Laughing American comics, I am becoming more and more like a clown

"boom--"

Chapter 139 Appearance

The screen hanging on the high-rise building was shattered, and even a big hole appeared in the wall.

Gravel, wires, and sparks flew.

The crowd was in an uproar - they originally thought that the government forces were preparing to suppress them with force, but before the second artillery shell was fired, they hesitated and stopped running around.

They looked in the direction where the shells came from.

On the periphery of the crowd was a man wearing a purple suit, pants, tie, a flower on his chest, and a hat.

He loosened his grip, and the rocket launcher on his shoulder fell to the ground. The sound of metal hitting the concrete floor was unclear whether to call it dull or crisp.

"Who are you?"

Someone squinted at his classic outfit, then moved to the original position of the screen, remembering the original bat image on it.

He laughed sarcastically, "A cosplay!"

They knew about the existence of the clown, but that clown was young, new, and had a beautiful face and smooth green hair. At least he was not a bald, disfigured man.

Lucian caught his position and smiled... The flames burned his facial tissue, and the flesh-red wounds that had not healed yet were bleeding from the pulling of the muscles.

"How can I prove I'm who I am? It's very difficult!" Green eyes gleamed brightly. "What do you want to hear? Do you want to hear how I became like this?"

The crowd had little interest in him... This was a conflict between the resistance and the people, and had nothing to do with the clown. They didn't care about stories about real clowns and fake clowns at all.

Lucian was still at the outermost edge of the crowd. Although many people looked at him, they were defensive, vigilant, and suspicious.

……

"We're not interested in your words, man." The man next to him pointed at the screen. "But you have to explain...why you blew that up."

It is a platform for those who make demands to communicate with those who listen.

The crowd was silent but looked at him with hostility.

……

"Because I don't want you to be deceived by him again."

Lucian was in a dangerous situation. Unable to prove his identity as the Joker, he couldn't gain the patience of most people anytime soon. He had no weapons other than the rocket launcher thrown on the ground and the pistol in his arms, so he couldn't escape from the crowd after his failure. He had no one to help him, nor any screens or speakers to amplify his voice. He needed a quiet environment to ensure that everyone could hear what he said...

But he seemed to be talking only to the person in front of him, and even his gaze was focused on a specific person, not a group of people.

"You've seen a pale explanation... an explanation from a man who slays dragons and becomes a dragon himself. Can't anyone hear that this is just a sophistry?"

"But why did you blow it up!" It was the same man, and he became a little angry.

"I told you I didn't want you to be deceived by him, or rather, you shouldn't have any hope in him anymore... Doesn't anyone find it strange?" Lucian laughed. "Isn't anyone curious... about the grave and body of that loser, the former Saint Bat, the Angel of Death, Paul Jean?"

"What does this matter?" The listener feels it is ridiculous and even regrets the idea of ​​wanting to listen in the first place.

"If I say--" But the next words.

"Gotham is a massive testing ground! The confrontation between the two Batmen is the result of a social experiment! Gotham is a city that has been abandoned for twenty-eight years! The so-called lockdown is just a pretext to prevent the test subjects from escaping!"

This is actually outrageous, who would believe it?

They will believe it... It's the suspicion and conspiracy theories that are deeply engraved in their genes, the nature of curiosity and gossip, and the curiosity about outrageous ideas.

At least, those who heard this looked at Lucian in surprise.

This is what he wants.

……

It is cloudy in Gotham today, and it seems that rain is brewing. This is how this city is. It is always considerate and at certain times, it presents people with a fitting scene.

Lucian stood at the edge of the crowd. He said, "Perhaps you think I'm exaggerating, that I'm fanciful... How could America do this to Gotham? How could Batman do this to Gotham? How could things develop like this?"

……

He had said this when he killed Ms. Taylor:

"Getting others to agree with your point of view doesn't mean you have to force your ideas on them... You have to agree with their point of view first, and then discuss your own point of view from their perspective."

So, Lucian stood in their shoes, picking out the flaws in his own words, and then laughed: "How can I prove the correctness of a fact? Just like how can I prove that I am a clown... Maybe I should tell you that I have become like this now because - I have glimpsed the truth!"

……

The crowd was a little quiet, which didn't mean they were convinced. Instead, they were more playful and curious. They were leaning over to see... how this clown-cosplayer would come up with a story.

……

Lucian actually couldn't give a public speech, and his lies and sophistry were just at the entry level.

He plays weak and pitiful roles, but that doesn't mean his acting skills are outstanding.

In fact, at times, his aura would be easily suppressed, and he would become passive...

Always and always, I am being pushed forward.

……

But now, he took advantage of people's playful attitude and the faces of those who expected him to make a fool of himself, and walked into the crowd.

Maybe he was really regarded as a psychopath, a joke, so people made way for him, gave up the high places... and mercifully welcomed him to the center position.

This is the kind of shallow kindness and indulgence that the audience shows before the performance on stage.

……

Arthur stood under the eaves and looked at him, his gray pupils honestly reflecting the scene before him... He didn't know what Lucien wanted to do, just as he didn't know what the old clown had wanted to do.

He never asks questions, because asking requires thinking, and thinking is more likely to be corrupted than action.

He watched Lucian standing in the crowd and heard what Lucian said:

"Maybe too much time has passed... Twenty-eight years is long enough for you to forget what Gotham was like—what a free world it was! Everyone! Everyone can travel freely! Work freely! Have children freely!... No one holds a gun to your head to force you."

The damage to his skin made Lucien's age unclear, and as time passed, the bad things about the city would be washed away from people's memories.

Similarly, due to the lack of newborns, the people standing here, more or less, have some memories of the original Gotham.

Chapter 140 Speech

"Everyone." He paced back and forth: "Perhaps we have all overlooked the twenty-eight years—"

"Does anyone remember what happened then?"

"Bane entered Wayne Manor and broke Batman's spine. He briefly ruled Gotham. Then the Angel of Death became the Holy Bat, slapped Bane to death, and imprisoned Batman. This went on for 28 years. Now there is the new Bat. I heard someone call him the Tyrant Bat... That's the problem!"

"Three people, continuing the same method of ruling!" He laughed. "Is this inheritance? Or should I say, succession? ... They're just playing along! They're consuming our anger and passion. They're training dogs with flesh and sticks!"

"What is the evidence?" Some people are questioning, and of course they should question it.

"Evidence! Yes! That's right! Of course I have to produce evidence!" Lucian pointed at the blown-up screen and laughed: "Isn't the evidence right there!"

"They've deprived us of our right to free speech! They've forced the entire city to listen to their voices! Just like just now! He confidently explained his choices to us, everyone!"

He shouted, "This is a democracy! We have rights!"

"They've imprisoned us here! They've deprived us of our most basic human rights! What is this? Please tell me—was it Parliament that signed the geo-blocking order?! Why are they treating us like this?"

The crowd began to whisper...why didn't the government send troops to fight the Sage Bat?Twenty-eight years later, Gotham's current situation could not have remained undiscovered.

"Gotham has been abandoned! We have been abandoned!" they suddenly realized.

……

"Show them the images and chemical compositions you found of the Joker poisoning water sources over the years," Bruce said to Damian.

……

People have some expectations for the resistance, but these expectations are based on the premise that life will get better, or at least return to the state it was 28 years ago.

Amidst the whispers, Lucien heard someone ask, "Who are you? What do you want to do? Why are you telling us this?"

Those who heard the same thing stopped discussing and looked at him.

There was not much teasing in his eyes anymore, but he was still alert.

Did you think he was going to say "I'm a clown"?

No.

He said: "My name is Lucien Emerson Turner. Perhaps none of you have heard of my name. Yes, I am a nobody... but I was once a member of the resistance."

Walking on the platform, his trouser legs wrapped around his legs as slender as bamboo poles, as if he was walking on stilts.

"...I can tell you my age—twenty-eight! I was born the night Gotham changed!"

Sometimes, people believe in coincidences and special things. Given Lucian's current honor, no one can determine his age from his appearance. Even if he says he is forty years old now, no one will be too surprised.

Age doesn't matter.

"You just said you were a clown! Who the hell are you!" someone shouted.

This is where Lucian made a mistake... In such occasions, he did not have a detailed speech script, and most of the time he spoke freely, and the contradictions would be infinitely magnified.

"Yes, I am the Joker, but I am not the original one... That one died on the road of pursuing the truth. I am the new one who took over his legacy."

"Ha! Seeking the truth?!" someone scoffed. It was a forty-year-old middle-aged man. He turned around and waved at the crowd, "We all know what the Joker is! He's just a lunatic! How dare you say he's seeking the truth?!"

He laughed out loud: "You're a liar! An eye-catching liar!"

Lucian smiled. He wasn't angry at all. He was exceptionally calm, even detached and superior.

"I have no intention of defending the Joker, but please believe me, if the Joker is a liar, why would I be standing here dressed like this as his successor?"

He looked at the middle-aged man and asked with a smile, "If I were standing here as Lucian Emerson Turner, an unknown person, or standing among you a few days earlier, wouldn't you trust me more?"

……

It's sophistry.

But the fun of sophistry lies in its impossibility of verification or falsification.

……

"As for why I'm telling you this..." He smiled slowly, his eyes lowered, a look of pity in his eyes, like the Madonna in Michelangelo's Pietà. "Friends, it's because I realize how sad we are."