Seeing Penguin Man's comical demeanor, the room was once again filled with laughter and merriment. It was unclear whether they were laughing at Bruce's stupidity, genuinely believing he had grown up safely on his own, or at Penguin Man's misfortune, having to constantly wipe the baby giant's bottom, while the other party strutted around, thinking he had done a great job.
"Let's move on to the main plot now," Scarecrow began. "You don't actually think Batman and Jason are the kind of people who reflect on themselves when they face problems, do you? People who would become hesitant and cowardly just by changing the environment and start having all sorts of wild thoughts?"
"If they were that kind of person, how could they have survived this long in this city? How could they have made so many criminals fear them like tigers?"
"All superheroes are egomaniacs; what they reflect on doesn't include themselves. Otherwise, would it be your turn to crush their spirits?"
Everyone in the room fell silent as if they didn't know how to respond to Laughing bat's arrogance.
The Laughing bat was indeed a combination of Batman and Joker, but that was all he was—a combination of Batman and Joker. He wasn't a combination of Batman, Joker, Scarecrow, Two-Face, Penguin Man, Riddler, Harley Quinn, and all the lunatics of Arkham.
But the real Batman had to face these lunatics 24 hours a day.
Especially the Batman of the Arkham Universe, because it's a game universe. The game's main storyline takes about 20 hours to complete. Even someone with poor skills could finish the whole process in 30 to 40 hours, and getting the platinum trophy with all collectibles takes about 60 hours.
That is to say, no matter how many twists and turns there are in the game, or how many villains and surprises appear, Batman only took 1 to 2 days to resolve everything.
According to the game's narrative, Batman managed to thwart the city-wide destruction operation and foil all conspiracies in just one night; he even found all the trophies by the way.
In the judgment of the Primary Universe Batman hearing about these experiences, he felt that such a person wouldn't have a problem dealing with one Batman and one Joker, even if they joined forces, it wouldn't be particularly strenuous.
Even if this Batman and Joker were united as one with a shared mind, he would not be without the capacity to fight back, especially mentally.
The extent of Batman's strength is directly proportional to his obsessiveness. If a combination of Batman and Joker were to weaken Batman so easily, wouldn't that mean they'd effectively cured him?
After so many comics, so many villains, and so many gods taking the stage, Batman is still Batman. How could a mere fusion of Joker and Batman cure him?
Of course, Scarecrow didn't know that Mad Laugh was the favorite child of the editorial department; he just deduced from common sense. If he guessed correctly, this genius director was planning to send Batman, who was severely injured and freshly provoked mentally, into a dream world, and also bring Jason, the key figure who caused his physical and mental agitation, in front of him.
What's more crucial is that he was planning to bring two more Batmen into the mix, to have this Batman deal with those two.
Scarecrow Jonathan couldn't help laughing at his own deduction. He really didn't want to deal with it anymore; he just wanted to see the expression on the director's face when these three Batmen and the Arkham Knight ganged up on him.
But Shiller said it wasn't possible because if the Arkham Batman were to enter the Dreamworld while conscious, he alone could burst this fragile bubble.
What's more shocking is that this genius director hadn't taken any precautions for Jason and Spider Man entering the dream, seeming to think his heart-wrenching, tear-jerking plot would be enough to convert them.
What could Scarecrow do then? He had to return to his old ways, risking angering Batman again in the short term to solve a chemistry problem on a drama exam through chemical means.
Another issue was that Jason went in first, while Arkham Batman was supposed to go later. By the time Scarecrow received the mission, Jason was already inside, but Arkham Batman was not.
That meant he had to simultaneously poison both the Dreamworld and the real world, and the toxins had to be both immediate and effective, or the whole plot would collapse.
So the question is, how could he quickly create a toxin in both worlds that would break Batman and Jason?
Or to put it another way, if he had that ability, would he have waited for this fool to pull off these stunts? If he was capable, would it be Joker's turn to kidnap Jason?
But since it had to be done, what could he do? He had to cram!
Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Firefly, Dr. Phosphorus, Hugo, Mad Hatter, Poison Ivy, and Kite Man, in short, all the well-educated villains of Gotham with a name and a degree, formed a temporary scientific research team under the leadership of Doctor Jonathan to tackle this challenging scientific question urgently.
To be honest, the results weren't great. In the end, they had to rely on a Wizard to get in touch with Constantine, who used his powers to manipulate the dream layer, making Jason fall severely ill in the Dreamworld, forcibly weakening his mental energy. Then, in the real world, they used various nerve toxins that could cause illusions, combined with the weakening at the moment of entering the dream, to barely subdue both Jason and Batman.
It was precisely by relying on other means that it was made clear that this group of scientists had completely exhausted their options. After all, these narcissistic lunatics would never admit their defeat.
"Wait a second." When the footage reached this point, Primary Universe Batman spoke up, "So, those terrifying illusions I saw in the sewers..."
"You were probably poisoned," Scarecrow said bluntly. "We equally distributed the same amount of toxin to every safe house. Although the fog can also cause certain hallucinations, there is no doubt that the poison gas greatly magnifies them."
This finally cleared up the confusion in Batman's mind because during the subsequent journey with Poison Ivy, most of the enemies they encountered seemed like real killers, tangible and solid, unlike the earlier illusions.
"The snail was real," Shiller said. "The illusion you saw was also real."
"That Whirlpool Town?"
"Yes, but if you have any other ideas, I wouldn't know."
Batman immediately realized that if the monster and the illusions were real, then the issue might be that period when he doubted his common sense and memory, which now seemed quite terrifying.
Generally speaking, when Batman encounters difficulty, he doesn't start by doubting himself, and this is true for Arkham Batman as well. If they were the type to doubt themselves, they wouldn't have become so paranoid as to reach where they are today.
But at that time, when encountering those illusions, Batman actually began to doubt himself first, and Scarecrow had said that the purpose of the toxin was to make Arkham Batman doubt himself in his dreams to comply with the script and complete the mission. So, it was entirely reasonable for Primary Universe Batman to suspect that he had been similarly affected.
Thinking this, he gave Scarecrow an uneasy glance, knowing that the criminals of this universe might be very strong, otherwise, there would be no need for this universe's Batman to make himself so powerful. But he didn't expect these lunatics to be this powerful.
After all, if Scarecrow could shake Batman with such a direct approach, he would have become a villain on the same level as Joker long ago.
Even if this was a collective research project, it would only mean that they were all nearly on the same level as Joker.
Primary Universe Batman started to break out in a cold sweat.
Riddler also sighed, a rather lively person who usually didn't sigh much, but this time he put on a show, propping his head up with his hand, imitating an adult deeply sighing like a child.
"I hate playing games with that guy called Superman." He purposefully made his voice very sharp, to emphasize, "You have no idea how many times he's found me and how many beatings I've taken from him, it took me so much effort to keep him at bay for so long!"
Riddler's tone was full of grievance, and finally, his mission started playing on the screen.
In a way, his task was the most arduous. While others were pushing their limits within their familiar scope of expertise, he had to change fields entirely, switching from fighting Batman to battling Superman.
Some might say that Superman, weakened by Kryptonite to the point of being a normal human, without super strength, a super brain, the ability to fly, and even with various weakened states, wouldn't be too hard for Riddler to stall.
But isn't that a coincidence? As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. How normal can someone be who is as close to Batman as "a hand and glove"?
Actually, if you analyze it carefully, it's not hard to see that many of Superman's actions are inseparable from his great powers. In other words, some of his actions only seem normal because he is Superman. If he were just an ordinary man, real ordinary people might not find him normal at all.
For example, the oft-discussed super brain is neither very super nor much of a brain, essentially because Superman's super strength provides a large margin of error. He doesn't need to use his brain; with brute force, he can get away with achieving his goals.
But if you set aside all his superpowers and look at his logical actions, you'd find strong regressive characteristics in his personality, like linear thinking, asking for opinions when encountering problems, not listening to the advice, and then trying the same approach again after failing.
His behavior follows an infantile logic: I want it; I get it, too primitive and simplistic.
And while Superman's core psyche is not as complex as Batman's—he doesn't carry any burden or have anything to prove—his theme of absolute justice and moral righteousness, however thin and unlikely for an actual person, does suggest a less-than-healthy psyche.
Accurately speaking, Superman and Batman suffer from the same degree of obsession. It's not that there's any essential difference between one standing for justice and the other for revenge; they both still subscribe to the same heroism. But because Superman is strong, he seems reasonable.
When the tide recedes and it's clear who's been skinny dipping, you realize that Mad Laugh should be targeting not Batman and Jason, the two super paranoid individuals, but rather Superman, the covertly obsessed one. The smoother the sailing, the more correct he feels, the more obsessed he becomes, and the less likely he is to give up.
Riddler had speculated that Superman without his powers would not be easy to deal with, but he had not anticipated how difficult he would be.
Superman's level of obsession was so great that at times Riddler wanted to call the police, and more often than not, if he had a Bat Light, he really could have called over Batman and grabbed him by the collar, shouting "Come and take your glove away NOW!!!"