Signing In with the Riddler: The Perfect Escape Route!

By the time Link returned from the medical wing, the "serious injury" to his arm had miraculously healed in a single day.

That only convinced the guard assigned to watch him that the Asian kid was not just dangerous, but a cunning liar.

The guard kept an even closer eye on him.

Link did not care.

As usual, he pushed his cleaning cart through the dim Library, sweeping the floors while his mind raced through possibilities.

Most of the pieces of his escape plan were in place.

The [Chaos Force] was the match that would set everything ablaze.

[Mastery of Psychology] was the blueprint for controlling the blaze.

The [Fear Toxin Formula] was the gasoline that would make it burn hotter.

Harley Quinn, whose resolve had begun to waver, was his guide to Gotham and a crucial card up his sleeve.

Now he had everything he needed except a map.

A map that would let him navigate this labyrinthine steel fortress with precision.

And that map was hidden inside another criminal genius's head.

Edward Nygma. The Riddler.

Link looked beyond the Library, toward the grim corridor leading to solitary confinement.

The Riddler was not as physically violent as the Joker, nor did he poison minds like the Scarecrow. His danger lay in his towering arrogance and a mind that delighted in showing off its brilliance.

He was held alone in the deepest part of solitary confinement. His only "entertainment" was posing riddles to his guards. If they could not answer, he stayed quiet all day. If someone could, he treated that person as a kindred spirit and talked excitedly without end.

Of course, no guard had yet possessed both the brains and the patience to be his kindred spirit.

For Link, that was the only opening.

He needed a plausible reason to approach that heavily guarded green question mark.

The opportunity came soon enough.

A guard from solitary confinement came to the Library to borrow an old magazine, grumbling nonstop about the damn riddle the Riddler had given him that day.

"He asked me, 'What gets bigger the more you take away from it?'" The guard scratched his head irritably. "How the fuck is anyone supposed to guess that?"

"A hole."

The answer came unexpectedly from beside him.

The guard turned to find Link holding a rag and looking at him calmly.

"What?"

"A hole. Every time you dig out some dirt, the hole gets bigger," Link explained.

The guard froze. He thought it over, and his eyes lit up. Then suspicion crossed his face. "How did you know that?"

"I... I used to like brainteasers." Link let a hint of nervousness show at just the right moment.

The guard left, only half convinced.

Half an hour later, he returned looking as though he had seen a ghost.

"He gave me another one! 'I have no wings, but I can fly. I have no eyes, but I can cry. What am I?'"

"A cloud," Link answered without a moment's thought.

The guard was stunned. He stared at the unremarkable cleaner as though he were a monster.

After Link solved three riddles in a row, the Riddler's excited shriek rang out from deep within solitary confinement.

He demanded to meet the "clever man" who could keep up with him.

The guards found it troublesome, but they were happy enough to give the Riddler a "toy" that would keep him quiet.

And so, escorted by two guards, Link arrived outside the infamous cell.

Its walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in dense green question marks and intricate symbols.

A tall, thin man in a green patient's uniform and black-rimmed glasses pressed excitedly against the bulletproof glass. His eyes gleamed with a feverish light as he stared at Link.

"You! It's you! You're the one who solved my riddles!" Edward Nygma's voice rose to a shrill pitch with excitement.

"Hello, Mr. Nygma." Link gave a slight nod.

"Don't call me mister!" the Riddler shrieked. "Call me the Riddler! Come, my friend. Let's have a true contest of wits!"

He fired off a barrage of fiendish riddles, from brainteasers and logical paradoxes to complex cryptography.

Standing before the glass, Link drew on his knowledge from his previous world and used [Mastery of Psychology] to quickly decipher the Riddler's thought patterns. Answers came to him effortlessly.

He could even follow an answer with a question that made the Riddler stop and think.

The Riddler was beside himself with joy.

He had found him! At last, he had found a kindred spirit who could match him!

"Come closer! My friend, come closer! Let me see your face!" The Riddler slapped the glass in excitement.

At the guards' impatient urging, Link took two steps forward until he was almost against the glass, pretending to listen closely to the Riddler's next question.

Now!

[Host detected within check-in range...]

[Ding!]

[Check-in successful!]

[Congratulations, host! You have received a B-rank reward: Mastery of Traps and Mechanisms!]

Boom!

A flood of information unlike anything before surged into his mind.

This was no intangible mental power. It was cold, precise knowledge, full of mechanical elegance.

Architectural plans of Arkham Asylum, electrical schematics, security-camera layouts, ventilation routes, abandoned maintenance passages, concealed pressure plates, blind spots in infrared traps...

Everything appeared in Link's mind as though a vast file had been instantly decompressed, forming a crystal-clear, real-time 3D map he could zoom in and out of at will.

He could "see" it!

He saw the three-second blind spot that inevitably appeared in the surveillance center during guard changes.

He saw a drainage pipe beneath the dining hall, forgotten for decades, that led straight to the sewage treatment system.

He saw a maintenance hatch beneath the intensive care wing's outer wall, disguised as brickwork and leading to the main power lines.

Countless points that had once seemed unrelated were now joined by golden lines.

In an instant, a perfect, seamless escape route took shape in his mind!

Starting from his cell, he could use the guard tower's blind spot to enter the laundry room's ventilation duct and bypass the first checkpoint. Then he could take the kitchen lift down to the waste disposal station on sublevel two. From there, the abandoned drainage pipe would lead him beneath the cliffs at the edge of Arkham Island.

There, hidden by weeds, was an emergency drainage outlet left over from an earlier Arkham facility.

Beyond that outlet lay the churning waters of Gotham Bay!

"Hey, kid! Time's up! Get moving!"

The guard roughly pulled Link away from the glass.

Link came back to himself. His face still wore the same humble, obedient expression, but deep in his eyes burned a fire on the verge of eruption.

The plan was complete.

All that remained was to choose the right moment and set the entire island ablaze!