"Corpses.... Ice cream.... Specimens.... Landmines...."
Su Ming frowned as he rummaged through another Bat Cave; the nearest area was the large cold storage, so he naturally went in to inspect it.
As soon as he entered, he saw a pile of corpses, both human and animal. These people always seemed somewhat familiar; they were superheroes from unknown worlds, previously collected by Laughing Bat.
The animal specimens were similar; Laughing Bat seemed to be collecting various types of bats or bat-like creatures from the cosmos.
Ice cream.... that should be the Joker part of his body wanting to eat, nothing much to say, except it's curious why landmines needed to be frozen?
This isn't a magic world to add a frost enchantment to landmines. Quite the opposite, if the pressure-sensitive fuse inside the mines gets frozen, it makes it troublesome to use them.
Walking between the shelves, Su Ming picked and chose while ridiculing himself; this big cold storage is evidently less organized than the one in the Main World. It seems Laughing Bat, without Alfred, doesn't do any household chores.
Too much garbage, no specific clues; apart from knowing Laughing Bat has visited different worlds, there's nothing gained.
"Hmm? You said there's wind?"
Su Ming was about to leave when Strangulation sent a new message. Although it was weak, it sharply sensed air flowing.
Finding a clue, it naturally had to notify its host immediately.
Su Ming started tapping with his fine sword, first the surrounding walls, then the ceiling, finally moving a polar bear specimen to find a small secret door beneath it.
"This.... doesn't seem like Batman's style, hiding things under the floor is a bit too simple." Su Ming commented again, but his hands didn't slow; he inserted the fine sword into the floor gap and pried hard.
The trapdoor was somewhat frozen, making a sound of ice fracturing, and beneath it was pitch black, with unknown contents.
Su Ming fetched a lighting stick from Green Arrow's house, snapped it, and tossed it down. A ghostly green light lit the cavern below.
Below was a data room, with a small table, several file cabinets, and a small desk lamp. The furniture style suggested it was newly built after going mad.
Su Ming jumped down, tried the desk lamp, and found it independently powered, so he pulled the chair and looked at the documents spread on the desk.
The desk was filthy and disorganized, some black substance was frozen at the desk corners, and his breath was very visible under the lamp.
He was genuinely curious about this place, as the Bat Cave itself was a secret chamber, so why did Laughing Bat dig another chamber under the cold storage here?
Wasn't this becoming Russian nesting dolls? Was it the Joker part of his psyche at work?
Too many ridiculous points left Su Ming unsure where to begin ridiculing, but after quickly reading the documents on the desk, his eyes narrowed.
"Tsk-tisk, so that's how it is, that Joker is certainly an interesting person....."
There weren't many documents here, the handwriting was messy, and the writer was severely mentally disordered, drooling and sniffling while writing, leaving the paper quite dilapidated.
However, the information was useful, documenting people Laughing Bat had recruited or planned to recruit.
For example, the members of the Dark Knight Order during Barbatos's invasion, each had documented records including their origins, purposes, and even their weaknesses.
This was Laughing Bat's 'Tower of Babel Plan'.....
Main World's Batman also had one, mainly to record Justice League members' weaknesses and characteristics, to prevent heroes from turning evil.
It seems Laughing Bat's copy of this plan remained unchanged.
Main World's Tower of Babel Plan was stored in Justice League's 'Watchtower' mainframe, and later understandably got stolen, as DC World's hackers were plentiful.
Villains used those weaknesses to develop plans, tormenting the Justice League members to death.
Batman later changed the storage method, deleting those things from the network, instead personally narrating and recording them on old-style tapes, hidden in a place only trusted people know.
Simply put, only Superman knows the place.
Now it seems Earth -22's Batman trusts nobody... which makes sense, as memos should be well hidden.
Strangulation extended tentacle-like appendages with eyeball ends from Su Ming's back, starting to help search through the surrounding cabinets.
Some data already abandoned, as it was from Earth -22's Justice League, and Laughing Bat had killed them all, rendering the data useless.
Including those killed by Su Ming in the last war, like Merciless Iron Fists, Red Death Demon, etc., their data had become useless.
However, Su Ming found the Tyrant data, whom was thrown into Hell; injected with Doomsday Virus, this Batman was still alive, with Satan longing for his death, yet Tyrant can regenerate infinitely.
Luckily, Satan hasn't entirely overturned the table yet, otherwise releasing Tyrant would be a huge trouble.
Su Ming looked at the Laughing Bat's Tower of Babel Plan, in which the plan to deal with the Tyrant was also vague, only proposing two sealing plans of a black hole or the Phantom Zone, without a way to completely eradicate it.
"Well, this is quite similar to my line of thought." Su Ming blew warm breath onto his hands and tossed the materials aside.
If it's the movie version of Doomsday, it's easy to deal with. That thing is made with Krypton Technology, and Green Kryptonite can completely counter it.
However, the comic version of Doomsday is quite the opposite. It was created with the Kryptonite Element, which means it only restrains Superman and there's no reason for it to be restrained by the same Kryptonite.
The Tyrant, transformed from Doomsday Spores, naturally does not have this weakness either.
Probably only Luthor could come up with a way to deal with such a monster, after all, he is the scientist with the deepest research on Kryptonians.
Strangulation's tentacles flipped again, helping the host find Briss's information.
Sure enough, the Laughing Bat did have intentions toward her, but at the time, Su Ming exterminated the Owl Court, and Laughing Bat gave up, perhaps because Barbatos was pressing urgently.
Briss's information is similar to other Batmans, so Su Ming went straight to the weaknesses section, only to find the Laughing Bat's initial plan to mutate her, without further developments.
"Tsk, got excited for nothing; otherwise, this file could've been a gift for Cindy."
Su Ming tossed the file aside again.
He had looked through the information on the dead, uninvolved, and miscellaneous people. The remaining few might be the current lineup of the new Dark Knight Order.
Perhaps not all the recruiting plans were successful, but the candidates should all be here.
First, there's the gun-loving Batman.
Code-named the Cruel Knight, originating from an unknown world in the Dark Multiverse,
the origin of Batman's birth remained the same, except for some slight deviations. The criminal who killed his parents was greedier, picking up Martha's pearl necklace after taking the wallet.
And Little Bruce picked up his gun, shooting the robber through the heart. Under the streetlight in the alley, a bat flew by, and Little Bruce suddenly felt as if a new door opened within him.
Killing is power, and guns are the most direct threat. As long as he has a gun, he can do many things.
So he wandered the world learning martial arts, then signed up for the U.S. Special Forces, reaching the rank of captain, making him another Captain America?
And after learning enough, he returned to Gotham to become Batman.
Needless to say, relying on money and connections, he gained control over a large number of weapons, and the Wayne Group completely transformed into a military-industrial enterprise, even taking defense orders to develop new nuclear weapons.
And during leisure nights, the Cruel Knight would sling a few new automatic rifles or heavy machine guns and hit the streets to experiment on criminals.
For instance, how many bullets does the new heavy machine gun need to turn a person into a bloody pulp? How far can the new shotgun blast a person away? Without experimentation, it's impossible. These data and timing are crucial for developing strategies.
It started with petty criminals, eventually involving all of Gotham's criminals, and he inexplicably joined the Owl Court.
As his methods grew more brutal, his former ally, Director Gordon, also became his enemy, with the Owl Court's influence on him deepening.
Given a few more years, he might have destroyed his world alone, but Laughing Bat took action early, annihilating the Owl Court in that world and extracting the Cruel Knight.
To get him to work for him, Laughing Bat told the Cruel Knight that his parents met their fate due to police inaction, specifically Gordon's fault!
On the day Thomas and Martha were killed, Gordon had just joined the GCPD, and as a detective, skipping patrol to attend a welcome party was the biggest mistake!
Fresh off some Amber Gold, the Cruel Knight was in a 'high' state. Court members often consumed Amber Gold for longevity and pleasure.
But everything changed before his eyes. He originally thought the powerful Owl Court was obliterated by the Laughing Being instantly; Laughing Bat had prepared the Black Lantern Battery before attending alone, he played a Biohazard on the Owl Court....
The Laughing Bat, who was previously at a disadvantage, laughed last. This calculation and behavior expanded the Cruel Knight's horizons—this is true power!
He believed the Laughing Bat's words because such a powerful Otherworld 'self' had no reason to deceive him.
So, upon hearing there were still eighty or ninety Gordons alive on other Earths, he immediately embarked on a journey across the Multiverse to kill Gordon.
Su Ming flipped through and found Director Gordon's name indeed listed under the Cruel Knight's weaknesses, making his target obvious.
Whether the Laughing Bat would act with him was uncertain, but the Cruel Knight would definitely go after Gordon, and this was an opportunity....
Su Ming squinted his eyes, stuffed the remaining files into his arms, with Strangulation tightly embracing them, and he flew out of the underground.
It was indeed worthwhile coming here; now he needed to gather his team, first eliminating the Cruel Knight to cut off one of Laughing Bat's hands.