Chapter 2175

There are many reasons why Batman didn't stop the departure of the Cat Getan Sky Island, and the biggest reason is still the safety of the Bat-family.

The war between Darkseid and the Green Lantern Corps is destined to be protracted and difficult to distinguish between victory and defeat, but Batman himself knows that Darkseid will not let him go. He has always been very interested in the half of the equation in Batman's hands.

However, the Earth is remote and weak, so there is no need to send a fleet at all. Then the best way is still to send assassins to kidnap or assassinate. If they can't deal with Batman, the Cat Getan Sky Island floating on top of the Earth will become the best target.

Didn't Darkseid send people over before? Although he didn't succeed in kidnapping anyone, it gave Batman a wake-up call. This great monarch is not a bright and upright good person. Home kidnapping is his specialty, so it's better to just move the house away.

After Cat Getan went to hell, Batman was slightly relieved, but hell was still not far enough. People like Constantine could come and go freely, just like the last time he transferred Robin. Letting Cat Getan go to a more distant universe to take refuge would be a good way.

So he acquiesced to Cat Getan going to a strange universe, but didn't expect that this universe was undergoing huge changes. The addition of Cat Getan must have changed the situation to some extent.

It's not surprising that the lunatics from Arkham Asylum would go to the new city. What's strange is that after all of them rushed into the new city, there was no sound.

Batman keenly discovered that they might have adopted the method of replacing counterparts, and the most obvious one was the Penguin.

The Penguin is the mayor and has more opportunities to appear in front of the public. Some abnormalities in small actions can be clearly seen in the reports of news media. Batman almost immediately concluded that the Penguin had pulled off a "civet cat for prince" trick.

Then there is the Joker. Batman hasn't seen the Joker in the new city, but he knows the Joker of his own universe too well. He has also appeared in news media, and the details in the photos on the front page also made Batman sure that this was the Joker he had just caught into Arkham Asylum.

Followed by Bruce. Bruce's arrival is also a turning point. Batman couldn't free up his hands, but hoped to stabilize the situation on the Sky Island, so he thought of Schiller's student Bruce Wei En. This is the only Batman he can contact so far.

So Batman called Bruce, and Batman could also see from the photos related to Bruce Wei En taken by the media that although the local Batman and Bruce were very similar, Bruce later replaced the local Batman.

Then the three protagonists of the key turning event are all gathered. Next, Batman needs to study what happened in the Anderin event that led to the outbreak of the hot war.

On the afternoon of the 26th, the Joker's figure appeared on the screen, claiming that a reporter had been kidnapped, and announced his relationship with Batman. Bruce Wei En went to rescue, the rescue failed, and Anderin fell to his death.

On the evening of the same day, 283 media outlets in New York and Cat Getan forwarded this report, of which more than 60 were influential major newspapers, and more than 40 news media aimed their guns at Bruce.

On the morning of the 27th, the front pages of all newspapers were reporting this event. A large amount of false news and groundless speculation appeared on the layout, and the focus of most media reports was Bruce rather than the culprit, the Joker.

Up to now, Batman can be sure of two things: at this point in time, Bruce is still the local Bruce, but the Joker has become the Joker of his universe.

Obviously, the local Bruce couldn't handle this situation at all. After the incident, he didn't take any effective measures, neither reversing public opinion nor catching the Joker.

On the morning of the 28th, another heavy news appeared: Mayor Oswald Cobblepot attempted to shoot Bruce Wei En, Bruce Wei En fell, was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, and has been missing since then.

On the afternoon of the same day, Mayor Oswald Cobblepot was arrested, but was not brought to justice, becoming a fugitive, and also lost news for a long time.

On the morning of the 31st, the protest team set out from Brooklyn, New York, circled half of Brooklyn, and crossed Queens to enter the upper reaches of the Cat Getan River. The hot war broke out completely.

Then the doubts are obvious—why did the Penguin shoot Bruce Wei En?

This makes no sense. Oswald Cobblepot had no such motive, nor did he have such courage, so the problem must be with Bruce Wei En.

Batman came to the mayor's office. This place has been sealed since the shooting. Under multiple pressures, no police could investigate this case. The charge for the Penguin's arrest was not attempted murder, so there was no need for evidence testing, so the crime scene was untouched.

Bloody sofa, imperceptible footprints, traces of firearms left on the coffee table...

Countless clues were transmitted to his brain through Batman's eyes. Almost in an instant, Batman determined that Bruce shot himself.

The Penguin left traces on the sofa, not just because he was fat, but because fat people sweat relatively more, so they use more concentrated antiperspirant. The scent of the essence will remain on the fabric sofa for more than half a month. Batman can easily judge where he sat.

It is not easy to judge where Bruce sat, but according to the direction of the footprints and Batman's behavioral patterns, he should have been sitting directly in front of the Penguin.

The two sat face to face, left and right opposite. If the Penguin shot, it should have hit Bruce's left chest. Even if he deliberately aimed at the right chest, the bullet should have entered vertically, not with an angle like it is now.

It was obvious that Bruce held the gun in his left hand and shot himself in the right chest.

From the scratches left by the firearm on the table, it can be seen that the gun was first in the Penguin's hand and slid to Bruce through the coffee table. So looking at it this way, it should be that the Penguin influenced Bruce through some method, making him shoot himself.

But this speculation was immediately overturned by Batman. The Penguin couldn't manipulate Bruce, because Bruce's teacher was Schiller Rodriguez.

And letting Bruce fall in his office had no benefit to him. Batman wouldn't feel that some populist media calling the Penguin a hero was a benefit to him.

You can't smash the pot of the person whose food you eat. The Penguin squeezed in by bribing the upper class. The people in Bruce Wei En's circle are his "parents." As long as anyone with a little intelligence wouldn't do something like offending this group of people to exchange for some benefits in reputation.

Then this was Bruce's conspiracy, because it could completely cut off the Penguin's path of upward mobility.

And the subsequent development of things exceeded expectations. The Penguin was arrested, he was handcuffed, but he was not caught in the end, and he even ran to the slums, pulled up a protest team, and sent it to Cat Getan.

After some research, Batman determined that the Penguin was being used from beginning to end. He pulled up a team to save his life and organized a march to restore his reputation, which fits his behavioral logic.

Batman investigated the hospital's surveillance. He found that Bruce was indeed seriously injured, had been in emergency treatment for more than 20 hours afterward, and was still in a coma.

The treatment records were complete and detailed. Bruce seemed to have perished with the Penguin with his own life safety.

Framing the Penguin was indeed a clever move, so Batman couldn't be sure that this wasn't Bruce's plan.

Then, tossing and turning, everything returned to the starting point. If the Joker didn't kidnap Anderin, Bruce wouldn't lose his reputation, and the Penguin who shot him wouldn't become a hero, wouldn't be able to pull up a team, this team wouldn't enter the Cat Getan area, and the hot war wouldn't break out.

The culprit was still the Joker.

Just as the Joker predicted, after an investigation, Batman found that the fuse of the war was the Anderin case, and the mastermind behind the Anderin case was the Joker. It was the Joker who destroyed the new city.

Compared to the Joker's flowery words, Batman trusted his own investigation and judgment more. He didn't care about the Joker's rumors and allegories, so he went back to find the Joker.

"I told you, Batman." The Joker sat on the bed gloomily with his head hanging down, his lips moving constantly when he spoke, and his teeth could be seen through the lip slits.

"You really disappointed me too much." The Joker tilted his head stiffly and strangely like a zombie, saying: "You don't understand me at all, just like you don't understand yourself."

"Do you want to change your career to become the Riddler?" Batman asked mockingly.

The Joker continued to remain silent. Batman used all kinds of methods but couldn't make him speak again. Only at this moment did Batman realize that his speculation might indeed have some problems.

The reason Batman made this judgment was that the Joker actually refused to admit it.

In the past, whenever the Joker committed any major case, he wished he could jump onto Batman's face to ask him if he did a good job, eagerly wanting to see Batman's reaction, let Batman evaluate his behavior, and repeatedly ask Batman to smile for it.

Now he has made such a big mess, but he has actually become like those ignorant little thieves, trying to evade responsibility, denying it in every possible way in front of the police, and refusing to confess even if beaten to death. This doesn't look like the Joker.

And the Joker is the lunatic Batman understands best. Batman has witnessed many messes he made, bombing cases, kidnapping cases, and all kinds of outrageous and terrifying murder cases.

But these cases are not the result but the process. The Joker didn't commit crimes just to blow others up or kidnap them for ransom. Crime is to realize his artistic pursuit.

Just like the Anderin case, he kidnapped and forced Bruce to let go and let Anderin fall to his death. Essentially, he didn't want to kill this person, but just wanted to break Bruce's psychological defense line.

Watching people suffer and collapse, watching them float and struggle in the quagmire of human nature, is the art the Joker wants.

War is certainly very painful, and many people will die, but their deaths are too cheap and have no aesthetic value at all. The process and results of these people's deaths cannot provide any material for discussing human nature and artistic philosophy. In the Joker's view, this is an unforgivable waste.

The Anderin case was interrupted by Bruce's heaven-defying shot. The Joker couldn't let it go. If the chaos outside was really caused by him, he must be rehearsing intensively now, and the moment Batman descended, he would give him a super big surprise.

But he didn't. He gave up struggling and let Batman catch him into Arkham Asylum.

And Batman also figured it out. The reason why the Joker would rather sit in Arkham Asylum and do nothing than go out to join the fun—a starving ghost whose food was snatched away halfway through eating, no matter what, would not be willing to watch a capitalist pour milk into the river.