Bane's Tube-Cutting Game; Li Zu's Mental World

Bane's Tube-Cutting Game; Li Zu's Mental World

"Don't let me see you make any more strange moves, especially touching the toys! I guarantee you'll see your own brains!!"

Gordon pressed his pistol against Li Zu's head. He used so much force that the barrel jabbed hard at Li Zu, forcing his head to tilt back.

With his emotions out of control, Commissioner Gordon could open fire at any moment. "Why did you come to Blackgate Penitentiary? What did you do at the police station?"

"I borrowed the restroom." Li Zu released his right hand, letting the empty pistol revert to a toy and fall from his grip, smashing against the floor.

His utterly nonthreatening behavior made Gordon lower his guard slightly, and his emotions calmed somewhat.

"The police station was a very warm place. I liked its Christmas atmosphere."

"Hmph!"

Gordon was clearly dissatisfied with that answer, though at least he no longer looked quite so out of control.

Batman was being lifted by the throat by Bane below, Li Zu had a pistol pressed to his head by Gordon, and Joker lay on the ground clutching his stomach.

As for those bastards in prison uniforms who had broken free from their cages, they weren't qualified to join this struggle yet. They could only watch from afar, waiting to pounce.

"I've been captured~" Li Zu spread his hands helplessly at Joker, showing that he had no ability to resist under the threat of the gun. "If he shoots me... oh~ I don't want to die!"

"Is that so? What a shame~" Joker, who had been kicked to the ground by Gordon, leaned against the iron bars and clutched his stomach as he let out a bizarre laugh.

Joker didn't actually believe Li Zu could dodge Gordon's gunfire. He simply wanted to laugh like a madman.

Sometimes, not even a mad dog could understand itself.

"Commissioner, be careful! He's no ordinary man!" Warden Joseph had personally seen Li Zu soar through the air like an acrobat, and he warned Gordon not to let his guard down.

But his warning came too late.

The instant Gordon's attention was drawn away by Warden Joseph, Li Zu's right hand had already seized Gordon's pistol and pulled it down, trying to move the muzzle away from his head and save his own life.

Almost at the same moment, Gordon pulled the trigger.

Sizzle~

A water gun drenched Li Zu's face.

"Aha, looks like your gun has a little problem~" Li Zu wiped his face.

He spat out mouthfuls of water.

The situation changed once more.

Commissioner Gordon, holding a toy gun, became a prisoner instead. A toy meat saw was pressed across his throat.

No one doubted whether that plastic toy knife could take a life now, because only a few breaths ago, its owner had turned a real gun into a toy water pistol with his bare hands!

Li Zu held up the meat saw. The plastic blade felt featherlight in his hand, yet no one dared question its power.

"Commissioner Gordon, please don't move~" Li Zu lightly picked at his ear with the pinky of his left hand.

"HAHAHAHA!!" Joker rose from the ground clutching his stomach. He threw an arm around the stiff Gordon's shoulders and pressed his pistol to Gordon's head. Commissioner Gordon, who had held every advantage one second earlier, became Joker's prisoner the next.

Joker cackled, "Our warm-up act is over. Time to watch the show below. Toyman, do you have time to do me a favor?"

"Copperhead seems... not very obedient~"

Li Zu put down the toy meat saw and walked past Joker.

"With pleasure!"

Batman was held by the throat in Bane's grip.

The suffocation deprived his brain of oxygen, and his mind slipped into a hazy state.

A wave of unconsciousness crashed over him, nearly drowning Batman.

Joker's laughter rang out overhead, along with the cries of Commissioner Gordon and Warden Joseph.

Batman barely managed to open his eyes, only to see Warden Joseph shoved to one side and Commissioner Gordon held by the neck in Joker's arm, a gun pointed at his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could still glimpse Li Zu's retreating back.

"So this is Batman, HAHAHAHAHA!!" Bane laughed with savage contempt. He found it laughable that he had treated Batman as such a formidable enemy and been so nervous.

A mere Batman could never be his opponent! Yet Bane had lost to him and had even regarded him as the most important enemy of his life!

Rip—

A crisp blade sliced through plastic tubing.

Batman took the chance to cut Bane's IV tube with a Batarang. The green liquid continuously flowing through it sprayed out, turning into a green misty rain above them.

After the green liquid burst from the tube, the tubing embedded in Bane's vein spat out blood under the pressure of his heart.

Bane collapsed to the ground, but Batman had already raised his hand and fired the Bat-Gun toward the "best seats in the house" overhead.

5:45.

Blackgate Penitentiary, small chapel.

The prisoners had "occupied" the small chapel in another way... they had become corpses.

The dim lights barely pushed back the darkness.

Faint footsteps slowly approached.

Li Zu pushed open the heavy doors of the small chapel and entered.

"Copperhead?"

He turned his head from side to side as though he hadn't noticed the figure clinging to the wall in the corner at all.

Whoosh—

A gust of wind swept past his ear. Li Zu's head took a heavy blow, and his body flew uncontrollably through the air. He slammed into the ground and rolled more than a dozen times before finally stopping.

"Pah!" He spat out blood, braced himself on one elbow, and sat up with a spinning head.

"Hehehe." Li Zu smiled at the figure in the distance, not because this guy had brought him 1% world exploration progress, but because the sheer pain had awakened his frenzied heartbeat.

"A lunatic!" Copperhead glared at Li Zu in disgust. He pounced on Li Zu and, while Li Zu was completely unable to resist, easily stabbed him in the neck.

Thud!

Li Zu toppled to the floor.

A few threads of green seeped from the wound in his neck.

His blood throbbed wildly with his arteries, and the green spread through his vessels toward Li Zu's heart. From there, it was swiftly pumped throughout his entire body.

"This is a neurotoxin." Copperhead stood leisurely before Li Zu and explained casually, "You'll experience fear unlike anything you've ever known. Of course, once your fear reaches its deepest point, you'll become one of this place. I really hope that disgusting smile is still on your face by then!"

"Ha! Haha... HAHAHAHA!!" Li Zu threw back his head and laughed, dropping to his knees with unfocused eyes.

Just as Copperhead had said, he truly saw it... He was now inside a monastery, where rats could be heard within its brand-new walls.

It was an illusion.

Then everything changed, and he found himself in a bizarre little town, where he could smell the reek of fish.

Still an illusion.

Bizarre ghouls ran beneath the moonlit night...

...An ancient god made of countless chunks of flesh and bones raised its foot without hesitation amid the songs of its followers, crushing them into pulp. Then, beneath the red moon overhead, it roared at the tentacled monster above.

Within that mad mental world, he seemed to be drawing ever closer to that blurry madness, and ever closer to the truth of everything...

Thanks to "Jiangcheng Slight Chill" for the 100 Qidian Coin reward, "Paste, I'm Here" for the 100 Qidian Coin reward, "I Am Gatling Bodhisattva" for the 100 Qidian Coin reward, "Shadow Flying Night" for five 100 Qidian Coin rewards, "Chuunibyou Reading Books" for the 1,000 Qidian Coin reward, and "My Hero Shines" for the 500 Qidian Coin reward. Once again, thank you all for your generous rewards, recommendation votes, and favorites. I know updates have been scarce and slow lately, but I'm working hard to make up for them.

(End of Chapter)