Batman leaving Black Cat and the seven or eight Gang members at the entrance of the Manhattan Police Station was not meaningless.
"If Black Cat hadn't escaped and was locked up in the Police Station, she, having no criminal record, would naturally be released, and the other members as well."
"If, however, she was steeped in evil and had a long criminal record, then she would not be suitable to work with me."
"And if she could break free from her chains and didn't even enter the Police Station, I would proceed to the next step of my plan."
Batman put down the Daily Bugle he was holding; the photo of Squid Man on the front page, if he wasn't mistaken, was taken by the young couple from last night.
"Judging by her micro-expressions when she communicated with me last night, she hasn't entirely placed her hope for revenge on me."
"So, assuming Black Cat breaks free, she will inevitably go to meet Kingpin to tell him about what happened last night; only then can she gain Kingpin's trust."
"As for Squid Man... last night, he showed no desire to fight after Joseph was shot, and he didn't engage me at all, so neither Black Cat nor Kingpin has any direct sense of my strength."
"But Kingpin will see me as an obstacle and will try to eliminate me. Since I demonstrated the ability to smash a five-ton steel beam into the ground in front of Black Cat, Kingpin won't send Gang members to fight me, but will instead hire Squid Man to kill me."
"This is exactly what I want."
Batman neatly placed the newspaper aside, then opened a wooden box at his feet and took out a revolver.
Placing the revolver on the table, Batman then removed the web-shooter attached to his wrist.
"I need to combine the grappling hook gun I used before with the web-shooter."
Batman thought while rapidly disassembling the revolver; in a few seconds, a perfectly good revolver was reduced to parts.
After he sent Black Cat and her crew to the Police Station last night, he returned to inventory his "spoils of war" – a total of five wooden boxes filled with firearms, ranging from revolvers to submachine guns, with five or six different types and a total of forty-two weapons.
Besides the firearms, there was also a box of cash, amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand U.S. dollars.
The firing speed of the web-shooter needs to be increased; this can be designed by referencing the air compression principle of the grappling hook gun.
And the high-strength rope originally used in the grappling hook gun can be replaced with raw web fluid.
"The stickiness of the web needs to be greatly improved, to achieve the effect of firmly adhering to any object, no matter what it is..."
Batman is not a stubborn or pedantic person; for him, the web-shooter is merely a tool, and not using a tool would be a waste of effort.
The redesigned combination of the grappling hook gun and the web-shooter would still be compact, wearable directly on both wrists, and capable of launching projectiles at a faster speed through compressed inert gas.
However, this was only a design; Batman didn't yet have the ability to hand-craft one in just a morning, especially since almost all the equipment in the Abandoned Shipyard was rusted and unusable.
"The best inert gas is nitrogen. The old grappling hook gun didn't need to consider compressed volume, so there was a technology I never applied to it."
"But when combined with the web-shooter, and pursuing small size and high kinetic energy, this technology is a good choice."
"The technology is called: Nitrogen Spring."
Batman immediately set off, intending to go near the Williamsburg Bridge, the bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
There's a black factory there, where many of New York's Gang bullets are produced.
Batman planned to process and manufacture the "Nitrogen Spring" he needed there.
However, on his way to the Williamsburg Bridge, Batman made a detour, returning to Peter Parker's rented apartment in Lower Manhattan.
Batman had seen videos of Peter Parker swinging through New York City in broad daylight; in his opinion, this level of ostentation was on par with Superman, who runs around the World in a red cape.
Although each time Peter Parker stopped his "Spider-Man" role-playing and reverted to the honest, dull engineering student who loved plaid shirts, he tried to choose an unobserved corner.
But Batman was still uneasy about this; he worried that someone with ill intentions might use it to track Spider-Man's whereabouts, and then conclude, "Peter Parker is Spider-Man."
He needed to hack into the local New York Police system and delete all videos that could potentially expose Spider-Man's whereabouts, accent, or physique, keeping only a portion of videos where features were indistinguishable.
But before that, Batman had one more thing to do—pack up all evidence related to Spider-Man in the apartment and take it away, hiding it.
At the very least, the red and blue Spider-Man suit, and the notebook filled with everything from suit design to web-shooters, and even Spider-Sense.
Both of these items would expose Batman, who was once Peter Parker.
Closing the door tightly and drawing the curtains, Batman swiftly packed everything into Peter Parker's backpack, then stood in front of the mirror after finishing.
A high nose bridge, thick lips, prominent cheekbones with distinct shadows on both sides of his face, clearly defined sideburns near his ears, and brown-black hair combed back—a typical U.S. White appearance.
Vaguely, Batman found that Peter Parker actually bore some resemblance to himself, only he was shorter, at 5 feet 10 inches, or 1.78 meters.
That was a full head shorter than Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne, who stood at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 meters).
"With a different body, the fighting techniques I use from memory will also undergo subtle changes; I must adapt as quickly as possible."
Batman picked up his backpack, ready to leave, planning to go to the black factory to process the Nitrogen Spring he needed, then return to the Abandoned Shipyard to continue training.
A series of urgent knocks on the door interrupted Batman's plans:
"Peter? Peter!"
"Who?"
"It's me, Harry."
Harry Osborn, according to Peter Parker's records at Empire State University, he and Peter were almost inseparable, the closest of friends.
He was also the son of the Osborn Group, a multinational enterprise primarily focused on biotechnology, founded and operated by his father, Norman Osborn.
Batman instinctively did not want to interact with someone who lacked neither money nor technology.
He hadn't inherited all of Peter Parker's memories, and it would be very easy to expose himself in front of a once-inseparable companion like Harry.
Batman had considered this when searching for Peter Parker's information in Dr. Otto's lab; his coping method was simple: feign illness.
Fortunately, having played the role of a playboy for over a decade without being detected as Batman, he possessed sufficiently superb acting skills.
So, when Harry Osborn saw the door open, before he could even speak, Batman had already spread his arms and tightly embraced him.
Then, Batman said nothing, waiting with a melancholic and sorrowful expression for Harry Osborn to speak.
Harry Osborn had come to reprimand him; his good friend, Peter Parker, hadn't been to school for three days, leaving Harry without anyone to talk to at school.
But seeing his good friend's sad face at that moment, the rebuke that had been on Harry's lips couldn't be uttered. He could only gently pat his back, comforting him:
"It's okay, Peter, no matter what happens, I will always and steadfastly stand by you."
