"Are... are you okay?"
Batman’s slightly complex tone pulled Shiller back to reality. This caused the agent to not imdiately kick Arrogance and Greed out of his conscious mind. He had to retake control of his body and forced a smile at Batman, saying, "I’m fine. How do you feel?"
"I can’t say I’m really adjusting to this body," Batman said with a slight shake of his head, "But with the assistance of the nano-equipnt, I think I will adapt soon enough. Can you tell about the situation in the city now?"
"Of course," Shiller nodded and said, "There are currently three main forces in the city: the Saints Order led by Death Angel Paul, the Assassin’s Union led by Lady Siwa, and the Rebel army led by Tone. So far, the leaders of these three factions have all died, but their lower-level mbers are still skirmishing in the city."
At this point, Shiller seed to realize sothing and said, "However, there is also a fourth hidden force behind the scenes."
"I know," Batman said, "I and the Batman who ca to rescue lost to them."
Shiller’s eyes lit up, and he asked, "Do you know who they are?"
"The Batman seed to know, but he didn’t tell ," Batman shook his head and said, "I can only tell you they possess many miraculous powers. And the stronger you are, the stronger they beco."
"Can you tell in detail about what happened when the two of you fought side by side? Maybe I can analyze so useful information."
"Not long ago, he ca here to save . Like you, he also gave nano-equipnt and told it was sothing he took from a mad Batman after defeating him. I told him that was not Batman, but a Monster with Batman’s body and the Joker’s brain. He seed to finally understand."
"So, you an he had already defeated Nanobatman when he ca to you?" Shiller murmured, couldn’t help but marvel, "He’s quite formidable."
"That’s right. Compared to him, I can hardly call myself a Dark Knight," Batman shook his head, showing frustration and helplessness. Shiller looked up at him, and although he was currently using the body of the Death Angel, his expression, tone, and actions showed that he wasn’t very mature, quite different from Arkham Batman.
"Don’t belittle yourself," Shiller said, "I don’t know if he told you about the difference between the bright multi-universe and the dark multiverse. You were just unlucky to be born in an overly complicated dark universe. And the behind-the-scenes manipulator targeting you isn’t without reason."
"He did tell about this," Batman said, "He speculated the behind-the-scenes manipulator might be using my dire situation to deceive those benevolent Batn and Robins, to strike them ntally. I don’t want such things to happen, but I’m really powerless."
Shiller opened his mouth, about to say sothing but stopped. Damn it, the topic ran off track again! This is no ti for psychological therapy!
"First, tell what kind of enemies you and that Batman encountered," Shiller said, looking into Batman’s eyes.
"Actually, I’m not sure."
"What?"
"I know it’s absurd, but I never knew what the enemy looked like from the beginning to the end. I can only tell you, when he found and put back into that severely damaged body, he was seriously injured. When I asked him who hurt him that badly, he said, ’It was the city.’"
Batman paused, seemingly pondering the deep aning of the sentence, but clearly ca up with nothing. He continued, "After we left the underground, the city had completely changed. It beca completely dark outside, and things kept attacking us in the darkness..."
"What things?"
"Couldn’t tell," Batman said, "It was too dark, and we didn’t have night vision equipnt. But I felt it wasn’t mbers of the Order, and certainly not ordinary people like those in the Rebel army who had little training. I think maybe... ghosts."
"Ghosts?" Shiller did not hide the astonishnt in his voice. He truly hadn’t expected to hear ghost rumors coming from Batman’s mouth one day.
"That Batman was injured by these monsters," Batman continued, "They’re elusive, mysterious, and almost all modern weapons are ineffective against them. We fought for about a day, and he beca increasingly silent, then told he had failed his mission and had to leave. He wouldn’t return until he solved the mystery behind all of this."
"He left?"
"Yes. Then I was also attacked by them and lost consciousness. When I ca to, I was back in the vat. It was then I realized he was right, this was a carefully laid trap set by soone to ensnare one Savior after another like him. But I can’t understand what those shadowy monsters are all about. I think that’s what he wants to figure out."
Shiller fully understood. It seed those monsters attacking them at the last mont were Laugh’s trump card. Arkham Batman realized at that mont that sheer force wouldn’t solve the issue. More precisely, he had fallen into a vicious cycle of being unable to see the forest for the trees—the other side was using unconventional ans, so continuing to fight in this way wouldn’t lead to any good results, which is why he chose to end the mission and leave.
But Arkham Batman would never give up so easily. He is the kind of superhero who, in one night, can repeatedly crush all the villains with the Batmobile and manage to find all the Riddler Trophies. This ti he suffered a significant loss at the hand of the Behind-the-scenes Manipulator, so there’s no way he wouldn’t react at all. He must be devising a thod to break through from the outside and will take action soon. Judging by his usual efficiency, the mont of revenge isn’t far off.
Shiller felt a bit relieved and said to Batman, "What I need to tell you is that the Behind-the-scenes Manipulator follows a rather hypocritical principle of fairness. Simply put, the stronger the person who opposes him, the stronger the traps he sets. The Batman who ca to save you might have increased the difficulty to Hell level because he was completely unguarded against this."
"I see." Batman said, suddenly enlightened, "No wonder he ntioned after we left that those monsters had beco stronger. So what do we do now? Try to make ourselves as weak as possible?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "As I said, what the Behind-the-scenes Manipulator offers is not true fairness, but a kind of hypocritical fairness—conditions seem equal, but in reality, they are advantageous for him. His pursuit is still victory, not fairness. So if we shrink back and halt to not increase the difficulty, he will not show rcy for this, but rather take it further and then ridicule your cowardice."
At this point, Shiller’s movents froze. He sighed and said, "There’s no ti to analyze. We need to act quickly. If nothing else, as soon as I take you out of here, the city will beco another situation."
Despite what he said, Shiller didn’t hesitate. He took Batman, who was using the Death Angel’s body, and quickly headed out. After leaving the Municipal Building, outside was pitch black.
What was even more terrifying was that the sounds of screams and explosions that were there before were gone too. The city was eerily quiet and filled with dense darkness. Even in the illusory vision, you could hardly see any colors. This ant Gotham had beco a dead city.
The Batman behind Shiller took a slight breath. He heard Batman say, "That’s right. When I and another Batman left from underground, the city beca like this."
"Do you think having help ant increasing the difficulty?" Shiller squinted his eyes, took out a gun from his pocket, but after thinking about it, put it back. Batman said firearms were useless against the monsters, which was likely true. He sensed sothing unusual in this deathly silence and darkness.
"Give three seconds," Shiller said. "I want to have a eting."
Batman didn’t understand what he was saying, but the agent had already sunk beneath the surface of consciousness with Arrogant and Greed. Upon returning to the High Tower, the agent spoke, "Sothing’s wrong. This city has a problem."
"Obviously," Arrogant said.
"It suddenly shifted from a war movie to a horror film," Greed said, arms crossed. "Surely it’s Mad Laugh causing trouble again. We just don’t know what he’s up to. This is sowhat troubleso."
"I have an idea," the agent said. "We need to find ’inspiration.’"
Arrogant and Greed both looked at him simultaneously.
Batman watched Shiller stare blankly for three seconds before his expression returned to normal. But he couldn’t resist asking again, "Are you okay?"
Shiller smiled at him and said, "I’m fine. I’ve roughly figured out what’s going on. Let’s talk as we walk."
Batman had an instinctive feeling that sothing was odd, as if the Shiller speaking to him now was not quite the sa as before, but his expression and behavior didn’t show any big changes. He couldn’t quite describe it.
"You’re right, this city is indeed haunted. But this isn’t Gotham."
"What?"
"I an, this isn’t your Gotham, nor is it the Gotham where I need to complete my mission. Soone has swapped the city."
"Swapped?!" Batman could no longer hide his confusion and shock. He said, "What do you an by swapping the city?"
"You can think of it as the Behind-the-scenes Manipulator having a backup city in his hands. The existence of this city is very peculiar, like the legendary Ghost Ship. When this Ghost City descends upon a city, it can replace the original city. Everything here is controlled by the Ghost City, including those monsters that attacked you, whose purpose is to exhaust your strength and deceive you—even if you exhaust yourself saving this place, it will have no effect whatsoever."
"There’s actually sothing like this." Batman said, then suddenly realized sothing and exclaid, "Now that you ntion it, I recall the Batman who ca to save said before leaving, ’All of this might be wrong.’ At the ti, I didn’t understand what he ant; I thought he was saying his own plan was wrong."
"No, he probably ant that it was the city that’s wrong," Shiller said, spreading his hands. "I’ve said before, it’s a form of hypocritical fairness. It seems like because you’ve beco my helper, the city has beco dangerous, but actually, the Behind-the-scenes Manipulator used a trick to stave off further progress from . If the target is wrong, then the plan to save the city will never succeed."
"Damn it." Batman cursed and then said, "So what do we do now? How do we escape from this fake city?"
"Don’t worry, let’s spar with him for a few moves first," Shiller laughed again. Batman saw that this smile was completely different from before, neither a gentle reassurance nor the confident pride of having it all under control. In the complete darkness, it looked particularly pale, seemingly releasing a dangerous signal that was about to pull soone out of this real world and throw them into another world of chaotic mayhem.
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