Kapitel 72: Progress
While the police and SWAT team hustled about, deftly bagging the criminals, including those left in the warehouse, and administering first aid, Gordon wiped the blood off his neck and led our superhero duo a little ways away.
"I realize that by interfering in a police operation you saved my life today, but you should know that I don't approve of this kind of masquerade," he looked at our awesome costumes with an expressive glance.
"And what about Batman?" My companion asked, naively wiggling her eyes and becoming even cuter.
"Batman is Batman," the commissioner replied seriously, looking around carefully. - Hmm, it was strange that he hadn't shown up yet.
"Because he's po... Mm-hmm..." Sailor moaned erotically for some reason as I clamped her mouth shut.
"He's by...?" the man tensed.
"Po... can elsewhere," I finished the sentence.
"All right then... It's Batman," James said proudly, as if the latex voyeur's activity in keeping order in Gotham was personally to his credit.
Of course, it would hardly be an apocalypse in a single city if someone knew that Gloomy Mouse was now languishing in the clutches of the Owl's Court, but let as few people as possible know about it. Besides, I can't be one hundred percent sure he's even been kidnapped. What if the superhero has gotten away from Alfred the Hedgehog, who has decided to give his master a private life?
"Ahem..." the walkie-talkie squeaked, "sir, we have a dead body here.
"One second," the commissioner pressed the button of the device, and brought it to his mouth. - И? There was a fierce firefight between two gangs and several policemen in the warehouse. I'd be surprised if everyone involved was alive and uninjured.
"But, sir, there's a complete lack of visible damage on this one.
My future father-in-law's stern gaze settled on the bridge of my nose. If it hadn't been for the spell, my true identity would have been revealed. I wondered how Oliver Queen, aka the Green Arrow, managed to keep incognito, using a hood and a small black mask that covered only a small area around his eyes.
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to hold you until we get to the bottom of this. You see, it's one thing to beat up armed criminals, which can be qualified as a citizen's arrest if you want to, but murder is a whole different story.
Strange... I didn't kill anyone, my faithful assistant wouldn't do such a thing either, playing the role of a heroine.
"Sir, this carcass weighs two pounds. Can we bring the car right into the warehouse?" Gordon's walkie-talkie was reactivated.
Two centimeters...
"Jim," I think that's how he introduced himself, "the criminal is alive. He's been given a special death spell. He'll wake up in an hour, but don't open him up.
"Then we'll wait, and you'll come with me," Mouse's father said firmly, keeping his intense gaze on us as if he feared we would suddenly disappear.
If he were a pretty girl, maybe we'd be a little longer, but instead of a pretty girl, there was a red-haired man with three-day stubble and huge black bags under his eyes. And to be honest, he still looked pretty good considering the recent incident.
Since we are still far away from Bats, who can vaporize in an empty room three by three meters, we act according to plan "S" - get lost.
"Sailor," I squinted at the commissioner, who began to stare at us even more intently, making us creepy.
"Ah-ah-ah," the girl said understandingly, touching the skirt with the stitched ribbon of the spatial pocket.
A barely perceptible movement, and now an oblong smoke grenade is bouncing along the asphalt, tinkling its metal casing.
~Pf-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f
The surrounding space was covered with pink smoke, under the cover of which we rushed away from the unhealthy commotion.
Perhaps we should observe the etiquette of real heroes from now on. If you've done your job, you can get away with it, ignoring the words of gratitude. Not only is this kind of activity illegal, but quite often encounters with supervillains end in numerous destructions, which someone has to repair. For example, in our case, someone will have to repair the underground utilities destroyed by the explosion. Although, if you remember Supes, whose abilities calmly allow you to fix everything literally in a second, he never bothered with it, and in fact the Kryptonian could not even bring to such a thing, because in the comics his main enemy is an ordinary bald man with a lot of money and an awl in one place.
I remembered one of the sunny boy's many abilities, called "super-kissing," which could erase a person's memory of certain things*... Brrrrrrrrrr, that's a lot of conflict to nip in the bud, and a lot of fodder for Yaoi fans. Wait a minute... I froze, contemplating the red brickwork of the next dark alleyway we ran through, heading toward the abandoned car. A pumped up body, almost total invulnerability, can spread peace and love through kisses... Yeah, that's Hapsiel on the minimap! Just give the sunny boy a sexy suit with suspenders and purple lipstick, and then it'll be dark times for the villains! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
It was good that we were already far away from the warehouse, so my stupor and occasional giggling would not be the reason for arrest, or whatever the guards wanted to do to us.
Though, come to think of it, our superhero duo wasn't exactly eager to be caught. Gordon looked sadly and understandingly at the smoke bomb that rolled to his feet, making no attempt to leave the area of defeat. Well, excuse me, Harley and I aren't Gloomy Mouse to be able to vaporize the moment a person looks away for a moment, and there aren't enough flares for everyone.
Well, it was time to return to the brutally cold world. The harsh reality wasn't so bad, as my beloved hugged me gently, hiding her face against my chest. Her shoulders shake strangely. Wait... Is she crying?!
"Sunshine, what's wrong?
"Mvf," she sobbed, clinging tighter, "you promised not to leave me...
"I wasn't going to!" I answer without a shadow of a doubt.
"You think I'm dumb and didn't realize what happened in there? ~sob~ I'm aware that you don't have much mana for strong spells, so you, ~sob~ you started using up your life energy to heal some guy. You could have died!" Harley snapped into a scream at the end, then burst into tears harder.
"Honey... - I hug the girl tighter, broadcasting a feeling of love and care to her.
She's not that far from the truth. I wasn't going to sacrifice myself, of course, but it was unexpected. Hell, if it had been someone I didn't know, I wouldn't have worked so hard, but it was Babs' father. I just wouldn't have been able to look Mouse in the eye knowing I hadn't given it a hundred percent. Besides, I can't say it was prana that was used up in the spell, and I have my doubts about mana. For example, after rescuing Zee with not the greatest expenditure of life energy, I was much worse off than I am now. I felt as if I'd spent nothing on healing: there was no tugging feeling in my stomach, the usual hint of a depleted magical reserve, no dizziness, no shaking hands.
You'd think I was fucking Marty Stu with a sudden connection to the magic plan, but the universe has had more than its fair share of air castles toppled. Besides, I highly doubt I could have missed such a momentous event, which means the healing was due to something else, and I have some guesses I'll be sure to check out once we're home.
"Easy, Sunshine. I don't know what happened, but I didn't waste a drop of life energy.
~Sniff~
"But I saw that you were in terrible pain... You couldn't even scream.
"I will not deny it. At the moment of the second application of the spell, I felt like an orange being slowly peeled, but it was a phantom pain.
Harley shuddered even more, clinging to me like a drowning man to a straw.
"Mr. J, I... I can't live without you... And if you've stopped valuing your life, at least value mine..." the crying golden-haired cutie finished sadly.
Oh, Jay, you're such an insensitive chump.
"I'm sorry, sometimes I forget how much I care about you...
There were no more words, we just stood in each other's arms, sharing the warmth of our souls. I don't know how much time passed, but I came to my senses at the sound of a soft cough on the speaker. Shit, I'd forgotten that Alfred was still with us.
"Ahem, ahem, I hate to interrupt your family idyll, but people will start waking up soon and your vehicle may be discovered.
"Thanks, Oracle, we're really late.
I pick up the lukewarm girl in my arms and walk towards the abandoned transportation, while asking the butler about our debut today.
The elderly Brit was pleased to hear that several police officers had already informed the news outlets about the arrival of two new heroes, so we should expect the first articles in the morning. Also of interest was the news about the boogeyman on whom I tested the potion. According to the butler the man did wake up, much to the surprise of the medics, as he was officially dead for almost an hour. Well, the test of the potion of communication with spirits can be considered a success, now it's just a matter of finding out Alastor's daily routine and poisoning him during the solar eclipse.
Harley didn't get out of my arms the whole way, clinging to my chest and listening to my heartbeat. The car was where we'd left it, a dark blur against the wall, as if absorbing the dim light, and that was with my eyesight.
During the leisurely ride, the girl finally calmed down and began to emotionally share how she was bringing good sense to the criminals through her favorite baseball bat. After her story, I realized that it would be a while before some of the bandits could eat solid food and get around without improvised means. Well, they knew what they were getting into by engaging in crime, so I don't feel sorry for them in the least.
To summarize our little night adventure, everything turned out weird, but it was pretty good, except for the fact that no trace of Bats was found. We managed to try the potion, fight, work on the healing spell, and even test the functionality of the cloak-planner, which could actually withstand a couple of hits from a machine gun, although the last one should have been tested in more controlled conditions, but there was a hundred percent influence of the aspect, otherwise I can't explain that idiotic jump from the roof.
Here, by the way, another problem came up. Smoothing the emotional peak is undoubtedly cool. After it, you think clearly, even with the fleeting influence of Delirum, you don't feel pain, but at the same time it is noticeable that the effectiveness of such a manifestation of the system is gradually decreasing each time. It is worth remembering how smoothing influenced at my incorporation: complete cutting off of emotions and painful sensations, acceleration of brain work for quite a long time, and now this state holds at best thirty seconds. It was like my mind was gradually adapting, which could be a painful experience.
It's decided, from now on, I'll try to keep my mind off the interworld as much as possible.
"Huh.
Holy shit. A wry grin appeared on his face, but it was gone. Okay, let's just say I did it for the test. One Mississippi, two Mississippi... When the countdown reached twenty-one, the bitten cheek was a little sore. Memorizing the result, I focused on the road, discarding any possible tail.
We arrived at the mansion at the first light of dawn. We had only enough energy to get ourselves relatively cleaned up and into bed, but I had something important to do before I went to sleep. As I cuddled with Harley, I finally called up the system window, deciding to test a hunch I'd had.
[Generated quest "police assistance": neutralize criminals 27/27. Reward: 0(8) free points.
Additional task: rescue the police officers 4/4. Reward: 0(2) free points]
"I whispered at the edge of my hearing, looking at the sign that appeared in front of my eyes, colored in unusual red tones.
Even earlier, almost at the very beginning of my adventures in this world, I noticed that I didn't necessarily have to accept quests or refuse them. It's worth remembering one of the first quests, which involved legally rescuing Ivy from the healing center. The window that appeared then I just brushed aside and accepted only when I reached home and carefully read the terms and conditions.
If you believe the system itself, quests are generated only after a request to the Universe and the "staking" of a ba-hion, which is converted into free points after the task is completed, and if so, probably the unconverted divine energy that came unconverted is stored in some of my shells, which is why magic-sensitive individuals react strangely to me.
Honestly, I hadn't expected such an effect when I turned off the alerts. The whole point was for them to keep me busy, to help me feel the world better, rather than perceive it through the prism of some computer game. As recent events have shown, this was the right decision, because this way I can now spend the ba-hion I receive on my own needs! The very divine energy meant to create miracles! The only thing left to figure out was how much was used to heal Jim, and whether there would be any backlash if I failed...
Accept... Accept... Mentally accept a couple of minor quests related to saving people and destroying a nest of baboons, while ignoring the many windows with notifications of character upgrades, until I reach the main event.
[The quest "coven destruction" was generated: destroy Melholm's altar 1/1. Reward: 26(150) free points]
Fuck... After some quick calculations, it was clear that a huge amount of ba-hion, equivalent to a hundred and eighty-nine points, had been spent on the fucking healing... It cost me a lot to save Gordon.
Well, what's the point of grieving? Moreover, there are certain doubts that the efficiency of creating a miracle has reached the values of at least one percent. I have no divine shell, but only a pale surrogate, which was hardly planned to be used in such a way.
Well, let's get to the fun part. Status.
[The first beginning (the body): 87
The second beginning (prana): 29
The third beginning (astral): 24
The fourth beginning (nucleus): 103
The fifth beginning (spirit): 45
The sixth beginning (reason): 61
Seventh Beginning (magic): 64
Eighth beginning (immortality): blocked
The ninth beginning (deity): blocked.
Free points: 0]
That's not bad! Of course, against the backdrop of some Chinese Sun Wyn cultivator, this kind of progress might seem insignificant, but in just eight days, all of my characteristics had increased quite a bit. Even the first beginning had managed to get a levellap. That's what it means to invest points properly.
I look thoughtfully at the quest with the destruction of the coven, and then brush it aside and cover myself better with the blanket, deciding that I'd rather have a margin for at least a small miracle than an extra six points in the fourth beginning.
*For those interested: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ok4htS1SX4&t
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
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Stein