With the deal concluded, recent events finally settled.
Having eliminated any potential threats to the Network, Blacksmith began devoting all her energy to preparing her grand scheme, quietly recruiting a massive workforce in the shadows.
In the short term, there probably wouldn’t be any overt moves.
In fact, because Blacksmith was aggressively recruiting talent, Central City’s crime rate had actually dropped by a few percentage points.
But none of this had much to do with Yuri.
He was focused on his own upcoming plans.
Two million dollars was no small sum, especially since it was all in twenty-dollar bills.
Piled together, the sheer volume was staggering.
Stashing it in the Rustbucket was completely out of the question, so Yuri deposited the money into a bank account.
The account wasn’t in his name; rather, it belonged to an identity forged using Grey Matter.
Yuri wasn’t bragging, but with Earth’s current hacking technology, it was absolutely impossible for anyone to detect a flaw.
Only now was this money truly in Yuri’s hands.
Suddenly a wealthy man, he found himself at a loss for how to spend it.
Buying a house was out of the question—the massive paper trail would raise immediate red flags.
And with the Rustbucket around, there was no point in buying another car.
If he wasn’t buying a house or a car, there didn’t seem to be anything else particularly worth spending money on…
At most, he could buy a few outfits and some new shoes, which wouldn’t cost much anyway.
He didn’t feel the need to chase luxury brands.
Yuri finally experienced the unique agony of having money but nowhere to spend it.
“Time to upgrade the Rustbucket.”
After running through his options, upgrading the Rustbucket seemed to be the only sensible choice.
Unlike the simple refurbishment from last time, Yuri now had the cash to overhaul the vehicle from top to bottom.
For the drivetrain, he replaced the engine with a world-class racing engine, which he then had Grey Matter convert into an electric motor.
The modified electric motor could easily power a heavy-duty RV, bringing the Rustbucket’s horsepower up to the level of an elite racing car.
The windows were completely replaced with high-strength, imported bulletproof glass, and alloy steel plates were reinforced along the chassis to drastically boost its defense.
With defense sorted, he couldn’t neglect offense.
While he lacked the resources to build laser weapons for now, rigging up some concealed firearms and buzzsaw blades was a walk in the park.
The interior was entirely retrofitted to Rolls-Royce standards—he might not want to buy a whole luxury car, but he could certainly afford a few premium leather hides.
The most expensive component was the power system.
Even the best commercial all-in-one inverter on the market wasn’t efficient enough to sustain long-term power needs.
Consequently, Yuri chose not to buy one.
A mere one-hour charge could power the RV for an entire week, rendering it practically self-sustaining on clear days.
Every other minor component received a thorough upgrade as well.
A few days later, a freshly upgraded Rustbucket made its debut.
It looked completely ordinary on the outside, but beneath the hood lay a masterpiece of high technology.
Of his two million dollars in savings, a whopping six hundred thousand was gone in a single go.
No major incidents occurred during this period, save for Kid Flash and his allies continuing their tireless efforts to find evidence proving Pied Piper’s innocence.
As for their progress, it was barely better than nothing.
Figuring out that Mirror Master was the culprit wasn’t particularly difficult, but suspicion wasn’t proof, and it wasn’t enough to exonerate Pied Piper.
Keystone City, inside a tavern with a distinct sense of history.
Morillo and Chyre of the Metahuman Crimes Unit sat inside, sharing a drink.
This was one of the few forms of entertainment they had after clocking off.
To be precise, it was mostly Chyre’s favorite pastime.
“Did you use to come here often?” Morillo asked, holding his beer, clearly uncomfortable with the neon-lit, boisterous atmosphere of the place.
“Why, don’t you like it here?” Chyre took a massive gulp of his drink and countered.
“No, it’s a great place.
Really.” Morillo waved his hands quickly.
This was the first time his partner had ever invited him out for a drink, and he didn’t want to rain on Chyre’s parade.
“Like hell I believe you.” Despite his words, Chyre’s weathered face couldn’t hide his grin.
“But the drinks here are actually pretty good.” Morillo took a sip, and his eyes lit up in surprise.
“Do you think the Flash will ever come back?” Chyre asked out of nowhere.
“He’s been missing for over a month now.
That’s never happened before.”
“Of course the Flash will come back.
We just have to wait.” When it came to the Flash, Morillo spoke with more confidence than he did about himself.
“So much bad stuff has happened lately.
If the Flash were here to help, things would be a lot easier.”
“Hey, partner, the Flash might be gone, but Kid Flash hasn’t missed a single day.
He’s doing his best to keep this city safe,” Morillo said in a serious tone.
“I wonder who it was that told Kid Flash, ‘The Flash’s light is too bright, you don’t measure up yet.'” Chyre teased with a playful wink, making it hard to tell which of the two was actually the veteran detective.
*Ring, ring!*
Just then, Morillo’s phone rang.
“I think I have to go, Chyre.
Otherwise, it’s gonna be a matter of life and death.” Morillo picked up the rest of his beer and chugged it in one go.
“Who is it?” Chyre asked, his expression tightening as he assumed a major crime had occurred.
“My wife.
She hates it when I’m late getting home.” Morillo said with utter gravity, a flash of genuine fear in his eyes.
Chyre was left speechless, offering him nothing but a sympathetic “good luck” look.
Dropping some loose change on the table, Morillo hastily took his leave.
As he reached the door, Morillo caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass.
A faint red dot seemed to hover right between his eyebrows.
He blinked, and the red dot vanished.
Not thinking much of it, Morillo pushed open the door and stepped outside…
***
Inside the Rustbucket.
“What should I do next?”
Yuri began pondering his next move.
He had already decided to expand his database in Central City before moving on to other locations.
However, there had been very few metahuman crimes over the past few days.
Even when they did occur, the powers of those minor criminals were practically negligible, offering zero value for extraction.
Not a single proper supervillain had shown their face.
Looking across both Central City and Keystone City, there was only one place where Yuri could harvest the maximum amount of metahuman DNA.
And that was—Iron Heights Penitentiary!
Nearly every named supervillain in Central City was locked up in there.
It was practically a treasure trove for the Omnitrix.
But Iron Heights was no walk in the park.
Ghostfreak could slip in and out of the penitentiary at will, but Yuri could only maintain his transformation for ten minutes.
That wouldn’t be nearly enough time to harvest a significant number of DNA samples.
Furthermore, if any accident occurred and unleashed that horde of supervillains, it would cause a disaster Yuri had no interest in dealing with.
The Rogues had their own code of honor, but Central City’s criminal element extended far beyond them.
There were plenty of ruthless, bloodthirsty psychopaths, and only Iron Heights Penitentiary could keep them locked down.
“If I just go to scope things out, there shouldn’t be any major issues.” Yuri rubbed his chin, pondering, and decided to go take a look first.
With Ghostfreak at his disposal, he would at least remain untouchable.