So, they weren’t going to fight immediately but have a conversation first.

Vivi: “You disrupted Gotham’s peace. Of course, I’m here to capture you and send you to prison.”

Poison Ivy tilted her head and smiled. She was very beautiful, with red hair and green skin, creating a striking visual impact. Green vines slithered up her arm like snakes. She said, “So, you’re a new vigilante? I like you.”

The horse nervously backed up two steps, and Vivi tightened the reins: “How much do you like me?”

“I’d love to give you a close kiss,” Poison Ivy’s smile was sinister, “and make you my favorite among all my collectibles, dear little knight.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the vines that nearly covered the sky moved instantly, and Vivi jumped off the horse’s back. In the next second, her horse disappeared.

She clung to a branch, but as soon as she steadied herself, the trees began to pursue her, forcing her to jump between the branches. The entire forest was Poison Ivy’s battleground, and all the trees fought for her. If Vivi hadn’t made the horse disappear, the grass would have turned into a giant net, trapping its hooves.

“It seems you’re not an ordinary person either,” Poison Ivy said leisurely, sitting in the center of the giant flower as Vivi dodged, “I’m curious, have you been chased by Batman? He’s a human chauvinist who hates and fears all non-human creatures.”

Vivi confirmed her altitude. The vines were closing in, but it seemed Poison Ivy was treating this more like a cat-and-mouse game since Vivi hadn’t harmed her plants—after all, the mouse couldn’t escape her grasp.

Suddenly, Vivi threw out over a dozen five-litre bottles of hair conditioner. As she expected, the vines and other plants instinctively caught them, preventing them from hitting the ground.

Vivi would have done the same. What if they were bombs? Raising them to a certain height would ensure any explosion wouldn’t harm Poison Ivy.

However, Poison Ivy hadn’t expected this: “Hair conditioner? What’s this?”

A dangling vine brought the item to Poison Ivy. She read the words on the bottle’s label with a puzzled tone.

“I don’t want to play with you anymore,” Poison Ivy felt she was being fooled, but she couldn’t figure out why. “Let’s end this farce.”

The vines’ attacks became fierce instantly. Vivi was on a high branch, eight meters up, constantly dodging attacks from below—or rather, from all directions.

She suddenly leapt into the air, pulling out the particle gun Robin had given her, and flipped—

The first shot hit the hair conditioner bottle suspended high above, spraying semi-solid pink gel everywhere. Then came the second shot, and the third…

This obvious attack enraged Poison Ivy. The vines accurately grabbed Vivi’s ankle as she was falling, making her an airborne, immobile target.

But Vivi used the force of the vines to flip once more, shooting the bottle suspended directly in front of Poison Ivy.

In the next instant, the vines slammed Vivi to the ground.

The vines wrapped around Vivi, prying the gun from her hand, and then lifted her upside down before Poison Ivy.

The red-haired woman had some of the pink gel splattered on her forehead, slowly melting. She couldn’t understand Vivi’s intent, but it didn’t matter. She would make this wannabe knight taste defeat.

As the girl’s face got closer, Poison Ivy saw no fear or regret in her eyes.

That didn’t matter. She licked her lips: “Kissing a cute girl is far better than those men.”

Since the girl hadn’t harmed her plants, she could give her a painless kiss.

Poison Ivy’s movements suddenly stopped. She slowly looked up at the plant fortress she had created.

To catch the agile Vivi, the plants under Poison Ivy’s control had formed a flytrap-like structure, with the vines forming a net. The pink gel was everywhere, on the vines and Poison Ivy herself. Then, she realized something was wrong.

“No…” Poison Ivy’s hair began to grow rapidly, and the vines also started growing. They grew so fast, it was as if they were destined to be destroyed tomorrow. She felt her power being rapidly drained to sustain the plants, far faster than usual.

A green tidal wave soon covered the entire ground, spreading far and wide.

Vivi’s hands were bound behind her back, and she was being pressed into the ground by the vines, just like Poison Ivy. The latter was already out of sight.

Gritting her teeth, Vivi tried to break free. The surrounding vines burst the conditioner bottles she took out, so she took out another one, which also burst. The surging vines crushed everything around them. After nearly half an hour, or maybe ten minutes, Vivi couldn’t keep track of how many items she bought, as she was just repeating the same action. She struggled slightly, noticing the vines’ grip weakening.

Taking a deep breath, Vivi easily broke free this time, pushing the vines above her aside to climb up. When she reached the top, faint starlight and moonlight shone on her head. The rain had stopped.

Vivi sat on the hill of plants, looking down.

In that moment, the lush plants withered and then completely rotted. She sat in the center of this plant graveyard, seeing not a single living plant, just dead leaves and decayed grass covering the ground.

Poison Ivy lay beside her, unconscious.

【The rapidly growing plants have exhausted the soil and Poison Ivy’s own strength. Poison Ivy has been drained of her power and fallen into a coma】

【You have defeated Boss 1: Poison Ivy】

【You have received a reward: Vine x1 (limited use during the instance)】

A deep green vine crawled up Vivi’s arm. Unlike Poison Ivy’s vines, this one was thinner than Vivi’s pinky and seemed to stretch infinitely.

Vivi felt like it was a part of her body, capable of performing any task she commanded. It was alive, but the further it stretched and the more delicate the task, the more “mental energy” it consumed, making control more difficult.

“Is this what Poison Ivy usually feels like?” Vivi touched the vine, then summoned her horse and picked up Poison Ivy with one arm.

“Theoretically, hair conditioner works similarly to your powers, but hair is part of the human body. Long hair can split at the ends due to insufficient nutrients. Generating long hair in a short time naturally requires more nutrients.”

As the nutritional provider, Poison Ivy’s own “nutrients” seemed to be her mental energy, something Vivi didn’t quite understand scientifically, but it was clear she couldn’t provide it herself.

If Poison Ivy hadn’t underestimated her, if she had used lethal poison from the start… well, then Vivi wouldn’t have lost either.

She would just sacrifice herself to chip away at the boss’s health bar. After all, the boss’s health wouldn’t reset.

The people controlled by Poison Ivy were also unconscious. The system indicated they were poisoned and simultaneously being killed while controlled. Luckily, Vivi defeated the enemy quickly enough. It was time to contact her teammates.

Fortunately, she had put her phone and communicator in her space pouch when the anomaly occurred, avoiding accidental loss.

Calling the police to leave the boss here?

…didn’t feel very reliable.

Tonight, the GCPD was fully mobilized to catch the escaped Arkham criminals.

Outside Robinson Park, a group of police officers knew Poison Ivy was inside and had to go in to capture her.

These officers were understandably tense. When they heard hoofbeats, some instinctively drew their guns, pointing them in the direction of the sound. A girl on horseback appeared in their flashlight beams, her lower face covered by a scarf, carrying a… trash can on her back?

The leader frowned and raised his hand, signaling his men to lower their guns.

It really was a trash can, half the height of a person, green and unremarkable, strapped to the girl’s waist with a cross belt.

The girl tilted her head, suddenly took off the trash can, and single-handedly threw it into their midst: “Poison Ivy is inside.”

What!?

The police gasped internally. The trash can was filled with leaves and branches from the woods. If it weren’t for the person inside, it could be mistaken for an environmentalist collecting leaves in the forest at dawn. But there was a person inside—a dangerous criminal!

The leader used his gun to push aside the leaves and saw Poison Ivy’s face. For a moment, the air was silent, and someone couldn’t resist raising their gun.

“Others were poisoned and are still inside, unconscious,” Vivi said. “Take them to the hospital.”

“As for me, I’m headed to Arkham Island.” She turned her horse and rode off. Just as she did, a familiar male voice called after her: “You need to wear a helmet and protective gear to ride a horse in the city—”

Vivi: “…” Got it, got it, Uncle Joe. You got promoted to vice chief of the homicide department, but you still talk too much.

After shouting this, the leader immediately directed his men to take Poison Ivy away and search the area. Then, he looked up, frowning at the retreating figure on horseback.

——The last time he saw this girl, she was a corpse.

A thin vine coiled around Vivi’s neck like a deep green choker. Blackgate Prison was calm, City Hall was quiet, but where was the third boss, Joker?

The map showed that Boss 2, Bane, on Arkham Island, hadn’t moved much.

Vivi asked through the comms: “Oracle, I’ve taken care of Poison Ivy. No one’s injured. What’s the situation with Bane?”

“Thank God,” Oracle’s voice was anxious. “I lost contact with you for a bit there. Glad you’re okay. Bane and Robin are trapped in the same space. I have to say, it’s a bad situation. The police can’t get in to help, and they’re fighting like crazy outside.”

“Don’t worry,” Vivi rode her horse down the highway, lightly tugging its mane. Her mount seemed to sense this and doubled its speed. “I’m almost there.”

A Gotham citizen fleeing from the Arkham Island was stuck in traffic. He blinked in confusion, staring at the person riding a horse against traffic. Leaning out the window, he watched the figure quickly disappear.

“What is this… what kind of horse runs faster than a car?”

Gotta take a photo for Twitter!