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"Who decides limits? And based on what? You said you worked hard? Well, maybe you need to work a little harder. Is that really the limit of your strength? Could the you of tomorrow beat you today? Instead of giving in, move forward."
– Saitama, (One Punch Man)
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<(Bruce Wayne POV)>
It's official, I am one of the best goddamn actors on the entire fudging planet. I think I was a better Tony Stark than even Robert Downey Jr. himself, although that might be pushing it a little bit too much.
I even fully expected that I would definitely get found out but it seemed I was either too good an actor or Ra's Al Ghul had just grown too old to tell I was acting. Guess reading all those books on acting and body language finally paid off, huh? I am glad my ability lets me quickly learn skills like these as well as long as I have gained enough knowledge about them.
Now, one might ask why was I acting like a spoiled billionaire child who was definitely smart and determined but was too arrogant for his own good. Simple, it's because I wanted to give Ra's Al Ghul as much false data about myself as I could to prevent him or anyone else from creating an accurate psyche profile on me so that they would not be able to use it against me later.
Because let's face it, mind games are a thing, especially in a twisted universe like DC, and just because I was a transmigrator didn't mean I was above them. I am as much emotional as any other normal human being, maybe with a little bit more control over my emotions than the average but that didn't mean I was immune to anyone's mind games, at least not yet. But I was definitely working towards that.
But on the brighter side, I am now positive that I can act as a spoiled billionaire playboy if I ever need to. The original Bruce Wayne always did exactly that to hide his Batman counterpart better and make sure that people could never link his public face to his secret vigilante persona.
Anyway, that's too much about my brilliant acting skills. Now, let's come back to the actual topic everyone is interested in. How does the Hidden City of the League of Assassins look? Well, not that impressive truthfully. I have only had the opportunity to look at the... town once, that was when I landed in front of it in style but the design of the small city in itself completely failed to impress me.
I mean the town was brilliant from a strategic point of view but from the point of architecture, it was as 'ordinary' as any small mountain town. It could have been better and more attractive if enough money was spent on it but unfortunately for Ra's Al Ghul, he neither had access to the absurd amount of money that was needed to modernize an entire town (since not everyone was me, aka, Bruce Wayne) nor did he have any need for it.
In fact, I even had to spend my entire first night here sleeping on a mattress-less bed which was uncomfortable as hell. But, that might just be them trying to humble me instead of actual poverty since I didn't think they were poor enough to not even be able to afford a single mattress.
Also, I hadn't been given a tour of the city yet. In fact, I had more or less been imprisoned in a little room they had allocated me, and the worst thing was that they didn't even give me the wifi password since apparently, they hadn't gotten a wifi yet. I mean, just imagine what type of animals they truly are.
I was extremely lucky that I had decided against not bringing some of my less obvious but useful gadgets with me. My smart watch which was actually smart with Cortana inside connected me with the local satellites the moment I landed here, enabling me to use the entire country's... 2g networks since it still hadn't started rolling out 3g yet.
"Cortana, remind me to make a satellite internet constellation after I return. I don't want to face a no-internet or low-speed internet situation ever again in my life." I said in all seriousness.
"Got it, sir, any particular name for this scheduled project?" She asked in a low voice, making sure that no one else could hear it outside the room.
"Name it Ultra Starlink." I smiled as I remembered the dream project of a very famous billionaire in my previous life.
'I wonder if he exists in this world as well.' I thought to myself. I never searched for him specifically, so he might or might not exist. But, again, even if he did exist in this world, he would be more or less useless to me. In a world like this, geniuses had a particularly high bar and most average geniuses could invent jetpacks or freezing guns on their own, so a car-loving nerdy introvert wouldn't be of much help.
I had also brought a few of my drones with me to this little expedition but I wasn't going to release them right now because I was sure that they would most certainly get caught by Ra's Al Ghul or one of his minions who had mastered their senses through the use of chi regardless of how silent or stealthy my drones were.
"Hey Wanyne brat, dress up. The Demon's Head has decided to start your first lesson today." The familiar voice of a beefy minion came from outside my door which broke my chain of thoughts.
"At last, I was almost beginning to think that you guys had just called me here for my charming personality instead of my amazing talents." I giggled silently as I heard the man outside my door scoffing in annoyance but still didn't retort to my words.
I guess Ra's Al Ghul teaches his minions some good manners and stuff since Ubu until now had succeeded in not giving any big reaction to my sarcasm.
After I was done dressing up, I went outside to meet with Ubu who was standing patiently outside my door with a neutral expression on his face, making it impossible for anyone to know what the man was thinking exactly.
"Come," He said just a single word before strutting off to god knows where.
Does the man really speak so little or does he just not like having a heart-to-heart with someone like me?
Even though I was in a mood to annoy the hell out of someone with my newly developed Tony Stark personality, I still wisely kept my mouth shut and silently followed the Khali lookalike, yeah that's how big he was.
The place where I was staying was well in the outer regions of the town. I had thought that Ubu would be giving me a short tour of the small city while taking me to Ra's Al Ghul. But turns out that I was wrong on both fronts.
Instead, he took me even higher up the mountain where the temperature was literally freezing and the entire surroundings were covered with ice. Also, the worst thing was that we traveled the entire distance walking and trekking, all the while I was in a normal winter coat.
Now, this normally would have killed the normal me and incapacitated the chi-trained and regularly exercising me but after being a more or less perfected version of a super soldier, I was unstoppable, and minor threats like cold or heat were nothing to me as long as they didn't cross absurd levels. So, even after almost reaching the top of the mountain peak we were climbing, I was as calm as the moment we started this journey while Ubu on the other hand looked slightly out of breath.
"What? Did you get tired so quickly? Seems you need to work out more, don't you? Looks like you are getting fat." I smirked condescendingly at the poor bodyguard who said nothing and just continued to walk toward a single old wooden hut with its back against the mountain, standing like a lonely island in the middle of a sea of white snow.
But, entering the 'hut', I finally realized that what I was considering a small shack before was actually a full-fledged temple/dojo/museum all combined into one. As a matter of fact, the place looked a lot like Jade Palace from Kungfu Panda if Jade Palace was completely made of wood and if its designer had a sense of style that could be considered... old.
"This is the Demon Head's private dojo. You will practice here for the next few days and master the very first technique one needs to learn inside our... organization. Only after you master this will you be taught anything else or be allowed to use any of our other resources." Ubu said while handing me a small curled-up scroll.
"Wait, Ra's won't be coming himself personally? So, you basically brought me here using false advertising? Not cool man, not cool. I mean I get how you wanna spend time with me, everyone does. My charm does that to people but you can't lie for that. You could have just told me the truth and I would have gladly..."
I could not finish as Ubu just turned his back on me and left the 'hut' with hurried steps, probably to vomit blood somewhere since he looked like he had some Asian heritage in him.
"Really, people nowadays. Not the slightest bit of decency." I shrugged as I began to open the scroll, my eyes now having lost their previous playful smirk and replaced by ice-cold seriousness.
However, as soon as I took a peek inside the old scroll, I almost slapped my own forehead at my stupidity because inside the scroll was the single basic technique that almost anyone in a comic world could and should have to save themselves from the danger of mind rape.
How I hadn't thought of this particular famous technique before I had no idea.
Inside the scroll was the most famous mind protection technique ever. It was the most basic and fundamental technique that could potentially protect against all forms of low and even mid-tier mind attacks if your mind was strong enough.
Depicted in different works of fiction by various names like the Gantzfield or the Vault, its most famous name among geeks and enthusiasts was however the Mind Palace, the single best mental method for Visualization, Memory storage, and retrieval, Visualization aid as well as mental protection in dangerous worlds like DC and Marvel multiverses where your mind was more unsafe than your virginity.
'Well, better late than never I guess since this will definitely add to my mental processing power as well as contribute to my mental defenses alongside my necklace.' I thought as I took a single look at the entire scroll and then threw it away, having memorized the entire thing, curtsey to my photographic memory.
'Now, let's start making the most complicated Mind Palace ever, one so over-the-top complex that even telepaths who dare enter my mind will have to cry tears of blood to get out.' I thought darkly, a menacing and sadistic grin slowly forming on my lips.
Oh, I am gonna have so much fun with this.
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