Chapter 173 S: Apocalypse Major Event (Forty)_1

"Are you the Mister Joker from before?"

Spider Man looked at the familiar grin, his question laced with uncertainty. He grew more vigilant as it appeared that Joker, with his new body, was considerably stronger than him. With his attire, Joker looked more like a member of the Children's Gang who were far from trivial.

"Of course, I am." The grinning man nodded, "How could I miss Batman's invitation? You seem to be getting along not so well, boy."

Spider Man rubbed his belly and squat on the ground. He hadn't eaten all day, the emptiness in his stomach was slowly turning into a burning pain, his limbs were weak and he couldn't keep standing anymore.

"I don't know what happened to this damned city, it's worse than the homeless-filled streets I saw in the Bronx." Spider Man rubbed his face, "The order that the mob brought was pathetic. No one cared for the weak, it was survival of the fittest…"

"And what if I told you, this is actually the best era in Gotham?" Joker asked, leaning against a lamppost.

"What do you mean?" asked a bewildered Spider Man.

"It's the era where mob rules still exist." Joker lowered his head, playing with his fingers, and said, "There are frequent fires in the streets, but not large-scale explosions or robberies. Adults are dying, but there will always be someone to replace them. Many kids are starving to death, but the strong ones will survive and become a member of the gang."

"Isn't that bad enough?" Spider Man asked.

"Far from it." Joker shook his head, "The worst is when the mob also disappears, next it's the era of crazies, everything will be ten thousand times worse than you can ever imagine."

"What will happen then?" Spider Man asked, swallowing.

"The crazies will make explosions unchecked, as no one can control them. Adults can kill another just because they are in a bad mood, because they know the police are useless. Children will be sold off randomly, they have no freedom or self-determination, just raw materials for something else. They won't have the chance to form any small groups and are defenseless."

"That's insane." Spider Man clenched his fist tightly, staring intensely at Joker, "And you are part of this madness."

"No, I am just a product of this madness." Joker looked into Spider Man's eyes, "Batman originated this madness."

"You always slander him." Spider Man took a deep breath, "I know the world is terrible, but if you say that he is worse than you for not saving the world, that's a complete nonsense. You can't wash away your sins by blaming Batman's actions."

"I am simply presenting you with a fact." Joker walked over and placed a bag of bread in front of Spider Man, "Did you know? It was Batman who ended the order of Falcone's mob."

"Did he come here?" Spider Man ignored the bag of bread, and kept intensely staring at Joker, asking the question in return.

"Of course, maybe we'll be witnessing history again." Joker gave another smile, and then gave the longest speech of the day.

"Just now, reality revealed the perils of your dilemma for the first time, while Batman suffered the consequences twenty years ago."

"If the gangster era does not end, kids like you will always live under the fear of violence, with similar tragedies continuously happening. But once the gangster era ends, the last order will be destroyed completely, and this city will totally fall into the abyss."

"The Batman I know chose the latter."

Spider Man sat there, staring blankly at Joker, waiting for an answer after he finished speaking and, just as expected, Joker said,

"For your sake, for the kids he saw in the dark corners of the streets when he first decided to be a superhero with full of expectation."

Spider Man loosened his clenched fist, sitting on the ground, staring at the bread Joker tossed at him. Joker squatted down on the ground, propped his face with one hand and said, "You think that Batman can't deal with criminals like me and others in this city because he is not resolute enough, or because he chose the wrong method."

"But the funny thing about reality is, there is no right path. Heroes are just having the courage to face the consequences of their wrong choices. The madness of Batman lies in the fact that he is just an ordinary man who has been powerless like you for decades. He thought he had choices, but he had no."

"So I call him a madman. Why bear the consequences of choices that have no right answer? Why be arrogant to think that he can atone for the darkness that reality has imposed on everyone? Why can't he admit the truth to what I just said, give up warning and repentance, and truly laugh with it?"

Joker stood up, walked to Spider Man, held up his face with both hands, pressed the corners of Spider Man's mouth upwards to form a false smile.

"Do you think that you are responsible for the death of your companions?"

Spider Man froze, and then began to tremble all over.

He realized then, everything that Joker said was only to let his guard down, and the final sentence was the real dagger that pierced right through his heart.

Joker left elegantly as a swordsman sheathing his blade, but Spider Man heard a sentence echoing from the hollow beatings of his own heart: "Why should I be the one to take responsibility?"

He was no longer the mighty Spider Man, but a wounded, hungry child who couldn't even guarantee his own safety. He faced problems that countless adults in this city couldn't solve, issues that even heroes could only retreat from and regret. If he said he was not responsible, who could blame him?

His weakness would be his best excuse for retreat, an escape route that Spider Man, the superhero, had never had before. He'd tried his best. Fate played tricks, and reality was cruel - this would be his best excuse for sparing himself.

But what about not letting himself off the hook?

Spider Man thought of Batman in Joker's mouth. He had made his own choice in the dilemma of reality, faced the consequences of that choice in the following twenty years, and tried his best to make amends.

But there was no need for him to make things so difficult for himself; whatever choice he made was wrong. He was not even a superhero with superpowers. Why not accept his vulnerability and give up the ridiculous responsibility imposed on him by this reality, thereby lightening his load with a relieved laugh?

The touch of Joker's fingers still lingered on Spider Man's face. All he had to do was follow this force, raise the corner of his mouth in a smile, and sigh regretfully for the girl. He could then leave all that sadness and heaviness behind and start a new life.

Why not? Spider Man thought with his eyes closed. He got up, picked up the bag of bread, and staggered back into the room.

"Why did you kill Falcone in the first place?"

In a corner of the abandoned factory, a young boy chewed a mouthful of bread and mumbled a question to the older boy. The black-haired boy just sat in silence, expressionless, as serious as a statue.

"I didn't kill Falcone."

"But you didn't save him either." The boy wiped the crumbs from his mouth and said, "Dick told me that you knew Maroni was about to attack him, and you could have stopped him."

"I had no reason to stop him. It was two villains from the mob fighting each other, and I had no reason to save either of them." The black-haired boy's tone was flat and emotionless, not like he was chatting, more like he was being interrogated.

"Right? That's the good deed you've done." The boy holding the bread shrugged and said, "When the mob was gone, something worse came along. You brought it all on yourself."

The boy picked up a water bottle next to him, took a few gulps, and sat down across from the black-haired boy and said, "If you hadn't killed Falcone, or okay, okay, if you had saved him, the situation with the mob could have been maintained, and everything wouldn't be so bad. Why did you act so impulsively back then?"

"Do you think I was impulsive at that time?"

The boy looked to the side and said, "That's not what I meant, but you probably didn't consider the consequences. Seriously, Batman, do you regret it?"

"I don't regret the death of a mob boss, Damian, never."

"You're changing the subject again." Damian looked at the boy across from him and said, "I'm asking if you regret destroying the mob's order and leading Gotham into a worse era."

"How do you judge whether an era is worse?"

Damian scrubbed his face and said, "Anyway, the Gotham I saw in the other universe was much better than yours. You often say seeing is believing. I saw it, and by comparison, your Gotham is definitely worse."

"Did you really see it?" Batman's tone remained unchanged, but he stood up and walked towards the exit of the building.

"Hey, wait, where are you going?"

"You don't need to follow me." Batman turned his head and looked at Damian, "Because the city outside is the better era you speak of, and you also want to turn your hometown into such a place. In that case, you can definitely live here on your own."

"Of course I can!" Damian raised his voice in anger, "Are you upset because your mistakes have been exposed? Batman, you're always like this, you can't stand anyone's correct advice!"

Batman said nothing, vanished silently through the stairway. Damian took a deep breath, clenched his fists, got up from the ground and ran to the window, shouting at Batman who was walking alone into the sunset, "I will correct your mistakes!!!"

Batman didn't look back.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen of a restaurant, Bruce quickly opened the cupboard under the stove. With hands still full of foam from washing dishes, he groped in the dark cupboard.

Suddenly his eyes lit up. He took out what he was holding in his hand and a triumphant smile appeared on his face.

In the gleaming light was a delicate little silver spoon engraved with a vine pattern.