Was it all settled?

"Sure! I love handing out candy. Would you like one bat candy or two?"

Catching Zuo Ci's implication, Joker clapped his hands and immediately answered with a joke of his own.

"Then, my dear little Halloween sprite, can I pass?"

"Of course not. Good children can't be picky eaters, and neither can bad children."

Bzzzt!

The fully charged multifunction flashlight instantly aimed its bright light, noise, and spray at Joker. The drone that had been idling also cranked its air cannon to maximum power, and both attacked him at once.

Yet, to their surprise, Joker, who had seemed completely unprepared, suddenly twisted his body to an absurd angle, dodging every attack in a bizarre contortion.

"Seriously, is this guy using cheats?"

Zuo Ci stared at the incredible sight, a little dumbfounded. What was going on? Did Joker really have reflexes like that?

If he could react to all that, why hadn't he reacted at all to that first shot from the drone?

"Nope. Can't handle this. I'm out."

Realizing that Joker might be even harder to deal with than he'd imagined, Zuo Ci fully embraced his principle of lying down and going to sleep whenever trouble struck. Without the slightest hesitation, he gave up, turned around, and ran for the restaurant's exit.

"Huh?"

Joker was stunned by how decisively Zuo Ci retreated.

Wasn't something wrong here? Whether it was those useless cops or my dear little Batman, they always stuck it out to the bitter end, no matter what happened.

I don't know who you are, but isn't it a little rude to break with tradition like this?

While Joker stood there in a daze, a thud came from behind him. He turned to see Harvey, now untied, sprawled on the floor.

Along with Batman's fist hurtling toward him.

"Thanks for saving me, Batman. Ow... would've been nice if you'd been a little gentler."

Rubbing the swollen bump on his head, Harvey groggily climbed to his feet. He had been hanging upside down for quite a while, and he was terribly dizzy.

Despite his discomfort, he still staggered over to his beloved and helped free her from her restraints.

"Gilda, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Harvey."

Ignoring the young couple embracing and whispering sweet nothings, Batman was busy pummeling Joker with a barrage of punches. Even as he took the beating, Joker still tossed out the occasional wisecrack.

"Yeah, hit him like that! Harder!"

Meanwhile, Zuo Ci, who had left the battlefield and returned to his corner, watched the thrilling fight with excitement written all over his face. This was way more entertaining than WWE or UFC.

Watching alone wasn't enough. He even bought a portable camera directly from the system and recorded the whole thing, planning to sell the footage back to the system later for a little extra cash.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

Just as he was getting into it, a man in very expensive clothes wriggled over and rubbed against his calf.

"Oh, right. Nearly forgot about you guys."

Seeing that Zuo Ci had noticed him, the man hurriedly squirmed harder, signaling for him to untie the ropes. Zuo Ci obligingly crouched beside him.

"The unlocking service costs a thousand dollars. Would you like a single use or a monthly subscription?"

"?"

The fight between Batman and Joker didn't last very long. It ended after about two minutes, and the outcome hardly needed explaining.

Batman now held the unconscious Joker in one hand, beaten almost beyond recognition.

"Didn't expect Joker to last that long. I thought it'd take thirty seconds at most."

Zuo Ci produced a chopstick from somewhere and poked Joker with it. Only after confirming that he really wasn't responding did Zuo Ci relax.

Although Batman had thoroughly thrashed Joker, Joker had fought him while injured and virtually barehanded. Lasting two minutes under those conditions spoke volumes about his ability.

If Zuo Ci had been in his place, he'd have done well to last three exchanges against Batman.

"By the way, Batman, what are you planning to do with these laughing gas bombs? Want to sell them to me? I promise I'll give you a fair price."

Zuo Ci had originally wanted to draw some of Joker's blood to sell, but after seeing Batman's extremely unfriendly stare, he abandoned that idea and set his sights on the laughing gas bombs instead.

Joker had planted these bombs specifically inside the Red Dragon Restaurant, with their trigger connected to the rope suspending Harvey.

If Batman had gone straight to rescue Harvey, the laughing gas would have been released instantly and spread throughout the city on Gotham's strong winds.

That was why Zuo Ci had initially kept Joker occupied: to buy Batman time. Fortunately, Batman had proved reliable enough.

"No. You can't have them."

As he spoke, Batman pulled the bombs back behind him.

Although Batman currently had no good way to deal with the laughing gas, that didn't mean he could hand it over to Zuo Ci. At least, not yet.

"Fine. Looks like my Batman affinity still isn't high enough."

Zuo Ci pursed his lips helplessly. Raising this guy's affinity was ridiculously hard. They'd even fought Joker together, yet Batman still didn't trust him.

Still, whatever. It wasn't as though he needed that little bit of profit. Batman had agreed to pay for the drone, multifunction flashlight, and remaining four pumpkin hoods Zuo Ci had redeemed for this mission. With another two hundred thousand in bittersweet earnings, he could afford to pass up these scraps.

Ah, Batman's greatest superpower really was money~

Hehe. Shaking down a filthy rich guy feels amazing.

"Allow me to interrupt, gentlemen. Do we really have to talk somewhere like this? Isn't it a little inappropriate?"

On the rooftop, where fierce winds howled, Harvey glanced around, clearly still uncomfortable holding a conversation up there.

"Nothing we can do, District Attorney Harvey. Blame our dear mayor."

Gordon spoke helplessly as he emerged from the stairwell. He had just assigned officers to protect Gilda, which was why he'd arrived a little later.

"One of these days, I'll put him behind bars."

Harvey was clearly just as unhappy with their useless idiot of a mayor, but they had to take things one step at a time. At this stage, there really wasn't much they could do.

"Back to the matter at hand. Does anyone have any idea why Joker suddenly decided to go after Harvey?"

After steering the conversation back on track, Gordon posed the question.

Yes, why had Joker suddenly decided to target Harvey?

Gordon and Harvey both looked at Batman, but this time, contrary to his usual behavior, Batman said nothing. Instead, he looked at Zuo Ci.

"Why are you looking at me? I'm not Joker. How am I supposed to know what he's thinking?"

"Uh, Mr. Mage, you can use magic, so you should be able to find the answer, right? You know, with a crystal ball or something."

After witnessing Zuo Ci's abilities, Harvey's already shaky faith in materialism had completely shattered. Joker was so abnormal that resorting to a few unconventional methods seemed perfectly reasonable.

Gordon felt the same way. Although his position as police commissioner made it awkward to say such things, his eyes were certainly full of anticipation.

"Fine, I'll give it a try. No promises it'll work.

And there's a fee!"