Scarecrow was a slender, short man who always wore his mask. He was obsessed with instilling fear in others, rarely killing with his own hands, preferring instead to watch as his victims were consumed by terror, torturing them to death psychologically.

In time, he began to hope others would understand him… Why did people think he was insane? Everyone experienced fear, and he was merely helping them overcome it. He was also helping himself. So, he continued to incite ever larger waves of chaos, hoping to force people to see the truth: Gotham was a poisonous flower growing in darkness, a breeding ground for fear, and only Batman, with his delusions of saving the city, still clung to hope.

It was time for Batman to face reality. It was time to tear off the Dark Knight’s hypocritical mask!

At least, that’s what Scarecrow thought right up until he opened the doors to the banquet hall on the second floor of the cathedral.

The moment the doors opened, his vision was filled with yellow petals and red stamens, and then—he passed out.

Ten minutes later—or perhaps it had been half an hour—Scarecrow thought he might have woken up. But as soon as he regained consciousness, he realized he was falling.

He was plummeting through a void of darkness, wind whipping past him, his body freezing cold. There were no safeguards, nothing to hold onto, nothing at all. He could see Gotham below him—the iconic Wayne Tower, the elevated train tracks, and not a single light in the city was on.

An instinctual, primal fear gripped him—the fear of death.

Scarecrow opened his mouth and screamed.

“AAAAHHH—AAAAAAHHHHH—”

The ground rushed toward him, faster and faster. Tears and snot streamed down his face, and then—smack—he lost consciousness.

He died.

Scarecrow jolted upright.

He found himself lying in Crime Alley, surrounded by the same impenetrable darkness. But somewhere in the alley, something had broken through the blackness, casting a faint glow of hope.

Was it a light?

That fall had felt like a dream. His clothes were torn, and his body still ached with phantom pain, but Scarecrow was sure he was awake. Stumbling toward the pale yellow light, he finally saw what was illuminating the darkness in the heart of the city.

—It was a tree!

A tree glowing with golden light, surrounded by people. Among them, Scarecrow spotted his own men—or more accurately, he saw his men about to be beaten to death!

The ones doing the beating were Two-Face’s thugs. Scarecrow wasn’t an idiot—he instinctively hid and observed the situation. Had Two-Face broken the deal? What was going on? Why was he here? Was his death just a hallucination?

Even though those were his men, Scarecrow didn’t care about their fate. If they died, he could always use his fear gas to coerce another group of followers, or better yet, there were always those who worshiped him willingly.

As he watched, Scarecrow muttered, “…Harvey’s men have gotten more violent, just like their boss!”

And where was Batman?

Scarecrow felt something was deeply wrong. Batman would never let innocent people die, even scum like them. He always wanted to throw criminals into prison, as if jail could somehow turn a piece of garbage into a sweet little cookie. So why wasn’t Batman intervening? Where was Robin? Where were the other vigilantes? Why was the city so empty… where were all the regular people?

Scarecrow tried to contact someone, dialing numbers and attempting to check websites, even to see Captain America’s stupid grin in some public service announcement. But as he looked down, he noticed the light was dimming—

In the distance, the people were abandoning the corpses and fleeing in cars, desperately driving into the dark.

Then—

Scarecrow witnessed what the end of the world looked like.

The city was collapsing, the tremors never stopping. Gotham, his Gotham, was being torn in half by some powerful, unnatural force. He scrambled to hide inside a building, but the next second, the ceiling caved in.

Scarecrow realized, with terrifying clarity, that he and the building were both being reduced to rubble.

He died again.

Scarecrow gasped for breath as he woke up, instinctively grabbing at anything nearby for cover.

And then he heard that all-too-familiar, maniacal laughter. Joker. Damn it, it had to be the Joker—

Scarecrow cowered in the darkness, doing his best to blend into it.

He realized that death wasn’t a dream. He could still feel the pain. He had died again and again, only to be revived, each time more excruciating than the last. The torment was endless.

What good was fear gas now? His mind was in shambles, unable to function. He couldn’t locate the invisible, omnipotent enemy. At that moment, Scarecrow had only one thought: escape. He had to get out. He had to flee Gotham—

“Oh, who do we have here?” Joker’s voice crept closer, the madman’s tone bored and disinterested. “Doesn’t look like my dear little Bat. No, it’s you, the boring, lousy crow… Ha ha…”

Scarecrow gritted his teeth. Fear gas had no effect on the Joker—he was a master of toxins himself.

“Wait, Joker!” Scarecrow shouted, “Don’t you want to leave here, find Batman? He’s not here, but we can work together!”

In the darkness, he heard the madman’s laughter, followed by, “Yes, yes, you’re right… but—”

Bang! A gunshot briefly illuminated the blackness, only for it to be swallowed again. Just before dying, Scarecrow heard Joker’s drawling voice, “But the Joker never carries coins.”

After dying for the third time, Scarecrow’s body twitched, and he once again pitifully woke up.

This time, however, he wasted no time. He found a car and recklessly sped through the darkness, feeling the ground collapse behind him. The invisible enemy was closing in again. Like a chaotic infant, it had no plan—only a destructive urge to rip the city apart. In that moment, Scarecrow felt an overwhelming hatred for this mindless wrecking force.

He barely managed to evade the danger chasing him, dodging the brawling chaos and even avoiding his own henchmen. If everyone could die and be revived endlessly, he couldn’t even imagine how insane the situation could become!

He saw people trying to loot money from empty banks, others smashing windows and seizing territory, and maniacs like the Joker setting fires throughout the city. The Joker’s goal was simple—he just wanted to see if he could set this dark city ablaze, and maybe lure out Batman. After all, a Gotham with Joker but no Batman would be unbearably dull.

Scarecrow raced to the city’s edge, convinced that Metropolis was just at the end of the highway. He floored the gas pedal and plunged into the blackness. After driving for who knows how long, he finally saw the shadowy outline of a city ahead.

But his car began to slow. Gradually, very slowly, it came to a stop in the middle of the road—

He had driven back into the darkness of Gotham.

A strange force from behind crushed him, smashing his body flat against the ground.

But this time, it wasn’t Vivi who crushed Scarecrow.

A massive gargoyle squatted in her living room, carefully stomping around as though crushing cockroaches. Its gaze fixed on the most populated areas of the city, stomping away. Meanwhile, Vivi was nestled in her soft beige bed, buried deep under the covers.

Everyone in Gotham, including Batman, the vigilantes, and the citizens, were sound asleep. Anyone entering the city during this time would also fall into a deep slumber right on the road, thanks to the artifact’s power.

While the city slept, the gargoyle statues came to life.

After only a short while of stomping around, Vivi grew bored. She summoned the gargoyles to do the job for her and found that there were around twenty thousand gargoyle statues across Gotham. Just summoning them made the card’s glow dim to almost nothing.

If not for the fact that the card drew power from the emotion of fear, Vivi wouldn’t have been able to get the scales to budge with any other emotion.

Thinking it over, she only awakened a thousand gargoyles.

She then assigned one gargoyle to take over her stomping duties while she handed another a [Large Bunch of Balloons], instructing it to distribute the balloons to the other statues.

Each gargoyle took three balloons at random. Because of the item’s enchantment, the balloons were endless and nearly impossible to pop due to high air pressure.

With balloons tied to their claws and necks, the gargoyles went from terrifying to strangely adorable. If anyone were to look down from the sky, they would see the statues coming to life, wings spread as they flew from the city center to Bristol County at Gotham’s edge. After emerging from the forests and mist, they returned, now adorned with colorful balloons.

Some gargoyles hovered in the air, while others flew to Blackgate Prison or landed on the streets. They gently picked up people sleeping on the ground, placing them in front of shop doors. Nightwing and Robin were carried in a princess-style hold and placed in the cathedral. The gargoyles then perched atop various buildings across Gotham. For now, they would stand in for the vigilantes, guarding the city.

During all this, Vivi opened her interface.

She could end this lesson anytime she wanted, completing her contract with Nightwing. She held the power to stop everything at any moment.

And so, Vivi chose to end the contract with Nightwing, signaling that her training was complete. At the same time, she removed everyone from the manor’s “friendly list.”

Vivi had no desire to explain the whole “sleeping” situation to the vigilantes or the disappearance of the criminals, so she simply sealed off the manor, denying all visitors.

Besides, with the gargoyles now protecting the city, it was time to give the vigilantes a well-deserved break, she thought confidently.

But before that, Vivi plucked the yellow rose from her chest, carefully prying open the petals with tweezers. Gently, she removed the tiny earpiece from Batman. During the process—just in case Batman tried anything—she kept a small hostage in her grasp.

And her contract with Batman wasn’t over yet. She had already let Nightwing go, but Vivi never let herself get the short end of a deal. Batman owed her both his share and Nightwing’s!

Next up…

Vivi closed her eyes.

In the cathedral, the supposedly sleeping Mayor Anna Alek opened her eyes, staring at the screen before her.

[Side Quest “Scarecrow’s Scheme” Completed]

[You successfully located Scarecrow and nipped his vile plan at its source.]

[Reward: 100 diamonds, 500,000 gold coins]

[Follow-up Quest “Scarecrow and His Collaborators” Completed]

[In addition to defeating Scarecrow, you neutralized his collaborators. Rewards are based on the number of collaborators.]

[Two-Face: 1, Hugo Strange: 1, Joker: 1, Court of Owls: 0.5]

[Quest Reward: 175 diamonds, 500,000 gold coins]

[Current Diamonds: 295]

The Court of Owls is mixed up in this too? Vivi, currently using her mayor persona, mused to herself.

Did that mean she’d have to make another call to Mrs Rothschild? Vivi glanced at the time—1:00 AM. There were still forty minutes left before the “good kids” would wake up.

In the meantime, she planned to fully embrace her mayoral identity and use the success of this mission to give Gotham a thorough sweep. It was time to redraw the lines and show the city’s underworld exactly who should be doing what. They needed to know which brute of a criminal was best suited for dredging river sand, which nimble-fingered thief should be operating the excavator, and which mentally unstable but technically skilled maniac should be forging steel!