Although Darian kept teasing Thomas by bringing up Bruce, Thomas didn't get angry at all. Instead, he took the initiative to keep the conversation going so that Darian would be interested in continuing.
After all, this was his only channel to learn about Bruce.
Besides, a son being more capable than his father was something a dad should be proud of.
Thomas automatically filtered out Darian's exaggerated and biased smears, and could tell that the Bruce in another World was doing not too bad, which gave him some comfort in his heart.
Of course, it would be even better if Bruce hadn't become Batman.
As fellow Batmans, Thomas knew better than anyone that this title wasn't anything worth bragging about; instead, it was more like a curse, trapping them in the darkness for a lifetime of repeated struggle.
He would rather Bruce be a good-for-nothing prodigal son who drove sports cars and partied every day, squandering the family fortune left by him and Martha, preferably having many girlfriends to branch out and spread leaves for the Wayne family. Anyway, with the Wayne family's background, supporting even a football team would be more than enough.
"I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed."
Seeing through Thomas's thoughts, Darian said slowly, "As far as I know, Bruce doesn't even have a proper partner yet. Clearly, there is a pretty long-legged woman in the team, but he puts all his attention on that good buddy of his, Clark, and his butler Alfred is almost worried to Death."
Now Thomas was worried too.
Could the heritage of the Wayne family really be cut off in Bruce's generation?
"By the way, can you not casually read my thoughts?"
Thomas's expression stiffened slightly.
He felt as uncomfortable in front of Darian as if he were naked.
Darian maintained a straight face: "What are you talking about? How could I have the ability to read thoughts."
Thomas's mouth twitched. Who would believe such words?
Darian's expression was incomparably serious: "I believe it."
Thomas: "..."
Over the next few days, Darian basically stayed in the Batcave.
He didn't squeeze into the same area as Thomas; instead, he found a corner, took out a diamond pickaxe, and industriously chiseled out a new space nearby, converting it into his own exclusive Base, and named it the Spider Cave.
In his words, it was entirely reasonable for Spider-Man to live in a Spider Cave.
Although Thomas didn't know who Spider-Man was and couldn't be bothered to care, he clocked in on time every day, transformed into Batman to patrol Gotham, and told Darian to contact his butler if he needed anything.
Every Batman couldn't do without a Butler-man by his side.
However, the butler by Thomas's side wasn't Alfred, but rather an old acquaintance of Darian, the Penguin.
Although Thomas's technological level was far inferior to Bruce's, he knew how to utilize his own advantages much better than Bruce.
And what was Batman's greatest advantage?
That, of course, was the superpower of money that crushed everything else; there was no doubt about this.
Thomas deeply understood that relying on one person's ability to fight the evil of an entire city was far from enough.
Therefore, he chose to become the greatest evil of this city.
Thomas opened the Wayne Casino, operating all kinds of illegal businesses openly and secretly, rooting himself step by step into the Gotham underworld.
Relying on the massive financial resources of the Wayne family, Thomas's influence expanded rapidly, swallowing up large and small gangs in Gotham before long.
All gangs either surrendered to him or were directly purged by him.
Even the former underworld king of Gotham, the Penguin, ultimately obediently became his subordinate, respectfully calling him Godfather.
In this way, Thomas controlled the Gotham underworld, established his own criminal empire, and became Gotham's biggest crime boss.
In Gotham, any criminal activity had to receive his nod of approval, otherwise it would suffer a double blow from the Wayne family and Batman.
Under his iron-fist regulation, Gotham's crime rate instead plummeted straight down, much lower than the Gotham managed by Bruce.
Darian sighed endlessly at this: "This is the true way to use the superpower of money."
Darian hadn't been idle these past few days either.
He had Ultron connect to this World's global network. With Ultron's assistance, various encrypted materials were dug out, and it didn't take much time to strip away most of this World's secrets.
Darian could basically confirm that this was the Flashpoint World from the comics, no doubt about it.
Barry went back to the past, rewriting the reality of his mother's Death, messing the timeline into a complete mess, and making the fates of almost all superheroes take a turn.
The first to bear the brunt was Superman.
That spacecraft carrying him back then did not land at the Kent Farm, but instead made a huge detour halfway, plunging headfirst into downtown Metropolis, causing massive destruction and leading to tens of thousands of casualties and injuries.
Afterwards, the U.S. government picked up the spacecraft and locked infant Clark in a secret laboratory to conduct various human experiments, and to this day, he had never seen what the Sun looked like.
The traffic light combination of the Flash and Green Lantern had it even worse, directly becoming ordinary people.
One had never been struck by lightning, and the other had never picked up a Green Lantern Ring, with both of them following routine in their respective positions.
But the most absurd part had to be Wonder Woman and Aquaman.
In this timeline, these two actually fancied each other, rolled in the sheets, and even intended to have the Amazons and Atlantis intermarry and form an alliance.
However, on the wedding day of the two, the Amazon warrior Artemis was instigated by someone to disguise herself as Aquaman's successor Garth and assassinate Wonder Woman. At the critical moment, Wonder Woman's mother Hippolyta blocked the knife for her daughter and died on the spot.
Wonder Woman was both sorrowful and furious, killing Garth on the spot. The happy event directly turned into a funeral, and the wedding naturally fell through.
But this wasn't even the end.
Afterwards, Aquaman wanted to visit and explain things clearly, but it so happened that Paradise Island suffered an unknown attack with heavy casualties, and even Paradise Island was destroyed.
With the previous assassination preceding it, Wonder Woman concluded that Atlantis was behind the mischief, swearing to make them pay in blood, and even hating Aquaman, her ex-husband-to-be.
Later, Aquaman married Mera, and that good younger brother of his, Orm, meddled in between, tricking Mera into going to assassinate Wonder Woman, only to be counter-killed by Wonder Woman. From then on, he couldn't figure out what was going on, and his Death was miserably tragic.
Seeing his wife's headless corpse, Aquaman instantly ignited his fury and formally declared war on the Amazons.
Diana was already holding a bellyful of anger and immediately led her clansmen to meet the battle, determined to chop Aquaman, that scumbag, into sashimi.
Once this fight started, it could no longer be stopped.
Atlantis controlled the ocean, and the Amazons occupied the land. The two races treated the entire Earth as a grand battlefield, fighting until the sky and Earth darkened.
Losing her home, Wonder Woman led the Amazons in a blitzkrieg against Great Britain, treating it as the new Paradise Island; anyone who dared to obstruct them would suffer ruthless slaughter.
To expand their advantage, Atlantis directly channeled seawater to flood more than half of Europe, destroying city after city.
As the saying goes, when immortals fight, mortals suffer.
Facing two powerful races, humanity didn't even have the qualification to mediate, being caught in the middle and beaten by both sides, with countless dead and injured, and the World frantically probing toward the edge of collapse.
"Facts have proven that a World without Superman really won't do."
Darian leaned against the back of his chair and shook his head.
If Superman were here, he would definitely act as a peacemaker to persuade both sides to calm down a bit.
If neither side was willing to calm down, Superman's fists could also force them to calm down; how could it have turned into this state?
"Divine Lord, someone has trespassed into the Wayne Manor range."
Right at this moment, Ultron's voice suddenly rang out.
Now Ultron had completely taken over the security system of Wayne Manor, and any slight disturbance could not escape its surveillance.
Darian raised an eyebrow and reached out to click open the surveillance screen in front of him.
Inside the screen, an old sedan drove into the manor and stopped at the entrance of the main residence.
The car door pushed open, and a blonde man wearing a dark jacket stepped down. Looking at the open mansion door for a few seconds, he still lifted his foot and walked inside.
Ultron synchronously pulled up all the data of the other party.
Barry Allen, forensic scientist, employed at the Central City Police Department.
"Finally here."
Darian straightened his posture at once, instantly perking up.
This person was precisely the Flash of this World; to be precise, he was the Flash after modifying the timeline.
After successfully modifying the timeline, Barry lost the memory of modifying the timeline, and waking up from sleep, he found that the World had suddenly changed drastically.
The good news was that his mother won the respawn match.
The bad news was that his biological father was sacrificed to the heavens instead, and his wife Iris became someone else's wife, giving him the pleasure of acquiring the exact same colored hat as his good brother Hal.
Not only that, but his Speed Force had also inexplicably disappeared, and he had completely become an ordinary person.
Not to mention that the Justice League had directly vanished without a trace, and a crowd of superheroes including himself had disappeared, leaving only Batman still active in the public eye.
Due to memory loss, Barry couldn't figure out why the World had become like this. After inquiring everywhere with no results, in the end he could only hold onto a last shred of hope to come and look for his brain, Batman.
After all, Batman was the shared brain of the Justice League; this statement really had nothing wrong with it.
Barry was equally familiar with the layout of Wayne Manor, quickly finding the entrance to the Batcave, and walked down along the long staircase.
The light in the cave was dim and chilly, with not a single figure in sight.
"Is anyone here? Bruce, are you here?"
Barry tentatively shouted twice, his voice echoing back and forth in the spacious cavern.
"Who are you?"
Out of nowhere, a voice came from behind.
Listening to this phlegmy voice, Barry felt a surge of joy and immediately turned around.
"Thank goodness, good thing you're still here, Bru— wait, who are you?"
Looking at the strange Asian man standing before him, he was momentarily dumbfounded.
"My name is Darian."
Darian looked Barry up and down and said cheerfully, "If I guessed correctly, you should be Barry Allen, code-named Flash."
Barry's eyes widened instantly: "You actually know the Flash!?"
Ever since waking up, no one around him remembered what the Flash was, and he was almost starting to suspect that he had gone crazy.
Now, suddenly hearing someone call out this code name, he was both shocked and delighted, instantly having a feeling of having found his organization.
Wait!
Since this was the Batcave, and there was only Darian alone, could it be that the other party was the Batman of this World?
Barry's imagination ran wild instantly.
Anyway, the World was already in such a mess; Batman turning into an Asian wasn't anything strange.
Thinking of this, Barry said in an eager tone, "That's great, Darian, I need your help! I woke up today and the entire World is in chaos; everything is completely different from what I remember. Do you know what on Earth is going on?"
Everyone in the Justice League suffered from Batman dependency syndrome, and it was in the late stage; there was no saving them.
Mistakenly thinking Darian was Batman, Barry subconsciously treated the other party as a straw to clutch at for saving his life.
Darian nodded: "I know. This is all your doing."
"???"
The expression on Barry's face froze instantly: "Stop joking, how could this possibly be my doing."
Darian's words were no different from saying dinosaurs were exterminated by him; it was too absurd.
"Who's joking with you."
Darian spread his hands and said bluntly, "Not long ago, you went back to the past, disrupted the normal timeline, triggered the butterfly effect, and caused the entire World to undergo changes, which is why it became this ghost of a state."
"How could this be possible for me? I don't have this memory at all."
But before he could finish speaking, a sudden burst of intense pain struck his head.
Clutching his head, he squatted down, his face turning pale white, and a layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.
The next moment, countless shattered images rushed into his brain. Those memories erased by the timeline were returning bit by bit at this moment, including the modified memories of this World.
After a long while, the sharp pain slowly receded.
Barry slumped on the ground, his gaze staring straight ahead, muttering in his mouth: "It really was my doing. I modified the timeline and saved Mom..."
His face was filled with both bewilderment and guilt, the whole person looking like they had lost their soul.
He never expected that simply going back to the past to save his mother would trigger such a massive chain reaction, dragging the entire World to the brink of destruction.
As the conscience of the Justice League, upon learning that all of this was his own fault, Barry felt so guilty at this moment that he could barely breathe.
[Beginning official issuance of dungeon quest]
[Quest: Savior]
[Objective: Stop the war between Atlantis and the Amazons, save the Flashpoint World teetering on the verge of collapse]
[Reward: Will be determined based on the player's contribution level]
The system's prompt tone rang in his mind, with not a ripple in Darian's heart.
Sure enough, Barry was the key to triggering the dungeon quest.
Darian squatted down, reached out and patted Barry's shoulder, comforting him with little sincerity: "Stop hanging a long face. It's not too late to know you've messed up now; think about how to clean up your mess."
"I... can I still change all of this back?"
Barry raised his head, a trace of hope in his eyes.
"Theoretically, yes."
Darian stroked his chin: "Since you can modify it once, you can modify it a second time. As long as you reconnect to the Speed Force and run back to the past, just correct that past version of yourself who is preparing to correct the timeline."
Barry: "???"
How does this sound a bit like a Matryoshka doll.
Barry lowered his head: "But I don't have the Speed Force anymore; I am no different from an ordinary person."
Darian waved his hand calmly: "Not a big problem. How you acquired the Speed Force back then, we just need to re-enact the process all over again."
Barry was somewhat skeptical: "Will this work?"
"Trust me."
Darian revealed a convincing expression: "Because I'm… Spider-Man!"
Barry: "???"
*******************************
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