Chapter 6 The Ritual

For the_Bruce, tonight's ritual was not a "game" at all, but an "execution."

Every year, he and his army would secretly arrest a few people who opposed the Bat or were disloyal to the "faith." Then, with the help of Dr. Clipper's technology, they would transform them into supervillains. Then, on the night of December 21st, he would release these people to carry out this so-called chase game.

On the surface, everyone had a chance to win. The "villains" could gain freedom as long as they killed the_Bruce; and the civilians could kill any one of the villains to get a chance to challenge the King of Gotham and replace him.

But in reality… everything was under the control of the_Bruce. The "villains'" transportation was all rigged; their brains were messed up by chips; their actions were always under surveillance; and the weapons issued to them only had one bullet each…

In the past few years, no one had even been able to escape from the vehicles. The reason was simple: without tools or external help, they simply couldn't break free from their seat belts or other restraints. All they could do was drive wildly through the city in a confused state of mind, eventually dying in a car accident or being hunted down by the_Bruce.

Only in rare cases would "villains" be killed by armed citizens. Once that happened, the_Bruce would keep his promise and fight the challenger head-on. But the outcome of the battle… as mentioned earlier, the civilians in this universe were utterly ordinary people. And the_Bruce's body was a war machine that had been modified over the years. The outcome was self-evident.

So, to put it bluntly… the annual "ritual" was actually a blood sacrifice with strong religious overtones.

In order to let the people tormented by tyranny and poverty vent their emotions and strengthen their faith; in order to let them experience the power and benevolence of the Bat; in order to remind them how terrible life was without the Bat… this ritual would continue.

"Gordon, I'll take a fifteen-minute break after taking out Two-Face. Have the 'Robins' locate the coordinates of Harley and Poison Ivy to prepare for the next killing," the_Bruce was already planning his next move as he piloted the plane toward Xiao Tan.

"Uh… about that," Gordon's voice came from the other side of the intercom, sounding hesitant, "Two minutes ago, Poison Ivy's tracking signal was also interrupted… Now her and the Joker's whereabouts are unknown." He paused for a moment. "Also… that Harley… she… she somehow got her hands on a cold weapon and used it to destroy all the mobile cameras that tried to approach her, and even blew up two of our hovering airships… I can only order all units not to approach her for the time being."

"What did you say?" Bruce couldn't believe his ears (in this independent parallel universe, there was no Justice League setting), "Are you crazy? Is she an alien?" He snapped angrily, "Forget it… I'll talk about it when I get back after taking care of Two-Face." Bruce finished speaking and cut off the communication, because at this moment, his Batplane had arrived near Two-Face's out-of-control aircraft.

"Do you have faith?" Bruce took the opportunity to turn on the plane's radio function, hovered in mid-air, and shouted to the civilians below.

"We do!" "Praise the Bat!" "Loyal to the Bat!" "Long live the God of Bats!" The crowd below erupted in a tsunami-like response.

"Good, then… I will give you—Two-Face!" As Bruce spoke, he controlled the Batplane, aimed at the spinning disc-shaped aircraft in the sky, and accelerated towards it…

At this moment, Xiao Tan's hands and feet were still fixed on the aircraft, and even with the disc repeatedly spinning, he couldn't fall off. In the uncontrolled, repeated high-speed tilting, Xiao Tan was already dizzy and nauseous; it was good enough that he hadn't thrown up. Facing the oncoming plane, he was almost in despair.

"Hmph… easy peasy." Two seconds before hitting the target, a triumphant sneer appeared on the corner of Bruce's mouth.

Unexpectedly…

Bang—a loud noise.

A crimson figure descended from the sky, like a scarlet missile, crashing straight into the nose of the Batplane.

"You've got to be kidding me…" A rare look of astonishment appeared on the_Bruce's face. Because through the glass of the hatch, he saw a person—the Joker.

Just a few days ago, this "Joker" was still lying in the Bat Castle's laboratory, accepting the transformation surgery with a look of horror. But at this moment, he seemed to have become another person… In the raging wind, he stood heroically on the cabin cover, with a crazy smile on his face.

However, Bruce's shock didn't last long. The emperor who had ruled Gotham for so many years was no ordinary person. In less than two seconds, the_Bruce recovered, grabbed the control stick in front of him, stabilized the fuselage that had tilted due to the impact, and immediately activated the weapon system.

Squeak—squeak—two machine guns popped out from the wings of the fuselage, locking onto the target at close range.

"Looks like I have to take care of you first…" The_Bruce was a calm and ruthless character. After this scientifically unexplainable mutation occurred, he showed no fear. "Hmph… anyway, those rabble below have already been waiting impatiently."

He thought that as long as the machine guns fired, he would be able to take care of the "Joker" in front of him, but…

Just as Bruce's finger was about to press the fire button, Feng Bujue struck through the Batplane's cabin cover with a palm and leaned his upper body into the cockpit.

"Cough—" The next second, a powerful hand grabbed Bruce's throat, and he only had time to utter a short syllable before he couldn't make a sound.

"Hi, Bat." Feng Bujue smiled like a mental patient. In every sense of the word, he imitated it very well. "The game has just begun, why rush?" As he said this, he exerted his strength and dragged the_Bruce out of the cockpit.

"You… are… what…" Bruce raised his hands and grabbed Feng Bujue's wrist with all his might, barely relieving some of the pressure on his neck, and squeezed out these words.

"Hehehe… who knows?" Feng Bujue replied with a smile. Then, he raised his hand and threw the King of Gotham off the plane.

The crowd on the ground was silent. People stared blankly at the sky, watching the King of Gotham fall from mid-air.

In the sky, there came a mad laughter…