048. The Spider-Man Enhancement Plan

Su Ye's guess was correct—beneath this castle, there truly was a cavern teeming with bats, vast in size and clearly bearing the marks of human excavation rather than being wholly natural.

In the movies, the bat cave was built by Bruce Wayne's great-great-grandfather to aid in the rescue and transport of slaves. But in Su Ye’s version of the story, this cave had nothing whatsoever to do with that small slice of American history worth retelling—the Civil War.

“This was constructed after the master bought the estate and asked me to find people to build it,” said the butler, Alfred, standing calmly in the enormous underground chamber. “According to the master, it’s called ‘dig deep, store grain broadly, and delay proclaiming oneself king.’ Not only was this vast cavern dug out, but also a cold storage was built, filled with various industrial and household supplies. The idea was, should an apocalyptic crisis ever occur, this place could serve as a refuge.”

Listening to Alfred’s explanation, Su Ye couldn’t help but click his tongue. Old Su really took things seriously—coming all the way to America to dig a bunker, as if this were some blockbuster wasteland where a biohazard crisis breaks out every other day. And what did he mean by “delay proclaiming oneself king”? Was Old Su planning to carve out his own kingdom here? Such ambition!

“Of course, everything the master did was for you, young master. In his words, this place is too dangerous. He wouldn’t come here unless absolutely necessary. So, planning ahead and preparing for the worst for you is the only thing he could do.”

Well, hearing it put that way, Old Su seemed rather dependable after all.

“By the way, where’s the warehouse you mentioned? Let’s take a look.”

The warehouse lay deep within the cavern, its space about the size of a basketball court. Upon entering, Su Ye immediately saw a flashy sports car. It had six massive wheels—two in front and four at the back. Though called a sports car, it was obviously built solid, its armor as thick as an infantry fighting vehicle, and with the bulk of a small truck.

Wait a second—wasn’t this the Batmobile from the Dark Knight trilogy? Why was it here instead of gathering dust in Morgan Freeman’s warehouse?

“This belongs to Lucius Fox. He’s a brilliant scientist, but because his research conflicted with the Osborn Group’s interests, he was sidelined. The master secretly funded his projects and acquired all his research results.”

So, the name was kept intact—Lucius Fox. No attempts to disguise it. That felt like laying all the cards on the table.

Gazing around at the high-tech products and materials filling the warehouse, Su Ye could only think, “Damn!”—and then again, “Damn!” Old Su was truly impressive—or no, to be precise, the system was impressive. All Su Ye had done was activate a green card, and he’d gained not only a hundred billion dollars in assets, but also the complete Batman gear.

This green card was clearly worth more than Andy Bogard’s blue card. So, the card’s tier was only tied to the girlfriend’s abilities; it had nothing to do with the power and wealth one ultimately acquired?

If so, then drawing a white card girlfriend like reporter Lois Lane could mean gaining Superman’s powers. But, if he drew a high-level card and got Wonder Woman, the end result might just be gaining the unimpressive abilities of a pilot?

Faced with a choice between personal power and a powerful girlfriend, Su Ye would obviously prefer the former. Only when one is strong does strength truly belong to oneself; if he were too weak, living off a powerful partner was not the life Su Ye wanted.

So, should he go back and try his luck with white cards, see if he could get the reporter?

After some deliberation, Su Ye abandoned this tempting idea. Drawing too many white cards would just leave him with a slew of ordinary girlfriends—too many for him to handle, in every sense.

Better to focus on quality over quantity, drawing high-quality girlfriend cards, so that both his own abilities and those of his powerful partner would be strong. After all, male characters overshadowed by stronger female leads were still a rarity in comics and film… right?

This warehouse was a tremendous boon for Su Ye. With a bit of preparation, he could become a qualified Batman—indeed, with Spider-Man’s and the Bogard brothers’ abilities, he could be even more formidable than Batman himself.

Yet, what Su Ye valued most was not the equipment, but Lucius Fox. Here was a man whose technological prowess rivaled Tony Stark’s, the greatest technical support Batman ever had.

There’s an old saying in the underworld: you can fight Batman, but never schedule a duel with him. Because, if you give Batman time to prepare, he becomes unbeatable. Even Superman has been beaten so badly by him that his own father wouldn’t recognize him.

And the man who made Batman the king of preparation was Lucius Fox.

With Alfred’s introduction, Su Ye soon met Lucius Fox—a man with the air of a wise sage, trustworthy in appearance, though, admittedly, the actor who played him had faced accusations of harassment and even unsavory rumors involving a step-granddaughter… but that was the actor’s fault, nothing to do with Lucius Fox.

In person, Fox made a very good impression on Su Ye—reliable, trustworthy, just like Alfred. These two, strictly speaking, were system-generated assistants, so they could be trusted just like Terry Bogard and Joe Higashi.

“Mr. Su, hello.”

Upon meeting, Su Ye got straight to the point. “Dr. Fox, I need your help.”

He revealed the two web-shooters strapped to his wrists and shot out a couple of webs into the distance with a hiss.

Both Dr. Fox and Alfred the butler were instantly stunned.

“Are those… spider webs? Young master, you—you’re Spider-Man!”

Alfred’s typically unflappable gentlemanly face couldn’t help but show his astonishment.

Su Ye nodded. “Please keep this a secret, especially from Old Su. You’re my butler now.”

Alfred hesitated for a moment, then nodded. As Su Ye said, he was now Su Ye’s butler, and telling Old Su wouldn’t help much—the man was half a world away and could do little but worry.

Dr. Fox, however, was focused elsewhere. He looked at Su Ye’s web-shooters with admiration.

“Did you make these yourself? The material… is it bio-cable with high tensile strength, produced by the Osborn Group?”

Su Ye nodded. “Exactly right, doctor. I made these web-shooters myself, and the material is indeed the high-tensile bio-cable. However, at present, I’ve only developed two functions.”

He fired off a few more web pellets as demonstration.

“So, from your professional perspective, could you help me develop some new uses for the web-shooters?”