American comics: Starting in Arkham, a system-based Batman

Chapter 7 Harleen Quezel is so thoughtful

The doctor opened the door. Zheng En had noticed earlier that she had a head of smooth blonde hair, which was now draped over her shoulders and onto the nameplate on her chest.

She looked at Zheng En pushing the cart with a hint of confusion on her face. "You've come to the wrong place. This is the psychiatric ward."

"I'm sure I didn't go to the wrong place." Zheng En pushed the car inside, her words earnest. "Please, doctor, only you can help with this."

"Okay, okay."

The doctor reluctantly stepped aside and watched as Zheng En pushed the car through the curtain.

Jung Eun called out to her, "Doctor, could you please come here for a moment?"

"OK."

The doctor who came in brushed past Zheng En who came out. He quickly locked the door and drew the curtains. Behind him, he heard the sound of a drawer being pulled open.

He turned around and met the dark muzzle of a gun.

The doctor gripped the gun tightly with both hands, staring at Zheng En warily.

"What do you want to do?"

Behind her was a trolley with the white sheet lifted, revealing two unconscious caregivers.

Jung Eun raised her hands, looked at her earnestly, and said, "I want to live."

The doctor was taken aback.

"Doctor, we've all been fooled by them." Zheng En looked at her, at the name tag on her chest.

Harlein Quezel.

Harley Quinn's predecessor, or more commonly known as Harley Quinn. Although this is just a translation error, it's enough to show that she had a close relationship with the Joker.

In most origin stories, Harleen Quezel, before being seduced by the Joker, was just an ordinary psychiatrist, kind and empathetic. It was precisely because she wanted to save even someone like the Joker that she gradually fell into the abyss.

As for the instant draw of the gun, Zheng En can just consider it a Gotham specialty, since Harlin didn't even turn off the safety.

He couldn't be bothered to complain about how lucky he was to always encounter these unreleased supervillains. He just thought of it as playing a second-generation game. Players are the center of the world, and there's no peace wherever they go.

"Sitting here, you should be able to see, right? Through the window behind you, you can see gangsters posing as mentally ill to get away with crimes."

"The number of so-called mentally ill patients is decreasing one by one..."

Jung Eun looked at Harlin and approached her little by little, "Organ trafficking, human trafficking, human experimentation..."

The person holding the gun was clearly Harleen, yet it was also she who was retreating step by step.

Faced with Jung Eun's question, something unusual that she hadn't been aware of before gradually surfaced in Harlin's mind.

She hadn't been here long, but she could already sense something unusual: the mysterious men in black suits, the patients she only encountered upon admission...

The truth, which she hadn't yet realized, was directly exposed to her by Jung Eun, and she then realized what kind of vortex she had fallen into.

There's a limit to how far you can retreat. When the muzzle touched her chest, Harlin suddenly released the gun as if she were being burned.

The pistol fell to the ground. She turned her head to look at the ground. "You...you should leave now. I won't say anything."

Before she could finish speaking, everything went black, and she fainted.

"Harleen Quezel is so thoughtful," Jung thought to himself, praising Batman. "The way she tilted her head was just the right move for me to deliver a perfect chop to her neck."

Batman: "...Perhaps this wasn't her intention."

Zheng En pretended not to hear. He moved Harlin to the computer desk, positioned her in a sleeping position, covered the two caregivers with a white sheet, and drew all the curtains.

The mental hospital run by Scarecrow is just a front. On the surface, it's a place that treats mental patients, but the gangsters who patronize the orthopedic surgery department far outnumber the patients.

When problems arise in Harlin's department, they are the least likely to be noticed.

Similarly, there's nothing of value here, and it's even less likely that there will be any ledgers or documents.

If all you want to do is leave, that's enough. Jung Eun can just go out, steal someone's car, and run away.

But he wants more than that.

Nowhere has more useful documents than the dean's office, but that carries the risk of hitting a scarecrow.

He needed a surprise, a gift that would grab everyone's attention.

Mask, hat, caregiver uniform—Zheng Enqing counted the equipment on her body: bombs, pistols, Batman.

Caregivers come and go in Arkham, and no one notices anything unusual about those around them.

Gangsters come and go here; unfamiliar faces and the smell of gunpowder are commonplace.

He just needs to pretend he's carrying something and act like he's in a hurry.

"Batman, where do you think would be the best place to put the bomb?"

Batman had heard similar questions countless times: Joker, Riddler, Scarecrow, Two-Face… Past thoughts vanished in an instant. He said, “A place where there are no people, and it’s attractive enough.”

"How do you attract people to a place where there are no people?" Jung Eun asked herself, answering her own question, "When it's enough to threaten the lives of important people."

Zheng En did indeed think of a location.

On the lawn, the elderly man with graying temples swung his final club, and the golf ball rolled forward and slowly fell into the hole.

"A beautiful shot, Father," the man in the black suit exclaimed, standing beside the old man. "I just don't understand why we're wasting so much effort on a mental hospital."

"Quiet, Mario."

The old man reached out his hand, and without a word, a gang member respectfully took the golf club from him.

"Asking questions is a good habit, but before that, you need to think." The old man calmly walked away. "Listen more, observe more, think more..."

The man followed, "Yes, Father."

Not far behind them, a spherical object flashed twice.

"boom--"

Dirt and shrapnel flew everywhere, and the sound of the bomb exploding made the windowpanes shake twice.

Zheng En didn't pay much attention to the reactions of his subordinates and turned around to walk towards the dean's office amidst the chaos.

He didn't know the identities of those people, but he knew that the gangsters who could leisurely vacation here were of high status. After throwing the bomb down from the fourth-floor bathroom, he turned around and came out; he could reach the director's office not far away.

He had checked beforehand and there was no one inside, but going in directly would inevitably attract attention. A bewildered caregiver came out of the hallway to look around. "What happened?"

"Enemy attack!" Jung Eun feigned panic. "It's Maroney's men!"

His appearance touched everyone. Some of the caregivers were gangsters, but most of them were still working for Scarecrow Laken.

The incident happened so suddenly that they didn't react in time. Like cows being led by the nose, they followed Zheng En's train of thought and believed whatever he said.

"Quickly retrieve the files from the dean's office!"

Zheng En kicked open the door to the director's office, and the caregivers rushed in after him.

On the table, in the drawers, in the cabinets, Zheng En searched through everything he could find, collecting all the documents and materials he could find, and naturally pulling out documents that others had found and carrying them himself.

He started running, shouting, "Hurry! Don't hesitate, get to the first floor! Go help them, grab the supplies and run!"

"Make sure the items don't fall into the hands of Maroney's men!"