42-44

Chapter 42: The Good Habits Developed in Dark Souls 5 

Gotham City seemed even gloomier today. 

Raindrops splattered down from the sky, the icy, biting mist creeping into pedestrians' lungs with every breath, making them shiver involuntarily. The clouds overhead were much thicker than usual, making the already weak daylight appear even more somber. The whole city felt steeped in shadows. 

Gotham in the shadows was deeply unsettling. 

The conversations happening inside the GCPD (Gotham City Police Department) downtown were even more unsettling. 

"I was the one driving the getaway car that day. I'll write it all down, if you need me to." 

"The package I delivered to that lady, Harvey Dent's wife, Mrs. Dent, you know the one. I'll write it all down, if you need me to." 

"I tailed Dent to his place, yeah, that was me, tailed him right back home. If you need it, I'll write it all down, I will." 

"I pushed that damn remote button. And I'll write the whole thing down, if you need me to." 

Five testimonies, including Mickey's, checked against each other, no holes – no matter how much the Roman paid them, he got his money's worth. 

Batman thought silently to himself. 

A waiting officer nearby heard a low, hoarse voice emerge from the darkness: "Bring Mickey back." 

Meanwhile, in another old building on Gotham's East End— 

"Breaking News! Five Irish gang members who nearly blew up Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent's house admit to attempted murder!" 

"As of now, Mrs. Dent remains hospitalized and has yet to regain consciousness. This paper will continue to follow up with more news updates for you." 

Cody stared at the bold, large black headlines in the newspaper, a grin spreading across his face, a satisfied smile. 

How did things even get to this point? 

Maybe it started a few days ago, with that task he got? 

"Thanks, System Daddy, System Daddy is the best, come here and give me a kiss, mwah!" 

One of the fundamental truths about humans is they'll come around eventually. 

"Preventing is Worse Than Guiding" 

Task Description: When Falcone sets his sights on someone, that person is definitely not going to have a good time in Gotham – superheroes excluded. 

Too bad Harvey Dent isn't a superhero, and right now, Falcone thinks he burned his twenty million in black money, and maybe even killed his nephew. 

In this situation, very few people can help him, and even fewer are willing to. 

Note: This is a high-risk, low-reward gig. It's understandable if you don't want to take it on – you don't have unlimited money or invincibility cheat codes. 

Status: Pending (0/1) 

Reward: Advanced Cooking Mastery 

Cody stared at the task description and details, lost in thought for a long time. It wasn't because he was struggling between his conscience and the pros and cons, but because the task content was so damn ridiculous. 

"Help the Irish gang bomb Harvey Dent's house? Me? I make the bomb? Do you think Two-Face's origin story would be a lot less fun without a cannon fodder named Cody?" 

"House damage must not exceed twenty percent, Harvey Dent and Mrs. Dent must survive... Do you even hear yourself? The description says help him, the content says bomb him, what the heck do you actually want me to do... Wait a minute." 

Cody looked at the task name and suddenly it clicked. 

Before coming to Gotham City, Cody had played a game called Dark Souls 5. There was a really weird item in that game called a Poison Dung Pie. When you threw it, it would poison yourself. 

What kind of messed-up item is this? What's the point? 

It wasn't until he encountered some monsters that used deadly poison arrows, whose poison could kill the player in a flash. These annoying things had him stuck for an entire afternoon. 

During one particularly frustrating meltdown, he started fighting back with dung pies, and to his surprise, the dung pies put him in a poisoned state, and the deadly poison from the arrows actually stopped working. 

From then on, every time he defeated an opponent, he would throw two dung pies at them to refresh his own poison status. 

"I'm practically a genius!" 

So, having figured it out, Cody immediately took on the gig. Even though dealing with gangsters was dangerous, and bombing Harvey Dent's house might make Dent remember him, he couldn't avoid this. 

He was the one who burned the twenty million. Harvey just happened to be at the scene. Even so, letting a righteous district attorney take the fall for him was already pretty messed up. If he stood by and did nothing when he could help, that would be seriously bad karma for his ancestors eighteen generations back. 

He didn't want his future kids to be born without eyes [a common saying for suffering consequences due to bad deeds]. If Harvey was destined to become Two-Face in the future, he hoped his own actions wouldn't be part of that origin story – even if he couldn't be a good guy, at least he couldn't be a bad one. 

"Cody, what are you spacing out for?" 

Santos, standing nearby, casually clapped him on the shoulder. "Thinking about where you're gonna live it up tonight?" 

"You even gotta ask?" Cody grinned confidently. "As a broke restaurant server, every night I'm living it up by watching cooking streams to learn how to cook, so I can pretend I have a wife when I take pictures." 

"...Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." 

"No, no, no..." Rick, nearby, suddenly joined in. "It's payday tonight, remember? Why not spend some cash, head straight to the bar, find a pretty girl, buy her a few drinks, find a decent place to spend the night? Gotta be better than staying home, right?" 

"Or there's a party at my place," chimed in Castro, who was addicted to parties. "Lots of girls are gonna be there." 

"Oh yeah, it is payday today..." Cody's ears automatically filtered out the extra noise; his head was filled with just those three words: payday. 

His entire month's worth of asset points only hit his account after payday. Just thinking about the several thousand dollars in asset points he was about to receive, Cody couldn't help but hum happily. 

Chapter 43: Introduction Recycling 

CRASH 

A muffled thunderclap boomed in the Gotham clouds, and a flash of pale lightning suddenly lit up the city of sin in the night rain, and also illuminated a bat-shaped shadow streaking across the sky. 

"Santos, here's your pay for this month. Hang onto it." 

"Thanks, Philip." 

"Rick, come here. Remember to stay out of trouble at parties from now on. I gotta bail you two out of the precinct every single time." 

"Alright, alright, got it." 

"Castro..." 

When the manager's eyes swept across the employees and landed on Cody's excited face, his heart twinged instinctively. Now, every time he saw the guy, he'd automatically remember that miraculous shot during the shootout the other day, and that expensive fancy chandelier. 

"Ma...Cody, what's got you so hyped up?" 

"Because it's payday!" 

"I gotta remind you, you already got an advance on your salary at the beginning of the month. Don't think I'm gonna pay you twice." 

"The one at the beginning of the month was money. This one at the end of the month is happiness. It's a sense of ritual, Philip, and ritual is important." 

A confused look crossed the manager's face. He tried hard to wrap his head around Cody's weird logic, but no matter how long he thought, he just couldn't figure it out. Finally, he could only shake his head. "Anyway, consider your salary already paid—" 

Cody was glued to the manager's mouth, excitedly waiting for him to say those few words. For him, the feeling of a few thousand asset points hitting his account was pure happiness, no doubt about it. 

CRACK 

The sound of glass breaking was incredibly sharp and piercing right then. Startled, Cody instinctively whipped his head around and only saw a dark shape crash into the restaurant from the night sky. 

The manager was different from Cody; he had plenty of experience with shootouts and could pick up on a lot of details. 

Like a few bat-shaped shuriken flying at high speed. 

"Batman!" 

A bad feeling instantly welled up in his heart. As a gangster who'd been in Gotham for a while, he'd seen that Bat once before. That time, he was laid up in bed for a solid three months. 

The moment he realized the Bat had arrived, he immediately recalled the painful memory of getting his bones broken last time. He vaguely remembered that the last time, this Bat's move was to turn the whole place into his home turf – meaning, a completely dark environment. 

Thinking of this, his gaze involuntarily shifted to that fancy chandelier they'd just finished putting up. In that moment, the passage of time seemed to stretch out forever for him. The image of the Batarang flying became so clear in his mind; even though his eyes couldn't keep up with the incredibly fast shuriken, his brain had automatically filled in its trajectory. 

So he could only watch in utter despair as it flew straight and true towards that chandelier, squeezing out a desperate wail from his throat. 

"NO—!" 

CRASH— 

A series of shattering sounds rang out, and the giant crystal chandelier plummeted to the floor, scattering like splashing water, bursting into tiny, shimmering gemstone fragments. 

It might be rude to say this, but at this moment, the manager's voice made Cody feel like he'd been transported back to that rainy night a few days ago. 

He felt like he could hear that familiar music again. 

coffin dance song~ 

Ah, that's weird. Why did I say "again"? 

"BATMAN!" 

In the pitch black, the manager's roar echoed again, just like last time. 

"That damn son of a—! I'm gonna kill you! Do you have any idea how long that chandelier was just fixed for—" 

Batman was unfazed, still swooping in calmly, tackling a waiter who'd reacted quickly and drawn his gun. He swung his fist, big as a sandbag, following through with a powerful, heavy hook that precisely connected with the guy's jawbone. The trigeminal nerve connected to it was immediately stimulated, and the signal quickly transmitted to the cerebellum, which controls balance. Just like that, the enemy was knocked flat on the ground by a single heavy punch, dizzy and unable to get up. 

After knocking out one enemy with a single punch, he flickered like a ghost in the night, appearing silently behind another enemy. He delivered a chop to the back of the guy's neck, and just like that, the second enemy was also knocked unconscious with one hit. 

"Boss! Boss, are you okay!" 

Cody fumbled in the dark, calling out to the manager, his voice trembling. 

"Help! Help! The Boss is down again! Quick, call an ambulance!" 

"GET LOST!" 

Hearing Cody start wailing again, the manager's vision instantly went black. His blood pressure shot up like crazy, conveniently solving his potential hypertension issues. 

"You're okay! That's great! Boss," 

Meanwhile, Batman had already taken down seven or eight waiters in the restaurant. Even though he was unarmed right now, he fought with devastating force, practically like a tiger loose in a flock of sheep. 

"Light him up with the muzzle flash!" someone yelled, and the next second, the hands holding the gun were tightly grabbed. One finger pressed against the back of his trigger, preventing him from firing, while the other hand squeezed his wrist like a vice, giving it a slight twist. 

"AH—! It's broken! My hand's broken!" 

The intense pain made him curl up in a ball in the dark, trembling with fear, clutching his broken hand. 

Then came the next one. 

"Stay away! Don't come any closer, you son of a gun!" 

One enemy seemed to know a bit of martial arts. When Batman kicked a colleague next to him, breaking his ribs, this guy went for a knee strike. 

Batman dodged to the side and grabbed his lower leg, straightening it out, and viciously slammed an elbow down onto the knee. 

CRUNCH 

"My leg! My leg!" 

The crisp sound of bone snapping made everyone present shudder, but Batman's attack didn't stop. The clear sounds of bones breaking, screams, and the dull thuds of fists hitting bodies echoed through the dark space. The eerie thunder rumbling outside the window only made it more terrifying. 

Gusts of wind and icy raindrops flew into the room through the broken window. No one knew if their hands were trembling from the biting cold or from fear, but all the bullets did seem to fly wildly into empty space. That ghostly bat-shadow truly seemed like some kind of urban legend monster – nobody could see it clearly, nobody could catch it, hunting the gangsters in the restaurant like an experienced predator. 

"What the hell are you doing?!" 

Batman didn't reply. Talking was pointless right now. Only by incapacitating everyone could he proceed with the interrogation. 

However, the manager wasn't yelling that at Batman. 

"Just one line! Just one is enough! Quick! Or it'll be too late!" 

Cody begged the manager, his face full of despair. "Quick, say you already paid me my salary! I worked so hard for a whole month!" 

Chapter 44: Interrogation 

For a second there, Cody's voice made the manager think of Gollum from Lord of the Rings – a shifty, hunched creature, whining obsessively over the corrupting One Ring in a dark corner. 

"Precious! My precious!" 

"Paycheck! My paycheck!" 

It was practically identical. 

"You already got your One Ring!" The manager was already on edge, practically losing his mind thanks to the damn chandelier and Batman, and now he was incoherent, lashing out, "You got it at the start of the damn month! Damn it, it's a paycheck, not the One Ring – I'm a damn idiot too!" 

Cody was sure that if there was any light source in the room right now, the manager's face would be bright red. 

But the lack of light wasn't a bad thing, because the manager sounded like he really wanted to shoot him right now, and maybe himself too. 

Batman didn't understand what these two were babbling about. He just calmly took down the restaurant employees who were pulling out guns, one by one. Finally, after about two minutes, all the armed employees in the restaurant were down. Only the manager, thanks to Cody clinging to him, hadn't managed to draw his gun and fire, so he'd dodged a bullet, for now. 

"Quick, say it! Say it!" Cody watched wide-eyed as Batman vanished into the darkness, alarm bells ringing in his head. He frantically shook the manager's body: "Say it, say that line!" 

"Stop blocking my shot! You son of a—" 

The manager's words cut off. A tall, imposing black figure appeared silently beside the two of them, reaching out a hand and grabbing the gun in the manager's hand, slamming him to the ground. 

"No—" 

A cry of despair erupted in Cody's heart. At this moment, he finally understood the manager's feeling – that gut-wrenching sense of watching a huge sum of money slip right through your fingers. 

Of course, he was concerned about the manager's safety too, but Batman didn't kill anyone anyway, so he definitely wouldn't die, at most he'd just take a beating. 

But he himself was in much worse shape. Never mind if Batman was going to break his bones, he'd worked his butt off for a month, finally put in enough hours, and now, when it was time to get paid, his damn workplace was about to be gone. 

For Cody, this was quite frankly the most desperate thing that had happened to him today. 

"The day before Halloween, someone carved an ugly pumpkin in this restaurant. Where is he?" 

Scratch that. The previous thing was only the second most desperate thing that had happened to Cody today. 

The cold, low voice echoed. Batman completely ignored Cody, who was already plastered to the floor beside him. This guy hadn't even tried to pull a gun; the moment the manager was subdued, he'd thrown his hands over his head and hit the deck. There wasn't a shred of resistance in him, only an overwhelming desire to survive. 

But the instant he heard Batman's question, Cody's vision went black, and he started frantically searching the item shop for fast health recovery. 

"You gotta be kidding me. I knew Batman was the biggest psycho in Gotham. He can track down even this kind of stuff – I only carved it in the store for half an hour!" 

Hearing Batman's question, the subdued manager first froze, then burst into roaring laughter on the floor, convulsing with mirth. 

"Hahahaha – that's it?" He scoffed between laughs, "Huh, Gotham City's midnight nightmare, that's all you got? Hahahaha, cough cough, investigating a murder and you're asking about some idiot who carved an ugly pumpkin?" 

"What's wrong with not being good at carving pumpkins? Is an ugly pumpkin eating your groceries or something?" 

Cody couldn't help but lift his head and retort, "The pumpkin I carved clearly had a strong artistic vibe! It's your own fault for not having any artistic sense!" 

At this moment, both the manager's and Batman's gazes turned his way simultaneously. The manager's look was one of someone staring at an idiot, while Batman casually placed him back down on the ground. 

"So, that pumpkin was carved by you?" 

Talking down to him, huh? Would Batman have acted directly without first checking the identities of everyone in the restaurant? He just hadn't had time to confirm if he really was just some pure newcomer who just arrived in Gotham. 

Cody's heart hammered in his chest. Only when facing that giant black bat directly could he truly feel how terrifying the pressure from him was. In just two minutes, he had brought over a dozen Falcone gangsters holding guns to their knees, unable to move. Even though he used tonight's thunderstorm and rain as cover, it was enough to show how powerful he was. 

Muay Thai, Boxing, Taekwondo, Judo, Ninjutsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu... He was proficient in all 127 known forms of combat worldwide; degrees in criminology, law, biology, physics, advanced chemistry, medicine, etc., only represented the tip of the iceberg of his knowledge. Rigorous physical training that began at age 11, specific diets, and biofeedback training kept his body at the absolute peak of normal human physical ability. Tactical master, interrogation master, living embodiment of fear – these were just some of his titles. 

Batman could almost be called a perfect human in some sense. Only someone like this, relying on flesh and blood, could beat down the gangsters, assassins, criminals, and supervillains of Gotham – those who used ice, fire, schemes, psychological manipulation, magic, mutations, the undead, the not-quite-living, and so on – to their knees and haul them back to prison or Arkham Asylum. 

And now, a figure like that was standing right in front of him. Although he wasn't as sharp and terrifying as he would be when more mature later, it would still be effortless for him to dig secrets out of Cody's mouth. 

"RUMBLE!" 

Another crack of thunder exploded outside the window, lightning slashing across the night sky and illuminating the room. The cold, solemn shadow of the Bat was cast over Cody, completely engulfing him in darkness. 

"Uh... I carved it. Carving a pumpkin for Halloween isn't illegal—" 

"But murder is illegal. And the pumpkin left at the murder scene was just as ugly." 

"What do you mean 'just as ugly'? People from Gotham City are seriously impolite, huh?" 

Cody said this, fishing a small Jack-o'-lantern out of his pocket. The carved eyes and mouth on it were almost identically hideous to the pumpkin found at the scene of Johnny Viti's death, each ugly in its own special way. 

But if Batman had to judge, the one in front of him right now did seem slightly worse. 

"Where did you go after you left the restaurant on Halloween night?" 

"Out on the street, hanging out with the costumed crowd." 

Batman's eyes narrowed slightly, showing his dissatisfaction. 

Seeing things were going south, Cody immediately begged, "Don't hit me, don't hit me! I went to the Diamond District, wearing the pumpkin mask I carved myself." 

"And where's your mask now?" 

"Back home, haven't had time to eat it yet." 

"The factory fire, did you see it?" 

Hearing this question, Cody's heart tightened.