Chapter 138: Ch.137 Turning the Tables
Chapter 138: Ch.137 Turning the Tables
This sudden charge didn\'t align with his psychological profile at all. What exactly happened?
But he didn\'t care anymore.
You think charging at me will work? You think I won\'t press the button just because I\'m waiting for Bruce?
Then you\'re dead wrong.
Even if I don\'t get to meet the main universe\'s Batman, creating a slight flaw in the script, once the universe is destroyed, everyone watching this puppet show will witness my grand creation. Bruce will find out eventually.
"Hahaha..."
However, just as he was about to press the button in his hand, a massive black sword came spinning toward him. The Robins standing in his way were cut down instantly, not even able to utter a whimper before they were sliced in half like wheat being harvested.
Su Ming had swung his Nightfall sword with all his might, throwing it out of his hand. The sharp Nth metal weapon took the lives of the Robins in an instant.
The Batman Who Laughs couldn\'t afford to press the button, nor could he spare a glance at the horrific scene of the Robins. He rolled on the ground, narrowly dodging the blade.
Shhh!
The sword plunged directly into the Brother Eye mainframe behind him, causing sparks to fly. The screen instantly went dark, leaving the Batman Who Laughs blind. The sudden shift from light to darkness disoriented him for a moment.
But Su Ming, wearing his helmet, still had the night vision function of his tactical visor fully operational. He kicked away the corpses of the alternate Robins and continued his charge.
But his target wasn\'t the Batman Who Laughs; it was the "Final Machine" operating table where the Monitor was restrained.
After a brief sprint, he finally saw what was hidden behind the stone wall. The Monitor was restrained on the operating table, his skull missing. Not far above his head, a simple setup resembling an alcohol burner stand held a flat brain.
"Not a chance!"
Although the Batman Who Laughs couldn\'t see, he pressed the button in his hand without hesitation, laughing maniacally. Now everyone would die.
When he opened his eyes next, what kind of scene would it be?
Perhaps familiar faces would return to his side... so he could kill them all over again!
But he didn\'t feel any pain, nor did he feel an explosion. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw that the golden sword in Su Ming\'s hand had transformed into an extraordinarily long-handled fork, accurately catching the falling stellar brain mid-air.
The brain, emitting faint thought waves, was quickly retrieved by Su Ming as the fork\'s handle shortened rapidly.
Indeed, once Su Ming had sighted the target, it became easy. The Godslayer, after all, was a divine weapon. Although the Batman Who Laughs had used a glass dome to secure the Monitor\'s head, ensuring that the two brains would collide as planned...
Even the strongest tempered glass couldn\'t withstand the sharpness of the Godslayer.
In that crucial moment, Su Ming managed to intercept the brain in mid-air, as if spearing a piece of pudding at a dining table.
Unfortunately, the Monitor below might suffer for it—those glass shards fell into his brain, possibly leading to future dementia.
But wasn\'t it worth it to save Earth and the multiverse?
"What did you just say? \'Not a chance\'?"
Su Ming turned around, retrieving the Anti-Monitor\'s brain from the fork. Keeping this thing on Earth would only bring disaster; it could never be allowed to fall into the hands of the Council of Immortals again.
He flipped his hand, letting the brain drop to the ground like a gelatinous blob, and stomped on it with his black-and-yellow combat boot. There was a squelching sound as red and white matter splattered everywhere, followed by a soul-piercing scream.
For Su Ming, who possessed double the soul strength, it was merely a strong gust of wind. But for Diana, it was enough to make her faint with a soft *"Ying!"*
The Batman Who Laughs was also affected, but his willpower was extraordinarily strong. He merely wavered before regaining his balance.
But his face was no longer smiling—now it was just cold indifference.
Su Ming actually preferred this version of Bruce—serious and cold was the way he was used to seeing him.
The Batman Who Laughs turned, pulling Su Ming\'s Nightfall sword from the Brother Eye mainframe. The Nth metal that made up the hilt burned his hand, sending tendrils of white smoke and the smell of cooked meat into the air.
But he didn\'t care. All he knew was that his plan had failed, and the Deathstroke before him was the culprit.
"You\'ve caused me a lot of trouble. You have no idea what you\'ve done. Now I\'ll have to kill them all, one by one. You\'re wasting my time."
The Batman Who Laughs—or rather, the now-not-laughing Batman—spoke in a low voice to Su Ming, lifting the massive sword as the two of them faced off.
He, too, had undergone rigorous training and could wield any weapon. The main universe\'s Bruce didn\'t kill, so he never used such large weapons, but the Batman Who Laughs had long since discarded such restrictions.
"There were seven of you originally. Directly or indirectly, all of you died by my hand. What gives you the confidence to think you\'re different from the other Bruces?"
Su Ming\'s Godslayer, now reverted to a greatsword, mirrored the Batman Who Laughs\' weapon. As he answered the question, he charged forward with a mighty swing.
The two greatswords clashed in the darkness, sending sparks flying. Their wielders stared coldly at each other over the crossed blades, each trying to overpower the other.
The Godslayer, a divine weapon, wasn\'t as sturdy as Nightfall. As a weapon forged with divine power, it was inherently countered by Nth metal. It was only because of Hephaesteus\'s exceptional craftsmanship that it hadn\'t broken yet.
But the Batman Who Laughs was at a disadvantage in terms of strength. He wasn\'t as strong as Su Ming, and his combat skills were slightly inferior to Deathstroke\'s.
All things considered, they were evenly matched.
Fortunately, Su Ming had already controlled the X-metal flow on Nightfall before throwing it, significantly reducing the blade\'s sharpness. Otherwise, he wouldn\'t have dared to engage in such a head-to-head clash.
"Because I\'m different from them. I\'m different from all of you. I hold the truth."
The Batman Who Laughs spoke coldly, using his knee to lift Su Ming\'s sword hilt, flipping away to create some distance before slashing at Su Ming\'s abdomen.
Su Ming smoothly rotated his sword, deflecting the blow with another flash of sparks as both greatswords were knocked aside.
"Is it because you realized you\'re just a comic book character? Heh, lots of people have figured that out."
Su Ming immediately pulled out a gun and shot him. Although it didn\'t do much, it did knock the Batman Who Laughs\' head to the side, as if he had been slapped.
The Batman Who Laughs didn\'t care about such attacks, but he couldn\'t ignore what Su Ming had just said.
"What?!"
"That\'s right, everyone knows they\'re comic book characters. You\'re just too foolish and take it too seriously."
Of course, not everyone knew, but the Batman Who Laughs couldn\'t prove otherwise. Su Ming was merely launching a verbal assault, saying whatever would hit the hardest.
As it turns out, the Batman Who Laughs wasn\'t insane after all, so it was time to introduce ideas that exceeded his understanding, forcing him to get lost in a sea of conflicting information.
The smarter a person is, the more they overthink, proving the old saying that intelligence can be its own downfall.
"How could that be?" The Batman Who Laughs dodged another of Su Ming\'s strikes, retreating several steps, struggling to comprehend.
This Deathstroke seemed to know far too much, and even that Harley had given him the same impression once.
Could it be that, as he said, many people were aware and chose to stick to the script?
No, Deathstroke might be lying. But there was no way to prove that.
But he couldn\'t prove it was a lie either, because he himself was an example.
The Batman Who Laughs indeed found himself entangled in doubt.
Su Ming, on the other hand, pressed the attack: "Why not? I came from outside your so-called comic book world. Out there, we\'re all controlled by something called the \'Way of Heaven.\' Everyone knows it."
"The Way of Heaven?" The Batman Who Laughs retreated a few more steps.
"That\'s right. You think some people wield pencils to control your fate, but they themselves are under the control of the Way of Heaven."
The Batman Who Laughs\' expression grew even colder. This was a concept he had never heard of before, but just the name suggested immense power.
He was even more torn.
Su Ming slashed at him again, the golden greatsword in the darkness whistling through the air. But the Batman Who Laughs still managed to dodge it.
It was tricky—Bruce\'s combat skills were completely integrated into the Batman Who Laughs\' body. Even though he\'s a bit distracted now, he can still instinctively dodge like it\'s second nature.
As for the "Way of Heaven" that Su Ming mentioned, it would be a miracle if the Batman Who Laughs could actually understand it.
Even if he had broken the fourth wall, what he saw would only be the real-world United States. How could he possibly know about the concepts from Chinese fantasy novels?
As for whether the "Way of Heaven" truly exists, Su Ming himself doesn\'t know. It can neither be proven nor disproven, remaining an enigma. However, as a rhetorical weapon, it works quite effectively.