"If you fight with the dragon for too long, you will become a dragon yourself; if you stare into the abyss for too long, the abyss... will stare back."
The amygdala woke up from the severe pain, and he cried and wailed, lamenting the pain and torture he had suffered.
Killer Croc lets go of the amygdala.
Chen Tao looked at him, and even his manic and chaotic brain felt Batman's gaze.
His crying was stopped when invisible hands pinched his neck. He whimpered and fell to the ground, curling up his body tremblingly.
"It's all over, Batman. You have become a prisoner of Gotham's evil."
The Riddler announced: "Do you remember Romans? Kamai Falcone, do you know that when young Kamai Falcone's life goal was to end evil in Gotham?"
"——And he later became the biggest gang leader in Gotham, and so did you, Bat. When an upright person succumbs to sin, it is as harmful as a public well being poisoned!"
He said a little crazy: "Therefore - Batman is dead!"
He threw the gun in his hand to the ground: "Bat King has been reborn!"
He bowed to Chen Tao exaggeratedly, like a jester in a stage play: "Batman! You are a criminal now!
He shouted happily:
"There is no difference between you and us!"
The Riddler has been convinced by the logic he has thought up, and Batman, who murdered the Joker head-on, is undoubtedly a criminal partner like him in his eyes.
Batman has the same traits as him, but is much more powerful than him, so——
He surrendered, in every sense of the word.
Chen Tao knew that if he hooked his fingers at this time, the Riddler would pounce on him and lick his toes...
Okay, maybe the other party will be more reserved and not so exaggerated.
But the attitude inside is the same.
As long as Chen Tao thinks about it, he can get help from the Riddler right away. If he does so, it will definitely be very convenient to defeat Bane, find the nuclear bomb, save or rule the entire city by relying on the other party's IQ, resources and force.
Right?
But...
I refuse!
"I have been a criminal for a long time, Nygma. Violating personal rights, illegally possessing deadly force, and blatantly violating fortress law. I have never denied this. Now it is just adding first-degree murder to the charge."
"But you bastard, listen up."
"You said so much, I think it's all bullshit!"
"Your theory of darkness is nothing more than a variant of the bad day theory."
Chen Tao said:
"You think that all people will become slaves of darkness, just like the Joker thinks that even Gordon will become the Joker after one bad day. But Gordon did not become the Joker. Neither did Barbara."
He said these words while looking at the blindfolded Jim Gordon.
"Whether it's a bad day or darkness, it's just an excuse for bad guys to do bad things."
"Law? The law is just a piece of waste paper to me. Nygma, please don't get me wrong. I drew a bottom line for myself in the past. I was not protecting myself, but you."
"I have been thinking about whether it is just to sacrifice a small part of justice for greater justice."
"So do you have an answer now, Batman?"
Chen Tao sighed.
From the moment Edward Nykma opened his mouth, he knew that the person he needed to defend was not at all the collapsed Riddler in front of him.
It's another member of Gotham's former iron triangle, the police chief who devoted everything to the entire city, Jim Gordon.
He took off Jim Gordon's blindfold. The other party looked at him with pitiful eyes.
"Batman, you were hope."
He said.
Jim's expression was a little dazed, and he stared at Chen Tao:
"You told us, you told Gotham."
"No matter how rich your knowledge is or how talented you are, you can't be like Nygma and think you are superior to others."
"No matter how much you want to save your family, you can't sacrifice the lives of innocent people for your family like Victor did. No matter how cold the night in Gotham is, you shouldn't use the blood of others to warm yourself.
"Judicial efforts will always yield results in the end, society will not always be in a gray area, and justice will eventually be worth protecting."
"You told us that [the world is worth], even if we have experienced the worst day, even if we have experienced pain that countless people can't even imagine, no matter how painful, no matter how crazy, no matter how desperate, it is still worth it."
He suddenly had a nervous breakdown and said:
"You tell us that the greatness of mankind lies in the fact that after facing the extremely cruel and bloody darkness of human history, we still have hope in it and work hard to heal this human society instead of destroying it with one shot! This is all
What you said is what you taught us!"
"Why? Why do you want the clown to win? Why do you want to make such a sudden decision? Why do you want to become like them?"
"For God's sake, you should have sent the clown to jail instead of shooting him!"
"I didn't break him." Chen Tao said: "I cut him into meat paste.
Chen Tao added: "The kind that crushes fans. Clown sauce."
"Joker, clown-chan. I'm pretty sure that's some kind of Japanese joke."
Gordon babbled angrily: "What, do you still want to make clown sauce into some kind of bat-clown flavored sandwich?"
"And that's what I did, and I'm sorry, Jim."
"You know after you do this, Batman will degenerate into..."
"Procedural justice is just a means, Jim Gordon."
"What?"
"I will only spit on the corpse of the clown, Gordon. Murdering the clown does not make me a tyrant or dictator who kills at will."
"Do you really believe in fallacies like the slippery slope theory? Isn't it true that what we have been pursuing is substantive justice?"
Chen Tao said: "Superheroes have abilities and should inspire the world to make the right choices.
When procedural justice and the system can achieve this, of course I should support the system and procedures, but when the systems and procedures are dysfunctional and corrupt, I should also supervise the system and procedures themselves.
In essence, the justice pursued by superheroes should be above the law. Otherwise, why don't I just join the system and become a police officer?"
Gordon responded with silence.
Chen Tao sighed. He stopped what he wanted to say and shook his head.
This kind of thing is essentially a difference in ideas and thinking. Jim Gordon has stayed in the system for too long, and his thinking has been framed.
From the time he murdered the clown, he had already thought that it would be impossible for the two of them to form a cooperative relationship like in the past.
This is also the price that must be paid, and he has long expected it.
"So now, Mr. Nygma, you'd better tell me where you stole Penguin's nuclear bomb."
"What nuclear bomb? I have never stolen a nuclear bomb!"