Laughing American comics, I am becoming more and more like a clown

"Perhaps your plan needs to be postponed."

Bruce looked at him, waiting for an explanation.

At least we have to wait until this point becomes positive. Lucian thought for a moment: "Who are you? Where did the world come from?"

He again used that story as a veiled reminder.

"You have to be a hero."

Bruce looked at his sincere expression, thoughtful.

……

So Lucian stood in the partially renovated Batcave, feeling somewhat at a loss:

"So you're just letting me know that easily?"

"Actually," Bruce said, "I thought you knew what was going on all along."

He said: "England, France, Japan, Egypt... I don't know how you manage to keep following me."

Maybe Bruce didn't feel anything was wrong at first, but as his skills grew and he became more proficient in tracking and stealth, it was definitely possible that he would discover Lucian's existence at some point in time and then infer that he had always been there.

"You're too conspicuous, and you're too careless. I've seen your back several times, or heard others refer to you as a 'weirdo' or 'strange person.'"

"But you have to know that I didn't mean it. I never inquired about your whereabouts." Lucian smiled.

"This is what I can't understand the most. You're like a ghost, following me around but never interfering in my affairs." Bruce looked at him with a piercing gaze. "What's your purpose?"

"The truth is... I have no purpose." Lucian chuckled. "I'm really just enjoying life wholeheartedly, savoring the scenery, observing the world... I go to the Great Wall, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and I stay in the most stylish houses or nightclubs."

"I've never paid attention to your whereabouts, Bruce. This is just a one in a billion coincidence."

"But I don't believe this is a coincidence." Bruce looked at him:

"So I tested you."

"desert?"

"Correct."

"If I don't arrive in time, or if your estimate is wrong..."

"I left a clue for the Assassin's League."

"Good boy." Lucian couldn't help but admire: "So what's your conclusion?"

"This is not a coincidence," he said.

"But this is indeed a coincidence." It was such a coincidence that I didn't know how to explain it.

"...Okay, this is definitely not a coincidence. I'm tracking you using methods you don't understand." Lucian sighed and laughed, "Are you going to say that now?"

"what?"

Lucian deliberately lowered his voice: "I am Batman."

Bruce looked at him, smiled, then smiled again, raised his eyebrows, and sighed: "Okay, I am Batman."

The Bat Cave is just as its name suggests, it is the nest of bats. These cute creatures hanging upside down make noisy and dense sounds.

"When are you going to announce your presence?"

"At least a month."

“Can I attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony?”

Bruce turned his head to look at him, pursing his lips: "No."

"Are you shy?" Lucian observed him. "It's strange that your face and ears don't turn red when you're shy."

Bruce:…

"But I don't think it's up to you." Lucian blinked. "I will find you... No, to be precise, it was fate and coincidence that made me meet you the moment you said you were Batman."

Bruce still pursed his lips and said nothing.

"Can I see your armor?"

“It hasn’t been researched.”

"Okay." Lucian took a cigarette out of his pocket and handed it over. "You're an adult now, do you want to come? Alfred isn't here, so you can try the flavor."

Bruce refused, so he had to put it in his mouth: "...To be honest, I have a piece of news about Gotham."

"what?"

Lucian thought, this wouldn't be the first time he'd confessed, so he said, "There's a glutton named Barbatos. Technically, our world is his leftovers."

Bruce listened with a frown.

"...In short, our plate of broiler chicken is about to grow wings and fly off the table."

"I don't understand you."

Lucien gestured: "Whether you understand or not, just remember that I have my reasons... just like when I wrongly accused Falcone in revenge against the nigger."

"What are you going to do?"

"Doing the same thing as you." Lucian smiled: "Personal heroism and an explosion art that belongs to Gotham."

Bruce looked at him and changed the question: "What do I need to do?"

"You just have to say that—"

"I am Batman."

Chapter 83 Ruined, Brothers

The stability of the universe depends on the moral choices of the main characters. When the characters choose to fall, the universe will become fragile and doomed to destruction.

This is what is called the Dark Multiverse.

At its core, this world is a large-scale scene of individual heroism.

There must be heroes, and there must also be highlights for the heroes.

……

Dark clouds covered the sky like a pot lid, holding the place down tightly.

The hands on the towering clock tower slowly turned, making a loud noise, and at the top of the clock tower, where the cold wind was howling, there was a vague, slender, shadow-like thing sitting in it, and scarlet fire flashed.

The wind rippled his damp curls, letting them scatter in the air, dancing in free but uncontrolled patterns.

"High concentrations of radioactive fallout could weaken the dark forces to some extent... but it would be a significant blow to both the flora and fauna and the region."

This is the dark multiverse. At -22, Lucian realized that if he wanted to achieve good results here, he had to pay a terrible price.

There is no choice in this world, and neither does he.

"The price of nuking a city is the chance to free the entire universe from Barbatos..."

Trolley problem.

Coincidentally, in -22, the things that Lucian did not choose forced him to face in this world.

Who could he talk to?

A Batman who still retains Bruce's personality? A Superman who hasn't figured out his life's purpose yet? A Flash who hasn't been born yet? Or perhaps the Joker who is still just an ordinary person?

"Forget it... This is a difficult decision to make. They won't have the heart to do it."

Lucien had to admit that he had witnessed Bruce's growth for more than a decade and it was hard not to love him.

"If he had to choose..."

He remembered those blue eyes that sparkled with fire and hope, and the words "I am Batman"

"It's so hard to find such a cheerful Batman... Honestly, who can compare to him besides Lego?"

It's like a craftsman facing a piece of art that he has carefully polished for many years, or a breeder watching a cub grow up with his own eyes.

"Why let him choose?"

……

This world is as weak as a baby. Everything is budding but also ignorant.

There is no cunning Batman in his forties or fifties, nor the lying and calculating Joker... It is even more impossible for the two to cooperate and fight against the Laughing Maniac to a draw.

"They paid the price of Gotham being bombed, the world being frozen in time, and many heroes' lives and deaths, in exchange for the possibility of winning."

"I just bombed Gotham... why bother with all this..."

The loud bells drowned out the quiet words.

……

Sometimes, the dividing line between good and evil is blurred, the distance between greatness and smallness is narrow, and the true nature of honesty and lies is exactly the same.

……

So, a month later.

It was a bright night, and Lucian, still sitting on the bell tower, saw a sharp, black, familiar silhouette appear in the sky for the first time.

With a bold, youthful and passionate attitude.

Lucian looked at him, as if he heard a sentence:

"I am vengeance, I am the night."

"I am Batman."

……

The cigarette butt was extinguished, and the grayish-white powder was blown down the bell tower by the night wind.

Lucian looked at his shadow and turned on the nuclear bomb launch button.

The sophisticated device is a signal transmitter. In three minutes, a nuclear bomb from the high seas will explode here.

He recalled how to use it and slowly turned the button. With a "click", the nuclear bomb was activated.

The pointer moved behind him.