Chapter 2035

Peter fell into a daze.

But it wasn't entirely because of Batman's actions, but because the timing of his spider-sense ringing was wrong.

Spider-Man's spider-sense was a very magical thing. It couldn't be considered sensing, but more like a prophecy. Its prevention of danger was fundamental.

For example, when Peter passed by Scarecrow's fear gas, the fear gas hadn't erupted yet, nor had it caused harm to anyone, but the spider-sense would ring weakly, indicating that there might be danger around.

And under the joint guidance of Schiller and Stark, Peter could partially actively utilize the spider-sense. For example, when he concentrated his attention on a certain thing, he could vaguely judge whether the direction of the matter had problems.

Similarly, this could be used to judge whether a certain person had malice. When Peter's attention was completely projected onto a certain person, once the other party had malice toward him, Peter could almost immediately perceive it through the spider-sense.

But when Batman told him to sit down, the spider-sense had no reaction at all.

Doesn't this count as an attack? Peter thought in a daze.

Wait, it seems it really doesn't count.

Although Batman's tone of voice sounded like "I am going to lock you in a terrifying little dark room until the end of time," his starting point might indeed be protecting Nightwing and Peter.

This wasn't hard to understand either. Barbara and Gordon were missing, Robin was out of contact, and Jason's cold case hadn't been broken yet. Clearly, someone was targeting members of the Bat-family. Although finding the victims was important, protecting the members who hadn't had an accident yet was equally important.

Is this reaction a bit too fast?

Peter thought painfully, could it be that Batman had already deduced through the context of the events that there was a mysterious mastermind stirring up the wind and rain?

Peter looked at the clock. It was 2:00 AM.

Three hours ago, Batman witnessed Gothamites collapsing. Two and a half hours ago, he learned he had been kidnapped. Two hours ago, he witnessed Cat Getan being bombed by missiles.

An hour and a half ago, he learned Barbara and Gordon were missing. An hour ago, he was shocked to hear the news of Jason Todd's death. Half an hour ago, he discovered Robin was out of contact.

Then he used this half hour to completely calm down, eliminate the influence brought by all emotional fluctuations, accurately discovered the places that weren't right in all the events, and absolutely didn't produce any suspicion toward himself, but immediately made the best choice very precisely.

What kind of steel nerves is this?!

And how was he sure that his spider-sense wouldn't dodge his attack?

"You don't think you can dodge his attack just because you have that wonderful crisis premonition, do you?" Nightwing gave Peter a wry smile and said, "Do you believe that if you go to the Bat-archive now, you can find a capability analysis of yourself that is even more specific and clear than your own cognition?"

"This is Batman," Nightwing sighed long and said. "As long as he is prepared, no one is his opponent."

Peter didn't believe in evil and lifted his hand forcefully. The metal didn't move at all, not even a bit of deformation.

Then he suddenly discovered that this chair was higher than an ordinary chair, causing his feet not to be able to touch the ground.

As everyone knows, the action of force is mutual. Exerting force to break free from something requires a fulcrum, and if one cannot touch the ground, the fulcrum is only one's own skeleton.

In other words, the largest and most powerful muscle group in the human body, the gluteal muscle group, couldn't exert any force at all, because there was no fulcrum there.

And Peter's action of lifting his hand, the fulcrum was his own elbow, and under the elbow was hard metal. It wasn't that he couldn't exert force, but it would be very painful, and now he didn't have the symbiote to help him immunize against pain.

Peter began to exert force toward the outside, and then he discovered that this chair was absolutely custom-made. The moment his pectoral muscles expanded forcefully, the bones of his wrists pressed against the inside of the metal buckle, causing him to gasp in pain.

"Don't waste your effort."

After Batman left, Nightwing tilted his head to one side and said, "If you go to his Bat-furniture warehouse, you will see over two hundred versions of chairs that have been iterated, specifically designed for the day you are locked up, guaranteeing that as long as you sit on it, it is absolutely impossible to break free."

Peter sighed long. He slowly twisted his wrist and pressed a button on his wristband.

Poison Ivy, who was still sitting in the truck, discovered the communicator lit up. She looked out the truck window and saw the flashing lights of the Batmobile passing by, and she also pushed open the truck door and walked out.

Zzz—

After the sound of urgent braking, the Batmobile's headlights flashed twice, and under the illumination of the lights, a giant tree root lay across the middle of the flat road.

Batman got out of the car, looked up, and saw the blurry figure on the high-rise building and the rapidly retracting vines.

Then he walked toward the tree root, jumped onto the tree root nimbly, flipped over, and drove the Batmobile again, driving toward the destination.

Discovering Batman wasn't taking the bait, Poison Ivy took a deep breath. In the end, she didn't go down to face Batman directly. She looked at the continuously flashing lights of the truck below, grabbed the vines, jumped off the building, and drove the car toward the Batcave.

Ten minutes later, Poison Ivy was thrown into the Batcave prison, falling to the ground and letting out a cry of pain.

Beside her, when Peter clenched his fists tightly, he discovered his palms were full of sweat.

He found it hard to describe what kind of terrifying deterrent power Batman had on him now.

"Relax." Nightwing kindly reminded him, "Adjust your heart rate. Don't feel afraid. He won't hurt us."

He indeed won't hurt you, Peter thought in his heart, but whether he will hurt me depends on whether Poison Ivy will confess.

Indeed, he was a bit too reliant on the spider-sense. Peter thought that Schiller had clearly told him this point before: one must examine from multiple angles and judge comprehensively. Relying on danger sensing would always have a day of failure.

Batman could fail countless times, while he could only fail once.

Wait, if Batman was certain Poison Ivy would come, then what made him make this judgment?

Batman understood every villain in Cat Getan, so he must be clear that Poison Ivy didn't have the guts to attack the Batcave.

If he had long since expected that Poison Ivy had a reason that she must come, he would pretend to leave and then make a return move, which meant he had long since had a guess about the reason Poison Ivy must come, and it must be that he believed this reason could stand up to scrutiny, so he would lay a trap.

What else could the reason Poison Ivy must come be?

There were three people in the Batcave now, and two of them were father and son, if not better than father and son. Then who else could be the traitor?

Peter thought bitterly, is Batman's willpower made of vibranium? He had gone through ups and downs at least ten times in half the night, and it only took half an hour from clearing his thoughts to salvaging the situation.

Peter carefully thought about his actions and discovered there were no loopholes at all. Every time point was just right.

Whether it was prying emotions, creating clues, or guiding actions, it was almost as if heaven, earth, and people were all there, plus a perfect performance. How did it become like this?

Suddenly, Peter remembered that hint from Schiller—"…Peter, you must always remember that death is never the best retribution. You have more ways to turn it into a gift. When things start to develop in a mundane and boring direction, perhaps, you should be bolder."

Wasn't he bold enough?

Peter began to seriously think about this sentence from Schiller, because he was clear that the person who gave this sentence wasn't the Schiller doctor he was familiar with, but that professor.

Peter had also learned about Batman from the occasional words of this professor, and learned about the stories between them. There was no doubt that this professor knew Batman quite well, so this hint couldn't be so simple.

Wait a minute, Peter's keen inspiration told him something was a bit wrong. The point of this sentence didn't seem to be "bold."

Because if this professor wanted to tell him that his behavior should be more radical, there was no need to say the first sentence at all; just say the last sentence. And according to Peter's understanding, this professor didn't like to say nonsense.

"Death is never the best retribution, and I have ways to turn it into a gift."

Peter thought about this sentence many times in his mind, feeling that he gradually perceived some clues, but was still missing a thread.

Peter initially understood this sentence as roughly saying that there were actually many things in this world more painful than death, and with his own ability, he could naturally do it, so he could completely not fear killing, and even turn death into a gift that ended pain.

But thinking carefully, he felt it was wrong. The other Schiller professor was also a master of psychology. He should know that he didn't kill, and he had no motive to persuade him to kill.

After all, if he wanted to lead the Spider Army, most of the Spider-Men didn't kill either. He couldn't turn all the Spider-Men into killers, right? This was completely seeking far and wide, and had no meaning.

Then if this sentence wasn't persuading him to let go of the bottom line of not killing, what was it referring to?

Just as Peter was thinking carefully, he saw the apologetic look cast by Poison Ivy in the cage. The emotional impact interrupted his train of thought.

Peter felt for the first time very intuitively this emotion called "fear."

In the past, he had spider-sense, and the vast majority of dangers were within his expectations. Even if he couldn't dodge, he could have a psychological preparation.

But Peter really didn't know what Batman would do to him.

Peter felt his heart start to beat wildly, his breathing became rapid, and cold sweat soaked his back.

And then he understood that even if Poison Ivy didn't confess, this kind of reaction of his would make Batman realize that he was holding a bag full of silver coins in his hand.

Peter began to desperately control his physical signs, and then he realized that he had been a bit too reliant on the symbiote before.

He vaguely remembered Steve telling him how to forcibly control his heartbeat and maintain stable physical signs to face battle, and Natasha also told him how an agent should calmly face interrogation and not show flaws on the outside.

The theories were all remembered, but he just hadn't had much opportunity for practice. Now that he was really practicing, Peter discovered that it wasn't that the methods weren't easy to use, but Batman's oppressive feeling was too strong.

Batman wasn't looking at Poison Ivy anymore. He turned directly to look at Peter, and stared at him, then walked toward him.

The heavy footsteps were like the countdown of an executioner. Even the silent air condensed into a sharp blade hanging over his head, and the projected gaze was like the blade that cut the chain of the guillotine.

Thump, thump, thump...

His heartbeat began to overlap with the dull sound. When Batman's voice sounded, it had a kind of frivolity that shouldn't have appeared, like a cat teasing a mouse.

"What's wrong with you? Peter?"

Peter felt every pore on his back turn into a waterfall. After the cold sweat flowed out, it turned into ice thorns that felt like needles on his back.

"Stop! Fish him back!"

Greed stood up with a "swoosh" and walked toward the outside of the theater. Seeing that he was about to float to the surface consciousness and operate the Domain system to pull Peter back.

At this moment, Arrogance grabbed his arm. Greed turned his head to look at him. Arrogance shook his head and said, "You are clear that without pressure, there will be no progress."

"But that is Batman." Greed's expression was rarely serious for once. He said, "No one dares to say they can completely control the situation when Batman is present, not even you, right?"

"I don't oppose the successor accepting the test at all. Blood and tears will flow sooner or later, but everything must be under control."

"Anything related to Batman is exceptionally dangerous and out of control. We can't guarantee that anyone in this scene won't suffer real harm."

"High risk, high return—that's what you often say." Arrogance didn't let go, but continued, "Facing Batman directly is extremely terrifying for any intelligent creature, because he is the embodiment of fear, and the one in front of us can be called terrifying even among the embodiments of fear."

"Such huge pressure can crush anyone's mind. We all know that when facing the Batman of the main universe, even with the blessing of autism, one cannot say they don't feel pressure at all, let alone Peter."

Greed looked at Arrogance with some doubt, and Arrogance continued, "But if Peter can hold on, his harvest will also be astonishing."

"You had long since expected it, right? That's why you gave him that hint." Greed sighed, but didn't continue to move forward, instead saying, "You should have spoken more clearly."

"Peter is very smart." Arrogance shook his head lightly and said, "And huge pressure will be the catalyst for his wisdom. Once he steps over this hurdle, no one knows what level he will grow to."

And then he looked directly at Greed and said, "Just like you said, we planted a seed, but we don't know what kind of flower it will eventually grow into."

"Perhaps one day, I will be surprised to find on the balcony on the third floor that a flower branch has reached here, and this is exactly what you are returning to me, isn't it?"