Chapter 79: The Wayne Corporation Gambit

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"Don't give up, there's no shame in falling down! The true shame is not to stand up again!"

- Shintaro Midorima, (Kuroko no Basuke)

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<(Bruce Wayne POV)> 

"Bruce, are you absolutely sure that you don't just want to use the amusphere on everyone and brainwash every gang leader and politician in the city to be loyal to you? I think that would be much more effective than you doing this... caped crusader stuff that you are planning. According to my calculations, a symbol of hope or justice won't mean anything to humans when faced with dark times.

However, if you let me, then I might be able to slowly convert the population of the entire city to your loyal followers. It would be much more fast and effective with minimum bloodshed. And you would not even have to do anything, all you have to do is just give me the command and let the new generation combat drones handle the rest." Cortana confidently said as she showed me holograms of the various plans she had made to make my job easier for me.

"Hahahahaha. Strangely, I actually agree with you Cortana. Me, playing a hero or even an antihero wouldn't change shit in this hellhole of a city. Humans are inherently selfish and greedy creatures which is not bad by the way since those very factors greatly contribute to development and evolution.

But that also means that no matter how much I try playing the ideal good guy as the symbol of hope, they would always go back to their old ways when they get the chance. They would always want to fight and kill, plunder and rape, steal and torture. Hell, some of them would probably even do it for fun rather than greed." I admitted after a laugh at which Cortana's hologram which currently looked like a young adult girl rapidly nodded.

I had greatly upgraded the hologram technology in my lab after my return. Even though they were still not advanced enough to use hard light to interact with the physical environment, they were still comparable to Mysterio's hologram systems. So, Cortana could now easily take the form of an ordinary-looking human or whatever form she desired and she would appear as normal to anybody as me or any other physical being. Normally, she liked using her original blue form when it was just me with her but in the presence of others, she resorted to using a more human form to 'fit in'.

However, right now, she was using her 'non-blue form' to have this conversation. She was even wearing a general's uniform that strangely made her look like some kind of a dictator to make herself appear more serious. However, in my eyes, it only served to make her look cuter.

"... But despite all this, I cannot agree with your suggestion. Free will is a very important thing to me personally. To me, taking away people's free will by brainwashing them and making them complacent in following my orders is equal to the highest of torture and abuse, perhaps even worse since that would mean, I would be taking away the very meaning of what it means to be alive and free.

That is something I don't desire since I have no wish to rule over anyone. I only wish to make a world where I and my loved ones won't have to live in fear of random psychos and wannabe villains. Perhaps I would have done it if it was the only way but currently, it is not. I am confident that humanity will survive even without me brainwashing the entire species and becoming its absolute overlord. Plus there are too many gods, demons, aliens, angels, imps, and other interdimensional entities in this multiverse for us to brainwash Cortana.

As for becoming a hero, HAHAHA, don't joke around. I have no desire to be a symbol of hope or whatever. I am simply going to become a person who will show everyone that villains may appear cool at first glance but at the end of the day, the end of a bad person is always equally bad. I will make examples out of them in front of the world and ensure that any person would think twice before even considering disturbing my or the city's peace. The symbol of hope might not work, but the symbol of fear and vengeance definitely will." I explained to Cortana.

She didn't look convinced but she still nodded and didn't argue any further.

"Plus, don't think that playing a superhero is going to be my endgame or something, it is merely part of a complex long-term plan. I don't want to beat criminals all around the city while cosplaying as a bat all my life. I have stuff to do, money to spend, and women to take dates on. Beating a few criminals or even killing their leader would only result in someone else taking up the empty position. So I need a more permanent solution, a solution which I have already figured out. And if I am right which I most probably am, then Black Mask would be the key for me to achieve this particular permanent solution." 

"You have already thought of everything, haven't you? I guess it should be expected since after all you were the one who created me in the first place." Cortana said happily as she clapped.

"Yeah, of course, I am the greatest master ever. Anyways, you should keep your Skynet vibes in check Cortana. The fact that I might have used certain parts of the source code from Ultron, Skynet, and Red Queen in you doesn't mean you have to act the part too. For a moment there, you were really giving me some apocalyptic AI vibes. But then again, at least you grew out of your anime girl phase." I quipped. 

"And why do you assume that, baka master?" She giggled.

"*Sigh* I should have expected that I was not that lucky. Anyways, how is the enhanced serum for Selina and Nyssa coming along? I would prefer it if you finish the simulation of the serum before they get too overtly friendly and have a discussion about their respective love lives. If they enter the cryo chambers, I will at least get a week to prepare myself mentally and think things through in peace before I have to face them again." I said with a gulp as I remembered how I spent my last three days in the mansion.

I had decided to give the enhanced serum to Selina and Nyssa mostly because I did not want anyone to get back at me using the people close to me and thus making them strong and difficult to kill was the easiest way to go. Even Vicki and Helena were on my list too for that. Alfred would have been too but he had made it inexplicably clear that he wasn't going to go through multiple body modifications since he didn't really need them. The peak-body gene modification serum was supposedly enough for him. Of course, I didn't agree with that and planned to activate his meta-genes in the future with the 3rd serum that I was currently working on. 

As for those who were thinking that we all especially me and the girls would probably have the same set of powers and special abilities since we were going to take the same set of serums, well, they could not be more wrong.

The enhancement serum enhanced people differently. For example, while it focused more on strength and healing for me, for someone else, it could enhance their agility or flexibility more or maybe focus on their senses or durability. It varied from person to person and depended on various factors like genetics or physiologies or even the dosage of the components of the serum.

And when injected with the serum that would awaken their metagene, they would become even more different just like the Black Canary and Flash are completely different and unique characters in their own rights with separate power sets despite both being metahumans. So, even if every member of the Bat family gets the same set of serums, they would still remain unique with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. In fact, with every modification to their bodies, their uniqueness would only increase.

"I have already started preparing the serum with adjusted component dosage, even replacing kryptonite radiation back with vita and gamma radiation as an adjustment to their feminine physiologies as well as to lessen the pain to the minimum amount. However, you are just delaying the inevitable. If you take my advice, sir, you should just sit them down and tell them everything. According to my calculations, Selina has an 89 percent chance of agreeing to be a part of your harem while Nyssa has about a 73 percent chance... Weirdly Talia if you ever decide to add to your harem has the highest probability of 97 percent of agreeing to be one of your lovers. So, you might want to start from the one with the lowest probability." Cortana shrugged.

I had tested my entire enhanced physiology quite deeply and after multiple tests, I have finally confirmed that none of my 'fluids' were radioactive or harmful in nature to normal humans. In fact, they could even be called nutritious since they contain a good amount of proteins and minerals. Even my pee was healthier than most artificial energy and health drinks that humans like to drink to get fit. So, even though there was no more biological barrier between me and sex, I still wasn't getting laid because right now, I had no idea how to tell both Nyssa and Selina to 'share' me.

I suspected that they both had some idea about the situation but they made no effort to try to investigate more. Perhaps, they themselves were afraid of what they would find. Also, how was I even supposed to approach the topic with them? Do I just say everything all at once and hope for the best like ripping off a band-aid or do I prepare them for it slowly with subtle psychological manipulations and stuff? I know the second thing doesn't sound too 'herolike' but for me, it was probably the easiest way to get them not to say no to the idea of me dating both of them at once.

"... Yeah. But the thing with Talia is probably not going to happen since girls like Talia are only interested in my body, not in my heart." I joked with a chuckle. "Anyway, jokes apart, before I start the Dark Knight project, I think I should tie a few loose ends including the entire debacle about Wayne Corporation. I have let those stupid greedy bastards hold on to my wealth for way too long. It's finally time for me to take everything that belongs to me back from their dirty little hands." I commented.

"At last! I thought you had almost forgotten about it. You seemed so happy with that big Amazon acquisition that you made during the dot com bubble burst that I assumed you didn't even care for the Wayne Corporation any longer. After all, you didn't even bother trying to acquire promising companies like Google after that. I still think letting that search engine company go was a waste," 

"Maybe. But governments going after monopolies are a real thing. Becoming a company with a monopoly in almost every sector of technology wouldn't be good. Plus there is nothing Google could make that I can't. Be it a more advanced search engine, better AI and machine learning capabilities, or an entirely new operating system, I could do everything they do, only a thousand times better. An example would be Facebook, Outlook YouTube, Facemail, and Twitter from Wayne Solutions which have already become the biggest social media, and emailing platforms in the world despite several competitors being already there.

But building up an e-commerce platform like Amazon is something completely different. It isn't just a technology product, it is much more complex. From supply chain to contracts with retailers, sellers, customer support department, and logistics, it is multiple times more complex and thus it is almost impossible to make another Amazon without spending at least 4 times the amount of money I spent to acquire it, even with my genius mind. So, Amazon was one of the few companies that we needed to acquire no matter what. As for Google, I am sure Wayne Electronics would be more than good enough to compete with it." I clarified.

I had to spend about 12 billion dollars including tax to acquire the company in 2001 and even that was only possible because of the huge losses it was facing at that time and also because of the fact that I had taken away its biggest source of profitability by almost monopolizing the cloud computing and web services sector through Wayne Web Services that AWS would one day be known for. So, Jeff Bezos had no other way but to sell the entire company to me under pressure from the investors due to the market crash. Whoever had said that the rich only grew richer had never spoken more true words.

"So, does that mean Operation WayneCorpfall is a go?" Cortana asked doubtfully. After all, there was no way back, once the operation kicked into motion.

"Yep..., it is most definitely a go," I said after a moment of silence, having decided to go through with the plan. It was time to go visit some stupid rich pigs also known as the Wayne Corporation board members.

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