Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics
Chapter 5793 - 4816: Royal Casino (11)
Immediately after, Arkham Batman approached Superman, but it seemed like Superman’s luck had run out. This time, instead of finding a safe, he was shopping in a store. Arkham Batman walked up and punched him, knocking him down, and then followed with another punch, putting Superman in a critical condition.
Unexpectedly, Superman had a self-revival skill. The moment he fell, he stood up, turned around, and unleashed a heat beam, forcing Arkham Batman back, and then he jumped down from the atrium.
This time, he jumped all the way down and started running around the hall with Arkham Batman in hot pursuit. Arkham Batman realized that this Superman’s strength far exceeded his expectations; at least, the Superman from his universe wouldn’t have been able to navigate like this.
It’s not that maneuvering is so difficult, but Superman, who’s accustomed to long having super senses and super strength, would be very unaccustomed to a scenario that almost entirely limits his abilities. He’d often act like he was about to take off, only to stand there dumbfounded because he couldn’t fly.
It’s like a person who originally had two hands, and one day suddenly lost one. Occasionally, they might forget and try to use the missing hand’s shoulder when reaching for something, which is an inevitable circumstance.
Especially when it comes to navigating obstacles and taking detours on the ground, Superman almost never had such experience. In the past, whenever he encountered an obstacle, he simply flew over it. He never had any opponents who required him to play hide and seek on the ground, so he’s not really skilled at this.
And without his super brain, Superman couldn’t inadvertently remember everything he saw. He had to work hard to remember and think like a normal person to memorize routes, then flexibly apply them, which was more challenging.
Who would have thought, this Superman was indeed a special breed. Not only did he remember the hall’s routes, but he maneuvered around incredibly well, smiling back at Batman as he ran.
Arkham Batman chased him all the way and finally punched him as he rounded a toppled gambling table. The punch shocked Superman significantly.
But even so, he quickly calmed down and continued pulling Arkham Batman to run to the other side. Arkham Batman had no patience to play games anymore. He used a grappling hook to grab the chandelier on the ceiling, leaping over obstacles to land in front of Superman.
"Oh God, you’re cheating," Superman said.
Bam! Arkham Batman had no words to waste.
Even after knocking Superman down, Arkham Batman didn’t take him to the basement, as time was running short. There were still two people not caught; if they all opened the same safe together, the progress bar might not even have a third left.
Arkham Batman returned to the safe, only to find the progress bar unmoved, indicating those two weren’t targeting this safe. He moved towards another potential location and, sure enough, found an agent opening the safe.
This was the toughest person to deal with, Arkham Batman knew. The agent’s launch ability was simply outrageous, accelerating like a rocket. Fortunately, with total darkness in the scene, running that fast made it easy to bump into things.
When the agent saw Batman, he took off again in a flash, but didn’t hit anything. Arkham Batman was certain the skill must have some auto-navigation feature because running that fast without bumping into something in complete darkness was not something human.
Arkham Batman decisively gave up on the agent. Unless he could approach him twice within the skill cooldown time, catching him was impossible. Arkham Batman didn’t believe he had that kind of luck, so he went for something more practical.
Now, there weren’t many safes left: two were in very remote locations, with a low possibility of them targeting those. Arkham Batman just had to run back and forth between the two middle safes.
As expected, before long, he caught Lucifer at another safe. In Arkham Batman’s view, Lucifer was probably the weakest link; he really didn’t know how to play the game.
But Arkham Batman was still cautious, knowing Lucifer didn’t have a great temper. Once pushed too far, using administrator privileges to flip the table would be troublesome.
So Arkham Batman stood behind him for a while, considering how to approach without scaring him. Lucifer finally turned to look back, seeing Batman standing like a wall behind him.
Lucifer dashed to the other side of the room.
"What are you doing!" Lucifer cursed, "Why don’t you make any noise when you walk?!"
"I’m contemplating how to kill you without making you blow up the entire game," Arkham Batman said truthfully.
"You’re actually considering that?" Lucifer replied sarcastically, "When you told me that previously, why didn’t you consider whether I’d get so provoked I’d blow up the entire cosmos?"
"...What did I say?" Arkham Batman was genuinely puzzled, he hadn’t spoken to Lucifer.
"You’re even trying to deny it now?!" Lucifer raised his voice, "Since you clearly knew about me... why would you..."
"I don’t understand what you’re saying," Arkham Batman said, "I haven’t said anything to you except our current conversation. If you heard something, it was probably an illusion."
Lucifer opened his mouth, then said, "But that’s impossible. How could Doctor Manhattan read my memory?"
"You mean he said something that frightened you, but he shouldn’t have known that?"
Lucifer nodded and said, "I thought you investigated me, and learned about my dealings with Anatoli. That could be figured out, after all, you’re Batman. But who does Doctor Manhattan think he is?"
Arkham Batman understood. It’s still the same issue as before; the skill uses Arkham Batman’s fear to reflect the fears of others. But the prerequisite is that the person creating this skill must know what others fear.
Other people are relatively easy to handle. Reading some superficial memories isn’t strenuous, and many things aren’t considered secretive; none of them have intentions of concealing anything.
However, Lucifer is completely different. He’s not human, not even a living being. He’s a cosmos administrator and one of the fundamental rules of the cosmos. Randomly reading his memories is impossible. Although Batman received some big revelations, these were shared by other parties involved instead of being sourced directly from Lucifer’s memories.
This makes capturing Lucifer’s fear virtually impossible. Without memories, how can you determine if he’s truly afraid of something or merely pretending?
However, judging from Lucifer’s reaction, he was genuinely frightened, even somewhat on edge, indicating that the stimulus point was accurately targeted. But how did he know?
"Let’s not discuss this anymore." Arkham Batman decided to skip over the topic since it wasn’t suitable to discuss under Doctor Manhattan’s nose, "Have you calmed down now?"
"Barely," Lucifer replied, "But even if I don’t cheat, do you think you can really beat me?"
"I can try," Arkham Batman said, "You mentioned it yourself; I am Batman."
The next second, Arkham Batman advanced, showing no fear of the Archangel, only excited eagerness to punch this troublesome figure. The Batmen have long known the dubious deeds Lucifer engaged in while in Hell.
Lucifer dodged, snapped his fingers, and said: "Let there be light."
Instantly, light illuminated, filling the room with soft white glow. Arkham Batman was momentarily stunned by the flash, allowing Lucifer to escape. He jumped from the skylight to the first floor and began running around avoiding Batman.
You might say Superman has special varieties, those geniuses who don’t rely on super senses and super brain. Then what’s the deal with Lucifer? This God’s Second Generation rarely uses his brain but still proves to be formidable.
Chasing Lucifer around, Arkham Batman realized that it’s not Lucifer who is strong, but that he’s incredibly lucky. When running, he stumbled clumsily, and each decision seemed more instinctive than strategic. Yet he consistently picked the right route, avoiding Arkham Batman, and was never tripped by any obstacles.
"Stop for a moment," Arkham Batman shouted, "Are you sure you’re not cheating?"
"Of course not, otherwise Doctor Manhattan would tell you," Lucifer said, "After all, his amusement park and Battleworld are rivals, so why wouldn’t he want to expose me?"
"Then why are you..."
"Of course, it’s because I’m skilled!" Lucifer boasted for two seconds, but then seemed to remember something, "Okay, luck is really hard to determine. Perhaps you could understand it as God’s favor; a father’s child always receives some special treatment."
"You’re very lucky?"
"Precisely, the more critical the situation, the better my luck becomes. God left these safety measures when I was young to prevent me from sneaking out and encountering danger."
As Lucifer was feeling smug, he didn’t notice Arkham Batman inching closer until within striking distance. With a bang, Lucifer fell directly to the ground.
"Damn it! Batman! You sneaked up on me!" Lucifer predictably cursed out loud, making his voice heard throughout the first floor. But Arkham Batman was indifferent, lifting Lucifer from the ground.
"Put me down! Put me down! Damn it, when I get out, I will definitely teach you a lesson!"
"Batman! You can’t do this to me! I can’t be on that wretched chair; getting electrocuted really hurts!!!"
"Batman, let’s negotiate! Once we’re out, whatever you want to do, I can agree to it and ensure you’re satisfied. How about it?"
"I’m not Constantine." Arkham Batman tossed Lucifer to the ground, "I don’t plan on putting you on that chair; otherwise, God will come after me."
"Glad you understand." Lucifer was still yelling, "But even if you’re not Constantine, we could have fun. Angels don’t have genders; do you like those fiery blonde women? Or dark-haired Spaniards?"
Arkham Batman turned and walked away.
"Wait, don’t leave me here alone!" Lucifer shouted while crawling, "You might as well put me on the chair; at least it’s a bit brighter there..." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
"Shut up," Arkham Batman said turning back, "If you don’t want this game’s footage sent to Doctor Shostakovich, then behave yourself."
Lucifer fell silent.