I Declare Gotham the Most Livable City in All of DC!

Chapter 36: I Declare - Gotham is the Most Livable City in All of DC!

There were three Batman games on the NES. The setting Cheng Tian was in was based on the first one, adapted from the 1989 film of the same name. This game was also quite ahead of its time, incorporating cutscenes similar to Ninja Gaiden and Kung Fu. This was a rather bold move for an NES cartridge that used KB as its storage unit.

However, these cutscenes were actually a result of significant cuts. The reason was that during development, the Japanese team naturally referenced many classic scenes from the original comics. The confrontation between Batman and the Joker, in particular, highly recreated a famous scene from The Killing Joke.

The result was predictable—a lawyer's letter warning!

The most troublesome aspect of this Batman adaptation game was actually the setting of the BOSSes.

In the movie, there was only the Joker as a Supervillain, and Batman was locked in a love-hate relationship with him from beginning to end... But the problem was, an action-platformer game couldn't possibly have only one BOSS, right?

Thus, the Japanese team designed a series of original BOSS Units by referencing, but not entirely copying, and gave them all detailed, albeit unnecessary, character settings.

As usual, there would inevitably be differences in character design between the Japanese and American versions.

When Cheng Tian heard the thug in front of him say the name "Assassin Moth" and combined it with the gang name "Moth Gang," he basically confirmed that the current scene was using the American character design, not the Japanese one. Otherwise, the Assassin Moth might have become "Sergeant Fred."

Of course, the so-called character design in the American version was merely forcibly attaching the names of DC villains to vaguely similar original BOSSes, and their abilities didn't perfectly match.

But the Chosen Space had a peculiar mechanism. It was a completion mechanism that, while preserving much of the original fun of the game's blueprint, improved and supplemented areas where the generated instances were unreasonable.

Therefore, the Assassin Moth and the Moth Gang, which should have had no connection to the original movie, appeared logically.

With the mindset of "it's the New Year," Cheng Tian intended to extract more information from the two people in front of him. However, these two were just pure bluffers, relying on borrowed power. Besides knowing the name of their gang leader, they knew nothing about other core members, giving Cheng Tian no opportunity to exploit any loopholes for information.

Just as the white-skinned girl thought Cheng Tian had no more questions, Cheng Tian, after a moment of thought, spoke again. But his next questions made the white-skinned girl and the Black man behind her, who had woken up from his daze and quickly adapted to, or rather, blocked out, the stench, freeze in surprise.

"If there was a fire in Gotham City, would the insurance cover it?"

"Uh~ If the burned area had insurance from Wayne Group, it should be covered, right?"

As a member of the lowest class, the white-skinned girl naturally couldn't afford Wayne Group insurance. But she also hadn't heard of any news about insurance claims not being paid out.

Although Gotham was a hub for gangs, with the Moth Gang, Electrocution Gang, Firefly Gang, and the most vicious Joker Gang all gathered here, the entity that truly extended to almost every corner of Gotham was the super-large conglomerate known as "Wayne Group."

You could curse the rich all you wanted, but Wayne Group's insurance services had never had any major scandals that even someone at her lowest level would know about.

"Then, are the fire trucks timely? Is there water in the hydrants? Who gets the money for the fire department's response?"

Cheng Tian asked three more questions in rapid succession.

"They seem to be fast enough. I overheard some brutes from the Firefly Gang talking about it in an underground tavern before. They said the fire department arrived too quickly, and they hadn't had enough fun burning things. So, it seems there's plenty of water in the hydrants.

As for the money, I remember Wayne Group sponsoring it."

Perhaps Cheng Tian had opened the floodgates, and the two incompetent thieves who had been defeated relaxed considerably. They entered a state where Cheng Tian asked, the white-skinned girl answered, and the Black man occasionally supplemented, allowing Cheng Tian to learn a lot about the city.

For example, guys like the white-skinned girl and the Black man, who were gang members in writing but vagrants in reality, could also go to the relief stations set up by Wayne Group to receive aid. At the very least, they could get one free meal a day.

And those unfortunate souls caught in the justice execution of some spandex-clad bat freak, as long as they can prove their injuries were a result of it, will have their exorbitant ambulance fees waived, with significant reductions for subsequent medical treatment. All of this is paid for by the Wayne Group.

Learning about these true circumstances of Gotham, Cheng Tian found it to be a genuine hellish joke.

For a very long time, not just him, but many others, believed Gotham, a place blessed with exceptional people and a beautiful environment, was the most unsuitable city for human habitation, a cesspool of sin. However, with real-life examples for comparison now, Cheng Tian truly felt a sense of "capitalist conscience" in the Gotham City before him – a phrase that shouldn't even be put together.

As the actual controller of the Wayne Group, which held sway over almost every sector of Gotham City, Bruce Wayne, who should have been like the vast majority of his capitalist peers, sucking the marrow from the bones of the lower class, had a greatest hobby of dressing up as a spandex-clad freak and darting around at night to fight criminals!

Got insurance? They pay! Fire? They save! Homeless? They help! Criminals? They fight!

I now declare—Gotham is a more livable and better city than Metropolis and Los Angeles!

"Hey, hey, hey!? You're just leaving like that? Let us go!!" "Yeah, Bro! You haven't untied us yet!"

The atmosphere between the two parties had become very friendly, so friendly that the Black and White Duo thought Cheng Tian would invite them for a drink. Yet, after asking a bunch of questions, Cheng Tian, seemingly lost in thought about something, turned and left, as smooth as silk.

The sound of the walking stick tapping the ground paused, and Cheng Tian turned around. The tapping resumed.

"You two don't think a casual chat would make your attempt to rob me, or even kill me, a thing of the past, do you?"

Looking down from above, Cheng Tian's eyes stared intently at the Black and White Duo, causing them to swallow almost instinctively.

"No matter how twisted and tragic your experiences as vagrants were, since you've made a move against me, it means you've done this sort of thing more than once. You are trash, scum, and you deserve to be punished."

"...Bro, are you one of those vigilantes who just go on a killing spree without a word?"

The Black guy, though trying to sound tough, had a noticeable tremor in his voice.

However, Cheng Tian just shook his head and gave an answer that sent a chill down to the very core of the Black and White Duo.

"My friends... the best punishment isn't always killing, you know~"

Cheng Tian smiled brilliantly.

Ten minutes later, a dark shadow, as if obscuring the narrow sky of the alley, descended from above.

Due to the material of the cowl, he couldn't turn his head freely, so Batman had to turn his entire body to face the scene before him. Upon seeing what was in front of him, his body trembled.

The Black and White Duo, with all four limbs twisted in the opposite direction, were bound together in a way that resembled an interlocking Tai Chi Yin-Yang diagram.

A sensory stimulus, best described as "eye-searing," entered Batman's mind before any other emotion.

Meanwhile, Cheng Tian had appeared in a distinctly un-gentlemanly underground Tavern, a place clearly not meant for normal people, the same small tavern the white-skinned girl had mentioned earlier.

Cheng Tian sat down at the bar counter, tapped it with his index and middle fingers held together, and then said something that drew even more attention.

"Bartender, a glass of milk, please."