What bad thoughts can Batman have?

Chapter 968 All Batmen Will Come to See You After They Die, Chen Tao
"Hey, I mean... bat. Do you really know what you're doing?"

Chen Tao heard the whisper of death, a voice like the hazy mist of a summer night. It was clearly an accusation, yet it also carried a faint, mournful tone of death.

Chen Tao tried to move, but he found he couldn't move at all. Death forbids your movement. Oh, you can't get rid of her, can you? Especially now that you're a dead creature, you belong to her.

The girl of death sighed, and she brought the withered flower to her nose and sniffed it. In an instant, the withered flower bloomed again, and the cycle of life and death happened in a moment. Then the flower returned to silence, just as it was destined to be.

"This is the DC multiverse."

Death spoke to Batman Dragon.

In an instant, she transformed into millions of forms before Chen Tao. At first, she was a young girl, a young woman, a middle-aged woman, and then an old woman in her eighties. Chen Tao knew that death had no fixed form. When facing different people, she would become their race. Sometimes she was white, sometimes black, oh, and of course, there were alien races. Sometimes she was a fish-man, or a pig-like creature. All sorts of strange life forms bloomed on death like fireworks at this moment—death was not silence, but the final roar of life.

"Theoretically speaking, the multiverse will eventually die, but not today, you understand? You are tampering with the normal final outcome of the multiverse, just like you did to Earth-15. But in reality, you can't solve every problem by making things even bigger."

Death said:

"The end of life is inevitably death, which is an unchangeable outcome, but what matters is not the result, but the process of experiencing everything."

“But I eliminated that process entirely; everyone marched in unison and fast-forwarded into death,” Chen Tao said. “Thank you for your help.”

"This has nothing to do with trouble, Batman Dragon. I must remind you of something." The gothic face of Death hardened with a serious expression. "Listen carefully. Entering the realm of death prematurely is not a good thing, Batman Dragon. You don't understand. Death has rules. Every creature that enters the realm of death prematurely, if no one in the real world remembers their existence, and if these insignificant mortals haven't left any indelible mark on the hypertimeline of the main universe—meaning they don't have a reason for the hypertimeline to resurrect them—then after a certain period of time, they will completely leave the Black Death Emperor's realm of death and return to my embrace."

"You think this is just a slow process? You think they can stay in the Black Death Emperor's domain for a long time until the final moment arrives? You think that for these ordinary people, their final moment is the universe reboot, and then the remaining dead will be resurrected by the universe reboot and re-enter the DC multiverse?"

Death saw a look of horror and shock on Batman Dragon's face: "Isn't that so?"

"Of course not! You dragged the entire DC multiverse into death, which means that there are no living people in reality who can remember these dead people. What makes you think that they will fall into eternal annihilation at the exact same speed as before?"

Death warned: "I am Death. I cannot stop myself, nor can I disregard the rules or do anything that is not in accordance with my duty. Telling you now is the only thing I can do."

She said to Chen Tao, "Take advantage of this opportunity and think of a way, Batman Dragon. You must drag all the beings in the entire DC multiverse out of death before the first person falls into eternal silence, or I will have to fulfill my duty and take them away. I will give you the divine office of death..."

Death paused, then said, "From this moment forward, you will control the deaths of all Batmen in the DC multiverse. You are the Grim Reaper of all Batmen in the broadest sense, not just Bruce Wayne. All those who wear the Batman robes, imitators, self-proclaimed Batmen, fighters who don't wear the robes or call themselves Batmen but act like Batmen, those who never give up—they will all be your disciples, they all belong to you."

Although understandings of death may differ greatly, I allow you to carve out your own domain within death and establish your own bat kingdom.

You don't need to meet them one by one; they will automatically appear in your realm until eternal annihilation arrives. Furthermore, as the lord of the world of death, you will also be able to see how many of the beings you dragged into death throughout the multiverse have been brought into eternal silence.

Chen Tao felt his heart pounding. His understanding of death wasn't profound. He hadn't expected that when everyone was facing death, everything would end so quickly. He took a deep breath and then said as calmly as possible:

"there's a few?"

Once taken away by death, the eternal silence is irreversible. Once taken away by death, even members of the Endless Family cannot bring him back.

The plan to temporarily place all life in the multiverse into the realm of death for protection was Chen Tao's idea. If even one of these innocent lives dies, it would be equivalent to Chen Tao killing that person.

Chen Tao's heart pounded wildly. Did the Bat of Laughter know about this beforehand? And yet, he knew but never told him. Could all of this be part of the Bat of Laughter's plan...?

“You’re overthinking it,” Death told Chen Tao. “I don’t care which unlucky person you’re attributing all this to, I can tell you that it’s not just you. I’ve discovered for the first time that if all the creatures in the main universe were to die, the speed at which those beings brought into the Death Realm would fall into my embrace would increase a hundredfold. What might have taken countless years to leave the Death Realm and completely surrender to death would now only take a few hours.”

"So how many have you taken away?"

Chen Tao could no longer hear what Death was saying.

If someone were to fall into eternal silence forever and never return, how would they console themselves?

"It's okay, they're going to die anyway," is that right?

Or is it that "the lives of ordinary people are insignificant, and as long as the majority of people come back alive, then this is a necessary sacrifice"?
"Not a single one at the moment."

Death said, “But it’s coming soon, my friend. The most recent one I’ve seen… will take approximately…”

"After three universe reboots that require me to launch an attack on Papetua."

Chen Tao then spoke up.

At that moment, the tattered bat wings on his back suddenly spread open, forming a giant bat shape. In his hand, a huge bat shield appeared out of nowhere. Well, it was more like a tombstone than a shield, covered with densely packed Batman names. Although Bruce Wayne was the most prominent name engraved on it, there were also some other names occasionally.

For example, Chen Tao.

Chen Tao glanced at the power of the sixth-dimensional deity and found his name among the densely packed, tiny characters. Among the many Batmen, there was one named Chen Tao—a fact acknowledged by the multiverse, and therefore naturally appearing on the Batman memorial tablet that Chen Tao now possessed.

By borrowing the title of "Grim Reaper of All Batmen" bestowed upon him by death, Chen Tao, as one of the lords in the realm of death, easily saw the future he feared through the many veils of death.

One by one, nameless figures were hoisted to the other side of the cliff. If they fell into the abyss, it would be for you to die. This meant that Chen Tao's original plan to suppress the Black Death Emperor and the three sixth-dimensional gods by repeatedly restarting the universe had completely failed. If he had really done that, he might have defeated Perpetua in the end, but there would have been very few survivors left in the DC multiverse.

"Let me see which two people are closest to being plunged into eternal oblivion."

Chen Tao randomly searched and found two orphans in the main universe who had no relatives. Well, now Chen Tao has dragged half of the main universe, along with countless parallel universes, into death. Even if the main universe has a complete family, they will only live a little longer.

Let me see these two people's names...

Sean and Boris. (Note: These two characters appeared in Chapter 14.)
A name I've never heard of before.

Chen Tao glanced at their brief profiles. Their lives were unremarkable; in a run-down place like Gotham, the death of both parents was the norm.

Of course, if you were born in Gotham City’s Diamond District—hey, that place is actually called “Diamonds”—then you’re a different story. Stories like the Wayne couple, where a wealthy family could have saved Bruce Wayne’s parents from both dying, only end up with an unexpected death, are rare.

The reality is that most people here don't have parents, especially those born in lower-class urban areas.

Gangs and robbers have turned this place into a death trap for ordinary people, especially criminals who are constantly being relocated to Gotham from other cities. Despite being ten years apart in age, Sean and Boris experienced almost identical things growing up.

Most slum kids start street brawls in their teens, then become gangsters or get shot in their twenties. But most don't get that high-class treatment of being shot; Gotham City's sanitation workers, or rather, corpse disposal experts, make their fortune off the dead.

Despite these circumstances, Sean and Boris still became police officers in Gotham City.

They didn't dare accept bribes. Those corrupt cops took the money, but they also got involved in factional infighting. Before Batman appeared, they either died at the hands of gangsters or were stripped of their uniforms due to factional struggles and died at the hands of gangsters. After Batman and Harvey Dent appeared, these corrupt cops were all brought down.

Sean and Boris, on the other hand, have always done the simplest street patrol work, avoiding potential dangers and, like Jim Gordon, charging into crime scenes with the Gotham City Police Department badge in hand, shouting "GCPD?"

That is absolutely impossible.

They lived quietly like that, spending their days either patrolling the streets or hiding to avoid being killed.

In this crime capital, patrol officers like Sean and Boris, who might seem to have some privileges in other cities, are the "ordinary people" who can truly live a good life. You know, Gotham City defines ordinary people a little differently. Ordinary people from other cities would have been devoured and chopped to pieces long ago, while the patrol officer job at least allows Sean and Boris to protect themselves and eat donuts every day.

That's the biggest benefit.

Chen Tao couldn't let Sean and Boris leave without a reason.

Chen Tao took a deep breath.

Sean and Boris were the first to slip into eternal oblivion; they came from the Dark Multiverse and were forgotten.

Come on, he has another idea.

He closed his eyes.

Chen Tao's Origins, Theory of Origins, The Infinite One
Chen Tao has woven together the past of the DC multiverse. He wants to create a brand new timeline, binding himself to these two individuals, thus allowing him to face eternal annihilation in their place. In an infinitely distant era, Batman Dragon Chen Tao actually possessed two other identities: Sean and Boris. These two identities are to Batman Dragon what Matchstick Malone (Note: Batman's most classic false identity in the underworld) is to the main universe's Batman Bruce Wayne.

If Sean and Boris are to be dragged into eternal silence, it will directly lead to a new outcome:
"Batman Dragon Chen Tao will be dragged into eternal silence before Sean and Boris, and Sean and Boris will be the first beings in the DC multiverse to fall into eternal annihilation and death."

Chen Tao has woven such a future.

Only Chen Tao can support such a future.

If it were anyone else, this future would have collapsed the moment it was created. But now he is Chen Tao. He borrowed the position and power of the Anti-Monitor to drive the Black Death Emperor, and through death, he leveraged the power of three sixth-dimensional gods as well as other powerful beings such as the Supreme Superman.

When he risked eternal annihilation to vouch for two ordinary people...

"Fate will naturally take a turn, and that is the nature of fate."

In the endless garden, the fates of countless families turn the pages of a book, the chains on the enormous pages rattling as fate rubs against them.

"Three times. Batman: Dragon only has three more chances to reboot the world."

(End of this chapter)