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Chapter 180: Smile (3)

He saw the scattered pieces of paper at Alberto's feet, which were no different from the ticket in his hand. They were all random news articles and paper scraps torn from blank paper.

When had he started to think that these things were tickets? That there would be clues on them?

Was it when Schiller insisted that he drive the Batmobile to the TV station mailbox to buy tickets? Was it when they actually went to the theater's ticket office to check the tickets? Or was it when Schiller and Alberto looked at him with conviction and recited clues one by one?

Batman suddenly understood that these were not the most important reasons, the root cause was his arrogance.

He had always thought that the madman on stage was no different from the crowd on the street, believing that he was the only sober one and he disdained to understand him, to invest in him, and naturally did not participate from beginning to end.

So he was fooled.

There were no clues from beginning to end, it was just a group of madmen executing a bunch of fools.

"Do you know what this means?" Schiller stood up, leaning his hands on the chair in front of him, and asked Batman.

"It means that the previous joke was really funny."

Schiller turned his head and grabbed the popcorn bucket from Alberto's hand, holding the pieces of paper in it and raising it halfway, he said, "See? This is 'money'."

"...This is what they are pursuing, isn't it funny?"

The Joker on stage stared at Batman straight in the eye. He suddenly lowered his head to cover his eyes with his green hair, and asked Batman, "You really don't want to laugh at all?"

"Enough." Batman leaped to the front of the stage.

"The farce is over." His voice was irritated.

"Before coming here, I pulled up all the historical materials of the Gotham Opera House, including the construction design."

"And in the last few minutes, I've read them all."

Speaking, Batman looked to the center of the stage and said, "The people who built this theater were once European nobles. In order to prevent the sound of the performers' footsteps from being too loud and affecting the performance of the play, they used a solid stage made of complete rock, not the hollow wooden stage commonly used in American opera houses, as your footsteps earlier proved."

"From when you issued the notice to now, without the use of explosives, it is not enough for you to dig out a cavity in such a stage and bury a bomb."

The Joker stared at Batman. Suddenly, he asked in a very irritable tone, "Why haven't you understood yet? This is not a detective drama! You fool!"

"Forget it, you will understand, you will..."

He twisted his neck, twisted his waist, and then took off his tie. His suit jacket's buttons were unbuttoned, and his body was full of bombs. He said while unbuttoning, "I said we should buy a larger size, this is a bit tight."

"Oh, look, you're right! Great detective Batman! The bomb is here!"

"You see, there are so many!" The Joker lowered his chin and tried to see the bomb hanging around his waist.

"I'm going to detonate them right now! Let you and the idiots on stage be blown up together!"

The Joker threw away the triangle iron in his hand and took out a handgun from his waist, pointing it at Batman and said, "Don't try to stop me!"

Batman stood opposite him, without any hesitation. Before the Joker made the next dangerous move, several bat-shaped shurikens cut through the air and flew over the stage, cutting the ropes that held the people and causing them to fall to the ground, crying out in pain.

The Joker was attracted by the sudden loud scream. In an instant, Batman rushed up, kicked his arm joint, and made the handgun fly out. Then he punched him in the face and directly strangled his neck, pulling him backward and dislocating his other arm.

The Joker screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Batman squatted down and wanted to take off the bomb on his body first. It was in that moment when he lowered his gaze and looked at the Joker's face that he saw the triumphant smile.

Suddenly, a scream came from the center of the stage. Haru, the fat man, fell to the ground, clutching his neck with a small iron rod used for percussion stuck in it.

The attacker was another strong man who grabbed Haru's neck and pulled out the small iron rod. In an instant, blood spattered everywhere, Haru fell to the ground, lifeless. The man said, "You low-class upstarts! How dare you humiliate us, I..."

He hadn't finished speaking when there was a gunshot. Chilly trembled with a handgun in his hands and yelled fiercely, "I'm fed up with you! If it weren't for you insisting on holding that party, how could we have made such a big mistake?!"

Two people died in an instant, and all the members of the court began to quickly struggle to get rid of the ropes tied to them.

When they were hanging in the air, struggling seemed to be useless. However, after the ropes that held them were cut, the knot on the hemp rope tied to them was not tied. As the rope was cut, the binding became loose, and the strong ones were the first to break free.

The triangular iron and handgun thrown by the Joker had already been picked up. In the melee, everyone picked up whatever they could find, from broken bricks to untied hemp ropes. Everyone's eyes were bloodshot, attacking each other like crazy.

But soon, they discovered the best place to grab weapons.

One person rushed into the orchestra quickly, wanting to pick up the music stand as a weapon. Another person rushed over to attack him. After a round of fighting, one of them quickly grabbed the violin bow placed nearby, catching the other person off guard and choking his neck from behind.

He shouted, "It was you who threatened me just now, forcing me to comply with their demands and give you the real answer! Die!!!"

He squeezed hard, and blood spurted high, shooting towards the ceiling of the stage like a bloody fountain and like climbing vines on the stand.

Batman, who had just rushed over to stop him, was splattered with blood. The strong smell of blood rushed into his brain, making him dizzy for a moment.

Until the body of the victim fell to the ground and the killer suddenly panicked and knelt down, saying, "No! No... What have I done? But..."

"The same words were repeated countless times. There were screams everywhere. Batman turned stiffly and looked towards the stage, which had been dyed blood red.

Laughter came from the direction of the Joker. First, it was a slight chuckle, then it turned into a crazy laugh. He laughed so hard that he was out of breath, saying, "Hahaha, you really..."

His arms couldn't move anymore, but he struggled to sit up, then stood up with the help of a corner of the stage. He did these actions while laughing, coughing uncontrollably.

"I congratulate you, Batman! You have succeeded in revenge!" The Joker stumbled over, almost falling down, but he still tried to support his body.

"Your enemy is dead, see that?"

The Joker's nose was bleeding all over his body, but he still tried to move and walked in front of Batman, gasping and saying:

"Your enemy is so miserable, so pathetic..."

He swallowed his saliva and his voice sounded like a withered tree trunk. He struggled to say, "This is my gift to you, Batman, my greeting gift."

His voice was full of joy, even with a hint of flattery and expectation. He sniffed, trying to suck the blood back from his nose, but failed, which made him look a bit ridiculous. He said, "Although your gift to me made me bleed so much, I am still very happy."

"I think my gift is prepared well. Look..." The Joker swallowed his saliva again, shook his head, and seemed to want to clear his mind.

"I am a bad guy. I organized a kidnapping case and invited many people to support me."

"There are also TV stations... they can all see it. Ha, I admit, I did it, it was me... I am a criminal, a villain."

"And you... you're a hero. You saved them, bravely charging onto the stage to face the evil kidnappers with bombs strapped to them, showing your intelligence and bravery. And then, you successfully saved them, right?"

"Your enemies are all villains, a group of selfish people. So after you saved them, they turned on each other and died." The Joker's tone became more and more excited.

"But you are innocent, you did your best, you are even a hero..."

The Joker struggled to catch his breath, his crazy words drowned out by his gasps. Then, he looked up at Batman, staring into his eyes and said, "I've done so much for you, and I only need you to answer me one question, just one question..."

"Come on, Batman, please answer me! Answer this poor man..."

"I'm really hurt, it really hurts..." The Joker cried, but soon he tried hard to suck up his nosebleed and said, "When you saw my performance, and saw your hated enemies being humiliated, tortured, and made to look ridiculous, did you..."

He began to tremble all over. He asked madly, "Answer me, answer yourself..."

"Did you ever want to laugh?"

Batman's fists clenched tighter and the veins on his hands almost broke through his gloves. The Joker leaned forward, as if trying to press his ear against Batman's chest to hear his heartbeat.

The Joker couldn't hold on any longer, he fell down, groaning in pain, but mixed with a sneer. He said, "You can't accept the answer in your heart, can you?"

"Why do you find it unbelievable? Why do you feel uncomfortable, why do you feel your emotions are getting worse?"

"A person who thinks they're crazy because they want to laugh is the truly crazy one!" The Joker yelled as loud as he could.

"Why did you do all of this?" Batman finally spoke.

He finally recognized the Joker's difference and stood on the same stage as him, asking him questions and waiting for answers.

The Joker lay on the ground, his chest rising and falling, still gasping for breath. Finally, he stopped laughing and said, "Because I'm a clown."

"I just wanted you to laugh."

Finally, as the theater lights went out, Batman heard the pleading in his voice:

"Please, just laugh... Batman."