Some things were thrown into a huge chemical tank on the first floor, making a sizzling sound and emitting white smoke.
Soon, a type of liquid flowed from the pipes beneath the tank into an unknown device.
Batman squinted his eyes slightly as he closely watched the actions of the worker who seemed relaxed, even humming a tune, showing no signs of furtiveness as if having a guilty conscience.
He gave Deadpool a look.
After waiting a while and getting no response, he gave Deadpool another look.
Turning his head away and then immediately back, he found that Deadpool behind him had started eating chips.
Batman turned back to face Deadpool, who quickly packed up his snacks and wiped the chip crumbs from his mouth, whispering, "Should we grab him and interrogate?"
Batman sighed deeply and was just about to reach for the Batman dart at his waist when Deadpool pushed him aside and said, "I'll handle this!"
Then he charged forward, swords swinging.
Batman covered his eyes, only to hear a clatter—Deadpool and the worker had both fallen.
Batman walked out from behind the cabinet to see Deadpool lying at the edge of the first floor chemical tank, while the worker had disappeared, leaving a wisp of white smoke rising above the tank.
The same liquid flowed from the pipes.
Batman leapt down, his cape deftly sweeping over the dangerous chemicals, even remembering to grab Deadpool on the way down. After jumping down, he looked up to see the multiple pouring spouts on the upper levels.
"Raw material recycling plan..." his deep voice echoed in the empty factory, the thick sense of darkness almost overflowing.
Just as Batman was about to move to the other side of the tank, a figure rushed in through the main gate of the factory.
"Ha! They'd never expect that it was actually my portable sonic weapon! Truly worthy of the great Dark Knight Batman, so easily evading capture, I am really too... eh! What are you doing here?!"
Prime Universe Batman sensing trouble from the reinforcements following him, almost blinked behind Batman, grabbed his cape, and jumped to the edge of the chemical tank.
The two groups converging from different directions saw only a tall dark figure holding another pitch-black object, standing high at the edge of the vast chemical tank.
Prime Universe Batman turned and raised his arm, suspending Batman above the chemical liquid, then turned his head and said to the people below, "Take one more step forward, and I'll drop him."
Leaders of both groups came to an abrupt halt, Barbara shouted, "No! Batman! You can't use vigilante justice! That clone is an important witness..."
"Nonsense! Look clearly at who the clone is!" Batman, being held by the cape, struggled and shouted loudly, "I am the real Batman, this guy is the evil clone! Do I look as dark as him?!"
Meanwhile, Joker, leading the Arkham criminals, glared fiercely at that tall dark figure and said, "Put him down! You damned bastard! This is too much!"
"What do you all know about the raw material recycling plan?" Prime Universe Batman asked unhurriedly.
Barbara's face momentarily flashed with tension, but it did not escape Prime Universe Batman's eyes as he began to pace along the narrow, slender edge of the raw material tank, every step making everyone's heart pound with fear.
"I've been thinking about what constitutes your current state; for you, it's like exploring the ultimate origin of life, but for me, it doesn't involve any philosophical implications, it's more like a chemical analysis problem."
"All the weapons and equipment here look to be made of plastic, but their strength isn't exactly the same, indicating they may be of different materials, the biting force is also different, where do these differences come from?"
Suddenly, Prime Universe Batman turned and grabbing Batman's cape, threw him down. Batman fell to the ground with a thud, as the two converging groups clashed, each trying to seize Batman for themselves.
With a whoosh, that dark figure next to the raw material tank disappeared.
Hiding behind, Deadpool clicked his tongue and said, "This guy must be a Batman from some important universe, so dark."
Barbara grabbed Batman first, and Batman swatted her hand away, roaring at her, "I'll say it again, I am not the clone! Have you ever seen a clone with a voice as magnificent as mine?!"
"I know you are Batman," Barbara also yelled back at him, "I was just afraid that if we expose this, that terrifying guy would have thrown you directly in, and then you'd have turned into a puddle of liquid!"
"Give him to me!" Joker hissed at Barbara, saying, "Only I can protect him! You all are a bunch of useless idiots!"
"You shut up too!" Batman yelled at him.
Joker's face showed disbelief, then he covered his mouth, looking at Batman with a deeply wronged expression and said, "How can you talk to me like this?! I came to rescue you!"
Batman let his hands drop in exasperation and sighed, "Do you guys really think now is the time for infighting? That guy has almost turned the world upside down!"
"Who exactly is he?" Barbara put away her handgun and then said, "I've never seen such a dark guy. Why was he investigating the material recycling plan?!"
Upon hearing this term again, Batman rarely frowned. Just as Barbara was about to say something, Batman raised his hand to stop her and said, "Stop talking, this is also my fault. I should have subdued him the moment he appeared."
"Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Stop doubting me!" Batman stomped his foot in anger and said, "That guy only plays mysterious tricks; I am so much stronger than him!"
"Have you run into trouble, Batman?" A voice appeared overhead, and as they looked up, they saw Superman descending like a deity.
"Your communication cut off a bit suddenly." Superman said, "I must explain to you that the Justice League's party at the Fortress of Solitude wasn't meant to..."
"Stop talking!" Batman seemed to finally burst out and said, "All of you just cause me problems! You don't trust me, question me, target me, and isolate me! I'm really fed up with all this!"
Superman's outstretched hand froze mid-air, he slowly withdrew it, and then said, "Hear me out, Batman, we really didn't mean that, I rushed over right after the party ended."
"Yeah, you waited until after the party to come over." Batman turned back to look at Barbara and said, "You really don't believe I'm the genuine Batman."
Then he turned to Joker and said, "You only care about whether I hate you or not, not caring if you are causing me trouble."
Then his gaze swept over every Arkham criminal, even the policemen behind Barbara, and said, "All of you think I'm just creating problems and making irrational complaints every day. What right does a traffic warden have to call himself the greatest Dark Knight?"
The atmosphere in the room fell silent. Barbara reluctantly spoke up, "We don't think that, Batman, you are a great vigilante, Gotham needs you."
"You all think I'm a madman, it's completely unnecessary for me to make myself so dark and powerful for everyday trivialities in the city, I'm just moving myself." Batman scanned each of them and said.
"None of you really understand what I'm doing, not a single one! I hate all of you!"
Superman seemed to want to say something, but he ultimately did not speak. Batman walked away from everyone, heading towards the dark night through the factory gates, looking lonely and decrepit.
At this time, Prime Universe Batman had already penetrated deep into the factory and had found many documents there, but none of them were important until, at last, he found an apparently long-abandoned laboratory beneath the chemical plant.
Undoubtedly, this had been a chemistry lab. Batman saw many chemical analysis instruments he had never seen before and finally found the answer to a question he had been pondering—everything in Lego World was made of plastic, but not all plastics were the same.
Batman thought about the ordinary bricks he had seen in the real world. Most of the time, there's nothing special about ordinary LEGO pieces, but there are also some special components, like metal parts contained within electronic LEGO pieces.
The analysis report he held showed how the ancient ancestors of the Minifigures in Lego World had developed a way to blend some mystical elements into the plastic material and enhance the strength of the bricks, thus evolving plastics material science.
But more importantly, some data indicated that the materials used to construct Minifigures were special. This mysterious chemist had referred to the life-giving part of the materials as "Life Molecules."
Only plastic containing Life Molecules could constitute Minifigures capable of movement, possessing wisdom, and having souls; plastic without these factors was just regular plastic, and no amount of forging could produce sentience.
According to this chemist's hypothesis, these mysterious Life Molecules were likely related to a meteor that had struck this plastic planet millions of years ago.
Batman thought that perhaps this was the origin of life in Lego World, as Life Molecules mingled into the plastic, brought the first forms of life to Lego World.
But this also brought up another issue: if Life Molecules were brought by a meteor, like gold, then they should be limited, perhaps even rare.
This made Batman think of the raw material recycling plan; the shortage in this plan was likely not plastic, but these mysterious, elusive Life Molecules.
If the quantity of Life Molecules was fixed, then even if it meant that the population on Earth was limited, it shouldn't easily run short unless some conditions caused the Life Factor to be consumed.
Batman thought of the assembly feature of the Minifigures.
Was there really no consumption when they were broken into pieces and reassembled? Even from a realistic perspective, this was impossible; LEGO always experiences wear, and long-term forceful assembly might cause the joining nubs of the components to fail, preventing reassembly, or making the parts loose.
In Lego World, what kind of force was repairing this wear?
Perhaps it was this mysterious Life Factor.
The Minifigures living in Heaven might not have thought about it, they were not paying a price for their injuries, yet the cost cannot be discovered by ordinary people, but one day the cost would accumulate to an unbearable level.
And there were some people, Batman looked down at the documents in his hand, he thought, some idealists must have realized the truth, which is why they proposed this raw material recycling plan, they wanted to replenish the Life Factor.
But in a situation where the total amount is absolutely constant, how could they replenish the consumed Life Factor?
Perhaps not replenish, but reduce consumption—as much as possible using chemical agents, recycle the "brick originals" that had not yet been overly depleted.