Chapter 40 Peeping into the Parallel World [VIP]

484.

"So is there any world you want to see?"

As soon as Tim finished speaking, the entire Batcave fell into an eerie silence.

Then--

"Ohhhhhh!" Stephanie was the first to raise her hand. "Yeah! What about a world where Bruce debuts as an idol and Robin is his assistant?"

"I want to see Gotham become a happy and just town, a crime-free world where Bruce is just an ordinary wealthy man and gets eight hours of sleep every day." Barbara held her chin up. "Let me see if Master would be happier in that world than he is now."

"I want to see a world where everyone is a cub," Dick said excitedly. "See what Leona looks like when she becomes a little snub!"

I tilted my head in confusion. "Hey, didn't I see the bird version of me when Big Damian came here?"

"I wish there were a world where Bruce was just an ordinary person, not wearing a straitjacket and taking minors to watch the moon in Gotham at night." Alfred smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps in that world, the master would be more obedient."

Bruce's eyes began to wander.

"I'd love to see a world where everyone's identities were reversed," Jason lazily leaned back in his chair. "Like, let Batman become Robin, and Robin become Batman."

"I want to see a world where everyone has superpowers." Kashan raised her hand, her eyes sparkling. "Magic, supernatural powers, spells, anything."

"I'd like to see the so-called Dark Multiverse," Tim said calmly, pushing his goggles up on his nose. "I want to see how the Batman Who Laughs actually came about."

Everyone looked at him in unison, and a sense of unease instantly filled the air.

"...Okay, let's put this aside for now." Tim coughed dryly and turned to look at me. "Leona, what about you?"

I rubbed my chin, pondering for a moment, then decisively decided, "I want to see Bruce as a morning-old office worker, dominated by the Wayne Group's board of directors. Every day he wakes up in a world of meetings, signing documents, and being pressed for performance by investors."

The audience was silent for a second, then erupted into thunderous cheers.

"I like this." Tim gave a wicked grin.

"Okay, let's go with this one first!" Dick rubbed his hands excitedly, "Bruce's pain is our joy!"

Bruce's mouth curled down.

485.

Light and shadow flickered on the screen, and the image of a parallel world slowly emerged.

——What came into view was a luxurious office. A man in a neat suit and with his hair combed meticulously was sitting at his desk, looking through documents with a frown on his face.

That face is so familiar, of course it's our beloved Bat-father Bruce Wayne.

However, unlike Bruce who stayed up late every day but insisted on sleeping for 8 hours, his eyes were bloodshot and there were thick contracts, meeting minutes and financial statements piled up beside him.

"The Wayne Group's 20x5 third quarter shareholders' meeting is about to be held. Mr. Bruce Wayne, please attend on time." The voice of the AI ​​assistant sounded in the office.

"Go to your shareholders' meeting." Bruce Wayne gritted his teeth and threw the pen in his hand away, veins popping out on his forehead, "I don't want to have another meeting!"

We all burst out laughing.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

"Finally, I don't have to help you process those documents at Wayne Group every day!"

"I didn't expect Xiaoti to live like this every day. Bruce, you should really feel guilty about exploiting underage labor!"

486.

Bruce glanced at us coldly: "...Are you happy?"

"Nothing." Jason shrugged.

"Just to liven up the atmosphere." I spread my hands.

"Shouldn't I be happy?"

Brave Timothy smiled and attacked! Triggering "Bruce's Guilty Conscience"!

"There are still countless reports piled up in my office. Could you please, my dear Bruce, take care of this work that should be yours?"

Timothy pressed on and successfully landed a critical hit!

"I've dealt with it..." Bruce argued stubbornly.

"Yeah, if you're talking about the time your last girlfriend insisted on flirting with you in the office while you were hugging that pile of bullshit she was working on."

The corners of Tim's mouth curled up even more. "Then you did process it, but you just need to reprint the document and let me process it again."

487.

The laughter had stopped and the room was dead silent.

Bruce held up his hands, "Okay, I'll take care of it."

To demonstrate his resolve, Bruce immediately pulled out the document Tim sent him every day, which he rarely read. "From now on, seriously."

Bruce was suppressed by the desperate Tim.

There is no skill involved here, it's all emotions nurtured by resentment.

488.

"...Tim, hurry up, hurry up!"

"It's already being adjusted," "Don't rush!"

On the screen, Gotham's moonlight shines equally on everything, including a bat whose chin exceeds the upper limit of normal Batman.

He put on frighteningly white powder and exaggerated lipstick, his fine teeth gleamed with a white light, revealing bright red gums, and fluorescent green mucus dripped from the corners of his mouth that was grinning from ear to ear.

The Robin dogs crawled at his feet, their chains scraping the ground as they crawled. Some had zombie-like pale faces, their mouths cracked to the ears and oozing blood. Some had half their faces embedded in leather collars, and the other half was covered with faded fragments of domino masks.

"Good dog, say hello to our old friend?" His fingertips poked the wound on the boy's temple, and the Robin dog immediately spasmed and rushed forward. He threw a bat dart - it was engraved with "Batman and Robin, eternal partners" - and then, more Robins were released, they committed evil and killed people in Gotham.

"Good Boy!" said the pale and thin man with a fierce looking Robin beside him.

The man who was once known as the Golden Boy in Gotham was now gnawing on the carrion of rats. The yellow cape of Robin's uniform had become a mop, stained with his own excrement.

The man laughed wildly, then stepped on the robin's back and hummed a strange tune.

489.

Jason: "...Tim."

Tim: “…Sorry, my hand slipped.”

The whole family: "What the hell is going on?"

Mom, I saw a horror movie! My eyes are dirty! Woo woo woo!

490.

"What... things are you all looking at?" Bruce rubbed his brow. "Except for the first world, which is relatively normal, the rest are..."

"They're all very interesting," Dick added generously. "Besides, Bruce, aren't you a big fan of 'preparing for a rainy day'? Looking at yourself in different worlds is also a kind of reference."

"...No." Bruce said coldly, "I'd rather not know."

"That's not the way to say it." I patted Tim's shoulder. "Go on, let's see if there's a world where we all live a carefree and happy retirement life?"

Tim nodded and tapped a few more times on the keyboard.

491.

The screen lit up again, and this time the scene was—

"Ohhh! It's Vacation World!" Stephanie exclaimed excitedly.

On the screen, our whole family was wearing Hawaiian floral shirts, and Barbara and I were wearing sunglasses, leisurely lying on beach chairs drinking juice.

Dick and Tim were happily surfing, Jason was quietly accelerating behind them, preparing for a sneak attack, Cassandra and Steve were building sandcastles, Alfred was fishing, and Bruce...

…Bruce is working on applying sunscreen to the whole family.

Damian was the first to respond to the call, lying in front of Bruce with a serious expression.

“Wow, this looks really good!”

"That devil kid really needs to put on more sunscreen, otherwise I'm afraid when I get back from vacation, I won't be able to find him once I turn off the lights."

"Todd, you're looking for death!"

"We're going on vacation sometime? Not on that beach in Wayne Island, I mean."

"Do you look down on the beach on Wayne Island? I designed and laid it out myself!"

492.

Bruce's expression softened, perhaps he was remembering the wonderful time his family had barbecued on the beach last weekend.

Then he narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "I can put sunscreen on you."

The whole family fell silent immediately. The next second, except for Damian who continued to respond actively, everyone else quickly changed the subject as if they hadn't heard anything.

"So, what world should we choose for the next one?"

"How about a world where all criminals reformed?"

"Then Gotham will truly be peaceful!"

"Or perhaps, see a world where everyone turns into a cat?"

"Oh? Cat Batman? Interesting!"

492.

Mention "Cat Batman" and a group of people's eyes light up.

"That sounds great," Dick was the first to respond. "Imagine Bruce as a big black cat with a bat mask, erect ears, and cold eyes."

"That's cute." I gave a scary smile that only humans give when they see kittens. "I'm going to kiss the kitten until it meows."

"Don't disrespect father, Sister Leona." Damian said to me seriously.

Our eyes locked for a moment. "Okay, I'll try."

"If Bruce were a cat, it would be a completely different feeling!" Stephanie waved her hands excitedly. "What does it matter if Bruce the cat scolds me? What's wrong with a kitten? Whatever a cat does is right!"

"Dick might be one of those blue-eyed ragdoll cats who is very clingy and jumps on people every day." Jason said lazily.

"Oh, a Ragdoll cat? That feels good too, at least it's big!" Dick thought.

"Dick probably thinks this way he won't be the shortest in the family," Tim pointed out with a smile.

"Then...what about Cassandra?" Stephanie ignored the quarrel between the brothers and turned to look at Cassandra.

"Cassandra is a black Bombay cat," Barbara said with a smile. "She's swift, silent, and strikes like lightning."

"Damian would be a Persian," Tim mused. "He'd turn his nose up at the other cats and say, 'You stupid fellows!'"

If Damian turned into a cat, would he fall in love with humans? Jason and I looked at each other and thought deeply.

"What did you say?" Damian narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"Look, it looks a lot like it now."

"court death!"

Seeing Damian about to jump over from the sofa and beat Tim, Tim leaned weakly on my shoulder and said, "I'm so scared. I may not be able to debug this machine."

"Alright, Damian." Barbara immediately stopped Damian from playing with his brother. "At least finish looking at the other parallel worlds first."

Damian snorted heavily and sat down.

493.

The vote was finally passed, the light and shadow on the screen changed, and a furry Gotham City appeared before us.

"Meow meow meow." Bruce's voice came from the screen, but... but it was really "meow meow meow"!

"He sounds exactly like Bruce. That's definitely how Bruce meows!" Stephanie was the first to fall down on the sofa laughing. "Record it! Record it now!"

On the screen, Bruce was squatting on the main console of the Batcave. A pitch-black cat with soft and shiny fur, its tail wrapped around its paws, and its ears erect, listening seriously to the alarm from Gotham.

He was meowing and scolding the kittens on night patrol over the communication channel.

"Dick is indeed a Ragdoll cat!" Tim raised an eyebrow, looking at the cow-colored Ragdoll cat on the screen with its big tail swishing back and forth - it was Nightwing. He was jumping lightly from a building, rolling around after landing, and his furry tail was flying.

"Hahahaha look, Jason is the black-footed cat!" Dick pointed at the screen and laughed.

"What is this?" Jason frowned.

"The most ferocious cat in North America. It's small, but incredibly powerful," I explained to Jason. "It can kill prey that is more than ten times its size."

"...Oh." Jason nodded with satisfaction. "He's quite capable, but he's small."

"Hey, Damian is indeed a Persian cat!" Stephanie pointed at a fluffy, upright cat on the screen. "It looks like it despises all cats equally."

"Stupid." Damian rolled his eyes. "You guys are so boring."

"Hahahaha, Kashan really suits the Bombay cat look!" Barbara spotted the nimble black figure, like a ghost in the shadows. "She just took down a criminal with one claw!"

“This world is so perfect.” I sighed, holding my face. “Cat Batman, cat Robin, cat Gotham… I could watch it all day!”

"The problem is, the criminals in this world are also cats." Dick pointed at the screen.

On the screen, a fat cat was squeezing itself into a chair, and another cat with messy fur was squatting on the roof of an exploded car, tilting its head to look at the chaotic street.

"...Is this Penguin Cat?" Tim held his forehead.

"Gotham Cat City, perfect." Jason nodded.

Just as we were all immersed in this perfect world, the machine suddenly flickered and snowflakes appeared on the screen.

"Hmm?" Tim frowned and quickly tapped a few times on the keyboard. "Data fluctuations? No, the energy is abnormally rising..."

"Translate it." Dick turned to me and asked.

"The translation is—" I narrowed my eyes, "We were ejected and automatically connected to another world."

The next second, the screen suddenly went black, and a new picture slowly emerged -

A tall figure stood in the night of Gotham, his cloak fluttering, his eyes sharp and dangerous.

But what shocked us the most was...

The Batman of this world is actually Jason? !

The whole audience was silent for three seconds.

Then Jason jumped up from the couch: "Huh???"

494.

"This isn't scientific!" Jason pointed at himself on the screen, a look of shock on his face. "Why am I the Batman?!"

"Why's that so surprising?" Dick crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "We've all been Batman before, so it's no surprise it's your turn."

"But this is a cat world!" Jason was still in shock. "How did I become Cat Man?"

"Ohhhh—" Stephanie pounded the table excitedly, "Wait wait! So you're the Cat Batman in this world, but what about the others? What about Bruce??"

Tim quickly pulled up the data and looked at the scrolling analysis report, his expression becoming complicated.

"It seems... Bruce in this world may be missing." He said slowly, "At least I haven't detected any information about Bruce yet."

The whole audience fell into a brief silence.

"So Jason filled this gap?" Barbara looked at the screen thoughtfully. "How did you end up on this path in this world?"

"How should I know?" Jason exploded. "This is a parallel world, and I'm not that me!"

"Speaking of which—" I squinted my eyes, looking at the "Cat Man" on the screen, and suddenly realized an important point, "Did you notice that the color scheme of Cat Man is wrong?"

Everyone looked at the screen.

Jason Catman's battle suit is indeed different from the usual Batman. The overall color tone is darker, there are some red decorations on the armor, and the logo on the chest is also different from Bruce's bat logo.

It was a bunch of fat, red bats.

"...Shit." Jason rubbed his face. "So, not only am I the Cat Batman, but I also wear the Red Hood symbol?"

"This makes perfect sense!" Dick slammed the table excitedly. "This is the most logical evolution of Gotham! The Red Hood is born!"

"Don't give random names!" Jason roared.

"Never mind the name!" Stephanie's eyes lit up. "Look! Cat Man is about to start fighting!"

The Catman on the screen - or rather, Jason Catman, suddenly jumped down from a tall building, his cape fluttering in the air. The moment he landed, his limbs bent, and his movements were incredibly smooth, like a real black panther.

Opposite him, a cat in a purple hat was licking its paw, with jewelry bags scattered around it.

"Catwoman?" Tim narrowed his eyes.

"Meow meow." Catwoman blinked, and the next second she suddenly jumped onto the street lamp, flicked her tail, and fled the scene like lightning.

Cat Man meowed softly and quickly chased after him.

"Hey hey hey! Don't run! I still want to see cats fall in love!" Stephanie stomped her feet anxiously.

"Could you please not make me a partner in every world?" Jason protested. "Can't Cat Man just catch criminals?!"

"Oh, sorry." Stephanie waved her hand. "But this is Gotham. Love and crime go hand in hand."

495.

Just as we were arguing, the image on the screen suddenly changed—

A small cat shadow appeared on the street on a rainy night. It huddled in a corner, dirty, looking helpless and pitiful.

Cat Man stopped, stared at the kitten for a few seconds, sighed, then lowered his head, picked up the kitten, and put it in his cloak.

"Oooooohh ...

"That's Timothy!" Tim quickly judged, "The Timothy in this world is a kitten! And he's still wandering around Gotham!"

Oh, Tim! You're a stray duck cat!

Jason was completely speechless. He slumped back onto the couch and buried his face in his hands.

"I don't want to see this world anymore..." he muttered in pain.

"It's too late." I smiled and patted his shoulder. "We'll see how you raise your son."

The Cat Man on the screen sighed, lowered his head and licked the kitten's forehead. The kitten shuddered, then slowly curled up in his arms.

"...Okay." Jason put his hand down and stared at the screen, unable to help but curl up the corners of his mouth. "At least, I have family in this world... too."

496.

"Meow——" The soft meow of a kitten was heard from the screen.

"Jason, listen." Dick smiled and pointed at the screen, "Your son is calling you."

"Shut up, Dick." Jason threw a pillow at his head expressionlessly, but his eyes remained fixed on the screen.

Well, even though you say you dislike it, your body is still very honest.

"Just admit it." Barbara pushed up her glasses. "You're quite satisfied with yourself in this world."

"I, I didn't!" Jason exploded and immediately retorted, "I was just... observing! Yes, observing!"

"Observe yourself as a good cat dad?" Stephanie laughed so hard she nearly fell under the couch.

Tim propped up his chin, staring thoughtfully at the Cat Man on the screen. "Come to think of it, how did you become Cat Batman in this world? Where's Leona? Where's Dick? It's impossible that Bruce the Cat suddenly disappeared one day and you inherited the cape, right?"

"It's very likely." Dick nodded. "After all, the rule in Gotham is that when Batman disappears, Robin takes over."

"Hey." Bruce frowned, but didn't argue.

"But if the Bruce of this world doesn't exist..." I stroked my chin, "then from whom did Jason take over the mantle?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, then turned to look at the screen.

497.

The scene continued to play, and Cat Man returned to a tall building with the kitten in his mouth. The style of that building looked like...

"...Wayne Manor?" Jason stared at the screen. "No, this place... doesn't look like Bruce's territory."

"Barbara's clock tower?" Tim quickly realized, "So, the Cat Man in this world grew up in a clock tower?"

Just then, a new cat appeared in the picture.

It was pitch black all over, but had pointed ears, a small purple scarf around its neck, and a pair of amber eyes staring sharply at the kitten that Cat Man brought back.

Cat Man gently put the kitten down, then lowered his head and meowed at the black cat.

The black cat was silent for a while, then slowly walked forward and licked the kitten's ears.

"...Oh." Dick said slowly, "So, the Catman in this world didn't inherit the mantle of Batman, but inherited——"

"Batgirl." Barbara's eyes widened.

Jason looked shocked, "Wait, so in this world, Barbara the Cat adopted me?"

"The warm daily life of a cat mom and her kittens!" Stephanie clasped her hands together, with stars in her eyes.

"This is ridiculous." Jason covered his face with his hands. "Why can't I escape the fate of being adopted in every world?!"

"Because you are the chosen one of the Bat Family." I smiled and patted his shoulder.

On the screen, after confirming the kitten's safety, the black cat jumped onto the bookshelf beside him, curled up, and looked at Cat Man and the kitten.

Cat Man sighed, stretched out his paw to hold the kitten in his arms, and then meowed softly.

The kitten stretched and curled up contentedly in his arms.

"...Okay." Jason finally gave up struggling. "At least, in this world, I'm still a good brother."

"A good cat dad," Dick corrected.

Jason grabbed another pillow and threw it at him with an expressionless face.

Dick dodged it nimbly and everyone burst into laughter.

We later discovered that Dick was performing as a flying cat in a circus, Ringo was meowing and training new disciples in Kunlun Mountain, Damian wasn't born yet, Stephanie was planning to put her dad in Black Cat Prison, and Cassandra was wandering around.

The kitten is so cute! The kitten is so cute!