Peter looked at Bruce with some surprise, not understanding his words. He had seen from other Spider Man's Gotham Travel Notes that Batman, the superhero who protected Gotham, might not be best-known for his martial arts, but he was indeed omnipotent and omnipresent.
The chapter of Gotham Travel Notes depicting Batman's fight with criminals received the highest number of likes in the whole text, with over 6000 comments, all praising Batman.
Even many Spider Men, who were still in their high school years, had become fans of Batman because of his powerful martial arts and cool appearance. Considering Batman and Spider Man's different views on justice, this was truly a miracle.
How could such a person speak with such a hint of desolation? Peter really could not understand it.
Peter jumped off the hood of the car and walked over to Bruce. After a close inspection, he found that this Batman seemed a little different from the one in Gotham Travel Notes.
First of all, he was younger and not as strong as he appears in the pictures. More importantly, his demeanor was off — he was not as cold and serious, but more like Peter himself.
Could it be that Batman is not as strong at this moment, or perhaps not every Batman is THAT strong?
"I know what you want to ask," Bruce said, after a cold snort, "For the Batman you are familiar with, to be unable to defeat a criminal is a laughable idea. Even if he fails once, he can come up with advanced technological equipment to thrash the criminal around."
"But I have nothing to be ashamed of. Before I arrived here, I was ambushed by a gang of street thugs. They pushed me off a rooftop, I landed in a dumpster and even lost two of my teeth."
Peter looked at Bruce in shock. Bruce shook his head with a bit of self-deprecation and said, "How about it? Are you somewhat disillusioned?"
"But unfortunately, I'm not a god who knows everything and can do anything." Bruce lowered his hands, turned his head to the side and said, "I don't know how he does it, but I lack that kind of wisdom and strength. Just holding onto my remaining authority in Wayne Enterprises board of directors, ensuring that my parents' hard work does not go in vain, is already headache-inducing enough for me."
Seeing the shock on Peter's face, Bruce felt a bit bored and went to open the car door.
"So you still choose to fight crime in Gotham?!" Peter's voice rose by an octave, saying, "That rotten city has hit rock bottom! I can't even describe how bad it is — it's terrifying, dark, horrible. If I had more such words, I would use them all."
"If you're not Superman, how could you want to fight crime in Gotham? You---you don't have that kind of ability."
Peter's voice faded towards the end, he was unsure why a bitter taste surged up his throat.
He had felt the same way, hadn't he? Walking the path of a street superhero, almost not participating in experiments, lacking scientific research experience, or even knowing how to prepare to avoid getting lost.
He had no idea about the structure of the cosmos, and even if he did, he wouldn't know how to repair or change it. Even if there were ways to repair it, he wouldn't know where to start.
He didn't have the ability to save the cosmos, so what was he worried about?
Bruce remembered what Captain America had said to him, he closed the car door, looked at Peter through the car window and said, "Somebody told me that with great power comes great responsibility, but I didn't tell him that I disagree."
Peter looked at Bruce blankly. It had been a long time since anyone had said that to him, and when he heard it again, the voice felt as distant as it came from tens of thousands of years ago, yet it is familiar as if it resided in his heart.
Bruce looked at Peter and said, "The larger the dream, the greater the responsibility."
"Once you have dreams, you'll want to take on responsibilities. Only when you understand the responsibilities you want to bear, you will seek the ability to carry those responsibilities. That's just how it is."
Drawn like a moth to a flame, Peter walked to the side of the car, leaned his hand on the window frame, looked at Bruce and asked, "Did you find it?"
"I was almost successful once." Bruce sighed, "But perhaps, being close is always too far."
Aisha finally realized the crucial point. If a Spider Man already existed in this world, would there be a second Spider Man?
And a more brutal question, could there only be one Spider Man in this world?
Aisha saw Peter and Bruce's gaze, and it instantly became complicated. She felt as if she was beginning to understand why the timeline of this cosmos had been reset repeatedly.
But it made her feel depressed. Was Batman the only one standing on his side in this world? Did everyone else want to protect Spider Man?
Aisha instinctively felt something was wrong; some more minor messy thoughts wandered around her main thoughts, making the truth perpetually hidden behind a floating mist.
Peter pulled open the back door of the car, sat in the row of seats behind the driver's seat, rubbed his somewhat cold fingertips, looked at Bruce through the rearview mirror, and said, "Tell me, how did you get here? How did you get lost here?"
Alert bells were ringing in Aisha's heart. She knew that if Bruce rambled on about his experiences here to Peter, then Peter would definitely infer from the fact that he was bitten by a spider and obtained superpowers and danger sensitivities afterward, that Bruce became Spider Man.
Did Peter know there could only be one Spider Man in this world? If he did, would he infer that he would die later?
Aisha quickly reasoned all the matter backward to its extremity, resulting in a conclusion that continuing like this would inevitably lead to confrontation between Peter and Bruce.
The condition for Bruce to obtain superpowers was that the previous Spider Man had to die, but if Spider Man knew in advance that he was going to die, then he might not die; in that case Bruce might never obtain superpowers, which could lead to Bruce desiring Spider Man's death in order to gain superpowers.
Although Aisha thought that other Batmans might not do this, and might not even think about doing it, because their will was strong enough to maintain their original intentions in the face of any temptation, she was not certain that this Batman would be the same.
It could be said that he was kind and indeed very firm, but because other symptoms of his mental illness were not very apparent, his paranoia was extremely noticeable. Once this paranoia shifted its focus from the death of his parents to something else, the outcome was uncertain.
Aisha knew that the several-time resets had already caused a certain amount of stimulation to Bruce's mind. This could easily lead to him having a breakdown and falling into extreme emotions. Whether his willpower and rationality could overcome these extreme emotions remained a question.
There was a possibility that in a moment of impulse, the contradictions between him and Spider Man could become a life-and-death opposition.
If Aisha helped Batman, Spider Man might die. Regardless of whether the person manipulating time behind the scenes would grant their wishes or not, once Batman calmed down and realized he had killed an innocent person in his pursuit of power, he would break down first.
If Aisha helped Spider Man, Batman would truly have no chance of winning. Regardless of potential physical injuries, he definitely couldn't handle the mental stress.
Aisha felt a bit desperate. She was still far from adulthood, so why was she already being forced to make difficult choices? Would the Joker come this far?
Despite her random thoughts, Aisha knew that she was likely the only one on the scene who could almost deduce the full picture of the situation. She had the responsibility to prevent things from reaching an irretrievable point.
Spider Man and Batman were like two men tied up on a railway track. Now Aisha was the one driving, and who she hit would not be right. So Aisha decided to close her eyes and as long as she didn't intervene, who lived or died was no longer her concern.
With a loud wail, Aisha burst into tears.
Bruce, who had been about to start speaking again, was caught off guard and immediately looked at Aisha. Peter also immediately reached out to hold this little girl, then followed Aisha's gaze.
To their shock, a giant eye appeared in mid-air. The gigantic eye, formed from dense fog, was gradually taking shape, alongside many smaller eyes, which were staring unblinkingly at everyone.
Both Bruce and Peter were so shocked by the scene that they couldn't speak. Their earlier conversation was interrupted, and both of them were staring wide-eyed out the window.
"Let's get out of here." Aisha shouted.
Bruce slammed on the gas, and the car that was out of fuel somehow started to move, speeding through the dense fog.
The car was racing fast, and Bruce saw that he was quickly approaching a figure on the side of the road. He thought it would be the mysterious guest in the fog, but in the moment he passed by, he saw that it was himself.
The figure of Bruce on the side of the road was still hidden in the dense fog, but even with that fleeting glance, Bruce could see that he was covered in blood, with a face full of terror and anxiety.
Bruice saw his roadside figure with his mouth wide open. From the lip movements, he was definitely shouting something, but the car was moving too fast, the noise was too loud, and he couldn't hear it. The time they passed each other was too short to make out all the lip movements.
What was he saying? Bruce desperately turned his head to look back, but he only saw for two seconds.
Boom!!!
A violent crash sounded, and everyone was smashed against the objects in front of them. Bruce felt warm blood flowing down again, feeling as if his head had been smashed into pieces.
After an endless dizziness, his vision went dark.
When he woke up again, he felt something pulling his arm. Bruce weakly propped himself up, turned his head and saw Aisha staring at him.
Bruce touched his forehead, found no injuries, and while feeling a bit relieved, he also felt some terror. He held the steering wheel and took a few heavy breaths.
He lifted his head and found that the fog in front had dissipated. He was about to sigh with relief when he saw the sparks from the engine.
Three black-gold mechas slowly descended from the sky. The one in the center extended its hand, a cannon muzzle opening.
Boom!!!!!!!!
Bruce didn't have time to react when he felt a great force hit his side. By the time he came back to his senses, he had already flown into the air, held up by Aisha.
"We've been found!" Aisha shouted while flying: "That guy reacted too fast. Run!"
Bruce was still dazed when a missile grazed his earlobe. Aisha made a quick turn with him, but in a blink of an eye, the three mechas had already blocked all their escape routes.
Aisha let go, and Bruce landed on the ground. As he took in his surroundings, he saw a gigantic monster with a yellow glow. With one sweep of its hand, it knocked down the fluttering mecha in front of it, picked up the smoking upper body, and threw it into its mouth.
Crunch crunch crunch!
The monster turned its head and Bruce saw a familiar set of large teeth smiling at him.