Chapter 566: I, Joker (5)
Translator: Lonelytree
For the Bruce, the ritual tonight could not be considered any ‘game’, it was just an ‘execution’. Every year, he and his army would secretly capture a few people who were disloyal to the ‘faith’ or rebelled against the Bat. And then with the technology from Professor Klibon, they would be engineered into the appearance of super villains. Then on the night of 21st December, he would release this bunch of people out and conduct this so-called chasing game.
On the surface, everyone had the chance to win. “As long as the ‘super villains’ could kill the Bruce, then they would gain freedom; and if the citizen could kill any of the villain, they could gain the right to change the god king of gotham and earn the chance to replace him. But in reality… everything was within the Bruce’s control. The ‘super villains’ vehicles had all been tempered with; they could not think clearly due to the chip inserted into their brain; their every movement was under the surveillance control; and the weapon given to them would all only have one bullet…
In these past few years, neither one of the ‘super villains’ managed to even escape from their vehicle. The reason was very simple, without the aid of any tool or external factor, they could not escape from the safety belt or other binding mechanism. All they could do was to stumble through the city when their brain was made into a muddled mush. In the end, they would die in a car crash or being slaughtered by the Bruce. Only in extremely rare circumstance would the ‘super villains’ be killed by armed civilian. Once that occurred, the Bruce would follow up with his promise and face the person in a challenge. But the result of the match… as mentioned in the previous chapter, the citizen in this universe were normal people through and through while the Bruce’s body was a battle machine which had been carefully engineered for years already. The result… was clear every time. Therefore, to put it plainly… this ‘ritual’ every year was just a blood bath with a heavy color of religiosity.
The purpose was for these citizens under the torture of tyranny and poverty to have a channel to vent their frustration and confirm their faith; for them to experience the bat’s power and grace; to remind them that how despairing their lives would be without the bat… and this ritual would keep on proceeding to install the bat’s power.
“Gordon, after two face, I want a fifteen minute rest. Position Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn for the next kills.” When The Bruce was controlling his aircraft to head towards Xiao Tan, he was already prepared for the next phase of his plan.
“Erm… About that.” Gordon’s voice came from the communicator, he was clearly stuttering. “Two minutes ago, the tracing signal on Poison Ivy has disappeared as well… She and the Joker’s positions are now currently unknown.” He paused. “And… that Harley… I… I have no idea where she found a sword and used it to destroy all the floaters that attempted to get close to her, she even cut down two of our flying shuttles… I could only give order for our people to not get close to her for now.”
“What did you say?” The Bruce could not believe his ears (In this parallel universe, there was no justice league and things like that), “Are you sure? Is she an alien?” He growled with dissatisfaction. “Never mind… Let me deal with two face first, we will talk about this later. The bat is not pleased.” Bruce then ended the call because by then his bat aircraft had already reached the vicinity of Two face’s flying saucer which had gone out of control.
“do you have faith?” The Bruce opened the speaker on the aircraft, halted it in the air and shouted at the citizens below him.
“We have faith in the bat!””Hail to the bat!” The people underneath him responded with a thunderous cry.
“Okay, then… I will give you—two face!” Bruce said as he controlled the bat aircraft to aim at the spinning saucer in the air and accelerated towards it… At that moment, Xiao Tan’s limbs were still fixed to the flying saucer. Even if the saucer was trying in 360 degree, he could not fall. Under repeated high spins that he could not control, Xiao Tan was already dizzy with motion sickness, it was a miracle he had not puked. Facing the aircraft that charged at him, he had practically given up already.
…
“Hmph… Small fish.” 2 seconds before he crashed into his target, the Bruce revealed a proudful chilling grin.
But…
Bang—a loud crash. A red figure dropped from the sky like blazing torpedo and landed straight on top of the bat aircraft’s cockpit.
“Are you kidding me…” A rare expression of shock appeared on The Bruce’s face because through the cockpit’s glass, he saw someone—the Joker. A few days ago, this “Joker” was still lying inside the bat castle’s experiment room, undergoing the modification with fear drifting off him. But at this moment, he had changed into a completely different person… in the howling wind, he stood handsomely on top of the aircraft, with a crazy smile on his face. But the Bruce’s shock did not last for too long. After all, he was not a simple character to have ruled Gotham with an iron fist for so long. In less than 2 seconds, The Bruce had recovered himself. He reached for the lever before him and steadied the aircraft that had tittered out of control from the collision earlier and had activated the weapon system.
Crack crack. Two machine guns opened up from the wings of the aircraft and locked onto the target right before them.
“Looks like this year’s execution will start with you…” The Bruce was a character who was not easily flustered and ruled the city with a cruel dictatorship. He would never spare mercy for anyone. Even after this sudden incident that could not be explained scientifically, he did not show any trace of fear. “Hmph… after all, the group of mob below already could not wait for the first blood to be spilled already.”
He initially thought that after the machine guns fired, he would deal with the “joker’ before him, but…
Just as Bruce’s finger was about to reach for the button, Feng Bujue punched through the glass of the cockpit with his bare fist and reached his upper body into it.
“A—” The next second, a powerful grip tightened around the Bruce’s thought. He only got out a quick syllable before his throat was squeezed shut.
“Hi, bat.” Feng Bujue cackled like a mental patient, in a way, he was playing his character to its full potential. “Why the rush to end the game so early when it has just started?” He said as he pulled on his arm and yanked The Bruce out from the aircraft.
“What… are… you…” The Bruce used both of his hands to pull at Feng Bujue’s wrist and barely felt the pressure loosen around his neck and managed to force out this question.
“Hue hue hue hue… who knows?” Feng Bujue replied in between laughter. Then he swung his arm upwards and threw the God king of Gotham off from his aircraft. The people on the ground was silent. They looked at the sky with their mouths gaping as they watched as the King of Gotham collapsed through the sky.
And from the sky came throes of sickening and maddening cackles…