"Oh my God!!!! Rhinoceros, tiger, rabbit, turtle, hedgehog, kitty, gorilla, lion, elephant, monkey, beetle, dinosaur, watermelon, banana, apple, blueberry, gray-clothed robot, cowboy, police officer, construction worker, nurse, doctor, mister!"
"Stop fighting already!!!!"
"Stop, all of you, stop!"
Chen Tao crouched leisurely nearby, watching Ventriloquist's ten fingers and ten toes each wear a stuffed toy and fight one another in a chaotic brawl. A large number of toys had also been arranged beside him to join the massive personality melee.
He could even see smoke beginning to rise from Ventriloquist's balding, middle-aged head. His whole body seemed to have become a human loudspeaker, countless jumbled voices roaring from his short frame and churning together inside him like a pot of porridge.
"Ah!!!!!"
Ventriloquist let out a scream. What had originally been a battle between dolls had now somehow affected Arnold himself. A bird doll seemed to have successfully convinced several other dolls on the fingers, and the five toys clenched into a fist and slammed into Arnold's eye socket with a bang.
"Help! Somebody help me!"
Chen Tao shook his head, looking at him as though he were trash.
He really is insane. There's no saving him.
Historically, when Ventriloquist invaded the Gotham City Police Department's evidence room, the reason he could calmly select the police officer doll to become his newly born alternate personality was that Mr. Socks, a relatively powerful alternate personality, had been suppressing the others. But things were different now. Mr. Socks had been directly killed by Chen Tao, and every newly created personality had roughly the same strength. How could a dominant personality emerge in such a short time?
With all of them evenly matched, gathering together was practically like having dozens of viruses running on the same computer.
"Raaaaargh..."
As time passed, the personalities continued arguing loudly, but the expression on Ventriloquist's real face gradually began to lose control. His two eyeballs twisted in different directions, drool spilled from his mouth, and he let out unconscious "aba aba" cries.
"..."
That was about enough. He had to begin the next stage of treatment immediately. It would be troublesome if his brain's CPU actually burned out.
Chen Tao therefore stepped into the pile of hand puppets and dug out a... Batman stuffed toy.
It was a mini cartoon baby Batman with a pacifier in his mouth, dressed in black and wearing a diaper. A cloth utility belt had even been sewn around his waist. He looked incredibly adorable—the sort of thing little girls would love at a glance.
Chen Tao had also installed a wireless communication module inside it, allowing him to remotely control the doll's speech and making it even easier to control Ventriloquist.
"You're the one!"
Chen Tao then walked over to Ventriloquist and yanked all the toys off his hands in a few quick motions.
?
Ventriloquist pounced on him and hugged his thigh, vigorously rubbing snot and tears onto his trouser leg. "Oh my God, you want to do something to Rhinoceros, Tiger, Rabbit, Turtle, Hedgehog, Kitty, Gorilla, Lion..."
"Get lost!"
Chen Tao brutally stripped the balding middle-aged white man completely naked, leaving him without even a pair of underwear. Then he piled together all the toys that had just been attached to his body.
He pulled out a lighter.
"No! No!"
Ventriloquist struggled far too fiercely, so Chen Tao tucked him under his arm and set fire to the stuffed toys piled together.
Boom!
All those things were highly flammable, and the flames leaped up at once.
Well, even the stuffed toys that Ventriloquist had not treated as incarnations of personalities could not be spared.
Chen Tao therefore set fire to the remaining stuffed toys in the shoulder bag beside him as well.
"No..."
Arnold collapsed weakly onto the ground. He was completely naked now, and even if he wanted to take off his underwear and put it on his hand to create a new personality, he could not.
"Arnold? Arnold?"
There was no response. Like an oversized balding baby, Ventriloquist wailed loudly while repeatedly slapping himself on both cheeks.
"Take me with you! Take me with you!"
If Chen Tao had not stopped him, he would probably have rushed into the flames while shrieking.
Chen Tao was very satisfied with his reaction. He took out a bottle of medicine and sprayed a large cloud of mist into the poor old man's face.
"Cough, cough, cough... Raaaaargh!!!!"
This time, Ventriloquist stopped howling and began convulsing like he was having a seizure.
Fear Toxin. A poison created by Scarecrow. Its effect was... amplifying fear.
"See? No matter how many new friends you make, I'll kill every last one of them. Heh heh heh!"
Chen Tao leaned close, grabbed him by the neck, and forced him to stare directly into his eyes.
Ventriloquist began howling again. Chen Tao even suspected that he was about to vomit his throat out through his mouth. Although he did not know exactly what Ventriloquist was seeing, from his perspective, perhaps the entire world was burning.
The flames, the Batman he feared most, the terror brought by lacking a protector personality, and the Fear Toxin had all been stewed together into a thick soup called extreme terror.
The flavor was just right.
"Only this—Batman... er, Mini Baby Batman—will be the one friend I allow you to make."
Chen Tao stuffed the Batman toy into his hand. "He represents my will and will monitor you at all times to see whether you're obeying me."
"Don't throw him away! Don't leave him! He won't make you kill people like Scarface did. He'll make you obey me! He won't hurt you! I won't hurt you either! Everything I'm doing is for your own good!"
Chen Tao shouted at Ventriloquist's head at the top of his lungs. Sound waves mixed with spittle sprayed across Arnold's face, delivering a powerful psychological shock to his dazed mind.
Holding the Mini Baby Batman toy, he shed a single crystalline tear from the corner of his eye.
Then... nothing happened.
Oh no. Had he broken him?
Chen Tao anxiously slapped him twice. "Say something. Come on, give me a smile."
Ventriloquist remained blank-faced and silent.
"Arnold, don't be afraid. As long as you listen to Batman, you won't be harmed." A deep voice rang out, completely different from Arnold's natural voice and faintly resembling Batman's.
A smile appeared on Chen Tao's face.
It worked.
"Remember, from today onward, you're Batman's dog!"
"Woof!"
Huh? Something seemed off. Whatever... it was not important.
Chen Tao's attention was drawn to the silver-white text flashing wildly in his mind.
[Warning! Warning! Anchored item detected!] [Obtained: Ventriloquist's Tear of Personality Destruction] [Description: A tear left behind after Ventriloquist's alternate personality completely collapsed. Only someone extremely immoral can obtain it through a series of brutal methods. You might be able to use it to summon a Batman from a parallel universe.] [But would a being summoned by an immoral product really be anything formidable?] ["Yes, that's right. You obtained him, but you lost your morality too."] ["Was all of this really worth it?"] [Converted Crisis Energy Units: 10] [Batman memories can now be synchronized] [The protocol has been activated and is taking effect... Effect confirmed. A new Batman has been discovered. Assigning number...] [Your number is 52] [Alfred Protocol initialization complete] [With a mortal body, rivaling the Monster King.] [With human strength, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Holy Emperor.] [In a dark and turbulent world, guarding it with his own body.] [The Bat-Shadow Warrior remains peerless!] [Wicked villains and evil factions, fear my divine light.] [Monsters and demons, none can stand in my way.] [The shadow lantern shines bright, illuminating all ages!] [Respected Batman No. 52, welcome to the Bat-Army!]
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