It wasn't that Harley Quinn didn't notice, but she had been enduring it. She performed all kinds of yoga poses with ease. Connors clearly enjoyed it, but to cooperate, he still tried to make his expression look very pained.
If the situation allowed, Connors would have lit a cigarette, picked up a glass of red wine, and savored the moment.
He had nothing else to do at the moment. As midnight approached, he simply turned on his system.
[Today's juicy gossip: Encounter with Cindy Moon]
[Submit?]
[Tip: Since the quantity and quality of today's gathered gossip have reached the upper limit, the task has been automatically submitted and the reward has been issued.]
[After the "Laughing Man Incident" concludes, the gossip system reward will upgrade to level 2.]
"Upgrade the reward for gathering gossip?" Connors was so delighted he almost couldn't maintain the pained expression on his face.
He considered today's gossip: "Harley Quinn's black silk stockings," "The encounter with Cindy Moon," the Joker using laughing gas to commit crimes, and even the "Laughing Man Incident" where the Williams Medical Center was bombed. Except for the first, which was somewhat ordinary, the next two were significant.
When it came to making a decision, Connors struggled to pick which one to submit.
Fortunately, the system automatically submitted it, saving him time. As for the system reward upgrading after the "Laughing Man Incident" concluded, he felt no worry.
Even without the upgrade, he planned to pursue Batman and the Joker to gather more gossip.
"Is her tongue more flexible than mine?" Harley Quinn was still busy.
[Today's juicy gossip: Encounter with Cindy Moon]
[Gossip reward: Green of All Things (1%)]
"…"
At that moment, Connors suddenly regretted renting this minimalist apartment. Living room, kitchen, bedroom, dining room… he could not even find a single plant.
He was familiar with the "Green of All Things." The powers of Poison Ivy, Swamp Thing, and others in DC Comics all stemmed from this elemental force that manipulated plants.
One percent of the Green of All Things did not allow him to perform spectacular feats like Poison Ivy controlling plants to surround Gotham.
Fortunately, through constant sensing, he discovered a cactus in his next-door neighbor's house.
Growing, twisting…
By the time Harley Quinn finished her Nutri-Express, he had controlled the cactus to grow to its limit.
"The control of plants is within one hundred meters of me, and I cannot make the plants exceed their natural limits. In other words, I cannot make any blade of grass grow into a deadly sword…"
After some experiments, Connors regarded this reward as useless and too weak. However, since a percentage display existed, it meant he could improve it in the future, which comforted him.
This was his first superpower that truly went beyond human concepts. Connors controlled the cactus to grow into various shapes in the air until Harley Quinn was sweating profusely and fell into a deep sleep.
In the house next door to Connors' rental, the male owner woke up in the middle of the night. With sleepy eyes, he walked out of his bedroom. On his way to the bathroom, he accidentally glanced into the living room.
Then, with trembling legs, he cautiously retreated to the bedroom, slammed the door shut, and pulled out his cell phone:
"Hello? Gotham Police Department? I want to report something… Batman is squatting on my windowsill. I am not kidding!"
The Gotham Police Department's efficiency was not low. Shrieking sirens soon sounded, but a figure arrived before the sirens did.
After Batman received news from Captain Gordon that "someone was impersonating Batman and climbing out a 19th-floor window," he immediately put down his work analyzing the blood from the bodies that died during the day.
When he arrived at the scene, he found the person pretending to be him was not a human at all, but a cactus that had burst its flowerpot.
Under the influence of an unknown force, it had grown into a cactus with a pair of pointed ears on its head.
[Today's juicy gossip: Batman's surprise]
[Submit?]
The rope Harley Quinn used to tie Connors had long been loosened. At that moment, he stood by the window, lighting a cigarette. He did not know if Batman was surprised, but he certainly was.
What had he done to surprise Master Wayne again?
He soon understood.
Outside the 19th-floor window, a huge shadow floated by. It was Batman. As he passed Connors' window, Batman instinctively turned his head and saw Connors standing naked by the window, smoking a cigarette.
He had made his neighbor's cactus into the shape of Batman, so Batman had to come over to check it out in the middle of the night…
Connors did not know whether to laugh or cry, so he drew the curtains to block Batman's view.
Outside the window, Bruce Wayne looked suspiciously at the drawn curtains, then at the house with the abnormally transformed cactus. For a moment, he was unsure if there was any connection between the two.
However, he was only halfway through his experiment, and time was running out, so he could not waste any more.
Since he was not very tired last night, Connors got up early today and sat in the living room, watching the morning news while waiting for Harley Quinn to wake up.
"…Many escaped prisoners were brought to justice after the Gotham Police Department's sleepless pursuit all night. However, the escaped prisoners from Arkham Asylum, led by the Joker, are still missing…"
On TV, the dignified and elegant host stood not far from Arkham Asylum, speaking into a microphone.
"The construction workers have begun to remodel it… cough cough!"
"Sorry… cough!"
"Cough cough cough!… Hehe, hehehe…"
The host kept coughing on TV, right under the noses of Gotham's citizens, her back bent from coughing. When she stood up again, her face was abnormally pale, her eyes bulged from their sockets, and her mouth stretched into an exaggerated angle.
Though her trembling body and the way she pressed her chest showed great pain, she had a strange smile on her face, like a monster from a horror movie.
Behind her, an equally pale hand touched the host's shoulder, then pushed it away, allowing her to fall straight down.
What appeared on the screen at that moment was a clown in a purple suit, with green hair, a pale face, and an exaggerated smile!
"Morning, morning, morning, morning, good Gotham!"
Click!
The sound of bullets being loaded came from behind Connors. Harley Quinn had gotten up without him noticing, holding a machine gun in both hands.
With a bang, a bullet hit the clown between the eyebrows. Then the TV crackled twice and shattered completely.
-----
Cindy Moon quickly unplugged the power cord the moment the clown appeared on the TV.
She had not slept all night. Her powerful Spider-Sense allowed her to clearly feel how much Connors enjoyed last night, even though she was half a city away.
Just one night had tormented her and filled her with unwillingness to give in.
Throwing the bedsheet with a large wet spot in the middle into the basin, Cindy quickly put on her battle suit and ran straight to Connors' location.