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Chapter 10: The Joker: Time to Celebrate
🕑 Added 2025-04-15 09:07:52 +0000 UTCJust as the Joker started his low chuckle, all the Talons around him froze in their tracks.
They were Talons—emotionless bio-weapons, not the kind of creatures to laugh!
Clearly, someone who laughed like that was way out of the ordinary!
Their cold, unfeeling eyes all focused on the Talon who was laughing and shrugging.
The Joker knew he had made a mistake, so he decided to stop pretending. It was time to come clean!
"Ah~ oh! You guys caught me! Hahaha, they only just noticed, hahahaha~!"
His manic laughter echoed through the entire factory.
All the Talons reacted instinctively, charging at the Joker, aiming to take him down.
But they had underestimated this psychopath.
After years of sparring with Batman, the Joker's skills were no worse than the Bat's. Plus, with the "Dionysus Factor" now coursing through his veins, his fighting abilities far outstripped those of any Talon present.
However, despite the advantage, the Talons were just as hard to kill as he was. Thanks to the "Dionysus Factor," the Talons could ignore injuries in every part of their body, except for their heads.
Once they were wounded, the "Dionysus Factor" would quickly heal them. The Talon's unique style was all about taking damage and dealing it right back.
The "Dionysus Factor" teeth were embedded in their mouths, though. If their head was severed, or if those teeth were removed, the Talons would die immediately. After all, they were nothing more than reanimated corpses activated by the "Dionysus Factor." (The highly purified "Dionysus Factor" could bring someone back to life entirely, but the diluted version inside the Talons' fake teeth could only heal injuries. They could never fully revive the Talons.)
The Joker, caught off guard, was slashed across the face by one of the Talons, leaving four deep, bone-cutting gashes. Blood dripped down his pale cheek.
With a grin, the Joker swung his knife back, using the Talon's standard-issue small blade like a cleaver, and severed the Talon's head clean off.
The decapitated Talon fell to the ground like a lifeless robot, instantly dead.
"Pfft!" The Joker spat out some blood. "Too weak, too weak! You guys don't even have any power behind your hits! And you call yourselves assassins? You're nothing compared to the Bat! If he were here, he'd shatter my teeth! Hahaha!"
As he spoke, the Joker's cheek healed automatically. He wiped the blood away and flicked it off his hand. "The 'Dionysus Factor' sure is amazing!"
The Joker kept slaughtering Talon after Talon, his laughter growing louder as he decapitated them one by one. The "Dionysus Factor" was continually healing his damaged muscles, making him faster and stronger with each kill.
By the time he was done, the floor was covered with the decapitated bodies of the Talons.
Inside the factory's surveillance room, more than a dozen high-ranking personnel who ran the place were hiding in fear. They had already contacted the Court of Owls for help, but the response never came. It felt like they'd been abandoned.
This factory was in a very isolated location, far from the city, with the Court of Owls acting as a cover. It was the perfect independent base, like an isolated prison island.
As long as the signal between this place and the outside world was cut off, no one would know what was happening here. The Joker had already figured this out.
Just as he was about to reveal his true plans, the Joker had secretly activated a signal jammer in his pocket—a little gadget he'd prepared before coming here.
Now, the factory was completely disconnected from the outside world. If he could take care of everything here in the next two hours, he would have this "prison" all to himself.
"Hahahaha… I found you! Once I kill all of you, this place is mine! Ahhahaha, hahaha…"
The factory executives, all members of the Court of Owls, had horrified expressions on their faces as they recognized the person causing chaos in the factory.
"The Joker! You were supposed to be at Arkham Asylum! You were locked up! This… this isn't possible… You can't be the Joker!"
The Joker looked at the idiot who had spoken, his disgust obvious.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa~ Who do you think you're talking to? You thought the Bat would catch me? Hahahaha, that's too funny!"
Though he was laughing, the Joker's right hand now held five throwing knives—snatched from other Talons.
"As a thank you, let me tell you a joke. I've got five knives, and you've got sixteen people. I'm gonna make all of them disappear. How many of you do you think will die? Heh heh heh!"
"You can't kill us! We're part of the Court of Owls…"
Before he could finish his sentence, one of the knives was driven straight into his forehead. Only the hilt of the knife remained sticking out, wobbling with every movement.
The other executives took a terrified step back!
"Now it's four knives left! Hahaha! Who else wants to tell me who they are? Hehehe…"
The Joker's smile was as sinister as it was terrifying.
The others trembled, shaking their heads. While they were all members of the Court of Owls, they weren't the ones who had earned a seat at the table.
They were just new, wealthy Gothamites. They were young, with plenty of wealth to enjoy. They didn't want to die—they had so much to live for. They'd joined the Court of Owls for the riches, not to end up dead. If they died, they'd lose it all.
"I surrender! Please let me go! How much do you want…"
Another knife pierced the man's head before he could finish his plea.
"Shh~ shh shh! Am I the kind of guy who needs money? Do I look like I need money?"
The Joker aimed a knife at the closest man. He was so scared he wet himself, trembling as he stuttered, "N-no… you don't look like it!"
"Bingo, good boy! I don't need money!"
The next second, the person who had responded found himself meeting his maker—courtesy of the Joker's knife.
The Joker didn't have an ounce of hesitation when it came to killing. Still smiling, he turned to the others.
"That's right, I don't need money. The entire Gotham Bank is mine, I can take as much as I want! Hahahaha!"
"But what I do need… is people. I need people badly! The thing the world needs most is talent, and I am absolutely starving for talent!"
"Listen up, you parasites of Gotham! You've got all these amazing things, and yet, you're wasting them on feeding corpses! You're so boring!"
Then he went on a mad rant about the Talon assassins of the Court of Owls, saying things like... "You can just chop off their heads to kill them? What good is that?!"
What can these Talons even do, other than fight regular people? What else? They're useless for taking on Gotham's criminals!
He ranted some more, then suddenly stopped, his expression turning dark and twisted as an evil smile spread across his face.
"Such precious treasures should be used in more... interesting ways! Hahahaha, I'm sure you'll cooperate with me, right? Heh heh heh…"
The remaining people nodded like crazy, terrified of getting a knife to the face.
"Good!"
The Joker didn't trust anyone, though.
He casually pulled out a hypno-gas grenade he'd stolen from one of the Talons.
Without a second thought, he pulled the pin, releasing the thick white smoke.
"Time for a nap! This will make our little partnership go much smoother. Hahaha, hahahahaha, hahahahahaha…"
"Y-You…"
"Shh…"
…
There was a series of noises: a gun dropping to the ground, a forehead slamming into the table, and someone accidentally spilling water on a computer and getting electrocuted...
The Joker's eyes lit up.
"Wow, you guys have guns! I love these! So much better than knives!"
He walked over, picked up the gun, and realized that the hypno-gas had no effect on him. He checked the magazine, loaded it, and quickly emptied the clip into the guy who dropped the weapon, putting him down for a nice, long sleep.
Once everyone else had been knocked out by the gas, it was time to set up for Gotham's next big celebration...
