Chapter 2038: A Night of Knightly Terror (17)

With Gordon's help, Peter managed to clear up the timeline.

Two months ago, the Joker created the Titan virus, and the moment he obtained it, he realized a great opportunity had arrived.

Thus, he feigned a desire to use this virus to create more villains, even breaking into Arkham Asylum, but he was ultimately subdued.

This appeared to be yet another of the Joker's evil plans to destroy Cat Getan, but like the old saying about the sword dance, the intent was elsewhere; these were all merely superficial appearances.

In private, the Joker used the Joker virus within his own blood to infect five ordinary people, confirming that the Joker virus would grant the infected a portion of the Joker's traits.

A month and a half ago, Batman accidentally discovered the ordinary people infected with the Joker virus, but at that time, he had not fully anticipated the Joker's plan and was still busy dealing with the Titan virus, merely sending these infected individuals to a base.

One month ago, Batman was injected with the Joker's blood, and the two had a final showdown at the Cat Getan Grand Theater, where the Joker ultimately died due to the Titan virus outbreak and his inability to obtain the antidote in time.

Three weeks ago, Batman entered the Battleworld, met Peter, and was even willing to pay a huge price to bring Peter to his universe.

Two weeks ago, Peter began his exploration of the city, discovered the clues regarding the Scarecrow burying fear toxin to cause accidents, and formulated and began executing his plan, the first step of which was kidnapping Black Mask.

One week ago, the Scarecrow and the Penguin reached a certain deal: the Penguin would provide the Scarecrow with arms and military transport vehicles to execute his fear toxin destruction plan.

A few days ago, Gordon discovered the base Batman used to hold the Joker virus-infected individuals, and the two had a disagreement.

It can be seen that there are two strange aspects regarding Batman's behavior in this series of events.

First, Batman already had two Robins, yet he insisted on bringing Peter over, even paying a huge price to do so.

Second, Batman locked up all the Joker virus-infected individuals but neither treated them nor took very strict containment measures, just leaving them there.

It was hard for Peter not to connect these two points.

What is certain is that Batman did not anticipate at the very beginning that Peter would have his own plan and act so decisively.

But Peter definitely had a place in Batman's original plan; otherwise, there would have been no need for him to spend a large sum to hire Peter when he already had two young helpers.

So why, with two Robins and an Oracle, Barbara, did Batman still need to hire him?

Peter thought, what was the biggest difference between himself and the two Robins and Barbara?

What made Batman insist on hiring him?

The first thing Peter thought of was his scientific research ability, but upon closer reflection, he felt that wasn't right; Batman had already shown a clear tendency to recruit him before he had even mentioned his research background.

Then, before he introduced himself, what was it that was worth Batman's attention?

At that time, because of the conflict between Jack and Jason, he and Batman had both intervened to break up the fight, which led to him and Batman having a scuffle; it was at that moment that Batman's attention shifted to him.

In other words, was it still his martial prowess that Batman valued?

Peter's head was starting to smoke.

Is this the world of conspirators? This is no longer taking one step and seeing three; this is a three-year setup and a five-year plan, where no matter what it is, one must trace it back to the initial time point to find a trace of a clue.

Weaving a web is too hard! A spider roared in his heart.

But complaints aside, Peter had to keep thinking: if Batman valued his martial prowess, especially the part that was stronger than his two Robins, then in Batman's original plan, who was Peter Parker supposed to deal with?

This range of choices was too broad; Cat Getan did not lack high-martial-value criminals, but thinking carefully, there wasn't any villain who absolutely required hiring a martial arts master from another universe to defeat.

Having just been backstabbed by Batman, Peter finally understood: no matter which villain Batman wanted to deal with, as long as he prepared early, it was hard to fail; it seemed there wasn't any martial-type villain who was indispensable.

Then Peter remembered Batman's act of locking up the Joker virus patients; he had previously felt that this action should have some connection to him being hired.

And if one followed the previous line of thought, that Batman actually wanted to get rid of the Joker's entanglement by letting others become the Joker, why didn't he do it immediately?

Although after the fear toxin disaster broke out, Batman had been constantly busy because of Peter's extra plans, it wasn't as if there was no time to perform operations at the base.

Peter felt he still lacked some understanding of Batman, so he told his analysis to Poison Ivy and Gordon, wanting to see if he could use their understanding of Batman to analyze the reason for Batman doing this.

Poison Ivy didn't provide any useful clues, but Gordon said, "No, Batman wouldn't do that."

"Those infected with the Joker virus are patients, not criminals; even if they were criminals, even criminals as heinous as the Joker, Batman would still want to save them."

"If he let the Joker be resurrected in someone else, wouldn't that be equivalent to not only failing to save them but also harming them? Batman is a superhero; how could he do such a thing?"

Peter was stunned, then he patted his forehead, discovering he had been limited by his own thinking.

The plan to resurrect the Joker he had thought of before was a resurrection out of thin air, because Peter had previously participated in the plan where Helen and Venom stole electricity, and the Red Bee in his body had consumed a lot of magical power, giving Peter some understanding of magic.

Therefore, his concept of resurrection was similar to drawing a magic circle, performing some operations, and then resurrecting someone out of thin air.

So when thinking about Batman's resurrection plan, he hadn't noticed that if resurrection had a carrier, it would definitely involve some ethical and moral issues.

Resurrecting the Joker in someone else is equivalent to killing that person themselves, isn't it? Killing an innocent patient to resurrect a supervillain completely breaks the moral bottom line; let alone a superhero, in most cases, ordinary people wouldn't be willing to do this either.

"Wait a minute." Poison Ivy clearly had more understanding of the criminal Joker, so she spoke up: "This is the Joker's true conspiracy."

Poison Ivy analyzed at a rapid pace: "Actually, after the Joker finished the Joker virus infection experiment, he could have completely killed the experimental subjects; he is not a soft-hearted person, killing is simpler than drinking water."

"But he didn't do that, very likely because he knew Batman wouldn't ignore these patients, and perhaps the clues to these Joker virus-infected individuals were intentionally left for Batman by the Joker."

"Then what is the Joker's purpose in doing this?" Gordon asked.

"This will force Batman into a dilemma." Poison Ivy extended two fingers, folded one down, and then said: "Either endure the Joker living inside his own body, or kill the innocent souls within the Joker-virus-infected hosts, allowing the Joker to be resurrected in someone else."

"Or rather, the Joker just wants to lure Batman into killing innocent people to get rid of the pain."

"And the Titan virus is not the beginning of this plan; this plan should have started when the Joker kidnapped Jason Todd."

"Because only if the Joker constantly plays scenes of Jason being tortured in Batman's brain can Batman feel pain, thereby taking extreme measures to get rid of the Joker."

"Whether it's Jason Todd's disappearance, the Titan virus outbreak, the appearance of the Joker virus-infected individuals, or the current fear toxin disaster, all are to make Batman make a choice."

"Sacrifice himself, forever trapped in the pain of memories, or even become the next Joker, or harm others, personally kill an innocent person, and simultaneously resurrect his enemy?"

As Poison Ivy's voice fell, Peter and Gordon were speechless.

"What a lunatic!" Gordon cursed; even now, he could still gain new insights into the Joker's madness.

"Then what if someone else resurrected the Joker?" Peter thought and said: "Not using those patients with the Joker virus, but resurrecting him out of thin air; that's what I planned from the beginning."

"How do you plan to resurrect him out of thin air?" Poison Ivy asked with some surprise: "Do you have the relevant power?"

"I have a certain amount of magical energy, but I'm not sure if it can be used in this world." Peter said seriously: "But I know that magic must exist in this world."

Poison Ivy nodded and said: "That is indeed the case; if magic is used, perhaps he could be resurrected out of thin air, but the problem is, the essence of magic is borrowing debt; who do you plan to borrow from?"

Just then, Peter suddenly had a moment of realization.

"Wait a minute, Miss, does magic in your universe also rely on borrowing debt?"

Poison Ivy nodded again and said: "Most of it is like that; either a contract is reached, for example, after I reached a contract with certain mysterious existences, I could use their power, but correspondingly, I also have to do things for them."

"Then it seems to be about the same as my universe." A complex expression suddenly appeared on Peter's face, and he continued.

"Then suppose, I'm saying suppose, I borrowed their debt, but went to a place they couldn't go, what would happen?"

Poison Ivy opened her mouth slightly, and she instinctively replied: "A place they couldn't go? But where could they... wait, you don't want to default on the debt, do you?"

Peter showed a wry expression and said: "It's not that I want to default, it's that someone wants me to default."

He pressed his forehead, thinking, isn't the biggest difference between himself and all of Batman's assistants and acquaintances that he is not a local resident but comes from a very distant universe?

It is impossible for Batman to have no understanding of the magic of this universe; he certainly knows that resurrection requires a price, and the price of resurrecting someone out of thin air is probably huge; making anyone pay the price for his plan would be unfair to them.

But must this price be paid?

It might have been before; after all, even if the local indigenous residents ran to the ends of the earth, they would still be caught up by these powerful existences.

But Spider-Man wouldn't.

Then Peter realized that this Batman had watched the entire process of the existence games of Dr. Schiller, Iron Man, and others from their universe.

Whether it was Dr. Schiller, Mr. Stark, Prince Loki, or the Sorcerer Supreme, all had some magical attributes and looked like they weren't to be trifled with.

In other words, Batman had made up his mind from the very beginning to spend money to hire Peter, and the purpose was to let Peter ask those powerful existences to borrow debt, resurrect the Joker out of thin air, and then immediately return home, defaulting on the debt.

Then there would be two consequences: one is that the creditor simply didn't have the ability to chase to another universe, and the debt would completely rot; the other is that the creditor chased over, and then was beaten up by this group of people who weren't to be trifled with, or even directly put into the pot.

Wait, Peter thought again, Batman saw Dr. Schiller's performance in the whole game and had bargained with him; he probably understood that Dr. Schiller's style was to want money but not life.

Then suppose Peter returned home with a group of creditors, Peter went in, and the creditors were locked outside.

Then did Batman think long ago that there would be a group of people who were both not to be trifled with and didn't pick up lost items, who would kindly pick up the knocking creditors?

And as Batman, who formulated this plan and delivered the goods to the door, shouldn't he also receive a little reward?

Thinking of this, Peter could no longer hold back his exclamation.

Batman and the Joker, these two lunatics, every one of their duels is woven into a seamless heavenly garment, with time as the axis, emotion as the spindle, observation as the needle, and reasoning as the buckle.

Dressed up to take the stage, they dance a song together, creating a dual spectacle of human wisdom and madness. ===== CHAPTER 2039 =====