Chapter 120: What Kind of Knight Are You?

The effect of the Ice-shroom lasts for four seconds; during these four seconds, everyone present is immobilized, with only plants from the PVZ series remaining unaffected.

Ma Ma Zhaodi's body could still move slightly; after the Ice-shroom exploded, he immediately began struggling with all his might, breaking free from the ice two seconds early—he had long read the plant descriptions, knowing that mushroom-type plants deal explosion damage indiscriminately to friend and foe alike, so before setting out, he had specially drunk a bowl of Laba porridge.

【Ingredients are warm in nature, warming the body and dispelling cold; Laba porridge enhances the eater's cold resistance effect by 50%】

The effect of the Intermediate Body Constitution Enhancement had already increased his cold resistance and strength considerably; with the bonus from the Laba porridge, the Ice-shroom's control effect on him was greatly weakened.

Two seconds was ample time for Ma Ma Zhaodi, whose body had been enhanced, enough for him to rush to the two people's front and slash out three sword strikes like lightning.

The first strike sent the Mad Hatter's hat and the strange weapon inside flying; the second and third strikes severed the tendons in the Scarecrow's two hands, disabling his ability to attack—the Intermediate Sword Proficiency was extremely precise when cutting static objects, and the ice-encased duo had by then lost almost all means of resistance.

After the three strikes, the frost across the entire scene vanished instantly, and everyone thawed simultaneously, but at this moment, the second half of the Ice-shroom's control effect began to take hold—the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter's bodies were frozen so stiffly that their movements were completely in slow motion, while Ma Ma Zhaodi's actions were almost unaffected.

At this point, the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter had no Resistance Thought left; in their perspective, Ma Ma Zhaodi was a bizarre, undying, glowing pumpkin-headed freak; all damage to his body would be transferred to the pumpkin head, and after the pumpkin head was shattered, a new pumpkin head would grow, like endless nesting dolls—he was also immune to their Fear Gas and could even blow it away.

Wait, he blew it away; does that mean his resistance to poison gas is limited? Or perhaps this pumpkin monster cares about the lives of the ordinary people on the ground?

"Quick—take—hostages!"

"Are you talking about yourself?" Ma Ma Zhaodi looked at the Scarecrow, whose shouting had turned into slow motion, and couldn't help but find it amusing; he saw the Mad Hatter slowly moving the gun muzzle toward the security guard on the ground, so he kicked the gun away with a flying kick, then followed up with two more strikes to sever his tendons.

"Purely intellectual criminals get close-quarters, yet still think about manipulating controls—just go quietly to Arkham and take the orderlies' slaps."

He sheathed his sword, went directly behind the two, and gave each a sleeping blow dart; last time he had tried to learn from Batman by using a hand strike on criminals, but a misoperation failed to knock them out immediately, and he was chased into the Red Dragon where they set a fire; this time he decided to learn from the lesson and use the blow dart directly, which was fast, effective, and less prone to error.

"I'll have to find time to learn hand-to-hand combat techniques later," he thought: "At the very least, I need to train specifically on how to knock people out quickly."

"Hiss—"

Just after the Scarecrow fell, a very vivid green mist billowed out from around his body; Ma Ma Zhaodi took a breath and made a judgment: the concentration of this Fear Gas might be high enough to be lethal.

Even though he was still chewing milk candy in his mouth, he already felt his lungs itching a bit.

"Damn, that's quite sinister," Ma Ma Zhaodi quickly popped another milk candy into his mouth: "Although I feel that the combat power intensity of heroes and villains in this universe isn't very high, their level of treachery is quite on point—if anyone else had come here, they would most likely have been hit by now."

In fact, Ma Ma Zhaodi had already been hit; it was just that he was lucky, the milk candy in his mouth hadn't melted yet, so the poison gas didn't take effect.

Watching the mist rise and scatter with the wind, Ma Ma Zhaodi felt a bit worried; he specifically observed the others lying on the ground and found they were not showing any further adverse reactions. This indicated that the lethal range of the gas in an open space was limited, so Ma Ma Zhaodi did not use up another Three-Leaf Clover for dispersal.

"Dealing with one Scarecrow, one Mad Hatter, two intellectual super-criminals, with a large information advantage for targeted action, using one Three-Leaf Clover, one Pumpkin Head, one Ice-shroom, and some milk candy."

Ma Ma Zhaodi calculated that the plant intelligence leaked during this battle was not too much, and the sunlight consumption was moderate; compared to the last time he fought the Joker, this time's difficulty was much lower—not letting the Scarecrow's Fear Gas and the Mad Hatter's mental control take effect was equivalent to banning a specialist's signature move. Actually, if it weren't for that security guard brother being out of his mind and pulling on friendly forces, he would have had the chance to end the battle directly with two sleeping blow darts.

If Batman had come, it would probably be perfect stealth, sudden appearance, three punches and two kicks, knocking everyone down—the ambush combat style is simply too practical.

"Should I hang these two up or not?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi was now deeply conflicted; logically, an alias should have a style, and the Terror Pumpkin Head identity shouldn't be tainted by the bad habit of hanging people, but the thought of being able to hang two famous super-criminals naked and high on the floats of the Independence Day parade through the whole city made him unable to control his twitching hand.

"Why are you here?"

The three-minute countdown on the system panel ended exactly at this moment, and Batman's voice appeared behind Ma Ma Zhaodi, making him sigh; it seemed the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter's backsides were safe for tonight.

"I came out to watch the fireworks," he said: "But how can you be sure it's me? What if it's a pumpkin that has gained sentience?"

"You were just muttering about hanging people up."

"What kind of Knight are you? A Race Knight?" Ma Ma Zhaodi retorted: "Does hanging people necessarily mean it's me? That's a Stamp Imprint, an unfounded slander of an innocent person—the perverted wheelchair man has already disappeared from the world; Gotham has only one pure-hearted passerby, Ma Ma Zhaodi."

Batman ignored his denial and said: "I will take these two back to Arkham; don't leave yet, wait a while to give a statement first."

Ma Ma Zhaodi sighed again; tonight he missed the fireworks, Commissioner Gordon would have to work overtime, and the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter had done nothing but cause trouble—they really should be hung up for a parade.

"What about these people on the ground?"

"Green pupils, blurred consciousness, plunged into fear—this is the Scarecrow's poison gas; the effect is strong, but it won't last long; they will return to normal after some time."

As he spoke, Batman frowned slightly: "Strange, why are their body temperatures so low? It seems there are also signs of slight frostbite?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi, who had just taken off the pumpkin head, then remembered that the Ice-shroom explosion not only had control but also a certain damage effect, though since the numerical value was low, it was often ignored.

"This was purely an accident," he replied: "I will make up for it; just feed everyone some juice."

A moment later, Commissioner Gordon, who was watching the fireworks and holding a baby at home, answered a phone call.

"What? Explosion? Gotham Bank? Robbery? Scarecrow and Mad Hatter?"

His wife Barbara, standing nearby, heard this and sighed helplessly.

"Justice never takes a holiday."

(End of Chapter)