Chapter 4931

"It's not that we won't go," Tim said. "You don't think — once Doctor Manhattan realizes he couldn't calculate his way to you, will he try to strike again? He needs all these twists and turns to deal with Batman; he doesn't need them for Robin."

Nightwing's hand paused. "So that's why you brought us to Joker's place?"

Tim didn't hide it either. He nodded. "Exactly. Doctor Manhattan is strong, but he's not omnipotent — at least the Dreaming isn't something he can interfere with. If he wants to come at us hard, we can withdraw into the Dreaming instantly."

"I don't think he'd dare provoke Joker," Pamela said, squeezing ketchup onto her potato wedges. "Doctor Manhattan is a hyperdimensional being; he should have an administrator's perspective. He's well aware of the special nature of Batman and Joker — he wouldn't lightly provoke them."

"He probably never dreamed you'd bring us to Joker's house," Damian said, swallowing the meat in his mouth. "This time the supervillain was too conservative."

"Don't put it like that," Harley shrugged. "You're old acquaintances with Uncle Jack too. With Bruce gone, he has an obligation as an elder to protect you."

Red Hood dry-heaved. He waved his hand. "Sorry, just choked a bit. You guys continue."

You couldn't say those words were disgusting — because right now Joker really was protecting them. The Robins weren't ungrateful people who forgot favors. But you couldn't say those words were right either — owing Joker a favor still sounded terrifying. Good thing Batman wasn't here.

"So we just hide here?" Damian clearly wasn't happy about it, though even as he said it, his cheeks kept moving.

"Now we wait for Batman's follow-up," Tim said, looking at Jack. "What do you think Batman prepared?"

"What else could Batman prepare?" Jack said while chewing. "Batman, of course."

"You mean Batman's already here?" Red Robin's eyes darted. "Where is he? Did he enter the game?"

"Oh, wait," Pamela realized. "This is an open-world game. Brainiac never released a player list. There really might be a Batman participating — just too far from us, hasn't met up with us."

"Very possible," Blue Beetle Ted spoke up. "You remember that Batman we ran into at Wayne Tower? I thought about it later — that didn't look much like a final boss. Because Brainiac said the final boss was heavily modified, but that Batman was just... very Batman..."

"Could that have been the real Batman?" Damian felt a chill. But back then they thought it was a boss, didn't dare stay long, didn't dare look twice — otherwise they definitely would've recognized him.

"Not impossible," Tim said. "If it's a strong Batman, killing two monsters is nothing."

Arkham Knight agreed on this point. Those two monsters had tricky skill combos, but if Arkham Batman showed up, it'd basically be over in two rounds.

"But why didn't he pick up the gear?" Damian asked. "If they're both players, there's no reason to leave gear on the ground."

This also made Arkham Knight realize the one who came probably wasn't Arkham Batman. Arkham Batman was a very skilled gamer — he would never refuse to pick up gear.

"Maybe it's that classic Batman," Harley said. "The kind who doubts this, doubts that, fundamentally doesn't trust gear others made, only believes in his own."

"That's not classic Batman," Nightwing said. "We're the standard for judging main-universe classic Batman. Our Batman should be the benchmark."

Tim and Harley both narrowed their eyes — clearly you people don't have a clear understanding of your own universe's Batman.

"Please. When has Batman ever doubted this and that?" Nightwing retorted. "I'm talking about teammates and friends. He's not the kind to destroy unity over baseless suspicion."

"True," Tim said. "But the gear in this game system is provided by Brainiac. Brainiac hardly counts as a positive figure. Most Batmen would consider him an evil AI, right?"

Red Robin sighed. "But even if a Batman entered the game, he should be locked out with us by now, right?"

"Not necessarily." Tim shook his head. "Batman isn't a mind-reader per se, but his control over his own mind is very strong. Maybe he's made contact with those people, or used some other method to stay inside."

Nightwing was about to say more, but Tim cut him off. "Don't tell me you want to go help Batman. That's just walking into a trap."

Nightwing couldn't help glancing at Joker feasting across from them. "Hard to say who's leading whom into a trap."

In the game system, Shiler's deduction results and devised solutions were basically consistent with the Robins' — it was Doctor Manhattan making trouble, and what they had to do now was wait.

First, if Batman had a follow-up, they could wait for Batman's follow-up. If not, Doctor Manhattan would eventually realize something was wrong — either come check, or give up entirely.

Brainiac wasn't that fragile. Even if Earth's nodes were uprooted, there were still Krypton's. Even if the solar system's were gone, he'd already deployed across the universe — who knew which nook hid a server room of his. Even if this universe's were gone, the Injustice universe still had his backups. He wouldn't die that easily — he'd be back before long.

So now they could only wait — either for a savior to appear, or for Brainiac to rise from the dead. Their room for maneuver was very limited. At most they could wait here, make Doctor Manhattan realize he'd grabbed the wrong people.

Shiler didn't think Doctor Manhattan would still have the guts to act after realizing he'd grabbed the wrong people. Back then Doctor Manhattan's game system was ruined by Greed. He should have a very clear understanding of how much lethal force Shiler could exert. And right now there were three whole Shilers here — suicide doesn't require picking such a flashy death method.

Besides, Doctor Manhattan shouldn't fail to recognize Charles. A fight to the death with Professor X's psychic form? That would be spectacular.

Lilith wasn't anxious either. Because her prophecy ability didn't trigger completely randomly. If she herself were in danger, she'd see it in advance. Seeing nothing now meant everything was completely fine.

Compared to this, Arrogance and Charles's discussion on psychoanalysis was more worth listening to. Lilith couldn't quite grasp psychoanalysis either, but as a telepath she loved studying psychology. A master class couldn't be missed.

So Arrogance discussed academic issues with Charles, Lilith listened on the side, Agent fiddled with a gun, Bishop spaced out. They waited here for half a day, until a pitch-black figure walked out of the thick fog.

"Batman?" Lilith looked at him with some shock.

The others all stood up too. Expressions could be described as spectacularly varied. Charles was initially surprised too, then raised an eyebrow, revealing a look of sudden understanding. Arrogance frowned, then his expression became somewhat inscrutable. Agent looked this Batman up and down, confirming he'd never seen him before. Bishop didn't care, lost in who-knew-what thoughts.

"How's Brainiac?" Arrogance asked.

"Fighting his way out of the Underworld," Batman said in a low voice. "The spatiotemporal paradox triggered by that gun sent the entire game's main server into Hephaestus's temple. Some kind of anti-lock braking device must have activated."

Lilith breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the Olympian gods."

Zeus might not be reliable, but Diana and Hephaestus are. Good thing Brainiac's fine. The long delay was probably because Hephaestus never dreamed he'd one day deal with an AI — he probably had no idea how to talk to a game server.

"Doctor Manhattan..."

"It's him," Batman said. "He used dominator particles to invade Brainiac's underlying system library. This universe's Brainiac system has almost completely collapsed. But the game server, on the contrary, is fine."

Agent revealed a look of sudden understanding. They tinkered with that broken gun, used the observer-effect spatiotemporal paradox — not only did it not destroy Brainiac's game system, it accidentally preserved it and sent it to Mount Olympus.

Doctor Manhattan either didn't discover it or didn't want to deal with the gods, and didn't touch this fragment of consciousness. And Brainiac is a super-AI — he can survive in an ordinary human hard drive, let alone this game system he built, which is actually extremely complex. The server stuffed into Hephaestus's temple nearly squeezed the god out with its bulk.

"When's he coming back?" Shiler asked. "Or do we go out first?"

"Unnecessary," Batman said concisely. "After Brainiac returns, the game proceeds as normal."

Arrogance nodded. He understood. Doctor Manhattan pulling this stunt wasn't to completely eliminate Brainiac — he knew that was impossible. Doing this was to ruin Brainiac's game test this time. And the more he did that, the less Brainiac could let him succeed.

"Everything okay?" Charles asked with some worry.

"I think we should worry more about ourselves," Arrogance sighed, turning away. "If the game continues, we still have to figure out how to get into the Psychology building. Doctor Manhattan will probably strike even harder."

"How are the disconnected people?" Lilith asked with concern.

"They're fine," Charles said. "I just checked. They're at Jack's eating barbecue. Should be almost done by now."

"You left?" Lilith asked, surprised.

"I never came at all," Charles said. "What you saw was just my brainwave projection — an illusion. No one knows where I am."

"But Brainiac can't see illusions, right?" Lilith asked again. "Then how could he identify you?"

"Brainwaves can be converted to radio waves," Charles said. "If you have a friend extremely proficient in magnetism, you can learn this trick. I can use radio interference to make Brainiac see what he wants to see, even create electronic illusions."

"Your people are all impressive," Lilith exclaimed. "Once the storm tide passes, I'll go check it out."

As his words fell, the patterns on the floor beneath his feet gradually spread, walls stacked layer upon layer, an incomparably real dampness permeated the air, thick fog rose — the game system began reloading.

"I'm back." Brainiac's voice was slightly stiff; clearly, Doctor Manhattan's punch had not been without effect on him. "The game system is loading; all players will be sent to their base safe zones. Countdown: 10 seconds. 10, 9, 8..."

Shiler spaced out for a moment and found himself back in his own home, and the first thing he did was let out a long sigh. Charles said nothing, merely patting his shoulder.