civilwarnovels Chapter 3255 Bloody New City (4)
Chapter 3255 Bloody New City (4)
Chapter 3255 Bloody New City (IV)
The night in Gotham was exceptionally bleak and deserted. There was not a single ghost on the streets, especially the streets near Wayne Manor. The dead trees that had just lost their leaves cast multiple shadows on the ground under the different light, which was actually the most lively scene on this street.
A black stretched sedan stopped at the gate of the manor. Shining leather shoes stepped on the fallen leaves, making dry and sharp sounds. A thin figure stood in front of the metal gate with Gothic patterns, with an aura of one man blocking the way for ten thousand.
The manor no longer had the bright lights it once had. There were only two lights on in the huge living room. Batman, who had just finished a shower and was wiping his hair with a towel, stood in one light, while the water droplets on his hair echoed the light from another light.
Ding Dong!
When he heard the doorbell, Batman seemed to be in another world. He seemed to see the old figure standing at the door again, saying to him in a slightly complaining tone, who on earth would visit at this time?
But no, there is no such person anymore.
Batman wiped his hair roughly twice and threw the towel aside. He pushed open the door of the manor himself. The cold wind in the yard made him shiver, but when he saw who was standing at his door, he felt even colder.
Batman walked to the gate and stared at the Pale Knight across the metal gate with intricate patterns.
"How did you come?"
The Pale Knight did not answer, but just looked at Batman. It seemed that he no longer wanted to play Bruce Wayne, or he might have lost the ability to play the role.
Ever since the death of his old butler Alfred, he has become a real lonely ghost. At this moment, the Pale Knight really began to doubt whether he should refuse Nightwing from joining the anti-terrorist team as Batman wished. After all, the Joker took away his first child, and he didn't want to take away the second one.
Feeling a slight sense of guilt in his heart, the Pale Knight thought it would be even more difficult to say what he was going to say next, but thinking about what was happening in the city government at the moment, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and speak.
"Batman, I need your help. I..."
"Does the powerful White Knight need my help too?" Batman asked, and his words could be described as harsh.
The Pale Knight didn't care about his attitude. He just said, "Let me put it another way. Gotham needs your help."
Batman was silent.
"I have already apologized to you for framing you because I didn't know your true identity. I know you can't forgive me just because I apologize, but for the sake of Gotham, you can at least give me a chance to talk to you."
The Pale Knight lowered his posture as much as possible. He knew that the current Batman could not stand any stimulation. Because he himself had experienced the pain of collapse, he did not want to inflict such pain on anyone. That was the cruelest thing in the world.
He stepped forward and grabbed the railing of the gate, then continued, "I asked my friends for help. They gave me hope of improving the current situation, but this requires your cooperation. However, you don't need to make any sacrifices. We just..."
With a click, the door was opened. Batman said nothing and turned to walk into the manor. The Pale Knight stood outside the gate, looking at his back, and felt a desolate feeling in his heart.
If he could not lift a flying bird and let it fly freely, he could never be one of the fingers that broke its wings. It was a pity that he had already done so when the bird cried in pain due to the loss of its loved ones, and he was the most ruthless one.
But who hasn’t been full of expectations and wanted to be a pure hero?
The Pale Knight took a deep breath, put away his sentimentality, strode into the manor, and was frightened by the darkness.
He instinctively reached for the switch, but then he remembered Schiller's advice that people with unstable mental states fear light stimulation, and he should indeed pay more attention to such details.
The Pale Knight withdrew his hand and concentrated his attention so that his eyes could quickly adapt to the dark environment. He moved to the side of the sofa very carefully and sat down tentatively.
Batman picked up the towel and began to dry his hair. He sat on the sofa opposite in silence. After a long while, he said, "Harley is out of danger, but she needs to rest."
"Okay, I get it. I don't have time to visit her right now... That's not what I came here to say."
The Pale Knight paused for a moment, not getting a response from Batman. He wasn't sure whether Batman agreed to let him speak first or if he was simply resisting communication. Out of caution, he spoke more tactfully.
"What I'm about to say may be quite shocking. It doesn't matter if you disagree." The Pale Knight added in his mind, "If you disagree, Schiller will definitely find a way to make you agree."
"And I will pray from that moment on that this whole thing has nothing to do with the nuclear power plant, Amen."
"In about two days, the city government will face the largest strike ever. All departments will shut down, and the entire municipal system will come to a standstill. In about two weeks, the Gotham City Government will enter bankruptcy proceedings."
Looking at Batman's obviously frozen movements, the Pale Knight sighed in his heart and said that mentally ill people should not be provoked.
"What do you want to do?" Batman asked after about dozens of seconds.
"It wasn't my idea," the Pale Knight said, trying not to sound like he was shirking responsibility. "A friend of mine calls it 'starting anew.'"
"I hope you're not telling a bad kitchen joke."
Batman's attitude is still not very good, but the Pale Knight completely understands him. If he spent so much energy and invested so much money to save a city, but was still hated by more than 80% of the people in this city and sent to prison by them, he would have the same attitude when facing the culprit.
The Pale Knight shook his head slightly and said, "Whether the city government runs smoothly has no direct relationship with whether I can successfully improve the situation in this city, but after the city government shuts down, I need a safe enough place to continue working."
"You can rent a house."
"I'm sorry, but I can't afford the rent." The Pale Knight lowered his eyes and said, "You may not believe it, but after my investigation, I am the poorest person in the entire city government. I only have $2100 left in my account. I can't afford the rent of any house."
"You want me to provide you with a place to stay?"
"I know you have many secret bases, but I don't consider those places because they can play a greater role instead of being exposed in my hands."
"So you want to borrow money?"
"It doesn't matter whether I have 2000 yuan or 2000 million yuan, because even 2000 million yuan can't solve the problem, and million yuan may not solve the problem either. You still have some money in your hand, but whether it is yours in the end depends on the action I take next."
"What do you want to do?" Batman asked impatiently.
The Pale Knight pursed his lips tightly. He never liked beating around the bush. The reason he went around in such a big circle was because what he really wanted to say was really hard to say.
"I hope to borrow Wayne Manor as my next office space." The Pale Knight decided that it is better to suffer a short pain than a long one.
"What?" Batman clearly suspected he had heard it wrong.
But it doesn't matter, the Pale Knight thought, because when he first heard this sentence, he also felt that he had heard it wrong.
He swallowed and said, "I hope to come to Wayne Manor to work."
Batman remained silent, he didn't even wipe his hair.
"Have you not taken your medicine on time recently?" Batman asked.
"It's okay." The Pale Knight gave a wry smile and said, "The only good news is that the clown won't say this to you."
Batman was speechless.
"You mean you've got a new kind of madness?"
Now it was the Pale Knight's turn to be speechless.
"I'm sorry, but this is part of our plan. I hope to make Wayne Manor my next office location."
"What about me?"
"I don't mean to drive you away. You can stay. I'm not going to hide anything from you. But if you really feel annoyed, you can leave."
Batman fell silent again. It seemed that things had reached a stage where even a joke couldn't be made.
"Why do you think I would agree?" Batman asked after a long silence, and he seemed to be making small talk.
"Do you want to hear the truth?" The pale knight's fingers kept rubbing his knees. He knew that he was trying very hard to make himself look like he was not robbing a house.
Batman nodded.
"We are not asking for your consent." The Pale Knight swallowed again, and then said, "If you have checked the surveillance cameras installed in the city government, you will see that someone who looks almost exactly like you entered my office. That is the Batman from another universe, now using the alias Neville."
"So? You think he can replace me?" Batman's tone became sharper. He said, "You framed me just to replace me with another Batman?"
"No." The Pale Knight rarely made excuses. He just said, "I just couldn't stop him from saying nonsense with a face that looks exactly like yours. You don't really want to see yourself rapping, do you?"
Batman's silence grew eerie.
"I have absolutely no intention of threatening you, but he can really do it. And, your advanced facial and fingerprint recognition systems can't stop him. He has already got a set of your bat suit. If you don't want to see Batman drinking and chatting with the lunatics in Arkham Asylum on the news, you'd better seriously consider my proposal."
Seeing that Batman didn't respond, the Pale Knight had to say, "In his universe, Alfred is still alive."
Batman's grip tightened instantly.
"Just as you can imagine, the same people in our two universes have the same appearance and personality, but Alfred in his universe is happier. He is not plagued by illness and loneliness. His biggest worry at the moment is that the little princess of the Wayne family refuses to go to school properly."
Batman slowly closed his eyes, as if he could see the old butler in another world. The Pale Knight also began to feel sad, but he knew that now was not the time to express his sadness.
"Looking at it from the perspective of thousands of parallel universes, our Gotham is not special in any way. It is very ordinary and insignificant, but it has also been highly expected by many people like us. However, the expectations have been disappointed for too long, so everyone has given up the idea of giving it a try."
"But I don't think that if you are not special enough, you should accept being ordinary, let alone going along with the crowd and putting it into any universe or any principle. This is also wrong."
"Even if it's a last-ditch effort, someone has to do it. We have already tried all the methods and things we can think of. Since the situation has not improved, we can only hope that this last ridiculous path will bring some changes."
"If not, then at least we are ridiculous heroes like Don Quixote - not orthodox lunatics like the Joker."