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Chapter 445: Blizzard Prelude (1)

Faint laughter was swallowed up by the blizzard and didn't carry too far in the howling cold wind, so Bruce didn't hear it.

At the moment, he was in another guest room at Manor, changing into his Batman suit. Earlier, when he went to the helicopter to get the engine, it wasn't solely to compete with Lex. In fact, it was because Selena could only carry some less heavy portable equipment, while the full set of Batman suits and gear were left on the helicopter. Bruce planned to bring them along when he went to get the engine.

Just like Lex, after the three of them split up, none of them followed their original plans. Clark went to the reception room to investigate a mysterious telephone call, while Lex and Bruce had their own additional plans.

Lex's primary goal was to deal with Lionel's corpse in the bathroom. He had no intention of finding the entrance himself; instead, he wanted to wait for Bruce and Clark to finish their tasks and then take advantage of their findings.

Bruce anticipated this and didn't intend to work for Lex. His plan was to return to the guest room, don his complete Batman gear, and find an entrance using his own methods.

Though using a door was a more civilized approach, Batman seldom used it. He preferred taking matters into his own hands rather than betting on who among the three of them would find the entrance first or whether they would share their findings with each other.

Since the entrance was underground, theoretically, creating a passage leading underground would serve as an entrance. Therefore, Batman's plan was to make a bomb and blast his way down.

There were no materials available at mayor Manor, but Bruce didn't retrieve the helicopter engine just to show off against Lex. He had intended to use the helicopter engine to create a bomb from the beginning.

Of course, the engine alone wasn't enough; he also needed to dismantle some other components from the helicopter. Fortunately, apart from him, no one else could access the rooftop of the nearby building, so those helicopters became his material warehouse.

Currently, he was assembling this slightly larger bomb in the guest room, working swiftly to finish it before the other two found the entrance and become the first to go underground.

After concentrating on his work for a while, Batman finally completed a somewhat rough-looking bomb. However, in reality, this device was quite powerful, much stronger than the micro-bombs he brought along, capable of blowing open the ground and creating a passage.

He carried the bomb to the balcony, lowered it using a rope, and then jumped down himself, bringing the bomb to the courtyard in the middle of the Manor.

He chose not to go indoors because he was concerned that the explosion might be too powerful, affecting the building's structure. If Manor collapsed, it would put the occupants at risk, which wasn't what Batman wanted.

After setting up the bomb, a short while later, a violent explosion resounded, shaking the entire Manor's ceiling, which dropped numerous dust and debris.

The targeted explosive bomb proved highly effective, and after the explosion, a visible entrance appeared in front of Batman. However, below was darkness, and the situation was unclear.

"Hiss," Batman threw an illuminating flare down, and after a brief burst of intense light, the interior scene was revealed. It appeared to be an abandoned cellar, leaving Batman frowning, unsure if he had found the right place.

He took out a detector from his utility belt and threw it down, observing the changing readings on the screen. After a while, Batman decided to jump down.

Upon descending, the place looked just like what he had seen from outside—an abandoned cellar of the Manor, filled with wooden racks and barrels, seemingly holding no secrets.

A door in the corner caught Batman's attention because he noticed a faint light behind it, unlike the kind of light an English Manor would use, such as oil lamps or candles. Instead, it seemed like the cold light emitted by modern lighting systems.

Approaching cautiously, he didn't rashly push the door but stood at a safe distance and threw a batarang at it.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" The sound rang out as Batman agilely rolled to the side, taking cover in the corner of the room, evading the barrage of the micro-machine gun on the ceiling.

Once the door opened, a corridor with a strong sense of science and technology lay before him, with a floor made of metal panels and illuminated strips on the walls and ceiling. Not far away, there were two automated micro-machine guns mounted on the ceiling.

The atmosphere here was entirely different from the ground-level Manor. Batman heightened his vigilance, carefully navigating past the dead angle of the machine gun and disabling both of them with batarangs after a few shots, sparking electrical malfunctions.

As he entered the corridor, he threw another illuminating flare towards the front and found what appeared to be a central hall. However, the lights there were not functioning, as if the lighting system had malfunctioned.

Walking along the corridor, he reached the central hall, which had three other corridors leading in different directions, apart from the one he came from. One of the corridors was lit, while the other three were pitch dark.

Batman didn't have a choice and went to the lit corridor first, but before that, he headed towards the closest dark corridor, throwing another illuminating flare. He discovered it was a dead end, with two rooms on either side of the wall.

Entering the first room, he found it to be a preparation room with spare items such as gloves, protective suits, masks, and respirators. Seeing these, Batman put on a gas mask because he knew there might be a biochemical laboratory ahead.

As expected, there was a radiation symbol on the door of the adjacent room. Currently, the corridor's light system was not working, indicating a power outage. That meant the door of this room might no longer have radiation protection and sealing capabilities.

Batman took out a reading device, but the displayed radiation levels showed no anomalies. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to break through the door and enter.

Even though the door might no longer be sealed, it still took some effort for Batman to open it. After successfully creating a hole in the door, he entered the room, which remained dark, with various experimental equipment scattered around...

There was no longer any source of radiation here, or rather, the source had been moved. Looking at the broken containers on the floor, Batman furrowed his brow deeply.

The whole laboratory appeared quite ordinary, and he didn't see any specimens or live animals used for experiments. However, he soon discovered some materials.

"Experiment Log 1, Subject 3221 showed no apparent abnormalities today, normal reactions in diet and activity. After discussion, increase radiation dosage..."

"Experiment Log 2, Subject 3221 exhibited slight dizziness and nausea today, reduced appetite, and stiffened limb reactions. Increase dosage for the second time..."

Batman flipped through them; it seemed to be a radiation experiment log, but the subjects and the source of radiation were not explicitly mentioned. He finished reading the previous parts and then came across the final entry.

"Experiment Log 35, today Subject 3221's cancer cells spread uncontrollably, diagnosed as incurable, no evident conscious activity, inability to eat, no limb responses..."

"Conclusion, Radiation Source 01 shows no beneficial mutation effects, all test subjects suffer from incurable cancer..."

After reading the summary, Batman set down the materials. He turned and left the corridor since he just learned from the records that there was a morgue in this underground base.

Despite having anticipated it, when he entered the morgue in the other corridor and saw the densely packed morgue drawers, Batman still felt a moment of suffocation.

From the wear on the drawer handles, one could tell that this place had been overcrowded, filled with people who had undergone these inhumane radiation experiments, possibly numbering in the hundreds or more.

With a sense of anger, Batman approached one of the corpses' drawers and as he opened it, a "bang" sound came. Instinctively, Batman rolled to the side, but nothing attacked him.

What popped out of the sliding drawer was a signboard covered in red paint, and it read, "Please go to the monitoring room at the end of Corridor 3. I have prepared a surprise for you."

Underneath the signboard was a very crude smiley face, and Batman knew without a doubt that it was left behind by the Joker.

Batman took a few deep breaths, but he didn't immediately follow the instructions. Instead, he explored the morgue, which was currently devoid of corpses.

Now, the only thing he knew for sure was that the mysterious radiation source could cause regular people to develop cancer. As for Lex's claims about Lionel discovering a radiation that could enhance physical abilities and intelligence, it seemed more like a deception.

After searching through the other corridors, most of the rooms were various functional laboratories, but the equipment inside was covered in dust, indicating it hadn't been used in a long time.

In the last laboratory, Batman found paper materials as clues. It was an incomplete document, but the information mentioned on it was crucial. They referred to the so-called Radiation Source 01 as an extraterrestrial mineral known as "kryptonite."

Certain scientists had discovered that this extraterrestrial mineral had unique radioactivity, so they wanted to study if it could cause mutations in regular people. However, after the first experiment failed, they didn't give up but instead conducted more experiments.

Batman didn't know where they got their confidence to believe that this radiation would have positive effects on humans. Perhaps, there was a lot more information behind this that he wasn't aware of.

After investigating all the rooms in this corridor, he proceeded methodically to the next one without letting Joker's clue disturb his pace.

At the end of another dark corridor, there was a door with an extravagant design, seemingly leading to a vast space, but there were no keyholes on it, and the micro-bombs had no effect on it.

After trying for a while, Batman realized that he couldn't open this door with his current equipment. So, he turned to the illuminated corridor instead.

Arriving at the end of the corridor, Batman was faced with three walls of surveillance screens, with the light focusing on a chair in the center of the room.

Just as Batman entered the room, the chair slowly turned around, but there was no one on it.

On the chair were three round bat dolls and a pile of bat-shaped lollipops.

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