Chapter 417: Mystery in the Metropolis (I)

I think many people should not have forgotten that in the last battle with the Fearful Laughing Demon in the dream, Schiller used the characteristics of the lamp ring to amplify certain emotions in the hearts of Victor, Gordon and others, and then attracted many colored lamp rings.

Just as mentioned before, since this battle took place in a dream, the lamp rings that were called over found that the host they wanted to contract with had no consciousness, and the lamp ring would not leave directly if it did not get a positive response from this person during the contract process.

So, the lamp ring abandoned its material body and let the energy enter the host's body, trying to awaken the consciousness of these hosts, and then came to the dream space where it fought with the Fearful Laughing Demon, providing energy for several people.

However, the physical lamp rings were still waiting outside. Due to the loss of energy, these lamp rings became ordinary metal rings and could not be teleported back to the lamp group.

After the battle, the few people who woke up found a brightly colored metal ring beside them. Schiller greeted them in advance, so they collected the ring and finally handed it to Schiller.

Schiller had no interest in the lantern rings. In his opinion, the so-called "emotional spectrum" was similar to explaining the truth of the world with simple materialism. So he put the rings in a box and threw them to Batman.

It is also well known that once anything is collected in the Batcave, even if the king comes, don't think about taking it back.

As Batman poured the box of rings on the table, Hal's eyes almost popped out. After wearing the green lantern rings for so long, he could certainly tell that these were not fake souvenirs, but genuine lantern rings.

"Where did you get so many??? You..." Hal was speechless for a moment, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Batman was as if he was looking at a perverted weirdo with a special collection habit.

Looking at those lantern rings of different colors, he found that there was no green lantern ring in them, or in other words, there were only so many colored lantern rings, and the green lantern ring was the only one missing. Suddenly, Hal seemed to have discovered some truths.

At the beginning, when facing the battle with the Laughing Demon of Fear, Hal had doubts in his heart, because at the beginning, the monster's head looked a bit like Batman, but the battle was too intense at the time, and he didn't have enough time to think about this problem. Now it seems that all this is Batman's conspiracy?

Deliberately create a monster to attract the arrival of the yellow light, summon various light rings, collect their energy for his own use, and then leave the rings behind, deliberately transform the yellow light beast parallax monster into a human, and then seduce himself, and then let himself fall into the trap...

Hal tightened his windbreaker jacket with his hands. Although the jacket was as thick and warm as usual, the fireplace in the hall of Wayne Manor was also burning very vigorously, and the firewood was burning crackling, but he couldn't feel a bit of warmth.

Batman fiddled with the rings and asked Hal about the principles of the rings and the history of the lantern group, but unfortunately, Hal didn't know much about this. From the current point of view, Hal was just a lucky guy who accidentally obtained the green light energy. He didn't have much intersection with the lantern group and didn't know any important information. …

"I'm going to do a component analysis of these rings." Batman turned his head expressionlessly and looked at Hal. Hal immediately said, "I'll stay here. My ring is still in that kid's hand."

"Besides, I don't want him to have any accidents, so I'll watch him here until he recovers."

Batman didn't care about Hal's guarantee. He just needed an attitude. Hal without the rings was just an ordinary person. If Batman didn't allow it, he would never leave Wayne Manor.

Judging from Hal's attitude, he was a mature and wise person, which meant that he was still useful to Batman.

A few minutes later, in the laboratory underground in Wayne Manor, Bruce, who had changed out of his bat suit, was fiddling with an instrument, trying to use scientific methods to analyze the metal structure of the lamp ring.

Although the laboratory underground in Wayne Manor is not as large as the newly built Bat Cave, it is also fully equipped, and Batman himself doesn't know why, when facing those tedious and complicated experimental data, staying here makes it easier for him to calm down.

Although this place is not far from Wayne Manor on the ground, and some noises from the ground can be heard, it is far less remote and quiet than the Bat Cave in the suburbs, but whenever Bruce wants to calm down and think about certain problems, he still prefers to choose here.

In the dimly lit laboratory, Bruce's fingers are placed on the operating panel. The cold light cast by the screen is like circles of water ripples. The abrupt cold feeling when the skin touches the button can make people more clear-headed.

"Tap, tap, tap." The sound of leather shoes hitting the metal stairs came from behind Bruce. He did not turn around, and a familiar voice sounded in his ears: "Master, it's dawn, go back and rest for a while."

Bruce's finger, which was about to press the next button, paused slightly, and the data on the screen continued to change.

Underground, the flow of time seemed to slow down. For Batman, when there were no windows to distinguish the changes in light, day and night were not so important.

But Alfred obviously didn't think so. He walked behind Bruce, handed him a glass of water, and then said, "Master Dick is a little tired. That strange energy seems to weaken when he is in low spirits, so he also went upstairs to sleep."

"I arranged a well-equipped and thoughtful guest room for Mr. Hal. I think he should have fallen asleep now."

"Miss Aisha has slept for a few hours and may wake up soon. I have called Miss Selina to come over. If you go up in half an hour, you should be able to have breakfast with them."

Bruce stood there, still silent and lonely. His thoughts suddenly returned to the dark cathedral, thinking of the unexpected photo in the shabby living room.

He looked back and saw Alfred's old face with ravines and wrinkles. In his vision, time was flowing backwards rapidly. Alfred's face became younger and his face shrank in his vision. A young man wearing a windbreaker, a beret and holding a shotgun was standing next to a straw pile in front of a wheat field. He took a photo with two other young friends. …

When seeing this photo, Bruce and his friends did not have doubts, because the three people in the photo looked a little too young. At this age, they should not have met each other.

Bruce remembered that when he was very young, he heard his father say that the Pennyworth family was the hereditary housekeeper family of the Wayne family, and the eldest son of the Pennyworth family would become the housekeeper of the Wayne family heir.

He once heard his grandfather complain that the children of this Pennyworth family were a little out of line and did not want to inherit the career of the housekeeper. At that time, Bruce did not know who he was referring to. It was not until he grew up that he realized that he was actually referring to Alfred Pennyworth.

When Bruce first met Alfred, he felt a unique temperament from him. He didn't know whether it was the alarm issued by his always accurate intuition or just a fleeting illusion, but he was sure that when he first met Alfred, his first emotion was not shyness, but fear.

Bruce stood beside the laboratory table, quietly recalling the years he didn't want to recall, but he found many clues from these memories, indicating that this old housekeeper, who he was very familiar with, still had many secrets he didn't know.

Bruce knew what kind of person he was. Facing all the secrets, he wanted an answer. This paranoia had almost become a part of his life, except for Alfred.

Despite this, he was still curious about the photo and Alfred's life before he came to Wayne Manor.

He opened his mouth, as if he didn't know how to ask, and the old housekeeper stood quietly behind him, his eyes not staying on the screen where the data was constantly flowing, but looking forward, staring at the open space of the underground experimental base.

Alfred always seemed to be like this, Bruce thought. Ever since he learned to do experiments, whenever he entered the laboratory, the old butler was used to staring at the blank walls or empty space, and never looked at those sophisticated instruments.

But Bruce remembered that he had seen Alfred's expression when he glanced at some data once, and he was sure that Alfred should be able to understand it.

So, he planned to start from this angle. He turned slightly and asked, "Alfred, are you from London?"

"Yes, sir, the Pennyworth family has lived in London for generations."

"You..." Bruce wanted to ask Alfred if he went to school like a normal person, but he felt that this question was not smart enough, so he asked, "Which university did you go to? What major?"

"Sir, I graduated from King's College, Cambridge University, and studied in the Department of Mathematics at Cambridge University, majoring in pure mathematics and mathematical statistics."

Bruce's hand on the button froze. For some reason, he instinctively looked at the string of data on the screen, scanned it from top to bottom, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there was no error.

Then he was stunned by his own action.

He took his hand off the operating panel, rubbed his eyebrows, and asked: "This major... I mean..."...

"No, it's not as complicated as you think, sir, I don't have any extra interest in mathematics." Alfred smiled, and his voice made Bruce relax a lot. Alfred explained:

"All members of the Pennyworth family have a fixed path to study. They study at Yinton College and then go to Oxford University. They can choose the Department of Literature or Philosophy, and at most they can only study art or drama. No one has any chance to study science."

"Because whether it is mathematics, chemistry or physics, it is not very helpful to become a butler. On the contrary, a butler needs to have sufficient literary and artistic accomplishment to chat with the employer."

"So, why do you..."

"At that time, my relationship with my family was not good. I refused to study at Yinton College and did not want to go to Oxford. At that time, I liked stage plays and dramas the most and wanted to become an actor, but my family strongly opposed it."

"So, I thought, I want to make a surprising move to surprise everyone. I insisted on transferring to a grammar school. After studying there for a year and a half, I was admitted to the Department of Mathematics at Cambridge University with a full scholarship."

"My family was indeed surprised by this, but not because of my rebellious behavior, but because of my learning talent."

"After entering university, my relationship with my family became more harmonious. Although they still did not accept my dream of becoming an actor, they also accepted my idea of ​​not inheriting the hereditary butler profession."

"Then why did you ..."

Alfred lowered his head and smiled, saying: "The process is a bit complicated, but it is actually very simple..."

Bruce heard Alfred say something that surprised him in a nostalgic tone:

"Because of my excellent grades, in the autumn of my sophomore year in university, I was specially recruited by the British Army Intelligence Bureau and became an agent of the D Branch of MI6..."