What bad thoughts can Batman have?

Chapter 998 Donning the Black Robe Again: Unaware of Being a Guest in a Dream
"Are you here to stop me?"

In the bizarre and fantastical dream realm, Daniel Hall, the Sandman from the Infinity Family and the current God of Dreams in the DC multiverse, rose from his seat and watched as Destiny, also from the Infinity Family, quietly appeared before him.

"Are you here to stop me?" Dream asked in a low voice, "Because I use dreams to directly interfere with the history and future of the DC multiverse?"

But fate answered him thus: "No. This is merely a warning from fate, Sleep Demon. Dreams interfering with reality comes at a price. You are a young member, and this is a protective admonition."

Before the dream could answer, fate vanished from his world, as if it had never existed.

Dreams gently tap their fingers.

The laughing bat, the laughing bat.

……

……

……

Therefore, this is how everything leads to its ending.

Papetua was already feeling fear.

Everything has disappeared.

Batman: The Dragon, The Void Hand, The Bat Who Laughs, The Ultimate Watcher, Superman Chen Tao...

They began to merge, merging into one whole.

Many, many years ago, before Chen Tao was fully Batman, he had whispered this to himself countless times.

I am Batman.

Now, it's his turn to come.

Chen Tao murmured.

"Warning, warning, the Alfred Protocol is in effect."

He murmured softly, mimicking the mechanical, emotionless voice of the Alfred Protocol.

"...Extraordinary affection cannot change the fate of destruction..."

Chen Tao thought silently, speaking softly. His gaze pierced through space and time, reaching beyond the infinitely extending sky, where his former self and the Laughing Bat were listening quietly together.

"...You might be able to use it to summon a bat from some parallel universe..."

"Error, error!"

Chen Tao heard the subconscious whispers of the laughing bat, resisting all of this.

Chen Tao paused, then continued reading: "But, could an being summoned because of a twisted fascination with the pale be some kind of Batman?"

"Warning, downloading targeted..."

He paused again: "Batman..."

"No! Error, error, it's already targeted—"

He finished reading the first history of the Synchronized Laughing Bat, and then began reading the second.

"Syncing: The Bat Who Laughs!"

Chen Tao whispered urgently, his voice as impatient as a laughing bat.

"The Bat of Laughter! Laughter! Laughter!"

The consciousness that was laughing wildly surged like a storm, just like Chen Tao's.

"Error! Error!"

"Activate emergency shielding! Emergency shielding!"

After a series of dazzling flashes of silvery-white text, the text on Chen Tao's retina finally stabilized.

The second attempt also failed, so I tried again.

What was originally somewhat chaotic, the mechanical silver-white font began to turn black, as if some malicious thing was contemplating its evil plan, and the content of its thoughts was transformed into text and projected onto the Alfred Protocol.

"Hehe, wahaha, what a crazy world, isn't it? Waking up in the morning is like crawling out of a giant marshmallow and finding that yesterday's omelet... has turned into today's hot air balloon!"

The super-time flow fluctuates once more, and history surges forth like a tide...

Then we arrive at that point in time.

The Batman Who Laughs reveals his identity to Batman Dragon at a specific point in time.

"...cut my body open with a knife..."

"...Take a drop of my blood, to bear witness to my identity..."

All the vague whispers abruptly ended at that moment.

The Bat Who Laughs stood in front of Bane. Seeing the blank expression on the other's face, he knew he was about to throw a punch at Papetua.

The laughing bat suddenly felt fear.

He is the Bat Who Laughs, he is Bruce Wayne, an evil monster.

From the moment I left until now, I have considered countless times whether my behavior is truly normal.

Am I affected by those Batman Dragon memories?

Was it under their influence that I changed my ways and stopped being crazy?
Look at what I'm about to do.

I'm going to confront Papetua, who is ostensibly Bane, in a world of illusion, to do Batman a huge favor. It's entirely voluntary, premeditated, and deliberately careless.

—Damn it, risking the possibility of losing consciousness just to find a way to escape from the illusion created by Batman Dragon, and being certain that he can escape, that's so Batman, but it's okay, it's also so Batman Laughing. That pointy-eared mask has a damn magic to it.

—Damn it, what kind of hero would envision themselves saving the multiverse? It's like someone standing on the edge of a cliff secretly hoping they'll slip and fall.
Ha, so now you're starting to question your own motives?
Your body has honestly made all the necessary preparations, and then you start to doubt your own brain? Don't be ridiculous, tell yourself.

Open the bow without turning back the arrow.

And so, that predictable sense of dread, like a pacemaker, electrified the entire body of the Laughing Bat.

“Foolish, you’ve made a big mistake.”

He heard Bane say, "Don't think you've won. I've rewritten history using the Hypertime Stream. Even if you defeat me here, it won't matter. I can... I'll modify the Hypertime Stream into... a weapon specifically designed for you."

"Bane, or rather Papetua, said."

The world appears distorted before your eyes, and the sound is stretched and deformed in your ears.

You hear Bane say, "I've set up time travel to track Batman..."

The voice became muffled again, "Set to track the Laughing Bat..."

"What? How does the nuclear missile's radar track Batman? By tracking his biosignals, or the metal inside his body?"

When the Batman Who Laughs heard Lucius's question in the illusion, Wayne Enterprises' chief scientific expert could sense Bane's utter bewilderment, even through the radio.

"I won't even ask how you did it. If you're so capable, why don't you track down the world's heads of state and turn the whole world into your criminal empire? Why are you tracking down this Batman?"

His speech became vague again, as if the reality of the time-traveling world was easily overwritten by Batman: Dragon.

"Damn it, I understand... which means... it's currently following the predetermined trajectory..."

He overlooked this problem, which caused his speech to become somewhat incoherent and his language processing to be thoughtless.

Dreams and illusions are intertwined, along with several personalities forming from the Batman Who Laughs' memories, and the influence of Batman Dragon... Everything is too chaotic, with all sorts of scenes, and a chaotic environment is often used to conceal the early conditions for a seed to sprout.

The laughing bat is dreaming.

Only in his dreams could he possibly escape the unparalleled pleasure that followed his manic laughter and rediscover a little bit of his former, boring self.

That is also a happy self.

Although he wasn't as happy as Bruce Wayne, the Batman in the main universe, he could still be considered happy.

Although he had known long ago that this was nothing but a false happiness and a happiness that was bound to be destroyed.

But please, let him indulge in this moment a little longer; it's been a long time since he's truly been intoxicated.

Like a fentanyl addict, even when embraced by family, there are still brief moments of clarity, even though the addict himself knows that this clarity is just a mirage. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be intoxicated by it now. Perhaps his maniacal laughter is also indulging himself, just as Chen Tao would pray to a non-existent god.

There can be no absolutely rational person in this world; even the infamous Batman Who Laughs is not immune to rationality.

Often, at some point, for some reason, you'll allow yourself to indulge just once... even if it will push you into the abyss.

The Batman Who Laughs looks at Alfred, the Alfred in his illusion, or perhaps the Batman Dragon's trick, a false personality created by the other party through his memories.

Right now he……

Right now he……

He felt nothing now, but at least the boiling, bloodthirsty urge to kill Alfred had subsided slightly.

It wasn't just because of his bet with Batman Dragon, nor because of the temptation of his possible escape within that agreement.

He was simply... simply didn't feel anything.

Alfred's emotions erupted in a turbulent and overwhelming manner. Chen Tao was not there; he was quietly hiding in the shadow of the Laughing Bat. As the Bat Mite, he hid behind the skull mask, using the connection between him and the Bat Mite to quietly conceal his true identity.

He has been trying his best not to think about it for a long time.

It doesn't matter. His world isn't like Earth 15, where a crucial node becomes irretrievable.

Once he destroys Perpetua, he will be able to reverse the history of his world's destruction. Alfred will return; he hasn't gone to his death yet, at least not now.

He will see Alfred again.

"No! No! You can't!!! You're not him! He's dead! He's finally dead! He finally got his wish, perishing together with the monsters in exhaustion!"

Chen Tao hid in the shadows, not daring to look at that face.

That face from my memory.

There was no mutual destruction, no.

I'm very sorry.

I am Batman.

"This city has given you back to me! Gotham has given me back the little boy named Bruce Wayne who died in Crime Alley with his parents!"

That was just an illusion. I'm sorry, Alfred, I'm so sorry.

"My child, whose life has been so full of hardship, so scarred and battered! You have suffered so much! You didn't have to, you don't need to—"

I must, I need, I had planned it long ago, I was aware of it long ago, I should have done it long ago.

"Please, damn it! You no longer have to be a bat monster in black!"

Sorry.

"Please……"

Chen Tao and the Laughing Bat both heard Alfred say this.

He said:
"You promised to retire with me."

So the Batman Who Laughs didn't kill Alfred; he spent over a year driving Alfred insane... Alfred will always be with him.

As for Chen Tao...

He was no longer able to speak.

“Alfred…”

"I am Batman."

Chen Tao and the Laughing Bat both felt that these words had a sense of destiny.

There's not much more to say.

The laughing bat bent his body slightly, and Chen Tao lowered his head slightly.

They both bowed their heads and sighed heavily, and when they looked up, Papetua saw the raging fire that had consumed everything roaring fiercely in his eyes.

At that moment, Batman and the Batman Who Laughs felt almost whole, no, far beyond whole; every cell in his body was glowing.

It is a flame lit by the Ultimate Watcher, Batman Dragon, Batman Laughing, Void Hand, Superman Supreme, Genius Number One, Parallax Morhal, Black Death, and trillions upon trillions of lives.

A shadowy flame, filled with resentment and bitterness, yet illuminated by the greatest thing in the DC multiverse... hope.

He moved faster than ever before, moving at a speed beyond imagination, a small white, blazing dot bursting forth from the darkness, surrounded by all the darkness, like a vortex.

Time has no meaning for this monster; it would take hours to catch up with him, and months for his voice, but his approach can be sensed from any dimension—his will, his rage.

Before Papetua could react, Batman: Dragon or Batman Laughing... whatever, damn it, this monster formed from all of humanity was no longer a single, unchanging person, a fixed point.

Behind all darkness, pain, and evil.

After so much has happened.

Having witnessed the cruelty of this world firsthand, and then fallen into its corrupt ways.

After realizing that he could never return to his hometown and had forever lost his purpose in life.

After realizing that the universe harbored a greater crisis, he let go of his obsession forever.

Even the Bat of Laughter, at this moment, tentatively believes in... hope?
When we are alone, we are a fixed point, a solitary lifeline, an unchanging shape.

But together, we form a timeless entity encompassing reality, the past, and the future.

We surpassed expectations, working together to achieve far more than we imagined.

"What the hell..."

Papetua tried to stop it all, taking drastic measures, including altering the flow of time. But it was no use; something she had never imagined was approaching, unless she now achieved the ultimate unity. Otherwise…

Damn it, what kind of monsters are those? This attack is happening simultaneously in every corner of the hypertime stream, and it's all happening in the past, future, and present.

Papetua saw the hybrid monster's eyes.

That's the look that belongs only to Batman.

Aloof and dignified...disordered and frenzied, like the howling shadows of black bats, it was truly like this...

Contemptuous, sharp!
She roared, "No, Batman!!!"

boom! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

(End of this chapter)