Dawnbreaker, You're the Leader of the Dark Knights Now! Dawnbreaker: Me?

"What?"

The current situation was a complete accident.

Chen Tao's original plan had never accounted for a situation like this. Things had reached this point, leaving even him somewhat surprised.

At this moment, the First Lantern had already seized Chen Tao—or rather, Chen Tao had seized him.

Then the murderous intent he had been plotting for a long time, brimming with fury, surged into Batman Dragon's mind along with the implanted fear—

Immediately afterward, Chen Tao used the Alfred Protocol to transmit that fear to The Batman Who Laughs.

And so, at that very moment, within the World Forge, The Batman Who Laughs's expression changed drastically.

He had originally planned to connect with Dawnbreaker's will and use him to break open the prison, retrieve the lower half of his own body, and then piece himself back together. When Barbatos returned, he would calmly and elegantly announce his victory and might before him. Then, just as planned, he would regain Barbatos's favor and reclaim his rightful throne as leader of the Dark Knights.

After accomplishing all that, he would continue activating the subsequent stages of his plan and advancing toward his ultimate goal.

But now, he had made such a huge blunder over the simple matter of controlling Dawnbreaker.

What left him even more speechless than having to bear the First Lantern's fear implantation in place of Batman Dragon was—

"Was all of this part of your plan?"

The Batman Who Laughs could sense Chen Tao's will within Dawnbreaker's mental world. The First Lantern's fear implantation pierced The Batman Who Laughs's brain like a spike, while Chen Tao's consciousness crouched nearby and watched.

"You planned everything! You left a contingency in Dawnbreaker's mind first—some ability I don't know about. You anticipated that I would use Dawnbreaker to escape?"

Chen Tao crouched