hotmtlnovel Chapter 3774 Rapid Pursuit (9)
Chapter 3774 Rapid Pursuit (9)
Chapter 3774 Rapid Pursuit (19)
As mentioned before, due to Anatoli's preemptive move and Bruce's interference, The Laughing did not become a general under Barbatos, and naturally did not obtain any powerful strength from him.
Without strong foundational support, even with foresight, many plans cannot be executed. Just traversing the universe is a complicated matter, requiring a vast amount of energy. Without Barbatos's investment, everyone has to figure things out on their own.
This severely limits the scope of the Laughing Maniac's activities. Unlike in the original comics, he can't simply appear in any universe he wants; most of the time, he can only operate within a limited number of universes.
This resulted in him not recognizing many Batmen and not knowing much about many of them. He mostly relied on the spiked eye patch on their heads to read their thoughts when they were off guard, and then judged their strength by their life stories.
This method is obviously unreliable and only provides a general understanding. They finally found a few decent Batmen from the Dark Multiverse and devised a series of plans to recruit them, but Bruce and his team still managed to steal their thunder.
This was obviously unacceptable. The maniac couldn't allow his plan to conquer the universe to be thwarted by his own hand. After much agonizing reflection, he finally decided—to blame God.
To reiterate, even the Laughing Batman wasn't that strong when he was Batman. If he truly possessed extraordinary willpower, he wouldn't have contracted the Joker virus. Look at Arkham Batman. Remember, Arkham Batman also contracted the Joker virus when he speedrunned through Gotham City in one night. Besides fighting the criminals outside, he also had to battle the Joker within his own mind. Later, he was even exposed to a powerful version of the Fear Gas, yet he acted as if nothing had happened, still beating everyone up.
The maniac felt that his constant misfortunes stemmed from his inherently weak abilities. He wasn't strong as Batman, so the Joker wasn't strong either; combined, they weren't much stronger. If he were born invulnerable or possessed magic, would his current predicament even be a problem?
Therefore, his predicament is not his own fault, but rather that God did not give him a healthy body. If he had a healthy body, he would have been wreaking havoc in the multiverse long ago.
The Laughing King's logic has always been like this, as it is in the original comics. After obtaining Barbatos's power at the start, he formed the Dark Knights, but he didn't manage the order properly. Instead, he stole the body of Batman, who might become Doctor Manhattan, and later stole the Crisis Force.
These kinds of people never think about improving themselves; they only want to take what's readily available. They steal from whoever is stronger, and if what they steal isn't good enough, they move on to the next one, and so on, until nothing truly belongs to them.
Of course, if they could steal successfully every time, that would be considered a skillful way to make a living through shady dealings. But the key is that even when they steal, they don't really understand how. They can only pick what seems to be the strongest within their own field of vision, regardless of whether it's actually the strongest or whether it suits them.
Within the scope of the maniacal laughter, the strongest Batman he could possibly encounter was probably Arkham Batman.
This is the drawback of this approach. The Laughing can only target those who are visibly strong; the upper limit of the abilities he can find is limited by his understanding. Otherwise, he should have tried to steal Bruce. He didn't do that because he didn't understand Bruce's abilities.
While the Batman of the main universe is also quite powerful, he is relatively restrained, or as mentioned before, "controlled." Even in the Battle Realm, any mission he undertakes always seems like a "barely completed" task. Although he gets what he's supposed to, he often lacks a certain flair and doesn't look as cool.
Arkham Batman is different. Like the agent, he's a speedrunner, pursuing ultimate efficiency, focusing on skipping, skipping, and more skipping. He slices through any dungeon like butter, and his appearance, demeanor, and fighting style are incredibly cool, definitely appealing to most people's aesthetic sensibilities. The Laughing Man is no exception.
The Laughing One knew of the existence of the Battle Realm and had considered it before. Although he couldn't break through to the Battle Realm for the time being because its level was too high, when he decided to steal the body, he immediately thought of finding a certain instance universe to create a trap, lure various Batmen over, and then pick the strongest one from among them.
The Broken Bat instance was the perfect trap he found. He lured Batman and Robins in by exploiting their compassion, then meticulously set the trap before selecting the victims.
In fact, far more than just Dick and Arkham Batman came to rescue Broken Bat; many Batmen participated. However, because the Maniac had anticipated this and created numerous obstacles, ultimately resorting to cheating with the Ghost City, virtually no one made it to the end. Some of the weaker Batmen were even eliminated early on.
And the Arkham Batman who made it to the end naturally became the target of the Laughing Man. What he wanted was that kind of powerful body.
The Laughing King used Ghost City to defeat Arkham Batman, but didn't immediately execute his plan to steal the body because Arkham Batman was still in the Battlegrounds at that time. Players in a battleground, even if they die, will only respawn in the Battlegrounds, and their physical attributes will be reset. The Laughing King couldn't use the Battlegrounds; he couldn't compete with such a high-level entity for Arkham Batman's body. Therefore, he had to lure the real Arkham Batman, who wasn't on a mission, into the Battlegrounds.
So he deliberately stayed in the Broken Bat universe, waiting for the furious Arkham Batman to come looking for him. However, perhaps because the Batman in the Broken Bat universe was in such poor condition that the Laughing Batman couldn't lay an egg inside him, he had to take a roundabout route, luring the Arkham Batman from the Broken Bat universe to the Hush Batman universe, then transferring the egg inside the Hush Batman to the Arkham Batman's body, and finally finding a way to hatch it, successfully stealing the Arkham Batman's body.
"Wait." After leaving the elevator, Schiller suddenly stopped Arkham Batman and said, "Don't go over there."
Batman from Arkham looked at him, and although he didn't say anything, he had already made his stance clear.
“I mean, the Batman Who Laughs is a very paranoid person,” Schiller said. “He thinks you have the best physique, that no other Batman is as good as you, so he’ll get you no matter what. He won’t waste this opportunity on other Batmen until then; they’re safe for now.”
Arkham Batman narrowed his eyes. He slowed his pace and looked at Schiller, asking, "How does he intend to take over my body?"
“An egg, similar to parasitism,” Schiller said after thinking for a moment. “I don’t know exactly how to do it, but I think it might not be necessary to defeat you first.”
“He really shouldn’t have been that stupid,” Arkham Batman said in a deep voice. “What changes occurred after he was parasitized?”
“He might be mentally unstable,” Schiller said. “What you just said reminded me. This universe’s Bruce Wayne went to an asylum because of mental problems, possibly because he was parasitized. But he only showed symptoms when he was first parasitized, and then he became more and more normal, so we can’t determine whether this universe’s Batman has an egg inside him.”
"What are you planning to do?" Arkham Batman asked.
"You absolutely cannot come into contact with Batman from this universe, especially not with Batman from this universe or with The Laughing. Fortunately, the Laughing is now just a head; once we get rid of that head, the risk will be much lower."
They arrived at the door. Schiller said, "Even if he only has a head left, he can still read minds. It's best not to let too many people know about this, and you should be prepared."
"Don't worry," Arkham Batman nodded and said, "The plan you mentioned needs to be implemented as soon as possible. If he has another version of himself, he won't have time to bother me."
“I have another plan,” Schiller said with a smile. “If it works out, things will get interesting.”
After saying that, he pushed open the door and went inside. Three pairs of eyes stared at him simultaneously. The main universe's Batman was the first to step forward and say, "What's wrong? Is there something you need?"
“I forgot some things.” Schiller looked at the laughing head on the table and said, “I don’t think he’ll have a pleasant conversation with you, so I’ll take him with me. Goodbye.”
The main universe's Batman didn't object; he was busy figuring out what kind of Batman this universe was. Schiller, holding the laughing head, didn't leave but went to the adjacent lounge to wait, clearly waiting for the main universe's Batman to finish his conversation so he could speak with him.
The Laughing Head was present when Schiller discussed the plan with the main universe's Batman, and later when he discussed the execution details with the Arkham Batman. The Laughing Head heard all their plans and knew what they were going to do.
Schiller spoke without any hesitation, and the two Batmen knew he might have something to hide, so they went along with him and pretended not to know that they could hear his maniacal laughter.
Schiller did indeed have his own plans. He never intended to hide it from The Laughing, because from the moment Schiller chopped off his head, The Laughing had already lost the initiative. He couldn't stop Schiller from doing what he did next.
However, now that it is known that the Laughing Head might have a way to transfer the Laughing Egg, which is suspected to exist in the Silent Batman, to other bodies, Schiller has another idea.
It is known that the Laughs know they are trying to exploit a bug to create two Laughs. That is to say, the new Laughs, born from a new body, and the old Laughs, who now only has one head, will use different bodies, and they will definitely fight.
So, will this old Mad Laugh really give the new Mad Laugh a good body? If so, wouldn't the old Mad Laugh be the one who suffers when they fight?
Since a clash between the old and the new is inevitable, the Old Man of the Laughing must be insane to give his opponent such a powerful body. If the New Man of the Laughing were to take over Arkham Batman's body, what would be the point of him fighting?!
Schiller planned to start from this point, letting the Maniac Laugh destroy its own defenses. But before that, he needed to add fuel to the fire. The Maniac Laugh wasn't very smart to begin with; if it lost its mind, it would be even easier to deal with.
A moment later, there was a knock on the lounge door. Schiller came out of the lounge and saw the main universe's Batman sitting in a chair.
"Did you call someone to dispose of the body?" Schiller asked, looking at Elliott's body lying on the ground.
"Not yet, what's wrong?"
"Don't rush to call for help. Don't forget, we haven't even finalized our plan to revive the old Man of Laughter's body yet. I think Elliott's body would be perfect, what do you think?"