Chapter 99 Arkham Knight

"I can't help you." The system said before arriving at this cosmic coordinate, "This loophole actually means that you are fighting against the inertia of time. Remember what I said to you at the beginning? Restarting the universe is equivalent to reinstalling the system on a computer. The coordinates obtained by the court are the remnants that were not cleaned up in the hard drive."

"Time in our universe is roughly linear and forward, which is the basis of stability. But this coordinate causes part of the established past to be disturbed."

Two virtual parallel lines, one red and one blue, appeared before Moses' eyes.

The system flashed the red one: "Suppose this is the timeline of the coordinates before the restart."

Blue: "This is the timeline we live in."

"While the trend has remained roughly the same since ancient times, the biggest difference caused by the restart of the fusion of the universe is the disappearance of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man."

The blue line suddenly showed interference at a certain position, the amplitude of the waveform vibration increased, and it tended to be unstable.

"In order to eliminate this influence, the will of the universe has signed a contract with you."

As the words fell, the ringing phenomenon of the blue line gradually disappeared and turned into a smooth straight line again.

"But before that, the universe's own instincts allow it to choose emergency measures when it is unstable."

A branch extends from the blue line at the interference location and hooks the red line before the restart.

"That's why the court got the coordinates. When you showed up, the simple, crude, and troublesome emergency plan was no longer needed. The coordinates were put on hold, and instead became an error that affected the stability of the universe."

The connection between the blue and red wires was severed, but the red wire seemed unwilling to be thrown away after use, and stubbornly rolled up its edges and hung behind the blue wire.

This causes the blue line to experience a phenomenon similar to adjacent channel interference in communications.

"The timeline before the restart is something that has been deleted by the universe. It shouldn't have existed in the first place."

The red line began to flash wildly.

"But the inertia of time makes it struggle forward."

The red line that was supposed to end at a certain time node started to extend forward because it caught the blue line.

"All you need to do is find the right moment, 'click', and completely cut it off." The system said, "I have to help you resist the repulsive force of the red line. In addition, as the person who corrects the error, you are actually a spy sent by the blue line in the eyes of the red line. To prevent being discovered, you must cover your surface consciousness with underlying memories that it will not doubt."

Moses understood: "That means I will not remember this conversation from now on."

"More than that. You forget your purpose, and those around you who know the details are still under the surveillance of the Red Line. It has no active consciousness, but its instinct will make it use every means to shake your thoughts and will. You will find yourself fighting alone, living in an incomprehensible lie and betrayal."

Perhaps because we share the same origin, when I describe this process systematically, I can speak with the tone of someone who has experienced it.

"But we are not without any chance of winning. The will to survive of the red line thrown into the recycling bin will make it strengthen the connection between the two sides as much as possible. It will definitely pull outsiders to the scene at the beginning. I will try my best to limit the candidates, and that will be your anchor. You will forget what I said, but your heart should remember that there is still hope at the end of the road."

"Finally," the system was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you know how to cut off the connection between the red and blue wires?"

"Trick it into thinking it was heading for another restart so that time would stop on its own," Moses said. "And the biggest difference between the two Gotans before we signed the contract was Wayne."

——Then he gave it a process of a knight’s fall.

There is hope at the end of the road.

The embers of a raging fire bring new life.

**

Time came to the long night of Gotham.

Moses stood here.

Alfred, who let Robin leave without explanation, Barbara and Tim, who were hiding something, the Arkham Knight and Scarecrow, who held the lifeline of the city, and the little clown who made a grand appearance after his death.

They are like puppeteers in a silent opening at night, the manipulators' thin threads spreading toward the veil behind the void, and invisible eyes staring at the most critical nodes on the ground.

The melodious music echoes between the lights and the night river:

“Don't you know you fool, you'll never can win”

“Use your mentality, step up to reality.”

“But each time I do, just the thought of you, makes me stop before I begin. (But every time I think of you, everything goes back to square one.)”

Xiao Chou was humming the last sentence over and over again.

Then he said, "I gave the bat a candy. He held the candy shell in his mouth and asked me which of the blue and red lines of the bomb should be dropped~"

"What do you think?" Joker held up a microphone that appeared out of nowhere and held it in front of Moses happily. "Oh Barbara, that poor child, her mood is not stable and her luck is a bit bad. I should have been better to her at the beginning, right?"

"And the person you're thinking about, the red Robin. You think he and Barbara should be a couple, but today they seem different. Why? Strange... Xiao Chou also thinks it's strange. Young people always have their own ideas. From time to time, I can't figure out what's in Harley's little head. But Harley won't abandon me. I don't think she will. What do you think? Oh - but a rebellious teenager who betrays his father should be forgiven."

"You love them, Bruce. You love Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, of course, and one other guy, what's his name? I can't remember it very well. Anyway, they've done so much for you, you should always choose to forgive them."

If Batman was a grumpy old man, he would probably reply 'You're just making assumptions and insinuations about you x'.

But he is not.

He ignored the fact that Xiao Chou's voice was a little too long.

It wasn't until Tim called him several times that Moses realized it was not an illusion.

"What did you say?"

They met on the bridge in front of the ACE factory.

"I think it's better for us to split up. I'll go help the kid in Robin's uniform, and you go save the remaining police officers. This will be more efficient. But..." Tim hesitated, not knowing whether he should point out Batman's current condition. "Maybe it would be safer to cooperate?"

Moses said briefly, "Separately."

"All right."

Today, Robin didn't know how to explain the identity of the Arkham Knight to the other party.

"If someone flies a helicopter... I mean, enemies other than scarecrows are not actually our primary target."

He and Batman locked eyes.

The latter has the radio recording of the previously intercepted conversation between the Arkham Knight and the Scarecrow, and plays the audio at the right time to compare with the voice of the person who is commanding his subordinates to deploy defenses in the factory.

Arkham Knight: "I've waited too long. Batman dies tonight!"

Scarecrow: "Why do you hate him so much?"

"It's none of your business."

Tim turned his head and said, "I left. I didn't say anything."

Let Jason explain it himself!

What did Robin do wrong again!

He sneaked into the factory to rescue people, while Moses drove the Batmobile to fight the tank army to cover him.

Amidst the gunfire, Xiao Chou pressed his face against the car window: "It's terrible! What if I get hit? Dodge to the right or the left? What does Robin mean by that? Does he know the Arkham Knight? It's strange, why would he protect someone who wants to kill you? Batman, when did you ever offend your assistant?"

Moses steered the car expressionlessly, and the Batmobile did a sharp drift, pushing the little idiot against the wall.

"Oh..." Xiao Chou groaned, "I feel like my heart is squeezing out of my ribs."

"I'm dead."

He was lying on the ground.

He jumped up: "Ding ding ding ~ I was pretending!"

Damn.

Moses rushed into the room and was greeted by corpses everywhere.

All the workers in the factory died.

A police officer who was sent for support fell to the ground covered in blood, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes and stopped breathing, his expression full of fear and despair.

He looked at them.

Don't you know you fool, you'll never can win

Xiao Chou couldn't stop laughing: "It seems that you have more visitors in your nightmares, Bat."

"Oops. To make matters worse, I heard a helicopter. Who's that?"

A shell hit the open space around the Batmobile as a matter of course, lifting up pieces of turf.

Moses caught a glimpse of the weapons room behind him being affected, windows shattered, bricks collapsed, and a fire broke out among the ruins.

The bodies of innocent people were buried in the fire, as if they were the last cry of the wrongly killed to the world.

Demons are walking on the earth, who will stop them from doing evil?

The Batmobile switched to combat mode, and the raised tank gun was aimed at the helicopter's rotor blades in mid-air.

"I'll give you time to explain." He said coldly in confusion and numbness, "Who are you?"

Jason: “I am innocent.”

He said this in the small group of the traversal team, and Batman couldn't hear it.

Damian, with Tim's help, is now able to speak: "You deserve to be misunderstood. Will you die if you don't fly a plane?"

"Are you jealous? Opportunities like this are rare. No one would miss it." The Arkham Knight said, "I can't let Scarecrow know that I'm betraying him. The old Bat still won't accept it. How can we play this fake match?"

"You can fly to Scarecrow's gas chamber while fighting." Tim suggested, "Batman's destination is the neutralizer in the gas chamber. You can also destroy the test base and get rid of a few criminals by the way."

But I had live ammunition.

Jason sat silently in front of the operating table, ready to show everyone what a master of outlining is.

He was flying the helicopter without any danger, ostensibly to spray the ground with ammunition, but in reality he was leading the way for Batman. And for some reason, the Dark Knight's counterattack was not strong enough - others might think it was normal for Batman to be cautious and protect himself when facing a group of tanks and air suppression alone, but Jason knew that he was not.

"Batman might have a backup plan," Nightwing said. "Think about what he's dealing with now. A messed up mind and abnormal us. He either thinks he's crazy or we're crazy, or maybe both."

"Do you think he can distinguish between friend and foe and reality in this situation?"

"I'm not sure, but he's Batman," Dick replied. "We have to try to put ourselves in his shoes. What does the universe look like to Bruce?"

Barbara: "Then we may have to analyze it from the source. For example, how did Clown die? Why did Jason become the Arkham Knight?"

"I saw another record." Alfred interrupted, "The old man placed a treatment room in a secret base to detain patients poisoned by Xiao Chou's toxin. These people have begun to transform into Xiao Chou. The problem is that the computer shows that there are five devices, but there are only four patients."

"...terrible." After a while, Tim pressed his forehead, "Who do you think is the fifth one?"