socalfunplaces Chapter 173 The Illusion of the Laughing Bat
Chapter 173 The Illusion of the Laughing Bat
Chapter 173 The Illusion of the Laughing Bat
"Oh, Batman, my master."
On Earth, Batman is located in the Batcave, a branch base in Gotham City.
There's a reason Batman chose this location for his rally: its defense system is second only to the one beneath Wayne Manor, making it the toughest of all the branch bases.
Boom!
The ventriloquist sat in front of the computer, listening to the muffled sounds outside.
Boom!
He was so frightened that he clutched the baby bat doll in his arms tightly.
"Master! I'm so scared!"
Then he listened attentively and nodded gently.
"Yes, yes, that's right, Master. Bane can stop that monster outside."
He rambled on, saying, "Nothing can escape the master's discerning eyes! Everything is within the master's expectations!"
He shouted maniacally and gleefully, "So you specifically left Bane here to guard this place! No one can break into this room and seize the Joker, controlling Zombie Black!"
The ventriloquist's eyes sparkled with a light like a fangirl's, which, combined with the bald, bespectacled old man's maid outfit, made it even more of an eyesore.
"Invincible! Bane! Invincible! Bat!"
"Yay! Yay! Yay!"
Then--
"If it were me, I wouldn't be happy too soon."
The ventriloquist suddenly turned his head.
He was so frightened that he fell to the ground with a thud.
"You...it's you, Brainiac!"
He pointed tremblingly at the trumpet "Brainiac" that had suddenly appeared in the room.
The other party had a green head as big as the organic body that Brainiac created, but its body was as small as an underdeveloped baby.
"Yes, it's me."
He heard the other person say, "Did Batman think he could stop me by having Bane stand guard outside?"
His malicious eyes fixed on the terrified ventriloquist: "He's terribly wrong."
"You... your body has absolutely no fighting ability."
The ventriloquist, trembling, raised his gun and pointed it at him: "I can defeat you!"
"correct."
Brainiac said:
"That's true, but that doesn't stop me from crushing you."
His eyes gleamed white: "In terms of telepathic abilities, you and I are not even on the same level."
……
……
……
"So, how much longer are we going to stay in this damned red of all living beings?"
Louis Lane kicked the red sand beneath his feet, utterly bored.
"We've been here for at least 10 hours!"
The large green crocodile snorted.
"Nonsense, we've only been here for at least four hours. Not even a day has passed."
"No need to rush, Miss Ryan."
Superman's mother, Martha, beamed and shoved a game console into Ryan's hands. "Look," she said, "Batman gave us this game console. He's so thoughtful, isn't he a great boy?"
The smiling old lady put her arm around Louis's waist: "Come play with me for a while, just a little while."
"Oh, Martha," Louis said, rubbing his forehead, "I really don't want to play anymore. We've been playing for so long, please let me go."
"Anyway, you've already finished writing your manuscript," Martha said.
But he didn't force Louis, who didn't want to play, and said, "Then I'll play by myself."
He said:
"You really should get used to being a superwoman mother or wife—"
(At this moment, Louis covered his face shyly.)
"—Everything we're meant to go through, we're naturally Clark's Achilles' heel, and it's only right that Batman protects us. The fact that he invited us here this time is already quite a show of courtesy. Do you remember last time that guy named Mudface just popped out of the ground and swallowed me whole, and then…"
Boom!
A loud bang interrupted their conversation.
Louis and Martha exchanged glances, and Killer Croc stood up.
At the edge of the red desert, they saw a giant robot flying towards them.
"It's Brainiac's robot!"
Killer Croc's expression changed: "Damn it!"
He turned to Louis and Martha and said, "Run! I'll hold him off!"
……
……
……
"Isn't it incredibly satisfying to hear those dying cries?"
Silence.
There was also a slight sense of disorientation.
Chen Tao felt as if he were wandering in darkness.
He heard a voice.
"I think we all knew a trick or two to deal with that blue scout, but none of us expected we'd actually use them until it was too late."
Who is speaking?
Chen Tao blinked.
He gripped the pale man tightly with his own hands, covered in calluses and bone spurs. His gaze lingered on the man's upturned lips.
The ravager Chen Tao said:
"Joker, I thought I—zzzzzz!"
A crackling sound came from the horizon, blurring the words of the ravagers and reducing "I" to a third-person pronoun—
No, I killed the Joker. I killed more than one.
Chen Tao thought to himself.
I put them in a crystal coffin and eliminated them safely and harmlessly.
He vaguely remembered what he had done.
"He killed you."
And the current situation is...
Chen Tao began to feel somewhat dazed again.
【warn!warn! 】
Chen Tao heard a sound coming from the very distant horizon.
[WARNING! WARNING! The Nightmare Batman "The Devastater" is far too powerful and will severely damage Batman's morality and completely destroy his sanity!]
"Oh, no. You've got it wrong. We're the same type, understand? We're both extremely twisted Bruce Wayne. From a broken planet that shouldn't exist."
[WARNING! WARNING! Batman's danger level detected: E]
"But I am not Bruce Wayne, I am Chen Tao."
Chen Tao thought to himself.
He felt dizzy, like he was drunk, but his mind was clear.
That's a real contradiction.
[At his current level, Batman is incapable of withstanding the contamination from a Batman of SS-level danger!]
Chen Tao heard the sound coming from the horizon very clearly. He stared blankly at the scene before him, but his eyes suddenly sharpened.
I am Chen Tao, not Bruce. That's not right.
Damn it, this isn't my memory! This is the ravager's... get out of my head!
[Activating mandatory protocol protection strategy: overcharge protection]
"But I want to give you a second chance."
Chen Tao stared coldly at the laughing bat before him. The other man seemed completely unaware of his gaze and continued his eloquent speech.
"This entire place will be reduced to cosmic dust in the next few minutes. But what if I told you there's another world where everyone trusts and loves Superman?"
[Batman #52, the protocol will automatically protect your sanity from damage. At your current danger level, you can only synchronize with "The Destroyer" for a maximum of 0.1283 seconds.]
call--
The moment that sound came, the world seemed to be draped in a thin film.
The Bat of Laughter's voice began to become indistinct:
"A world where people still believe that no matter what happens, Superman will always be there to save the day, and what if I told you that our grand plan is to show everyone what he really is?"
Chen Tao felt himself being gradually pulled away from the dark world by a membrane, and he heard himself say:
"Take me there."
And he heard the Bat Who Laughs's response:
"Hahaha! Of course! My new friend! Welcome to the Dark Knights!"
"But hey, something's weird. Don't you think someone's spying on us?"
"There is no one here except us. There is not a single living person left on the entire planet."
"Hahaha, hahaha! Of course I know."
Chen Tao heard the laughing bat say, "Hahaha, hahaha!"
That low, gloomy, and malicious laughter was like ripples on a calm lake, layering in Chen Tao's ears. For some reason, he also started to laugh along.
"Hahaha, hahaha!"
Even though I laughed along unconsciously, the laughter was still so manic, chaotic, and full of indescribable distortion, like a night owl or an underground river, just listening to it sent chills down my spine.
Since transmigrating, in order to better frighten others, he has spent an extraordinary amount of time meticulously studying how to laugh in the scariest and most terrifying way.
"Hahaha, hahaha—"
"What are you doing, you ravager? I warn you, don't imitate my laughter—"
This was the last thing Chen Tao heard.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
call!
Chen Tao suddenly opened his eyes, and standing in front of him was Brainiac, whose one eye was flashing with horror.
One-eyed?
Chen Tao blinked. Half of the other person's head was almost flattened, and their body was torn apart like a Barbie doll by something.
Chen Tao could almost picture a burly little giant grabbing Brainiac and tearing him in half from the shoulder down, like a burrito. But such an injury was nothing to Brainiac; in less than half a breath, his body had already healed rapidly right before Chen Tao's eyes, as if his miserable appearance just moments before was an illusion.
Nearby, several Doomsdays, created by Brainiac, lay sprawled on the ground, their bodies twisted and contorted.
Their bodies were severely damaged as if they had been hit by a train, although with the physical abilities of these Doomsdays, they would have been unharmed even if hit by a real train.
It's clear they were in a car accident while trying to stop something.
Chen Tao lowered his head and looked at himself.
I don’t know when I’ve completely revealed my “true form”.
Here, "original form" means that he now appears as a green dinosaur, just like the E-class Batman [Bat Dragon] he is equipped with.
His feet have been replaced by two tires, and the onboard computer that appears on his chest is a hallmark of the F-class Batman [Batman].
Two black, membranous wings extended from his back; these were the modifications he had made with the human-bat serum.
Chen Tao stretched out his hand—a dinosaur claw. The green patch on his left palm and the rotten flesh on his right palm were the result of the fusion modification that Poison Ivy and Lucius had performed on him after analyzing Bane.
"Unbelievable," he heard Brainiac's voice.
He stumbled to his feet, forcefully squeezing his flattened head to restore it to normal:
"That's unbelievable."
Brainiac resumed his indifferent demeanor: "You can't possibly use that power for long. I've read your cards."
"What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?"
"That brief transformation into a Kryptonian-like physical state?"
"He can't stay in more than 10 minutes."
"That anti-Superman state you called Bizarro?"
"I've also studied it; you can't maintain this state for more than three minutes."
Chen Tao listened to Brainiac speak with a blank expression.
"You might be able to take down one Doomsday, but there are 20 here."
Chen Tao sighed.
He looked down at his stomach.
There lay there quietly a Doomsday virus, but using this drug was not without its price. Even with an injectable antidote, this drug would still place a heavy burden on him, and could very likely render him temporarily unable to fight off once the effects wore off.
In other words, if Brainiac is not completely defeated after being injected with the Doomsday Virus agent, he will face the same utter defeat.
Chen Tao knew that even the synchronized Batman couldn't refresh his status.
So, is now the final moment?
Is now the right time?
Has Brainiac really played all his cards and been pushed to the limit?
He turned to look at Superman, who was still under control.
He laughed suddenly.
Under the vast, boundless starry sky, Chen Tao's smile contrasted sharply with Brainiac's cold expression.
"Tell me, Brainiac," he said.
"Did your little tricks work?"
"What are you talking about, Batman?"
He said, "You're looking for Louis, aren't you?"
"You're even hiding it from me, trying to use the Joker's mindset to invade my mind," Chen Tao said.
"You know you won't succeed, right?"
……
……
……
Brainiac looked at the little old man in front of him.
The guy named Bane, whom Batman left behind outside, was indeed not to be underestimated, so much so that he could only secretly send this frail body in.
But that was enough; with his spiritual power, it was able to connect here.
Do you know who I am? Do you know my abilities?
"I know, help!"
He heard the little old man make a frightened sound.
"You are Brainiac, you can mind control everyone you see!"
"That's true," Brainiac said.
He extended a hand to the ventriloquist.
"it's all over."
"Well, really? That's impressive," Brainiac heard the ventriloquist mutter to himself. "But my master said I must catch you, so I must catch you."
"You think you can catch me? No, no, no. You can't catch me, and you know why?"
"I have no idea."
"Because you're scared."
"Brynack said."
He was determined to defeat the old man in front of him in the simplest way. He didn't intend to try to figure out the man's mind again. He would learn from his mistakes and not suffer the same loss again.
He planned to directly apply his emotions to the other person.
"You are very, very scared."
Waaah, you guys are so fast! The minor revisions are finally finished. I almost failed to keep up with the perfect attendance record today. I added 300 words at the last minute. If you find any duplicates, please download the app again. Sorry.
(End of this chapter)