"Why do I have to come along?"

  Rachel, who had originally seen everything settle and wanted to quietly slip away into the darkness, was instead grabbed by the shoulder by Viktor, who jumped down from above.

  "How long has it been since you had a proper meal? This is a rare opportunity to mooch off the wealthy man."

  Viktor whispered to the extremely uncomfortable Rachel.

  "Let go! Anyone who gets too close to me will be unlucky!"

  Rachel struggled a bit and even tried to use magic to escape, but he easily swatted away the magic mist that ordinary mortals couldn't possibly touch.

  "So you want to stay all alone and isoted from everyone—but didn't you originally come here on Earth to find warriors to fight against your father together?"

  He lowered his voice, gncing at the three people walking ahead.

  Green Lantern had already dispersed his light; otherwise, a ball of green light walking through Gotham's dark streets would still be too conspicuous.

  Meanwhile, Batman was asking Nightwing some questions, probably about the details of the past three days when Nightwing and Viktor had been together.

  Rachel closed her eyes in frustration, withdrew her magic, and muttered defensively.

  "But after watching everything these past few days… I actually think there are no warriors on Earth capable of fighting against 'Him'."

  She had no choice. She couldn't break free, and now all the magic, witchcraft, and other mystical energies just dispyed physical-level effects when touching Viktor's body.

  Viktor, of course, possessed a physique far beyond what the human body can handle.

  "Then why are you still wandering on Earth? Besides tormenting yourself, you're not going to reach your goal at all."

  Viktor had lived through way more hard things than most kids his age, and he had seen part of Rachel's soul and some of her memories.

  He knew exactly why she was acting all stubborn and grumpy.

  Rachel didn't say anything more, unsure if she was just mad or a loss for words. She gred at him with wide eyes as he sort of dragged her forward.

  Batman still didn't take Viktor to the Batcave hidden beneath Wayne Manor. Instead, they went to another secret hideout in a sewer entrance located at the edge of a cliff.

  Viktor, who didn't get to visit the Batcave, sighed quietly. He then released his grip on Raven's arm and calmly walked into the dimly lit hall that resembled an interrogation room.

  Having securely stored the yellow ntern ring, Batman watched Viktor while Nightwing mentioned he'd grab something to eat before heading down a tunnel and disappearing.

  Green Lantern took the opportunity to scan the dark corners of the hideout with his ring, trying to find any special materials in the Batcave that he didn't know about.

  "Your body seems to have undergone some changes?"

  Batman said in a low voice.

  It sounded like a question, but it also seemed like he already knew the answer.

  Viktor calmly nodded and gave Green Lantern with interest. The tter, noticing the gaze, quickly straightened up and pretended to whistle, as if nothing had happened.

  "Even now that tingling sensation continues, and I'm pretty sure it's coming from Green Lantern."

  A few more eyes locked onto Green Lantern.

  Green Lantern instinctively covered the ring, then twisted his hand behind his back, as if that would stop any leakage of emotional spectrum energy.

  "Why are you all looking at me? The Oa database has never recorded any cases of emotional spectrum directly triggering physical evolution."

  After expining once, Green Lantern seemed to convince himself and his attitude became bold again.

  "Kid, do you really come from that what's-it-called Strum pnet? Or did you bounce here from another universe?"

  "It's Viltrum."

  Viktor casually corrected Green Lantern's mistake, then nodded with a hint of concern appearing on his face.

  "As for whether I might come from another universe, I initially thought the same thing."

  He gestured toward Raven, who was also lurking in the dark corner.

  "I grew up on Viltrum. We conquered hundreds of pnets around us, but we never encountered a single magician or anything like that. But ever since I came to Earth… there are so many magic people here, and it's way too many. That doesn't make sense at all. According to the number of magicians on Earth, given how many civilizations Viltrum has conquered, we should have at least encountered a few during all our conquests but we never did."

  Sure enough, Batman nodded in agreement with his point.

  "Earth has a simir concept called the Drake Equation, but it can also be applied to calcute the probability of encountering superhumans or magicians within an intelligent civilization."

  "Exactly. So after meeting so many magic users, I started to think I might have ended up in a different universe."

  A shadow passed over Viktor's face.

  "However, that yellow ntern ring, it called me Viktor from the Virgo Supercluster. If this really was a different universe… how could it possibly know my real name and where I'm from?"

  The others turned their gaze to Green Lantern, the only one present who was part of the Lantern Corps and knew more than anyone else about how the Lantern Rings choose their users.

  Green Lantern didn't hesitate, clenched his fist, cleared his throat, and walked out confidently from the shadows.

  "The real name part is easy to expin. As long as you've used a name on Earth, even if a Lantern Corps is on the other side of the universe, they can access it—this is based on, based on... I think it's based on some kind of fundamental cosmic logic."

  Batman quietly observed Green Lantern's awkwardness, caused by his ck of knowledge in the Oa Corps, then immediately asked.

  "What about the Virgo Supercluster?"

  It wasn't until this moment that Green Lantern's demeanor became serious again.

  After all, this involved a terrifying civilization, and the species from this civilization could evolve through the emotional spectrum, with one individual currently standing right before him.

  "That pce is 60 million light-years away, not in my jurisdiction, but I've already sent a request to my colleague responsible for that area. However, scanning an entire gaxy cluster takes a lot of time and effort. This might take several years."

  Green Lantern tapped his ring.

  "What I can tell you for now is that, at least in the Oa database, there is no pnet named Viltrum in the Virgo Supercluster."

  Batman turned his gaze back to Viktor.

  "We're still going to keep a very close eye on Viltrum for a long time. Now we need to crify other issues."

  Viktor nodded in understanding.

  "I get it, you want to test my evolved body structure, right? You've already gotten all my data from Mr. Bruce Wayne?"

  Green Lantern silently shot a gnce at Batman.

  Batman's expression remained completely calm, and he directly admitted it.

  "Yes, Bruce should have mentioned that he has some cooperation with the Justice League, and getting data from him wasn't difficult."

  Green Lantern looked up, gncing at the ceiling of the Batcave, his body twitching slightly.

  Viktor looked at him.

  "Do you need to use the bathroom?"

  Batman pointed Green Lantern toward the bathroom. The tter thanked him before slowly walking away.

  Viktor then followed Batman in another direction.

  Nightwing returned to the hall, holding a pte of steaming hot food. He gnced around but saw no one else, only Raven standing silently in the shadowed corner.

  "Uh, I've got some freshly heated steak here. Anyone want some?"