Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum

Li Zu enjoyed Cyborg's princess carry service once again, flying down from a hundred-meter-high building and landing lightly.

The sensation made him a little resistant.

Not because of the princess carry, but because Cyborg's smell made him want to sneeze.

"What brand of lubricant do you use?"

That was what he had been thinking, but he was even more surprised that he had actually blurted it out.

He knew full well that Cyborg could kill him as easily as crushing an ant, yet he still asked in a provocative tone.

"I'll leave him to you." Cyborg seemed long accustomed to Li Zu's lunatic remarks. After leaving those words behind, he hurried away.

The moment Li Zu's yellow leather shoes touched the ground, a club swung toward him, and his consciousness plunged into darkness.

His neck hurt.

So did his cheek.

Li Zu mentally cursed the doctor he did not know for his rough technique before slowly opening his eyes.

He had already been changed into a blue-and-white striped patient uniform. A pair of rubber gloves covered his hands, locked tightly around his wrists to ensure that he could not remove them.

Other than making his hands sweat a little, the gloves posed no problem. He merely shook his hands and stopped paying attention to them.

He sat up in bed and looked around.

Very quickly, his gaze was blocked by a wall a meter away.

It was an incredibly narrow room, barely large enough for a bed and a toilet.

All he could see was hollow white.

There were nail marks on the floor and walls. He could even see several fingernails... intact ones.

The room reeked of disinfectant, yet it was obvious that no one cleaned the place.

It was as though a group of people had sprayed disinfectant over a pile of garbage again and again. They did not care how the people living inside fared; they only wanted the smell to be less pungent when they passed by outside.

The door was iron, visibly reinforced, with only a small window leading outside.

Rectangular.

It naturally reminded Li Zu of the food slots he had only ever seen in movies.

Of course, there were also iron bars, allowing people to see the view outside.

"A prison, or a hospital room?"

Li Zu smiled. The upward curl of his lips was somewhat uncontrollable, like a habit acquired later in life.

He rubbed his face and muttered to himself, "What's so funny?"

Barefoot, he climbed down from the bed and peered through the gaps in the iron bars. What he saw was still a prison—or rather, a hospital ward.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It was the sound of a head slamming against an iron door.

The man across from him, whose head had a sunken patch, was repeatedly smashing his head against the iron door.

Blood streamed down~

"Hahahahahaha!!"

Maniacal laughter traveled from a distant room into the silent corridor, drowning out the heavy boots of the orderlies before reaching Li Zu's ears.

"They're all lunatics~" Li Zu shrugged and lay back down.

He strongly resisted the bizarre sensation of stepping barefoot on all that garbage.

Besides... even without speaking to anyone, he could guess where this was.

If you visited Gotham, there was one attraction you absolutely had to see.

—Arkham Asylum!

Thunder occasionally rolled through the storm clouds that perpetually hung over Gotham.

Flashes of lightning enveloped the strange Gothic building.

It was not actually raining. That was simply Gotham's clouds performing their routine thunderstorm.

Dark clouds, lightning, a castle of lunatics~

"Grrr~"

Li Zu lay motionless on the bed. The strange cries of the lunatics outside had kept him from sleeping well all night.

In fact,

staying up late drained a person's strength the most.

When dawn came... perhaps it was dawn. There were no windows in his room, and Li Zu only knew the time because orderlies had begun pushing meal carts past outside.

Someone was muttering about how idiotic a bread breakfast was.

Unfortunately, the meal cart showed no intention of stopping at Li Zu's door, even though he wanted to taste Arkham Asylum's jam and bread.

Time passed second by second.

Crying.

Strange shrieks.

The sound of heads striking iron doors.

The sound of teeth gnawing on iron bars.

Curses.

The sound of spitting.

And more...

Li Zu plugged his ears with his fingers. The noise around him left him in terrible spirits, absolutely terrible! And whenever his mental state worsened, his emotions seemed to become difficult to control, plunging him into a state of confusion.

However, the blue window floating before his eyes could still soothe part of his mood and draw away his attention.

World Exploration Progress: 10%

Spacetime Gate: Cooling Down (1720h-14m-23s)

Summon Item Box: Basic (1%)

Toyification: Mastery (19%)

Li Zu looked over the information, trying to find something that could help him live more comfortably in this bizarre place.

Clang, click-click-click~

The iron door opened. A pair of Oxford shoes stepped inside, treading over the nail-strewn floor that made Li Zu feel sick.

"You seem very troubled. Have their laughter disturbed your rest, Toyman?"

Li Zu removed his fingers from his ears and sat up.

He was sitting in a duck sit.

He looked strangely at the man in the white coat before him.

Li Zu did not answer the question, because he had yet to figure out how to answer. After all, he had come to this world having inherited only a body.

This seemed to exceed the doctor's expectations. "The world outside is very chaotic now, child~ The Joker will only make you worse, but I will make you better!"

His tone was strange, carrying a hint of madness.

Thus, Li Zu made another judgment about this place: everyone in Arkham was crazy, doctors included!

"Do you like the gloves I prepared for you? We spent a great deal of time cleaning up the mess you left behind a month ago. But... before we find a way to suppress that ridiculous power of yours, we came up with a more suitable method." The doctor looked rather pleased, as if he wanted to show off properly before Li Zu. "Make sure those hands of yours cannot be of much use!"

"Thank you." Li Zu raised his hands. He had already tried; the gloves were extremely tough, and he could not bite through them even with his teeth.

Without the slightest tension, he asked back, "Could you use breathable gloves next time? I seem to sweat easily."

"I hate communicating with lunatics like you the most!" The doctor's expression turned angry, and his composed smile from earlier vanished.

He clapped his hands.

Two orderlies dressed in armor entered.

Yes, actual armor!

Every joint from their elbows to their knees was wrapped in protective gear, while the iron guards around their crotches had clearly been reinforced twice over.

It looked like they had specifically put on those suits before coming to Li Zu's room, because Li Zu had not seen any other orderlies in the corridor dressed like this.

They walked over and reached for Li Zu's arms.

Like a chick, Li Zu was lifted between two hulking men and carried out step by step.

He left the hospital room and entered the corridors of Arkham Asylum.

Free movement was prohibited here—or perhaps only in Li Zu's section. Every criminal could only remain in his own little room.

Other than the chilling laughter, roars, and other sounds, the corridor only had motion-sensor lights that lit up with their footsteps.

"Hey, what should I call you two?" Li Zu asked the two burly orderlies holding him, seemingly trying to ease the heavy atmosphere of the place.

But the two orderlies were like mutes.

The doctor walking ahead turned around and said, "Don't think I can't see through your intentions, Toyman!"

"And you, Doctor, what's your name?" Li Zu ignored his expression.

"Quill Arkham. I believe that after tonight, you will remember this name very clearly!" His smile stretched wide, looking exceptionally... malicious!

The motion-sensor lights in the corridor were somewhat damaged. As the four passed through, they began flickering uncontrollably.

Thump! Thump! Thump!!

Quill Arkham stomped his feet furiously on the spot.

Only after the motion-sensor lights stopped flickering did he continue walking in satisfaction.

They left the cage-like residential area and followed an old staircase with wooden railings to a door.

Quill Arkham, who had just been furious, stood excitedly at the door. Like an old English gentleman, he bent toward Li Zu and said, "Welcome back, Mr. Toyman! I believe that here, you will tell me everything I want to know. Of course, there will surely be things that do not interest me, but I am willing to listen to all of them~"

Creak~

The door opened.

Before him was

an electric chair!

(End of Chapter)