Penguin returned to his office.
The exquisite hairstyle he had paid a fortune for and his gold-rimmed monocle were completely undamaged. He was only covered in a layer of dust, with a few drops of blood splattered across his face. He quickly wiped them away without leaving a trace.
He slowly lowered himself back into his office chair.
His female secretary pushed open the door and hurried into the room. The moment her high heels touched the floor, they tactfully fell silent.
She quietly walked behind Penguin and gently began massaging his shoulders.
"So... boss?"
She asked, "What did the Joker want... to talk to you about?"
She had originally wanted to ask, "What did the Joker want you to do?" But her survival instincts quickly made her clamp her mouth shut.
"Same old story, Mave." Penguin rubbed his brow. "Another game waiting for Batman to get involved. You know the routine: hostages, bombs, and choosing whom to save."
"The amusement park outside the city, or that Ace Chemical Factory. Who knows? The Joker is always buying up some obscure, out-of-the-way place. I have to say, none of it is very original. I bet there might even be piranhas there. But this time, the hostage might be someone important."
Penguin sighed and picked up the half-finished glass of milk, taking a small sip. "Mayor Carlo, you know. Just a few hours ago, I received word that he was leading twenty thousand National Guard troops with great confidence. And then? He just wet and soiled himself right in front of me."
He said sarcastically, "Like a dog."
"But even if Carlo is a dog, he's still the mayor," Mave said. "Batman is going to be busy again."
Penguin said nothing, silently acknowledging her words.
He cursed angrily, "Damn that Joker! Every time he visits someone else's home, he always finds an excuse to slaughter everyone!"
But the anger quickly vanished from Penguin's face. The lives of those dead underlings were just as worthless to him.
He said:
"Go dispose of the bodies of those useless fools the Joker killed in the restaurant. Wipe up the blood properly. I don't want any customers complaining about the floor being a little red when the restaurant opens tomorrow."
"Yes."
Only after his secretary left did Penguin finally relax.
To make up for the fright he had suffered today, he decided to eat five more... no, ten cookies.
But just as he stood up to look for the cookies, the gentle expression disappeared from his face.
And the reason it disappeared was:
Someone was breathing behind him.
Simply inhaling the air, then exhaling it.
Penguin could even hear the airflow hissing beside his ear.
The sudden fright made his heart clench. He instinctively inhaled sharply, then forgot that he was still drinking milk.
Cough, cough, cough!
He sprayed milk loudly from his nose, then abruptly stood up. He knew who was behind him—
In Gotham, only one person could use this level of intimidation with such skill.
Penguin said, "Enough, Crane. Whatever brought you here to say to me, trying to scare me with this cheap act of playing ghost won't change the outcome of our conversation."
"Well, well, well. After all these years, you're still as perceptive as ever, Cobblepot."
Penguin turned around, but there was no one behind him. He twisted his head back around and saw a tall, thin man with a body like a bamboo pole sitting abruptly in one of the chairs in his office.
Penguin casually wiped away the milk and put on a familiar expression.
"Crane, my old friend. I thought you were as blindly devoted to the Joker as I'd seen."
"This is only a temporary partnership, Cobblepot. I don't know when you developed a taste for spouting empty words."
"Ha. Does the Joker know you abandoned him and came back alone?"
Scarecrow stared intently into Penguin's eyes.
"The Joker and I are merely partners, Cobblepot. The moment our interests cease to align, this fragile alliance will be destroyed."
"Yes, you're right. I understand completely now."
Seeing the threat vanish from Penguin's demeanor, Scarecrow got straight to the point and explained his purpose. "I'm here because of Bane."
He continued, "He's an extremely terrifying man. And the two of us can see that he's the one pulling the strings behind everything that's happened recently."
"I have no doubt Batman can stop him, but I think this is a good opportunity to settle everything once and for all—as long as we can unite all the Arkhamites."
Penguin struggled for quite a while to keep the milk from spraying out of his nose again because of this plan.
He replied perfunctorily, "As a friend, Crane, I think trying to intimidate any of our colleagues will only backfire."
"And it's already difficult enough to keep these lunatics from crossing the line. Yet you want to add fuel to the fire and lead them in pulling off something big?"
"So what then? We just watch Batman defeat Bane? Let Batman once again do everything in his power to control all of Gotham?"
Penguin clicked his tongue.
"Then you should do the job you've brought upon yourself and stop everyone."
"Bane, Batman, and all those disobedient colleagues. You're welcome to try taking them all down by yourself and fulfilling your grand ambitions."
Penguin said:
"If all you want is a piece of land in Gotham, I can give you one whenever you like. But you want the Arkhamites to listen to you? What are you planning to use to restrain them?"
Penguin said, "Money, loyalty, or pity? Or perhaps the belief that they should seize or defend this city and fight for it?"
Penguin shook his head.
"My ancestor, Nathan Cobblepot, protected Gotham during the Civil War. A man like him—someone who had nothing compared to all of you—would never have cried like a woman while fighting for his city."
"But unfortunately, that kind of integrity exists only in books. Fleeing is the true nature of the Arkhamites. You and the Joker are both completely insane, you idiot in a Halloween costume."
"An outside force." Scarecrow, who had remained silent until then, spoke. "An outside force. Otherwise, why do you think I'm working with the Joker?"
Chen Tao silently withdrew his attention from the Alfred Protocol.
The transformation abilities the protocol had brought him did not need to be fulfilled immediately. He had plenty of time to study them slowly.
"We should head back." He spoke to everyone present.
"..."
"So when did I become your subordinate?" Poison Ivy looked at Ventriloquist, then Cheshire Cat, and finally Deathshot, who was helping Harley Quinn up from the ground.
She kicked him away. "Get lost. I'm the only one allowed to help Harley!"
"That's why you're coming with us," Chen Tao said.
He immediately stopped paying attention to everyone and called Alfred.
Three minutes later, he and Alfred were sitting together in the seats of the invisible aircraft.
"Alfred, help me contact Lucius," he said.
Bane's infected laughing gas and his twisted smile had made Chen Tao sense the existence of something he had once envisioned... It had to be added to the manufacturing schedule, along with the plan to continue reclaiming usable combat power—
He would have plenty to keep him busy from now on, with many plans to advance.
Before you continue