The Long Easter (5)

"First of all, I want to tell you that, just as you guessed, your stronghold is now completely sealed off, like a can."

"And the oxygen in the cans is limited. How many of you are there now? Hmm? I'd guess at least 20, right?"

"At this rate, the oxygen in the can will only keep you alive for a maximum of three hours."

"You think you've hidden this stronghold well, but we discovered it a long time ago."

"Just as you guessed, this is a premeditated trap, and now, I'm going to play a game with you."

"An oxygen pipe leads to this tank, but the oxygen supply port is hidden in the wall. You have to dig through the wall yourselves to find the pipe, otherwise the oxygen will run out in three hours."

"Owls need to breathe too, right?"

The woman wearing the bird-shaped mask began to tremble slightly, but the voice on the radio had not stopped. Everyone heard her say, "Don't fantasize that your companions or the Assassin you trained will come to save you. Judging from the thickness and hardness of the ice surrounding you, no one, not even a machine, can dig to you within three hours."

The sound from the tape recorder began to rise and fall, echoing throughout the conference room, darker and more terrifying than the nursery rhymes circulated by the Court of Owls.

"In the past, you stood atop the high-rises of Gotham City, looking down upon the suffering people, watching them dig for food in the earth to fill their stomachs."

"Later, you hid underground and looked up at countless pairs of mortal feet, scarred and battered, rushing about for survival."

"And now, you will experience what it's like to earn a living with your own hands."

They heard the voice from the tape recorder soften, even become gentle, like a dream. "... My little birds, dig, dig your fingers off in order to get a sliver of the most mundane and lowly air."

"Or, with your deaths... offer sacrifices for the resurrection of Gotham."

After the sound faded, someone in the conference room finally couldn't hold back any longer. A masked man, trembling all over, threw the tape recorder out, and it crashed to the ground. The others watched his frantic act in silence.

"... Are we really going to dig?" The woman's voice trembled slightly as she said, "There are no tools here. How are we going to dig through these walls..."

"We're trapped. If we don't dig, we'll suffocate!"

"But what if he's lying to us?" an old voice said.

"But if we wait here, we're sure to die! This is an elaborate trap; they won't let us go!"

"Do you expect me to dig through those bricks with my fingers?!" another man shouted, then stood up, waving his somewhat obese arms, and said, "I'm one of the Thirteen Jury! And the most senior one! My family too! You all go dig! I order you!"

Others stood up and refuted his words, with one saying, "My family is the richest right now; you should be the ones digging for it!"

Some people also said, "It should be the strong ones who go to dig!"

Why should I go?

"This is all your fault! You should have gone!"

"You too..."

In the midst of the argument, a few seconds of silence suddenly fell.

Clearly, some of them had come up with a way to prolong their lives that was easier than digging into the wall.

In the Gotham Police Department office, everyone was silent. Gordon shivered and looked at Schiller, saying, "I think the problems with the Court of Owls might not be so serious. What's serious is..."

"You didn't actually plan this all along, did you?" Victor also turned to look at Schiller.

Schiller rolled his eyes and said, "They're kidding. Who knows where their hidden strongholds are tucked away? Why would I go to all that trouble to lay an oxygen pipeline for them?"

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore. The rest is just bargaining. Detective Gordon, I remember you said before that there are a few gang leaders who are particularly difficult to deal with and like to negotiate with the police?"

"Don't even mention it," Gordon said, rubbing his temples. "Just thinking about them gives me a headache."

"Alright, let them be. Let them take turns arguing with the Court of Owls and tell them that they will get 5% of the final settlement."

"Hiss..." Gordon gasped, "The Court of Owls will be in deep trouble!"

Then Gordon clicked his tongue and said, "I always felt you had this planned all along."

"Would you like to hear me tell a fairy tale?" Schiller smiled and winked.

"They were a flock of little birds with golden feathers. The poor birds had carelessly fallen into the hands of Hunter. They begged for the Hunter's forgiveness and were willing to pluck their precious feathers in exchange for the Hunter's mercy..."

Schiller suddenly changed the subject, asking, "What are you planning to eat for Easter?"

He answered his own question, "Anyway, I'm planning to eat roast chicken."

The next morning, news of the massive terrorist attack on Gotham made headlines in major newspapers.

Mayor Roy broke down in tears at a press conference, condemning the casualties caused by terrorists and blaming the Federal Government for failing to fulfill its security obligations, calling Gotham a "forsaken city."

Collapsed buildings, ruins of streets, flooded Shop, and cars frozen in ice—as images of the aftermath surfaced, the Court of Owls became synonymous with cruel terrorists despised by all.

Various confusing news reports emerged one after another, and the casualty figures became increasingly exaggerated, from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands at the beginning. In the end, it was said that more than half of Gotham's citizens were either dead or injured.

Strangely, however, fundraising activities started even faster than disaster relief efforts. Major newspapers published fundraising channels, and Gotham hosted dozens of charity dinners in the week leading up to Easter.

On a chilly weekend morning, reports on the desk in the city government office swayed in the breeze outside the window.

The thin sheets of paper were turned page after page, the numbers kept increasing, and finally, a stamp was stamped on it with a "click." Roy raised his hand, handed the report to his subordinate, and said, "Happy Easter."

As he finished speaking, the branches outside the window began to grow, and tender green buds stretched out from the nodes of the branches, marking the start of the largest reconstruction in Gotham's history.

Previously, Gotham's redevelopment was basically a patchwork approach, building warehouses where there was space and bus stations where there was space. This gave the urban planning professors at Gotham University a major headache. This piecemeal approach to reconstruction was actually the least effective method, but at the time, there was no other way.

But this time it's different. Due to a wave of flooding followed by a wave of freezing, the volume expansion caused by the water turning into ice has cracked most of the ground surface. Without repairs, it will be completely impassable.

Even if you don't want your land to be redeveloped, there's nothing you can do. The roads are so badly damaged that you can't even walk on them. If you don't participate in the redevelopment, you'll just have to stay at home and wait to starve to death.

Since things have already come to this point, and things are already ruined, we still have to repair them if we want to continue living here.

Overnight, Gotham's unemployment rate nearly dropped to zero because manpower was needed everywhere: rebuilding sewers, repairing roads and collapsed houses, and constructing new logistics facilities according to the new plan...

This sounds very unreasonable, because there is no output in the short term, but the organizers need to pay a lot of labor costs, which requires an astronomical amount of upfront investment.

But thanks to the already plucked Court of Owls, those unfortunate souls imprisoned in this powerful alliance have, in order to survive, tearfully plucked all their feathers, providing ample funding for Gotham's reconstruction plan. Even if they cannot profit in the short term, they can still persevere.

With funding and personnel in place, the reconstruction plan will proceed very smoothly, and the benefits brought by the underground ice layer are not limited to one aspect.

Gotham is East Coast city with a humid monsoon climate and four distinct seasons, meaning cold winters and hot summers.

In the past, temperatures would have already risen significantly by April, marking the beginning of the hot summer. However, the massive underground ice sheet altered the local climate, causing Gotham's average temperature to drop by more than 10 degrees Celsius, returning it to early winter temperatures.

The residents of Gotham City are not used to this climate, and there has been a high incidence of colds these days.

However, some people are looking for a place to escape the heat but can't find a place.

The East Coast isn't all like Gotham with its distinct four seasons; some places are very hot, and by April it's already sweltering. If these people want to escape the heat, they have to go further north, and now, Gotham has become the closest city with low temperatures to them.

Of course, they wouldn't dare to travel to Gotham, but Gotham's climate change has also affected surrounding areas, such as Bludhaven tourism has suddenly boomed.

Bludhaven was almost stunned by the windfall.

This is actually just a small city. Because it's so close to Gotham, there aren't many outsiders, so it's relatively undeveloped and has a lot of natural rural scenery. Unlike Gotham, it's not cloudy or rainy every day.

Since Gotham's climate changed, Bludhaven has enjoyed sunny days and cool breezes in the mornings and evenings, making it a comfortable place to visit and attracting many tourists from surrounding cities.

Because Bludhaven is so close to Gotham, much of the news from Gotham reaches here immediately.

But what these tourists saw was not a terrifying city full of murders or daily bloodshed. All the news coming out of Gotham could be summed up in two words: manpower shortage.

As mentioned before, although Gotham has a large local population, they spend too much time idling and their work efficiency is too low. Even with full employment, it would still not be enough to rebuild such a large city.

Although Gotham is a megacity, it doesn't have many migrant workers. In this era of comprehensive infrastructure upgrades, labor shortages have become the biggest obstacle to efficiency. Major gangs are frantically searching for people, even offering high prices to hire outsiders.

As the saying goes, a large forest has all kinds of birds, and with a large population, there are always a few who are not afraid of death. Indeed, there are a few people who dare to risk their lives to come to Gotham to work.

Actually, they weren't entirely driven by curiosity; it was because the gangs here were offering incredibly high prices. After all, it was all owl feathers, so they didn't feel bad using them. The gangs kept raising their wages, and it was paid daily, making it hard not to be tempted.

When the outsiders arrived in Gotham, they found that the city was not quite what they had imagined. They had thought it would be a city of constant gunfights and free shopping, but after arriving, they discovered that Gotham was orderly.

Compared to other regions, Gotham is indeed very strange. The maintainers of order here are gangsters. They are tough, violent, full of ideas, and crazy, but a violent order is still an order.

When the entire city enters a frenzied atmosphere of working together to make the pie bigger, many of the drawbacks of violent order are masked, while the remaining advantages are astonishing, such as efficiency and stability.

Using the word "stable" to describe such a city sounds absurd, but it is true. Outsiders have discovered that the order established by the gangs is actually quite stable, at least when there is ample funding and everyone has work to do.

The world is not short of desperate people willing to risk their lives for money. News of money to be made in Gotham spread quickly, and many such people began to flock to Gotham to try their luck.

The influx of more and more outsiders began to draw attention to and discuss the situation inside Gotham, and the veil of mystery surrounding this sinful city was gradually lifted, with the city starting to appear in major media outlets and newspapers.

Many people see it as a barbaric wasteland, some as a crime-ridden metropolis, but many more see it as a chaotic yet affluent metropolis based on these Gotham.

Here, gang leaders drive luxury cars, smoke cigars, and throw stacks of banknotes from the rooftops. Rock singers perform heavy metal amidst the rain of money, with chaotic yet vibrant graffiti in the background. Neon lights illuminate the endless stream of cars on the road, and crowds shout wildly on the roadside...

Just like Schiller, people began to realize that this was not only a city of crime, but also a city of genius; a city of sin, but also a city of art.

No other city in the world possesses the absurd and bizarre beauty of Gotham. It is fertile ground for performance art and a paradise for misunderstood madmen.

Many people even found resonance in this atmosphere. They began to try to deconstruct the causes and current state of such a unique city, and were then infected by the overflowing madness here, becoming spiritual residents of this sinful city.

Artists worship madness, intellectuals shout for freedom, fools live absurd lives, and the clever amass fortunes. Gotham's chaos has bred countless distinct souls, and no place has ever seen people so different.

As this quality gradually became recognized, Gotham's image transformed from a corrupt and evil city into a source of evil imbued with a touch of divinity and mystery.

It's hard to say if this is a good change, but at least there has been a change.

This change in external image also brought about other changes. For example, the phone at Gotham University's admissions office started ringing non-stop, and some young people who sought rebellion and novelty began to include Gotham University on their list of schools to apply to.

However, Gotham University professors had little time to answer questions. The frozen Gotham also affected the Gotham University's teaching facilities, mainly causing road surface cracking, which was a major headache.

Because large areas of the school square and playground have cracked, students cannot move around. The teaching building has become a dangerous building overnight due to foundation damage, and no one dares to go there. Teaching activities have been temporarily suspended, and there is no manpower available elsewhere to help. Teachers and students have to do it themselves.

Almost all the planned pre-Easter activities were cancelled. A corner of the restaurant building collapsed, so there was no way to organize any banquets. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Easter, and everyone was focused on rebuilding the campus.

Schiller led several students quickly down the corridor to the door of the large classroom. As soon as he opened it, the students saw him and shouted, "Professor! Over here! We can't hold him down much longer!"

Schiller walked over and saw several students holding down a boy who was struggling wildly. He was waving his arms and shouting, foaming at the mouth and convulsing, just like a mental illness attack.

Schiller said, "Subdue him first, then put him in the car and take him to the hospital."

After Schiller arrived at Arkham Asylum in the car, before he could even begin to treat a patient, he received another phone call. Victor said on the other end, "Another person in dormitory building number 2 has had an episode. It seems to be a sophomore girl. What's going on?"

"It could be a side effect of getting caught in the rain. I need to conduct a thorough examination. If there are any more cases, you should send them directly to the hospital."

After Schiller hung up the phone, he went to the boy's ward. Through the observation window, he saw the boy cowering to one side of the bed, his face filled with fear, repeatedly shouting meaningless syllables. Schiller shook his head and whispered, "Something's not right..."

He called Victor and asked, "Have these students been exposed to anything lately?"

"Didn't you say you were getting rained on..."

"These symptoms are not quite the same as those from being caught in the rain. Although both involve convulsions and agitation, there are some differences in the details."

"What have they been in contact with..." Victor's tone was full of doubt. He said, "Let me ask around for you. These two students aren't in the same class... Oh! Wait! What did you say? Damn it... another one has had an attack! Where is he? Take me there quickly..."

Then, as Victor ran, he said into the phone, "Another student has fallen ill. I'll let you know once I find the commonalities..."

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