Chapter 270: Fear Joker (Part 1) _1

In DC Comics, there are many origin stories related to the character of the Joker. Initially, before the Joker became popular, he was simply a regular circus acrobat, a true clown.

Later, there was a version in which he fell into a chemical pool. Of course, the most famous is the Joker from 'The Killing Joke', who becomes mad like the Joker after a bad day.

One of the more controversial is a setting in which there are three Jokers in a universe. In this version, the Joker is no longer a unique character and the three Jokers begin to kill each other.

Putting aside these eye-catching gimmicks, having multiple Jokers in a universe is possible. After all, what Gotham lacks the least is madmen. Some of these madmen could just as easily fancy themselves as crazy Jokers.

On Shiller's first night in Gotham, he confirmed that there should indeed be multiple Jokers in this universe because, on that night, the personality controlling his body mutated to a certain degree.

In the beginning, this mutation was not obvious. But when Bruce appeared before him and looked at him, Shiller became one of the chosen Jokers. As a result, Bruce takes an interest in him, and he in Bruce. This was the inevitable mutual attraction between Batman and the Joker.

Shiller quickly became aware of this mutation. His "superego" created another personality to replace Joker Shiller and threw Joker Shiller into the lower levels of his 'mind palace', forcing him to climb upwards, to suppress the potential danger of this mad personality.

The evolution of the Joker is irreversible, so this personality eventually became one of the multiple Jokers. But because he is trapped in Shiller's 'mind palace' and has yet to surface, he poses no immediate threat. But he is indeed also a Joker.

Speaking of the Joker, one can't help but mention another controversial character, the Laughing Bat.

When this character first appeared, his origin story was quite interesting. In a certain universe, the Joker was exceptionally powerful. He doesn't just kill important characters like Catwoman and Gordon but also captures all the parents of children in the city and recreates the tragedy of Crime Alley in front of Batman time and again.

This inhumane act ultimately drives Batman into madness, and he breaks the Joker's neck himself. But at the same time, the laughter-virus within the Joker infects Batman.

In other words, the Laughing Bat is actually a hybrid of the Joker and Batman. Up to this point in the story, it could still be considered a somewhat creative plot, as many DC audiences have pondered what would happen if the Joker and Batman were to merge into one?

But later on, this concept started to deviate. To illustrate how powerful the hybrid of Batman and the Joker is, the writers began to recklessly add many high-profile settings to the Laughing Bat.

Among them, the most destructive to the storyline and the style of DC Comics was that the Laughing Bat was omniscient.

Whether it's Batman or the Joker, both are characterized by exceptionally high intelligence. Especially Batman, who as a master planner, has contingency plans for combating virtually everyone. Furthermore, the Joker's implementation of his crazy jokes demonstrates his superior intellect and execution abilities.

In order to demonstrate the effect of one-plus-one-is-greater-than-two, the writers made the Laughing Bat all-knowing and omnipotent. Sadly, the plots to showcase this ability are rather far-fetched and essentially boil down to the Laughing Bat's mind battles being summed up as: the Laughing Bat anticipates the opponent's move, the opponent anticipates the Laughing Bat anticipating his move, the Laughing Bat then anticipates that the opponent anticipates that he has anticipated his move and so on.

In essence, "I predicted your prediction, I predicted the prediction of your prediction, I predicted your prediction of me predicting your prediction," leading to infinite nesting.

Thus, here, it is necessary to grandly introduce to you--

The crazy destroyer of DC's restraint system, Arrogant Dragon of American comics' setting, the intelligent God who is strong but always stays true to his humble origin, the perpetually one-step-ahead sage who almost never fails but seems to avoid the main issues, soulmate of Zhuge Kongming, best friend of Conan Edogawa in the spiritual world, the sole biological father of DC's editorial department-- Laughing Bat, Wei Yixiao!

People used to joke that DC's editorial department is Batman's biological father. But now, Wei Yixiao's character setting lets people know that the editorial department might just be the adopted Robin of Batman, and the real dad just entered the stage.

You can't say that the Laughing Bat's character setting is bad, because his origin story really is interesting and meets the fantasies of many fans about the relationship between Batman and the Joker. However, as more and more settings are added, and the plot becomes more and more outrageous, the character of the Laughing Bat starts to gradually deviate from the subtle black humor style that makes DC Comics so appealing, and begins to develop in the direction of outrageous plots.

Therefore, Schiller didn't particularly like this character. If he had to choose among Batman, Joker, and the Laughing Bat, Schiller would rather be surrounded by ten pairs of Jokers and Batmen than encounter a single Laughing Bat. It's not because of its superhuman battle prowess and intelligence, but because it's genuinely dull.

Schiller knew very well that once such a character, possessing an editor's essence, appeared in this universe, his quiet life would be completely over. Although his life wasn't that peaceful now, at least those who surrounded him were somewhat interesting.

Cobblepot's inferiority and arrogance intertwined like twin vines, the origin of Evans' dual personality and its subsequent evolution, Alberto's emotional entanglement with his Godfather, Victor's undying love, and so on. Even Joker Jack, whose background story was a complete mystery, had proven through a stage performance that he was an interesting character.

The Laughing Bat might be powerful, but it was genuinely boring because everything about it was darkness for the sake of darkness. Not a word was mentioned about mental struggles, black and white dichotomies, ethical stances, or emotional changes. It was akin to a piece of paper that could circle the Earth, possibly very long, a potential miracle, yet still thin.

If the villains around Schiller could add some fun to his quiet life, the Laughing Bat was nothing but a nuisance.

Shortly after Schiller arrived in Gotham, he determined this universe should be part of the Bright Multiverse. Because the people here had the potential to transform for the better, while the opposite was true for the Dark Multiverse, where everyone eventually fell into the abyss.

Therefore, in the beginning, Schiller never considered the Laughing Bat's possible existence, as this place did not fulfill the conditions for its birth. Besides this universe's inclination towards the light, it was currently too early in the timeline. Batman had just finished his freshman year, Joker had only started performing a few days ago, and they'd only clashed once. The wholly deserving Court of Owls was the only casualty, with minimal collateral damage inflicted on nearby onlookers.

Batman had not yet developed into the crafty, incredibly suspicious gentleman from the future, and Joker had not unveiled his genius creations to cause Batman all sorts of trouble. They were far from becoming mortal enemies.

Perhaps Schiller's arrival instilled more order in the city or the immature Batman was meant to face an equally green Joker; either way, the ruthless Joker in the Laughing Bat origin story who killed all villains and heroes seemed unlikely. Therefore, a Batman driven to madness by torture who ends up killing Joker was equally improbable.

This was Schiller's reasoning, and even after Joker truly appeared, he did not sway from his judgment. He believed that this universe lacked the conditions that could give birth to the Laughing Bat.

However, when Jack sought Schiller out and told him that Batman might be harboring something dangerous within himself, Schiller began to waver.

The critical point was, if there was even the slightest chance that what Jack mentioned could be the Laughing Bat, would anyone dare to bet that it wasn't?

When Jack said he felt like something was incubating inside Batman, Schiller's alertness levels shot up. Regardless of the circumstances, the Laughing Bat absolutely could not appear in this universe.

When Schiller started suspecting the Sleep Demon due to his own situation, he felt compelled to launch a new project, titled "How to delve into a person's psyche through dreams".

This project not only aimed to research how to find the Sleep Demon but also aimed to unearth the potentially dangerous entity Jack spoke of.

After gaining clues about the Eternal Life Factor and successfully brewing the Mad Liquor, Joker and Schiller knew it was time to put their plan into action.

When Schiller told Mrs. Miller that Joker had called him on his private number to make an appointment, it was actually because they needed to confirm their next steps on the call.

What happened afterward was known by all. Schiller, drinking with Joker in the consulting room, deliberately let the elevator operator release the still-climbing Joker Schiller. He made his first contact with Joker Jack. Joker Schiller attempted to coax Jack into one of the rooms in Schiller's mind palace to serve his jail term. Although unsuccessful, he determined Jack would be an excellent ally.

Next was placing other people into his Mind Space, then dragging Hugo into it, testing the whole process's stability, and finally, as planned, digging deeper to find the Sleep Demon.

Inviting Joker into the Dreamland served an even more significant purpose — allowing Joker to enter Batman's dreams through the Dreamland.

Just as Jack had predicted, when Schiller dug deeper into Batman's dreams, Bruce's body indeed harbored a monster that no one had ever seen before.