Unfortunately, even though he gained freedom, it was still fake, so he decided to resist until the end.
..............
In American superhero comics, there are indeed people who can break the fourth wall and recognize the real world, but their numbers are not large.
A typical example is the nearby Deadpool and Gwen Stacy, one being completely insane, and the other a transmigrator.
As audiences from the Celestial Dynasty, they had long recognized a comic character capable of breaking the fourth wall, which was the ace of Dark Horse Comics—The Mask, the green-faced guy in a yellow suit loved to communicate with audiences.
Actually, as the third-largest comic company in the United States, Dark Horse Comics was also the first to enter the Celestial Dynasty market, and their movie adaptations appeared on household TV screens long before Marvel's resurgence.
People might not know the company's name, but they definitely knew the characters they created.
Jim Carrey's "The Mask", Stallone's "Judge Dredd", and Jessica Alba with Bruce Willis in "Sin City".
Additionally, Tarzan, Alien, Ironblood Warrior, Hellboy, Spartan 300 Warriors, and the Netherworld Police Station comics' rights all currently belong to Dark Horse Comics.
There are relatively more characters in DC who can break the fourth wall. In the early days, Superman could; he could wink at readers or even directly communicate in the comics.
After Silver Superman was cut, there was Supreme Little Superhero, bat spirit, Troublemaker, and Ambush Insect, all of whom could more or less perceive matters beyond the wall. In fact, bat spirit and Troublemaker are creatures of the Fifth Dimension; they can erase characters and stories from a higher plane with an eraser.
Besides them, there's the Main World's Harley Quinn, who gained popularity because she was crazy enough and analyzed herself psychologically, overhearing discussions and arrangements about her character story from the editor department.
After breaking up with Joker, the Little Madman fell into a state of confusion and emptiness, always talking to herself, behaviors that made her even crazier. After some time, she discovered she could hear another kind of eerie inner voice.
That was actually the thoughts of anyone who saw the comic, whether editors, illustrators, or readers.
Now in the Main World, she can actively communicate directly with editors and illustrators, like asking the chief editor to choose her favorite artist to draw her, and when arranging stories, ensure to give her more handsome supporting characters with six-pack abs.
She quite likes Steve, the artist who does a run for Zatanna. Of course, the ace artist Jim Lee in the DC editor department is also great, but unfortunately, he is too busy drawing Superman and Batman.
There are also a few illustrators she likes from Marvel next door. She once had a nightmare of being hunted by the Second Generation Black Widow, dreaming of being shot in the abdomen, which was extremely painful, when in fact it was because she ate six hot dogs the night before.
The artist from "The Walking Dead," Charlie, is also good, but sadly, the DC editor department could only find the artist for "The Powerpuff Girls," and she's unsure if that style suits her.
In terms of wall-breaking, her ability is even stronger than Deadpool's. She can see ghosts in the comic world because she knows the illustrator placed the ghosts there.
Capable of talking with anything that has thoughts, because the editor would write its thoughts in speech bubbles above animals' heads.
Capable of entering others' dream realms to play because everyone is in one comic, she just needs to flip through a few panels.
She can reach the real world just by stepping out and walking around, even driving others there. She goes to the San Diego Comic-Con every year and once sneaked to Marvel's booth to chat and laugh with big shots from the comic industry and Hollywood...
This time, in the Metal event, she's quite interested in the Laughing Bat, finding the combination of Batman and Joker intriguing, so she willingly walked into the trap wanting to get closer to the Laughing Bat.
As a result, she of course got caught; the Laughing Bat noticed something different about her and couldn't allow her to ruin his plans, so she's still hanging on the Tuning Fork now.
Harley doesn't mind; she knew about the conclusion from the editor long ago, anyway, the Justice League would save everyone, and she thought to play in the nightmare.
No loss at all, and she could experience an unprecedented nightmare; isn't that nice?
Harley was overjoyed.
However, if she could confirm by breaking the wall again, she would find she couldn't connect with anything....
Because of Su Ming, the Transmigrator's arrival, a series of butterfly effects occurred, causing the Laughing Bat to make completely different choices, and also led the world to escape the editor department's control; everything changed.
.............
Barry took Su Ming through the ruined streets; Su Ming now depended on 'Divine Speed transportation'—Barry, even though Superman's flight speed wasn't slow, the process was clearly not as comfortable as being enveloped by Divine Speed.
Gotham, already chaotic and broken, had half of its urban area turned into ruins this time; the Owl Court mixed a lot of Amber Gold into buildings when constructing the city, and these buildings were turned into Challenger Mountain by Barbatos.
At this moment, turning Challenger Mountain back to skyscrapers was impossible, and Bruce likely needed a new blueprint for post-disaster reconstruction.
It's actually okay; Green Arrow had rebuilt Star City, Hal had rebuilt Binhai City, and Batman had rebuilt Gotham not once or twice; it was originally his city, and he was more than willing to take responsibility.
"How much did Bruce spend rebuilding Gotham last time?"
Su Ming looked at the damaged shops along the street, where TV sets had fallen off the shelves but were still playing news from Gotham TV Station.
This should be a recording; the timing didn't match. By the way, that reporter should be following the Gotham Resistance's actions, right? They weren't seen on the battlefield earlier, which means he once again perfectly missed the chance to show up.
Pathetic, perfectly playing a minor role.
Barry also glanced at the surroundings with the corner of his eye; the originally bustling city center now resembled slums.
"He never said, but reportedly it's less than we imagined. Steel Bone secretly said that Wayne Enterprises makes a little profit every time Gotham is rebuilt through land swaps and seeking policies and loans from the government."
Thinking about it, originally people living in the city center, if they survived such a catastrophe, the first thing they should want to do after safety was to move to the countryside and never live in a big city again.
For those who died, lawyers would seek out heirs, and would any outside heir want to live in a recently troubled place? They'd definitely sell the house for cash.
Therefore, the property prices in Gotham's urban area would definitely drop to rock bottom for a long time. Wayne Enterprises first accepts this land and property, renovates it, and after some peaceful time, naturally forgetful humans would want to buy and rent.
"Heartless capitalist..."
Su Ming chuckled, shook his head, and stopped looking at the cracked roads and charred corpses lying on them, starting to prepare his own plan.
First, upon reaching the Bat Cave, cut off the opportunity for positive and negative brain contact to ensure his own safety.
Then, see if Diana is there. If possible, regroup with her to increase combat power. By then, they could gather a team of melee combatants with a girl as a shield, a speedster, and a professional warrior.
Finally, drag the Joker out from hiding at Bruce's place, not letting him watch the fun from the side; he either helps out or quickly leaves—having one madman at the same time and place is enough.
Su Ming ran the plan in his mind twice and found no major flaws; other details like evading traps or ambushes could be handled by improvising.
This issue was like figuring out how many steps were needed to fit an elephant in a refrigerator; Su Ming liked three-step plans.
He shared the plan with Barry, after all, Barry moved quite fast, and Su Ming would restrain the Laughing Bat while Barry took various actions.
In comics, the Laughing Bat was the weakest among Nightmare Batman, though he might have acquired some of Bruce's gadgets now, Su Ming was quite confident.
For everyone he knew, he had a counter-plan, and those plans were much more thorough than Batman's.
However, Su Ming still didn't know what kind of Laughing Bat had been created by the butterfly effect.