Simultaneous traversal: All Abyss difficulty.

Chapter 673 Deception, keep deceiving!

Batman's cold gaze was fixed on this breathtaking vision of the future.

He seemed to have been struck by an invisible hammer, his imposing body exhibiting an extremely subtle stiffness.

Countless absurd, questioning, and shocking thoughts instantly assaulted his rock-solid mind.

This is so ahead of its time!
It transcends Gotham, and it transcends the current scope of human understanding!

In the blink of an eye, his superhuman willpower forcefully suppressed his turbulent emotions, and his hoarse voice, choked with cancer, carried a rock-solid skepticism that swept through the damp air:
"This cannot possibly exist in reality."

Bruce Yu's lips curled into a deep smile, a smile that carried an all-knowing, playful air. "Whether it's true or not, old bat, depends on whether your understanding can keep up with the wheels of time."

He surveyed the shimmering military blueprints. "They are hammers and sickles, the power that protects this city, and even this crumbling blue planet! How can Earthlings, who can't even manage their internal strife, withstand the steel torrent from beyond the stars?"

Gordon stared at the science fiction-like scene before him, his brow furrowing deeply. "Aliens? Starships? Enough! This sounds more bizarre than a serial killer story! Sir, I respect your demonstrated abilities, but this is simply too much."

“Unbelievable, Chief Gordon?” Bruce Yu interrupted Gordon abruptly, his smile suddenly turning sharp. “What interesting logic—you choose to believe that a vigilante wearing a bat helmet in the dead of night can save your daughter from being kidnapped by a madman.”

His sharp gaze swept over the silent Batman beside him, "yet he can't believe that someone who can stand in the rain and create an invisible barrier fifteen centimeters from the muzzle of a gun would tell you about a potential threat existing in the vast universe? Is Batman more absurd, or is the alien threat more illusory?"

His gaze, which he pointed at Bruce Wayne, was piercingly scrutinizing. "Batman, I'm giving you a chance, a chance to fight back when aliens crush your Batmobile in a starship, so you won't be so powerless that all you can do is stab the starship with your ridiculous batarangs!"

This sharp question was like a bucket of ice water poured over Gordon's head, leaving him speechless for a moment.

Batman's body visibly tensed. From the power Bruce Yu displayed, the mention of "aliens" and "starship crushing the Batmobile," countless fragments of information coalesced into a terrifying outline that he had to confront.

He wasn't stupid; he grasped the crucial core information:
"Invasion. Those starships you mean by 'aliens,' will they come to Earth?"

Bruce Yu merely shrugged slightly, his gesture carrying a nonchalant yet chillingly real quality: "Throughout history, whenever humans set foot on the land of other races, it was enough to unleash bloody massacres and greedy plunder, all for land, resources, and that pitiful 'living space,' like the land beneath your feet?"

“So, Batman,” he looked directly at Batman, “Earth possesses the perfect environment for nurturing life, the most abundant resources in this star system, vast oceans, and hundreds of millions of years of accumulated life. Do you think that in this cold, empty universe, we are the only intelligent life, and will never be spied on or coveted by the eyes of a higher dimension? Isn’t this sense of ‘security’ a bit too naive?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Batman's deep, firm voice carried an undeniable determination:
"I believe part of what you said. We'll talk about future threats later, but for now..."

He whirled around, his cloak billowing in the wind, the grappling hook gripping his mechanical glove once more. "Barbara is waiting. Gotham, we must save her first."

Bruce Yu shrugged: "See you later."

The cold rain lashed against the dilapidated canvas roof of the abandoned circus on the outskirts of Gotham, making a dull thud.

Batman moved like a moving black sculpture, silently and swiftly traversing the twisting corridors, his cape billowing like night waves as he sped along. Along the way, thugs wearing cheap clown masks and wielding steel pipes and daggers were easily broken by him like rotten wood, the cracking of bones dislocating and the muffled groans of batarangs being driven into the walls echoing throughout the room.

Finally, he slammed open the rotten wooden door leading to the main performance area.

The sight before him made him abruptly stop in his tracks.

The huge, once joyful circular area is now shrouded in eerie, pale emergency lights, and the air is thick with dust, blood, and a cloying, sweet chemical smell.

Several thugs who had also been knocked down slumped in the shadows.

Two people stood in the center of the venue.

Bruce Yu, the enigmatic Asian youth, was mercilessly stomping his right foot on the pale face of the clown who lay sprawled on the ground.

The Joker's signature purple suit was stained with mud, and his signature green hair was made even more disheveled by the soles of his boots.

As if hearing a noise, Bruce Yu slowly turned his head, a nonchalant smile on his face, and said to Batman, who had just burst through the door and was radiating a chilling aura, "Hello, Batman."

He even leisurely ground the clown under his feet with the sole of his boot that was stepping on the clown's head: "Say hello, why are you so rude?" Then, he kicked the clown in the side without any politeness.

The Joker, trampled underfoot, grinned, his mouth smeared with blood and dirt, forcing out a twisted smile. His grimacing grin maintained its core of madness. He snarled in Batman's direction: "Hey~ Batman, huff huff huff. Good evening! What a coincidence, you're here for the party too?"

Bruce Yu then turned his gaze to Batman, and pointed to a figure firmly tied to a chair at the edge of the arena—Barbara Gordon.

Her head was tilted to one side, her face was deathly pale, her eyes were unfocused, and her posture was extremely distorted.

“This girl,” Bruce Yu stated in a flat tone, as if discussing the weather, “had a broken back. When I arrived, this ‘artist’ (he tapped the clown’s head with his foot again) was holding up a thing to her mouth, trying to give her an ‘eternal smile,’ but I stopped him in time.”

The phrases "her back is broken" and "to cut her mouth apart" were like red-hot irons, fiercely piercing through Batman's cold rationality.

Rage, pure and violent rage, instantly consumed the detective's composure.

He let out a low growl and, like a black cannonball that had been ignited, dashed toward the Joker at an astonishing speed!
boom!
With pent-up rage and all his strength, the bat boots landed squarely on the Joker's unsuspecting jaw!

"Pfft—whoa!" The clown's body was kicked backward, spitting out a mouthful of blood and foam mixed with what might be one or two teeth.

He fell to the ground like a tattered sack, then burst into an even more maniacal, distorted laugh, twisted by excruciating pain: "Hahaha—cough cough. Oh! That hurts so much! Awesome! Haha! So our Batman also needs helpers? What a 'surprise'!"

(End of this chapter)