Battle of Living Hell (Part 1)

As the morning sun streamed into the bedroom of the Wayne Manor, Bruce sat up in bed. Alfred stood outside the door, and Bruce asked him, "What time is it?"

"It's nine o'clock, young master."

Bruce was somewhat surprised. He walked to the window, opened the curtains, and looked out. He found that it was indeed quite bright outside. This was the first time he had gotten up so late since returning to Gotham.

Butler Alfred seemed quite pleased, and stood Alfred to the side as Bruce went downstairs for breakfast.

"Alfred, what's wrong? Why do you look so happy?"

"Because the young master seems to be very happy lately."

Bruce paused for a moment. Was he happy? He touched his face and then tried hard to recall his recent behavior patterns.

Because of Schiller's brilliantly creative Gotham University student internship program, Bruce has been incredibly busy lately. During the day, he has to go out with other students to control traffic, and at night he has to shuttle between hospitals and prisons to properly settle gang members who can't fit in here and have to move there or back.

He suddenly realized that he had been spending far more time as Bruce than as Batman lately.

In the past, he did not hide his true nature at the Wayne Manor. He rarely smiled and was rather taciturn. Although he was close to Alfred, he rarely showed any emotional fluctuations.

But recently, because he's been with Bruce for so long, his behavior has become more like the playboy he's been pretending to be. He no longer has a stern face all the time and occasionally jokes with Alfred.

This gave him a sense of unease. Since returning to Gotham, he had never naturally slept until nine o'clock, which was a sign that his mind was becoming less vigilant.

From a psychological perspective, this is actually quite normal. A large part of who a person becomes is due to who they perceive themselves to be. Bruce is only 18 years old and has just started college. When he puts himself into playing the role of a cheerful, sociable, and wealthy man, he cannot clearly find the boundary between this disguised identity and his own personality.

After another busy day, Bruce returned to his bedroom bathroom, turned on the tap, and splashed cold water on his face.

The curtains beside him were gently swaying in the evening breeze, and the cool light above him cast a dark Shade at his feet.

Bruce braced himself on the sink, looking in the mirror. The person in the mirror had blue eyes, but the light from above cast shadows on his brows.

"Who am I?" he asked.

"Who I am?"

"Who I am..."

His voice echoed in the empty room, striking the walls and returning to his ears, as if another voice was asking him the same question. He felt that he vaguely heard an answer, but it was as if he heard nothing at all.

Bruce knew perfectly well that the reflected echo could not give him an answer.

He reached out to wipe away the condensation on the glass so he could see his own eyes clearly, but in the end, he didn't. He let his entire face and eyes remain shrouded in the condensation on the mirror's surface, then he stood up straight and looked down at himself in the mirror as if looking down on someone.

"I am Batman."

"I am Batman..."

His lips began to turn down little by little. He wasn't wearing a mask, but as shadows crept up his face, it was as if his entire face was covered by a black mask again.

The shadows covering those blue eyes grew thicker, until finally, only his deep voice echoed in the empty manor as he said, "I am Batman..."

Bruce walked out of the bathroom and into the dark bedroom. He didn't turn on the light, but walked to the door, opened it, and continued down the dark corridor. When he stood by the stairs, he saw Alfred standing downstairs, wiping the old telephone with a felt cloth.

Since Bruce returned, he has invented a new mobile communication device for himself, namely a cell phone. He has never used that old telephone again. That old-fashioned rotary dial telephone was too outdated, and whenever it rang, it made the manor seem even emptier.

But Alfred cherished that telephone. Bruce had never seen a speck of dust on it, and today was no different. But this time, Bruce heard Alfred humming a tune, a kind of jazz melody, full of the charm of a bygone era, just like the joyful and lively mood of the immigrants when they first discovered this Gold Coast.

Bruce watched Alfred's retreating figure, closing his eyes in pain. He gripped the railing tightly, the old wooden handrail creaking softly. Alfred turned around and saw Bruce standing on the stairs. Before he could ask anything, Bruce fled back to his bedroom as if running away.

When he closed the bedroom door, he was almost panting heavily, as if this distance was more tiring than running several kilometers.

He felt a surge of intense emotion churning within him, as if something was constantly stimulating the emotional system in his brain.

Bruce hadn't felt such intense emotions for a very long time. After the gunshot on a dark night, half of Bruce's emotional world was lost; all those joyful, happy, and touching feelings had been gone from him for a long time.

But seeing Alfred so happy, Bruce didn't know how to describe his feelings, a problem that had troubled him for a long time.

Unable to sleep, Bruce tossed and turned in bed, overwhelmed with a strange, impulsive emotion. With no other option, he put on the bat costume and left Wayne Manor.

This is the first time Batman has left this place not because he wants to fight criminals, but simply to escape an emotion he doesn't want to accept.

So after leaving Wayne Manor, he wandered aimlessly over Gotham. Bruce had never hoped so much that he could run into a criminal, bring him to justice, and send him to jail... no, today it was time to send him to a mental hospital.

Thinking of this, Batman covered his forehead in discomfort. What was he thinking? Wake up! You're not Bruce now! Stop worrying about all that hospital and prison stuff!

But Batman still couldn't control himself. The thought that the prison population would exceed the limit by 28% again tomorrow, while the vacancy rate of the wards was less than 15%, made him feel that this pressure was more terrifying than anything else.

But damn it, in this city where you could run into three robberies every two steps, Batman had been wandering around for half an hour and hadn't encountered a single criminal.

The streets near the roundabout in the city center are now brightly lit, with night markets stretching for thousands of meters along the four main avenues extending from the roundabout, all brightly lit all night long.

Most of the people who come here are night shift workers, not just truck drivers who have to transport goods at night, but also dockworkers, warehouse guards, security guards, and so on. This group is now the most active citizens in Gotham.

Batman stood atop the skyscraper, fully aware that if he jumped in this suit, he would be shot twice before even landing. Moreover, there was no crime going on here; clearly, the city center didn't need Batman. He had no choice but to leave and head further away.

The central roundabout and major transportation hubs of Gotham City are not all; in places where the lights don't reach, there are many more dark neighborhoods. Batman followed his dark instincts and came to the darkest part of Gotham.

This is Gotham's East Side, which has always been synonymous with chaos in Gotham. The gangs here are incredibly entrenched and complex. However, the chaos in the East Side also has different levels.

One of the most terrifying places, known as "Living Hell," is the westernmost part of the East District, the furthest from the docks, and also the most crowded, densely populated, darkest, and poorest area.

Living Hell is often referred to by Gotham residents as "Gotham within Gotham." All the residential buildings here are crookedly crammed together, and the alleys between the buildings are so narrow that an adult cannot even stretch out their arms. In these dark and narrow alleys, a large amount of debris is piled up, leaving almost no place to step.

When Batman landed from the rooftop and entered the first alleyway of the Living Hell, he found that when he looked up from the ground, there was only a very narrow slit in the sky above him, and the dense wires and antennas above blocked most of his vision, like the Web covering his head.

Moving forward in such an alley is extremely difficult, even for Batman. There is almost no light here, with only a few faint lights shining from the windows high up. After nearly tripping over garbage bags several times, Batman finally turned on his flashlight.

Even so, walking here is a very difficult thing. Batman had only taken a few steps in an alley when he found an extremely twisted staircase spiraling into a dark corridor.

He walked up the creaking stairs, entered the stairwell, and came out to find himself on a flat ground. He walked forward and found himself on the roof of a building, with another dark alleyway beneath his feet.

Batman found a ladder on this rooftop that led to the other rooftop, a ladder that even Batman, with his skills, had to carefully climb.

When he stood on the ladder and looked down, it looked like an endless Abyss, filled with layers upon layers of windows, wires, garbage bags, and all sorts of chaotic and complicated things tangled together, like Hell spreading downwards.

After climbing the ladder to the other side, he saw a mountain of garbage bags piled up in one corner of the roof. Walking to the other side, there was another high-rise building with layers upon layers of buildings. There was a small door on the side that required him to bend over to pass through. Only after Batman walked through it did he truly enter the interior of the Living Hell building.

The situation here is even worse than outside. There is almost no light, and the stairwell is so narrow that Batman has to keep his head down and his arms tucked in, otherwise he simply cannot climb the stairs.

Batman felt that calling this passageway a staircase was inaccurate; it was more like an intestine, and calling this place Living Hell was far more fitting.

This narrow, dark, and cramped stairwell was like the intestinal tract of a living organism. After walking up two floors, Batman finally saw another small door on the side.

After exiting through this door, the corridor finally became a little wider, but the doors were still tightly closed, and various signs hung in the hallway, such as delicatessen, grocery store, and barbershop.

Batman was suddenly surprised to find that the Living Hell seemed to have its own ecosystem. He walked through the corridor and found that there were six small doors leading to this place. According to Batman's estimation, the structure of these six intestinal passages should be the same as when he came, corresponding to the entrances in the six directions of the building.

This is truly bizarre and wondrous, Batman thought.

This city is like a microcosm of Gotham, and truly deserves the title of "Gotham within Gotham".

To his surprise, he discovered that not only were there various living facilities, but the electricity, water, and communication systems were also self-contained. Thick water pipes stretched endlessly forward in the dark corridor, like thick blood vessels, and electrical wires hung haphazardly overhead, like a dense network of nerves.

Countless posters and advertisements were plastered on the side of each door, and many even had mailboxes hanging in front of them.

This was the first time Batman had seen Gotham like this. Before, he didn't have the Batmobile, and his crime-fighting range was basically centered on Wayne Tower, extending outwards to a certain distance. The robbers mostly frequented this area, as it was Gotham's most bustling commercial district.

But now, he is in this Living Hell, seeing another side of Gotham City that is unknown to others, or rather, the reality beneath the surface of Gotham's prosperity.

Strangely, this place, though dark, cramped, terrifying, and eerie, possesses a complete ecosystem, displaying a unique vitality and charm, and even a captivating beauty.

Batman thought he might be going crazy; he even felt that this realistic and chaotic scene was the ultimate answer to the city.