Volume 1: Welcoming Gotham Chapter 6 My Rebirth Is Not That Simple: The Quality of the Newcomers Is Really Poor
"Master, the positioning signal you left on Mason Cooper has disappeared."
Batman, who was beating up the black-clad killer, got the news from Alfu, but it did not affect his punching movements. The old butler said with a regretful tone:
"It is very likely that he has been captured by Lei Xiaogu's assassins, or even worse...Master Jason's tragedy is about to happen again. You may be right. These talented children really need to stay away from you to be safe."
"Won't!"
The master expressionlessly punched down a killer who was trying to sneak attack, and said in a deep voice:
"That's enough for Jason once! Keep tracking, Alfred.
When I first came into contact with Mason at the police station, I left not only a positioning signal on him, but also a special pheromone that could last for seven days.
Send out a swarm of drones to search for him throughout Gotham.
We must find him.”
“…”
The old butler Alfred was silent for a moment, then he said:
“Your behavior of leaving countermeasures when you first meet someone is really bad. Isn’t the incident with Lady Diana enough for you to learn a lesson?
That misunderstanding cost you at least $500 million."
"Just enough to replace the Batfighter with a completely new power system."
Batman looked in the direction where Mason last disappeared, then glanced at the burning wreckage of the fighter plane a few blocks away. He whispered:
"Afu, you really need to improve your driving skills. You made me lose a lot of money again tonight..."
"It's okay, Master. Wayne Industries' stock has been rising well recently. Special tracking drones have been released. Also, Master, the assassins have begun to retreat.
If you want to put trackers on them, please do it quickly."
When Mason woke up again, he found himself lying on an unfamiliar bed. When he opened his eyes, he saw an unfamiliar ceiling. Then a familiar translucent light curtain unfolded in front of him, showing his current state:
Name: Mason Cooper
Status: Injured (healing), Broken Leg (healing), Sedative Effect (17 minutes left)
Identity: Gotham High School dropout, Penguin betrayer
Skills: Shooting Lv1, Alchemy Lv0, Engineering Lv0, Forging Lv0, Tailoring Lv0
"Your physique is really poor. Apart from your talent for shooting, you are almost an ordinary person. I am beginning to regret bringing you back."
A voice sounded from the bedside, causing Mason to turn his head with difficulty. It was a middle-aged man wearing a strange windbreaker with an old-fashioned suit underneath.
His face was almost featureless, but the star map mask next to him allowed Mason to recognize his identity.
"Then maybe you should just leave me there."
Mason said in a weak hoarse voice:
"Before I passed out, I heard you say something like 'Glory' and 'The Star Society'. Who are you? Are you a member of some mysterious organization in Gotham City?
Like the Court of Owls?"
"Hmm, you also know about the Court of Owls? I guess I have to re-evaluate your knowledge."
The guy sat on a chair beside the bed, picked up a clipboard and wrote something on it in a serious manner, and said without raising his head, as if everything was under control:
"But my organization is much more powerful than the Court of Owls. The two are not on the same level at all. I will tell you the extra information after you complete the induction test. I can only tell you what you should know.
for example……"
The man tapped the clipboard in his hand, looked up at Mason, and said:
"I know you are confused about your current situation. You can think of this as a 'selection'.
The team I was in charge of suffered heavy losses in the last exploration mission, and had to recruit several new people to fill the gap. As you can see, I used my own way to heal you and brought you back to the world from the desperate situation of weakness and near death.
So, you owe me a favor.
That way, it won't be too much of a surprise for me to ask you to join my team. I've been watching you since the moment you rescued Catwoman."
At this point, the guy smiled as if he remembered something funny, and said:
"In fact, my team has already been fully staffed. There is no shortage of experts with various abilities in the city of Gotham. We originally planned to start the operation immediately.
But at this juncture, you have successfully caught my attention with a series of outstanding performances, so I decided to give you a chance. "
"Then I really want to thank you."
Mason replied expressionlessly.
He already felt that something was wrong .
Although the guy in front of me behaved politely, the unquestionable tone in his words made people feel uncomfortable.
It seemed that even pulling Mason into a dangerous-sounding exploration mission was a favor, and he was being condescending. From this point of view, this guy must be an arrogant and hypocritical person.
"Can I refuse this action?"
Mason asked directly:
"I am very grateful for saving me. Maybe I can repay you in other ways. Although I don't have much money now, I have a very rich friend."
The guy smiled but said nothing. He just looked at Mason with a sarcastic look, as if he was looking at someone talking nonsense. The young man curled his lips and asked again :
"What is the action? Where are we going to explore? How long will it take?"
"You'll know when the time comes."
The guy took the initiative to end the conversation, stood up, straightened his collar, and said to Mason with a hypocritical smile:
“There is still a day and a half before the operation begins. There are enough guns and accessories in the basement of this house. Try to be fully prepared. Your duties will be fire support and sniper.
You can call me Lao K, of course it's a pseudonym.
You can also try to escape, I will never stop you.
But the secret societies of your world are really cool, and I just got some really interesting stuff from a lady named Amanda Waller.”
He stretched out his finger, maliciously tapped the place where his neck and spine connected, then turned and left. Mason's face changed slightly, and he also endured the weakness and put his hand on the back of his neck.
There was a wound there that had just healed.
The moment his fingers touched, a line of prompts jumped into Mason's eyes:
"An engineering explosive has been detected, and analysis is in progress... This item is a 'suicide squad dedicated implantable micro-bomb', which has both active and passive triggering methods. Once detonated, it will form a lethal explosion in the spine.
The object is extremely delicate and any unnecessary handling will cause it to detonate instantly.
It is recommended to try to dismantle it when your Engineering skill reaches Lv2, your First Aid skill reaches Lv3, or you have fast healing drugs.
The drawings are being analyzed."
"Fuck!"
Mason clenched his fists, that bastard!
As expected, with so many lines, it’s obvious that he’s not a good person, right?
But the young man did not despair. He had no time to despair and he was not someone who would give in to reality. Otherwise, he would not have to take the risk to save Catwoman after his rebirth.
The character card has given the solution, so the next thing to do is very simple. Seize every opportunity to upgrade your engineering skills to Lv2 as soon as possible.
First Aid hadn't branched out yet, but Mason knew what to do.
He endured the numbness all over his body and tried to sit up, opened the bedside table and found a fruit knife and a home first aid kit.
After taking a few deep breaths, the young man grabbed the knife and cut his finger. The moment the blood flowed out, he picked up the alcohol cotton pad and gauze and began to clumsily stop the bleeding and bandage the wound.
A minute later, Mason finally saw the prompt that the first aid branch was opened.
But that indifferent Lv0 gave him a headache.
Damn Old K said that the exploration will start in a day and a half. It is possible to rush through engineering in a day and a half, but first aid... I can't keep stabbing myself and bandaging it like this.
Regardless of whether it's a life-threatening game or not, the efficiency is too low.
Thinking of this, Mason took off the bandage on his finger and tied it again. This time, with some experience, the effect was obviously better than last time.
"Successfully complete a standard quick bandage, and your first aid skills proficiency will be improved."
Mason looked at the prompt in front of him, he sighed again, unwrapped the bandage and started bandaging for the third time, but this time he saw the other things in the first aid kit, thought of the process of the field bandaging tutorial he had learned, and tried it once.
"Successfully completed an excellent craft, quick bandaging, and the proficiency of first aid skills increased by X5."
"Um?"
The young man's eyes lit up.
Does this thing require any skill to gain experience?
You can't just rely on the number of times.
He stroked his chin again and recalled his experience in practicing shooting and assembling firearms, and soon came to a conclusion.
“This system doesn’t just require the number of times and time. It requires me to strive for perfection every time I make a work, so that I can quickly improve my skill proficiency in a short period of time.
If you think about it, the same thing happened with shooting before.
There are tips for precise aiming, but not for random shooting.
I think I understand.”
Ten minutes later, Mason looked at his fingers which had marks from repeated bandaging. He decided to stop and go to the basement to see if he could get enough weapon accessories.
Then he realized that he seemed to have underestimated Old K.
In the basement in front of him were three large collection cabinets filled with various firearms and modification accessories.
From pistols to rifles to heavy machine guns, from classic bolt-action rifles to futuristic modular rifles.
There is also a box in the corner of the basement, which contains neatly stacked various explosives, micro-drones and unopened anti-tank rocket ammunition boxes.
Although the items here are all within the scope of "individual weapons", the large number of them cannot be called a collection but should be called an "arsenal".
This terrifying number made Mason stunned.
So many explosives are enough to destroy the entire East Gotham overnight. As expected, anything can happen in this magical city.
"A large number of engineering components have been detected, and the basic weapon blueprints have been updated."
As Mason looked around the basement, new weapon blueprints kept flashing on his character card, just like a database update.
Like before, these blueprints are the products of component enhancements based on the weapons in front of you. Although they have different appearances, they all have a unified name, namely "Engineer Engineering Gun Series".
Obviously, Gao Leng's character card has its own set of inductive logic for artifacts.
When Mason saw the astonishing number of weapons in front of him, he quickly smiled expectantly.
"What a collection of items! I disassembled them all and put them back together again, and I have enough materials to get my engineering skill up to level 2 before I go out to die.
I'm going to be very busy for the next day and a half."
Mason strode forward, picked up the stool at hand and smashed it hard into Old K's weapons collection cabinet.
Amid the sound of breaking glass, he took down an assault rifle that had a simple and tough shape and was full of minimalist industrial beauty, then turned and walked towards the workbench.
A few minutes later, Mason, holding the disassembly tools, looked at the various gun accessories piled on the table. He took out the barrel and trigger.
"Successfully complete the disassembly of a standard process engineering item, and improve your engineering skills proficiency."
The young man reached out and touched the disassembled components in front of him, and information labels popped up on each part.
Most of them were rated as "standard items", but the disassembled gun barrel was rated as "excellent item", which made Mason's eyes light up.
He took out the excellent quality gun barrel and put it aside, selected an ordinary gun barrel from the accessories box and reassembled the parts in front of him.
"Successfully complete a standard process engineering item assembly, and improve your engineering skill proficiency."
"That's it!"
Mason let out a long sigh and started to disassemble and reassemble for the second time. After repeating this several times, he became more and more proficient in this job and his disassembly speed became faster and faster.
Finally, after about the tenth assembly, the prompt Mason had been waiting for finally appeared:
"Successfully completed an excellent craftsmanship, fast and accurate assembly, and improved engineering skills proficiency by X5."
"bring it on!"
The young man grinned and continued to repeat the process until the muscles in his arms began to ache.
He sat on the chair next to him, gasping for breath, then closed his eyes and began to disassemble the gun. It was slow at first, but the muscle memory formed by multiple disassemblies allowed him to complete the process.
However, it is easy to disassemble but difficult to assemble.
Mason could only fumble around in this job, and this time it took him several minutes to install the last component, but he didn't open his eyes during the whole process.
His attempt was worth it.
"Successfully completed an outstanding craft and quick assembly, and the proficiency of engineering skills increased by X10."
"That's it! I knew it!"
Mason opened his eyes excitedly, held the rifle he had assembled with his eyes closed in front of him and kissed it hard. It took him almost an hour to finally figure out the trick to improving branching skills.
“The next step is to replicate this process.”
The young man closed his eyes again with satisfaction, and disassembled and reassembled the gun again, but this time the prompt disappointed him greatly:
"This blueprint has been fully mastered, and the proficiency of engineering skills cannot be improved."
"Well, it seems that using a bug to gain experience won't work."
Mason sighed, put the gun in his hand back into the cabinet behind him, picked up another pistol, returned to the workbench, and disassembled it with swift movements.
First, I checked the parts, and if I didn't find any high-quality accessories, I started the disassembly and assembly exercises directly.
The process was boring, but the young man knew he had to seize the time.
On the one hand, Lao K generously provided so many components, and I would be sorry not to take this opportunity to gain some engineering experience.
On the other hand, we must also be adequately prepared for the exploration mission that sounds very dangerous.
That hypocritical and arrogant Old K himself failed to conceal the danger.
He openly told Mason that his previous team had been wiped out, and said that he had found "newcomers". In fact, weren't those who were to be controlled by this kind of micro-bomb just disposable cannon fodder?
When the other party holds the bomb switch and you are unable to dismantle the micro bomb, it is better to be pragmatic in this situation.
As for waiting for Batman to rescue him, it was not an option that Mason considered at the beginning.
It's not that he doesn't believe in the master's integrity and ability to act, but the main reason is that the mysterious old K was able to take himself away from those black-clad killers even when Batman entered the battlefield. This shows that this guy may not be Batman's opponent, but it would be easy for him to kill him before the master intervenes.
"This time I really have to fight for my life."
While disassembling the pistol, Mason rubbed his forehead lightly. The back of his neck was still slightly numb. Then he narrowed his eyes and a fierce light flashed in them.
"It's been less than three days since I was reborn, and exciting things have happened one after another. They say that a confused life needs a goal to live a better life..."
The young man stretched his neck and dismantled the weapon in his hand in a vicious manner.
He whispered:
"Old K, huh? The Star Club, huh? Kidnapping me to be your cannon fodder, huh? Pretending to be a big shot, huh? As the philosopher said, a small goal first can calm your mind!
The rest is to enjoy the new life...
I'll tell you after I kill you!"
