Signing In with the Joker: An S-Rank Reward, Chaos Force!

The opportunity came sooner than Link expected.

Arkham Asylum gave its inmates two hours of outdoor time every afternoon.

Apart from a handful of extremely dangerous felons, most patients were herded into the exercise yard and penned behind towering electrified fences like livestock.

It was Link's only chance to leave his cell legally and try to get close to the high-security ward where the Joker was held.

"Everybody out! Line up! Move!"

As the guards barked orders and hammered their stun batons against the iron doors, Link filed out with the other "patients" in his corridor.

The sunlight stung his eyes, but the fresh air lifted his spirits.

He kept his head down among the crowd and swept his gaze over his surroundings.

The yard was large, with armed guards spaced around its perimeter.

The high-security ward stood in a separate building on the north side of the yard. Two guards stood watch at its entrance. They looked far more capable than the ordinary guards, and the pistols at their hips were clearly more powerful models.

It was over a hundred meters away in a straight line.

If Link charged it, he would be riddled with bullets before he got halfway there.

He needed a disturbance big enough to draw every guard's attention.

Link searched the crowd and soon found his target.

The man was white, nearly two meters tall, and built like a brown bear.

Known as the Butcher, he was infamous in Gotham for chopping at least ten people into mince. He was a madman with a vicious temper.

Right now, the Butcher had pinned a new inmate to the ground and was pounding him for accidentally stepping on his foot. The other inmates kept their distance. Even the guards only blew their whistles from afar, unwilling to approach.

He'll do.

Link took a deep breath and walked toward the Butcher.

He moved slowly, wearing just the right hint of fear and timidity, like a lamb that had wandered into a pack of wolves.

"Hey, big guy. I think you should let him go."

Link spoke just loud enough to catch the Butcher's attention.

The Butcher stopped and slowly turned. His bloodshot eyes locked on Link as though he were looking at a corpse.

"What was that, little bug?"

The inmates around them burst out laughing. They watched the Asian kid who apparently had a death wish, eager to see what happened next.

"I said, didn't your mother teach you not to pick on people weaker than you?" Link asked, still wearing an expression that said he was terrified but had somehow found the courage to speak.

"You're dead!"

The Butcher's rage flared. With a roar, he abandoned the unconscious newcomer at his feet and drove a fist the size of a pot straight at Link's face.

If that punch landed, Link's head would burst like a rotten watermelon.

Excited shrieks rose from the surrounding inmates.

Just before the fist struck, Link twisted at a strange angle and narrowly dodged it.

At the same time, something seemed to catch his foot, sending him "uncontrollably" backward and to the side.

Straight toward the route to the high-security ward.

"Get him!"

"Don't let him escape!"

The guards saw someone heading for the ward and tensed. They rushed in from different directions to cut him off.

The Butcher charged after him, bellowing like a beast.

The yard erupted into chaos.

Link "fled" clumsily through the crowd. Each time he seemed about to be caught, some "accident" let him slip away.

One inmate bumped into him; then he stepped on a patch of grease and slid out of reach.

To anyone watching, his luck was unbelievable.

But Link knew it was all going according to plan.

Reading the people around him, he predicted where each would move and turned them into unwitting tools for his escape.

In just over ten seconds, he shook off most of his pursuers and reached the building that housed the high-security ward.

The two elite guards on duty raised their guns at once, their dark barrels trained on Link.

"Stop! One more step and we shoot!"

Link stopped dead and raised both hands. Terror filled his face, and his whole body shook.

"Don't—don't shoot! That lunatic's chasing me! I didn't mean to come here!"

His acting was flawless. Anyone who saw him would think he was a helpless wretch scared out of his mind.

The two guards hesitated, their attention shifting to the Butcher charging up behind him.

Link moved.

His body sprang forward like an arrow from a drawn bow—not toward the entrance, but straight at the wall to its left.

The guards started and tried to swing their guns around, only to realize he wasn't heading for the door. He was heading for the outer wall of the Joker's cell!

A tiny ventilation window was set into it, its iron bars welded in place.

[Host detected within ten meters of target. Check-in starting...]

[Countdown: 5...]

A system notification sounded in his mind.

I made it!

Joy surged through Link.

But the next instant, a gaze fell on him from that tiny window, chilling him to the bone.

What kind of eyes were those?

Chaotic, evil, mad, mocking... They seemed to contain every negative emotion in the world, yet were somehow as pure as a blank sheet of paper.

One glance was enough to make Link feel as though his soul had frozen and his thoughts had ground to a halt.

He saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood. He heard countless people wailing. It was as if all of Gotham burned and crumbled beneath that gaze.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh..."

A skin-crawling laugh came from the cell. It was quiet, yet everyone present heard it clearly.

The sound seemed to carry some strange power. The Butcher froze mid-pursuit, the fury in his eyes giving way to fear.

The two elite guards turned deathly pale. Even their gun hands began to tremble.

[Countdown: 4... 3...]

The countdown continued.

Link bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain broke the hold of that terrifying gaze.

He couldn't move. One step away would take him beyond the ten-meter range and ruin everything!

He had to stand there for the full five seconds!

"Warning! Get away from there, now!"

"Hands up! Get on the ground!"

The guards shouted. They had recovered and trained their guns on Link again.

Link ignored their warnings. Every ounce of his will went into resisting that all-seeing gaze and enduring the countdown racing through his mind.

[Countdown: 2... 1...]

"Fire!"

One of the guards finally pulled the trigger.

At that critical instant, the system's notification rang out in Link's mind.

[Ding!]

[Check-in successful!]

[Congratulations, host! You have received an S-rank reward: Chaos Force (Beginner)!]

Boom!

A torrent of information beyond description crashed into Link's mind like a flood bursting through a dam.

Countless chaotic thoughts, deranged ideas, logic that defied common sense, techniques for playing with people's minds...

Link felt as if his head had been shoved into a blender running at full speed. The whole world spun, twisted, and fell apart.

His vision went black, and he crumpled to the ground.

Bang!

The shot rang out. The bullet grazed his scalp and punched a deep hole in the wall.

Several guards swarmed him, jabbed him hard with their stun batons, then subdued him and dragged him away like a dead dog.

The laughter from the cell never stopped.

Through the ventilation window, the Joker watched Link being dragged away with keen interest. A grotesquely wide grin spread across his chalk-white face, and his eyes gleamed with the excitement of someone who had finally found a worthy opponent.

"Interesting... What an interesting little mouse..."