It was rare; this time, the Joker's cross-World visit didn't cause much of a stir.
The Gotham Mayor soon returned to his normal work, appearing to be unaffected.
After all, anyone who dares to be the mayor in this place must have a certain level of resolve.
Of course, Fang Yuan knew from Bruce that the Gotham Mayor wasn't exactly a righteous man; it was purely because he was too deeply involved with the underground forces. If he dared to quit, he probably wouldn't even make it out of Gotham.
With his testimony, Joe Cole's suspicion was cleared, and he was able to return to Vought Corporation.
However, although the Gotham Police Department knew the culprit was the Joker through the criminals left in the warehouse and suspected that the Joker had likely fallen into Batman's hands, the Police, including Gordon, did not force Batman to hand him over.
This gentleman was truly capable of killing.
It was only Gordon who requested Batman's permission for the Gotham Police to take a few photos with the Joker, so they could announce to the public that the Joker had been brought to justice and soothe the people's panic.
In this World, the relationship between Gordon and Batman was also quite good.
Although Bruce killed, he didn't do so indiscriminately. He would hand over most criminals to the Gotham Police Department first to follow the legal route. However, if a criminal exploited a legal loophole and Batman then took action, Gordon would have nothing left to say.
"Yo? Who's this?"
Just like that, a month passed quickly, and Gotham returned to its usual peaceful days.
During Fang Yuan's observations one day, only sporadic incidents of robbery and kidnapping—harmless crimes—could be seen across two or three blocks, which was practically a disgrace to the reputation of Little New York.
It could only be said that Batman's night patrols were effective, especially with the recent rumors circulating in Gotham about there being two Batmen, which struck terror into the hearts of many criminals.
Of course, these things couldn't completely eradicate crime.
"Gotham is so big; Batman won't necessarily find me."
This was the inner thought of most criminals in Gotham.
However, Fang Yuan knew that a criminal database was already being established in the Batcave. If Batman wanted to, he could capture most of Gotham's crime lords in a single night.
But Bruce didn't do that.
The underground forces were like weeds; once eradicated, they would grow back, and Batman would have to spend time and effort on them again.
It was better to collect intelligence on criminals, eliminating those who posed a major threat to society while leaving those with lesser impacts.
People like the Penguin and the Riddler occupied important positions in Gotham's underground, and they weren't considered utterly heinous, so they happened to help Batman stabilize the situation in Gotham.
So it wasn't that Batman couldn't handle it; he was simply ranching the criminals of Gotham.
Of course, even if Bruce were very diligent and didn't go to the Himalayas to see his kid, wanting to devote himself entirely to playing with Gotham's criminals, Fang Yuan wouldn't have agreed.
Because he discovered that after activating the [Scientific Research Template] and the [Bruce Template], studying things together with Bruce produced a very marvelous chemical reaction, and progress was practically lightning-fast.
This was hard on Bruce. He had to balance Batman's duties while considering his partner and child. The three Robins—Dick, Jason, and Arthur—were eagerly waiting for training, Fang Yuan was clinging to him, and he occasionally needed to attend events as Bruce Wayne... Even a master of time management couldn't juggle it all.
Fortunately, Thomas was here and could help him with the night patrols, easing much of the burden; otherwise, he really wouldn't have been able to handle it all.
As for the Joker, who had been locked in the laboratory by Batman, he was finally sent back after spending a month alone with Batman.
What? Why not kill the Joker?
"The Joker doesn't just destroy; he can also be of some help," Bruce explained. "That World still needs the Joker."
Thomas couldn't quite understand this, but since it was his son's decision, his son must be right.
Fang Yuan understood it well; in many World crises in the comics, the Joker actually helped to resolve them.
What he was interested in was another point.
"If I place a Space Mark on the Joker, can I travel to a parallel Universe again? Just like in the X-Men World?"
One more World means one more set of resources.
Although he had built good relationships with Batman and the others in this World, and it would be a bit troublesome to cultivate feelings all over again in another World, there would be benefits if it could be done.
So, while Bruce was inside operating the equipment, Fang Yuan left a clone in place, then secretly placed a mark on the unconscious Joker before hiding in the Mirror Dimension.
That's right, the Joker was unconscious the entire time.
Presumably, after this encounter, the Joker wouldn't dare let his guard down so easily when he met other Batmen again.
Bruce tinkered for a while and successfully opened a portal, though it wasn't very stable.
But he didn't care much, simply picking up the Joker and throwing him in, completely unconcerned about whether the Joker would get lost in the spatial turbulence.
At that moment, Fang Yuan, within the Mirror Dimension, took out the Infinity Gauntlet and pushed the Space Stone to its full power, trying to sense the Joker's location.
"I sensed it!"
Fang Yuan was delighted and immediately tried to open a portal.
"Eh... it's not working?"
He frowned; he could detect the spatial coordinates where the Joker was, but he couldn't teleport there.
"Can we go to that World?" Fang Yuan's clone asked Bruce directly.
The research on the Joker was done by Bruce alone; he hadn't let Fang Yuan get involved.
Bruce shook his head. "No. The Joker accidentally fell into this World and has a special imprint on him, allowing him to return, but we cannot cross over proactively."
"At least not for now."
Fang Yuan was somewhat disappointed, but since Batman had said so, Fang Yuan let it go for the time being.
The clone left the laboratory directly, while Bruce's eyes glanced at a notification on the system on the console, from an angle only he could see.
[Path to the target Universe being blocked... Blocked.]
"Fang's power is too great; it's best for him to only be in contact with one World of our type," Bruce murmured, shaking his head.
"But I shouldn't go too far," Bruce decided after a moment's thought. "Once Clark's personality is fully formed next year, I'll help Fang build up some fame for him."
Then Bruce turned off the equipment and also left the laboratory.
After a long while, Fang Yuan's figure appeared in the room.
"Batman really is a scheming old fox, actually wanting to keep me all to himself," Fang Yuan complained with his hands on his hips. "How many Jokers would be dying of envy over this?"
"Forget it, going to other Worlds means going through the whole process again, with more Batmen and Supermen—it's too troublesome and messy," Fang Yuan shook his head.
"Whatever, although my Bat-Concubine is a bit too scheming, it's fine as long as he's willing to spend effort on me."
"Since Bruce is so sensible and even knows to give me benefits, then so be it."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but laugh.
Outside the laboratory.
As Bruce walked slowly, a smile also appeared on his face.
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