Alfred Protocol In Effect

"Oh, my god!!!! Rhino tiger rabbit turtle hedgehog cat gorilla lion elephant monkey beetle dinosaur watermelon banana apple blueberry gray suit robot cowboy cop construction worker nurse doctor sir!"

"Stop fighting!!!!"

"Cease fire, cease fire!"

Chen Tao crouched leisurely to the side, watching as Ventriloquist wore a plush toy on each of his ten fingers and ten toes, all brawling fiercely with each other, while a large pile of toys sat beside him, joining in this massive personality free-for-all.

He could even see wisps of smoke rising from Ventriloquist's balding middle-aged head. The man had turned into a human speaker, countless jumbled voices roaring from his small frame, churning into a chaotic mess inside his own body.

"Ah!!!!!"

Ventriloquist let out a miserable scream. What had started as a fight between puppets had now spread to Arnold himself. One bird puppet seemed to have successfully convinced several others on different fingers, and the five puppets balled into a fist, slamming thump straight into Arnold's own eye socket.

"Help! Save me!"

Chen Tao shook his head, looking at him like garbage.

Definitely a lunatic. Hopeless.

In the original history, Ventriloquist had been able to calmly pick out that police puppet from the Gotham City Police evidence room as his new secondary personality because Mr. Socks, a stronger secondary personality, kept the others in check. But now, with Mr. Socks dead by Chen Tao's hand, every newly created personality had roughly equal power. How could they possibly decide a dominant one in such a short time?

With them all evenly matched, crammed together, it was like dozens of viruses running on the same computer.

"Oooohhhh..."

As time passed, the personalities kept shouting loudly, but Ventriloquist's own facial expression control began to slip. His eyes rolled in different directions, drool dripped from his mouth, and he let out mindless, guttural wails.

"..."

Almost there. Time to move to the next stage of treatment before his brain CPU actually burned out.

So Chen Tao walked into the pile of hand puppets and picked out... a Batman plush toy.

It was a cartoonish mini Batman baby, with a pacifier in its mouth, dressed in a black outfit, wearing a diaper, and with a cloth utility belt sewn around its waist. It looked utterly adorable—the kind of thing a little girl would love.

Chen Tao had also installed a radio communication module inside it, allowing him to remotely control the doll's speech, making it even easier to manage Ventriloquist.

"You're the one!"

Then Chen Tao walked up to Ventriloquist and, in a few quick moves, stripped all the puppets off his hands.

?

Ventriloquist lunged forward, grabbing Chen Tao's thigh, smearing snot and tears all over his pant leg: "Oh, my god, what are you going to do to rhino tiger rabbit turtle hedgehog cat gorilla lion..."

"Get lost!"

Chen Tao roughly stripped the middle-aged balding white man completely naked, not even leaving a pair of underwear. Then he gathered all the toys he'd just pulled off him into a pile.

He pulled out a lighter.

"No! No!"

Ventriloquist struggled too violently, so Chen Tao tucked him under his arm and lit the pile of plush toys on fire.

Whoosh!

These things were highly flammable. The flames shot up instantly.

Right, even the plush toys that Ventriloquist hadn't turned into personality avatars couldn't be spared.

So Chen Tao also set fire to the remaining plush toys in the satchel beside him.

"No..."

Arnold collapsed weakly to the ground. He was completely naked now—he couldn't even take off his underwear to put on his hands and create a new personality.

"Arnold? Arnold?"

No response. Ventriloquist wailed like an oversized bald baby, slapping himself left and right as he cried.

"Take me away, take me away!"

If Chen Tao hadn't stopped him, he would have howled and charged straight into the fire.

Chen Tao was satisfied with his reaction. He pulled out a vial of medicine and sprayed a thick cloud of mist into the poor old man's face.

"Cough, cough... Oooohhhh!!!"

This time, Ventriloquist didn't wail. He started convulsing like he was having a seizure.

Fear Toxin. A poison created by Scarecrow. Its effect... amplifies fear.

"See? No matter how many new friends you make, I'll kill them all. Hehehe!"

Chen Tao leaned in close, grabbed him by the neck, and forced him to stare into his eyes.

Ventriloquist started screaming again. Chen Tao half-expected him to vomit his throat out of his mouth. He didn't know exactly what Ventriloquist was seeing, but from his perspective, maybe the whole world was burning.

Flames, the Batman he feared most, the panic from lacking a protector personality, and the fear toxin—all mixed and boiled together into a thick soup called sheer terror.

Just the right flavor.

"Only this—Bat, uh, mini Batman baby—is the one friend I'll allow you to keep."

Chen Tao shoved the toy Batman into his hands. "He represents my will. He'll always be watching to make sure you listen to me."

"Don't throw him away! Don't leave him! He won't make you kill people like Scarface did. He'll make you listen to me! He won't hurt you! And I won't hurt you! This is all for your own good!"

Chen Tao shouted at the top of his lungs directly into the Ventriloquist's face, the sound waves carrying spittle that splattered across Arnold's cheeks, delivering a violent psychological shock to his dazed mind.

He clutched the mini Batman baby toy, a single crystalline tear trickling from the corner of his eye.

Then... nothing happened.

Damn, did he break him?

Chen Tao, deeply worried, slapped him twice. "Talk. Come on, smile."

The Ventriloquist remained silent, staring blankly.

"Arnold, don't be afraid. As long as you listen to Batman, you won't get hurt." A low voice rang out, completely different from Arnold's natural tone, faintly reminiscent of Batman's own.

A smile spread across Chen Tao's face.

It worked.

"Remember, from today on, you are Batman's dog!"

"Woof!"

Huh? Something felt off. Whatever... it didn't matter.

Chen Tao's attention was drawn to the silver-white text flashing wildly in his mind.

[Warning! Warning! Anchored item detected!]
[Acquired: Ventriloquist's Tear of Personality Destruction]
[Description: A tear left behind after the Ventriloquist's secondary personality completely collapsed. Only those with no moral scruples 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 then again, would an existence summoned by such an immoral product truly be a formidable force?]
["Yes, that's right, you've got him—but you've also lost your morals."]
["Was it all worth it?"]

Chen Tao suddenly looked at his hand. The Ventriloquist's tear was slowly drying up.

[Converted Crisis Energy Units: 10]
[Batman memory synchronization now available]

Chen Tao's heart raced. The cheat code had arrived?

[Protocol activated, now in effect... Activated. New Batman detected, assigning number...]
[Your number is 52]
[Alfred Protocol initialized]
[Mortal flesh, no less than monstrous kings.]
[With human strength, rivaling sovereign saints.]
[In a dark world, a watchful guardian stands.]
[Bat-shadowed knight, unmatched even now!]
[Villains and heretics, fear my light.]
[Demons and ghouls, none can withstand.]
[Shadowed lanterns bright, eternal radiance!]
[Respected Batman No. 52, welcome to the Bat-Army!]