Gotham... was a page of black paper.
It was the white words you wrote on that black paper—the path you desperately pursued, the path on which you kept falling.
It was like the first sentence of the final story of your life.
—Batman: Gotham Impressions
"Bzzzt... The Gotham Gazette brings you the latest news... The Ventriloquist's tense standoff with the police at Gotham's Evidence Bureau has lasted for three hours. Experts believe..."
"...This is simply a case of freaks being drawn to one another... The Arkham breakout a few days ago... Because of Batman, you know. He attracts those..."
"To this day, Batman still hasn't arrived at the scene. We can't help but ask: Is the rumor that Batman is dead true? Is the Gotham City Police Department really so incompetent that... Wait, there's a new development. It's Batman! He's here!"
Gotham City had been plagued by rain throughout June, but the plaza outside Gotham's Evidence Bureau was even noisier than usual.
Chen Tao's Batmobile had barely stopped when a huge crowd of reporters swarmed over like flies spotting rotten meat.
Braving the drizzle, they desperately shoved past protesters holding signs that read "We Don't Want Batman" and police officers wielding batons to maintain order.
Camera flashes kept bursting.
"Batman, what do you have to say about the recent rumors in Gotham that Bane killed you..."
"...Regarding the challenge issued by the Ventriloquist, do you have..."
"...Batman, why are you so openly..."
"You freak! It's all your fault! That lunatic inside—you understand? You attract..."
"...Grab him! Grab him!"
The protesters who tried to attack the Batmobile were quickly pinned to the ground, while Chen Tao remained deaf to it all.
Amid the chaos, under gazes that were worshipful, indifferent, or disgusted, he opened the Batmobile's retractable roof and inhaled the first damp breath of the rainy night.
Whoosh—
He felt a rare trace of nervousness.
In his previous life, he had been an actor. He should have been used to standing beneath the spotlight long ago.
But... today was different.
Chen Tao sighed. Forget being transported into the DC Universe—he was a massive comic-book fan, and he was confident he could still live well. But he had never expected to end up in the body of the renowned Batman himself, Bruce Wayne...
Wasn't I supposed to latch onto some powerful ally? How did I end up becoming the powerful ally?
Everyone knew that, as the only member of the Justice League's seven giants without superpowers, Batman was quite possibly the strongest pure-blooded human ever to walk the face of Earth.
He was obscenely wealthy, brilliantly intelligent, exceptionally wise, a martial arts master, and possessed a will as unyielding as steel. He could punch Darkseid and kick the Justice League around. He was so damn awesome that words could hardly describe him!
But—what did any of that have to do with Chen Tao, the transmigrator?
Oh, right. Batman was an orphan, and he had been an orphan in his previous life too. That might have been their only point in common. A body whose parents were both dead, combined with a transmigrator whose parents were both dead—this double-orphan combo was so damn cool it hurt.
What made it worse was that transmigrating into Batman's body was already hell mode. Yet the timeline he had landed in was none other than Batman: Knightfall, when the Dark Knight was about to face one of the few complete defeats of his life—having his spine broken by Bane!!!
This could no longer be described as hell mode.
Chen Tao had considered abandoning everything and leaving Gotham, but he quickly gave up on that foolish idea.
Bane knew Batman's true identity. Fleeing without a fight would be no different from suicide, would it?
Once Bane crushed him and took complete control of the city, perhaps... no, without a doubt, that would be the day of his death. Even if he somehow survived, he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair...
His gaze drifted to the lower-left corner, where he saw a line of silvery-white text that only he could see.
[The Alfred Protocol is in effect] [Warning! You require at least one anchoring item to synchronize with Batman's memories!]
Damn it! Other people came to the Batcave, checked in, obtained Platinum Kryptonite, swallowed it in one gulp, and transformed directly into Superman. But he didn't even have the basic transmigrator benefit of [the original body's memories]!
He had been transported here for three days. He had even tried the toilet paper in the Batcave, yet it hadn't reacted in the slightest.
Chen Tao knew about the Alfred Protocol, but in the comics, it was supposed to be a physical mechanical device Batman had created to prevent his memories from being tampered with—not some strange thing appearing on his retinas!
"Batman!"
A voice interrupted Chen Tao's thoughts. He turned his head and saw Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon hurrying over.
He had two huge dark circles under his eyes, and his messy, damp brown hair, streaked with gray, lay plastered across his forehead. He looked both disheveled and neurotic, like a groundhog that had been sexually assaulted until it suffered a mental breakdown.
"Good heavens! Batman! You're here! It's unbelievable that you're still alive. I saw Bane snap your neck with my own eyes. Are you really Batman, and not the Joker finding your costume on Batman's corpse, putting on his cowl, and playing some kind of role-playing game with me here?"
"Enough with the pointless probing." Chen Tao replied, "Don't be misled by that rumor."
He had immediately heard the probing hidden in Gordon's joke, so he cut him off at once. That's right—his body was real, but his soul was fake. So don't discover the truth, sharp-eyed detective.
Chen Tao sighed inwardly. Dealing with Gotham's shrewd people was really difficult. Without Batman's memories, he had to rely on himself for everything.
He turned his gaze toward Gotham's Evidence Bureau, silent beneath the rain.
So, this was the plan.
As a huge comic-book fan, he knew the Batman comics by heart and was even more familiar with the villains in them.
Combined with his acting skills and the ability to control other people's minds that he had developed as a former psychiatrist, he might be able to try controlling and manipulating some weaker or debilitated villains on a psychological level, then use them to fight Bane...
Chen Tao looked at Gordon and got straight to the point.
"Did you bring what I asked for?"
"Oh, oh, of course."
Commissioner Gordon's gaze slipped away from his face as he raised the evidence bag in his hand. Inside was a sinister wooden puppet with a scar across its face.
Scarface, the Ventriloquist's most beloved puppet.
"Mm. Give it to me."
Commissioner Gordon was clearly hesitating, but he still obediently handed the evidence bag to Chen Tao, which made Chen Tao sigh with relief.
After thinking it over, he decided to explain.
"The source of that rumor—the so-called Batman whom Bane killed—wasn't me. It was my disciple, Death Angel."
"Mm-hmm, yes, yes, yes."
Gordon was smart enough not to continue the subject.
Chen Tao gave him a deep look.
"We'll talk about this later."
He took a huge shoulder bag from behind the Batmobile, held the wooden puppet Scarface in his hand, and walked toward the Evidence Bureau's entrance under the eyes of everyone present.
"Phew..."
He murmured in a voice so soft it was almost inaudible:
"Ladies and gentlemen.
"The props are ready, and the actors are in place.
"Please allow me to announce, with great honor, that the performance...
"has begun."
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