dmims Chapter 174 Chen Tao: I couldn't possibly have foreseen everything.
Chapter 174 Chen Tao: I couldn't possibly have foreseen everything.
Chapter 174 Chen Tao: I couldn't possibly have foreseen everything.
"I'm very scared."
Chen Tao told Brainiac:
"I'm really scared."
He rambled on in a language Brainiac couldn't understand.
"You know, you often see stories like this in novels, those third-rate toilet paper novels. The righteous hero defeats the evil demon king, returns in triumph with his lover and friends, and the prince and princess live happily ever after... and so on."
"But a story is always just a story," Chen Tao concluded. "Stories always show us the best side of the world, without mentioning the terrible dangers within."
He stared blankly at his palm: "Can I really do it? I know I'm not the real Batman after all."
Even knowing those Batman memories, the scenes of Bat-Dragon's daily training were vividly clear in his mind, and the Batmobile's understanding of computer hacking technology was imprinted in his mind, even those Batmen who were only synchronized and not yet loaded, such as Bane Bat, Claw Bat, Broken Bat, and even Joker.
He could easily read their memories.
Even knowing so much, even after telling himself countless times that it was a "bat," one fear still lingered in Chen Tao's heart.
He's always been an imposter; all his seemingly flawless strategies are merely his understanding of comics as a time traveler. What if one day events deviate from the realm of comics? What if one day he runs out of ideas and can no longer find a solution in comics?
Batman will always win. Batman is cool, awesome, and awesome, but that's Batman! What does that have to do with Chen Tao, who's pretending to be Batman?
Batman will never fail, but Chen Tao, who calls himself Batman... is another story.
He stared at Brainiac: "I've imagined countless times what it would be like to be defeated by you. So I always forced myself to calculate everything, to guess everything. Doomsday, Superman, Wonder Woman."
He said, "I'm always afraid of failing, so I always want to have everything under control, but I know that's impossible."
Chen Tao was reflected in Brainiac's eyes.
He heard the other person say, "So the more you know, the more anxious you become; the more you can't do it, the more fearful you become."
No.
Brainiac thought to himself. Batman spoke of "fear," claiming he couldn't possibly foresee everything, and that he harbored fear within himself.
But in reality—this is a lie!
His face gradually overlapped with that of the ventriloquist in the bat cave, and Brainiac heard the ventriloquist and Chen Tao say in unison:
"I was absolutely terrified."
Brainiac's expression gradually changed.
He observed the short, fat old man in front of him from his perspective inside the bat cave.
He was balding, he looked old, he wore glasses, dressed in a bizarre maid outfit, and held a silly Batman baby toy in his hand.
He was supposed to be just the manipulator of Zombie Black and the Joker, not the last line of defense.
Brainiac watched as he casually picked up the bat doll, his mouth tightly shut, and began to speak in ventriloquism:
"Alright! Alright! That's enough! That's enough!"
Brainiac was quite certain that the voice was his own, not that of the doll.
"I've kept quiet so you could focus on your work, Arnold. But now, this is just too much!"
The voice was sometimes deep and somber, like Batman's voice when he had throat cancer. Other times it was sweet and childlike, like Tim singing merrily in the Batcave.
During his time with Batman, Arnold made many new friends.
"I'm...I'm sorry, Batman, I'm so scared. He's Brainiac, he's so powerful! You have to protect me, Batman!"
"Hey, it's not your fault, Arnold. What good are you, you useless little cookie?"
Brainiac's green-headed doll clone's eyes glowed white: "You're scared, you're terrified!!!"
His enormous green head was bulging with veins, and his small body began to wither at a visible speed. His already meager muscles began to atrophy, as if the last drop of blood had been sucked out.
But it didn't work.
At such close range, with such strong telepathic abilities, it was completely useless.
"You too, and Bain too."
He said, "Damn Batman."
Coincidentally, he had just tried to control Bane, but after invading Bane's mind, he discovered that Bane's mind was already gone.
Literally, Bane's skull was completely empty, so clean it would make a rat weep. Even a robot would stop functioning if all the components in its head were removed, let alone a normal person, but Bane's mother wouldn't.
Brainiac had never imagined in his life that anyone could resist his telepathic abilities in such a way.
The power of decaying blackness prevented him from dying, while simultaneously completely permeating his body.
This connection not only allows him to disassemble his own head, but also doesn't prevent him from controlling his body afterward—the Rotten Black controls every piece of rotting flesh. In other words, every piece of rotten flesh can be precisely manipulated; it's simply a matter of changing the commands to control the body from nerve conduction to Rotten Black conduction.
Furthermore, the Green of All Things grants Bane self-healing abilities; even if his head is removed, he can reattach it like the Uchiha replacing his eyes. Once everything is over, he can simply lift his skull, retrieve his brain, and reconnect it briefly to make it usable again.
"On the other hand, this green frog..." The bat doll in the ventriloquist's hand was still talking.
Brainiac is still trying to hack into the ventriloquist's mind.
He wouldn't give up.
Unlike Bane, at least the ventriloquist before him had a brain; he could clearly sense that pinkish mass lying quietly inside the other's skull—this was a breakthrough. As long as I mobilize enough of my mental abilities…
Then Brainiac heard someone say, "But you know."
He shifted some of his attention back to his spaceship, focusing his gaze on Chen Tao in front of him. He heard the other say:
"Batman should not be afraid."
"You're scared! You're scared!"
Inside the bat cave, Big Head Brainiac kept repeating himself, the white light in his eyes almost shooting out like searchlights, directly at the ventriloquist.
Thick blood vessels bulged from his head, then burst open from the force of the green blood.
This is a sign that the body can no longer withstand the infusion of a large amount of spiritual energy; the body has begun to collapse due to excessive power.
But the price of physical collapse was worthwhile. A powerful mental force, centered on the large-headed doll, began to pour into the ventriloquist. No one could resist Brainiac's mind control at such close range. Talking about toxicity without considering dosage is meaningless; under such a massive surge of mental energy, the impossible becomes possible. Even if the opponent had some ordinary resistance, it would melt away in the face of such a torrent!
"I am Brainiac! You will fear me! Fear what I do—"
Before Brainiac could finish speaking, he was slapped across the face.
"No one can control the ventriloquist! No one!"
The ventriloquist swung the baby bat and slammed it down on Big Head Brainiac's head: "Only I can control the ventriloquist, I am the master of the ventriloquist!"
"That's right, Batman is invincible, Batman is the best in the world!" He saw the ventriloquist shouting in a different voice behind him, "Batman beats Brainiac! Batman defeats all enemies!"
"You're a madman!"
The Big-Headed Brainiac doll had absorbed too much spiritual energy to strengthen its brain, leaving its body as weak as a chicken. It cried out, "This is just a toy!"
He said, "And Batman isn't here either, he's on my spaceship! You're stupid enough to mistake a doll for its owner?!"
"Batman, bite him!"
But in return, he was met with the Ventriloquist's relentless attack. The Ventriloquist yelled incomprehensible things like "Batman's Justice Kick" and "A key + X key + Y key," and then charged up like a whirlwind, swinging the doll and hitting Brainiac's big head again and again, like a novice monk striking a wooden fish, until Brainiac's head was dented.
The big-headed doll Brainiac was knocked to the ground with a thud and then disappeared into darkness.
"I...I still have a chance."
Brainiac's eyes darted around. He quickly shifted his gaze to another battlefield.
The red innermost part of all living beings.
Brainiac's consciousness took over his robots, and he scattered hundreds of different robots within the Red of All Beings to search the vast lands for Killer Croc and Louis and his companions.
Batman hid Superman's two most important family members very well. He knew that if he hid them on Earth, Brainiac would definitely find them. So he placed them within the Kingdom of Life, hoping that the Red of All Beings, this alternate dimension, would block Brainiac's view.
But this is not possible. Although the Crimson Beings are creations of magic, they still need to abide by the laws of physics.
As long as he is a space, he can be invaded by Brainiac; there is never anything in this world that cannot be invaded.
Just a few dozen minutes ago, Brainiac's robot army had destroyed a place called the Totem Council.
Many winged monsters, such as kobolds and bear-headed men, capable of resurrection, attempted to besiege Brainiac's army. Brainiac, however, demonstrated to them what it meant to scientifically defeat magic.
If he weren't in such a hurry to find his two targets, he would have been quite happy to play around with these strange creatures. These little monsters would revive in the ground even after being killed; he had never experienced or witnessed such a peculiar form of life before.
It seemed as if death had no effect on them whatsoever...
Forget it.
Brainiac shook his head inwardly; none of that mattered. What mattered was the present.
Lois Lane and Martha Kent are the keys. He has already sensed Batman's trump card. He must obtain these two to have the ability to counter Batman. Otherwise, things will completely spiral out of control, and he, Brainiac, will face a situation for the first time in centuries where he is no longer fully prepared and can only rely on brute force to achieve victory.
But thankfully, he found it. A stag-horned monster they called a totem couldn't withstand the attack and became a rare sight. With him as a guide, even though he was completely unfamiliar with the internal structure of the Crimson Realm, Brainiac finally found the Killer Croc and the other two women through a thorough search.
"Hahahaha, a mere robot can't stop me at all!"
Killer Croc laughed wildly, his strength having increased significantly after being enhanced by the Crimson Totems. Moreover, being within the Crimson Totems further amplified his power, making Brainiac's mere robot utterly incomparable to him.
He raised the mangled robot high, then forcefully tore it in two. A bloodthirsty smile crept across his lips: "You think Batman sent me here with these two? My strength is already..."
Then he saw hundreds of robots appear on the horizon of the red sand.
"Oh."
Killer Crocodile smiled shyly.
"Excuse me." Then he turned around and leaped into the spatial portal he had created, leaving Martha and Louise behind, disappearing without a trace. Brainiac's heart sank at his actions. Sure enough, when he reached them, the two women instantly turned into mud.
Damn!
Looking at the two mud monsters jumping and laughing in front of him, Brainiac commanded the robots to press the antler totem in front of them: "Damn it, tell me where Batman and Killer Croc hid those two women?!"
"What? Two women?" The antler monster was completely confused, and before it could react, the robot picked it up from the ground like a chick and slammed it to the ground to beat it.
The two robots' fists rained down like raindrops, as if they were hitting a sandbag, or like Parademons from Apokolips beating Green Lantern.
"Still not behaving yourself? Still not behaving yourself!"
Bang bang bang!
The antler totem, writhing in pain on the ground after being hit, cried out, "I had absolutely no idea about Batman's plans!"
"Can you pinpoint the location where Killer Croc escaped?" Brainiac asked. "Where exactly did it jump to?"
"No..." The antler totem had only uttered half a sentence when it saw the expression on Brainiac's face, and immediately cowered.
"Yes, yes, I can..." He quickly told another lie, afraid the other person wouldn't believe him.
"As long as a certain price is paid."
The antler totem was bitter. In truth, after the Crimson of All Beings bestowed its power upon Killer Croc, they were completely powerless to interfere unless they captured the person and manipulated them. Just as if they wanted to reclaim Animal Warrior Buddy Baker's power, they would need to rip out his intestines and clean them up again, rather than simply taking them away from afar.
But how could he dare to say a word against the fierce-looking Brainiac?
"Help, Batman! Help, my fellow countrymen! Help, Buddy Baker!" He began to wail in his mind, thinking of Batman and everyone who could save him, while rambling on to Brainiac, "Ah, the principle behind this space jump is roughly... unlike science, our magic..."
And so, the anxious Brainiac wasted his time once again.
This was an absolutely fatal mistake.
(End of this chapter)