Integrating into This World

Arkham Asylum, eastern ruins.

Carefully stepping over the crumbling walls shoved apart by wildly overgrown plants, two officers holding coffee looked at their superior in confusion.

"Detective, this... this doesn't look like an ordinary crime, does it?"

"Oh, you're really smart. How did I not notice?"

The junior officer who had been snapped at merely shrugged. That foul mouth—he would get used to it.

At present, the small Arkham Asylum building that had once been used to isolate and contain dangerous patients no longer existed.

Tree roots, flowering vines, thorns... those things were everywhere, and they had all grown overnight. The detective found that fact hard to believe, but the ancient woodland sprouting from the freshly broken remains of the walls kept telling him that this was genuinely a little supernatural.

They had questioned Arkham's director, orderlies, and doctors. Everyone's reactions had been about the same. Other than suspecting they had taken the patients' medication and were hallucinating, then frantically examining themselves, there was little useful information.

"...So, Detective, are we really reporting this just like that?"

"What else would we do?"

The detective, who was instructing another junior officer to take notes, replied without turning around. "No casualties, no property damage... Well, there was property damage, but that's Arkham's problem.

Didn't they say no patients escaped? Then this was purely an accident. As for this forest..."

The detective's scalp began to tingle. "Just document it, take pictures, and I'll submit it to Commissioner Gordon. That's it."

Seeing the two officers standing there with unconvinced looks, the detective pulled out the flask in his pocket and took a drink to calm his nerves, offering no further explanation.

Young people had to suffer a little, run headfirst into a few walls themselves, before they could truly understand that there were things in this world far harder than their skulls.

Gotham ran deep as hell.

Whether Arkham was up to something, hiding something, or Wayne Enterprises' biochemical lab had caused another problem, this forest that had sprung up overnight was not something he could handle. Hell, he did not even want to know any more than he already did.

"In Gotham, unreasonable things are perfectly reasonable."

Thinking of that bat, the old detective muttered to himself.

"You're awake..."

Nathan groggily opened his eyes. The excruciating pain and throbbing numbness in his head made him, accustomed as he was to injuries, instinctively think that someone had split his head open and wrapped it with something. Maybe it was still bleeding.

This definitely was not a hospital.

Nathan had guessed right.

But he had not guessed that this was actually his own home.

A voice thick with malicious amusement drifted into his ears. Before Nathan could adjust to the ceiling constantly spinning, shifting, and doubling in his vision, that voice spoke again in the same eerie tone. "The operation was a success. Congratulations, you have... joined glorious evolution!"

What did that mean?!

No!

It was that lunatic!

"You...!"

Smack! Smack!

That double palm strike to the ears was far from standard. It was simply two enhanced slaps.

Nathan had only gotten out one word and barely managed to focus his eyes before his vision started doubling again.

"No blurting out answers!"

A chair scraped across the floor, squeaking, before stopping beside Nathan with a thud.

"Don't worry. Your condition has stabilized. Plastic bags are great for stopping bleeding, so your head won't hurt anymore. Trust me, I came from a hospital."

"Arkham... counts as a hospital too..."

Smack! Smack!

"Cough! Let's continue. There's good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

"Just kill me, you lunatic!"

"That's some backbone! Fine, then let's start the first challenge in Boys and Girls Rush Forward: stick your head into an anthill."

"...I'll talk."

Smack!

"You fucking refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit! Get through the anthill stage first, then talk! I dug that thing out with great difficulty, and now you want me not to use it..."

Five minutes later, Nathan, whose eyes had begun to lose focus, was thrown against the door again.

"I'll talk, I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Ask me! Just ask me already!!"

"Good news or bad news first~"

Lunatic...

Nathan remembered the Arkham patient uniform. He regretted it. He should not have gone out. He should never have gone to collect that debt today. He should not have needed to do such things personally in the first place, but the person owing the debt was someone he knew. Nathan loved tormenting old friends who had seen him in his weak and impoverished days. It gave him a pleasure that surpassed anything money could buy.

But it was too late now.

"I choose... the bad news..."

"Ah~"

Lynn drew out the sound. "The bad news is that your legs suffered a little damage when I dragged you here."

"Then... the good news is..."

"Someone wants to buy your slippers."

Nathan: ...

"Just kill me..."

"I will, Mr. Nathan. I will."

Gently lifting Nathan's hand, Lynn clapped it hard. "After I get the answers I want.

Now, the first question. Have you ever seen Batman at night, with phlegm stuck in his throat?"

Nathan left this beautiful world with a satisfied smile.

Lynn had drawn that smiley face on him. It could not be helped; Nathan had not gone peacefully at all.

After learning of Nathan's deeds from Eric, who had been scared into wetting himself, Lynn had already circled Nathan's name in red pen.

Being evil was one thing, but what kind of sick habit was it to go especially hard on people he knew?

In the court of the King of Hell, it would take half an hour just to read out the charges against someone like Nathan. So dying was dying.

It was practically a good deed, like building more than a dozen pagodas.

After cleaning up the loose ends and caring for nature by adding nutrients to the plants, Lynn sat by the window with a melancholy expression.

"This time, there's no mistake. Batman has been around for years already. I wonder what timeline this is. Has that guy next door who works on a farm had enough sun yet? Has DC's fastest guy saved his mother yet...

Luckily, this isn't the timeline with the black-clad Superman, but judging by how the plot develops...

Fuck! Maybe I should go hang around with the archer's side. At least it's less likely I'll die to some unknown AOE...

No, that won't work either. There isn't anywhere peaceful in this whole world—no, this whole universe...

Still, it's better than Gotham! So I really should relocate and develop somewhere else...

The people in Arkham are all terrifyingly fierce. I'm honestly a little scared... No, wait, I'm from Arkham too!

Hmm... turn from evil to good, persuade fallen women to reform—no, that's not how it goes... What was it again? As long as I have no morals, morals can't blackmail me... No, that's not it either. Since I can't beat them, I should join them... No! I'm a principled, upright young man!

Hey! What are you doing?!

Why the hell is Gotham so dangerous?!

Whatever! First I need to wash the blood off my hands. Strange, I was clearly being very careful..."

Muttering to himself, Lynn walked into the unlit room, and his figure vanished from sight.