In the early years, there was a story in Gotham. This story has no name and is passed down by word of mouth, but when people mention it, they always use it as a synonym for "first laugh".

That was in the early years. At that time, the city was a sad, gray place, and no one ever laughed. People are constantly working in the dirty factories over and over again, repeating the same process day after day. After completing the task, return home on time every day.

But Gotham is like that, it's always making things, and it's making more things than ever before. In those years, there were no modern skyscrapers, no new concept of bustling buildings, only chimneys reaching into the sky. They can be found all over Gotham, and even the most remote corners of the city are filled with huge chimneys, the tops constantly filling the sky with heavy black smoke.

But the bosses, they are a little bit unhappy with their workers. Many people may think that, like many similar stories, things will develop into a cliché story of the bullying boss who recklessly processes and oppresses the working people, and follows a routine. But this is not the case, most of the bosses in those days were friendly and kind, but the nature of the work dictated that the workers' bodies became weak in the heavy labor day by day, and they kept getting sick, sick, sick, sick, and more and more angry people.

The bosses were reluctant to go, and they were until if they didn't do anything about it, the workers might fight back, maybe even revolt. They met all day long to discuss, but they never came up with a result, because no one knew what to do.

That's when he came.

The storyteller didn't know his name, so in the end the name was not handed down. It is said that even back then, no one knew his name. It was a clown, a circus clown with oil paint on his face, a ridiculous clown hat on his head, and a unicycle on his feet. You may think, how special can a circus clown be? No, no, as strange as it may say, there doesn't seem to have been a Joker in Gotham's history. According to legend, this Joker was Gotham's first.

He appeared in the midst of the worried bosses, patting his chest and telling everyone that he could accomplish the impossible. It can make them all happy, and it can make the whole city laugh.

So he visited factories one by one and did tours. At first, there was only one, two, three smirks, but it got worse and worse. All those who saw him start laughing, laughing, laughing like a car with brake pads scrapped. People laughed like knives, their facial muscles twitched severely, and their eyes were filled with tears. They laughed until they coughed up blood.

The doctors all came, and many of them were famous doctors in the city. But whoever swore they had never seen anything like it. The patients refused to stop laughing as if they were obsessed, but no matter how much they were examined, they could not find any physical problems.

On the first night, sixty people died.

As you can imagine, people were terrified. Everyone joined forces and tried to stop him, but in vain. The clown didn't listen to anyone at all, and he began to perform from factory to factory, even to the streets, and the result was the same. More and more people are dying laughing, and if the bodies of those who died as a result of this are piled up enough to form a small hill.

Eventually, the people who worked tirelessly found his hiding place - just outside the city, in the middle of nowhere.

That night, hundreds of citizens gathered here, torches in hand, and bright flames connected together, lighting up the entire sky.

The people of Gotham knew in their hearts that this place must be burned to the ground, along with the demons that inhabit it. The flames set the hut on fire along with the surrounding bushes and trees, and it is said that you can see the reddened sky and the smoke in the city, and you can feel the suffocating hot air from a distance of more than ten meters.

But from the depths of the flames, they heard a short laugh, followed by a scream, it was the clown who had come out to greet them.

The pale man, still on his funny unicycle, tossed a burning bottle in his hand, rushed out of the flames, and was in flames. His eyes were burned into a hollow, but his torn mouth still maintained a hideous smile, and he couldn't stop laughing in his throat, as if he was crazy.

He was burning, but he didn't stop. He continued to perform acrobatics and laugh loudly until he was reduced to ashes.

The fire burned all night before it was extinguished, leaving behind a scorched earth and bald wood that had not been revived for a hundred years. According to legend, this land was sold to some chemical factory, some people even say that it is the famous "ACE" chemical factory in Gotham, but it may be just a rumor made by idlers, after all, these are also things that cannot be verified.

But since then, Gotham has had unwritten rules. It's not law, and no one will say it out loud - but there are no clowns here.

The story is called "The First Laugh", and the protagonist of the story - because it has no name - is called "The Pale Man". However, many years ago, this story has not been passed down, perhaps because it is so terrible that it has become a shadow ingrained in the hearts of many generations, so in order to forget this nightmare, a certain generation chose to bring it into the coffin.

So now, a lot of people haven't heard of it.

"But I'm telling you, the story is true!"

In the new Arkham asylum, which had been converted from Arkham Island to the outskirts of Gotham, a big fat man in an orange prison suit trembled and spoke, beads of sweat oozing uncontrollably from every pore of his body.

His name was Morton, and he briefly spent time in Ward 802. Unfortunately for him, the Joker lived next door to him during that time.

"My mommy happens to be one of the last people to know this story." He said.

Zarhi, a psychiatrist sitting directly across from him, cupped his eyes and fiddled with the pen in his hand and said, "That's not going to be true, Morton." Take it easy, maybe it's just an illusion that the clown is trying to instill in your spirit and wants you to believe."

"No, you don't understand." He shook his head desperately, "Laughter is a disease in Gotham, they are contagious so fast and irrepressibly that they will eventually ruin everything!" ”

"Nothing is going to be ruined, Morton. Those are just in your head."

"You don't understand, no one understands." "But he told me, soon." The pale man has returned, and it won't be long before you'll all believe it. (To be continued.) )