Chapter 93: Round 2

There's a saying: "If things get tough, it's best to do a tacitical retreat." So, following that wisdom, Chu Cheng turned and ran.

Of course, Batman doesn't "run away." He makes a tactical retreat.

"I need to get back to the city," Chu Cheng thought.

Batman has a special ability to return to the city. It takes about 20 seconds for the airplane to swoop down. Batman would shoot his grappling hook to latch onto the plane, and just like that, he'd soar into the sky, leaving the battlefield behind to return to his Batplane.

Chu Cheng had tested this city-returning skill before. Usually, a plane would arrive to pick up Batman, flying higher and higher until it disappeared into the clouds. Then a small bat symbol would appear on the screen, indicating the game was loading.

After a while, the scene would shift to the Batcave, where a sleek black Batplane would land on the landing pad.

The cutscene for returning to the city made Chu Cheng wonder if this Batman game had a mobile batcave up in the sky.

Chu Cheng felt a bit uneasy about Batman just hanging out in the airbase. After all, anything that flies is either destined to crash or turn into fireworks in the sky. Even the Justice League's Watchtower can't escape that fate.

After more testing, he found out that Batman didn't always need to fly to return to the city. Sometimes he would summon the Batmobile in the suburbs or a submarine if he was near water. No matter how he traveled, he always ended up back in the Batcave after a cutscene.

So, Chu Cheng realized that for Batman, all roads lead to the Batcave.

This time, the tactical retreat wasn't just to escape. The opponent reminded Chu Cheng of something in the Batcave's arsenal, so he made a special trip back to change his gear.

There's an old saying: "You can fight Batman, but you can never outsmart Batman."

After swapping out his gear, Batman returned to the ladning pad, boarded the plane, and the sleek black airplane lifted into the air again.

Time for round two.

…

When the tentacle tree monster saw Batman run away after just two rounds, it was pretty smug, shaking its branches and leaves like it was mocking him.

But to its surprise, Batman was back within minutes.

An afterimage swooped down from the sky. Batman's cape suddenly opened as he fell, gliding down like a massive bat.

He tucked his cape and rolled to absorb the impact, standing up right in front of the tentacle tree again.

The tree was thrilled. Just when it thought Batman had fled, he was back for more, practically asking for a beating.

Without hesitation, the tree lashed out with more tentacles, aiming for Batman's legs.

But this time, Batman didn't dodge. He calmly walked towards the tree, raised his right hand, and a cloud of white mist sprayed from under his glove with a "chhh."

The tentacle tree froze.

"What is this? Some human weed killer?" it thought.

It was confident. "I'm the king of trees; mere herbicides can't stop me."

But the mist was far more powerful than the tree expected. The weeds around it wilted immediately, and the tree's own vine tentacles began to wither after touching the mist. By the time they reached Batman, they were so weak they just drooped to the ground like soggy noodles.

The tentacle tree wasn't giving up and attacked with two more tentacles. But Batman just raised his hand casually and, with a smirk, sprayed another cloud of mist. The tentacles instantly withered, and even the nearby bushes and flowers started dying.

The tentacle tree was stunned.

Outrageous! This guy in the bat suit was just too much.

Of course, Batman wasn't using regular herbicides—this was his own creation, the "Bat Herbicide."

Batman has this thing where he adds "Bat" in front of everything he makes. Whether it's a Batmobile, Batplane, Batcycle, or even a Batarang, everything sounds cooler with "Bat" in front.

This bat herbicide has a special origin. It was designed specifically to deal with one of Batman's old enemies, Poison Ivy.

Poison Ivy, an Arkham Asylum regular, is not just known for her looks—she's a hardcore environmentalist who believes plants should rule the world and humans should be wiped out. She has the power to control plants and even minds. When she's at full strength, she could level Gotham with just her plants.

After years of battling such a powerful opponent, Batman created this Bat Herbicide, exclusively produced by Wayne Enterprises. It's lethal to all plants and is Batman's secret weapon against poison ivy.

When Chu Cheng first found the Bat Herbicide in the Batcave, he wondered why Batman had stocked such a strange item. It seemed like just another one of his quirky gadgets, like the Bat Shark Repellent. He never imagined it would come in handy one day.

The poor tentacle tree had never encountered anything like this before. It realized that this human was more terrifying than it could handle.

In a panic, the Tentacle Tree made a decision: it was time to run.

Yes, the big tree actually uprooted itself and ran away. Its roots pulled free from the ground, gathered together to form two wooden legs, and it sprinted off, tentacles flailing in all directions.

Seeing such a thick tree trunk running on skinny legs was quite the sight.

Chu Cheng could only watch in disbelief: "..."