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Chapter 176: The Phantom of the Opera (2)

"Although the process is complicated, the summary is that the Court of Owls does not care about anyone."

"They forged your personality, but didn't tell you the truth, making you think you were really Falcone's son."

"But Falcone felt that his son had been replaced, and you were a monster they gave him, so he hated you."

"Falcone lost his son, and you lost your father, it was truly a tragedy."

"But there is only one innocent person in this story..."

Alberto lowered his eyelids and said self-deprecatingly, "When Evans was sober, I could see everything he saw and had his memories, but he couldn't see mine, so he doesn't know anything, he even thinks he has a brother and misses him."

"If you really want revenge on Falcone, Evans will lose both his brother and father. Although Falcone didn't treat you as his son, Evans really treated you as his brother."

Alberto fell silent.

He was a personality created out of thin air, a rootless wanderer. Falcone thought he was taking advantage of him, and the Court of Owls only saw him as a tool to implement their plans.

At his funeral, no one mourned his death. If this wandering personality had only one root, there was only one person who truly remembered him after his death and created evidence of his existence, his brother Evans.

Seeing him silent, Schiller turned his attention back to Batman and said, "Although your alliance has split in half, it doesn't matter. Let's talk about something happy. How badly do you think the Court of Owls will suffer?"

"Why is that lunatic planning to go after the Court? What reason does he have? What ability does he have to do so?"

"Don't you understand yet? He's completely different from those crazy people you saw on the street who went crazy because of the rain."

"Well, I don't think he can take on the Court of Owls alone."

"Let's make a bet, shall we? I bet the Court of Owls will suffer greatly."

With that, Schiller picked up the remote control, turned on the TV again, and after a while of boring TV dramas, the news started.

But before the news anchor could report a few stories, he suddenly showed a fearful expression, and then there was a "bang," a hole in his head.

A burst of laughter came, and the familiar figure appeared on the screen again. The first thing he said was, "Oh! I'm a criminal! I killed someone! What should I do?"

"Batman! Come and arrest me! I know you're watching from some corner. Come and catch me, the killer..."

Batman on the hospital bed clenched his fist and immediately wanted to stand up, but then the Joker put his head close to the camera and said, "Are you clenching your fist? Are you anxious to stand up and come over here and beat me up?"

"But you can't do that..." He limped back a few steps, then went over to the male host's body and dragged him in front of the camera by his collar.

"You see, someone died. He was shot with a handgun, and I happen to have a handgun in my hand."

"But you can't arrest me, do you know why?"

"A bullet flew into his head, and then I appeared on the screen with a handgun in my hand."

"But no one saw me shoot, I'm just an innocent passerby with a handgun that happens to match the bullet that killed the body lying on the ground."

"What are you going to do? Come and beat up this innocent passerby?"

"What?" The Joker turned his head and put his hand behind his ear to listen.

"You said I just admitted to killing someone and that I'm a criminal?"

"But so what? I also said I'm a frog, or a woman, or a stripper..."

The Joker twisted in front of the camera, then blew a kiss to the screen.

"See, that's how it is. If you come and beat me up, the audience will see a crazy person in a tight suit beating up a weak and pitiful passerby..."

"Oh, wait." He suddenly froze, then grabbed his hair and said, "No, I'm not here for that. Well, playing with the Bat is really fun, I almost forgot what I came here for."

He burst into a series of maniacal laughter and said, "Do you know the Gotham Theater? You must know! I've prepared a huge surprise for you there, a huge huge huge huge surprise!!!"

"Did you hear that? The great comedian Jack is about to start selling tickets! At midnight tonight, each ticket is $20! And with the ticket stub, you can get a bucket of brain-splattered popcorn!!"

With that, he took a few steps back, tore off a small piece of paper from the script on the host's desk, and said, "Look, this is the ticket!"

Then he clumsily tore up all the scripts, threw them into the air, and the scraps of paper fluttered down like snowflakes. He said, "Quickly call here to buy tickets! Right now! If you're a little late..."

A burst of laughter came, and he continued, "You'll miss the greatest comedy performance in history!"

The screen returned to a snowflake again. Schiller yawned and walked to the desk in the hospital room. He muttered to himself, "What's the TV station's phone number again?"

He then pulled out his phone book and dialed in circles. After the phone was connected, he said, "Hello? Is this the comedian Jack?...Oh, you're being modest. I think you deserve the title of artist for your performance just now..."

"Yes, I'm here to buy tickets. Is it at midnight tonight? I want three tickets, um... maybe four. I have a friend with a split personality disorder, and he needs to buy two tickets. What? Buy three get one free? Because I'm the first? That's great, thank you."

"How do I pick up the tickets? TV station mailbox? Okay... I'll leave the money there at that time..."

"Good luck with your performance, thank you, goodbye."

After hanging up the phone, Schiller found that Batman and Alberto were staring at him. Schiller shrugged and said, "Anyway, he is going to deal with the Court of Owls. Do we have any reason not to go and watch the fun?"

"Besides, even though your Avengers are unfortunately split in half, you still need a farewell dinner, right?"

At eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, at the theater entrance, Schiller got out of the car and saw a familiar face before he even entered. He warmly walked up to Gordon, shook his hand and said, "Detective Gordon, you're here too."

Gordon said unkindly, "Even if Gotham is full of lunatics, this one is too crazy. Do you know how many distress calls the police station has received in the past few hours?"

"Oh? What happened?"

"This lunatic asked the people of Gotham to call the police for help!" Gordon was so angry that he laughed. He emphasized, "He fucking asked the people of Gotham to call the police for help!!!"

"That's a good thing. It means that tonight will be the most normal night in Gotham."

"Normal?" Gordon paused, and he heard Schiller say, "Detective, I know you don't agree with using violence to control violence, but the best way in Gotham is to use madness to control madness."

While the two were talking, a stretch limo turned into the alley and stopped at the theater entrance. The driver got out and opened the door. The one who walked out was Falcone. He saw Schiller and Gordon and walked towards them.

The old Godfather adjusted his cufflinks and said as if it were a normal greeting, "Tickets are hard to come by, right? When I called, he told me there were no tickets left, which is quite interesting."

"You haven't been rejected by anyone for many years, have you?"

"Indeed, but he heard that I have some prestige in the gang and decided to give me some special treatment."

Then, Father Daniel also got out of the car and drew a cross on his chest, saying, "Thank you, Carmine, for bringing me that. Otherwise, I really couldn't buy a ticket."

Schiller said to the group, "You guys go in first. I have two friends waiting."

Except for Schiller, everyone else went in first. After a while, the Batmobile slowly drove over, Batman got out of the car, and Evans followed him. Evans was still very happy and said, "Gotham hasn't performed in a long time. Who's performing tonight? Is there a program list? Can I see it?"

"I guess he must have given you lessons on European theater history, modern opera history, and vocal techniques on the road," Schiller approached and whispered to Batman.

"Not just that, he even demonstrated it himself," Batman said with a straight face.

"How was the singing?"

"Alfred would have loved it."

"Are you saying it was too old-fashioned?"

Evans caught up, having heard Schiller's last words. "Hey! How can you say that? That's called following the classics. I've always thought that those so-called new operas are sacrilegious..."

The three of them walked through the theater's entrance and were faced with a huge poster. It depicted a group of featherless owls being hung on a pot, with two hands below holding a knife and fork, seemingly preparing for a feast.

"Opera and painting?" Schiller muttered beneath the poster. "Is it the artistic nature hidden within one's personality, or the longing and fantasy for art in the lower class?"

Schiller shook his head. He finally understood why the Joker's girlfriend in the original work went insane. The crazed personality of the Joker was the best material for any psychologist to study and analyze when you come into contact with him.

Schiller held a map of the theater and said, "My Manor isn't far from here. A neighbor gave me a map to look at... the ticket window... oh, go this way and turn left."

They turned left along the left side of the poster. There was a ticket window on the right-hand side. He noticed that there were some popcorn buckets, but they were clearly not from this old theater. No one eats popcorn while watching an opera.

Was this confusion due to a lack of understanding of art within one's personality, or was it due to the chaos brought about by madness? Schiller couldn't help but speculate the reason.

He leaned forward and looked into the ticket booth. Suddenly, a dummy popped up from the floor and pounced directly at Schiller. Schiller looked up and down at the dummy and realized that it was an old puppet left in the theater's warehouse, which was used as a background board for stage plays. The only difference was that it now had a smiley face painted on its head.

Schiller reached out, grabbed the puppet, and flipped it over. He said somewhat disappointedly, "Where are the lines? Why isn't the classic line there?"

As he was studying the puppet, Evans took out two buckets of popcorn from the ticket booth. He looked at them and said in surprise, "Why are there paper balls in the popcorn bucket? Where's the popcorn?"

Batman stood behind them, feeling out of place.

Evans handed Batman a bucket of paper balls and said, "Although it's not real popcorn, it'll do."

"Didn't you say that new operas are sacrilegious to the classics? Are you really going to bring a bucket of popcorn to watch an opera?" Schiller turned around and asked him.

"I just like eating popcorn. I can never buy popcorn when I go to the movies because my dad won't let me. He thinks there might be a bomb hidden inside."

Batman opened his mouth. He really wanted to remind Evans that the chance of there being a bomb hidden in the bucket he was holding was much higher than in a regular movie theater.

Schiller seemed to understand what Batman wanted to say. He said, "Haven't you figured it out yet? He wouldn't do such a boring prank. If it's not exciting enough, then it's better not to have it."