Multiverse: Deathstroke

Chapter 132: Ch.131 Stalling

Chapter 132: Ch.131 Stalling

"Hello, thank you, thank you very much."

Su Ming started speaking in heavily accented English, which made the Batman Who Laughs pause for a moment, unsure how to respond.

But Su Ming didn't need a response; instead, he began to dance clumsily, his movements stiff like a puppet with rusty joints.

As he danced, he began to sing, but terribly off-key: "Hello, my Indian friends, how are you? I'm giving you all a free rice bracelet. Are you OK? Thank you."

The smile on the Batman Who Laughs' face slowly faded; this was just too awful to listen to. Even compared to Barbatos's screams, this was pure noise.

Anyway, Su Ming had decided to stall for time. In a world like this, the best way to stall is by singing and dancing—no doubt about it.

Changing the style of the situation throws others into confusion.

If he could, Su Ming would've sung the theme song from Frozen, but he knew well enough that his singing ability was far from that level.

Singing complex songs was out of the question, so he resorted to silly songs to get by.

As expected, the Batman Who Laughs was baffled by Su Ming's bizarre behavior, unsure of how to continue the conversation.

He knew that this Deathstroke was the source of the uncontrolled events, but where did he come from? India?

This was Su Ming's impromptu strategy: stall for time while also testing just how insane the Batman Who Laughs really was. If he was crazy enough, Su Ming's awkward dancing might not even be rejected.

It all depended on how deeply the Joker virus had affected him. If he could still control himself, he'd probably reject this nonsense. But if the madness had taken over, even if he didn't admit it, the Joker inside him would find it hard to resist something fun.

Yes, dealing with Batman requires meticulous planning, but dealing with the Joker requires being crazier than him.

As the famous Chinese author Lu Xun once said, "To deal with a madman, you need a madman."

That's exactly what Su Ming was doing now—dancing wildly and singing loudly.

"Are you OK?"

"Thank you."

"Thank you very much."

The Batman Who Laughs crossed his arms and tilted his head, watching Su Ming dance. The words he had planned to say were swallowed back down.

Was this really the guy who killed the other Batmen? Was he missing some conspiracy? Had the DC editors actually not left?

He decided to wait and see. If there was any conspiracy, it would eventually reveal itself.

But the Batman Who Laughs was overthinking things. Having too much information sometimes leads to these kinds of problems.

And for some reason, even though Su Ming's singing was terrible, the song was strangely catchy, making the Batman Who Laughs almost want to respond.

"I'm fine, and you?"

Not to mention that weird dance—he felt an urge to show Su Ming what real dancing was like. Su Ming's moves were as awkward as a zombie reanimating.

He couldn't stand it. Even though they were both trying to stall for time, that dance was an eyesore.

While he was thinking this, Su Ming ended his performance with a high-speed spin, then made an exaggerated bow to the empty air.

After accepting the nonexistent applause, he looked across the space between them and provocatively raised his chin at the Batman Who Laughs.

For the Batman Who Laughs, stalling was necessary. He had things he needed to say to the main universe's Bruce, and with the Starlight Citadel damaged, he wasn't worried about anyone escaping.

He didn't fear death, but there were things he wanted to tell the main universe's Bruce.

It was a seed—once Bruce began to doubt the reality of the world, that seed would become the most powerful virus.

Having made up his mind, the Batman Who Laughs accepted the challenge, stepping down from the Brother Eye terminal, shooing away the Robins around him. He lowered his head and found an empty space, ready to start his own song and dance performance.

The Batman Who Laughs, dressed in tight leather, was assumed by Su Ming to have a gothic style. But unexpectedly, he began to sing an unfamiliar song and performed a shuffle dance.

The singing was awful, like nails on a chalkboard—his throat was ruined from too much laughing.

But his dancing was much better than Su Ming's. It was clear he had experience, and his moves were far more coordinated.

Despite his terrifying smile that was a bit distracting, his skills had to be acknowledged.

However, Su Ming's attention wasn't on that. Although he stood with his arms crossed, watching like a dance-off opponent, he was really waiting for news from Barry, while also calculating his next move.

Had Barry succeeded? If they couldn't complete the first step of the plan, everything else would be for nothing.

There was no choice but to buy more time. Hopefully, Batman and the others would act quickly and come to support him. Any speedster from any universe would do.

The Batman Who Laughs soon finished his dance and returned the challenge, turning to have his Robins applaud, putting him back in the lead.

He enjoyed having an audience, but his Robins were too out of their minds to understand what clapping meant. They just followed along, then sat down, panting and drooling black saliva.

Meanwhile, Diana, who was tied to a pillar, had woken up long ago. At first, she was happy to see Su Ming arrive, thinking they could team up to take down the Batman Who Laughs.

But to her surprise, Su Ming broke into dance without a word, leaving her no chance to speak. Even more shocking, the Batman Who Laughs actually went along with it, and the two ended up having a dance-off.

Now her mouth and eyes were wide open. She had never seen a battle like this. What was this? She was left speechless, watching the scene unfold, completely forgetting what she had planned to say.

"Barry, hurry up. I can't hold on much longer," Su Ming thought to himself, knowing he didn't have any artistic talent, and neither did the original Slade.

But as long as he kept letting the Batman Who Laughs win, he'd subconsciously want to keep competing—that's human nature.

The greed for victory, the confidence in success—Su Ming wanted to amplify these feelings, slowly leading him into a trap.

But the Batman Who Laughs could snap out of it at any moment or get bored with the game.

In this strange battlefield where they couldn't harm each other, the Batman Who Laughs was isolated and alone, while Su Ming had hundreds of allies. He figured that stalling for time was in his favor.

Surely, the heroes would soon reverse the Cosmic Tuning Fork, using the resonance of the X-Metal to channel the power of everyone on Earth and repair the Dark Multiverse, returning the main universe to its original position.

Su Ming just had to ensure that the Batman Who Laughs didn't realize this and buy time for Barry.

"Not bad, not bad at all. I'm impressed with you," the Batman Who Laughs said, nodding in approval as he finished his dance.

Su Ming nodded back, feigning reluctant admiration, then removed his helmet and tossed it aside to use his expressions to confuse the Batman Who Laughs.

"So, let me ask you—do you have your own freestyle?"

Without waiting for an answer, Su Ming closed his eyes and began performing his own rap.

"Yo, yo, check it out! On Sunday, I went shopping, walking around, and met two..."

Of course, his skills were terrible, and it was painful to listen to. Even Diana looked distressed, let alone the Batman Who Laughs, who now had a grin more pained than a frown.

Su Ming was just stalling for time. He didn't care about their gaming experience. All he needed to know was that he had bought another few minutes.

But Barry better hurry back. If he didn't, Su Ming would have to compete in pop songs and operatic arias next.

The key was not to let him use his brain—dragging everyone down to a madman's level was the goal.

Little did Su Ming know, the Batman Who Laughs was also stalling for time. Both had their own plans, leading to an awkward yet strangely fitting dance-off.

Meanwhile, on Challenger Mountain, multiple Cyborgs from across the multiverse were working together to reverse the Cosmic Tuning Fork.

Now, they needed energy to return the main universe to its original position.