The Joker looked up at the room in front of him, but no matter how he looked at it, whether from a modern educational standpoint or a classical one, this place should not be called a ward. It was more fitting to call it a presidential suite.
So Bruce Wayne had spent so much time turning this place into a hotel, the Joker thought, and he said the same, "How much does Wayne need to do this sort of thing to relieve his conscience?"
"Sorry, sir, but I think I've reminded you that this hospital is equipped with quite advanced monitoring and security systems. If you have any extreme rhetoric, the footage could be used as evidence of defamation," the nurse warned.
The Joker threw himself into the sofa, staring at the nurse's face for a while, then said, "Do you have only this one expression?"
"Sorry, but this is a professional necessity. Do you have any other needs?" she replied.
"Will I have roommates?" he asked.
"Considering the assessment of your condition by the previous hospital that treated you, no, sir, you will reside in a room by yourself," she informed him.
"Where should I go for meals?"
"There is a cafeteria downstairs, but if you wish to dine in your room, you can also ring for service," she explained.
"Fine, I'm tired, I'm going to take a nap," said the Joker, waving his hand, trying to dismiss the nurse. But he knew that the nurses at the mental hospital wouldn't let him off so easily—they often made sure he had taken his medication and was actually asleep before they left.
Surprisingly, the nurse turned and left.
The Joker watched her leave with a dark expression. Although he didn't know what Batman was playing at, he was clear that if he allowed this to shake his plans, he'd fall right into his trap.
The Joker was in prison to find mob boss Falcone.
The Joker wasn't a nobody; after all, he had just orchestrated a major bank robbery. But in terms of posing a threat to the city or to Wayne Enterprises, he didn't even rank in the top ten.
The current Batman didn't even know who he was. Therefore, the performances and games he meticulously prepared would not be noticed. If he wanted Batman to play his games, he had to eliminate those ranked above him first.
Mob boss Falcone was now a thorn in the side of Gotham's upstanding citizens. Not content with drug trafficking, he planned to join forces with Scarecrow to sell a kind of neurotoxin. It was foreseeable that this would upset a lot of people, especially Batman.
But Batman shouldn't be distracted by such people. He should be coming to see his performance, so the only way to gain Batman's attention now was to kill Falcone.
But Falcone wasn't stupid; he knew he had angered many with his new business venture, yet he wasn't willing to give up the considerable profits. So he thought of a very clever way to hide—inside an insane asylum—but he couldn't hide for long.
The Joker opened the door and glanced left and right; he saw the surveillance cameras but didn't care. Since he was still a nobody, no one would regard him as someone important enough to be watched 24 hours a day through the cameras.
He left the room, closed the door quietly, and descended the stairs. When he encountered a nurse, he said he was going downstairs to eat, and no one stopped him.
This place is indeed more and more like a hotel, the Joker thought. Any mental hospital in the world wouldn't let patients wander the hallways unchecked.
The Joker went downstairs and began looking for the reception, but the first problem he faced was that the hospital was too big. The stacked corridors were like a maze, without any signs or maps.
The Joker wandered around here for a long time without finding the place he was looking for. As it grew darker, he had no choice but to ask for directions, and it took him a long time to find the reception.
At this point, there was no one at the reception desk. The Joker naturally climbed in and started looking for the patient directory. After flipping through a few pages, he found Falcone's name, who was listed as staying in room 2061 on the second floor.
At dinner time, the patients were all going downstairs. After the crowd had gone, the Joker made his way leisurely to the second floor.
It took him some time to find room 2061. He reached for the door and found it locked, which wasn't surprising. Falcone wouldn't have survived this long without some vigilance.
The Joker wanted to pick the lock, but then he encountered his second obstacle: all the locks here were electronic and didn't even have a keyhole.
But if he had to find the control room, it might take him another hour, and he suspected that Bruce Wayne had turned the entire island into a huge mental hospital. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain why one floor could have hundreds of rooms.
If he couldn't go through the door, he would have to go through the window. The Joker went to the restroom on this floor, climbed out the window, and moved along the outer wall toward room 2061.
After a long climb, he found that not only was there no one in the room, but there was also no trace of anyone having been there. The room had never been lived in.
The Joker had to climb back. By the time he made his way back to the reception, it was nearly midnight. The night-shift nurse was asleep at the desk, and not wanting to trigger an alarm, the Joker advanced and knocked on the table.
"Hello, I'm a patient from the fourth floor, I'm lost. How can this blasted hospital be so big? Can you take me back?" he said.
The nurse, groggy, looked up, saw the Joker's face, and showed no surprise. She stood up and said, "Alright, it is indeed hard to navigate here. Follow me, how did you end up here?"
"After eating, I wanted to take a walk around, but then I got lost until now. I've never stayed in a hospital like this; it's really huge," he explained.
The nurse gave a professionally polite smile and led him upstairs. The Joker chatted with her along the way, diverging on various topics, and eventually, he steered the conversation towards Falcone.
"He's got quite the reputation. I heard he was sent here because he deliberately insulted the judge in court. He's really bold."
"Bold?" the nurse shook her head and smiled, "Actually, he's not even here."
"Why? The judgment on the news said he was supposed to come..."
"Yes, he did come, but after seeing the tags in the changing room, he howled like a banshee demanding to go to prison instead, or he'd sue us for illegal abuse. The manager had no choice and sent him to Blackgate Prison."
The Joker was stunned.
After a pause, his hands gripped the armrests tightly, and a ferocious expression appeared on his face. He should have thought of this earlier. He was a pauper with nothing to his name, even if the debt on his white card ran into hundreds of thousands of US Dollars, he wouldn't be able to pay it off till death, nor did he have any assets to be liquidated.
But Falcone had a family business; he was a gourmet who would take on all of Gotham's legitimate world for the profits of a new drug. How could he accept the blatant rip-off of a $50,000 shirt?
"If I may ask, how much is the Presidential Suite per night?"
"The Presidential Suite is not part of the regular wards; it's a deluxe ward providing special care for critically ill patients. It's charged per person, an average of $300,000 each."
"Per night??"
"Yes, sir, that includes all service charges, cleaning fees, taxes, deluxe admission threshold, special ambulance services, but not medical costs. However, we offer a special medical package for patients in the deluxe wards..."
The Joker had stopped listening. He grabbed a nurse, choking her and pulling her down, ignoring the nurse's struggle, he brought her into the lobby and shouted, "I want to be discharged!! Send me to prison, or I'll kill her!!!"
Security immediately rushed in, and a manager-looking man in a suit extended his hands in an appeasing gesture, "Please, please, sir, you can tell us if you're dissatisfied with our services. Please do not harm anyone."
"I want to be discharged, I want to go to prison."
"But your sentence..."
"I don't have a mental disorder, I'll say it again, I demand a re-examination, I want to go to prison!!!"
"Alright, alright, we will contact the police right away. Please wait a moment, the police will be here shortly."
Two hours later, The Joker got his wish and was seated in a police car, which was then swapped for a prison van that drove into Blackgate Prison.
Then The Joker saw two guards grinning from ear to ear.
The Joker really wanted to ask, what the hell are you smiling at?
"Sir, this way to the changing room." A guard opened the door for The Joker and said, "Welcome to Blackgate Special Custody Prison, which, since its complete renovation and reform, has implemented a service with a smile, ensuring that all guests experience the most comfortable and satisfying prison stay."
The Joker raised a hand to stop him from continuing and said, "Blackgate Prison is supposed to be a Federal Government prison, right?"
"It used to be." The guard answered, "But due to years of mismanagement and continuous losses, the government couldn't afford it, so it was sold to Wayne Enterprises, which is committed to creating a more humane and civilized prison. We will certainly provide..."
"Where's Falcone?!" The Joker asked.
"Sorry, sir, but if you want to communicate with your fellow inmates, you must first purchase a communication flow package."
"I just want to know if he's in the prison!"
"Sorry, to look up his name, you also need to first register as a member of the Blackgate Special Custody Service System, the membership fee is $2,999 US Dollars a month, and in addition to the lookup service, we also provide..."
The Joker punched the guard in the face.
The next second, he was pinned to the ground. This was no mental hospital; two guards rushed up and pummeled his face and chest, The Joker let out a ghastly scream, it looked like his cheekbone and ribs were broken.
Blood flowed from his forehead, and he saw one of the guards stand up straight, pick up the walkie-talkie and say to the other side, "We have a guest here with a sudden mental disorder, call an ambulance."
After the ambulance arrived, a nurse with a smile on her face presented The Joker with a $30,000 bill to sign. The Joker didn't move an inch, so she took his hand and signed it herself.
The ambulance took The Joker back to Arkham Mental Hospital, where two smiling nurses and a doctor came aboard for an examination, handed him a $5,670 bill afterward, and stated that it was necessary to first resolve organic lesions, meaning his cheekbone and ribs had to be treated.
They called another ambulance, which gave The Joker another bill, and the ambulance took him to Wayne Hospital.
A doctor from Wayne Hospital came aboard for an examination and issued a bill, stating that without police authorization, they could not provide medical aid for an incarcerated prisoner.
Therefore, Wayne Enterprises called another ambulance, which took The Joker back to Blackgate Prison and gave yet another bill.
The doctors at Blackgate Prison's medical station came for an examination and said they couldn't treat such severe injuries here, professional hospital examination was necessary, then they left a bill.
By the time another ambulance had arrived, The Joker had completely given up.
The reason was simple, Falcone was lying next to him, and judging by the blood loss, he had been there for at least 60 rounds.