Thomas, you are the Knight of Judgment!

Chapter 234 Thomas, you are the Knight of Judgment!

The super spicy beef curry was indeed delicious; even though Wei wasn't hungry, he still finished off a whole bowl of rice.

But what follows is a burning sensation that spreads from the mouth to the entire digestive system.

Oliver kindly offered him milk, but he refused, for the same reason: he hadn't completely let his guard down.

"Your guarded demeanor makes it difficult for me to continue the conversation."

"Hiss—you can say whatever you want—I have my own considerations," Wei said, wincing from the spiciness.

"What a stubborn young man. He ate all my food—if I really wanted to harm you, I would have had many ways to do so."

Oliver grumbled as he cleaned the table and stuffed the empty plates into the dishwasher.

Holding a plate in both hands, he wasn't using a cane, and his unsteady legs were exposed to Wei's view.

"Your legs—"

"Due to old injuries and my advancing age making it difficult to walk, I haven't used the Green Arrow identity for many years. That's why I sought help from a hacker when trouble came knocking."

"But these days, young people seem so unreliable!!!"

At this point, Oliver unconsciously raised his voice.

"There's a reason for that." Wei was about to defend Tim when he was stopped by the other man.

"But that doesn't mean we can go against the principle of putting the customer first; he clearly promised me that!"

Oliver only wanted to live out the rest of his life in peace, but the aftermath of the Gotham City riots unexpectedly drew him into it.

Wei could roughly understand the source of the other party's anger. Since arguing was useless, he decided to let his actions speak for themselves.

"Don't worry, that's why I came here. Let's put an end to this here."

"That would be best."

After hearing the satisfactory reply, Oliver's voice lowered. He pressed the dishwasher button, then dragged himself back to his seat and poured himself a glass of red wine.

"I won't ask you anymore; I suppose you wouldn't drink it anyway."

After swirling his wine glass and downing it in one gulp, the old man began to talk.

Within fifteen minutes of the stock market turmoil this morning, police from Star City arrived at his door. In addition to routine questioning, they put a monitoring bracelet on Oliver and imposed a ban on him, prohibiting him from leaving the city without permission. Even leaving the city center requires reporting and approval.

"This is practically prisoner treatment!" the old man said indignantly.

"I have a small question."

Wei interjected appropriately.

"How did they know the Robin Hood symbol was related to you, or rather, how did they know you were Green Arrow?"

"Do you think the real identity of a guy wearing a hood, scaling walls, and holding a high-tech bow and arrow is a homeless person who can't afford to eat or wear, or a rich second-generation heir with more time and money than he can spend, who has received professional and comprehensive combat training?"

"Approximately 30,000 people in the entire Star City meet the first condition, but only one person meets the second condition."

"That's right, that guy is me."

Green Arrow stroked his goatee; it looked really nice to touch, which made Wei want to try it too.

"In fact, when I first started training, I didn't expect to get to this point. It was all to enhance my survival skills in the wild. After all, who knows if I will encounter misfortune a second time, whether I am stranded on a desert island or lost in the primeval jungle. If I want to survive, I have to master hunting skills."

"But I didn't expect that I was quite talented, especially in archery."

Wei finally understood: the lack of a complete and clear life plan led Green Arrow to not hide their training experience.

Although he wears a mask and hood, in Star City, it's no secret that Oliver is Green Arrow.

But Oliver always acted with restraint and helped the police both openly and secretly, which led law enforcement to tacitly allow the existence of this masked vigilante.

But what Oliver was really worried about wasn't the police, but the vicious dogs kept by those capitalists. A hundred billion dollars is no small sum, and these guys would definitely unite like madmen to dig up every clue.

Green Arrow knew he would eventually be cleared of suspicion by the police, but it was clear that those guys wouldn't let him off the hook.

"What is your plan? And how can I cooperate with you?"

After Oliver finished explaining the ins and outs of the incident, Wei, like a skilled insurance salesperson, inquired about the client's needs.

"It's simple. I'll fabricate a non-existent copycat. I'll tell the police my costume was stolen a long time ago, and that fake Green Arrow has been impersonating me to fight crime."

Are you sure this vicious dog will let you go? After all, they're only doing their job and aren't bound by the law. They'll take a bite out of anything that looks edible.

"I'm not sure, but as long as the piece of beef they give us is big enough (the evidence is clear enough), they'll keep their eyes on that piece of beef and ignore this rotten old bone of mine."

Oliver looked up and stared directly at Qin Wei.

"I want you to be the piece of beef that lures the vicious dog into the trap."

"An interesting plan. How do you know I'll agree?" Wei retorted.

"Come on, that's all you came for! The vicious dogs were targeting you all along, but they were misled to Star City by misinformation. You're clearly secretly glad that we didn't fight in Gotham City, yet you still try to bargain with me on the surface!"

"I can tell you very clearly that the meal you just ate was your commission. Don't even think about squeezing a single penny out of this penniless old man."

Green Arrow is old, but his mind is still clear; however, he did misunderstand Qin Wei.

Wei wasn't trying to squeeze money out of him; he just wanted to get to know Green Arrow and, incidentally, make them owe him a favor.

Not only do they wage proxy wars on other people's turf, but they also make their employers owe them favors. It's no wonder they're called V-Bat; they've really gone too far with their schemes.

After the collaboration was finalized, Oliver produced the task proposal he had hastily prepared that afternoon.

First, he will convene a press conference with a group of reporters tomorrow to distance himself from the situation. Of course, he won't be foolish enough to admit that he is the old Green Arrow, so he needs Wei to impersonate the non-existent copycat and create some commotion on the other side of Star City.

Oliver provided Will with several gang hideouts and retrieved equipment that had been gathering dust for years.

"It seems you already knew my identity, and even prepared the equipment."

2

Qin Wei touched the mechanical composite bow on the table, then picked up the green nano battle robe and smelled it. Fortunately, the clothes didn't have much of a smell.

"Yes, just as my identity is an open secret, your identity has long been obvious!"

"You are the Knight of Judgment of Gotham—"

Oliver deliberately kept this a secret.

To be honest, Wei Zhen was a little nervous because of him. Now he finally got a good feel for the panicked emotions of a masked villain when his real name is called out.

"Thomas Elliott!"

"Huh—ah?!!"

"Your denial is useless; I'm quite certain you are Thomas."

Oliver stroked his beard, a confident smile radiating from his wrinkled face.

"Your parents died in an airship accident. While studying at medical school, you faked your own death to investigate the truth behind their deaths and returned to Gotham as Daniel Reed."

On the surface, you are the best plastic surgeon in all of Gotham, but in reality, you are a knight of judgment who roams the night!

"You didn't expect that, did you? I've been investigating you for a long time."

"————Oh, right, right!"

Wei was too lazy to even complain anymore.

However, it's worth mentioning that Thomas and Bruce's life trajectories are indeed quite similar. Perhaps in some universe their fates would be reversed.

It's no wonder Oliver guessed wrong. After all, no matter how much a normal person suspects, they wouldn't suspect a little boy who died twenty years ago, especially since Will wasn't the real person, but just a clone who inherited a little bit of consciousness.

"Mr. Elliott, there are no more secrets between us."

Still unaware that he had written the wrong answer to the last big question, Oliver, like the first math whiz to walk out of the college entrance exam hall, winked smugly at the interviewing reporter, Qin Wei.

Meanwhile, following the address given by Lucius, Thomas Jr. found the spaceship at an old farmhouse on the outskirts of Gotham.

It lay there quietly in the center of the open space, without any obstruction or concealment, like a work of art open to all. Little Thomas walked around the spaceship, confirming that it was indeed the spacecraft designed by Lucius to fight Superman.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

A strange yet familiar voice sounded behind him, and Thomas couldn't help but tremble.

When he was a child, lying in the life support pod of the hospital, he vaguely heard this voice. Through the glass dome filled with water vapor, the blurry figure gradually overlapped with the old man with graying temples now.

"Young Master, it is a pleasure to see you free from the court's control."

"I thought Mr. Wayne would be the first one we contacted, but I never expected it to be you. It's been many years since we last met. You've inherited the perfect physique of the Wayne family men, becoming tall and strong. Looking at you is like looking at the old Mr. Wayne."

Alfred placed one hand on his lower abdomen and the other on his back, smiling and nodding to Thomas.

The old butler's words brought tears to Thomas's eyes. If he hadn't had medication to suppress his emotions, he might have burst into tears on the spot.

"Stop talking. You know I didn't come here to reminisce."

Turning his back and rubbing the bridge of his nose, Thomas turned back again, his face now bearing that icy, world-weary expression.

"I know you're here to see the young master. The debugging process didn't go smoothly; the loading of all his personalities wasn't completed until last night."

"So it intervened in Gotham's affairs immediately, and arrogantly declared to my people that Gotham's sovereignty belonged to it?" After calming down, Thomas's words gradually began to be filled with hostility.

He considered Alfred as a third family member besides his parents, especially when Alfred came to the hospital in their place when his parents were busy.

Afu always carried a brightly colored fairy tale book and spent the whole afternoon telling stories through the life support capsule.

Unlike "Masha with tears in her eyes" and "Old Thomas with a sigh," Alfred never considered himself a vegetable who couldn't speak or move. He would share interesting things about the outside world and would also talk about his silly younger brother who liked to take poop out of his diaper and smear it all over the floor.

This made Thomas feel like he was still alive.

But one time, Thomas waited a whole week without any family members coming to visit.

He learned about the murder that shocked the entire city of Gotham from the nurses' casual conversation.

His father, mother, and younger brother whom he had never met vanished into the alleys of Gotham. The only thing sustaining twelve-year-old Thomas's shattered sanity was Alfred.

He believed that after finishing everything, the old butler would once again appear at his bedside with the fairy tale book.

He didn't know how much time had passed, maybe a few months, or even two or three years, but he finally saw the old butler again.

An old butler, who was about to embark on a long journey, came to say goodbye to him.

"Young Master, your brother has survived. I will accompany him to every corner of the world to find a way for you to stand up again."

At that moment, Thomas felt like a bar of soap about to be used up, sliding down into a dark, sunless sewer.

"So you have no right, absolutely no right to tell me what to do. From the moment you gave up on me and chose Bruce, our relationship was completely over."

"For my parents' sake, I won't dismantle that pile of scrap metal. Get it out of Gotham with you!"

Isaiah Thomas was clearly emotional.

This wasn't what he truly meant, and Alfred could tell.

The old butler closed his eyes and lowered his head; he was also in a difficult position.

After Wayne's father died a violent death, Wayne Manor was immediately ransacked by a group of unknown individuals. Having served in MI5, he sensed a conspiracy and immediately activated the crisis plan, faking Bruce Wayne's death.

As for Isaiah Thomas, he was already being targeted by predators back then and simply didn't have the ability to take another child with him.

"I'm sorry about what happened back then. You can distance yourself from me, but please don't hold a grudge against Bruce."

"Taking it out on me? We're on great terms now, of course, I'm referring to the clones created using Professor Strange's technology, not that mechanical freak you made!"

"You mean Mr. Wei? I secretly observed him for a long time. The final conclusion I came to was that although he had the appearance of a young master and possessed some memories, he had already developed an independent personality."

"So when I met him six months ago, I gently advised him to let go of this responsibility that didn't belong to him."

Alfred opened the door behind him: "Please see him! Believe me, young master, only this Bruce Wayne is your true brother!"

Isaiah Thomas came here to meet his cyber brothers, so of course he had no reason to refuse.

Upon entering the wooden cabin, he discovered that the entire space had been transformed into a machine room, with parts scattered everywhere, various variations of mechanical prosthetics hanging on the walls, and a strong smell of machine oil permeating the air.

If silicon-based life forms were to develop civilization, this room would surely be "hell" in their eyes.

In front of the enormous generator that almost filled half the room, a humanoid machine stood with its back to Thomas. When it heard footsteps, it turned its head.

The robot's bionic facial features have been removed, leaving only a hollow face with rapidly spinning mechanical gears.