Batman admitted that his mind blanked for a moment when he saw the Bat Light illuminate midair.
Although in the past, to prevent people from detecting his true identity, he would deliberately make Bruce and Batman appear simultaneously, creating an alibi for himself. But this isn't his universe; there has never been a Batman in this universe, and this universe's Gordon is already dead, so who would light the Bat Light?
Batman thought for a bit. He was sure there must be an otherworldly visitor behind this because the style of this Bat Light was very familiar: although the bat emblem was slightly different from his, it couldn't have been made by locals from this universe without a Batman, it could only have been made by someone who had seen the Bat Light before.
In this universe now, there are quite a few people who have seen the Bat Light. Excluding himself, and also excluding the Clown Hero from Night Owl's universe, that leaves the Main Universe's Joker, the Laughing Bat, and Shiller.
Who could have lit the Bat Light?
Any of these three could have. To achieve a certain purpose, they wouldn't mind employing such a method. But Batman had a peculiar intuition that this might have been done by the Laughing Bat.
If forced to find a reason for this intuition, it would be: adding elements of the traditional Batman to this universe would seem like a very boring task to the other two.
Even though the Joker is always interested in Batman, what he likes is to delve deeply into the Batman element, not to treat Batman as a puzzle piece to form something else. He would consider that a desecration.
For instance, if Batman were a plant, then the Joker would be a botanist. He would prefer to explore what kind of soil could grow this plant, what things could make it grow better, what the fiber veins and structure of the plant are like, occasionally loosening the soil or catching bugs for it.
But if Batman were a plant, then the Laughing Bat would be a cook. He would rather take Batman down and stir-fry him into a dish, treating it as a material for constructing something else, unconcerned with what Batman would turn into during the process.
Thus, for the Joker, he is interested in what the Batman he knows would do in a strange universe, similar to studying whether this plant would grow as well if transplanted into other soil.
But for the Laughing Bat, he just wants to pluck another leaf to stir-fry with a different kind of plant, and this leaf is the classic element of Batman, the Bat Light.
Like every agricultural student daring enough to beat up the thieves stealing crops and ruining their graduation project, the Joker detests this kind of thing; just as scientists distrust empiricism and directly use rare materials as cooking ingredients without studying the underlying philosophical and artistic thoughts, it's a complete waste.
And Shiller? The main reason Batman doesn't think it's him is that he doubts Shiller would have the time to make a Bat Light. If he had shifted his target to Batman, he should have already stormed into the office by now.
Assuming this Bat Light is indeed lit by the Laughing Bat, what is his purpose? To summon himself over?
If that were really the case, then it wouldn't be the Laughing Bat. Batman knew very well, the Laughing Bat is someone who is mediocre but unwilling to remain mediocre. When he wants to achieve a certain goal, he would never choose the simplest, most direct method, because he would think that makes him look too ordinary. He would deliberately take what he thinks is a cool detour to showcase his uniqueness, embodying what he believed to be a sophisticated sense of humor.
The Bat Light can summon Batman, so what he wants to summon with the Bat Light is certainly not Batman, or at least not a relatively traditional Batman like himself.
But because the Laughing Bat is essentially very mediocre, the detour he takes is the simplest kind too, far from true logical humor. Even if it isn't used to summon Batman like himself, it must be used to summon something else, very likely related to Batman.
Thinking of this, Batman turned on the TV in the conference room, connecting to the Gotham TV Station signal. Sure enough, the station was broadcasting about an unknown light pattern appearing above Gotham City, with the host suggesting that it might be the prelude to another round of terrorist attacks by the rebel army.
Then a new message quickly came through: the Bat Light was lit on the rooftop of the Gotham Police Department, but the police failed to catch whoever projected the light pattern. And about two minutes later, a new round of rebel uprising broke out in the Old Town.
Batman waited for a while longer. Soon, he saw a familiar figure appear on TV — Batman.
Indeed, a scene reminiscent of an alibi he once manufactured appeared: Bruce Wayne was with Wayne Enterprises shareholders, but Batman was appearing in the Old Town to suppress the riot.
Batman understood clearly that this wasn't arranged by him, yet the other party was remarkably similar to him.
After entering the Battleworld, Primary Universe Batman understood clearly that there are many types of Batmans. Even among the classic Batmans that belong to the order side, there are significant differences in appearance and demeanor. When they stand in a row wearing their bat suits, even ordinary people can tell them apart clearly.
For instance, the Primary Universe Batman and Arkham Batman have similar body types, but the materials of their equipment are somewhat different, and their temperaments differ as well. Primary Universe Batman's demeanor appears more gentle, and compared to Arkham Batman, can even be described as elegant and lively; yet when compared to Beihan, he seems a bit profound and serious.
However, the Batman appearing in the TV station's footage really resembles him a bit too much. From the style of equipment, the revealed temperament, to some movement details, and even the style of the Batman dart are quite similar; this is indeed a high-class imitation.
Now Batman can ascertain that this is the work of the Mad Laugh.
What does it prove that this suddenly appearing Batman is so similar to himself? Of course, the person who made this Batman wants others to think that the mastermind behind creating the counterfeit is well aware of Primary Universe Batman. To put it bluntly, they want to frame the Main Universe's Joker.
Now in this universe, the otherworld visitors interacting the most with are only the Main Universe's Joker and Primary Universe Batman. Now there appears a counterfeit so similar to Primary Universe Batman, who else could it be?
Yet, the mediocrity and incompetence of the Mad Laugh lie in the fact that he can no longer understand how he, as the true Batman once was, used to think.
Batman gazes at the picture on TV. The flaws in Mad Laugh's trick are as plain as day—a counterfeit in the old town is using his strong physique, refined equipment, and intimidating appearance to suppress the rioting rebel army on the streets.
The core logic of the behavior is: whoever causes trouble gets beaten. Much like in a school bullying incident, where a teacher indiscriminately punishes everyone involved. This is not Batman.
Batman indeed day by day stops the chaos within Gotham City, but it's never about simply and brutally locking all the troublemakers up in the insane asylum. He needs to investigate, understand the root of the chaos, employ various methods to solve potential moral dilemmas, such as when both sides are right, or both wrong, or impossible to judge.
If he didn't need to do these things, there would be no need for him to be a street vigilante, to be the world's greatest detective; he could just roll over with an army against it.
Joker deeply understood Batman's behavioral logic. Batman is the epitome of having it both ways: wanting stability yet democracy, fairness yet justice, increasing developmental potential yet ensuring minimum existence level, helping good people yet saving bad people. If he did not want so much, he wouldn't be this strong.
Much of Batman's violent actions appear like suppression. But before he appears at a riot scene and carries out violent acts, he has inevitably undergone extensive investigation, analyzed the truth of the matter, pinpointed the core threads, and identified the key contradictions, then decided that applying violence on one side is most beneficial to upholding justice. He would only act under such circumstances, not just jump in seeing a brawl and beat both parties up.
Moreover, this guy on TV isn't even dishing out indiscriminate punishment but is instead singling out the rebel army. Such actions revealing obvious personal biases are diametrically opposed to the Dark Knight, who molds himself into a machine of fairness and justice.
It is not to say the rebel army is wholly righteous, nor that some terrorist methods they employ are without error. But even if investigations concluded that the uprising should be stopped, the level of violence enacted by this counterfeit under the camera is too low.
Batman quietly watched his actions, internally sighing. This Batman's mimicry of his appearance was reasonably good, but once he got into action—especially during a series of attack movements—it became apparent that he fell far short of Batman's average standard, not even measuring up to those at the bottom of the list.
Violence as a means itself is deterrent, but being rationally aware of the pain violence inflicts upon oneself is normal for ordinary people. But in typically not many normal people dwell within Gotham, sheer violence holds extremely limited intimidation against this bunch of madmen. But Batman, with his violent means, could intimidate the unending stream of lunatics within this city, proving he has an exceptionally high level of applying violence.
Is the key to the aesthetics of violence in violence itself? Quite the opposite, the allure of violence aesthetics lies in restraint. Batman is precisely the exemplar of this philosophy. His greatest charm lies beneath his violence-infused appearance and methods, a calm, rational, and prudent heart.
Batman's use of violence is greatly restrained, perfectly balancing on the line of "the least amount of violence necessary to perfectly resolve the issue." Even in applying deterrence, meticulous care is taken in weighing the added 'ingredient,' achieving maximum deterrent effect through slight expressions, movements, and tone. If summed up in one sentence, it would be "to this point, it becomes art."
This exceedingly high level of violence application is what makes him the Dark Knight that strikes fear into Gotham's criminals' hearts, causing those with ill-intentions to quake with fear in such a chaotic and dangerous city's night when looking into any darkness.
Yet this counterfeit has merely a surface resembling Batman, however, more lifelike than others' renderings, still failing too much in essence. Mimicking appearances is useless, as every Joker knows the Batman's appearance is the least important aspect of his entire persona.
Such a typical act of losing the big for the small, forsaking a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed, probably could only be pulled off by the Laughing Bat.