"Who?"
Eric paused when he heard that name.
"Joker."
Wonder Woman repeated the name.
"Where did you hear that name?"
Eric looked at Diana in surprise.
He hadn't expected Diana to be involved with the Joker.
After all, they were two beings whose styles didn't quite match.
He had seen Batman fight the Joker many times, and the Joker often troubled Superman, but interactions between Wonder Woman and the Joker were truly rare.
He had always thought they were two entities with no common ground.
"So, you have indeed heard that name, haven't you?"
"Mm."
Eric pondered for a moment, saying nothing.
Not only had he heard that name, but he was also very familiar with it.
After all, in his previous life, "Joker is me" was everywhere, and Batman was already too busy.
"I have indeed heard of him, but in this city, his only object of interest is Batman, and almost all his crimes are for that purpose."
Eric said to Wonder Woman, "So, it's not strange or difficult to understand why he hasn't shown up yet."
"But earlier, at the Justice Society, I saw the list of criminals you made for Gotham, and you put this guy called 'Joker' in the first place, even above gang leaders like Penguin and Falcone. Why is that?"
"Did I?"
Eric feigned a puzzled expression.
"Perhaps you misread or misremembered."
"Don't show me that expression, Eric. Your disguises usually don't work on me. As someone who sleeps beside you, I'm familiar with your tricks. When you deny something and you're lying, I can see your unnatural behavior."
Wonder Woman smiled slightly at Eric.
She understood Eric and knew his character.
After all, they had been together for so long, from the Underworld all the way here, experiencing everything.
"Then you must have remembered wrong. He's just an ordinary person, with no superpowers."
Eric said in a casual tone.
"But Batman is also an ordinary person, isn't he?"
Wonder Woman didn't agree with Eric's explanation.
"Alright, Diana, I don't know why you're interested in him. But you must understand one thing: Gotham, this hotbed of sin, incubated him. If this city were eradicated, he would have no soil to survive in. So, a person like him is both troublesome and not troublesome; there's no need to invest too much energy."
Diana nodded slightly at Eric's explanation. "I see, Eric. To some extent, you're afraid of him, aren't you?"
"Afraid?"
Eric hadn't expected Wonder Woman to use such a word.
Afraid?
While there were things that could make him afraid, unfortunately, the Joker was not among them.
He was silent for a moment, then said, "No, I'm not afraid of anyone. The Joker just annoys me."
"Hmm, connecting your placement of this person's name as Gotham's primary threat, and then your transformation of the city of Gotham, I concluded 'fear.' It seems to fit the deduction, doesn't it! I even suspect, Eric, that your bringing the enhanced soldiers into this city also has to do with the criminal Joker. Although there's no evidence, it's just a woman's intuition."
Diana felt her logic was sound.
Her intuition afterwards should also be very accurate, as it had never been wrong before.
Her inner, vague suspicion told her that Eric's intense focus on Gotham included this Joker.
"It fits the deduction, but Diana, do you know what the purest evil is?"
Eric suddenly asked Diana a strange question.
Diana was stunned for a moment, then said, "Evil, does it come in pure forms?"
"The villains in comic books always have an explanation after doing evil, explaining the character's motive for evil."
Eric said in a tone devoid of emotional change:
"Among these villains in Gotham, Two-Face is a lawyer driven to psychological perversion by persecution, Penguin is a deformed individual who decided to join a gang after being discriminated against for his appearance, Poison Ivy is a botanist brainwashed by chemical agents, not to mention seemingly tragic characters like Mister Freeze, who wants to save his wife, and characters like Selina, who is sometimes a thief but sometimes a benevolent 'philanthropist.'"
"But for the Joker, he seems much purer. You can never guess his actions. He casually blew off the head of someone in the front row at a movie theater, blew up a building just because it blocked the light, he snuck into an elderly couple's home, shot the two old people, just to lie on their bed and sleep, even if the bed was stained crimson."
Eric's gaze was fixed on the city, where mist was gradually rising, and he slowly said to Wonder Woman, "A person without desires is the most difficult opponent to deal with."
"And an opponent without desires who can also peer into people's hearts is an even more formidable enemy."
Wonder Woman frowned, thought for a moment, and asked Eric, "Do you mean that pure evil without purpose is the most terrifying?"
"The word 'pure' isn't entirely accurate either."
Eric watched the dispersing crowd on the street, then turned to Wonder Woman and said, "If I had to give a reason for the Joker's evil, it would be his madness."
After a pause, Eric continued:
"He was an ordinary person before, too, with a wife and an unborn child. Although their life was poor, he always worked hard for his wife and child, even if it meant helping criminals. But it was this kind of small person from the bottom of society who, after experiencing a 'bad day,' was tormented by multiple pressures until he went insane."
"From this perspective, his object of hatred also seems different from others. Two-Face hates injustice, Penguin hates discrimination from others. What about him? He seems to hate this dark world itself. So, he exhausts his sanity to retaliate against society, and it seems precisely for this reason that he chooses to use madness to fight against this somewhat abnormal society."
Eric shook his head and continued, "However, if he were to hear these theories I'm discussing here, he would probably mock my rich imagination and boredom."
"Why?"
"Because you can't expect the actions of a lunatic who blows heads off in theaters, blows up buildings that block light, and completely embodies his madness in himself and those around him, to be explained."
"He even had a puppeteer cut off his own face before a certain Night of the Owls, in his own words, this was'seeing his true nature.' It's clear that even he himself can't see his true nature, so how can I describe it clearly to you in a few words?!"
"Is that so?"
Wonder Woman hadn't expected Eric to have such a high opinion of the Joker.
She had always thought Eric found metahumans difficult to deal with, and never imagined he would care so much about an ordinary person.
She even, at this moment, wondered if Eric was a local.
Otherwise, why would Eric know so much about everything in this city?
After a moment of thought, she asked Eric, "If you met the Joker, what would you do?"
"What would I do? Of course, I'd get rid of him without hesitation, so I can send him to join his beloved Batman."
Ignoring Wonder Woman's astonished expression, Eric turned to leave. "So, I've never been afraid of him; I just find him annoying, just as I find everything in this city annoying."
Wonder Woman said nothing, instead pondering Eric's words.
It seemed this city was far more complex and treacherous than she had imagined.
She even developed a strong interest in this gloomy city.
"Wait!"
Just as Eric was about to leave, he was called by a familiar voice.
He looked back and saw it was his older brother, Clark.
Wonder Woman saw Clark and felt things were getting troublesome.
If a conflict were to happen now, they were a bit short-handed.
After all, the opponent was Superman!
A superhero that even Eric couldn't easily defeat.
She wished she had held onto Barry earlier; if he were here, it would be great.
Many thoughts flashed through Wonder Woman's mind in an instant.
Clark, hidden behind the crowd, finally couldn't hold back and stepped out when he saw Eric about to leave.
Hearing Clark's voice, Eric stopped, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth, and turned around.
"Finally, you show your face, Clark. I thought you could hold out forever. After all, you've been watching the show from outside for so long."
Eric, with a mocking smile, said to his older brother.
Clark walked up to Eric under the gaze of Gordon and Harvey Bullock.
"Are you... are you doing well recently?"
After a long pause, Clark finally managed to blurt out that sentence.
"I'm fine, Clark. Martha is also fine, and Rachel. If you could go home and see them, I think I'd be more willing to believe you truly care about this, and not just out of polite courtesy."
Eric said this in a flat tone.
Hearing Eric say this, Clark immediately felt a little guilty.
He hadn't shown his face to his mother and sister in a long time.
But that didn't mean he hadn't visited them.
Clark had previously observed Martha and Rachel from a distance outside Kent Farm.
Although he wanted to show himself, he ultimately just took a look from afar and left.
If he went back, it would be equivalent to choosing to compromise with Eric, which was something he didn't want to do.
Even though he missed his mother and sister, and everything in the small town and on the farm.
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't face it at the time; I needed to calm down."
Clark sincerely said to Eric, "Eric, I apologize for my previous actions. I shouldn't have attacked you, and I haven't been home to visit Martha and Rachel."
Hearing Clark say that, Eric's expression softened slightly.
"The fact that you can think that way shows you're not a bastard like Lex, who values other things more than family."
Eric looked into Clark's eyes and said, "I'll let bygones be bygones. If you cut ties with those rebels and return to the farm, we'll still be family. Mother misses you, and so does Rachel."
Gordon and Harvey, who were standing nearby, looked astonished when they heard Eric say their relationship was that of brothers.
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"