Super Detective in the Fictional World

2205 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 46

Luke spread his hands. “Since a collective is mindless, why let other people lead them to deal with us?”

Victor was lost for words. A moment later, he asked, “How do I do that?”

His mind raced, but he couldn’t immediately come up with a plan.

Luke chuckled. “It’s very simple. You have to be the most outspoken and influential one, or at least, one of them.”

Victor’s face twitched. Wouldn’t that be cursing himself?

Luke ignored his hesitation. “Also, you can keep it up until a more obvious ‘wave’ rises up…”

Victor couldn’t help but add, “And fire back?”

Luke chuckled. “No, go a little more crazy.”

Victor: “What?”

Luke said, “Use a clearer, simpler, and more provocative slogan; the collective will subconsciously follow it. At that time, whatever slightly more outrageous standpoint you take, those people will follow.”

Of course, Victor got this – in theory. He had never tried it in practice.

Victor: …You’re asking me to lead these people into a trap!

It was a very simple idea. Even though many people were aware of it, it was always effective.

The main point was that a person had to be capable enough to obtain the ‘right to speak’ in a group.

This wasn’t hard for Victor, who could stay tuned in to the Internet countless times more than Gold Nugget.

He didn’t question the ethics of this behavior. He wasn’t as tolerant as Superman, who wouldn’t curse back.

He just considered the possibility of implementing this strategy. “What about the people? At a certain point in time, I’ll definitely have to appear in person, and this plan requires me to have multiple IDs.”

Luke said, “I’ll give you a list. These people are PR professionals who work for me. Use their identities. They’ll show up later.”

Victor was hugely relieved.

Getting things done online was just a matter of taking the time to do it.

He didn’t have the professional ability to interact with people in real life, and he was a bad actor.

Just like that, Luke and Victor worked together to perfect this ‘Project Shadow.’ Victor was the one who came up with the name – he said it was cooler.

Luke went along with it. In any case, any name he came up with wouldn’t be nice.

A week later, Master Wayne called them out of the lab.

Barry wasn’t at work for once. He followed Luke in his car to a desolate area on the outskirts of Gotham.

The car stopped in front of an abandoned manor. Barry got out with a few cupcakes in hand, and asked Luke, “Where are we?”

Luke pointed at Victor with a smile; the youngsters should get along more.

Victor was a super database and just needed to have a look in his head. “Decades ago, this place belonged to the Wayne family.”

Barry exclaimed, “Seriously? He threw away such a big house just like that?”

He was right.

Unlike the manor that Luke had bought, which was basically intact, this was a pile of ruins.

Everything was in shambles. There was no maintenance at all; it was even possible that people might have had a rummage around for junk to sell off.

Apart from trash or things that were hard to move, there was basically nothing inside. It was just an empty shelf, and perfect for a horror movie just as it was.

After a brief hesitation, Victor said in a low voice, “After Bruce’s parents were killed, this place was abandoned.”

Barry spat out a lot of cake icing. Then, he said awkwardly, “Fine, let’s not talk about that.”

Two cars arrived while they were talking and stopped behind Luke’s car.

Master Wayne got out of the Lamborghini. “You’re here? What are you talking about?”

Barry subconsciously replied, “Ah, nothing.”

There was suspicion in Master Wayne’s eyes, but he didn’t pursue the matter.

Barry was a good kid and didn’t have any bad intentions; he didn’t need to act as high and mighty as Luke.

Diana got out of her car as well. Everybody exchanged greetings before they followed Master Wayne into the manor.

After entering the main building and passing through a ‘living room’ that was more than ten meters long, Master Wayne pushed open two dusty doors.

A hall covered in dust and spiderwebs appeared in front of him.

However, the hall was ten meters high and 40 meters long. The white Roman pillars on both sides and the huge broken chandelier that had fallen at an angle was enough to give everyone an idea of how magnificent this place had once been.

Anticipation appeared on Master Wayne’s face as he gestured. “Put a round table and seven chairs here in the future…”

Diana interrupted him politely. “We can add more seats.”

Master Wayne turned around and looked at her and the others. He nodded. “Yes, there has to be more.”

The others more or less understood what they were saying.

They weren’t unfamiliar with the Knights of the Round Table.

Round tables meant equality.

Master Wayne was paranoid and wanted to control things, but he definitely wouldn’t act like everyone had to listen to him – at most, he would just carry out more of the plan behind the scenes.

Diana, on the other hand, made it clear that this wasn’t an insular circle, and that they had to recruit other like-minded superheroes.

Compared with the verbal agreement they had come to do during the incident with Steppenwolf, the round table and chairs here were an ‘official contract.’

This was also because nobody had chickened out during the battle with Steppenwolf, so everyone had acknowledged each other.

By doing this, Master Wayne was formalizing the Justice League.

Luke was in favor, and Diana had no objections. That was three votes from the oldies – Superman wouldn’t have any objections.

Among the newbies, Arthur wasn’t around, but Barry and Victor didn’t object.

That was basically unanimous approval.

For a moment, Master Wayne was full of ambition.

Having teammates was really different from fighting alone.

Although he would still be highly vigilant against them, that was his nature.

Compared with the people the CEO of Wayne Industries had interacted with, the people from the Justice League were trustworthy enough.

…

They didn’t tarry in this rundown manor for long. After taking a look at the future ‘conference hall’ for ten minutes, they retreated.

But before they left, Luke approached Diana with a smile. “What you’re wearing today is beautiful.”

Diana looked at her dark red dress and the plunging neckline with a smile. “Thank you.”

Luke asked, “So, will you do me the honor of having lunch with me?”

Diana’s eyes flickered. “You’re really good with your words.”

Luke said, “Bruce used them before. I learned from him.”

Walking not far away, Master Wayne suddenly felt his ears itch, as if a pesky mosquito was buzzing around him.