*Chapter 2: As Long As I'm Broke, Nobody Can Rob Me*

"Speaking of which, where did this initial asset of seven bucks even come from? I don't have any U.S. dollars on me, do I?"

Cody carefully patted his pockets and suddenly realized money that was there after he bought cigarettes was gone.

"Alright, alright, I thought it was gifted starting money. Turns out it's just taking from Peter to pay Paul."

But looking on the bright side, at least his outfit of a shirt, pants, and jacket made him blend in in Gotham. There was nothing particularly eye-catching about it.

He sighed and casually bought "Elementary English Proficiency" and "Local Identity." Without these two things, with his level of English, he wouldn't be able to get anywhere locally. He also bought "Rapid Health Recovery" and "Save Points" at the same time.

"Special tip: Subsequent missions can unlock the 'Move Save Point Forward' function. Please don't be stingy with using save points. 20 save point load attempts can be distributed across five different time points; please plan reasonably. The current time is a safe time node; you will not encounter danger within half an hour, please don't worry."

Looking up at the sky, thick clouds blocked out the sun. He could only tell it was night from the dim light but couldn't tell what time it was. Cody had no other choice but to head towards the outside of the station first. He remembered seeing a clock tower on the train, maybe he could find out the time once he was out of the station.

Walking out two more steps, his pace gradually slowed. A second ago, the chaotic voices from all directions in the station were just inexplicable noise, but the second after buying "Elementary English Proficiency," these sounds became fragmented chatter that his brain could naturally understand, just like hearing the sounds of the market back home.

This novel feeling made Cody, whose English just barely scraped a passing grade on the CET-6 equivalent, feel very interesting. He thought about some English-related learning content and felt like his broken-down English had been patched up by the system, now resembling a clunky but strangely fast beat-up bicycle.

However, this was just because he wasn't quite used to it yet. In reality, his accent and writing were already relatively standard American English. Once he got used to it, the beat-up bicycle would upgrade to a convenient little electric scooter.

Thinking that he should also have a Gotham local identity, he searched his pockets again and found that his pockets were as clean as his face.

He looked more carefully and finally found that his identity information and documents, including his driver's license and social security card, were stored within the "Starting From Scratch" system. To take them out, he just needed to think about it, and putting them back was the same.

"Finally, a bit of user-friendliness."

Cody, who had never seen a foreign driver's license, reached into his jacket pocket, took out his driver's license a few seconds later, looked at it curiously for a few glances, and then put it back. He urgently needed to find a way to make a living in Gotham, otherwise, he would starve to death from lack of food and drink or freeze to death on the streets from having nowhere to live before getting killed by gangs, terrorist organizations, assassin groups, supervillains, or regular muggers and murderers.

After all, he didn't know how American homeless people usually lived, and there couldn't possibly be harmless homeless people in Gotham City.

Of course, he might slowly get used to the life of a homeless person in the future. After all, he really didn't have any property locally, and becoming homeless wouldn't be strange at all.

It's worth mentioning that although some homeless people could receive welfare payments after submitting federal income tax returns and providing valid bank account information, unfortunately, even though the system provided Cody with an account, he hadn't earned any money, so he hadn't paid any taxes.

Walking out of the bustling platform, Cody finally got a close-up view of the city.

Fine, drizzling rain fell from the sky, covering the city in the dark night with a thin, hazy veil. Vehicles and motorcycles occasionally sped past on the colorful streets. The lower parts of the dense tall buildings were shrouded in the city's light and shadow, while the upper parts were hidden in the darkness, with only occasional floodlights vaguely illuminating the four corners of the buildings.

Thick smoke rose from the factories in the distance, right next to the low-lying slums. There was almost no light in the vast area of messy buildings, only the occasional sounds of people sobbing from the alleys, as well as sounds of beatings and gunshots. Homeless encampments were usually here too, with dirty crowds living in makeshift tents, using abandoned factories, or bridge underpasses and other derelict buildings as shelter, burning old newspapers or torn books in old oil drums for warmth.

Cody looked up into the distance. Between the flickering screens and signs, the clock tower's time pointed to nine o'clock at night. Clearly, finding a job today was out of the question; he had to tough it out until tomorrow morning.

"This start is just ridiculous..."

A gust of evening wind blew, carrying the chill of cold water mist. Cody shivered and stumbled, involuntarily putting his hands back in his jacket pockets. He curled up and tried hard to think but couldn't figure out where to spend the night at all. He would definitely be chased away from overly prosperous streets, but overly deserted corners were very easy to run into danger.

"Is there really no other way?"

He carefully scrolled through the system and found it had a store. After opening it, he could find almost everything that could and couldn't be bought inside, from small everyday items like food and knives to large items like special abilities and supernatural objects. As for the things further down, Cody didn't look; he couldn't afford them anyway.

Only three bucks were available in the system. From the current situation, he would most likely have to sleep on the streets tonight.

Cody walked along, Browse the cheaper items in the store, and then suddenly realized that the driver's license in his pocket was gone.

"?"

He was sure he hadn't put the driver's license away, so it should still be in his jacket pocket.

"Is... is it there?"

Cody frantically searched his jacket with both hands but still couldn't find his driver's license, almost cursing in frustration. Just then, his hand suddenly felt his pants pocket.

"?"

"Is... is it here?"

It took him a few seconds to understand what had happened. He had just arrived in Gotham City and had been pickpocketed by a local thief within the short hundred-meter distance from the station to here.

Then the thief found his pocket was as clean as his face, so they conveniently put his driver's license back in his pants pocket.

Laughable, the entire process of the theft hadn't alerted him at all.

However, on the other hand, this also gave him a heads-up. A skilled pickpocket might be able to steal the money from a wallet, the watch from a wrist, or the phone from a pocket, but clearly, they couldn't steal money from someone who was broke.

As long as he stayed penniless, he was invincible.

If he ran into someone trying to mug him, maybe after looking through his pockets, they'd even feel sorry for him and give him a few bucks to buy something to eat.

***