American comics: You're asked to fish, but you catch a Superman template?

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For no apparent reason, the flames reignited. She pulled out a crossbow bolt, aimed it at the hole Xu Fu had shot in her head, and said gruffly, "This is none of your business."

Why be angry with him? After thinking about it, Helena realized that she really had no reason to be angry with him; it would only make her angrier, wouldn't it?

“You can’t go on like this, Huntress,” Xu Fu accepted the advice. “I can see you’re already overwhelmed. Even if you feel I can’t help you, at least talk to me. Sometimes it’s a good thing to talk to someone…”

Helena lowered her hand, turned around, and looked at him with a cold gaze.

"You're such a kind person, but have you ever considered that all of this might be your fault?"

Xu Fu was stunned, completely baffled: "What? What did I do?"

“You…you’ve done too much,” Helena seemed unable to control herself. This was unprecedented for her; she felt her brain overheat, and long-suppressed emotions surged forth like a flood finally finding a breach. She blurted out, “Why are you always everywhere? Why do you always interfere in everything I do? Why do you have to follow me around asking so many questions? Isn’t there anyone on this planet you care about? Why do you have to…” She paused instinctively, her gaze unconsciously fixed on the distance, her voice trailing off: “…Why are you so good to me?”

Xu Fu froze on the spot, his mind momentarily confused, like a computer running too many processes at the same time. The overloaded tasks made it unable to handle them, causing a momentary malfunction.

What does this mean? What does she mean?

A seemingly obvious explanation suddenly flashed into Xu Fu's mind, but this explanation left him completely baffled, because 080 was simply too absurd.

He asked instinctively and cautiously, "You mean someone like you...?"

The question struck him as utterly absurd. Would Helena Wayne, the Huntress, like him? No, better put, would she like anyone? This was an April Fool's joke, wasn't it?

He waited for Helena to forcefully refute this absurd idea, or simply give him a laughable glare to remind him how unrealistic his fantasy was, but she didn't. Helena tilted her head, obscuring her face. She raised her hands, launched the grappling hook into the air, and flew rapidly towards the ground. Before flying away, she uttered only one last sentence: "Leave me alone."

Xu Fu looked away from her and stood quietly for a while, unable to process what she had just said.

During the time Xu Fu had known Helena Wayne, he always felt that she was like an incomprehensible book, utterly unfathomable. She was calm, wise, and possessed first-rate action and insight. Perhaps it was this maturity that made Xu Fu overlook one thing: even though she was so outstanding, she was still a girl in her twenties. She had joys and sorrows, worries and love just like ordinary people.

What should we do now?

Chapter 1796 Opera

As it turned out, Penguin wasn't lying this time; he truly knew nothing about this mysterious man's visit to Gotham City. This person was like a ghost, silently slipping into the city without a trace. Even Penguin, who was in charge of all crime affairs in Gotham City, had no information about him in his intelligence network.

For the next two days, Xu Fu didn't return to Helena's side, perhaps pondering how to deal with her after their last conversation. Helena wasn't quite sure either. She tried various methods, but still understood nothing. This mysterious opponent seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, her origins, identity, and motives all unknown. Helena almost gave up; she felt she had the upper hand, and even before the actual confrontation, she was already a step behind her opponent in every aspect.

It wasn't until the third day that things took a new turn.

"A message from Dad?" Helena received a text message from Alfred while sitting on a dripping gutter in Gotham City. The message jolted her awake after two days of trying to understand what had happened. "What did he say?"

"To be precise, he didn't say anything, he just extracted an audio clip from his image link, but it's... never mind, I'll send it to you, you can listen to it yourself."

After Alfred finished speaking in the Batcave, an audio message came through the device on Helena's wrist. Helena's fingers flew across the floating screen, pressed the play button, and simultaneously activated the audio controls.

The audio system's output was directly connected to the headphones, and a hissing sound entered her ears. It was static, like the sound of huge waves, continuous, loud, and sharp, with sound waves on the screen fluctuating wildly.

The audio wasn't long, ending in about a minute. Helena listened, then frowned. "Is this all Dad sent?"

“Alfred said, “It is almost certain that this is the channel His Majesty usually uses when he patrols at night.”

Helena thought for a moment. If it really was sent by her father, it couldn't be meaningless; perhaps he was imprisoned and unlikely to get out, and this was the only way he could send her an important message. In that case...

She quickly performed a spectral analysis on the sound, and a few minutes later, unsurprisingly, she discovered another frequency hidden behind the piercing noise. She reduced the noise, amplified the sound, and the true information hidden within the sound surfaced.

"Knock knock..." Knock knock...

It sounded like knuckles striking a hard object, barely noticeable in background noise, but after special processing, it could be discerned with difficulty. Helena listened intently, memorized the rhythm, and quickly analyzed the clues within it.

Without a doubt, this was Morse code. Helena struggled to discern the rhythm and frequency of the taps while simultaneously writing letters on the screen, which quickly formed meaningful words—more precisely, time and place.

6:00 PM, Gotham Opera House.

Helena thought for a moment, then asked, "What about that painting? What's it about?"

"A sketch portrait has also been sent to your device."

A new message popped up on the screen. Helena zoomed in on the image to the center of the screen, and sure enough, it was a sketch of a middle-aged man with a thick beard and a sunken nose. The style was rough and simple, but extremely concise, containing all the most recognizable facial features.

"Who is that?" Helena asked.

“I don’t know, the facial recognition system in the bat cave didn’t find a match,” Alfred said.

But if it really was from her father, it must be very important. Helena pressed the save button and then connected with the entire alliance's emergency contacts.

She decided to proceed with caution. If the person Batman had instructed her to find was indeed the mastermind behind this series of events, then even if she found him, she might not be able to deal with him alone, and she needed to proceed as cautiously as possible.

"Everyone, please react immediately upon hearing this message," she said through the communicator. "I have leads on this intruder."

Night falls at the Gotham Opera House.

Golden lights illuminated the massive building, making the opera house a magnificent sight under the night sky, like a giant gradually awakening. Colorful luxury cars came and went, and men and women in masquerade costumes stepped off carriages, their watches and diamond rings sparkling, as they passed through the gates in an orderly fashion.

Tonight at 6 PM, the opera house will host a top-level concert, featuring performances by world-renowned conductors. The opera house has been advertising this event for a month, and many celebrities from Gotham and surrounding cities have already come to attend.

The rotunda was filled with nobles, and the round crystal chandeliers shone with dazzling gold. The conductor had not yet taken the stage; the orchestra was repeating a short overture, building anticipation for the main melody that was about to begin.

The people sitting in this room were unaware that several young heroes from the new Justice League were also seated at the very front of the room.

Xu Fu, dressed in his rarely worn suit, sat down in the lobby near the emergency exit and looked around. He seldom attended such events, preferring to observe these aristocratic occasions from a high vantage point. Moreover, to be honest, he didn't consider himself a person of refined taste, nor was he particularly interested in music.

“No target found.” His gaze swept across the hall through the crowd like the most perfect scanner. In a very short time, he compared every face his eyes captured with the drawings Helena had provided and stored in the supercomputer, and then eliminated them one by one.

“I don’t have any here either,” Kara said. Unlike Xu Fu, she was sitting in the VIP room on the fourth floor, where the view was best, allowing her to effortlessly scan almost everyone with her superhuman vision. There was no doubt that Helena Wayne had provided the VIP tickets.

Xu Fu tilted his head back; thanks to his excellent eyesight, he could clearly see Kara in the fourth-floor cubicle from this vantage point. Today, she was wearing a dark blue dress, the graceful curves of her calves faintly visible through the hem, and three-inch crystal high heels. Her earphones were hidden beneath her blonde hair, the black wires clinging tightly to her fair neck.

Carla noticed him looking at her, and she smiled and waved at him: "See? I told you this outfit suits you perfectly, isn't it beautiful?"

She felt very proud of herself because it was she who picked the suit off the hanger, handed it to Xu Fu, and then pushed it into the fitting room.

"Thank you," Xu Fu smiled slightly, "You are very beautiful too."

"Ahem," Mike coughed, as he and Wally guarded the other two emergency exits. "Remember the consequences, Supermen, this is an open passage. Your whispered sweet nothings in my ear have reduced my fighting ability by three or four times!"

“Focus on the work at hand,” Helena’s voice came through, unusually not disagreeing with Mike. She was the only one in the room in her uniform, and as she spoke, she crouched on a counter in the shadows of the ceiling, like a bat clinging to a stalactite, silently observing everything in the room. Her goggles were also rapidly scanning every face in her field of vision, synchronizing with the Batcave’s database, which was currently empty.

Recalling his last conversation with Helena two days prior, Xu Fu felt somewhat embarrassed. They hadn't spoken since, and Xu Fu had tried more than once to muster the courage to break the awkward silence, but he didn't know where to begin.

Even today, he finds it hard to believe that Helena Wayne would like him. It sounds too...unreal.

"Are you sure this person is really here?" Kara asked skeptically. "I don't mean to be arrogant, but if such a person really existed, Xu Fu and I would have discovered him long ago."

Xu Fu didn't answer, but he agreed with Kara in his heart. He was certain that he had scanned every face in the entire building with his super vision, even the guards and cleaners in the distance, but none of them matched the sketch he had drawn on the spot.

“You said this painting was sent by Batman,” Wally pondered as he guarded the exit, “then… perhaps he meant something else?”

Helena didn't answer, but remained silent for a long time before saying, "Keep searching."

The bright golden light of the crystal chandelier gradually dimmed, and soon the entire hall was shrouded in darkness. The overture faded away, becoming completely inaudible. A spotlight shone down from the stage, casting a small, round spot of light on the conductor as he walked onto the stage. The guests responded with enthusiastic applause, the conductor waved, and the spotlight followed him to the center of the orchestra.

The conductor raises his baton, and the orchestra rises. The lights come on, the baton spins and dances, and a magnificent movement unfolds: countless notes burst forth from the saxophones, shimmering in the rotunda like a rushing river.

Wally West leaned against the railing in the aisle, unconsciously listening to the magnificent music. Perhaps he was so engrossed that he didn't notice he was blocking the way of a VIP who had unintentionally arrived late.

“Ah…oh, I’m sorry.” Wally stepped aside. He unconsciously met the eyes of the newcomer and found them to be very beautiful eyes, flashing with an unfathomable sharp light. The gaze seemed to possess an indescribable penetrating power. In that instant, Wally couldn’t help but fall into deep thought, instinctively feeling that lightning and fire were peering into his soul.

In that fleeting moment of distraction, he felt a piercing pain and couldn't help but groan weakly. He felt as if something had pierced his thigh, followed by a cold, stinging sensation that coursed through every neuron in his body. Without realizing it, superspeed had kicked in. Wally's eyes widened in confusion, his body swayed, and in an instant, he became a blurry shadow. He crashed to the ground, feeling like a supercar with malfunctioning brakes and gears, rolling around on the highway, unable to stop.

Chapter 1797 Firefight

"Flash, come back! Get out of here!"

Helena screamed, but there was no response from the canal for a long time, and Wally did not respond either.

"I saw him." Xu Fu frowned as he looked toward the exit guarded by Wally. He saw Wally lying on his back, his body trembling like a blurry tree stump, and his face was no longer recognizable.

The mastermind behind it all pushed open the emergency exit door without hesitation, giving Xu Fu a weak smile before stepping out, as if this were his plan. He was a middle-aged man with black hair and black eyes, dressed in an elegant suit, his demeanor calm and composed, as if everything was proceeding according to his script.

Xu Fu watched him from afar in the crowd for a while, and those seemingly ordinary eyes left the deepest impression on him. Clearly, Xu Fu possessed keen insight, but he instinctively felt that the insight of others' eyes far surpassed that of his own, as if only in the instant of staring into his eyes would everything be fully exposed, even the deepest secrets of one's heart be laid bare.

This caused him to lose focus for a moment, and in that instant, the other person closed the door and disappeared behind the emergency exit.

"It's that guy!" Xu Fu suddenly stood up from his seat and walked briskly across the aisle crowded with guests. The music had reached its climax, its grand sound eclipsing everything else, the echoes reverberating outside the golden crystal chandeliers of the hall. The guests who squeezed past him expressed their displeasure at his rudeness, many falling into a slight silence.

“I saw it too,” Kara stood up and left stall number 080. “Give me twenty seconds, I’ll go change my clothes and then come back.”

“Don’t go in alone,” Helena said, climbing up the scaffolding frame. The music in the hall grew louder, drowning out the clatter of her thick boots on the metal frame. “That guy has data on all our abilities; he might be ready. Keep an eye on him, but take it slow, wait until everyone is in position…”

“I chased him to the stairwell, I can catch him!” Mike said, his eyes fixed on the exit the whole time. Unlike Xu Fu and Kara, who were surrounded by a dense crowd, the exit Mike was guarding wasn’t far from Wally’s, and the passage leading to it was clear. He rushed toward the exit where the man was hiding, squeezed through the door, and chased after him. Almost the instant he left the hall, he activated his green light ring and donned his shimmering emerald uniform.

“Wait for the green light, don’t make any sudden moves!” Helena ran across the unlit stage lights, her figure lurking in the shadows, and leaped onto the second-floor stands. Of course, when she yelled angrily, she didn’t expect Mike to actually listen to her. If the guy did listen to her occasionally instead of rushing forward in a frenzy, she might doubt his sincerity.

Xu Fu retreated into the corridor and strode towards the first-floor restroom. Just as he was about to take off his suit and put on his bathrobe, he froze at the corner. Looking back, he saw a sign that read "Restroom." The entire corridor leading to the first-floor restroom entrance was cordoned off with yellow warning tape, and a small sign next to it read: "Do not use during maintenance."

Xu Fu remembered that he had entered this bathroom before, but was this sign here back then?

An ominous premonition crept into his mind and was confirmed almost instantly.

As the music reached another climax, a deafening roar erupted in the room, accompanied by sweltering heat and blazing flames. The bomb, planted in the bathroom pipes, unleashed its terrifying power. Blinding flames engulfed the smooth, mirror-like corridor, and the yellow bunker at the end of the corridor was consumed by the flames. A small sign that read "Out of Service" was blown off by the heat wave and, when it landed, was half-burnt and barely recognizable.

The beautiful music was interrupted, followed by panicked screams from guests and the piercing sound of fire alarms. Thanks to the warning tape and building markings, no one was injured in the explosion, but the building's fire protection system had been deliberately sabotaged. The alarms blared, but the automatic sprinkler system remained unresponsive; not a drop of water fell down the corridors.

The flames grew increasingly rampant. Like demons freed from their shackles, they surged through the ruined corridors and into the hall. Guests screamed, the concert was violently interrupted, and chaos reigned in the hall.

Xu Fu had to immediately take off his outer clothing and combat uniform. He put on his goggles and said through his earpiece, "You guys go after him, I'll put out the fire."

“Don’t be nervous, just focus on being a firefighter,” Mike said confidently as he descended the stairs, his green trail swirling on the escalator. “After you finish putting out the fire, this guy’s going to get his balls kicked in the head!”

However, the instant he rushed down the corridor, the heat emanating from the green light enveloping him silently activated a small, high-tech trap set on the stairs. A hidden bomb attached to the side of the stairs exploded, unleashing a burst of astonishing blue plasma energy that abruptly tossed Mike sideways, sending him crashing through the handrail and tumbling down the steps.

A black figure suddenly appeared, instantly donning a suit that wrapped him from head to toe in a streamlined garment. Mike was thrown off balance by the cold wind, but thanks to the protection of the Green Lantern force field, he wasn't seriously injured. Instead, he quickly jumped up and carefully examined the black-clad figure standing before him.

Mike stared at him for a few seconds, then grinned. "Ha, I finally got you. What can you do now?"