LV2 Puppetry has further branches: LV2 Puppet Crafting and LV2 Puppet Manipulation.
Then there's that progress bar.
A small button had appeared next to the progress bar, along with two lines of notes.
[Please collect more Fortune. When the Fortune bar is full, a new world can be unlocked, and an Avatar can be deployed.]
[Current Progress: 17.3% Worlds Unlocked: 1]
These two sentences contained a lot of information.
There were three key terms:
Fortune, new world, and Avatar.
Gaining Fortune to unlock new worlds, deploying Avatars into new worlds, and then acquiring more Fortune in those new worlds—this seemed to be the most important new function of the panel, besides displaying stats.
Qingshui continued to mentally click the button.
All the data on the panel began to distort, eventually transforming into a black vortex capable of swallowing a person whole.
Qingshui felt a wisp of his consciousness being peeled away and devoured by the vortex.
"My head feels a bit dizzy."
Qingshui shook his head, closed his eyes, and experienced a novel sensation.
His consciousness seemed to have split into two.
One part was right here, while the other was in a distant, different world, almost having independent consciousness yet completely under the control of the main body.
"It's a bit like Shadow Clone Jutsu? But also somewhat different?"
Although Qingshui couldn't perform the B-rank ninjutsu, Shadow Clone Jutsu, he knew its effects.
Clearly, this so-called Avatar seemed far more advanced than Shadow Clones, almost turning him into two separate living entities.
…
…
Ominous lightning tore through the sky, and under thick dark clouds, torrential rain poured down.
This was Gotham.
And when Qingshui's consciousness entered this world, he felt completely out of sorts.
He was in a small room, about ten square meters, with floors and walls made of some white, metallic-looking material that appeared very sturdy.
Cold blue light streamed in through a bulletproof glass door, and angry shouts occasionally echoed from the adjacent rooms.
He had just finished receiving the settings and partial memories of this body when he heard the commotion next door.
"Oh, hey! Black Mask, you're almost there! So close to the right answer! Think harder! It has wings but isn't an angel, it sucks blood but isn't a demon. What could it be? This riddle is so simple!"
A smooth voice with an exaggerated, theatrical tone came from the room on the left.
"Go to hell! Can you, you worthless piece of trash, switch rooms?! I really want to chop off your mouth and feed it to Batman!"
The guy in the room next door was on the verge of a breakdown.
This guy spouted two hundred riddles a day. If you couldn't answer, he'd keep bothering you until you solved his riddle, only then would he quiet down for a bit to think of new ones.
Qingshui covered his ears and sat in the corner, sorting through the information in his mind.
His current location was…
Arkham Asylum!
Riddler and Black Mask were his neighbors in Arkham.
The former was infamous and universally reviled, while the latter was a second or third-tier villain in Gotham.
As for himself, his name was Clearwater, which could also be translated as Qingshui.
His street name in Gotham was Puppeteer, classifying him as a low-tier villain among low-tiers.
He was a mad Asian doctor with mediocre medical skills but an obsession with bringing the dead back to life. Through the process of stitching up corpses, he had mastered the art of turning them into Human Puppets, controlling their movements with steel wires.
This gave Qingshui a feeling similar to Human Puppets, but in reality, both the crafting technique and the manipulation methods were quite crude. His controlled puppets could be easily taken down in droves by a professionally trained police officer with a weapon.
It was pretty low-tier, making him just a minor, insignificant villain, with even less prestige than his two neighbors.
Such minor crimes shouldn't have landed him in Arkham.
But because the doctors deemed him mentally unstable, he was confined here.
"Oh, hey, this is already the simplest riddle! Even a kindergarten kid could guess it, you idiot! If only Batman were here, he's the only genius who's cracked every single one of my high-difficulty riddles!"
"Should I try an even simpler riddle? I'll have to think hard; honestly, this is the first time I've had to rack my brain so much to come up with a simple riddle…"
"Hey, you there, why don't you try guessing too? I see you've been quiet for a while!"
Qingshui helplessly lowered his hands from his ears.
It was useless; this guy talked too much.
"First, I'm not 'hey, you there.'"
"Second, the answer to the riddle you just posed is Batman."
"Third, stop bothering me, or I'll turn you into a Human Puppet!"
"Fourth!"
Qingshui couldn't help but punch the wall.
"Riddler, get out of Gotham!"
Next door, Riddler, looking confused, took off his green hat.
Why does this fellow Puppeteer seem to have such a deep grudge against me?
"You're the one who should get out of Gotham! Listen, I'll give you a riddle, and if you can't answer it, once I get out, I'll definitely make you…"
*Ding dong!*
Qingshui, looking impatient, frantically knocked on the bulletproof glass door in front of him.
The commotion was quickly noticed by the monitoring personnel.
Soon, the heavy iron door was pushed open, and a fully armed guard walked in.
"Clearwater! You'd better have a good reason, or else I'll make you regret disturbing me!"
"Officer! Riddler just said he's in contact with Penguin outside and has already planned a jailbreak. He even invited Black Mask and me to join."
Black Mask: ???
When was I invited to a jailbreak?
The guard didn't dare to delay and quickly pulled out his communicator.
"Room 408, Riddler is suspected of attempting jailbreak. Recommend transfer to the underground heavy-security cell."
Riddler: ???
"Oh, hey! I'm not planning a jailbreak!"
Riddler pressed himself against the transparent glass, shouting loudly.
"Are you saying you don't want to break out?"
Qingshui's face showed a smile eerily similar to Anya's, as he asked mischievously.
"Of course not, who in this place doesn't want to break out? Don't you?"
Riddler retorted.
"No, everyone in Arkham Asylum is so talented and speaks so nicely, I absolutely love it here! Black Mask, you heard Riddler's incitement too, right?"
Black Mask had also caught on by now and nodded heavily in front of the guard.
A team of armed prison guards quickly arrived, handcuffed and shackled Riddler, and dragged him towards a higher-security heavy-duty prison room.
"Finally, some peace and quiet!"
Black Mask took a deep breath, stretching his legs out and sitting in the corner of the room.
"Not necessarily. Every cell has recordings and surveillance; they'll verify it quickly, so that guy might still come back."
Qingshui sat cross-legged in the center of the cell, sighing helplessly.
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