound, revealing a larger area of ​​bluish-green scales.

Seeing this, Wellen's expression turned very unpleasant.

He subconsciously looked at Zheng En's expression, and seeing that the other party did not show any unusual expression, his expression improved a little.

"Don't you think that's strange?"

Wellen's long-standing experiences have made him very sensitive to other people's opinions. Most people's emotions are very obvious, whether it's surprise, disgust, or the joy of seeing something unusual and feeling that it's profitable.

He rarely saw such a calm reaction from Zheng En, as if the scales on his body were nothing special.

He didn't understand, so he investigated even more.

Wellen knew that the strangeness on his body could not be simply explained by the growth of scales. The flesh on his fingers was segmented, like the claws of an animal; his teeth were serrated, and when opened, dark gaps could be seen.

There are pointed bumps on the top of its head, and the scales on its neck and back extend forward;

He had observed his eyes in the mirror; the whites of his eyes were pale yellow, and his pupils stood upright like a gecko climbing a wall.

That's why his aunt always liked to call him the Lizard Boy.

But as he grew up, he realized he was more like a crocodile.

When crocodiles hunt, they only expose their eyes above the water, quietly observing their prey with their pale yellow vertical pupils. Wellen didn't realize that he was doing the same thing when he looked at Jung Eun. His eyes were mostly covered by the hood, so he observed the other person through the gaps.

But Jung Eun noticed it.

He realized this answer might be important to Wellen: "It's alright, it's just a skin condition, as long as it doesn't affect your health."

"You think this is a skin condition?"

Wellen chuckled and pulled off the hood he had been wearing all night, which had stubbornly survived the fighting, only to be worn through and stained with blood.

This was the first time Wei Lun had lifted his hood in front of Zheng En. Previously, Zheng En could only see the part of his nose and mouth covered in shadow, and he had never seen the upper half of his face, even when Wei Lun was lying on the ground.

His hood was pulled up completely, revealing his pale yellow eyes and raised eyebrows. Only a few sparse hairs grew on his eyebrows, and his head, which should have been covered with hair, was covered with protruding scales.

He grinned, revealing sharp teeth. "Do you think this is a skin condition?"

Damn it, why isn't reality like Garagemu? Where are the correct dialogue options?!

Zheng En screamed inwardly, but on the surface she remained calm and composed, "Then it isn't. I'm not a doctor, how would I know so much?"

"Hahaha, yeah, you're not a doctor, how would you know so much?"

Wellen laughed again, this time much more heartily. This was the first time he had exposed his abnormality and was being treated like a normal person.

Perhaps it was because too much had happened tonight, or perhaps it was because this conversation had given him confidence, but Wellen himself detonated the landmine.

"I wasn't the one who helped you that day."

Saying those words was much easier than Wellen had imagined. With a good start, the rest of the conversation flowed much more smoothly. "Sorry, I just don't believe such a good job would come to me on its own."

Jung Eun remained calm. "I know."

When Wellen hesitated and stammered that day, he knew he had guessed wrong; someone else had helped him.

He soon found the person who truly helped him: one of the teenagers in line for welfare, a young Black man whose size was similar to Wellen's.

The previous deductions were all correct, but the scales found on the ground were purely coincidental. They might have been left behind by Wellen during a fight, or they might have fallen off naturally as he passed by.

But that doesn't matter.

Zheng En simply wanted to give Wei Lun, and other teenagers in similar situations, a chance.

Wellen breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good." He didn't care how Zheng En knew. He just felt the stone that had been pressing on his chest fall to the ground and shatter into pieces.

He tried to get up, but couldn't stand up for a moment; the slightest movement made him wince in pain.

Jung Eun extended her hand to him, "How did you get yourself into such a mess?"

"Don't even mention it, I spent the whole night fighting a zombie in the sewers."

Wei Lun grabbed Zheng En's hand for leverage and stood up. As soon as he stood still, he couldn't help but gasp. He lifted his shirt and saw that his waist and stomach were covered with marks from heavy punches, the whole area was bruised and purple.

"Gotham has zombies? Are you sure you're not hallucinating?" Zheng En asked knowingly, trying to get information out of him.

"What kind of illusion could have beaten me up like this?" Wellen cursed as he walked forward. "Besides, this godforsaken place like Gotham already has a crocodile-man like me, so what's one more zombie?"

"When you start cursing, you don't even spare yourself."

[Mission: Crocodile Tears]

Status: Completed

You've never seen a crocodile cry, but scientifically speaking, crocodiles can cry.

Emotional people might think he was mourning for the food, while rational people might think that eating caused the air to stimulate the tear glands.

But in any case, the crocodile will cry.

Whether he was born without a mother or abandoned by his father, no matter how unacceptable he was to the world or how others viewed him with strange eyes, Wellen Jones still had normal values ​​and mindset in a universal sense.

He wasn't seeking chaos or power; everything he did was for survival. Scavenging corpses in the sewers, taking on murder missions on the dark web, working as a temporary deliveryman for the Foundation—it made no difference to him.

Wellen Jones wants to integrate into society and, if possible, live a normal life.

[Task Reward: Settled]

[US$20,000, 20 simulation points, and the physique of a killer crocodile]

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