Chapter 30

[1st POV]

The tension had been hanging in the air for two minutes now.

The Joker was piercing me with his stare, making me uneasy.

I even gained an extra two percent in mental resilience against psychological attacks.

The silence continued, and I realized my back was already soaked with sweat, and drops were trickling down my chin.

"Well?"

Joker asked nervously.

"Let's reveal!"

I said, and we laid our cards out on the table.

"A-a-a-a! How is this possible?!"

Joker screamed.

"T-t-the twenty-third time in a row! How do you keep winning so many times? I even checked you and you don't have cards up your sleeves. I even used a lie detector, and still, it's all clean! H-O-W?!"

I could tell he was close to pulling his hair out. While he cursed the whole planet and even me, I felt a deep satisfaction.

It turned out the Joker had been free for over a month already.

He planned to visit me when he found out I was alive and well, but Harley ruined all his plans.

They got into an argument, and she even slapped him a few times… or a few dozen times.

Eventually, she stormed off in an unknown direction, leaving him in a slump.

I was safe until his new helper, Doggie, a huge brute in a dog costume, told him that Killer Frost had caught me on the police radio.

That "cold, boring bitch," as he put it, was someone he'd wanted to kill at one point, but he'd never gotten around to it.

Moreover, he thought I was the only amusing cop with a sense of humor.

So, Joker rushed to my rescue.

I can't even imagine how he managed to find Killer Frost's hideout, but there was no time to dwell on it.

As soon as we arrived at his base, he promptly seated me at a table, sat down across from me, and proposed we play cards.

I was bewildered that he'd gone through all that trouble just to get revenge for the last game.

I finally convinced myself that he's either a lunatic or simply madman… It's hard to tell.

But for the first time, I was glad he was exactly the way he was, who knows what might have happened to me with Killer Frost if he hadn't shown up.

Throughout our games, I gained enough experience to level up, get another ten points in luck and five in intuition, and level up my "Cheater" skill to twenty.

Joker snapped me out of my deep thoughts.

"All right, let's play one more time, only this time, instead of your fingers, you're betting your life!"

"Joker, maybe fate itself is punishing you for cheating?"

I said with a squint.

"Why do you think I'm cheating?"

He asked, practically spitting as he spoke, "I'm the one losing here!"

"Fate loves balance!"

I raised a finger with a grin, "See, I got nothing from my wins. But if you were to win, you'd get my fingers as a trophy and a sign of your superiority."

The Joker sat down, thinking it over, calculating something in his head.

"All right! What do you want?"

"Well, I think it would be fair if you gave me the locations of all the 'dull' criminals in Gotham, their addresses, passwords, meeting places, everything you know about them. That's for my twenty three wins. And for this new game… you voluntarily go back to Arkham."

"What?!"

He pressed his gun against my forehead.

"You expect me to go there willingly? That's… that's…"

He suddenly twitched from rage to a surprisingly calm acceptance, "…fair. I accept."

He sat back at the table.

"Ding!"

[New Quest: The Arrest of the Century

Description: You have a unique opportunity to put a psychopath behind bars without casualties and without a single shot fired.

Objective: You need to beat him in cards.

Rewards:

+3000 Experience

+500 relationship with Goddess of Fortune

+5 Luck

+5 AP ]

[Failure or Refusal:

+Title: Loser

-10000 relationship with Joker and the Goddess of Fortune]

[Do you want to accept this quest?]

[Yes / No.]

Like I have a choice…

Ten minutes later.

"Hands, Joker."

I said with a smile after winning the poker game.

I had never seen the Joker experience so many emotions at once, and I doubt I ever will again: sadness, despair, disbelief, gloom, anger, and amusement…

The best part was that I'd not only managed to escape a tricky situation but also obtained valuable information and even put some cuffs on the Joker.

Most importantly, I confirmed my suspicion that he generally keeps his word, at least with people he finds interesting or with the Bat-family.

However, I might still be wrong. He might just be bored and decide to visit old friends.

Who knows with him? If I had telepathic abilities, I'd never risk diving into his mind because I would probably end up as crazy as he is.

By the way, I managed to catch a glimpse of his stats:

Name: ??????/Joker

Level: ???

Class: ???

Feature: Madman, Unknown Genius, ?;:%?%.

It didn't tell me much about him.

The only thing I learned was that it couldn't classify the Joker's class.

"Hey, Arthur?"

I called my partner.

"Isaac?! Where are you? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, all good. Can you come pick us up?"

"Us?"

McCoy asked, sounding puzzled.

Commissioner Gordon took the phone at that moment, judging by the voice.

"Isaac, this is Commissioner Gordon. Where are you?"

"I'm at the Joker's secret base, located in the toy warehouse at Gotham's port. Block 4."

"Got it. Who else is with you?"

"The Joker. He surrendered to me and is waiting to be taken to Arkham. He's already cuffed and sitting tight."

Silence.

"Hello? Did you fall asleep on me? Co-mmi-ssion-er!"

Silence.

"Are you all alive over there?"

I was starting to get worried.

"Understood. Wait there."

He finally replied, and the line went dead.

"They're a strange weirdos."

Joker remarked thoughtfully, and Doggie nodded in agreement.

"True."

I agreed and used the time to work on leveling up my chakra control.

After a few minutes, they arrived, and the commissioner listened to my report of the events and let out a weary sigh.

The Joker had been sent to Arkham, and I had handed over all the intel I'd extracted from him that was already being checked by the ops teams.

In Gordon's office, there were also Bullock, Arthur, and Rick.

The looks on their faces clearly read, "How is this even possible?" or "Why me?"

"Commissioner?"

I nudged him.

"Heh. I want to retire. You know, Officer Dinklage, in my entire career, I've seen a lot of people. And I'm starting to think you're not entirely human. Your ability to get into trouble and get out of it with such insane luck is something that no one else seems to have. You almost remind me of a kinder version of the Joker. However, this is all just talk, and there's no point in getting into it. You're going to see a shrink now. It's standard procedure. You're healthy, right? But you were with Killer Frost, and…"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

I replied.

"Good. Go rest. You've got two days off and don't even think about showing up for work before that. You can even take a little extra time if you're feeling tired or have any other issues. I'll understand. Besides, if the intel you got from the Joker checks out, we'll have a lot less work to do..."

"Okay. I'm heading out. If you need anything, just call."

As I left the office, I heard Jim Gordon's quiet voice.

"If we need his help today and he comes through with his usual spirit, I'll resign."

"And I will too."

Bullock added mysteriously.

"And I'm definitely retiring. Otherwise, I'll go crazy with this partner and end up at Joker's level."

That was Arthur… the traitor!

What did they have against me?

To be continued...

...

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