No one knew what the Joker wanted to do, but everyone knew how terrifying he was, thanks to the media's intense coverage after the amusement park incident.
The amusement park incident happened a year and a half ago, a mass slaughter at Gotham City's amusement park. The mastermind behind it was the Joker. He used poison gas to kill over 300 visitors and staff. In the end, the mayor of Gotham City resigned, and the police commissioner stepped down. It took everything Commissioner Gordon and Batman had to finally capture the Joker, but because a lawyer provided proof of the Joker's mental illness, he was sent to Arkham Asylum. No one expected that the Joker would escape.
Right after the bank robbery yesterday, Gordon immediately contacted Arkham Asylum, only to find that no one there even knew the Joker had escaped. It wasn't until then that they rushed to investigate.
That's when they discovered the Joker had been missing for days, and the one who likely let him go was his psychiatrist, Harley Quinn. Ever since the Joker was sent there, Harley Quinn had developed a dangerous fascination with him, one she couldn't escape. What no one expected was that she would actually help him escape.
Gordon nearly slammed his head against the wall. Of all the people to escape, it had to be that lunatic. The Scarecrow, Penguin—at least they had some rules to their actions. They were ruthless, but they understood cooperation and loved money. But the Joker? He was pure madness. To this day, no one knew why he had committed the mass murder at the amusement park. There was no ransom demand, no clear motive, just killing for no reason at all.
And now it was even worse. His psychiatrist had been turned, helping him escape. That meant the Joker was more dangerous than ever.
The Bat-Signal was lit once again. All they could do was hope Batman would find him.
Batman arrived and took the Joker's calling card. But Batman knew, though both he and Kaitou Kid used playing cards as symbols, the Joker was far more brutal. At least they believed Kaitou Kid wouldn't kill.
Of course, they didn't know what happened to the bomb killer. When Liu A'dou decided to be ruthless, he could be just as dark.
"Batman, this time the Joker is coming with full force. This won't end easily," Commissioner Gordon said.
Batman understood. He had dealt with the Joker before and knew how difficult he was. Batman wouldn't take him lightly. "I agree. Robbing the bank was just the start. The Joker must have more planned. I'll find him."
Gordon looked at Batman's back and thought, the whole of Gotham relies on one man. The burden on Batman was too heavy. He hated that Gotham had no one else to step up. The police were powerless, the officials colluded with the gangs, and only Batman could carry the weight. Gordon wished he could take on more, but there were hardly any real cops left in the force.
What was the Joker's goal? No one knew. No one could guess the mind of a madman. Even the best psychologists couldn't figure it out. Only one person, someone still asleep, only he knew what the Joker was after.
The Joker wanted to show the world that humanity's true nature was as ugly and mad as his own. He wanted to prove that human nature was inherently evil.
To prove that, he first had to crush Batman. In the Joker's eyes, Batman represented Gotham's highest ideals and was the greatest obstacle to his experiment.
Liu A'dou woke up just as the news ended. He had only drifted slightly in the white space before returning to his body. As he opened his eyes, he saw that twisted Joker smile on the TV, painted in pale white and blood red.
"Scared me there. What the heck is that on the TV?" Liu A'dou opened his eyes and saw the image on the screen. Even as someone who had crossed over, he couldn't handle it.
"Liu, you're finally awake," Iselin said, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at him. She was really worried that Liu A'dou might have some hidden illness. Though it had been checked and confirmed that he was just asleep, how could someone suddenly fall asleep like that? And it was such a deep sleep that no matter how much they called him, he wouldn't wake up.
"I'll go call the doctor," Iselin said as she rushed out.
How did he end up in the hospital? Liu A'dou was also experiencing this strange situation for the first time. Though he knew magic, it wasn't anything too extraordinary—he could do some simple divination and occasionally summon lightning. But his thoughts were soon distracted by the TV. It was an Independent News Channel program. Liu A'dou finally understood what Thomas's "big news" had been about. It turned out that the Joker had returned.
Liu A'dou thought to himself, the Joker had just robbed a gang's bank. His next move would likely be to negotiate with the gang, and then the Joker would continually provoke Batman, trying to find out his identity, just like in the movies.
Over the course of his year in this world, Liu A'dou had come to realize that this world was both familiar and strange. Some events were exactly the same as the movies—once the story began, Liu A'dou could predict how it would unfold. Of course, there were also many independent events.
For example, Scarecrow had never teamed up with the Ninja Master, but Iron Man's encounter was exactly like the one in the movies—he was kidnapped by terrorists while showcasing a new missile, then developed the first-generation Iron Man suit in a cave, later battling the company's board of directors. There were some differences in the details, but the overall plot was the same as in the first movie.
So Liu A'dou was convinced that whenever something from the movies happened in this world, the future would roughly unfold the same way. Therefore, when he saw the news report, he knew Gotham City would soon enter "Joker time." Batman would be pushed to the brink by the Joker. Liu A'dou's earlier divination results would also come true—Harvey Dent would become Two-Face, just as he had seen.
How could he stop the Joker? Liu A'dou thought of "Eye of God." However, he didn't know what the Joker's voice sounded like, and trying to identify him through facial recognition would take too much time. Besides, there wouldn't be cameras everywhere. The best way would be to give the "Eye of God" to Batman, let him use the supercomputer's configuration to refine the software, and use computer matching to quickly locate the Joker. But from then on, Kaitou Kid would probably never show up again. If he did, Batman would find him immediately, which clearly wasn't a wise move.
Suddenly, Liu A'dou knocked his head. What was he thinking? Catching the Joker was Batman's job. His job was to protect Harvey Dent's girlfriend. If Rachel didn't die, Harvey Dent wouldn't become Two-Face.
The doctor came to check Liu A'dou thoroughly and happily announced that he was completely recovered and could be discharged immediately.
"Doctor, you've got to be kidding. He just suddenly passed out," Iselin said, still worried.
The doctor was helpless. All the test results were completely normal. What else could he do?
"Don't give the doctor a hard time. Maybe I was just too tired from staying up late last night," Liu A'dou explained, clearing the doctor's name. "I'll make sure it doesn't happen again!"
The doctor agreed, and Iselin reluctantly agreed to let Liu A'dou be discharged.