Chapter 579: I, Joker (18)

Translator: Lonelytree

Under the castle, the fighting was still ongoing. Even though Joe had the aid from Wayne’s blood and he was not bad at fighting, compared to the Bruce, he was still lacking. Furthermore, the batsuit that they had were essentially different, this caused Joe to be on the losing end.

“What’s wrong, kid?” The Bruce said as he continued to attack, “Tired, already?” He started to circle around Joe like someone toying with his victim, “You really thought… I have purely relied on Klibon’s invention to have sat on the throne of Gotham for so long?”

Joe naturally did not think that way, he knew very well that in the past few years, whenever the Bruce fought the challengers, he was depending on his real strength. Even without the battle armor, he was still very powerful.

“Compared to my ancestor, I am indeed very weak…” The Bruce continued, “Bruce Wayne was the best fighting master at his ear, he was familiar with 127 martial arts and almost all types of weapon, his fighting style is one of a kind… it is a mixture of Taekwondo, judo, Mauy tai, Ninjitsu and so on, no one will be able to replicate it.” He paused. “The fighting style that I have mastered is far lacking behind him be it in terms of quality or quantity. But… to deal with someone like you, it is more than enough.” As he finished, The Bruce launched yet another relentless attack. He moved fast like lighting and powerful as a tiger. His punches were strong enough to break cement and that was without the aid of the battle armor. This meant that Joe could not even let his guard down for a moment because a careless mistake meant that his life would be over.

“I will not lose to you…” Joe held on with a grit of his teeth. At least in terms of determination, he would not lose.

“ha ha…” The Bruce smirked coldly. “Very good… I expected nothing less from you. I know you were meant for great things.”

Bang bang bang—While he spoke, The Bruce launched three punches and each one landed firmly on Joe’s chest. The latter’s batsuit… had started to crack.

“But those meant for great things either succeeded greatly or they failed greatly…” The Bruce was still continuing, he was totally qualified to lecture Joe about this because he was the perfect example. “Do you think anyone has the right to take on that cape? Do you have the understanding that I have?” He attacked as he raised his voice, “if you do, you would not say something as stupid as, ‘I do not wish to be a god’.”

[No… I am at my limit already… my consciousness is starting to weaken, this will only get worse…] At that moment, Joe did not even have the energy to respond with words anymore. Pain that he had not experienced was surging through his body. All he could do was to focus his whole attention to try to make sure that he did not faint in the middle of the battle.

“Joe Collins.”The Bruce’s attack was reaching its end. He successfully knocked Joe to the ground and was about to deliver the final blow. “You and your ancestor have committed the same mistake, your idealistic belief is just a bandage and my philosophy… is the real cure.” He raised his arm and the lazer on his wrist already fixed its aim on Joe. “This city needs a god and not some dark knight. If you do not wish to become God… then die!”

…

The next second, a lazer beam fired and hit its target. But the person hit was not Joe and the person who fired was not The Bruce either.

“Tsk… another uninvited guest?” The Bruce used his hand to cover the part over his shoulder that was hit and turned to look behind him. In the night sky, Marya in a traditional robin outfit was diving over in a glider. The lazer gun on her right arm was still glowing softly. Turns out at that crucial moment, Marya fired a shot at Bruce. With the opening given by this shot, Joe had the chance for a breather. He immediately rolled away and climbed up from the ground and reintroduced distance between him and the enemy. Wayne’s body greatly improved Joe’s metabolism, that was a power unreachable by a normal person and it was the only advantage he had.

“Hmph… since your helper has made her move…” Seeing the situation change, the Bruce immediately came up with the solution. “Then I shall respond in kind…” He talked into the communicator and ordered. “Come out, Robins! Fight for your god!” With his order, a large amount of flying shuttles flew out from the bat castle and arrived at the sky above the field.

“It’s time for this joke to be over.” The Bruce said, “I have fun playing with you, Joe.” He grinned wickedly, “But now… I wish to go to hunt for more challenging pray and thus I shall leave you to my…”

“Do you mean me?” Suddenly Feng Bujue’s voice came from the above and cut the Bruce off. The latter raised his head and instantly his expression changed immediately…

At that moment, at the top of the bat castle’s platform, a human figure was standing there. He was wearing a batsuit, donning a bat cape and a bat mask, but the lower half of the face which was exposed showed a toothy grin.

“Are you kidding?” The bruce said darkly, “How did you appear there?”

“Hmm… I merely used ‘some kind of method’ to sneak into your castle again, kill everyone who dares to stop me and then I arrived here.” Feng Bujue answered jokingly.

“What do you think you are doing? Joker in a batsuit…” The Bruce glared at Brother Jue, “This is an insult to the legacy…”

“A batman who kills is an insult.” Feng Bujue countered confidently. “A batman who yearns for domination is an insult…” he said as he opened his cape and glided down, “A 80 year old batman who turned himself into Frankenstein because he is afraid of losing his power is the real insult to the legacy.” Right about then, he landed on the ground. Brother Jue smiled and then continued, “Bruce, you are a hero but like many other heroes, you fail to hold on to your integrity in your old age…” When he spoke, golden light appeared in his fingers. “It is about time we change the rules and I shall be glad to do it!”

“Open fire! Kill him!” The Bruce roared loudly and ordered the shuttles to fire immediately. But… what happened next was out of his expectation again.

Two seconds later, the flying shuttles started to fire at each other… Hundred of cannon fire exploded in the sky. Soon many broken flying shuttles careened to the ground with billowing smoke, it crashed among the crowd and explored in fiery flames.

“Oh, God!””Run!” The crowd started to disperse, screaming along the way.

“Ha ha ha… look, whenever you encounter something that touches your bottom line, your attitude will change fully.” Feng Bujue slowly moved towards the Bruce. “Your presence was incredibly powerful when you jumped into the crowd, and when you were fighting Joe, but… the presence that you have as the king of Gotham ultimately came from the confidence you had towards your own power and your confidence in your victory.” Brother Jue grinned and stopped 2 metres before the man, “If you dare, why don’t you repeat your threat again?”

“What’s wrong with you people? Why are you firing at each other?” The Bruce started to slowly retreat. He shouted into the communicator. “Answer me! Anyone!”

“Sir, our shuttles are out of control… Ah!” Finally someone responded but the person was killed before he could finish the sentence.

“What’s wrong? You can’t even think clearly because of fear anymore?” Feng Bujue laughed. “I would expect you to figure this out already… It is not that hard. Since I have the method to take over all the big screens in the city, then naturally I have the way to control these flying shuttles. Have you forgotten… the design of these things’ hardware and control system came from the same person.”

“Klibon!” The Bruce roared into the sky, “You traitor! I will kill you!”

“hah… you better worry about yourself first.” Feng Bujue chuckled and then suddenly made his move.

Two golden light flickered in the night. Brother Jue used the Death Poker and snuck in for a two close slashes. While The Bruce used the fins on his arms to counter them.

“Hmph… I expected more from you…” After he blocked the attack, the Bruce was slightly comforted. After this brief contact, he realized Brother Jue was not as powerful as he thought. Even though the golden weapon he was holding could not break, it was not sharp enough to leave even a scar on his armor.

“Do not misunderstand me.” Feng Bujue explained. “I used such a light touch mainly to test your ability.” He dispersed the poker and scratched his head. “It is to make the next step of the plan more convenient…”

Hearing that, The Bruce’s heart was gripped by surprise and fear and he took on his defence again. But Brother Jue did not come after him again but took out another object from his pocket. He said, “This device is something Prof Klibon came up with on the spot using the equipment inside the bat cave. It has an interesting effect.” He explained while holding a device that looked like a walkie talkie. “It can release a kind of special signal and cause disturbance to a certain system.” As he finished, The Bruce understood what ‘that system’ was, but he was powerless against what was about to happen. He could only maintain his silence while gritting his teeth.

“based on my test…” Feng Bujue held the device while he tapped his index finger on his lips and mumbled in a cute voice, “A 40 percent lowering of your battle armor’s damage should be enough…” He then soon put that into action, he pressed a few buttons on the device and the effect was placed into action. At the same time, a bunch of wrong information appeared on the glass before the Bruce’s right eye. His armor’s battle analysis system and weapon control system collapsed in an instant.

“Alright now…” When Feng Bujue said the first half of the sentence, he was still half a metre away from the man but when the last half of the sentence left his mouth, he already appeared behind the bruce, “Go on and fly for me!”

He suddenly pulled on the man’s cape, with a turn of his body, tossed the boss into the air. The Bruce was muddled by the man’s impossible speed. Looks like… his earlier analysis of this “joker” was wrong. The man’s maximum limit of his power was not something that he could even quantify…

When the Bruce recovered and wanted to steady himself, he already landed on his side on the platform of the bat castle. At the same time, Feng Bujue followed behind him and brought Joe with him up from the field below.

“Now, you no longer have the auto remote batarang and has lost the heat sensory system and the lazer weapon… and the damage of the battle armor has lowered for 40 percent.” Feng Bujue said, “The technological difference brought upon by the time has been wiped away, your strength and speed is similar to the current Joe.” He smiled. “Since you want a game, I shall give you one; since you want fairness, I will give you too; since you want audience…” he waved his arms and all the big screens in the city activated again and started to broadcast the image here, “…I shall grant you that too.”

Then Feng Bujue started to laugh madly and his laughter echoed throughout the city.

“People of Gotham! I bring to you a real and true show.” He laughed and then said, “Let us see… when both batman are wearing the most basic batsuit that is not meant to kill, who is stronger.”

At this point, Brother Jue suddenly stopped and tossed a strange gaze towards Joe. After the latter matched his eyes, he seemed to understand something but did not say anything.

“You shall witness for yourself… the birth of the real batman…” After saying that, Feng Bujue flapped his cape and walked into the bat castle. When he brushed past the Bruce, the latter was so nervous he could barely move, much less attack Brother Jue.

“I believe, we still have a second round.” After Brother Jue, Joe took several steps forward and said while he looked right at the Bruce. By then, behind Joe there was street rolling with smoke and sky filled with sparks. In this background that looked like a battlefield, Joe Collins appeared to grow larger than normal. In his eyes under the mask, they were glowing with never seen before determination and firmness. The black cape waved in the wind. Suddenly, the public appeared to catch sight of another person, the figure that had disappeared about 100 years ago, his real name did not matter because he was—batman.

“Ha… ha ha… ha ha ha ha…” The Bruce suddenly laughed, it was one of relief as well as melancholy.

At this twilight moment before dawn, there was not even one bat signal left in the sky but those strange light pillars still covered the city. The whole Gotham sunk into silence, everyone… was focused on this battle here.

“Fine… fine…” The Bruce shook his head and laughed, “You want to be Batman is it?” He looked at Joe. “Fine… then come and defeat me and surpass me…” he said as he removed the glass from the right side of his face and the communicator and tossed them to the ground. At that moment, the king who had ruled Gotham for 30 plus years finally let go of the falsehood and fear in his heart and faced the challenge before him openly.

“I wish to warn you… the path that you choose is far more difficult… than becoming god.” The Bruce said, “I was unable to carry on that path so I end up what I am today…” He said as he removed his cape and allowed it to drop it to the ground. “I have to admit I have failed to inherit Bruce Wayne’s spirit.” He paused. “But I have indeed vanquished evil and chaos and maintained Gotham’s peace.”

“You brought that through tyranny.” Joe countered.

“yes, and I have no regret about that, in fact I am proud of it.” The Bruce replied. “Because I have personally witnessed… the darkness brought upon by freedom.”

“You should have stood on the line between chaos and regulation to defend the weak and not protect them through absolute control.” Joe said.

“Hah…” The Bruce laughed bitterly. “It is such an irony for you to say something like that to me…” He worked his neck and readied his fist. “Ideally speaking, you are the inheritor that Bruce Wayne would want… but whether you are capable of donning the cape, as the real descendant of the Wayne family… I will personally help him find it out.”

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