American comics: Damn it, I’m surrounded by those who worry about their fathers!.

Chapter 991 Batman is a cunning bastard!
at the same time.

Wayne Manor.

Rorschach suddenly sat up in bed.

Sweat beads, like cold worms, slid down his temples beneath the ink-covered mask, soaking his rough collar.

My heart was pounding wildly in my chest, crashing against my ribs, almost breaking free of its restraints.

Rorschach breathed heavily, trying to expel the nightmare fragments from another universe, belonging to another Rorschach, from his mind.

Then, he froze.

Because there are other people in the room!

The cold air was filled with the smell of leather and Kevlar fibers.

Rorschach turned his head sharply.

Beneath the ink-black mask, a sharp gaze locked onto a deeper patch of darkness lurking in the shadows of the corner.

Batman sat on a simple wooden stool, his back straight, almost blending into the cold stone wall.

How long has he been here?
Rorschach's muscles tensed instantly, a feeling of unease from being spied on welling up inside him.

He let out a low groan, and his body instinctively assumed a defensive posture.

"You seem to be having a nightmare."

"Yes, it is."

After hesitating for a moment, Rorschach decided it was best not to provoke Batman.

He didn't blame the other person for suddenly entering his room, but instead asked about the diary.

"Have you read that diary, Batman?"

Batman did not answer immediately; his gaze shifted slightly behind his glasses and landed on Rorschach's face.

"Yes."

Bruce said in a low voice, "I read that diary, every single page."

He paused slightly, as if choosing his words carefully, and after a long while said, "I understand everything that has happened in your world."

Rorschach stood up and asked Bruce, "Do you know where Dr. Manhattan is?"

Batman slowly stood up, his tall figure casting a shadow on the wall of the room.

Instead of answering Rorschach's question directly, he walked to the table in the corner.

A detailed map of Gotham City was laid out on top, with one area circled in a striking red mark. Scattered around it were some sensor reading printouts, covered with waveforms that were difficult for the average person to understand.

"Spacetime disturbance".

Batman's fingertip landed precisely on the red circle—the location of Arkham Asylum.

“I detected traces of spacetime disorder here.”

Rorschach suddenly stood up straight, the ink on his mask seemingly distorted slightly with excitement.

"Arkham? That place that holds madmen?"

He couldn't understand.

Dr. Manhattan, that almost omnipotent being who overlooks the universe, would hide himself deep within the prison cells where humans confine mental patients?

"The most dangerous place is often the safest place."

Batman's voice remained cold, "Especially for someone who can change their form at will and distort space and time."

He looked up, the white light from his eyepiece piercing the darkness and locking onto Rorschach.

"The clues in the diary, combined with the peak of spacetime disorder here, all point to Arkham. He is very likely there."

No further words were needed; Rorschach's fists were already clenched, his knuckles cracking softly.

Rorschach was excited at the prospect of finding Dr. Manhattan so soon.

The rain in Gotham never truly stops.

Tonight it was even worse, as if the sky had been ripped open with a huge wound, and cold, murky rain poured down.

Rainwater pooled on the Gothic spire of Arkham Asylum, forming countless murky streams that washed away the graffiti on the walls.

The two dark figures, like ghosts blending into the rainy night, easily evaded the surveillance cameras and patrolling guards on the perimeter.

"Oh!"

Batman's grappling hook precisely caught the gargoyle's menacing stone beak, and the two silently swung over the high wall, landing inside the asylum.

The air was filled with the smells of disinfectant, mold, and a kind of oppressive atmosphere that was hard to describe.

The process of entering the asylum, led by Batman, was almost eerily smooth.

Bruce felt like he was back home, skillfully avoiding the blind spots of the still-operating surveillance system, using electronic jammers to disable key access control systems, and opening one heavy isolation door after another.

The corridor was dimly lit, with only the emergency lights emitting a ghastly green glow.

The further they went, the more dilapidated and gloomy the environment became.

The air became murky, carrying a heavy, earthy smell and a musty odor.

The walls were no longer painted gray walls, but exposed, rough concrete seeping with water droplets.

The lights were even scarcer, and the darkness almost swallowed people up.

The portable detector in Bruce's hand emitted increasingly rapid beeps, and the spatiotemporal disorder waveform on the screen fluctuated violently, with the peak value almost breaking through the upper limit.

A few minutes later.

The two stopped in front of a door.

This door was completely different from all the doors the two had passed before.

It was unusually heavy, cast from some dark alloy, and its surface was covered with complex rivets and a long-defunct hydraulic locking device.

There was no observation window on the door, only a feeding opening about the size of a fist.

Large patches of dark brown stains remained on the concrete wall along the edge of the door frame.

This is the deepest, darkest corner of Arkham, a place that has theoretically been forgotten.

It was a cage for the most dangerous prisoners, those who couldn't even be defined by the Arkham Standard. The detector in Bruce's hand reached its climax here, the shrill beeping sound almost solidifying into a blinding white light from the chaotic waveforms on the screen.

Rorschach felt as if the air was slightly distorted and the light was becoming unstable.

An indescribable sense of oppression permeated the narrow corridor.

Batman gestured for Rorschach to be quiet.

He approached the heavy door and listened intently.

It was deathly silent inside, without any sound of movement, as if it were an absolute vacuum.

Rorschach stepped forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Batman, his eyes behind the ink mask fixed on the massive alloy door that isolated everything.

Then Rorschach took a deep breath, raised his hand, and forcefully and heavily pounded his knuckles on the cold metal door.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The sound echoed hollowly in the deathly silent corridor, like the sound of knocking on a coffin lid.

"PhD?"

Luo Xia's hoarse voice pierced through the iron gate, "Are you there? We need to talk."

His words sounded exceptionally clear in the empty corridor.

Inside the door, all was still deathly silent.

Rorschach glanced at Batman.

Batman nodded slightly, gesturing for him to go inside.

The old mechanical lock on the door had long been destroyed by Batman using tools.

Rorschach stretched out his hands and pressed them against the cold, heavy door.

He took a deep breath and mustered all his strength.

"Crunch—crunch—crunch—!"

A sickening metallic scraping sound rang out, and the heavy door was slowly pushed open.

An even more stale smell wafted over.

The interior was pitch black, even more so than the darkness of the corridor, as if even the light had been completely swallowed up.

Only the pale green emergency lights in the corridor outside the door managed to squeeze in a faint glimmer of light.

Without the slightest hesitation, Luo Xia entered the room.

However, just as his entire body was completely engulfed in the darkness inside the door!

"Clang!!!"

A deafening explosion suddenly erupted behind him!

Rorschach was startled and turned around abruptly.

The heavy alloy door that he had just pushed open was suddenly slamming shut.

Driven by immense force, the heavy bolt clicked shut with a series of crisp sounds, "Click! Click! Click!" and locked instantly!
Outside the door, the pale green light of the emergency lights was completely blocked.

Only a tiny sliver of light shone through the small food delivery opening in the door, barely outlining the silhouette of Batman.

Batman stood outside, his gaze coldly fixed on Rorschach's astonished face inside the door, peering through the reinforced glass of the food delivery opening.

Batman?!

Rorschach's voice was filled with disbelief, shock, and a sudden surge of rage: "What are you doing?! Open the door!"

He lunged at the door, frantically pounding on the cold, heavy alloy door with both hands, making dull "bang bang" sounds.

But the door panel remained completely still.

Outside the door, Batman's voice came through the heavy metal door.

“I’m sorry, Rorschach, but you belong here. This asylum is the place for you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Batman's figure vanished instantly outside the food delivery opening.

Luo Xia was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood!
I've been tricked by this bastard!

This godforsaken place has no Dr. Manhattan at all, nor any trace of time-space distortion.

Batman found a reason to create a fake detector, tricking his impatient self into coming here and being locked up.

Is this something a human would do?!
"No! Bruce Wayne! You fraudster!"

Rorschach's roar exploded in the dark cell, filled with the fury of betrayal and the desperate howl of despair.

He pounded frantically on the seemingly unbreakable door, his face contorted with extreme anger and fear beneath the ink mask.

"Let me out! I'm not crazy! Let me face him! Do you hear me?!"

However, the only response he received was the echo of his own roar in the vast, empty prison cell.

The next day.

Smallwell.

After waking up, Courtney, the Stargirl, watched the protests against superhumans being reported on TV and yawned.

He plopped down in a chair and said to his stepfather, Pat, "I don't know what these people are doing. They suddenly don't believe in superheroes anymore. Do they not believe in the heroes of the Justice Society anymore?"

"Justice Society?"

Pat blinked and asked his stepdaughter, "What's that?"

Courtney sensed something was off with her father. "Are you kidding me? Pat, don't you know about the Justice Society?"

"This is the first time I've heard this name. Is it some kind of club?"

Pat said it without seeming to be faking it.

Courtney was stunned when she saw Pat's serious expression.

"You don't even remember the Justice Society? Pat, are you out of your mind?!"

(End of this chapter)