Chapter 45: The Riddler Goes Back to Gotham (Ch 829534194)

Lucien pretended to be in this gang for several days, and witnessed with his own eyes that the influence of bats on the city deepened again, and Gotham gradually stabilized.
But the city was still closed and the crazy laughter still did not appear.
Lucien was immersed in the feeling of being praised all day long, and then he pretended to be the clown’s resurrection and carried out a siege in a pretentious manner.
Until one day.
“Dongdong——”
There was a knock on the door.
Lucien went over and opened the door, only to find a man he didn’t recognize.
He is about 1.80 meters tall, thin, wearing a magic hat and a suit.
“Oh~” The man saw him, squeezed in through the crack in the door, and uttered an aria: “Look, look~” His eyes scanned Lucian up and down.
“Let’s guess a riddle—”
“What’s such a joke that even you can’t laugh at it?”
He raised his hands above his head, turned around, and laughed happily: “That was your plan, clown.”
Riddler?
Didn’t the Joker kill all the super villains? Why did he leave the one he hated the most?
“Hey! Man! Why are you so serious? Aren’t you the one who loves to laugh?” The Riddler laughed: “Or are you very unhappy to see that I survived your murder plan?”
“Please, please, your plans are as rigid as rusty gears, and the gaps in your plans are as big as the teeth of a Komodo dragon…”
“You…wait…”
The Riddler suddenly squinted his eyes and moved closer to Lucien: “Are you the clown?”
Lucien raised an eyebrow and didn’t smile from beginning to end.
“Okay~” The Riddler distanced himself again: “You smell a bit like bats.”
…
The virus created by the Joker gave Lucien inhuman self-healing abilities, and the Joker-killing Gang also became his power.
…So was the Riddler who managed to escape the massacre a chance escape by the Joker?
And…did the Riddler really not recognize that Lucien wasn’t the Joker?
…
Lucian said apologetically: “I am indeed not the Joker… I am the heir.” He recalled the name on the Joker’s tombstone and continued:
“Mr. Valeska told me before he died that there would be a…” He pondered, thinking about the adjective: “Well… Mr. Mystique will come to me, and I can find help from him.”
“…Wow.” The Riddler said again: “Wow.”
He paced back and forth. “Hey, damn it, you gotta tell me where his grave is.”
“I created riddles and traps just for him… I have to go to his grave.”
The Riddler took off his suit, turned it inside out, and put on the green lining inside, which was covered with question marks. He then took off his hat and turned it inside out, revealing another green lining and large, eye-catching white question marks.
“…I will help you? Boy, even though you are also a clown, we all know that the next generation is always weak…Ha! How could I possibly help you.”
“Unless…unless…” The Riddler narrowed his eyes and moved closer to Lucien: “Let’s guess a riddle.”
“There are two characters on stage: a villain with a big laugh and a hero with a mask.
This is a tragedy that will never reach its second act.
Guess what — how much is the ticket worth? ”
The villain is the Joker, the hero is Batman, and the first act is a Gotham that cannot be saved.
So what is the ticket?
“Martha and Thomas, am I right?” Lucian shook his head slightly, “But your riddle is outdated.”
“The villain and the hero should switch places, and the tragedy should enter its second act.”
“A laughing hero, a masked villain, a play that’s entering its second act, and most importantly, tickets.”
Lucien stared into the Riddler’s eyes. “The price now is… a bat.”
The Riddler is a smart man. He is one of the few super villains who can compete with Batman in intelligence. Therefore, he can easily understand Lucian’s metaphor:
Batman became the Joker.
Riddler:?
…
The Joker pursues chaos and lack of rules, while the Riddler pursues the constraints of rules on each other.
The Joker wants to prove that the world is meaningless, while the Riddler longs to become meaning itself.
Perhaps the two of them could defeat Batman by working together, but their conflicts will always keep them from working against each other.
But perhaps, this is the only person who can help Lucian now.
…
“Okay, let’s discuss the possibility of cooperation.” Riddler sat on the sofa, resting his chin on his hands, and slowly added: “And feasibility.”
Lucian sat down across from him, struck a match and lit a cigarette: “I can tell you about him.”
“What else?”
“No more.” Lucian looked at the Riddler looking around and explained, “This is the legacy left by Mr. Valeska.”
“Come on, Valeska, I bet you call him Bugs behind your back.” The Riddler added, “So the killing of the Clown Gang wasn’t under your control either.”
Lucien nodded.
The Riddler sneered, “I knew it. Useless second generation.”
Lucien didn’t argue, but offered a suggestion: “I know a way that will 100% draw him out… or anger him.”
“oh?”
“You know, Batman is Bruce Wayne.”
“Should we attack Wayne or kidnap Alfred?” The Riddler said disdainfully, “This is a useless suggestion.”
“No, I mean, the expired ticket – his parents.” Lucian said calmly: “We can dump their graves and dig up their bones.”
The Riddler groaned, then groaned again, then was silent for a moment. “That’s good advice.”
Then he skipped the topic: “So do you have any ideas about restraining him or catching him?”
“My suggestion is to have Superman go to outer space and kill him with a heat ray.” Lucian sighed regretfully: “But I think you, like the Joker, don’t want him to die.”
The Riddler finally gave up discussing anything with Lucien and simply asked him to tell him everything he knew.
Lucian really said it, from the time travel to the present, from Lego to the dark multiverse, from the bond between Batman and Gotham to the Joker, breaking the Riddler’s fourth wall.
Under the current circumstances, it is not a wise choice to keep any information, not to mention that Lucian also wants to know what ideas this so-called intellectual villain has.
After listening to him, the Riddler was somewhat dazed and sat there for a long while, until Lucian finished smoking two cigarettes, hummed and laughed, and said a riddle:
“One is named B and the other is named J. They are the positive and negative poles of a magnet. Guess what – what am I supposed to do to save you? Batman?