Chapter 72 Gotham City's Model Couple: We Gothamites Flirt...

“Landing successful,” Red Robin whispered, as he tried to hide on the street corner. “I suspect that Night Owl never intended to hide his identity. His armor is so reflective; how could he possibly hide at night?”

“Indeed, right now you shine like a light bulb in my sight.” Red Hood’s voice was a little muffled.

"You're eating."

“Yes, I specially prepared popcorn,” Red Hood readily admitted. “It’s more exciting than movie night, but unfortunately I’m the only one who has time to watch the screen.”

Red Robin took a deep breath.

"I can't..."

“You can’t speak, you need to remain silent,” Red Hood interrupted him arrogantly. “You can only listen to me, that’s right, that’s why I took this job.”

Red Robin angrily typed out codes rapidly on the communicator, trying to prove that she could conquer the realm of language without using her vocal cords, thanks to her mastery of codes.

The two started arguing fiercely using this method.

And so the freshly minted "night owl" walked from its hiding place to the streetlight.

Logically speaking, Gotham on Halloween should be a place of chaos and festivities, where everyone from young to old gathers and heroes congregate... It should "accommodate" every unusual item, and even the Night Owl shouldn't be so conspicuous.

But this Gotham universe is clearly not very reasonable. As soon as "Night Owl" approaches the crowd, the crowd automatically moves away from him, clearing a large area for him, just like a flock of sheep seeing a sheepdog.

"So your plan is to stroll around the streets dressed as a Night Owl?"

“Of course not. Since I can’t find Night Owl’s base, I’ll make him come to me,” Red Robin explained using a code. “Night Owl is an arrogant man, and I don’t think he can accept someone impersonating him. I will confront him face to face.”

"Hey, this doesn't seem quite the same as what you said."

"This is the most effective method. If that night owl really manages to get here, he could destroy the Earth at any time."

"Night Owl" walked towards the somewhat chaotic but still aware crowd that avoided him. "I just need to figure out if this Night Owl is from Earth 3, which will only take a few words."

"Night Owl" can easily distinguish the difference between this Gotham and their Gotham.

Perhaps Batman isn't very famous on Earth yet, because out of all the people on the street, only one person was dressed as Batman...

"What's going on!" Red Hood yelled in despair, his voice carrying powerfully even through the communication device, "How can anyone be feeding Batman! I, Red Hood, am Batman!"

That's right, this "Batman" got very close to a woman dressed as the Joker. The two were inseparable, hugging each other tightly, and even shared a passionate kiss in the street.

On this street, only the two of them ignored the "Night Owl" approaching them, whether because they were genuinely not afraid of the Night Owl, or because they simply did not know that the "Night Owl" was getting close.

"Even the color scheme is wrong! Is the person who put together the clothes colorblind?!" Red Hood continued to yell loudly. "You should stay away from them, not only for your safety, but even just to protect your eyes."

That would ruin his character... Night Owl is clearly not the type to give way to others or let others take a detour.

"Night Owl" tried to ignore the strange scene and pretended to walk past the two people casually.

Just as "Night Owl" brushed past the couple, the two lovers suddenly stopped their deep kiss and turned to stare at "Night Owl" at the same time.

The atmosphere was a bit eerie.

"Night Owl" instinctively reached for his stick, then remembered that Night Owl's armor didn't include a stick. And adopting a defensive stance just because he made eye contact with someone didn't seem to fit Night Owl's persona... Night Owl should either ignore the two of them or start fighting directly. He had a twisted confidence in his own strength and generally wouldn't adopt a defensive posture.

As he was pondering, the woman dressed like a clown, still leaning against "Batman," gave "Night Owl" a twisted smile.

-

Today is Halloween.

So what if it's Halloween? Ever since Bruce died, the family's way of celebrating the holiday has been with the Joker plotting large-scale crimes, while Batman tries his best to thwart her plans.

This Halloween was no surprise, as Halloween is a holiday that the clown cares about more... Although her favorite holiday is Christmas, the day that symbolizes love, hope and redemption, she usually decorates for Christmas more elaborately.

But apparently, there was a little mishap this Halloween.

Someone attacked Wayne Manor, knocked out Batman in the Batcave without revealing their identity, and then threw him into the sewers without taking any of his equipment.

When he woke up, the first thing he saw was the clown's crazed eyes.

The clown's short, green curly hair almost brushed against his face.

Batman shoved her aside (and then took an elbow strike from the Joker), sat up, and said, "...Did you do this?"

“No,” the Joker stood up and looked down at him, “How could that be? Don’t flatter yourself, why would I kidnap you?”

"So what exactly happened?"

"Ha, someone said they wanted to give me a surprise, on the condition that I do them a favor." The Joker raised her foot, trying to step on Batman's shoulder. Compared to the force of their previous attacks, her movements were now incredibly gentle, but Batman still managed to dodge.

"So you gave away the internal structural diagrams of Wayne Manor?"

"No, who would want that map of the junkyard (the junkyard is very obvious, the Joker was looking at Batman the whole time he said this), he told me to sabotage another Joker's 'gathering', preferably kill the leader in front of Batman, chop him into pieces the better, he said it would give me back what I had lost long ago."

"Bruce?"

“That’s right,” the Joker replied with a laugh. “If he dares to lie to me, I’ll skin him alive, grind him into mincemeat, and then flush him down the toilet along with the person he’s going to kill.”

Batman stood up and met the Joker's gaze: "What are the distinguishing features of that guy?"

“Just like you, a coward, hiding and refusing to show your face, even using a voice changer… But none of that matters, none of that matters. I think you know what you should do, Thomas.” The clown moved closer, pressing a small knife against his lips. “Want to come with me?”

“Okay,” Batman agreed, moving the knife aside with his hand. “Let’s do it together.”

Of course, there are many suspicious points in this matter, such as why the other party is so familiar with Wayne Manor, why this person sought to cooperate with the Joker who is obviously mentally unstable, and why the Joker, who is relatively more able to understand human speech, was knocked unconscious, and why the Joker would so easily agree to a stranger's request... But why care about these things? None of these are important.

The atmosphere between the two was unusually peaceful; neither of them spoke first, and they didn't even try to harm each other when they emerged from the sewer.

It was daytime, even a rare sunny day in Gotham. Batman squinted, adjusting to the overly bright light.

In the distance are towering skyscrapers, while closer at hand are dilapidated apartment buildings.

“This isn’t Gotham, at least not this place,” Batman said grimly, scaring away the experienced Gothamites nearby. They could tell that the burly man had a real gun on his waist. Only a few more carefree kids stared curiously at the two strange men emerging from the sewers. “That building was supposed to have been blown up by you a month ago.”

“Yeah, I actually miss that feeling,” the Joker said, keeping a slight distance from Batman, who had been lying in the sewers for half the day. In fact, even when she was leaning on Batman, she didn’t touch the ground, but rather used his cape as a cushion. “I wouldn’t mind blowing it up again.”

When is that 'clown party'?

"night."

The two of them, oblivious to the wary or mocking looks from those around them, began to talk.

"address?"

“That guy told me to follow Batman. He said Batman would find out.” The Joker looked at Batman. “Tell me, what do you know?”

"……I have no idea."

So am I just a tool?

“You need to know, Batman,” the Joker emphasized the word “Batman” menacingly, “that I still believe you’re not entirely a piece of trash.”

The Joker seems very anxious, Batman thought.

She must know more than I do, she just hasn't told me.

"All I can tell is that this isn't our Gotham. Are you sure we're not being controlled by something, like hallucinogens or brain-computer interfaces?"

“I’m absolutely certain I’m not stupid,” the Joker said, disgruntled. “I remained completely sober the whole time.”

...

Not necessarily. I even suspect that we haven't been sober for a single day in the past few years.

But Batman certainly wouldn't reveal his thoughts; he tried to grab the Joker's hand, but the Joker dodged him.

Do you know how dirty your uniform is outside?

...

All right.

Batman led the way, heading straight for a "not-so-clean" bar, and kicked open the locked door.

Clearly, this is a gang hideout. Considering the extremely harsh "business environment" for gangs in Gotham, it seems reasonable to say that this is a hideout run by the Penguin.

Since it was the penguins' hideout, they must have prepared some weapons. The people inside skillfully pointed their guns at the two uninvited guests, and considering that it was daytime, they fired without hesitation.

Batman closed the door.

The stench of blood filled the entire bar.

“I don’t have time to waste with you.” Batman stood in a pool of blood and said to a group of gangsters who had been beaten half to death, “If you don’t want to die, tell us everything you know about Gotham, especially about the Joker. If you do well, you can live.”

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The author says: Considering that some little angels guessed half of it correctly, the first person to guess half of it correctly will also receive a small red envelope (), although it will be much smaller.

In the previous chapter, it was mentioned that before Owl could blow up the Earth, there were actually two things he needed to do: kill the Joker and disrupt his parents' upbringing (the time he broke down and smashed the lamp). So, our efficiency-minded evil chicken merged the two processes...

Yes, he planned to have old Thomas and Martha kill the Joker in front of Bruce. The surprise for the Waynes was Bruce, the surprise for Bruce was the Waynes, the "gift" for the Joker was Batman killing someone with a gun, and the gift for himself was to eliminate the Joker without getting his hands dirty, and incidentally see if Bruce would turn against the Waynes because of it…

What is high emotional intelligence? What does it mean to be understanding and cater to others' preferences?

In short, what follows is a chaotic free-for-all.

-

There will be plenty of side stories, including two about Flashpoint.

Believe me, although the side stories might be a bit crazy, the main story has a happy ending!

-

When interpreting Cup Noodles, people often use Sisyphus, saying, "We must imagine Sisyphus is happy." But (in my personal opinion) Night Owl is more like a character from Camus's play, Caligula (of course, not the historical one, and not as closely associated with Cup Noodles and Sisyphus).