r18novel Chapter 570 Batman's Vacation Never Begins
Chapter 570 Batman's Vacation Never Begins
Chapter 570 Batman's Vacation Never Begins
"Feed".
"Hey Batman, it's me, Oswald. The Penguin."
Chen Tao, sitting in the chair, paused for a moment. To be honest, he hadn't remembered this name for a long time.
He was waiting for lunch in a restaurant in Paris, while not far away, his old butler Alfred was insisting that he serve the dishes himself.
Chen Tao confirmed that the other party hadn't noticed them, then said, "Oh, it's Oswald. What's up?"
Along the way, he faced General Zod, Darkseid, the Anti-Monitor, Barbatos...
He had been away from Gotham for too long, and in his mind, many people's lives were too far removed from his and had stagnated for too long.
When you leave a place, the people and things there become blurred, like watching people come and go on the street from behind frosted glass, but you know you are no longer a part of it.
Chen Tao had almost forgotten when he left an emergency contact with Penguin.
"To be honest, old Bat... we haven't seen each other in a long time... I've turned over a new leaf, and now I'm Gotham's biggest burrito distributor, my penguin burritos are sold all over the United States... I've made a lot of money, not as much as I used to sell weapons, but it's still pretty good, at least I don't need to engage in firefights anymore... I know about those cosmic crises, you're doing big things now, aren't you...?"
The penguin rambled on for a while, then continued, "I've always been hesitant to call you... To be honest, before dialing this number, I wasn't even sure if I could still reach you with the number you gave me..."
Then the penguin stopped abruptly, as if he had suddenly choked up.
"What's wrong, Oswald?" Chen Tao asked.
"You've really changed, Bat," the Penguin sighed. "In the past, when I rambled on and on, you'd usually interrupt me and make me get to the point..."
"But now you're willing to listen to me quietly. I feel respected, something I never felt when I was a criminal. I'm grateful to you, Batman."
Chen Tao: "..."
Well, the reason he didn't interrupt was simply because he happened to be free, and he didn't think that Oswald the Penguin could offer him any help or get involved in anything that could threaten him.
Even before Oswald the Penguin reformed, despite being the most powerful of Gotham's second-tier figures, the Penguin was never the one in charge of major events.
He was a criminal obsessed with making money, nothing more, and now he's a businessman who's gone from being a criminal to a legitimate businessman obsessed with making money—it's all the same.
While Chen Tao was still dealing with Gotham-level issues, Oswald the Penguin might have been a decent assistant under his coercion. But once things escalated to a cosmic scale, the Penguin...
So when Chen Tao showed extreme disrespect to Oswald the Penguin, he somehow managed to give Oswald the illusion of respect, uh...
Let's leave it at that.
"I have always respected you, Oswald. You have a past of sins. But overall, you have given a great deal to this city."
As soon as Chen Tao touched his upper lip to his lower lip, the kind words "it's free" came out of his mouth.
"Okay, I think I should get to the point. It's rare for me, but I used to be really good at changing the subject. I'm here to tell you something."
Penguin took a deep breath.
"The clown came to see me."
Chen Tao stood up from his chair in the restaurant and then quickly sat down.
"I was last at Arkham Asylum about 43 hours ago," the Penguin said. "Some of our old friends who weren't cooperating with us are locked up there, and Two-Face and I take turns making sure no one escapes. We used to be experts at escaping prisons, and while our old and new friends may be even more skilled at it, it's hard to fool our checks every two days."
The Penguin said, "I...I'm not sure...but at least when I checked last time, everything was normal. And the guards went home as usual that night. But the Joker came; he just came."
The Penguin said, "He turned my lamp and taco ledger into a smiling saber-toothed tiger right in front of me. Luckily, I had my umbrella full of weapons with me."
"Then the Joker told me a story, a story worse than I expected: a madman had taken over an asylum. This killer sent the married guards home every night, forcing them to pretend everything was fine. Does this mean that while I thought everything was normal, the Joker had already begun his scheme?"
"...I didn't tell Jim (Gotham Police Chief Jim Gordon) about this. His daughter Barbara is missing, and he's in a terrible state right now. I know that if I told him, he would definitely put his daughter aside and focus on his work, but that would be too cruel to him..."
No, of course not. Chen Tao realized that the Penguin was doubting his abilities, and he suspected that the seemingly normal Arkham Asylum that he had inspected was actually a joke played on him by the Joker.
But in fact, Chen Tao already knew that the three clowns seemed to possess some kind of ability to alter reality. If they had this ability, it wouldn't be difficult to change the perceptions of those prison guards or to complete the construction of what he needed to build in a very short time.
The clown said this to the penguin on purpose; he used this method to intimidate the man and make it seem like he had been preparing for a long time.
It's just a clown's trick.
Chen Tao told Penguin about this.
Oswald was silent for a moment. Chen Tao had thought he would care about being suppressed by the Joker again, but he didn't think about that. Instead, he continued, "But even so, Arkham is now closed off. Nobody knows what its interior has been transformed into."
Then he paused.
"However, according to the intelligence I've gathered, several miles of power lines were brought in, along with generators and cables, as well as mortar, plaster, and paint."
"My people claim they heard screams and saw a trolley carrying blood-soaked towels pass through the hall. There were also sounds of bodies being thrown into the incinerator. First, there were the thuds of metal clanging, then a thud from above, smoke, smells, and laughter... there was always laughter."
"No matter what he wants to turn it into, he says it's for you, he says he wants to turn that place into your castle, your home."
The Penguin said, "I know you've already sent the Justice League to handle this, and I'm worried that saying all this now might seem like a lot of rambling, but in fact..."
"I don't think the Justice League can handle the Joker. They might be able to anticipate some of the Joker's moves... but they're not you, Batman, they're not you."
He said, "Gotham needs you, people need you."
Chen Tao knew that Oswald felt he couldn't handle the situation, so he wanted Batman to take action.
"understood."
He replied briefly and then hung up. He looked up and saw his old butler, Alfred, standing in front of him.
Chen Tao sighed.
"Alfred, do you know? When I transform into the Dark Multiverse Dragon and soar through the Dark Multiverse, I always remind myself that there are trillions upon trillions of people living their own lives in different universes."
Alfred didn't speak; he looked at Chen Tao, and Chen Tao looked back at him.
"Everyone says that the Dark Multiverse is a hopeless, broken universe, a flawed world where evil inevitably triumphs over good, but that is not the case."
"The principles of life are largely the same everywhere. Here you'll find mothers telling bedtime stories to their children, three generations enjoying family life together, and loving elderly people supporting each other through thick and thin."
He looked at Alfred.
"I need to prove that my years of efforts have not been in vain. I believe my initial intentions were correct, and my pursuit was unwavering."
The sound grew louder and louder in Alfred's ears, like the rumble of a train, or like gunshots in Crime Alley, deafeningly loud.
"The Dark Multiverse is also part of this mortal world; they pursue those simple and shared emotions, and imagine those unexpected moments of beauty..."
"Alfred," Chen Tao said, "I'm sorry I couldn't stay with you longer."
He took a deep breath and then said, "But the journey..."
"The time to reach the finish line has not yet come. Therefore, you can only rest here temporarily, but cannot stay here. I had already foreseen this." Then Chen Tao heard Alfred's voice.
The old man's voice was muffled, devoid of any emotion.
But Chen Tao heard him say, "Let me help you put on the Batsuit. I even made you a sandwich."
……
……
……
"The Joker left clues in his toxins... He used the blood thinner on those laughing sharks, and the company that made him was also supplying chemicals for the reservoir's water treatment. Moreover, the reservoir was the site of Batman's first battle with the Joker, Batman's first real confrontation with him."
"Yes, that's where Batman first met the Joker and saw clearly what kind of person he really was. That's where Batman understood the true nature of his opponent. And that's also where the Joker saw Batman. This place is of great significance to the Joker."
"So, fellow riddle solvers, what's our next step?" Shazam shouted. "Climb into the ventilation ducts and open the treasure chests?"
"It's Gotham Reservoir," Diana said. "I've already deduced what the Joker's next move will be."
A dozen minutes later. Gotham Reservoir.
"Hello dear."
Clark Kent, dressed in Batman's costume, jumps off the Batmobile.
He looked at the Joker standing on the bridge not far away, arms outstretched, and wondered which of the three Jokers Batman had mentioned. They had previously captured the clown who had been trying to distract them.
And who could this be?
Where is Barbara Gordon?
Clark mimicked Batman's tone as he spoke.
"What? Not even a hug? Not even a batarang aimed at my head?"
Superman looked down at his hands.
"You hold the remote control; if I move it, you'll pour poison into the reservoir—"
"That's right, it was like this last time."
Wonder Woman, who was eavesdropping remotely, was sweating profusely. This was terrible! In the entire set of materials Batman gave them, the section about the Joker didn't mention her early career battles against the Joker at all!
The Joker's sudden remark about "last time" completely stunned Wonder Woman.
This can't be blamed on Chen Tao. The Joker in this Dark Multiverse was someone Batman fought before his time travel; how could Chen Tao have a backup of such memories?
"Ah, yes, you remember! That's exactly what we did last time. We were full of energy back then, just two young guys!"
"What is this? The Joker? All of this?"
Then the Joker softened his tone and rubbed the explosion controller in his face: "Look, here's the thing. We've been talking about formulas, formulas, formulas, formulas a lot lately, so I need to get everything sorted out beforehand so we can relax and have a nice chat, face to face."
"What did you handle?"
"Oh, of course it's our official business! Something that would have happened here."
"What did you say?" Superman disguised as Batman asked. "What else do you have...?"
Batman, disguised as Superman, lunged at the Joker, but then he stumbled upon a holographic projection. The conversation he had just had with it was actually conducted remotely by the Joker using the projection.
"Hey, in no time you'll get the call you've been waiting for, and then you'll make a decision, you'll decide to act, right? You'll throw that batarang hidden behind your back, just like last time!"
The Joker got more and more excited as he spoke, and Clark's portrayal of Batman perfectly demonstrated what Batman would become if he didn't encounter any problems.
The clown was still jumping around erratically.
"Then bang I got hit, scream scream, but I'll press the remote control really fast, really fast, really fast to poison the water. Then you'll call your little friend, the one who used to be Robin, Nightwing, right... He'll blow up the bridge."
With a deafening roar, Clark turned his head sharply and saw that the bridge not far away had been blown into two pieces.
The clown raised his palm; he wasn't holding a stick or anything else.
"Then we'll fight. You'll save the city, but I'll kill some more people, just like I killed that small group of people last time. They diverted the water back home before it flowed into the city."
"It's really interesting. You know, they tore down that generation's affordable housing and built an apartment building for those arrogant young people who looked like the kind of people I would kill, so I went and... well... killed them."
When Clark looked down at the bridge where they were, he saw one corpse after another floating there.
"You disgusting lunatic!"
Then he heard the clown's laughter:
"Look, it's all done! The water was poisoned, the aqueduct was blown up, people died, and now we can chat!"
(End of this chapter)