Chapter 238: The War About to End

"The brains of nocturnal creatures simply can't compare to a cat's. Avoiding traps from inside a building is nowhere near as safe or convenient as coming from the outside."

The height is slightly dangerous; the survival rate for anyone falling down might not be very high.

After slightly confirming the surroundings, the Catwoman began climbing along the outer wall again, no longer looking at the ground.

She had grown accustomed to the slight dizziness at such heights—for a feline who spent all day climbing up and down in the nights of Gotham City, the experience of falling from high altitudes was not uncommon. At this moment, rather than worrying about being crushed to death, it was better to cling tightly to the building's outer wall and do her utmost to avoid that possibility.

And after climbing to the seventy-third floor, she indeed saw the Joker.

"I see the Joker," she reported to Batman. "Seventy-third-floor office. You were right—that guy seems to be in a... decent mood?"

The Joker still had his mouth corners drooping. He sat quietly before the desk. The Catwoman could only see his profile. This feeling was strange; the always crazy and chaotic Joker also had such a quiet side—which, paradoxically, made people feel even more chilled, somewhat like the calm before a storm.

Or perhaps, at this moment, he had truly thought of something funny?

"You are not very polite."

While the Catwoman was still thinking, the Joker suddenly turned his head. He casually snatched the revolver from the desk, his movements fluid and swift as lightning.

When the dark muzzle pointed at her, the Catwoman finally reacted. Every hair on her body stood on end, her pupils contracted, and she didn't even have time to think about how to dodge, relying completely on instinct to lean to the right.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out; the revolver bullet pierced the building's glass curtain wall and flew toward the ground.

The good news was that the Catwoman indeed dodged that bullet by instinct. The bad news was that the glass curtain wall she used to support her body was broken.

"Ah—!"

Even though a cat's body was light enough, a piece of shattered glass was still insufficient to support her entire weight. In just one second, that piece of glass with a gap was torn apart by the Catwoman's weight. With no hanging point left, she let out a cry of alarm and could only fall from hundreds of meters high toward the ground.

"Catwoman!"

Batman's urgent voice sounded in the earpiece, and at the same time, the Catwoman's cry of alarm abruptly ceased.

"Don't shout! Wait a moment for me!" she replied somewhat irritably. At the same time, that slender body in mid-air quickly adjusted its posture and rapidly searched for a support point on the building's outer wall beneath her. As a top-tier thief, she had already undergone this kind of training. Just as the saying goes: a cat will not die from a fall.

Two pats sounded. Her hands grabbed a protruding windowsill, and her high heels got caught on a pipe. This greatly reduced her falling speed, but the force of the fall was simply too great, nearly tearing her arms apart. So she immediately let go of her hands and prepared to roll upon landing to dissipate the force. She had already calculated that falling this way would land her on a rooftop, with no danger to her life.

But this would still be a terrible fall. Looking at the ground constantly enlarging, the Catwoman thought to herself: losing face in front of Batman is truly unpleasant.

"Kite Man, hurry!"

"Here."

"Hm?"

The wind whistled in the Catwoman's ears. She looked up in surprise and discovered a huge green kite accelerating with jet propulsion, rushing toward her. Kite Man had arrived by her side.

"Grab it!"

Kite Man took out a rope and threw it forcefully in her direction. The agile cat immediately grabbed that rope tightly and slowly descended toward the rooftop along with the kite.

"Since you could keep Kite Man on standby nearby, why didn't you just send Kite Man to scout?"

"His kite is too big, and it's too easy to notice. I was worried the Joker had a sniper rifle in his hands. You are different; you are a veteran and know how to hide yourself."

The Catwoman snorted; this time she hadn't hidden well.

"Bad news: Kite Man and Catwoman have allied. Of course, it's also possible he is simply saving someone."

The Riddler shrugged: "But I lean more toward another possibility: someone has allied with both of them. Although Batman hasn't appeared yet, everyone should be careful."

"Then how do we get in?"

"This is the good news I wanted to tell you—the Joker has already told us with one bullet that there are no traps or mechanisms on the building's outer glass wall."

"Do we have to climb up?" Ma Ma Zhaodi swallowed hard. "Boss, I'm a bit afraid of heights."

"Fly up! You fool! Fly up!" The Riddler, unable to endure it any longer, shouted angrily: "Now get rolling and follow Firefly to get those spare flight suits of his! Move fast! Also, tell everyone else not to enter the building! We don't have flight suits for them to use!"

"Oh."

Twenty minutes later, the Joker inside the building grew somewhat impatient.

"These fools, how long are they going to dawdle?" He irritably threw the gun in his hand back onto the table and stood up: "Can't we just end this boring farce quickly!"

Crack!

Just then, the glass curtain wall behind him suddenly shattered. The howling wind from the high altitude, accompanied by shattered glass shards, blew into the room, knocking him off balance.

"Knock, knock—knock, knock."

"Open the door—who is it?"

After reciting the dialogue as if it were a password, the Joker finally steadied himself. He straightened his suit, brushed off the glass shards from his body, and looked toward the window.

The Riddler, Poison Ivy, Mr. Zsaz, Firefly, and the Perverted Biker stood in a row. Opposite them stood the Joker, alone.

"Hmph." The Joker let out a cold snort, still looking unhappy. He glanced at the long table. The revolver on the table was only a few steps away from him, but the Riddler would absolutely not give him a chance to grab the gun.

"What, are those two lines of dialogue not funny?" The Riddler showed a victor's mockery toward him: "Shouldn't you be laughing?"

"Get lost!"

The Joker roared in anger and punched toward Nygma's face, but the next second his right arm was seized. As the Riddler gradually increased the force, intense pain surged from his arm.

"Sorry, maybe I didn't tell it well. You see, telling jokes isn't my strong suit—how about we guess a riddle instead?"

While spouting trash talk, Nygma punched the Joker in the face, knocking him to the ground. At this moment, he held the complete upper hand.

Ma Ma Zhaodi, standing nearby, immediately responded: "Great, I want to guess too!"

The Riddler: "... I thought about it carefully, let's just forget it."

He chased after him and kicked the Joker hard twice more: "The war is over, Joker. You are a failure."

"Oh, is that so? I don't think so." The Joker pouted: "How about looking out the window?"

The five immediately turned around alertly. At this moment, a bat, a cat, and a Kite Man, each carrying a kite on their back, flew directly into the building together.

A third force had now arrived at the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)