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

Batman is a ghost.

Chapter 219 Have bats ever appeared in Gotham?

Three days have passed since the nuclear explosion.

Thanks to the efforts of the Silent Bats, emergency rescue was carried out extremely quickly, and as many people as possible survived the accident.

It's finally over.

The Batplane landed back in the Batcave, and when the Silent Bat walked out, his whole body was stained with his own blood oozing from his pores... On the ground, there was a series of bright red footprints.

Lucien involuntarily stood up from his chair, watching him gradually approach, pass by... and sit on this throne that belongs to Batman.

The colorful light coming from the screen shone directly on the face wrapped in blood-red gauze.

……

This is a saint.

And we are the rats that devour the flesh and blood of the saints.

----

Why did this nuclear war happen so suddenly without any warning?

……

On September 1983, 9, a false nuclear alarm occurred in the Soviet Union - the radar detected six nuclear bombs heading towards the Soviet Union, but the officer on duty, Petrov, believed that the instrument was malfunctioning and did not report the incident as required by regulations. It was later proved that this was indeed a misjudgment.

The Soviet Union's nuclear counterattack procedure was "retaliate-intercept", with only 5-10 minutes of response time. Once Petrov reported, the Kremlin had to respond immediately and had no time to verify the authenticity.

Under the premise that everything in the dark multiverse is developing towards the worst situation - the person on duty three days ago was not Petrov, but another person who strictly followed orders.

He saw these six nuclear bombs through the radar, which were misjudged by the system due to reflections from the clouds, and chose to report them. Almost four minutes later, the Soviet Union launched 800 intercontinental missiles carrying nuclear warheads towards the United States.

The United States also launched a nuclear counterattack after detecting these 800 nuclear bombs.

Therefore, this nuclear war started without warning and on a large scale - Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Almaty in the Soviet Union... New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco in the United States... These super first-tier and first-tier cities were almost wiped out by nuclear bombs, and there were no survivors.

Gotham is the luckiest among the first-tier cities - it only has one nuclear bomb, and the reason for showing mercy is mostly due to the earlier news of the Red Uprising.

……

It's raining.

Water descended from dense clouds, dousing the flames burning in the black ruins...except for the charred corpses and unrecognizable fragments, no one was wet.

Under the cool, gray-black rain, Gotham calmed down a bit.

Rain is a good thing in the short term, as it reduces the radiation content in the air, but it is bad in the long term, as it means that the groundwater will be contaminated and it will take hundreds of years for the land to recover to its proper state.

Lucien looked at the rain outside the window... Wayne Manor was far away from the upper city, and the nuclear material was spreading here very slowly, but now it participated in the water cycle and became the condensation nucleus necessary for the formation of rain. And because of the wind... these black and gray rains, which were more deadly than the acidic rain all year round, hit the window like this.

The tiny granular matter that remained made the scene outside blurry and fuzzy.

He gradually lost sight of the brown bushes and green weeds, leaving only the winding stream, making the whole world as lifeless as a black and white movie.

……

Lucian now finds it difficult to face the Silent Bat. Since the Silent Bat came back, Lucian has not said a word to him.

But now he had to meet the Silent Bat...for the sake of black and white movies and the groundwater that was about to be contaminated.

……

Fortunately, Silent Blessing's attitude remained the same as always. The white bandages covered his facial expression, and his tone was still calm with a hint of impatience: "What's the matter?"

"Lime powder can't completely suppress radiation, let alone eliminate it completely... Under the current circumstances, healthy drinking water is extremely difficult to obtain. This is an issue that must be addressed," Lucian said.

"I have a solution."

……

When a nuclear bomb explodes in mid-air, it damages buildings on the ground. However, due to its enormous power, it triggers slight crustal movement, namely an earthquake, which in turn generates a tsunami.

But the latter two were not very powerful, at least the earthquake did not completely destroy Gotham's underground network.

The dark gray rainwater seeped through the cracks in the ground and fell into the already turbid sewer.

The two men waded through the water under heavy protective suits, the "rushing" sound sounding even hypnotically quiet from a distance.

Gradually walking deeper, through the tunnel to a vast area... is a garbage mountain.

"Killer Croc, a monster created by the court, lacks basic consciousness and resembles an animal, an inert one at that. However, he is an all-purpose scavenger—plastic, oil, algae... he can absorb radiation."

When the court created this monster, it probably didn't expect it to have this use, but now.

"Very helpful."

……

Lucian didn't know what he was thinking - but he felt relieved when he heard Jianmo say this.

This was something he himself hadn't noticed.

Water seeps into the ground through the cracks and gathers in this direction due to the pipes and terrain.

The garbage mountain slowly rises and falls, breathing... Although it looks bad, the radiation content and pollution index here are much lower than Gotham before the nuclear explosion. From the perspective of medical disinfection, it even meets the standards of "clean" and "hygienic".

The Blessing of Silence used a variety of tools it carried to collect information about it - the most basic information about its length and weight, muscle density, blood, scales, and cell composition.

Fortunately, this creature was inert and allowed the Silent Bat to do whatever it wanted without any resistance.

Lucian was watching quietly - he didn't understand this and had no intention of getting involved. His eyes were on the place where the bandages were wrapped around the body of the Silent Bat... Of course, it couldn't be seen now because it was all wrapped in protective clothing.

The silence was broken by the bliss of silence, and a voice echoed from this empty space: "Don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

Lucien suddenly realized: "What?"

"What you said the other day... the dark multiverse or your ideas for the development of Gotham."

Lucian thought for a moment and asked, "Do you think you'll listen if I tell you?"

"I'm already here." said the Silent Bat.

Lucian thought for a moment and said, "But for now, these are not important to you."

"why?"

This bat wasn't as inquisitive as the others, but this time Lucian didn't play the role of a riddle teller or deliberately withhold any information. Instead, he repeated sincerely, "It really doesn't matter."

The Silent Bat disagreed with this answer, but his attitude was not very strong...which made Lucian mistakenly believe that he didn't need to explain.

But after thinking about it carefully - to be honest, he didn't know what he was thinking: "If I say it, it might affect your judgment... Forget it, I'll tell you."

Lucien thought he should smoke something, but considering the possible presence of methane in the air, he held back. "I was once high and mighty, bat."

"I don't think you have the potential to save the world."

"I'm sorry, Bat, I didn't trust you enough."

Silent Blessing didn't look back, and didn't stop what he was doing: "What did you think of me?"

"He is murderous, violent, unreasonable, incapable of empathy, has extraordinary morals, but no moral compass."

The space where Killer Croc was located was extremely tall and vast, like the huge dome inside a Gothic building, or a church... but there were no colorful windows, no priests, and no God. The witness was just a monster who could not understand human language and could not communicate.

"now what?"

Silent Bat asked again.

"Same," Lucian repeated. "Murderous, violent, irrational, incapable of empathy, possessing extraordinary morals, yet lacking any moral compass." He paused, then added:

"He has the divinity of Prometheus, the perseverance of Sisyphus, and some of the heroic qualities of traditional Greek mythology... He is a decent person beneath a crazy appearance."

"Should I say thank you for the compliment?"

"You should say it."

But Lucien didn't wait for his praise. Instead, he returned to the original topic: "As far as I know, the world you live in is doomed to destruction... It will develop in a dark direction. Your original idea - to gradually restore order to Gotham - is impossible to achieve... There will always be unexpected events that will disrupt your plans."

"Even if a miracle happens and you really do it, you will be eaten by the monster one day after the calm."

Bliss of Silence did not interrupt, but listened quietly: "I foresee that Gotham cannot be saved, and the world cannot be saved."

"It's not my subjective assumption." Lucian's tone became questioning, even to the point of being harsh: "Bat, do you think the world can be saved by a murderer or a psychopath?"

The Silent Bat didn't answer, and Lucian didn't need to answer:

"Besides, the situation itself is bad enough... Capital controls everything, a war between the world's major powers is imminent, no one who can reverse time has emerged, and no hero with superpowers has appeared... Whether it's a group or an individual, I don't see any possibility of salvation."

"That's why I'm so obsessed with tripping you up, so obsessed with hiding things... I really don't think this can be saved."

Lucian suddenly smiled again. "But now I don't think so... Bat, you can do it. I used to think that a flawed protagonist couldn't be a savior, that a world trapped in despair would have no desire to save itself... But now it seems that's not the case."

"There is hope here... Destruction leads to reconstruction. As for the dark multiverse... I rejected you just now because you don't need an abstract, irrelevant worldview, nor do you need me... You are enough to save the world."

Lucian now had extraordinary confidence in the Silent Bat - he was more confident than himself, so much so that this confidence made the Silent Bat turn its head... turn its head and look at him with blood-red eyes.

"Don't impose labels on me," Silent Bat reminded him, "I'm not omniscient or omnipotent."

“There’s no need to belittle yourself.”

"If it weren't for your incitement, there wouldn't have been a rebellion. Without the rebellion, Gotham wouldn't have been so misunderstood, and wouldn't have been spared in the US-Soviet nuclear war. If there hadn't been mercy... I wouldn't have had a chance to save these people."

"Now," he continued, "if you hadn't told me about this creature, the future would have been even worse."

“…but I have bad intentions.”

"Good things are enough."

……

Lucian was speechless. He thought that the Silent Bat might want him to do something for him next, which was why he was so comforting in such an unexpected way. Thinking of this, he asked this question.

"Whatever... I don't have anything I want you to do for me. Just do what you want. I won't stop you."

"Like you're staying out of Gotham right now?"

The end of the nuclear explosion did not mean the end of the disaster. On the contrary, due to the devaluation of the US dollar and the deaths of violent agency personnel, the law also became invalid.

The default social rules are gone, and Gotham is now even more chaotic, with the death toll increasing day by day... Lucian can foresee what will happen next... Many people will die, perhaps even more than the number of people who died in Gotham's nuclear explosion.

But in this regard, the Blessing of Silence had no intention of intervening. He seemed to be responsible only for solving major disasters and did not interfere in any small ones... Just like when Lucian incited the masses, the Blessing of Silence was more angry that this disrupted his own plan, rather than the act of "incitement".

"I respect any choice made by anyone. My only responsibility is to make the city better."