"You, it's you!"
Harley Quinn suddenly shrieked, but it wasn't out of terror.
On the contrary, it was excitement.
She knew, she knew this Dane was different from the one just now.
Not only because this Dane wore a White hood, but because of something more fundamental.
Dane landed in front of her, his feet stepping on the blood-stained ground.
He reached out and gently lifted her chin, tilting her head up.
"Why, Harleen...?"
"Don't call me that!"
Harley suddenly cried out, feeling deeply wronged, "You said it yourself, you called me Harley Quinn!"
The Worldline shifted at this moment, and Harley Quinn was fully born.
But this also meant that Harleen Quinzel's days were numbered.
Dane looked at the girl before him with pity; did she truly understand what she was doing?
The future Harley Quinn might kill many people, for there was a violent side to her nature.
But she would never know that the first person she killed was, in fact, herself.
Dane did not humor her; he spoke to himself:
"No, it's not time yet, Harleen, you haven't truly earned that name."
Although it was just a brief resurgence, Harleen had not truly experienced Death; she was now temporarily in control of her body.
"I will, I definitely will!"
Harley madly promised Dane, as if wanting to prove herself.
But she didn't know that Dane needed her assurance.
Dane knew in his heart that if the original Harley was brought forth by the Joker,
Then this Harley before him should be considered born because of him, with the Joker merely acting as a catalyst.
Harley transformed the atrocities "he" inflicted upon her in her inner World into a pathological attachment, and this attachment reached its peak when the real Dane appeared just now.
Just as a hatchling would regard the first thing it sees as a source of reliance, Harley also regarded him as a kind of spiritual dependence.
This feeling was so strange; he killed the Joker, so he was going to take the Joker's place?
Hmm? That's not impossible!
Dane stroked his chin.
He had originally intended to interfere with Hush's conspiracy this time—don't misunderstand, not to help Batman expose Hush.
Rather, it was to help Hush "persecute" Batman.
It was unclear where things went wrong, or perhaps it was as if fate deliberately wanted to go against Dane.
Batman not only didn't become the decisive Ben Affleck Batman as in the DCEU,
Instead, his resolve not to kill became even stronger, which was evident from his recent actions.
However, looking on the bright side, Batman at least knew to hit criminals hard.
The gangsters he had dealt with couldn't commit crimes again without being laid up for a hundred or eighty days.
Moreover, Batman getting angry with Dane was useless, because his good disciple Jason killed more people every day than he sent to the hospital.
Shazam still wins!
Dane extended his finger and touched Harley Quinn's forehead; the next moment, she fainted directly.
Harley's personality would remain unconscious for a period, then Dane walked behind her and reached into her Shadow.
Like catching a fish, Harleen Quinzel's personality was extracted from Harley's Shadow pool by him.
The two were two sides of the same coin; Harley was merely suffering in Harleen's stead here, but they were not truly far apart.
Although Dane always felt that he wasn't acting like a human, he was willing to give hopeful people a chance to choose most of the time.
Harley Quinn might be a very popular character in the Real World, but he couldn't deprive Harleen Quinzel of her life because of that.
"Now, your life is back in your hands, Ms. Quinzel."
"Will you become a slightly crazy but somewhat individualistic little psycho?"
"Or will you revert to being that not-so-special but psychologically healthy and promising psychiatrist?"
"Everything is up to you to decide."
In the original story, Harleen Quinzel ultimately became the Joker's girlfriend because the Joker wanted her to become the Joker's girlfriend.
But now that Dane had returned the choice to her, would she still choose to become the Joker's girlfriend?
Could she seize this last opportunity?
Dane was very much looking forward to her choice.
In the Real World, Dane left Harleen's brain and also left this Underground Room.
Soon after, Thomas returned to the Underground Room.
As soon as he sat down, he inexplicably felt a slight abnormality.
He suddenly stood up, his face grim, and looked around fiercely.
Suddenly, the Joker's figure appeared in the laboratory, and he watched Thomas laugh breathlessly.
"Yes, yes, something has changed, something is a little off, isn't it?"
This was the Joker's phantom; ever since the Joker lost the game for Harleen Quinzel.
Although he promised not to fight Thomas for control of the body again, he could still chatter around Thomas as a phantom.
"Look, look more closely, you'll definitely find where the problem is."
Thomas then began to investigate, and soon, he found traces that his computer had been tampered with.
Dane's technology wasn't so bad that it would be discovered, so it was clear that he did it on purpose.
Thomas found that the intruder had read his experimental logs; he checked the internal files with a dark expression, mainly to prevent anyone from installing surveillance devices inside.
Just as he had done to Bruce.
While checking the files, Thomas suddenly discovered an unknown program.
He naturally assumed this was the same as what he had done to Bruce.
So he tried to solve the program in the wrong way, and as a result, all the previous logs about the joker virus research were suddenly deleted.
Thomas's face changed dramatically, and the Joker's phantom nearby almost burst out laughing.
Then a pop-up window suddenly appeared:
[Why. So. Serious?]
Immediately after, text appeared below:
[Smile, My. Friends]
The 's' after "Friends" made the Joker stop his laughter; that person knew of his existence!
Thomas didn't understand how the other party did it, because there was no internet connection here.
He tentatively typed in the dialogue box:
[Who are you? What do you want?]
The dialogue box immediately replied to him:
[Don't be in a hurry to ask questions, my friend.]
[I know you are targeting Batman, but can doing this kill him?]
[No, it won't, Thomas, because the Joker won't allow you to kill him.]
Thomas saw this text and couldn't help but glance at the Joker's phantom.
He saw him staring at the screen with great interest, his face full of having found a new toy.
Noticing Thomas looking at him, the Joker grinned widely at him.
"Yes, he was right, Batman is mine!"
The text in the dialogue box continued:
[What you want is for Bruce Wayne to die.]
[And the Joker only wants Gotham's Dark Knight to fall.]
[I have noticed that you are trying to break Batman's will by killing those close to him.]
[But I must remind you, Batman has faced such dilemmas many times, and each time, he has made the right choice.]
[No matter how painful that choice is for him, that is Batman.]
[His will is almost indestructible, isn't it?]
[But you may not have noticed that Bruce Wayne is not without weaknesses; he is just a human being.]
[What is Bruce Wayne's weakness?]
[Think, think carefully, my friend.]
[Who? Caused the birth of Batman...]
[Mr. Joker, let us wait and see how Batman chooses when faced with a true dilemma.]
The dialogue box ended here, but at the end, a plan popped up.
Thomas clicked to view the plan, and even he couldn't help but gasp.
And the Joker's eyes next to him were already frighteningly bright.
Batman was almost invulnerable, but Bruce Wayne was not.
What was his biggest weakness?
It was the true cause of the Dark Knight's birth—the Wayne couple.
------------------------
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