Greed suddenly woke up, looking incredulously in that direction: "Arrogant?"
Of course, he knew Arrogant was in the competition, but he didn't believe he would be lucky enough to run into Arrogant right away.
Arrogant crouched down in front of him, touched his forehead, and then followed his hand to his wound. As soon as he touched the wound, Arrogant froze.
"Who did this?" His voice turned cold.
"Hiss... who else...?" Greed gritted his teeth, "Of course, it's Batman!"
"Just to be sure, you're not talking about..."
"Not your good student, though he is also chasing me. I hit him, maybe broke his arm..." Greed seemed a bit guilty, "You can't blame me. I was running for my life..."
"Lie down first," Arrogant said, "Let me check the wound."
Greed slowly lay back down, but a more intense dizziness swept over. He gritted his teeth to avoid passing out, but soon he didn't need to grit them, because Arrogant reached into the wound.
"Ugh——!!!" Greed's body straightened in agony.
But soon Arrogant gave up, he said: "Massive internal bleeding. Under normal circumstances, you definitely wouldn't survive. Think about it: do you want to go now, or should I take you out before you go."
Greed forcefully closed his eyes and cursed Batman in his heart for another five minutes, not killing people is your lie!!!
"Judging by the direction of the stab, he really didn't intend to kill you. If you had stayed put obediently, you probably wouldn't have died. But who told you to run and jump, and then fall from such a height. Do you think you're Superman?"
"Then I'd rather fall to my death!" Greed said viciously.
He panted heavily a few more times and then said: "I'll go now, and you bring the body to the central energy room to meet them."
Arrogant nodded. He came to the front of Greed's head, lifted his upper body, supported his chin with one hand, grabbed his shoulder with the other. With a "crack" sound, the person in his arms became a corpse.
And Greed exited the body, returned to Battleworld, and angrily slammed the desk a few times. He didn't expect to be the first one taken down in the organizer's side—Batman is fully responsible!
Greed truly didn't expect that when he fell above the cubicle for about a second, Batman went directly for the kill. How could anyone react to that, right?
Even at the moment Batman made his move, Greed didn't feel any malice from him. Otherwise, he might have avoided it in advance. This guy is extremely dangerous.
He stormed back into the surveillance room and found the agent lounging there with legs crossed, holding a cup of coffee, leisurely watching the show.
Greed walked over and slammed the desk: "You damn mole!"
"Doesn't feel good to be outwitted by Batman, does it?" The agent grinned.
Greed crossed his arms and stewed in silence. This was his first direct encounter with Batman's power, and indeed, when dealing with this guy, you can't get too close, or you'll be doomed.
The agent handed him a cup of coffee, which Greed didn't want. The agent then encouraged: "You know Batman is strong when he's hunting you, and the same goes when he's hunting others. You've already left the stage, now isn't it a good time to enjoy watching them being hunted?"
Greed was taken aback for a moment, and his anger instantly dissipated. The agent made a good point.
When he was being hunted, Batman was a damned butcher and a relentless hobgoblin. But he's the same when hunting others. Now he's already out, while his colleagues are still on the field.
As harsh as he was when stabbing him, later he wouldn't show mercy when beating this bunch either. This spectacle must be watched!
So Greed immediately took the coffee, sat beside the agent, blew on the steaming coffee, took a small sip, exhaled a long breath, and said: "Quick, quick, let's see how the others are doing."
The others aren't doing so well.
Let's start with the Joker. Typically, if another group were chasing him, his silver tongue and tricks would work just fine. But, alas, Thor is completely immune to his schemes.
The only tricks that can work on Thor in this world are those designed by Loki. Thor's whole life is a testament to "You can pretend to be something other than what you are, but you can't be truly inept." Normally, playing along with his brother for a little prank or trap is just sibling fun. If he were really foolish, could he have waged wars in Asgard for millennia without any trouble, and still earn so much admiration?
After the Joker dashed back to the original checkpoint, he jumped down as well. He initially wanted to take the staff passage, but Thor was too quick in pursuit. The Joker barely lifted his foot to run when Thor pinned him down.
"No, no, no!" the Joker shouted, "I'm innocent! I was tricked into coming here, I'll tell you everything, just let go of me first..."
The same old line. If it were someone else, they might have listened to his explanation, as it sounded like part of the plot. In reality, this was indeed the Joker's line. In the original script, he is the unlucky millionaire who got swindled. This dialogue is mainly to set up why the company wants to silence him.
The general idea is that the millionaire played by the Joker finds the current game format not thrilling enough. He wants to organize a bigger, more luxurious survival game with more millionaires participating personally. However, the company absolutely disagrees, so he plans to bypass the company and go solo.
Of course, the company couldn't allow this, because if he stirs up trouble, their own affairs might also be exposed. So they seized the opportunity to call him in and planted a mole among the accompanying millionaires, intending to simply kill him.
This way, they can stop his plan and warn the future millionaires not to easily participate in the game. Watching is enough. If you really play, this is the end.
The Joker had memorized his lines, but sadly Thor was also a skip-the-dialogue type. Mainly because his years of battling had made him hear more excuses from captives than branches on the World Tree. Strange and bizarre ones abound, and most are fabricated. Often after listening, it's all nonsense and sometimes even traps. Over time, he developed the habit of killing first and asking questions later.
"Bang!" Thor grabbed the Joker by the collar and punched him in the face. Then came another punch, and another...
Loki couldn't bear it, so he nudged Thor and said, "Don't make it so gory. Give him a quick one."
Thor initially intended to punch him to death, having no qualms about sparing enemies. But since Loki said so, he directly stepped on the Joker's chest, grabbed his head, and pulled it off with a yank. The Joker's whole head was removed by him.
Thor grinned at Loki, who took a few steps back in disgust: "I told you, don't make it so bloody, it's disgusting."
Thor casually tossed the head aside. In the monitoring room, Greed slapped his thigh in approval, but halfway through his shout, the Joker lunged forward, suddenly strangling him. He sprayed his coffee everywhere.
Greed twisted his body to break free from the Joker and pushed him to the ground. The two wrestled on the floor.
After a long bout, neither had the upper hand. They stood up with somewhat disheveled clothes, and the Joker panted, "Look at this lousy plot you designed! And this crappy checkpoint of yours!"
"Weren't you the one insisting on coming when you heard Batman was coming?!" Greed retorted defiantly, "How come you got through the whole game without getting a glance from Batman, and now you're furious?!
"Well, it's true. Batman's attention is all on his good buddy Superman; they're as close as a hand and a glove. And you? He's never acknowledged any nemesis relationship with you. You're just a self-important clown!"
The two started wrestling again.
Soon after, Scarecrow also couldn't escape. He was even more unfortunate. He intended to take refuge in the next checkpoint, but upon arriving, he forgot where the staff passage door was. After all, this checkpoint was designed about a month or two ago, and he wasn't in charge of the next one, so he couldn't remember the exact map, getting caught red-handed by Charles and Erik.
Scarecrow was even less capable of resistance. Don't be fooled by how Charles and Erik rely on powerful mutant abilities for a living; both lived through war times, and Erik even fought in a war. Scarecrow is a university professor teaching, how could he compete in combat with these two? He couldn't even beat a fully-legged Charles, let alone Erik.
Erik gave him a swift end—grabbing an iron rod, pressing it against Scarecrow's right eye, "thud" right through the brain. The scream didn't come until he returned to the monitoring room.
Scarecrow was obviously on the Joker's side. Both believed that Greed's checkpoint design was the big problem. If he hadn't designed that ring, the lantern wouldn't have been slapped away, and they wouldn't have ended up displaced, caught in one fell swoop.
As for why no one sought trouble with the critical mole agent, on one hand, they didn't know the agent altered the ticket. On the other hand, what high expectations could you have of the police? They clearly stated they were the FBI, just as skilled in closing doors as opening them. What's there to argue about with someone like that?
Greed also explained, "Actually, even if the lantern was slapped away, we shouldn't be so disadvantaged. The main problem lies in failing to achieve objectives in the first three games."
"The rule-clarification session is meant to hint at them not to reach a draw. As long as it's not a draw, once the game begins, someone is bound to get hurt. Maybe not limbs, but there will definitely be a lot of blood. With injuries and weakness, they can't catch up to us."
"Who knew they'd be so lucky, not playing a single game in the first three rounds. Normally, there should've been one suffering misfortune, especially with a Shiller and a Batman involved. Shouldn't they have been out of luck?"
Greed was utterly puzzled. But while indulging in his confusion, he failed to notice the agent sipping coffee, slowly bowing his head. This wasn't just good luck, but someone bearing the burden for them.
The agent understood that Greed's arrangement wasn't flawed. First, use the first three games to make them sacrifice blood or parts, which effectively weakens them. Then push the Joker's mole out for them to chase. It looks like letting them vent their anger, but venting is actually less beneficial, wasting energy on one hand, and on the other, without the support of anger, people easily get discouraged.
By then, with injuries aching and dizziness from blood loss, and lacking the sustaining anger to make the opponents look bad, the adrenaline fades quickly. The next two rounds become more difficult. Maybe, during the most challenging final stage, they can catch them all in one go.
The plan was good, but unfortunately, man proposes, and God disposes. The agent sipped another coffee. What's wrong with being the police? The police are there to enforce heavenly justice!
Not long after, Mephisto, who was cornered by Harley and Pamela, also arrived. He wasn't particularly angry, just a bit helpless, shrugging, "That girl is really volatile. Now I have two more holes in me than Jesus."
Unexpectedly, Stark, who seemed to have the least resistance, survived to the end. Everyone in the monitoring room lined up in a row, ready to see how he'd meet his end.