hotmtlnovel Chapter 3768 Rapid Pursuit (3)
Chapter 3768 Rapid Pursuit (3)
Chapter 3768 Rapid Pursuit (Thirteen)
Batman admitted that his brain went blank for a moment when he saw the Bat-Signal light up in mid-air.
Although he used to deliberately have Bruce and Batman appear together to create an alibi for himself and avoid revealing his true identity, this isn't his universe. This universe has never had Batman, and Gordon in this universe is dead. So who would light the Bat-Lights?
Batman pondered for a moment. He was certain that there must be an extraterrestrial behind this, because the style of the Bat-light was familiar: although the bat symbol was slightly different from his own, it couldn't have been created by a local in this universe without Batman; it could only have been made by someone who had seen the Bat-light before.
In this universe, quite a few people have seen the Bat-Lantern. Excluding himself and the Joker from the universe where Night Owl resides, that leaves the Joker from the main universe, the Batman Who Laughs, and Schiller.
Who could have turned on the Bat-Signal?
All three are possibilities. They wouldn't mind using such methods to achieve their goals. But Batman has a strange intuition that the Batman Who Laughs might be behind it.
If one had to find a reason for this intuition, it would be this: adding elements of the canonical Batman universe to this universe would seem like a boring thing to the other two.
While the Joker is always interested in Batman, he prefers to delve into the Batman character as a whole, rather than using Batman as a puzzle piece to assemble something else. He would consider that a desecration.
For example, if Batman were a plant, then the Joker would be a botanist. He would be more interested in exploring what kind of soil could grow this plant, what would make this plant grow better, what the plant's fibrous veins and structure are like, and occasionally loosening the soil or catching insects for him.
If Batman is a plant, then the Maniac Laugh is a chef. He'd rather pluck Batman off and cook him into a dish, using him as a material to make something else, not caring what Batman ends up looking like in the process.
Therefore, what the Joker wanted to know was what the Batman he knew would do in an unfamiliar universe, like studying whether a plant would still grow as well if it were planted in other soil.
As for the Laughing Man, he just wanted to pluck another leaf and stir-fry it with another plant. This leaf was the Bat-lamp, a classic element of Batman.
Just like every agricultural student who dares to beat the vegetable thief who ruins their graduation project to a pulp, the clown is very disgusted by this kind of thing; it's also like how scientists always distrust empiricism, don't study the philosophical ideas and artistry behind it, and directly throw rare materials into the pot as raw materials, which is simply a waste of resources.
As for Schiller? Batman doesn't think it was the main reason he did it; he just felt Schiller probably didn't have the time to build a Bat-Lamp. If he had targeted Batman, he would probably be storming into the office by now.
Assuming the Bat-Laughing lamp was indeed lit by the Bat, what would his purpose be? To summon himself there?
If that were the case, then it wouldn't be the Maniac Laughter. Batman knows very well that the Maniac Laughter is the kind of person who is mediocre but unwilling to be mediocre. When he wants to achieve a certain goal, he will never choose the simplest and most direct method, because he feels that would make him seem too vulgar. He will deliberately take what he thinks is a cool detour to highlight his uniqueness and demonstrate his seemingly sophisticated sense of humor.
The Bat-Light can summon Batman, so the Batman he's going to summon with the Bat-Light can't be Batman, at least not someone like himself who can be considered a more traditional Batman.
But precisely because his maniacal laughter is so mundane, and his roundabout ways are the simplest kind, it's a far cry from genuine logical humor. Even if it's not used to summon himself as Batman, it must be used to summon something else, most likely related to Batman.
With that in mind, Batman turned on the television in the conference room and connected to Gotham TV. Sure enough, the station was broadcasting a report about unidentified light patterns appearing above Gotham City, with the host suggesting it might be the prelude to another terrorist attack by the resistance.
Then, news quickly broke: the Bat-shaped light had been lit on the roof of the Gotham Police Department, but the police had failed to apprehend the person who displayed the light pattern. About two minutes later, a new wave of resistance broke out in the Old Town.
Batman waited a while longer. Soon, he saw a familiar figure on the television screen—Batman.
Indeed, a scene reminiscent of his previous alibis unfolded: Bruce Wayne was with Wayne Enterprises shareholders, while Batman appeared in the Old Town to quell the riots.
Batman knew very well that this wasn't his doing, but the other person bore a striking resemblance to him.
Upon entering the Battle Realm, the main universe Batman was well aware that there are many types of Batmen. Even among the classic Batmen belonging to the Order side, there are significant differences in appearance and temperament. When they stand in a row wearing Batsuits, even an ordinary person can easily distinguish them.
For example, the main universe Batman and the Arkham Batman are very similar in physique, but their equipment materials are slightly different, and their temperaments are also different. The main universe Batman's temperament looks gentler, and compared to the Arkham Batman, he could even be described as elegant and lively; but compared to the Bayonetta Batman, he appears somewhat deep and serious.
However, the Batman appearing on the TV screen did look remarkably like himself. From the style of his equipment and the aura he exuded, to some details of his movements, even the design of his batarangs was almost identical—it was practically a high-end knock-off.
Batman can now confirm that this was all orchestrated by The Laughing Man.
The fact that this Batman suddenly appears and looks so much like himself proves what? It means that whoever created this Batman wants others to think that the culprit behind the imposter knows the main universe's Batman very well. In short, they want to frame the Joker from the main universe.
Currently, among the extraterrestrial visitors in this universe, the Joker and Batman from the main universe are the ones with whom we have the most frequent interactions. Now that an imposter so similar to the main universe's Batman has appeared, who else could be responsible?
The mediocre and incompetent nature of the Laughing Man lies in the fact that he can no longer understand his former self, what he was thinking when he was the real Batman.
Batman stared at the screen on the television. The flaw in the Maniac's act was glaringly obvious—this imposter in the old city was using his strong physique, superior equipment, and intimidating appearance to suppress the rebels causing trouble in the streets.
The core logic behind their behavior is: whoever causes trouble gets punished. It's like a teacher in a school bullying case who indiscriminately punishes everyone equally. This isn't Batman.
Batman is indeed working day after day to quell the chaos in Gotham City, but he doesn't simply lock all the troublemakers up in insane asylums. He needs to investigate, to figure out the root of the chaos, and to use various methods to resolve possible moral dilemmas—whether both are right, both are wrong, or there's no way to tell.
If it weren't for the need to do all this, he wouldn't have needed to become a vigilante or the world's greatest detective; he could have just used the army to crush them.
The Joker deeply understood Batman's logic. Batman is the epitome of wanting too much: stability and democracy, fairness and justice, raising the ceiling for development while ensuring a minimum standard of survival, helping good people while saving bad people. If he didn't want so much, he wouldn't be so powerful.
Batman's many acts of violence may indeed appear to be acts of suppression. However, before he appears at a riot scene and commits any violent acts, he has invariably conducted extensive investigations, analyzed the truth of the matter, grasped the core issues, identified the key contradictions, and then determined that using violence against one side is in the best interest of upholding justice. Only under these circumstances will he intervene, rather than simply rushing in and beating up both sides when he sees a fight breaking out.
Moreover, the guy on TV wasn't just punishing everyone equally; he was targeting the resistance fighters. This kind of behavior, which clearly demonstrates personal bias, is the complete opposite of the Dark Knight who portrays himself as a machine of fairness and justice.
This is not to say that the resistance is entirely righteous, or that their terrorist attacks were entirely without fault. But even after an investigation, the decision was made to stop the uprising, and the violence perpetrated by this imposter on camera was far too low-level.
Batman watched his movements silently, sighing inwardly. This Batman's imitation of him was fairly good in appearance, but once he started fighting—especially when performing a series of attacks—it became clear that he was far from Batman's average level, not even as good as the worst ones.
Violence itself has a deterrent effect, but only normal people can rationally recognize the pain that violence inflicts upon them. Gotham typically has few normal people, and pure violence has very limited deterrent effect on these lunatics. Batman, however, is able to use violence to intimidate the city's numerous lunatics, proving his extremely high level of skill in using violence.
Is violence the key to the aesthetics of violence? Quite the opposite; the allure of the aesthetics of violence lies in restraint. Batman is a prime example of this aesthetic. His greatest charm lies in the calm, rational, and prudent mind beneath his violent exterior and methods.
Batman's use of violence is extremely restrained, always staying just short of the minimum level of violence necessary to perfectly resolve the situation. Even when he uses intimidation, the amount is precisely measured, employing subtle glances, gestures, and tone of voice to achieve maximum deterrence. If one had to sum it up in a single sentence, it would be, "This has become art."
It is precisely this high level of violence that makes him the Dark Knight who strikes fear into the hearts of Gotham's criminals, making those with malicious intent tremble with dread when they look into the darkness of this chaotic and dangerous city at night.
This imposter only possessed a mask resembling Batman, and even if it resembled him more closely than others, it lacked the essence. A mere physical resemblance was useless; every Joker knew that Batman's appearance was the least important element in the overall character design.
This kind of behavior—focusing on the trivial and neglecting the important, losing sight of the bigger picture and picking up the sesame seeds—is probably something only the Laughing Bat could pull off.