When Great Responsibility Falls Upon This Man (Part 2)

Early that morning, in an office at Gotham University, Schiller was holding a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper when Victor arrived. He asked Schiller, "Have you seen the reports about the fire on the commercial street?"

"I was just reading that part."

Schiller gave the newspaper a shake, then his gaze fell on the Gotham Daily’s front-page headline. An entire page had been devoted to the fire in the central commercial district, but the accompanying photo was not of the damaged street. It showed the back of a black-clad figure walking away.

The bold headline read: "Batman—A Vigilante Saving Gotham, or a Hypocritical Actor Putting on a Show?"

Though the headline was phrased as a question, the article had already provided its answer. It vividly described how a reporter arriving at the scene during the fire saw Batman merely glance down from a rooftop at the disaster before hurriedly leaving.

According to the reporter, Batman had looked upon the burning commercial street below without the slightest reaction. He had turned and left without hesitation, as though he had only appeared briefly from beginning to end and had never intended to save anyone.

Combined with the photo of Batman walking away from the fire, the account was highly convincing. When Bruce put down the newspaper, he pressed a hand to his temple and let out a deep sigh.

When Aisha had summoned her father, Bruce had just changed into his Batman suit. Thus, he had appeared before the two children as Batman, and Dick had learned that Bruce was Batman.

Dick had seen the newspaper report as well. Indignant, he said, "You saved so many people, and they actually said you were a coward who fled because you were afraid of helping? How could they…"

"All right, Dick. Have you packed everything you need for school?"

"…Yeah." Dick answered through his nose, sounding dejected. "Batman, can’t I really go out and uphold justice with you? I think you need a helper. If I had been there this time, I could have stayed behind to rescue people while you went to the other fire. Then they wouldn’t have misunderstood you…"

"I don’t care whether they misunderstand me."

Dick looked at Bruce’s utterly exhausted face. If Bruce’s overly youthful appearance had once made Dick feel awkward, making it hard for him to see Bruce as an elder, then in Bruce’s current state, Dick truly did not dare raise any further objections.

Bruce’s complexion was beyond merely terrible. It was as if he had aged several years overnight. After all, the past two days had been nothing short of inhumane.

During the day, he had to deal with Joker causing trouble everywhere and play his life-or-death games. He also had to make up for the Gotham Police Department’s shortage of detectives, help Gordon investigate the serial murders connected to the Twelve Apostles, and track down the Twelve Families and the ringleader. Then, every time he opened his eyes at night, there were those four damned things…

His daytime and nighttime duties were different, yet intertwined. The complicated matters of the day left him no time to carefully analyze the weaknesses of the four killers in his Dream or formulate a plan to deal with them.

Then at night, because he had no plan, he remained trapped in the awkward situation of fighting chance encounters. After multiple attempts brought no progress, he still had no good way to handle the two strongest killers.

The repeated failures only drained every last bit of his energy, until he had to pass out before he could return to the real world. But because he had exhausted too much energy, he was dizzy and unfocused during the day, making him inefficient at everything. In short, he had fallen into an extreme vicious cycle.

The public controversy surrounding Batman also continued to intensify. Bruce did not know whether Joker had deliberately orchestrated it, but he had indeed fallen into mental torment. Everything was endlessly spiraling downward, developing in the exact opposite direction from what he wanted, as though nothing would ever get better.

Both physically and mentally, Bruce’s condition grew worse and worse. Yet under this multilayered torment, some string in his mind was being tempered into something increasingly resilient.

When a person was pushed to their limit, their potential began to emerge at extraordinary speed. During Batman’s first year, his growth had resembled a gently sloping line. But beginning with these past two days, that line had risen straight upward, becoming a vertical wall.

After three days, Bruce had visibly lost a great deal of weight. Yet beneath his brow, his eyes had begun to carry a different kind of unwavering resolve.

During the day, he followed leads to unravel the tangled relationships among the Twelve Families, investigated the scenes of various murders, and deduced the killers’ methods and motives. In the evening, he reviewed the cases with Gordon. After returning home at night, he began planning how to deal with the four killers.

After entering the Dream at night, Batman began carrying out his plans step by step. As he failed again and again, his energy limit rose higher, until he could make dozens of attempts in a row without feeling dizzy or exhausted.

After repeated trials, Batman found the best way to deal with these killers.

He discovered that although these killers were vicious, they did not cooperate with one another. Each killed on his own, and once conflict arose between them, none would give way. That gave Batman plenty of room to maneuver.

He also found that using his willpower to resist attacks or manifest weapons was more trouble than it was worth. Schiller’s will was constantly interfering with him, causing the weapons he manifested to either have all sorts of flaws or be single-use items. They were not very practical.

But Batman never lacked backup plans. He began trying to use his willpower to create obstacles in the alley. At first, he tried altering the structure of the walls to create a corner with a blind spot, but he soon discovered that this consumed energy far too quickly. Instead, he began creating smaller obstacles that were easier to use.

First came piles of construction debris. Though they could not completely block the line of sight like walls, they gave him opportunities to hinder his opponents’ movement. Then came little traps such as shattered glass and drifting newspapers, as well as flashlights to dazzle the eyes, speakers to make noise and divert attention, and so on.

Batman came to deeply appreciate the advantages of varied and localized combat. Compared to fixating on manifesting Batarangs or daggers to injure his enemies, the interference from these little objects could sometimes provide better tactical opportunities.

Thus, after countless attempts, Batman carefully constructed a trap.

He took advantage of the four killers’ behavioral pattern—once he appeared, all four would begin hunting him down frantically until they killed him.

When he stood at the entrance to Wayne Manor, the four killers were arranged as follows: White Face Mask and Hockey Mask were on the outermost side, Chainsaw Killer was third, and Iron Claw Monster stood atop the wall at the very back.

When he stepped out into the alley, all four began moving toward him at once. The two larger killers emerged first, followed by Chainsaw Killer, and finally Iron Claw Monster.

Batman placed two garbage piles, one on the left and one on the right, taking up most of the alley’s width. He then sprinted at top speed with optimal stamina, using nimble footwork to slip past the two towering masked killers. The killers who had originally been moving toward Wayne Manor would turn around to pursue him.

Aside from Iron Claw Monster, who could travel along the tops of the walls, the other three had to stay on the ground. The large White Face Mask and Hockey Mask moved at almost the same speed, so they would be slowed at the point where the two garbage piles met.

By then, Batman would have sprinted to the middle of the alley, directly facing Chainsaw Killer.

But Batman did not choose to take him down with fighting techniques as he had before, because there was no point. Even if Batman could seize the chainsaw, it was not a particularly useful weapon, and it would not help him deal with the other three killers.

He placed four oil drums at the far end of the right side of the alley. Once he had drawn Chainsaw Killer’s attention, he slowed down and moved toward the drums.

At that moment, Iron Claw Monster’s attack from the end of the alley should arrive right on cue. Batman would roll behind the oil drums. Though Iron Claw Monster’s claws could easily pierce flesh, when Batman focused his attention on strengthening the drums’ defenses, those steel claws could only leave a mark on them.

Batman had reached this conclusion through numerous failures. It was easier to believe, with reason, that the metal shell of an oil drum was hard enough to block steel claws than to believe his own flesh could withstand them.

After missing, Iron Claw Monster would circle to the side, attempting to bypass the oil drums and continue attacking Batman. At that moment, Chainsaw Killer, carrying his chainsaw, would arrive. Judging by their walking speed, White Face Mask and Hockey Mask should be following right behind him.

A chainsaw created sparks when it scraped against metal. Therefore, when it cut into the oil drums, it would ignite them and cause an explosion, blasting everyone away.

The key to the entire plan was calculating the speed of every killer at every step. When the oil drums exploded, all four killers had to be close enough together. Another difficulty was that Batman himself would also be blasted away, and he had to firmly believe that he would not be injured by the explosion.

Batman made many mistakes while calculating their speed and movement. In fact, on his first attempt, he had already worked through the entire process in his mind. The hard part was maintaining his concentration to keep the props manifested while positioning himself precisely and controlling the killers’ pace.

After failing dozens of times, Batman discovered that not only had his energy limit increased, but his ability to focus and control had undergone a qualitative leap. By the end, he could even make the oil drums float and crash into the chainsaw.

As his willpower continued to grow, his margin for error became greater and greater. Finally, amid the roar of the chainsaw, the oil drums exploded, blasting the four killers and Batman away at the same time.

At that moment, he should have believed that the killers would be destroyed while he would emerge completely unscathed. When the thick smoke from the explosion cleared, Batman rose from the ground.

He was not unscathed. On the contrary, his entire Bat-armor had been blown to pieces. At the last moment, Batman had decided to gamble, focusing his attention on increasing the explosion’s power and the damage it inflicted on his opponents.

The price of weakening his defenses was that he suffered serious external injuries. But likewise, because he firmly believed he would inflict maximum damage on his enemies, the four killers across from him were badly injured as well.

Hockey Mask was the least injured. His clothes had merely been blown somewhat ragged, and he was climbing up from the ground. White Face Mask and Chainsaw Killer were in similar condition, seriously injured and lying in the corner by the wall. The monster with steel claws was covered in black smoke and seemed unable to control the direction in which he moved.

Batman’s goal was not to destroy them, but to leave this alley as soon as possible. He looked up and saw High Tower still standing silently beneath the black night sky in the city center. He knew that was his destination.

After leaving the alley, those terrifying eyes that had once seemed distant to him drew closer and closer. Endless monsters appeared throughout Gotham’s streets and alleys.

And as Batman faced them, he realized that the feeling rising within him was no longer the confusion and exhaustion he had felt at first, but an indescribable… excitement.

Sorry, I wasn’t feeling well today, so this came a little late.

If there’s no update around midnight, there’s no need to wait. It will be the same if you read it the next day.