Chapter 2174

The atmosphere in the Batcave was a bit serious.

All the Robins stood in a row, while Batman paced in front of them. Everyone's eyeballs followed Batman's footsteps, and a few looked at each other, winking and betting on when Batman would stop.

Batman's gaze, like a sharp sword, stayed on Red Hood's face. Red Hood stood up slightly, but still had a sloppy look.

Then his gaze swept over Nightwing and Red Robin on the right, as well as the small Robin standing beside them.

"I want to know what's going on."

Photos of the war-torn new city appeared on the big screen behind Batman, and there was even a scene of Red Hood flying across the sky in a Batwing.

"It was you who didn't lock the Batwing!" Red Hood caught the opportunity, and he immediately raised his voice, and then closed his mouth under Batman's murderous gaze.

"The situation is a bit complicated..." Nightwing said.

"... very complicated." Dick said.

"But it's not very serious!" Red Hood said.

"... not serious." Jason added.

"Actually, it's easy to explain." Red Robin said.

"Easy...?" Tim looked at Red Robin.

Batman's serious gaze also fell on him, and the message conveyed by the gaze was "try to talk nonsense if you dare."

"Ahem..." Red Robin cleared his throat, turned his gaze away, and rolled his eyes.

"The lunatics from Arkham did it!"

"Clap clap clap clap clap clap," loud applause rang out in the Batcave. Red Hood and Jason high-fived, Nightwing and Dick shook hands, and Red Robin and Tim nodded to each other.

Batman narrowed his eyes.

"That's it." Red Robin spread his hands and shrugged, saying: "If you don't believe me, go to Arkham Asylum and see, everyone inside has run away."

"You didn't lock Arkham Asylum either!" Red Hood raised his voice again, and then closed his mouth under Batman's gaze.

Everyone could see that Batman was not in a good mood, but they weren't worried, because they still had their final trump card—calling the Waynes.

"Oh!" Red Robin suddenly screamed, even startling Batman.

He turned to look at Dick and said: "Dick, did you finish your French homework?! Thomas will be home at five!"

Dick just opened his mouth to speak, when he was elbowed by Jason. His tongue immediately bent, and he said with a sudden realization: "Oh—I have to go back to do my homework!"

After speaking, Dick turned and ran. Batman wanted to call him back, but was met with Alfred's murderous gaze.

"I haven't finished my homework either!" Jason followed closely, pushing Dick's back, and the two ran out of the Batcave one after the other.

"I have a book club to attend at four o'clock." Tim said tactfully, "Today's theme is Sherlock Holmes, I'm very interested..."

Batman waved his hand, and Tim ran out too.

"Uh... I... I have French homework too." Nightwing dragged out a long tone.

"How do you say ballet in French?" Batman asked.

"Oh—!" Nightwing helplessly lowered his arms.

"Well... I also..." Red Robin said tentatively.

"What is Sherlock Holmes's name?"

"... John?"

Batman showed a disapproving look.

"Well, that novel is too ridiculous. The greatest detective actually falls off a cliff! Too stupid!" Red Robin sighed, and then he added: "Although you often jump off cliffs with the Joker, almost every day..."

Nightwing looked at Batman's increasingly unfriendly gaze and tugged at Red Robin's arm to tell him to stop talking.

"Speaking of the Joker..." Red Robin's eyes rolled again, and he changed the subject: "He should be the main force in creating chaos, right? Why not ask him?"

Batman frowned slightly.

Although he knew that the three unlucky kids in front of him were anxious to go out and make trouble, they wished they could dive into the mess below and swim for three hundred laps, but Red Robin's words made sense.

The first time he returned to Cat Getan, Batman checked the status of Arkham Asylum. All the lunatics had run out.

No one would believe that they had nothing to do with the war below. Batman could even imagine how they created chaos everywhere, racking their brains to sabotage and destroy this huge new city.

Especially the Joker.

Batman thought, it's not surprising that other lunatics created a few terrorist cases, but to provoke chaos in an entire city in such a short time, I'm afraid only the source of chaos, the Joker, could do it.

Batman took back his thoughts and said to the few: "Watch Damian, stay here and wait for me to come back."

He knew they wouldn't listen obediently, but these words weren't for them, but for Alfred standing at the door.

Sure enough, as soon as Batman turned to go out, he heard Alfred block the three people behind him and sincerely suggest that they finish their cookies and drink a cup of hot black tea before waiting for Thomas and Martha to come home.

Ignoring the wails behind him, Batman flicked his cape and walked out the door.

Actually, he suspected more that the battle between the other Batman he invited and the Joker led to all this, so he had to go down to find these two people and then find a way to reverse the situation.

Coming to the hangar of the Batwing, Batman boarded the plane and drifted like a falling leaf over the new city.

Batman operated the positioning system and soon found the Joker's figure—he was being chased by someone and fleeing in a panic.

Batman immediately chased after him and finally found the Joker panting against the wall at the end of a ruined street.

The Batwing landed, and Batman moved toward the Joker vigilantly. He knew that for the Joker, the saying "seeing is believing" didn't apply. Everything he saw might be what the Joker wanted him to see, including his current weak state.

Heart rate, breathing frequency, body trembling amplitude—flawless, but this is the Joker, Batman thought.

"Batman?!"

The Joker saw Batman approaching silently through his peripheral vision, and the moment he exclaimed, Batman suddenly exerted force and sprinted toward him.

Obviously, it was another Batman-style "ask about the situation," first subdue, beat half to death, and then ask about the situation.

The Joker turned and ran.

"Stop! Joker! You destroyed this city!!"

"Open your eyes and see, is it the city I destroyed?!!" The Joker roared while running: "My house was blown up! My hostages ran away! I was chased by a group of agents for three streets! And I was hit by six rocket launchers!!!"

"Don't try to argue! Joker!" Batman's attitude was very firm.

He moved flexibly in the ruins of the city, and the Joker was just a little bit away.

The Joker wasn't good at running, his physical strength was exhausted, his injuries hadn't fully healed, and he slipped and fell into the rubble.

But he didn't climb up and continue running as Batman expected, but after a moment of stiffness, he relaxed his whole body, sighed, and lay down where he fell.

Ten minutes later, in the special monitoring ward of Arkham Asylum in the new city, the Joker grabbed the bars with both hands and showed a big smile at Batman.

"You idiot—I never use stupid to describe you, Batman, but this time you indeed made a decision stupid enough! I am not destroying this city, but saving it!!! Also saving me and you!!!"

Batman turned a deaf ear. He only stood half a meter away from the cell door, looked at the Joker coldly, and asked: "Tell me what happened in this city."

"You don't need to come and ask me, you don't need to." The Joker shook his head, took a few steps back, and stood in the narrow cell with his shoulders shrugged, saying: "Because all of this has nothing to do with me!"

"Then how did this city become what it is now?"

"I said it, you shouldn't come to ask me." The Joker turned and sat on the narrow single bed, saying: "Well, great detective, I want to tell you, you will come back, because if you go to investigate in the city now, all the clues will tell you that it was one of my plans that caused a series of chain reactions, eventually leading to all this."

"But if you really take this as a conclusion, then you are a complete idiot." The Joker bared his teeth, but he wasn't laughing, so he looked exceptionally brutal. He said: "You have to go all out, Batman, this time our opponent is extraordinary, you will come back to find me."

After that, no matter what Batman said, the Joker just kept silent, and he was obviously brooding over what the Joker said, so he returned to the Batcave almost without stopping to prepare equipment and start investigating.

Sky City Cat Getan only appeared after the fusion of the two cities, but Batman had a way to get all the clues from the beginning of the fusion of the two cities to the present.

When did the chaos start?

In a broad sense, of course, it was from the moment the two cities merged. Although most people appeared calm, the fundamental conflict of interest caused the surging undercurrents to sweep wantonly under the calm sea until they became the monstrous waves at this moment.

Batman divided the time from the fusion of the two cities to the present into three periods: the early fusion period, the Cold War period, and the hot war period.

Then he began to straighten out all the clues in the three periods, wanting to find the key clues to how things developed to this point.

In the early fusion period, all forces were divided into two factions, the Cat Getan faction and the New York faction. They were mostly for the competition for the top of the pyramid after the city merged. All conflicts broke out over the question of who was the boss.

The conflicts in this period mainly broke out in the middle and upper classes. This group of people is the group that needs to go further. They know that reshuffling means a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for upward mobility, so they were restless at the first time.

This period lasted for a very short time. When this group of people found out how they could get the most benefits for themselves, the Cold War broke out.

They each elected their own representatives and began a series of games. At first, it was just negotiations and interest exchanges, then developed into intelligence wars, assassination wars, and finally developed into local hot wars.

The comprehensive hot war broke out just a few days ago, but what makes Batman most confused is that from the first two periods, the conflicts and fights mainly broke out in the upper half of the pyramid, and most of them were wars of the upper class.

And until the hot war broke out, everything developed in accordance with the laws, but when the hot war broke out, the nature of this chaos completely changed, from the infighting of the upper class to a complete grassroots exchange of fire, which is not normal.

No ruler would hope to get a ruin. They engaged in the Cold War just to gain benefits. It's not their own resources that are sent out for exchange, so why not do it?

But if all the people really fight with real swords and guns, the buildings are destroyed, the streets are damaged, people cannot work, then no one can make money, the city completely loses order, and power loses its meaning. This is the worst result for the ruler.

That is to say, the culprit of the hot war is not them.

At this time, Batman thought that two things that could affect the situation happened before the hot war started—the arrival of Sky Island Cat Getan and the arrival of Schiller's student Bruce Wei En.