Gotham City Simulator – 55

【Side Mission “Black Mask and THE1” Completed】

【You received the rewards: 40 Diamonds, 80,000 Gold Coins, THE1 Formula, Antidote Formula (Pending Payment), THE Series Reagents x1211】

【Team Status Released】

Since the system indicated that Batman would handle the payment for the antidote formula, Vivi wasn’t worried. She could see on the map that the police were approaching, clearly contacted by Batman to take custody of Black Mask. It wouldn’t be long before these people were sent to Blackgate Prison. Suddenly, she thought of something: “What will happen to Black Mask’s assets after he’s captured?”

When dealing with Penguin, the system had prompted Vivi to take over Penguin’s assets, but this time there was no such prompt—

As long as Black Mask had money, he had a chance to rise again.

It was Robin who spoke, appearing knowledgeable about this aspect: “Black Mask was born into the Sionis family. He has experience running businesses. His subordinates manage his pharmaceutical factories, steel mills, and banks. Even though we know these are Black Mask’s assets, without concrete evidence, they remain on the whitelist—unlike Penguin, who confessed and revealed everything.”

“Because this living dead incident will cause panic, Batman will suggest to Commissioner Gordon to file the case under drug trafficking. Just that charge alone is enough to send his subordinates to prison.”

But what he didn’t say was that Black Mask was already a frequent guest of Blackgate Prison; he always found a way out.

Vivi comforted him, “Don’t worry, Black Mask won’t be able to escape.”

Not to mention, he was currently locked in a room unable to get out. Vivi heard that Black Mask was a master fighter; if he broke through the wall now, he might still resist and cause trouble for the police.

Let’s lock him up for three days first.

“Well, I’ll be going now,” she raised her hand, looking up at the ceiling. According to the map, Batman was directly above her, “The antidote formula can be sent to the official email of Iceberg Construction Company.”

She took a step back and vanished instantly.

Nightwing shrugged. The next second, Batman crashed through the ceiling. His eldest son, arms crossed, casually remarked, “B, are you going to check on your old friend?”

Batman immediately understood, “Is there a problem with Black Mask?”

“No problem,” Nightwing said, “He just can’t get out.”

The police quickly arrived to take away the seven test subjects. Nightwing, with a serious expression, said, “Looks like Black Mask will face an additional charge for human experimentation besides drug trafficking.” But in Gotham, where there’s no death penalty, what did it matter? They would never truly be afraid.

It was impossible to leave Black Mask trapped in the room indefinitely. As Nightwing and Batman mentioned his inability to get out, they thought it might not be absolute. The air wall was a result of Mr. C’s magic. Even after they damaged the outer walls, a thin air wall still blocked everything. However, even after using Nth Metal, which dispels most magic and is a bane to many magicians, the air wall remained.

Nth Metal could neutralize most magic, and Batman eventually contacted Zatanna from the Justice League, a powerful magician.

The air wall was only about three centimeters thick, but these three centimeters were impenetrable.

Interestingly, the police needed to arrest Black Mask, and Sionis Steel Mill supported this wall-breaking operation—after all, their big boss was still trapped inside. With joint efforts, they spent a day using a crane to lift the entire room. Currently, the room sat in an open space behind the steel mill.

Amidst the vibrations caused by the crane and the joint destruction efforts, the thin air wall became more apparent.

This made Black Mask very irritable, surrounded by a circle of police and workers watching the commotion. He and his subordinates were exhibited like monkeys, causing some to cover their faces in embarrassment.

Nightwing crouched down, examining a nail left in the original door frame, which was exactly three centimeters long.

He leaped to the former ceiling position, feeling himself step on an invisible floor, and quickly found another nail. Eventually, he located nails on all six sides.

Black Mask grew more anxious, demanding Batman clear everyone out before he would reveal what Vivi had done in the room—

“Six nails, right?” Nightwing said, “Does being watched like a monkey make you feel ashamed? You deserve it.”

“Zatanna mentioned that if Nth Metal has no effect, it could be two things: a kind of humanly incomprehensible science—like Kryptonian technology from Superman—or some rule-based magic.”

Either way, it meant Mr. C’s threat level needed to be raised again.

Nightwing shrugged, “Makes sense. I guess the end of science is magic.”

But how would they send Black Mask to prison? Would they just lock him and his 27 subordinates in a single cell? An additional 28-person cell in the prison?

“The Human Rights Protection Association would protest this,” Batman said.

Nightwing stared at Black Mask’s face, “Then I suggest they protest to Mr. C—if they can find him.”

The two exchanged a glance. They both knew the quickest way to break the spell was to find Vivi. However, Nightwing had no intention of doing so. Black Mask deserved to be treated like a monkey for a couple more days.

“Although air can flow through, they cannot get food or water.” After saying this, Batman shot his grappling hook and disappeared into the city.

Nightwing stretched his neck, guessing where Batman was headed—Iceberg Construction Company.

This wasn’t Batman’s first visit to the East End, especially after the major changes there. He had been keeping an eye on the area.

Iceberg Construction Company was on his special watch list because the only confirmed connections to Mr. C were the company and Vivi. As for the mayor, they hadn’t found any evidence linking him to Mr. C yet.

The mayor had indeed used magical items to modify Gotham. They had examined speed limit signs and street trees but couldn’t detect any traces of magic. The only confirmed fact was that the number of car accidents in Gotham had decreased this month, and there were many complaints online—

Some speedsters found their speeds being restricted, first suspecting problems with their cars, leading to a windfall for Gotham’s car shops.

Later, they summarized for Batman which sections of the roads had issues. The data showed that these were all accident-prone areas.

Besides this, there was no direct link between the mayor and Mr. C.

Batman couldn’t even prove that these items were from Mr. C. This person seemed like a non-existent ghost. Sometimes they wondered if he even existed, but then he would appear in various events, guiding everything. He might be a single person or an organization.

—He was a ghostly hand.

And Batman excelled at finding such ghosts in the city because this was his Gotham.

Batman first went to Crime Alley. He parked his car far away at the entrance, noting that Millie White, the head of the cathedral, was talking to a pale-faced blond man, likely a junkie or something similar. The East End was full of such people. The man then set down his things and began moving the daily supplies donated by Wayne Enterprises, which now filled the cathedral’s grounds.

From time to time, others emerged from the cathedral, greeted Millie, and joined the work, mostly children and women.

After watching for a while, Batman started his car. The sentries on the roadside noticed the Batmobile but quickly diverted their gazes.

The Batmobile didn’t drive far, stopping at the entrance of the Wayne Memorial—

His parents were killed here many years ago. Later, the Wayne Memorial was built on this site. Bruce came here every year to lay a bouquet of flowers.

The underground construction in the East End would necessitate the demolition of this site. The ground where many had died would be torn down and rebuilt into new roads.

He stared at the land for a long time, then restarted the Batmobile.

At night, more people were walking around Crime Alley. Batman knew that if there had been this many people out before, a gang fight would likely have ensued. But these days, every night was this crowded, not because of gang wars but because City Hall provided so much work that people were busy from morning till late night.

Among them were people Batman had beaten up, and children ran by holding glowing branches, seemingly heading towards the cathedral. Nearby, the giant tree, now a symbol of Crime Alley, stood out brightly.

—It felt like the chaos of the night on the 24th was both recent and distant.

The Batmobile finally stopped in front of Iceberg Construction Company.

What Batman didn’t know was that shortly after he left the cathedral, a girl in different clothes sneakily poked Millie’s back.

Millie turned, surprised but not alarmed, “Vivi?”

She had seen Vivi before and had been involved in the Penguin warehouse incident, although she was just the driver.

She handed her notebook to a nearby woman to continue recording the donated supplies, which needed to be manually counted and logged.

Then Millie pulled Vivi inside the cathedral, “Do you need my help with something?”

“Just to register me,” Vivi said, “Register my identity. I need an identity.”

During the East End redevelopment, the mayor insisted on registering everyone’s identity, and Vivi knew it would be quicker to go through Millie, as long as she listed herself as a minor.

Millie said, “Sure, all the homeless children in the cathedral have one too. I can send your name along with theirs right now. What surname?”

“Same as yours. I’m an adult.” Vivi didn’t care much about this; she just wanted to establish an identity for easier future operations—like how Iceberg Construction Company was still under Violin’s name.

Millie, thinking of something, chuckled, “Alright.”

At this moment, a blond man brought in a bunch of branches, “Ms. White, the kids made this for you.”

“Thank you, Tal.”

Millie accepted the branches, tied with ribbons into a bouquet by the children’s standards. She heard Vivi ask, “Tal?”

“Tal White,” Millie smiled, “Many kids here have the surname White. As for Tal, he lost his memory. When asked about his name, he only vaguely remembered ‘Ta…’ so I named him Tal.”

Hmm?

Vivi shrugged, not probing further.

“Ta” probably meant “Talon.” However, she found the name Tal fitting now.

As Millie was registering her, she casually asked, “Where are you heading next?”

She knew Vivi was very mysterious and wouldn’t stay like the other homeless children.

Vivi stared at her phone, replying offhandedly, “What’s the date today?”

The panel showed a message from Robin, sent using the phone Violin had originally given her.

Robin mentioned they could deliver the antidote sample and formula together in three days. Vivi guessed they wanted her to deal with the Black Mask issue—three days without food or water would be about right.

“The 27th, almost the 28th,” Millie said.

Vivi: “Oh… what?”

Wait, the 27th!

Three days later would be the 30th, and on the 31st, the mayor had to pay salaries and repay the bank!