Lincoln March got out of the car.
The biting cold wind rushed into the car, and the original owner, who was knocked unconscious, groaned but did not wake up.
Lincoln frowned and said nothing. He looked at the crooked front of the car, then stretched out his hand.
In the distance was a deserted road with no cars on it. He was on the highway from Gotham to Bludhaven, but a translucent barrier blocked him.
There was no entity, nothing, but the closer he got, the more oppressive he felt. There was something in front of him, so he couldn't leave.
Lincoln angrily punched the front of the car.
He took a deep breath, took out his gun, and stuffed it directly into the mouth of the car owner who was about to get up tremblingly, and then "bang——"
The fatal shot did not cause much bleeding. He dragged the body into the bushes and drove back to the city.
After about a confused few minutes, the stiff corpse crawled up in a daze. At first, it was about what happened, then its expression changed, and it immediately took out its cell phone and chose to call the police.
Lincoln drove his car into the traffic.
At first, he didn't notice anything wrong.
The surrounding environment was no different from the original Gotham City. No one realized that this was an illusion until Lincoln raised his head and saw gargoyles flying by in the rain.
Then, there was no sound coming from the other end of the communicator used to contact Charon, and there was no response from the bomb buried in Charon's neck - at that moment he thought that this guy chose to betray, and then Lincoln found more unusual places, some details, such as some stores were not open, and the person waiting for the red light next to him did not seem to be the original one, and then more and more evidence.
At that moment, he seemed to have come to another Gotan city.
And he couldn't leave.
This is a prosperous city, just like the real Gotham. Lincoln can obtain other people's identities, mobile phones, find the old site of the owl, go underground to investigate the disappearance of Charon, contact Daisy... or something else, but he doesn't know what he is doing. He is...
He is trying to escape from the city.
He is afraid.
This is fake, he is sure that this is a fake city. Lincoln thought he didn't love Gotham, but in fact, he really knew this city very well - he hacked into the website and found that the network here could only see news about Gotham. Searching for "New York" and "Metropolis" all gave "no results". This place was like an isolated island. No matter how much it looked like Gotham, it was fake!
However, he drove around and around and actually arrived at Qingliu Cottage.
This is where he...lives.
Martha Wayne was threatened by gangsters and suffered a car accident during her pregnancy, which led to her premature birth. For his safety, his parents placed him in this shelter. Year after year, he grew up in pain, but Martha could not recognize him. She could only occasionally visit all the children, including him, in the name of an investor.
He firmly believed that the other party's real purpose was to see him, but she could only use the excuse to visit her children in order to hide his existence. Martha treated him no differently than she treated other people, but he knew that the way she looked at him was different.
Why can Bruce Wayne live openly with his family, when he is clearly different from other orphans, but can only live in the shadows?
With the help of the Owl Court, he was no longer so sick, he became stronger day by day, his brothers left Gothan, he knew it was the day of his return, but the appearance of Bruce destroyed everything.
——Lincoln firmly believed that Gotham would be a better place if he became the heir of the Wayne family.
After the fire, Qingliu Cottage has become a ruin, surrounded by unusable swampland, and looks like a haunted house from a distance.
Lincoln jumped out of the car and entered the basement of Qingliu Cottage, which used to be a place where managers disciplined children. However, when he opened the door of the basement, he saw a silver-gray mechanical device with dark green liquid floating in it.
"Is this a virtual city? Am I in an illusion?" Lincoln hesitated for a moment and touched the outer shell of the machine. "Or... is this actually Gotham City?"
He was just trapped in Gotan City?
He felt upset at this moment.
If it is the former, it means that he is most likely being hypnotized and someone has invaded his brain and uncovered the secrets deep inside. If it is the latter, it means that he is also being hypnotized, like a mouse controlling variables in a cage. His plan has long been known to others, and it is like he is performing for the other party without knowing it.
Their struggles and efforts are just a farce on the stage.
Lincoln began to doubt the success of his plan.
No, he can't go to Daisy... He doesn't trust her, and he can't go to Charon, because Charon might betray him... What about the owl's cave? Their nest in the city? However, the claws that leave the nest become blades in the hands of the mayor... The court rulers of Gotham City are all suffering from mental illness. They haven't had time to explain the secrets of the court to their descendants, and their descendants are obsessed with fighting for the interests they left behind... They lose the big picture for the small, these idiots!
He put his hand on the machine, and suddenly a crazy idea flashed through his mind -
If they are the ones performing on a stage, then just destroy the stage.
No matter whether this is the fake Gotam City or the real Gotam City, as long as it is destroyed... No, you can't think like that!
Lincoln realized that he was influenced by the illusion that "the whole world is false" -
When people realize they are in a virtual world that they cannot leave, their minds will be affected. They may go crazy or try every possible way to escape. He has to continue investigating to find out where this place is. Maybe the situation is not that bad... There is no need for machines for the time being.
He cleaned up the traces he left behind and left Qingliu Cottage. However, just as he jumped into the car, another ordinary car drove up from the end of the road. Lincoln frowned - he didn't like this unexpected feeling of being out of control. Just as the two cars passed by, the muzzle of a gun was extended from the opposite car window.
"GCPD! Stop the car immediately--"
Lincoln was stunned. He took out his gun and fired two shots at the opposite side. However, one shot inexplicably hit the window glass, and the other shot deviated from its trajectory because of a suddenly falling branch.
Lincoln: “…”
Forget it. If he hadn't known this would happen, why would he have deliberately put the muzzle of the gun into the other person's mouth when killing him before? It was because even an ordinary person could have used the outline gun method during his clumsy dodge. It was ridiculous!
Lincoln stepped on the accelerator and decided to drive away. The moment he accelerated, he heard a faint cough coming from the police car.
After Lincoln and the police car left, Batman covered his mouth and nose and pushed open the door of Qingliu Cottage.
He wiped the dust off the photo on the wall of the hall and stared at Martha Wayne in the photo for a long while before going underground.
"Magic has a much longer history than technology, and technology may be able to do things that magic can't do," Batman stared at the machine in front of him, "This was made by Augustus, that's obvious."
Of course, there are also tools to deal with magicians in the Bat Cave.
By collecting the frequency of the magician's power and using a counteracting wave, the opponent can be driven back to the original world. Just like demons and angels cannot descend directly to the human world, if a certain existence is not human, or even not a species recognized by this universe, then He cannot leave and descend directly to the main material plane, and must go through a medium.
The machine in front of him was operating. Batman took out the bat dart. A few seconds later, electric light came out of the machine, and a gray smoke rose with a slight explosion. He surveyed the surroundings and left the basement.
He took out the tablet and hacked into the GCPD's surveillance system in this world.
The whole city is in chaos.
In the movie, the villain Bats attacked just in time for the virus to wreak havoc throughout the city.
Now, under the order of the "mayor", everyone temporarily stayed indoors, isolated themselves at home or in the company, stopped drinking raw water, and used unopened bottled mineral water instead. Sending them to the hospital would be useless, because the hospital was already overcrowded, and even many medical staff had been infected. Therefore, if Lincoln drove on the street, he would find that the street was terribly deserted. Only special forces in full protective clothing drove tanks on the street, and people on high-rise buildings carefully looked through the glass, in panic and fear, to see the situation outside.
There were also gargoyles flying across the sky - gargoyles were all stone sculptures, so they wouldn't be affected by the virus, and people didn't care about them for the time being.
Central Avenue has been blocked, Batman has not contacted Vivi and Nightwing, and Robin is in the hospital and his condition is not good.
Batman guessed that the virus was related to both blood and air. To be on the safe side, he used an oxygen cylinder to enter the blockade area and collected groundwater. However, he found that tests showed that the air underground was even cleaner than above ground.
Is there something purifying the groundwater? Batman pressed his finger on the water pipe in the underground wall, pondered for a moment, and removed his finger. Under his power, the water pipe in front of him did not even leave the slightest mark.
Batman is not surprised that the real Gotham City also has this. It seems that as long as they respond in time, even if the virus is rampant, the situation in Gotham City can be controlled within a certain range. However, as long as the source of the virus cannot be resolved... the situation will not really improve.
Either kill all the sick people or create an antidote immediately.
"Is this what you want? To keep the virus contained within this world? Until a cure is found?"
Batman leaves the Willow Lodge and ends up in Crime Alley.
There is a Batcave in reality, but in this world, Batman is not Bruce Wayne. His lair is in the Wayne Building. In reality, the Wayne Memorial Hall has been demolished, and the place where the couple died has become a flower shop. There is no need for Bruce to visit with flowers, and there are always flowers around. In this world, this place still stands in Crime Alley.
If Lincoln March had visited his "parents'" memorial first, he would probably have realized that this was the "movie" world and figured out how to solve his problem.
——The wishing rose that Shadow Bat wants to get.
In the current timeline, the heroine Irene is rushing to the memorial hall, while Shadow Bat's gargoyles are a step slower. Are the roses in the movie really effective? No one knows, but getting the rose is more likely than not getting it.
Batman, Bruce Wayne landed at the back door of the memorial. The street lights were also wrapped in raindrops, and the raindrops splashed on the puddles. In the reflection of the puddles, his face in protective clothing looked like a dark devil.
Bruce's pace suddenly stopped.
For many years, he was Batman. In order to protect the city of Gotam, he dressed like a madman and jumped through the streets of Gotam. Sometimes, he would bring a bouquet of roses to the back door of the memorial, which is here. He would not go in, but just put the roses under the street light. After a few days or hours, the roses disappeared.
Bruce never said that he was a hero. Even after forming the Justice League, they fought for justice, but he still didn't think of himself as a hero, because part of what he did was for himself - he had to stand up, he had to do something, he had to defeat the criminals, so that he could forget the cowardly self in the alley.
The Waynes were shot in the alley, and then Batman appeared. He was not fearless, as he had been poisoned by the horrible gas. As the gas spread, he saw his mother's pearl necklace scattered. He had lost his strong physique and the martial arts he had trained, and he was still a helpless child in fear.
It is still the same now.
Bruce Wayne stared at his reflection in the puddle. His shadow was also projected under the streetlight and above the puddle. It twisted and shattered as the rain hit it. Then the shadow squirmed, as if it had suddenly absorbed the light around it.
It became "Batman."
In other words, it became the villain in the movie, Shadow Batman, the "Batman" who can control the gargoyles and hide himself in the shadows.
Bruce knew the deeper setting, which was not shown in the movie. A movie invested by Wayne would naturally not write the big boss "Bruce Wayne" as Batman. However, the screenwriter did not know Batman's true identity. If the movie was to be filmed as a second or third part, and Batman in reality accidentally revealed his identity, it would make the movie very passive - so they made a decision that the "Batman" in the movie would never reveal his true identity.
Even the Batman in the movie may not be a "villain", he can be a shadow.
A shadow that split from the superhero Batman.
As far as Bruce knows, the current setting is that Shadow Bat is the shadow of "Batman", just like the gargoyles can escape from its control. Its dream is to "rule Gotham" or "become a human being". If it chooses the latter as its wish in the sequel, then it can be whitewashed. After all, this is an animated movie, and there will be no more complicated conspiracies.
So when Bruce realized what movie world they had entered, he knew where the villain was, in his shadow, always there.
The shadow in front of him did not have the protective suit that Bruce had on, and still looked like "Batman". There was only a little white spot on the entire shadow, which was the chin, and it had no eyes.
Its voice is the same as Bruce's changed voice. It seems to be seeing Bruce for the first time: [Is this what my controller looks like? You don't have sharp teeth or claws, and you can't fly. You look weaker than me. Why do you control me instead of me controlling you? ]
When it spoke the last sentence, it was almost close to Bruce's face, with only the protective suit and mask between them.
"But you helped me find Lincoln March," Bruce said. "You helped me get the gargoyles to drive the humans out of the quarantine zone. We have to fight together here, or Gotham will cease to exist, Shadow."
"Yes, we have to fight together," a familiar female voice rang out from the intercom on Batman's chest. "The special forces have blocked the main roads and assembled them in different areas. My people are sending the currently famous virologists and physicians in Gotan to the old city to study the samples. The Star Laboratory provides a research site, and everything will be fine."
"Thank you," Bruce paused, "Anna."
Anna Elle, the mayor of Gotham, but Bruce did not see her in person. She contacted everyone in the city by phone, asking everyone to take action and organize anti-epidemic efforts. However, even if he saw her, she did not appear in the movie, and she would probably have a "public" face like everyone else. Perhaps Bruce Wayne in this world is not Batman in the setting, so there is no Batcave under Wayne Manor.
Without the Batcomputer's help, Bruce was unable to help decipher the virus's genetic code.
[There is no underground city, either,] said the shadow. [Legend has it that the old Gothic temple sank into the ground, but who would believe such a legend to fool children?]
Although it is a villain that can be defeated by children, it also rules the city of Gotham. At least, with the gargoyles, it knows all the secrets of Gotham.
"What about the Owl Court?" Bruce asked.
This time the shadow was silent for a while, then said: "They have always existed, those owls, they hid in this city. For hundreds of years, they made their homes in our homes, but we can no longer drive them away... because Gotham has also become their home."
It gave Bruce a detailed description of the courtroom, and Bruce compared it with everything he knew. Finally, it mentioned Anna Ellech and said: "...I don't know much about that New Yorker."
When he heard the sound of breaking glass, Bruce opened the back door and walked into the Wayne Memorial Hall because Irene was there.
Two minutes earlier or later than now, the rose has always been a rose, and only when the heroine Irene appears, the rose will become a "rose" that can make people's wishes come true. This is a movie that revolves around Irene. Except for her and a few main characters, theoretically all other people are vague or repeated characters.
Irene rushed in holding the gargoyle by the neck, and after that, the sound of police cars almost filled the sky.
The rose spoke to Irene tenderly. The red-haired girl seemed to be in a fairy tale world. She held the rose, as bewildered as in the movie, until the shadow of the bat fell on her: "Irene."
Irene grabbed the flower stem and immediately stood in front of the gargoyle. Then she realized that the "bat" in front of her did not seem to be the "bat" she saw.
"What wish do you want to make?" The rose was the only one present who was not affected at all. It asked again in that slow tone.
"Erin," Batman's cape rose, blocking the police's blinding searchlights, "you want—"
He didn't finish his words, because his shadow suddenly enlarged under the effect of the searchlight and projected onto the wall, like a terrifying monster, and then this terrifying monster shot out like an arrow from a bow, pointing directly at the rose in Irene's hand. At this moment, a bullet hit Batman's cloak, and then bounced twice on the metal partition of the wall, just penetrating the sharp fingers of the shadow bat and shooting at Irene.
——Just like what was destined in the movie.
The girl was startled and immediately tried to pull the gargoyle. She didn't have time to listen to what Bruce had not finished saying. But at this moment, a person, a boy, stood on the gargoyle's wings.
The boy chopped down with his knife, but he held back and only forced the gargoyle back. His real target was the rose in Irene's hand.
He has obviously, obviously been lying in ambush here... for a long time!
However, at this moment, Irene seemed to slip and almost fell. The gargoyle leaned down to protect her, but the boy's fingers were less than three centimeters away. The next second, the girl and the gargoyle rolled out of the memorial hall with broken glass.
Only the police bullets arrived as promised.
Bruce hesitated for a moment, then raised his cloak to protect the green-eyed boy.
In this situation... in the chaotic virtual world, he met his son, his biological son with Talia.
damian.
“I don’t need to—” Damian was wrapped in a red uniform. He gave himself the code name “Red Bird”, but he didn’t finish his words.
Because the whole world, everything around, seems to be going backwards.
Except for the two of them in the memorial hall.
The broken glass returned to its original state, the open door closed again, and even a missing rose returned to the bottom of the photo, but there was no sign of the ability to make wishes or have conversations - just like when Damian first arrived at the memorial.
He had toured this movie world long before, and decided to go directly to the memorial to get the roses. However, as long as he took the roses here, he would encounter various accidents, and the roses would return here by chance. Damian guessed that he would have to wait for the "plot".
The rose is related to the plot of the movie, so he only has that one chance to snatch the rose from Irene.
Now he has failed.
He hates failure.
Damian asked angrily, "What's going on?"
He was asking about changes in the surrounding environment.
Batman, his biological father, glanced at the clock and said, "The movie is over. It took seven hours."
Damian was stunned. He frowned and asked sincerely this time, "Is this world a cycle? Only seven hours?"
"Then how do we leave?" He sneered, "Do you believe in Vivi White?"
Who could have pulled them into this world, except for that guy?
"Sorry..." Batman's protective suit did not disappear, and a voice came from the intercom on his chest, "What do you mean by loop? What happened to Vivi?"
It's "Anna Ellech," Madam Mayor.
Apparently, after the world cycled, the memories of the NPCs in this world also regressed.
"Mayor," Bruce said, "We'll have to explain this later. We don't have much time. You can send someone to check whether nearly 3,000 people suddenly appeared in Gotham City Center Hospital and Wayne Hospital. They are all infected with the virus, which is spread through the air. If there are wounds on the body, it will accelerate the infection. Seal off the hospital immediately. We don't have much time."
After a brief conversation to gain his trust, he cut off the conversation. Damian was still standing in front of him. He said defiantly, "These people are just NPCs in the movie. They won't die even if they are infected. Isn't it time to find those doctors again and research an antidote immediately?"
This world actually cycles every seven hours, which means that obtaining the antidote is even more difficult because previous research results will disappear, and the process of gathering and gaining the doctor's trust must be repeated over and over again. Just think about how troublesome it is.
Bruce looked at Damian, his expression complicated beneath his protective suit.
Of course he knew that Damian was his son. Talia would not keep Damian without saying anything, and Talia thought that leaving Damian with Daisy was an opportunity for him to train. Bruce did not recognize her for the time being because... he did not know how to treat his own son, the son born by the daughter of an assassin, the son with blood on his hands... the son of the devil.
But they met in the end.
"I expected to have a family," Bruce finally said, "... and I got it."
Also lost.
"Damian," he said, "I have an obligation to watch over you. Follow me."
"Call me 'Red Bird'," the boy said after a moment's silence. "I haven't acknowledged you yet."
But in this world, except for the person in front of him and a few others, everyone else is an NPC, so it's no problem to follow them... He still has to catch Vivi White.
When the movie world entered the second round, the real city of Gotham was almost a replica of the movie world.
...In order to gain Charon's trust, when using [Gensokyo], Vivi immediately controlled the mayor's vest, blocked the entire street, and took the council members and other passers-by on the street into the hospital for isolation.
In addition to them, there were dozens of completely empty ambulances. They drove onto the street, took nothing away, and drove back. Police cars also arrived, cordoned off the street tightly, and turned off all surveillance. Even so, Weiwei was worried that she was not doing enough.
She was multitasking. One part was the mayor, directing them to release false clues and have their men contact other virus experts - those in other cities. Another part was Daisy, who went underground to look for Charon and waited for an opportunity. Just in case, she notified Red Hood and Doctor Stephen. Another part was in Gensokyo, looking for the non-existent underground world in contrast to reality. If there was no underground world, how could they get the antidote to the virus? They didn't have much time. Even Bella was busy, busy maintaining the law and order of Gotham City and not giving criminals the chance to harm this panicked city.
She had never controlled four characters at full power at the same time.
Sometimes, Weiwei would wonder, does the skill of [Multitasking] really exist? What is the principle? If there is such a skill in the game, will she still be herself?
At a certain moment in her busy life, she felt as if she was floating up, looking down at this prosperous, wealthy, yet scarred city from above. She saw herself, but not "Anna", "Bella", or "Daisy", but "Vivi" wearing different glasses. However, in the eyes of others, just by wearing glasses, they changed their minds at the cognitive level and thought that it was the mayor, the warden, or the professor.
She turned her gaze to Gensokyo again and saw "Vivi", who was also busy dealing with the virus problem.
This illusion seemed to last only a moment, and when Weiwei came to her senses, that perspective had disappeared.
She pushed her body into the lake, rubbed her temples, and felt a slight headache as if she had overworked her brain.
——Come to think of it, “Weiwei” is just a character she created by pinching her face. When did she feel that this was… “herself”?
Weiwei stood up on her knees. She also realized that the time in the movie had started to move again like a replay. However, a look at the corpses that did not disappear showed that the impact caused by these "outsiders" would not be replayed.
There is obviously no boneyard underground. If the antidote cannot be found underground, then the only way to obtain the antidote is to hope for the real "boneyard", the one under the city of Gotam.
But Weiwei didn't want to take the risk. Apart from anything else, the entire Gotan city had a population of only over seven million. She didn't want to use her own seven million to exchange for the hundreds of thousands below.
Her eyes went dark again for a moment. This feeling was already familiar to Weiwei. When she opened her eyes again, there was a corpse lying in front of her, her own corpse. She kicked it lightly, and the corpse rolled down the curve of the grass slope, splashed into the lake, and slowly sank.
"… Another person died. Was it from an illness?"
It seems that she can't go back easily unless she abandons the corpse along the way.
The NPC patients in the hospital no longer fell ill after reading their files, but the townspeople of Boneyard Town who were carrying the virus were the most seriously ill. Some of them had weak constitutions and could not hold on for long, but coincidentally, they did not die from the illness this time.
It was Lincoln March who infiltrated City Hall, killed the guards who spotted him, and sneaked his way to the Mayor's location... and so far, Lincoln March had no idea that they were in "Movieland".
...He had never seen the movie about the dark side of Batman, and no one told him the plot of the movie. Because the time and location changed, the faces of the citizens repeated themselves, and he did not realize that the people he killed would be resurrected and call the police.
However, he discovered a time loop.
In this case, he took the opportunity to gain some benefits in this non-existent world, and sneaked into the city hall, targeting Anna Elle's computer.
While serving as secretary, Lincoln rarely had the opportunity to enter the mayor's office, and he almost never saw Alec. Sometimes, looking at the stupid and aesthetically pleasing steel walls from the outside, he would wonder how Anna Alec had secured the position of Mayor Gotan, was it through the court, her aunt... or some mysterious inhuman being?
She couldn't rely on nothing. All her secrets were hidden in that old computer, and in this world...if it was not too different from the real world, maybe he could know each other's secrets.
When Lincoln entered the office from the bedroom, he was stunned.
There was no one in the office.
Anna Ellech is not here... Is she out? Yes, she is often out, nothing strange.
The robot vacuum cleaner hummed in circles, moving across the floor at a normal speed. The study door was closed, and Lincoln suddenly realized that -
This was his first time entering the mayor's office. He had never been there before. Isn't this... a bit strange?
The room was a little dark. Lincoln ignored the robot and turned on the computer. The computer started up a little slowly. He pondered for a moment and looked towards the study.
Then, a flying knife appeared at Lincoln's fingertips. The moment the flying knife passed by, the refracted silver light seemed to cut through the space. Lincoln rolled backwards and avoided the fragments of the chandelier falling from above!
He said, "Nightwing!"
His knife was not pointed at the study door, but directly at the top of his head - at Nightwing who was lying in ambush above his head!
Nightwing, Nightwing! Former Robin, Batman's first assistant, Lincoln looked up and suddenly laughed happily -
He sees Nightwing, which means Batman is here!
This means... this world is not completely false!
It was not until this moment that Lincoln realized why he kept his hand on the machine for so long, and why he wanted to destroy this place at that moment, because he was afraid... He was actually, afraid. He was afraid that he and the other people in Boneyard Town were the only ones locked up here, without any warning, suddenly locked up in a strange yet familiar space. He was afraid that "Mr. C" was invincible, and if he really had to stay in this endlessly looping prison forever, even if he killed everyone, without Batman and Bruce Wayne, what was the meaning of Lincoln March's existence?
"I'm going to kill you," he stepped on the table and jumped up without hesitation, facing Nightwing's stick, "Die!"
The man who had been pretending to be a secretary finally revealed his sharp and arrogant side. After all, he is... Claw!
——The immortal claws!
…
Weiwei covered her face and silently threw the body on her back into the sewer, watching the body float away with the current.
Given her current situation, if she wants to go to the East District of Gotam, she can only go underground.
Bypassing the plumber in the basement, Weiwei lifted the cover, confirmed the location, and whooshed into the Wayne Memorial Hall.
She sighed and found that Robin's communication was still lost, the time pointed to midnight, and Irene had not come here yet.
She walked to the photo wall and easily found the conspicuous bouquet of roses.
In a bunch of roses, one rose climbed up from the bouquet, and the bud turned and pointed at Weiwei, and then...
Then, like in every fairy tale movie, the rose began to speak.
"You can promise me to leave here," said the rose, "and then I will wither."
Weiwei frowned: "What if I make another wish?"
"It's okay if you don't want to leave," the rose moved and touched her face with its bud, as if kissing her, "but I can only grant one wish. If you wish for something else, this world will always, always be like this..."
It will continue in a cycle, never stopping.
Roses are the "back door" to this world and the only way home.
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