Chapter 2440

Shiler and Poison Ivy stared at each other.

"Don't look at me, Mr. Madman. I said if there isn't any, there isn't any. Even if Batman takes my blood for testing now, he won't find any toxic components. Otherwise, would I still be standing here without taking any measures to stop that crazy little bastard from destroying this city?"

Shiler saw that Poison Ivy was not telling him the whole truth. The neurotoxin might indeed be gone, but it was not because it was used up; Poison Ivy was clearly hiding something.

"What did Batman come to you for?"

"Whatever you came to me for, he came to me for." Poison Ivy took a slight detour and said: "The whole of Cat Getan City knows that vines represent my eyes. I know everything that has happened there. Batman came to me, obviously also needing the information in my hands."

"And you gave it to him."

"Yes, because now I obviously can only pin my hopes on him."

"You are more powerless than you appear." Shiler raised his head and looked around and said: "These vines are just bluffing. You are very weak now. You may think that the current situation is already very critical. Whether it is Batman or the Bat-family, doing their best to resist the King of Robins is the best help for you. You don't think they have the time and ability to help you."

Shiler paused slightly and continued to speculate: "But this is actually not the main reason. You think they don't want to help you."

"Yeah." Poison Ivy followed his words and said: "In their eyes, I am a criminal. Why should they help me solve trouble?"

"No, that's not the point." Shiler looked Poison Ivy up and down and said: "When I just came over, I found that you were very nervous, kept looking outside, and tapping your toes on the ground. This is a manifestation of an urgent desire to escape."

"I didn't expect there to be a great detective here too." Poison Ivy said with no lack of sarcasm.

"Don't be impatient." Shiler continued: "You feel trapped and are very anxious. The source of this anxiety, besides the nervousness felt from trying to fool a great detective of Batman's level, should also have a deeper reason."

"You are afraid of Batman, but not the kind of fear as a criminal... at least not because of your previous crimes."

"I didn't have many crimes before. Even if I did, after I watched over that little madman named Peter Parker for a night, Batman should have awarded me a Safety Guardian medal."

"Have you noticed?" Shiler walked closer to Poison Ivy, paced behind her and said: "You are constantly indicating that you and Batman are on the same side. You emphasize the help you provided him and emphasize the contributions you have made to this city."

"Because this is a fact."

"Yes, but you didn't take pride in this before. You were indifferent to these things at all, but now you are repeatedly emphasizing it. Who do you want to believe? Me? Or yourself?"

Shiler thought and said: "Emphasizing to me that you and Batman are on the same side has no significant benefit, because even if you see that I am Batman's friend and not an enemy, since you don't need anything from Batman, you don't need anything from me either. What is the use of expressing a stance?"

"Unless your stance has changed. You think you are standing on the opposite side of Batman, but you are afraid that he might discover this, so you subconsciously emphasize how much you have contributed to this city and to Batman, to place yourself in the camp of the good guys and eliminate Batman's hostility."

Poison Ivy opened her mouth to say something, but soon closed it again because she realized she had already exposed too much.

"You think I betrayed Batman?"

"When have you ever cared about Batman?"

"When committing crimes." Poison Ivy answered almost instinctively, but after hesitating for a moment, she still said: "Except for that madman Joker, no one is not afraid of Batman."

Shiler clearly saw the fear that flashed across Poison Ivy's face, but was incomparably clear. At least in the Arkham Knight universe, Batman as the Dark Knight was quite dutiful. He almost perfectly realized his original intention of becoming Batman. Every criminal, when committing a crime, would have that terrifying figure flash through their mind.

Perhaps it is also because the Arkham Batman's own setting is relatively violent. He indeed does not kill, but he does everything except killing, such as directly stepping on people's spines, breaking all four limbs, and driving the Batmobile over people's skulls. It would be strange if criminals were not afraid.

"What did you do?" Shiler asked.

Poison Ivy shook her head and didn't want to say, but Shiler wouldn't let her go just like that. Shiler continued: "After you did certain things, you knew Batman couldn't let you go. Before he found you, you were already prepared to confess, but fooling this Batman made you have a fluke mentality again."

"Perhaps you think he is relatively gentle, but he may just not care." Shiler said: "Many times he will do his best to dig out all the secrets of others, but at the same time he can distinguish between priorities. Forcing you now, he won't get any benefits, and this city may also go further and further on the road to destruction."

"He thinks you are a target that can be won over. Even if you have secrets hidden from him, at least one point remains unchanged: neither of you wants the King of Robins to arrive. He wants to save Cat Getan, and you want to save the plants in Cat Getan. On this point, your stances are consistent."

"So even if you may have done something before, when facing a life-and-death choice, you will definitely lean towards him. So no matter what secret you are keeping, it can be discussed later."

Shiler stared at Poison Ivy's face and said: "You look surprised, because in your heart, Batman is not such a person?"

"Of course not." Poison Ivy said: "In this city, he is a cruel tyrant. No one can defy him. We all know how much of the Joker's death was self-inflicted and how much was Batman venting his anger."

"You are not wrong about that." Shiler said: "Batman has too much anger to vent, but if you make a list according to this, would you be at the top? Even now, when you may have already committed some acts of betraying him."

"Of course not." Poison Ivy was quite confident about this. She said: "I almost never commit crimes. I am an excellent Arkham patient. However, last time I got drunk and vomited, poisoning more than half of the plants in his garden. I guess this will make me move up at least two places on the list."

"I guess he doesn't like plants as much as you do, and he is very rich, so, one place." Shiler paused slightly and said: "Since this is the case, then adding a chip to your crimes will not make the balance tilt immediately. No matter which Batman it is, he will not settle accounts with you immediately."

"You can completely take advantage of this time to make up for your mistakes, or fool Batman in a more fundamental way, instead of just talking about it and lying to yourself that Batman didn't see it."

"A more fundamental way?"

"You have to say what you actually did first."

Poison Ivy took another deep breath and became hesitant again. This let Shiler know that she must have done some bad things beyond imagination; otherwise, she wouldn't be struggling with whether to say it or not at this point.

Shiler did not further persuade her, but waited for Poison Ivy to calm down herself. Obviously, although Poison Ivy had a guilty conscience, her brain was still working, and she also knew that such passive sabotage was not a solution.

"That portal was opened by me." Poison Ivy, sitting on the sofa, covered one eye and said: "I didn't expect there would be such serious consequences."

"What exactly happened? Tell me in detail."

"About two months ago, I noticed that the root systems of underground plants began to wither, which seriously affected the growth of plants on the ground. They began to shrink gradually, stopped growing upward, and finally died in a strange posture."

"I started to investigate this matter, and then I discovered that some dark energy began to gather in one direction. I found the source of the energy gathering. I thought I had to solve it, but at the time I didn't take it as a big trouble."

"I gathered the power of plants, intending to absorb and decompose the power right there. Perhaps you don't know that the decomposition ability of plants is very powerful. Almost any energy will be decomposed into nutrients by them."

"It went very smoothly at first. A large number of vines, trees, and flowers I sent out perfectly absorbed the energy and supported the power of the outer layer, but after the things in the inner layer were exposed, I knew I had done something wrong."

"That was a bait, and also a time bomb. The energy surging in the inner layer was completely different from the outer layer. It was not pure, more like a kind of pollutant, and the plants I sent over were all polluted. They spontaneously formed the shape of a portal, and those energies that had been decomposed and converted into nutrients by them became the fire that ignited the portal."

"And then the King of Robins rushed out from inside?"

"Worse than that. What rushed out first was a powerful pollution. Now the root systems of more than half of the plants in Cat Getan have been polluted and are no longer under my control, so I can only hide here, because those crazy plants are looking for me."

Poison Ivy showed a painful expression. She said: "I am currently using unpolluted energy to manipulate the remaining plants to fight against them, but there are too many of them. I cannot completely eliminate them, and now I can only manage to protect myself."

Poison Ivy also raised her head to look at the plants in the room and said: "These things are not used to threaten you, but a protective net I set up. Once those polluted plants rush in, they will be the last line of defense to protect me."

"But Batman can come in easily."

"Batman can easily enter anywhere." Poison Ivy sighed and said: "Okay, but this pollution seems to be aimed at me. They don't pay attention to others, and crazy plants won't attack others; otherwise, you would have seen it on the news long ago."

"But if they completely polluted and controlled you, it wouldn't be like this, would it?" Shiler proposed a possibility.

"I don't know, they are too strange." Poison Ivy shook her head and said: "I even suspect that they are not targeting me, but the existence behind me. All I can do now is to delay time as much as possible."

"So far, I can still manage to hold them off, but if Batman comes back, I don't think he will listen to my explanation. After all, it was I who opened the portal. In essence, I am the culprit who almost killed him."

"The culprits are the King of Robins and the person who released the pollution energy." Shiler made a judgment and said: "If someone carefully wove a trap for you thousands of miles away, and you were completely unaware, then failing to respond in time and getting into trouble is understandable. Being forced to make a mistake is also not a big deal."

"But how am I supposed to explain all this to Batman?" Poison Ivy spread her hands and said.

"You certainly don't need to explain all this to Batman." Shiler also walked to the sofa and sat down, looking at Poison Ivy and saying firmly: "Instead, it is Batman who needs to give you an explanation."

Poison Ivy widened her eyes.