PFC Chapter 3252 Bloody New City (1)
Chapter 3252 Bloody New City (1)
Chapter 3252: Bloody New City (I)
Gotham, Municipal Office Building, 8:00AM.
There was a knock on the door, and with a creak, the door was pushed open. A woman in formal clothes walked into the office with documents. The name tag hanging around her neck stated that she was Ms. Weiss, the mayor's assistant.
"Mr. Napier, this is the transcript of your news interview this afternoon. I have made the final revisions. You can take a look at it and write down the important items."
The figure sitting in front of the table did not move, but just raised his eyelids and said, "Put it here, I'll take a look later."
"You have a question-and-answer meeting about pollution from the chemical plant in Area X15 in two hours. We have already arranged the venue. Would you like to go and take a look in advance?"
"No, I have a visitor in half an hour."
"name?"
"Mr. Neville and Professor Rodriguez."
"Okay, I'll send Angelique to meet them."
"No, don't let Angelique go, let Gray go."
"Okay, sir."
The figure in front of the table put down the document he was reading, sighed softly, rubbed his eyebrows, and picked up the news release that had just been placed on the table.
He flipped through it casually, his pale fingers sliding across the dark words. The straight lines made the English letters look hunched.
When he saw one of the entries, his eyes darkened and he looked right at the document he was reading. A key word appeared in both documents - chemical plant pollution in Area X15.
He stood up from his chair and walked to another table next to him. There was a map of Gotham City on it with colored pins placed in many places on it. Only he knew what these pins meant.
Gotham is divided into five areas: B, E, F, G, P, and X.
This is not Gotham's original geographical structure. The Gotham in this universe is divided into four districts, east, west, south and north, like most universes. It can also be divided into the new city and the old city, which are the downtown and upper city commonly used in American cities.
The letter logo represents the regional division strategy he adopted after taking office. B stands for business, E stands for education, G stands for politics, F stands for finance, P stands for the public, and X stands for production.
This is not a simple geographical concept, but just a regional division. Many areas are not concentrated in one place, but are scattered everywhere. Therefore, the letter is often followed by a number to represent the specific area.
The X15 production area where the accident occurred is a chemical plant located in the eastern part of Gotham. About half a month ago, a super criminal came here with hostages. In order to hinder the police investigation, he destroyed the chemical production pipeline here, causing the leakage of dangerous goods.
Batman successfully captured the criminal and rescued the hostages, but the leaked chemical gas had already entered Gotham's atmosphere. To prevent public panic, the media mostly used the serial number X15 to refer to the leaked gas.
At this moment, sitting in the chair of the mayor's office, he recalled the farce that had happened in the past half month.
About three months ago, Jack Napier, who officially announced his candidacy for mayor, received a strange invitation letter, telling him that he was allowed to participate in a carnival party in which all universes would participate, which could solve all the difficulties he was facing now.
They called the promised land - Doujie.
Napier was very clear about what was bothering him, and what worried him most was that his body had begun to become immune to the drugs, and the drugs that restored his clarity and rationality were no longer working.
That lunatic is coming back soon.
What's even more terrifying is that he used public opinion to pull Batman off the altar and put himself on it, but if the madman named Joker occupies this body again, everything he has done will come to nothing.
Napier had no choice but to take a gamble.
But the good news is, he won the bet.
In this special space, his condition will not worsen, and the crazy whispers that always appear in the middle of the night and the terrible laughter that entangles his soul will never appear in the fighting world.
Even though he met more crazy clowns here, they were not him and would not compete with him for control of his body, so there was nothing wrong with listening to their boring jokes.
But this is not a long-term solution. One day he will have to leave Utopia and return to the ruined city to find a solution to the problem.
Fortunately, he also met some friends here, and that special Bruce was one of them.
The Pale Knight invited Bruce to return to his universe, actually hoping that he could help his Gotham. After all, things have come to this point, and no amount of power is too much.
Bruce did not disappoint him. Maria, who was regarded as a substitute for Harley Quinn but fell into complete madness, was no match for him at all.
He thwarted Maria's plot, defeated her army of lunatics, and for the sake of subsequent arrangements, made Batman, who was originally reviled by the public, a true hero and restored his reputation.
In this way, with the help of Bruce, the White Knight reached a reconciliation with Batman. Although Batman still did not join the GTO (Gotham Special Counter-Terrorist Team) established by the White Knight, the two reached a delicate balance.
Batman is still on the front line of fighting crime, and GTO is also working hard to improve Gotham's law and order. Bruce believes that he can imitate the medicine that saved Napier, which makes the Pale Knight feel relieved. It seems that everything is developing in a good direction.
But how did things go so smoothly?
All of the above actions were exposed to their deepest hidden drawbacks after the toxic gas leak in the X15 Industrial Zone - they had no money.
Batman invests more than $30 billion in natural disaster funds every year, and all of this money goes into the pockets of those who use Batman's actions to speculate in real estate or make financial investments.
30 billion a year, that’s 300 billion in ten years.
They used the money to massively short-sell Wayne Group's local businesses in Gotham, bribe officials, sideline every mayor, and then take more funds out of the city government and put all the money of Gotham residents into their own pockets.
It takes money to fight crime, it takes money to keep the anti-terrorist squad running, it takes money to invest in the slums, and even the Pale Knight needs money to make more drugs himself.
But they had no money. The Wayne Group's liquidity was getting lower and lower, the municipal funds' pockets were cleaner than their faces, and the Pale Knight himself couldn't pay a penny.
This dumbfounded the ambitious Pale Knight, Batman and Bruce, who finally saw a glimmer of hope.
"He asked me where I got the money to save Gotham," Bruce told Schiller as they drove to City Hall. "I answered him as truthfully as I could."
"How did he react?" Schiller asked.
"He said I had a good father. I told him that I actually had a group of good friends. Without Oliver and his friends, we wouldn't have been able to get so much military funds so easily."
"Of course, you also have a good teacher. Without him, the Soviet Union would not have helped Mexico to burn that fire so vigorously."
"Indeed." Bruce took a breath and said, "But not everyone in this world has such good luck, at least not the Batman and the Joker in this universe. They don't have any way to make money, let alone get rich overnight."
"In the final analysis, it is because he is unwilling to carry out a thorough revolution." Schiller pointed out the problem, but then changed the subject and said: "I completely understand what he is concerned about. The foundation of his livelihood is the support of the poor in Gotham. But if he attacks the rich, it will definitely cause pain. A grain of sand in the era is like a mountain when it falls on a person."
"So I didn't persuade him." Bruce continued, "Today, 80% of Gotham's industries are in the hands of that group of people, and more than 90% of Gotham's permanent population has to beg for food from them. Even if they are all killed, what will happen?"
Schiller also shook his head and said: "There are always people who say that to solve the problem of Gotham, we just need to use missiles to blow it up, and to solve the problem of inequality between the rich and the poor, there are always people who think that we just need to kill all the rich people."
"But there will always be rich people in this world. If you kill one, someone will take his place. It doesn't matter whether it's his child, a stranger, or simply a poor person."
"The important thing is that the new person is no different from the previous one. He is just as selfish and only cares about making money for himself. The person who killed this person is the same as the one who came after him. Wealth always flows only to the top of the pyramid. No matter how many people have changed, it is still the same."
"This is because they have no ideas," Bruce said. "Without something more noble to support them, without ideological innovation, endless killing and replacement are meaningless. Without a truly great idea nurtured by great people standing on the side of the majority and rebuilding the distribution system for them, wealth will still not circulate."
"Yes, the Gotham you live in has succeeded because the people who replaced it, namely your father, friends, teachers and you, happen to be the kind of people who value ideals more than interests. They are fearless idealists. I am the same."
"Although I believe everything depends on human effort, you also have to admit that there is an element of luck involved. If you don't meet the right person at the right time, miracles will never happen."
"It's obviously impossible here." Schiller turned his head and looked out the window, then said: "There are not so many idealists here, and even the Pale Knight is not sober and firm enough."
The atmosphere in the car fell silent.
"Why don't you tell me what you did when you first came here?" Schiller turned the ring on his hand with his other hand, and the gray fog hummed in his mind.
Bruce also looked out the window and said, "That's nothing compared to the difficulties we are facing now. The only interesting thing is that this is the Pale Knight's own fault."
"Oh?"
"That woman named Maria, the madman who almost caused a disaster, was actually a double trained by the Pale Knight when he was still the Joker."
"substitute?"
"That's right. Maria thought she was Harley Quinn, but in fact she used to be a bank clerk. After being taken back by the Joker, she was driven crazy. She was immersed in madness and thought she was the Joker's only lover."
"What about Harley?"
"She is the real Harley Quinn, but she loves the Joker who is not yet crazy, that is, the Pale Knight. The drug that made the Joker return to normal was also developed by her. I met her before. She is a very strong and smart woman."
"That's quite interesting," Schiller commented. "So how is she now?"
Bruce sighed and said, "In critical condition."