Chapter 2461: The Cape Struggle (Twenty-Six)

Robin King didn't listen at all at first, but later he discovered that Bruce's words contained some intelligence from other universes — which universe was at war, what the deal was with the Batman of which universe — and every piece of intelligence was detailed, far simpler than collecting it himself.

So he began filtering out the nonsense in Bruce's complaints, only noting down the situations of certain universes he mentioned.

But to record that intelligence, he couldn't just let the nonsense go in one ear and out the other; he had to process it, and as he processed it, Robin King inevitably ended up taking some of it in.

Actually, speaking of it, Robin King's career path is also a tale of bitter tears.

In the original comics, Robin King was recruited by the Batman Who Laughs under his command after slaughtering the superheroes of his own universe, but when he was recruited, he didn't know he would be modified, so it wasn't until afterward that he realized he'd been screwed.

At the time, the Batman Who Laughs set up a huge pool, threw all the Robins he'd captured from across the multiverse into it to modify them into Crazy Robins; what he'd promised earlier about being his right-hand man, a general under his command — all bullshit. The captured Robin King was no different from the other Robins; it was all assembly-line modification.

And the modified Robins had no consciousness of their own; they would be completely controlled by the Batman Who Laughs, turning into mad-dog-like monsters.

But although Robin King is called Robin King, he only likes the sound of the robin's call; he isn't actually some Batman's Robin — he is Bruce Wayne. How could he possibly allow someone else to control him?

So he concocted a small pill; as long as he took it, he could preserve his independent consciousness after modification, but this was quickly discovered by the Batman Who Laughs, so before he could fully swallow the pill, he was thrown into the pool.

In a rage, Robin King spat the pill into the pool, causing all the Robins the Batman Who Laughs modified afterward to retain a certain degree of self-awareness.

The most infuriating part came next: the Batman Who Laughs clearly saw Robin King's action, but he didn't stop him, just said in a calm tone, "What you're doing is meaningless; Robins only listen to me."

You tell me if that's infuriating or not — every time Robin King thinks of it, his blood pressure shoots up.

He has to admit that after slaughtering all the superheroes in his universe, he felt bored; when the Batman Who Laughs came to recruit him, he also intended to use the Batman Who Laughs to travel to other universes.

But isn't job-hunting in this world just like that? You want to exploit my labor, I want to exploit your resources — am I supposed to work like an ox for you asking nothing in return?

And at the time the Batman Who Laughs spoke so nicely: now all these universes are going to be destroyed, everything you've done is meaningless, why not follow me?

Whoever heard that wouldn't take it as: your current company has no future, come work for me and I'll give you better terms, better benefits, broader development opportunities?

Result: once they tricked you over, they wanted to modify you into a mindless puppet — isn't that purely luring a pig to slaughter?

To say Robin King holds no resentment is impossible; even if his universe really was going to be destroyed, at least before destruction he was the local tyrant in his home territory, doing whatever he wanted, and would die a happy ghost.

Result: he comes here, not only do they not give the promised position, they want to brainwash and control him directly — this isn't just a shady company, it's practically a pyramid scheme.

But since he'd already come, Robin King admits he was one move short, didn't get the better of the Batman Who Laughs, but it was only one move short; he stayed quiet, didn't expose him, just planned to slip away quietly — result: the Robins of so many universes weren't enough for you to ruin, you had to pin me down here.

You won't let me run, so in a rage I prepared to take everyone with me — result: you came out with a bland "Inciting them is useless; they only listen to me" — who wouldn't go crazy?

And the most outrageous thing: clearly knowing Robin King wanted to run, the Batman Who Laughs didn't care, still sent him out to gather intelligence, with an attitude like "Kid, you think you can escape my Five-Finger Mountain?"

No Bruce Wayne could endure that humiliation, so Robin King naturally wanted to make a big move; that's why he came to the Arkham Knight's universe, to study how this Joker-Batman fusion works, all for the purpose of one day getting payback from the Batman Who Laughs.

Result: now even this isn't going smoothly; he might not only fail to achieve his goal, but go back and get mocked by the Batman Who Laughs — Robin King gets angrier the more he thinks about it.

He really couldn't hold it in, let out a deep sigh, and Bruce finally stopped his complaining, looking at Robin King with a probing expression.

Robin King isn't someone good at complaining, or rather, since birth, aside from this matter, there's hardly anything worth complaining about — but precisely because of that, when these resentful emotions erupt, they erupt all the more violently.

Although Robin King had never done this before, Bruce had given him a good lead earlier; so-called complaining is nothing more than standing from your own angle, laying out all the bizarre things in your eyes, mixed with some stereotyped prejudices that aren't hard to hear — but who cares, why can't his experience have someone judge right from wrong?

Robin King cleared his throat; he didn't directly say the Batman Who Laughs's name, or rather he was a bit ashamed to speak it, because he felt the name was lame as hell.

So he also, like Bruce, used a boss-employee relationship that ordinary people understand more easily to complain about this whole thing; although he wanted to complain, he didn't lose his reason, didn't reveal any important plans, just roughly described his experience.

"... So that's how it is. Do you think that's his true thinking? Does he really believe his brainwashing methods can keep working forever? Or does he think he can conquer the whole multiverse with those brainwashed lunatics?"

This is Robin King's genuine thought; he's never understood what the Batman Who Laughs wants with all those brainwashed Robins — since that pool is so powerful, throwing people in for a soak makes them completely lose autonomy, why not throw in some powerful people?

So he raised this question, but Bruce didn't give a reasoned analysis, just said: "Aren't all bosses like that? You talk efficiency, he talks sentiment; you talk culture, he asks for returns; you ask for concrete plans, he talks grand ambitions; you ask for overall goals, he says details determine success or failure."

Robin King almost wanted to applaud Bruce, because in his eyes the Batman Who Laughs is exactly like that.

The Batman Who Laughs cooks up some super grand plan, so Robin King naturally asks what the purpose of this plan is, and the Batman Who Laughs tells him: the existence of all universes now is meaningless.

So Robin King naturally infers the plan's purpose might be to destroy universes, so he naturally presses: how do you plan to destroy universes? Result: the Batman Who Laughs starts saying again that in every universe there's a unique Batman.

Robin King infers the Batman Who Laughs might want to use Batmen to destroy universes; then since he's going after Batmen, he'd naturally need preparations. Robin King prepared a whole belt of gadgets to deal with his universe's superheroes, so he'd certainly care what preparations the Batman Who Laughs has.

Result: all the preparations he's seen the Batman Who Laughs make so far is grabbing Robins worldwide and throwing them in the pool — he couldn't possibly be counting on Batmen breaking down upon seeing these modified Robins, right?

The Batman Who Laughs's current operations completely mismatch his proposed grand goal; Robin King asks once, and the Batman Who Laughs just says "Do your own job well." If Robin King had to describe it, the Batman Who Laughs right now is the biggest headless fly in the entire multiverse.

So Robin King nodded vigorously and said: "I think you summed it up perfectly; he's simply unreasonable..."

Shiler and Little Bruce sat on the top floor of Wayne Tower, observing their conversation through the screen of that brainwave intrusion device.

Little Bruce turned his head and noticed Shiler had fallen into thought; actually he was also quite interested in that boss Robin King spoke of, but Shiler seemed tight-lipped about it — should he ask?

Actually Shiler was also thinking: since from the timeline perspective, the Dark Knights' members should've fallen almost completely by now, the Batman Who Laughs's many plans should've proceeded step by step, but from current appearances, he seems to still be wandering.

But Shiler had a rough speculation: essentially it's still because of him — precisely, Dr. Anatoli and him, and Bruce.

Previously mentioned: for Shiler, a new file entering from outside, the Batman Who Laughs couldn't predict in advance and temporarily had no deeper understanding, so naturally couldn't understand Bruce, who was deeply influenced by Shiler.

The Batman Who Laughs couldn't predict Shiler was a psychology professor, and happened to mutually torture Bruce for so many years, almost reshaping his personality, so naturally couldn't predict Bruce's outrageous behaviors.

A prime example: the Batman Who Laughs is me myself — a bushy-browed, big-eyed Batman, not doing superhero work, but becoming Barbatos's lackey.

Then the question arises: Bruce became Barbatos's lackey, so what was the early Batman Who Laughs doing?

Well-known: the Batman Who Laughs appeared from the start as Barbatos's apostle, rushing into the main universe through the portal opened by Batman and metal, beginning his great slaughter.

Without Barbatos's early arrangement, the portal to the main universe couldn't have opened, and the Batman Who Laughs would have had no chance to appear.

And now Bruce is Barbatos's beloved little treasure; Barbatos's plan targeting the light universe has shifted from sneaky and furtive to orderly and systematic.

Barbatos's company has been reformed by Bruce into an extremely proper organization; Barbatos is the equivalent of the big boss, Bruce the equivalent of the president, the Dark Batmen or priests of various universes the equivalent of regional managers, the Court of Owls members the equivalent of department heads, the enhanced Talons the equivalent of company employees.

Over this long time, Bruce has already sorted the entire company system very clearly; Barbatos has even gradually adapted to this modern corporate operation system — everything is reported layer by layer, summarized level by level, everyone makes decisions at their proper level, Barbatos controls the final overall direction.

Not to say human corporate systems are top-tier in efficiency, but in dragging each other down — civilly called checks and balances — they're maxed out; but there's a benefit: it looks extremely proper. This corporate machine doesn't turn fast, but the meshing of parts and gears appears seamless, exceptionally beautiful.

Barbatos is very satisfied with this, because it makes him feel he owns a massive team, network spread wide, infiltration deep — far better than that previous ragtag crew.

The Barbatos Group's system has been architected very completely; the whole company looks like it's operating smoothly, resulting in no spare positions left for newcomers.

This newcomer specifically refers to the Batman Who Laughs — yes, Bruce went crazy too early, leaving no position for the Batman Who Laughs under Barbatos.