Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Why isn't he smiling in Chapter 233? Is he just naturally averse to smiling?
A man went to a toy store and said he wanted to buy a new boomerang. Then he asked the clerk, "How do I get rid of my old boomerang?"

The clown told the penguin a lame joke and asked, "Do you think this joke is funny?"

"To be honest, it wasn't very funny at first," the penguin replied honestly. "But considering what happened last night, I find it hard to say it wasn't funny."

“Some jokes that aren’t funny can become really funny in certain situations.” The clown shrugged. “Even though I don’t find them funny.”

The Penguin understood his feelings. They suffered heavy losses last night, with their fighting force almost completely wiped out. Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, and Man-Bat were all captured by Batman. These were all the supervillains they had capable of fighting head-on.

Furthermore, the loss of the Mad Hatter left them with no one to rely on, so the Joker is now almost entirely alone.

"It's alright," the Penguin comforted him. "The Riddler probably can't laugh right now either."

To be honest, the riddle teller really couldn't laugh at this moment.

"A guy went into a toy store and said he wanted to buy a new boomerang. Then he asked the clerk, 'How do I get rid of the old boomerang?' Hahahaha!"

In the Riddler's Hall, Ma Zhaodi was telling jokes to Mr. Zas. Although Zas was expressionless and clearly not interested in the jokes, Poison Ivy next to him had a wildly upturned smile.

She turned to look at the Riddler sitting in the hall. He had also heard the joke, and his face was even uglier than Zas's, his drooping lips resembling a clown who couldn't laugh.

In a sense, the two reached a mutual understanding at this moment.

"Enough, stop telling your lame jokes." The Riddler interrupted. At this moment, Ma Zhaodi was particularly annoying in his eyes. The way he told jokes was as if he was mocking him as the fool who bought the toy, unable to let go of the boomerang of "Perverted Bicycle Hero".

"Yesterday's defeat will be the last straw that breaks the Joker's back, and now, we are about to win this war—it's time to get down to business and reach out to claim the spoils of this victory."

He glanced at the fireflies, Zarth, and Poison Ivy in the hall, adjusted his top hat, and gave a seductive smile: "Once we deal with the Joker, we can rescue everyone else in Arkham, and Gotham will soon be ours."

The day of the final battle came quickly. Although Batman had anticipated it, he still felt a bit like he was in a dream when the moment arrived.

"The Penguin is gone." Batman said to Catwoman beside a tall building. "But he didn't betray the Joker. However, his men were captured by the Riddler, who tortured them to find out the Joker's last hiding place."

"And then you found out?" Catwoman laughed. "How come I didn't know you were so well-informed?"

“His actions were too obvious to be concealed—not to mention that the building was already surrounded, four supervillains walking down the street would be conspicuous enough.”

Upon hearing this, Catwoman glanced down and saw four strangely dressed men leading a group of armed thugs surrounding the building.

Batman wasn't wrong. Whether it's Firefly, who flies through the sky in his steel armor and billowing black smoke; or Riddler, who's green from head to toe; or Zaszczuk, who's naked and covered in scars; or the black-robed, freakish biker and Poison Ivy, who's dressed in plant vines, they're all characters who can turn heads wherever they go.

"Alright, it seems they can't wait to make their move. So, what brings you here?"

“This building is a bit troublesome,” Batman replied. “It’s a building that the Joker has meticulously set up—except for the seventy-third floor, all the other floors are unsafe. The rooftop, elevators, stairwells—every passageway is full of traps. Whether you go up from the bottom or down from the top, you’re probably going to get a lot of pain.”

Catwoman raised an eyebrow: "And then?" "I need to figure out a way to get in, and I need your help—you're the most agile and can avoid the traps along the way."

"You assign dangerous missions to me?" Catwoman reached out and scratched Batman's chin. "What a ruthless arrangement—don't you have any henchmen who can help out in the building?"

"He's not one of my subordinates, and he's not even inside."

"That would be helpful."

"But no one can be as professional as you."

"Yeah, okay," Catwoman replied casually. "You've learned all sorts of flattery lately, but do you think I'll help you just by saying that?"

Batman didn't say anything.

"Question: There is a bomb on the ground floor of a building. Two inches away from the bomb is a computer, three inches away is a can of gasoline, and four inches away is a barrel of nitroglycerin."

Outside the building, the riddle teller looked up at the building's glass curtain walls and asked with great interest, "If the bomb explodes, what will be the first thing destroyed?"

"The bomb itself will be the first thing destroyed."

Ma Zhaodi chimed in from behind, "Boss is so smart! One day, I'll publish a book called 'The King of Brain Teasers' using all the corny jokes he's told."

It's just right, just right! That familiar taste just popped into my head.

The Riddler's smile vanished instantly, replaced by a strange, almost habitual, unease—being ridiculed by a fool and flattered in this way made him feel humiliated, as if he'd been placed on the same intellectual level. It was uncomfortable, frustrating, and he felt helpless. If someone else had offered that compliment, it would have been mere mockery, but the Perverted Bicycle Man was a fool; he would only offer genuine praise—which made the Riddler feel even worse.

He would rather have Batman break his ribs or be shot through the stomach by the Joker than suffer such humiliation again. He decided never to tell riddles that even a fool could guess again.

"Wait a minute," Firefly suddenly said, "Isn't there something climbing up the exterior wall of the building?"

The Riddler looked up and glanced at the crowd, then suddenly sneered, "Catwoman is here too. Maybe she's a new ally Batman found, or maybe she saw things were going badly and wanted to join us. But in any case, she can't stop today's final battle, nor can she escape the reckoning afterward."

"Then what should we do?"

"Let her be, we'll get ready to go upstairs."

Catwoman was almost up to the 73rd floor on the building's exterior wall. There was no wind in the air today, which made her climb easier.

She took a moment to look down. The pedestrians on the ground looked as tiny as ants, and the buildings stretched out in her field of vision. At this moment, she was more than 200 meters in the air.

(End of this chapter)