Chapter 113: The Chase

Years ago...

A crack appeared in the darkness, and a beam of light sliced through the silent abyss like a blade.

Then, with a heavy thud, a massive stone slab was pulled away from the outside, and light poured onto the dusty stone steps. Beams of light cut through the darkness, revealing a group of people in full armor and gas masks as they stepped into the space, their flashlights crisscrossing the sealed chamber.

The team quickly began testing the darkness. They confirmed there were no deadly hallucinogenic gases, that the structure—dark for who knows how many centuries—was stable enough not to collapse under their weight, and more.

After checking for all possible dangers, one of the team leaders pressed his headset and said, "This is Lengji. The floor is clear, no problems. Send the archaeologists down."

Everyone there was a senior investigator, a special agent from a certain department. They were the vanguard team, the ones who paved the way. The archaeologists didn't need to take unnecessary risks.

The agents set up a sonar device, specially designed for exploring ancient ruins. This small, unassuming box could turn even the most complicated maze into a fully mapped-out area, exposing traps invisible to the naked eye.

As the device powered up, a soft hum filled the space. The sound waves flowed through every corner of the ruins, like an invisible tide.

It was like entering a cheat code to reveal the entire map in a game. The endless darkness retreated before the might of modern technology, and the hidden palace, long concealed, was now laid bare.

When the huge space, drawn in abstract lines and shapes, appeared on the screen, many couldn't help but gasp.

The sonar revealed something none of them had ever seen before. Even the veterans in the group, who had seen it all, were awestruck by what lay before them.

"It's... massive," someone murmured.

"And complex," another added. "We've never seen anything like this before—no, we've never even heard of anything like this. It doesn't match any architectural style from any era we know."

"Yeah," someone nearby added. "It doesn't even look like a person wrote this."

"That's because it wasn't," Leng Ji replied.

Leng Ji wasn't just the leader of the operation; he was a legend in the department and the team's guiding force.

"Captain?" an agent asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

But Leng Ji didn't respond. Everyone noticed that he had quietly moved outside the entrance. He'd taken off the backpack he was carrying and tossed it among the group.

People began to realize something was off.

"Captain? What are you doing?"

Then they saw Leng Ji pull a small device from his jacket—a metallic black gadget with a red button on it, like a detonator.

With countless shocked and puzzled eyes on him, he pressed the button.

Boom!

The cave erupted into a sea of flames.

…

Years later.

Boom!

The explosion shattered the quiet night. The shock wave blew out the glass windows of the Sloan Science and Technology Building, and flames quickly spread. Half of the floor was engulfed in fire. From the street below, you could see the massive fireball shooting up hundreds of feet into the air.

On the top floor of a building across the street, someone stood at the edge, watching the explosion through binoculars.

He stared intently for a while, waiting until almost the entire floor was on fire, with flaming debris falling toward the street. Then he casually took out his phone and made a call.

"Yeah, I saw the whole thing," he said. "Nobody made it out. Batman is finished."

After a few more words, he put away the binoculars, hung up the phone, and turned around, satisfied.

...only to be shocked to see Batman standing in the shadows behind him.

Batman had silently waited, even listening patiently to the man's phone call.

"Shit!"

The man's face turned white. He cursed and quickly drew his gun, but a dart thrown from the darkness knocked it out of his hand.

Panicked, the man threw a punch, hard and fast. Even though it was full of flaws to Batman's trained eye, it was still strong and quick.

The man was infected.

Batman dodged a punch and quickly stepped aside, causing the attacker to miss again.

The man, trying to make a flashy move, let out a strange noise as he spun around, but instead, he crashed into Batman's outstretched boot and tripped, landing flat on his face in an awkward heap.

Just as the man tried to get up, Batman tossed a string of multi-ball animal traps that wrapped around him tightly. He squirmed on the ground like a fish out of water, but no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't break free.

Meanwhile, in a nearby alley, a white car suddenly roared to life, screeched around a corner, and sped onto the main road, accelerating as fast as possible away from Sloan Technology.

Two men sat inside the car. The driver, one hand on the wheel, pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

"We're busted," he said urgently. "Batman somehow spotted the Observer. The observer is done. We're getting out of here."

As he spoke, he noticed that people on both sides of the street were staring wide-eyed at something behind them, pointing in shock. His partner in the passenger seat leaned halfway out of the window, staring in disbelief. "What the hell is that!?"

The driver couldn't help but glance back. What he saw left him frozen in shock, his mouth hanging open just like everyone else.

He saw something—or someone—wearing a red and blue suit, swinging between buildings on what looked like webs. Moving at an impossible speed, the figure was closing in on their car.

The figure swung high into the air, then dived down, picking up even more speed as it chased after them, defying all logic.

Both men in the car were completely stunned.

It wasn't until they nearly crashed into a truck that the driver snapped back to reality, forcing himself to focus on the road.

"Why are you just sitting there? Shoot him down!"

The shout jolted his partner out of his daze. The man quickly grabbed a gun, squinted, and tried to aim at the blur swinging through the air.

But hitting a target moving that fast, with all that fancy flipping and swinging? It was more about luck than skill. At that point, praying might be more effective.

But luck wasn't on their side today. When your target is Spider-Man, chances are slim. Unless Spider-Man's Spidey sense was on the fritz, there was no way he'd get hit by a random bullet.

The man in the passenger seat started firing wildly into the air, and the driver realized he was still on the phone, the person on the other end frantically asking what was happening.

"What's going on!? I have no idea!" The driver yelled over the gunfire. "We're being chased by some circus freak—like Tarzan on steroids!

He's swinging faster than we're driving!

What? Of course, I'm not dreaming."