Chapter Summaries

Li Wei helped Stan redirect his plan to target Weizhan Pharmaceuticals and Wayne Enterprises, then supplied him with thirty jin of Viper Potion. Stan prepared to act at a Wayne Enterprises charity gala that night, where senior executives from both companies would attend.

• Stan explained that Weizhan Pharmaceuticals had restarted the Viper Project after the Waynes were murdered, so he had fled with the finished potions and distributed Viper for free across Gotham.
• Li Wei urged Stan to target powerful elites as well as gang leaders, then promised to help him produce Viper Potion and infiltrate guarded locations.
• Li Wei gave Stan's formula to Dr. Hugo, who verified it and began synthesizing Viper Potion and Rage Potion; Li Wei also purchased Warwick the Uncaged through the system shop.
• Stan called Li Wei to say the time had come, and Li Wei brought him thirty jin of Viper Potion for his plan.
• Stan revealed that he would act at a Wayne Enterprises charity gala that night, where executives from Wayne Enterprises and Weizhan Pharmaceuticals would gather, and Li Wei asked if he was sure.

Li Wei helped Stan prepare to release Viper Potion through the ventilation system at Wayne Enterprises' charity gala, while secretly planning Stan's transformation into a werewolf. Bruce Wayne arrived at the gala seeking control of Wayne Enterprises, leaving Li Wei concerned for his safety but reassured by Alfred's presence.

• Stan reaffirmed that he would release the Viper Potion himself, believing his death would force the government to take the incident seriously.
• Li Wei and Stan disguised themselves as deliverymen, entered the hotel, and connected the Viper Potion barrel to its rooftop ventilation system.
• Stan gave Li Wei a USB drive containing evidence and a hacking program so Li Wei could arrange to broadcast it at the gala.
• Li Wei planted the USB drive in the hotel's control room, then watched Stan from a rooftop across the street as the gala began.
• Bruce Wayne arrived with Alfred, intending to reclaim control of Wayne Enterprises and use it to investigate his parents' deaths.

Stan exposed Weizhan Pharmaceuticals’ role in creating Viper Potion, then released the drug through a hotel’s ventilation system during a charity gala. Gordon and Harvey evacuated the area and awaited reinforcements as the police prepared to contain the outbreak.

• Stan revealed Weizhan Pharmaceuticals’ illegal experiments and admitted to distributing Viper Potion across Gotham.
• Green gas poured into the hotel, and Alfred carried Bruce Wayne outside while most of the guests inhaled the drug.
• Li Wei recorded the scene and saw Gordon and Harvey arrive as Stan watched from the rooftop.
• Gordon ordered Harvey to call for backup and gas masks while they evacuated bystanders and kept them away from the hotel.
• Alfred stopped Bruce from approaching Gordon, while the two men focused on controlling the emergency.
• Gotham reporters and police reinforcements arrived, including the Police Commissioner.

Gordon and Harvey fought their way through the Viper Potion-infected hotel and confronted Stan Topolsky, who revealed his plan and jumped to his death. The police began clearing the scene and preparing to prosecute Weizhan Pharmaceuticals, while Gordon noticed someone fleeing across a rooftop.

• Stan watched the police response from the hotel rooftop, while Gordon entered the hotel to try to save people and Harvey followed him.
• Gordon and Harvey fought the infected hotel doorman, then battled through the lobby and killed the remaining infected.
• On the rooftop, Gordon and Harvey found Stan Topolsky beside the ventilation system and ordered him to stop releasing Viper Potion.
• Stan drank the remaining Viper Potion, said the project had to be stopped, and jumped from the rooftop to his death.
• Gordon and Harvey began the cleanup and prepared to prosecute Weizhan Pharmaceuticals, while Gordon spotted a figure escaping across a rooftop.

Li Wei brought Stan Topolsky’s corpse from the Gotham Police Department to Arkham Asylum, hoping to revive him for the werewolf experiment. After repeated shocks failed, Dr. Hugo suggested that alchemy might offer an abnormal way to save Stan.

• Li Wei asked Dr. Hugo to prepare the werewolf experiment and wondered whether he could revive someone recently dead.
• Li Wei bribed a medical examiner at the Gotham Police Department and took Stan Topolsky’s body from the morgue.
• Li Wei returned to Arkham Asylum and ordered Dr. Hugo to shock Stan’s corpse to restore a heartbeat.
• Li Wei took over the defibrillator and repeatedly shocked Stan until Dr. Hugo stopped him, warning that Stan was burned beyond saving.
• Dr. Hugo suggested alchemy from Singed’s memories might revive Stan, and Li Wei asked him to try it.

Li Wei and Dr. Hugo rebuilt Stan with a promethium skeleton and a Rage Potion pump-heart, and Stan finally awakened on a full moon night as a violent, blood-hungry werewolf. After devouring the laboratory’s blood supplies, Stan demanded more, and Li Wei considered Gotham’s turmoil a possible source.

• Li Wei assisted Dr. Hugo as he installed a promethium skeleton and a Rage Potion pump-heart in Stan’s body.
• After two days, Stan awakened beneath Arkham Asylum and smashed through the laboratory glass in a feral state.
• Stan briefly recognized Li Wei, then charged into a neighboring laboratory and drank every blood bag he found.
• Stan regained some clarity but struggled to suppress his hunger, while Dr. Hugo confirmed that their blood supplies were gone.
• Li Wei noted that Gotham had grown turbulent again after City Hall proposed the Arkham District Development Plan.

Li Wei led Stan out of Arkham Asylum as his mutation overwhelmed him, and Stan hunted both Maroni Family and Falcone Family gang members in an alley. Stan regained his reason afterward, and Li Wei brought him back to the asylum to help him accept what he had become.

• Li Wei took Stan out of Arkham Asylum, but Stan's bloodlust took control and drew him toward the scent of blood.
• Stan charged into an alley where the Maroni Family and Falcone Family were fighting, and he killed a Maroni Family gang member despite being shot.
• Stan's wounds healed as he absorbed blood, and he slaughtered the gang members from both families.
• Stan regained some clarity amid the remains, and Li Wei greeted him from a rooftop, reminding him that he had promised Stan a chance to end evil himself.
• Li Wei brought the distraught Stan back to Arkham Asylum, where Dr. Hugo had just finished cleaning the laboratory and shut its door when he saw them.
• Li Wei called Dr. Hugo over to help Stan accept the truth about his transformation.

After learning how he had died and been resurrected, Stan agreed to join Arkham Asylum and the Glorious Evolution. Li Wei granted him Warwick’s Hero Template, transforming Stan into a powerful werewolf who could partly restrain his bloodlust.

• Li Wei told Stan how the Viper Potion had killed and resurrected him, leaving him responsible for the deaths in the alley.
• Stan accepted Li Wei’s invitation to join Arkham Asylum and hunt the evil in Gotham.
• Li Wei and Dr. Hugo revealed their Khada Jhin and Singed forms, and Stan drank alchemical potion from Dr. Hugo.
• Li Wei granted Stan Warwick’s Hero Template, and Stan endured a painful transformation into a werewolf.
• Stan discovered that the template gave him hunting instincts and abilities, including healing himself by injuring targets, while only partly controlling his craving for blood.

Stan became Gotham’s new urban legend after hunting gangsters, while Maroni and Falcone intensified their conflict over the mysterious killings. Li Wei hired Stan at Arkham Asylum and arranged for him to get a new identity, but a greater trouble soon emerged.

• Stan hunted criminals through the night, killing more than a hundred men from search parties sent by the Maroni and Falcone families.
• Maroni and Falcone mistook the attacks for a rival’s ambush, then chose to escalate their feud while rumors of a deadly beast spread through Gotham’s underworld.
• Li Wei presented Stan with an inflated damage bill, and Stan accepted a job at Arkham Asylum that would deduct most of his salary to repay it.
• Dr. Hugo confronted Li Wei about exploiting Stan, and Li Wei asked him to use the Court of Owls’ channels to obtain Stan a new identity.
• Li Wei reflected that Arkham Asylum needed to operate legally as it entered Gotham’s public eye, and the next development soon proved his foresight useful.

Gordon and Harvey questioned Li Wei at Arkham Asylum about the previous night, while Gordon suspected that Li Wei’s employee was the supposedly dead Stan Topolsky. The officers left without proof after Li Wei and Stan maintained their new identity story, though Gordon recognized Stan just before departing.

• Gordon and Harvey arrived at Arkham Asylum to question Li Wei but were greeted by Stan, who introduced himself as Warwick Vander.
• Gordon felt Stan looked familiar, and Stan warned Li Wei that the officers had seen him at the Wayne Enterprises charity gala.
• Li Wei told Stan to stick to his Warwick Vander identity and then met with Gordon and Harvey.
• Gordon questioned Li Wei about his whereabouts and what he had heard at ten the previous night, and Li Wei described hearing wolf howls without revealing useful information.
• As Gordon and Harvey left, Gordon remembered Stan Topolsky, but Li Wei and Stan denied knowing who he meant, leaving Gordon unsure of his identification.

Gordon and Harvey failed to find evidence that Stan had returned as Warwick before a City Councilor’s assassination forced them to investigate the Falcone Family’s role in the Arkham District development dispute. Gordon then learned that Oswald Cobblepot had returned and was waiting at his home, putting Barbara in danger.

• Gordon and Harvey returned to the precinct to examine Stan’s body, but the coroner’s prepared corpse and Warwick Vander’s records gave them no reason to suspect a deception.
• The Police Commissioner assigned Gordon and Harvey to investigate a City Councilor’s murder, which appeared connected to the Falcone Family’s bid for the Arkham District development project.
• Gordon worried that the Falcone Family would kill more City Councilors and that he lacked the evidence or power to stop them.
• Barbara called Gordon and told him that Oswald Cobblepot had come to the house, alarming Gordon because he had pretended to kill Cobblepot and warned him to stay away from Gotham.
• Gordon told Barbara not to open the door and left for home, while Harvey agreed to organize the case files and search for evidence.

Li Wei learned that Fish Mooney had abducted Ian Hargrove, the explosive-making prisoner meant to become his next Hero Template vessel. He prepared to hunt down whoever had seized Ian and leave Gotham’s underworld with no doubt that Arkham Asylum could not be provoked.

• Li Wei expected Cobblepot to challenge Gotham’s two major crime families and considered shaping him into Graves the Outlaw.
• A transport vehicle from Blackgate Prison arrived at Arkham Asylum riddled with bullet holes, and its dying driver said Ian had been taken.
• Li Wei read Ian Hargrove’s file and became furious that someone had stolen the explosive genius who could bring Arkham subsidies and serve as Jigs’s vessel.
• Li Wei told Dr. Hugo and Stan to join him after dark, then searched Gotham with his widespread vision for clues.
• Li Wei spotted Fish Mooney at an abandoned factory, where her gang held Ian and forced him to make explosives.

Li Wei uncovered Fish Mooney’s plan to use Ian to rob Falcone’s vault and decided to kill her in Arkham Asylum’s first public retaliation. Li Wei, Dr. Hugo, and Stan attacked Fish’s hideout, where Stan charged the guards and Li Wei began picking them off; the assault was still underway.

• Li Wei learned that Fish had kidnapped Ian to break into Falcone’s vault and planned to use Li Wei to destabilize Gotham’s underworld.
• Li Wei decided Fish had to die and planned an attack that would make Gotham fear Arkham Asylum without leaving evidence behind.
• Li Wei brought Dr. Hugo and Stan out of Arkham Asylum, and they adopted the appearances of Alchemist Singed, Warwick, and Khada Jhin.
• Li Wei, Dr. Hugo, and Stan reached the abandoned factory, where they sensed Ian and the hidden sentries.
• Stan charged the factory amid a wolf howl, drawing a barrage of gunfire as he dodged the bullets.
• Li Wei fired Whisper and struck a machine-gun-wielding sentry in the head.

Li Wei, revealed as Khada Jhin, and Stan slaughtered Fish's gang and confronted Fish at the abandoned factory. Fish tried to bargain and then threaten them with explosives, but Stan used his fear-inducing howl to stop her before killing her, while Li Wei ordered Dr. Hugo to keep Ian alive.

• Khada Jhin's shot killed the sentry, and Stan charged into the factory and slaughtered the gang members as Fish realized Li Wei was Khada Jhin.
• After the slaughter, Li Wei arrived with Dr. Hugo and Stan, and Fish came out with Ian tied to a cart of explosives.
• Fish offered to serve Li Wei in exchange for her life, but he refused and asked whether he looked like a farmer.
• Fish threatened to ignite the explosives, but Stan's howl made her lose control, and Stan killed her.
• Li Wei told Dr. Hugo to keep Ian alive, then prepared to leave.

Li Wei brought Ian back to Arkham Asylum after Dr. Hugo poisoned the abandoned factory and Stan killed Fish. He began granting Ian the Demolition Genius Jigs Hero Template, leaving Ian writhing in agony as it entered his body.

• Stan killed Fish and brought her intact corpse to Li Wei, who ordered him to save it for later.
• Dr. Hugo released toxic gas across the abandoned factory, killing its plants and poisoning the soil.
• Li Wei had Stan hang Fish's corpse from a streetlamp, then took Ian and the others back to Arkham Asylum.
• Ian learned that Khada Jhin was the asylum director, Dr. Hugo was its attending physician, and Stan was its janitor.
• Li Wei bought the Demolition Genius Jigs template and pressed its orb of light into Ian, triggering agonizing pain.

Ian became a Yordle after receiving Jigs's Hero Template, gaining explosive-making knowledge and abilities, and joined Arkham Asylum as its first true patient. Meanwhile, Gordon investigated Fish's death and discovered evidence that Khada Jhin had killed her at an abandoned factory.

• Ian underwent a painful transformation into a small, fluffy Yordle and gained Jigs's physical abilities and demolition knowledge.
• Li Wei assessed Jigs's explosive abilities, while Ian accepted his new form and welcomed the chance to work on bombs at Arkham Asylum.
• Dr. Hugo took Ian to the underground Indian Hill Hospital, and Li Wei and Stan returned to their rooms.
• Gordon identified Fish, the Falcone Family's second-in-command, as the corpse found hanging from a streetlamp and recognized the wound as the work of Gotham Beast.
• Gordon and Harvey found a Flesh Lotus and corrupted ground in a nearby abandoned factory, realizing Khada Jhin had killed Fish there, and called for police support.

Gordon and Harvey traced Fish’s murder and Ian Hargrove’s abduction back to Arkham Asylum, where Li Wei calmly concealed any evidence linking him to the killings or Khada Jhin. Gordon left convinced the asylum was hiding something but unable to prove it, and reflected on how Gotham had changed since The Waynes died.

• After questioning a gang member, Gordon and Harvey learned Fish had abducted Ian Hargrove during his transfer from Blackgate Prison to Arkham Asylum, so they went to investigate the asylum.
• Li Wei prepared Ian to stick to their account, then welcomed Gordon and Harvey and agreed to let them question Ian and inspect the hospital.
• Gordon and Harvey found nothing suspicious in the hospital, and Stan appeared to be an ordinary cleaner as he greeted them.
• Ian told Gordon he had come to Arkham Asylum on his own after Fish’s men attacked his prison escort, leaving Gordon suspicious but without proof.
• Li Wei escorted Gordon and Harvey out, and Gordon told Harvey that The Waynes had once symbolized hope and the future for Gotham.

Li Wei watched Bruce Wayne begin training with Alfred and Cobblepot expand his underworld power while Gordon and Harvey searched for evidence against Arkham Asylum. He then interviewed Leslie Thompkins, whose impressive medical résumé changed his mind about turning her away.

• Li Wei watched Gordon leave Arkham Asylum without evidence and noticed Bruce Wayne ask Alfred to teach him how to fight.
• Alfred agreed to train Bruce, while Li Wei reflected on the formidable Batman Bruce might become.
• Cobblepot used Fish's death to seize her remaining forces and advance his plans to provoke a war between the Maroni and Falcone families.
• Harvey questioned why he and Gordon were targeting Arkham Asylum, and Gordon defended his father's principle against using unjust means for just ends.
• Stan told Li Wei that Leslie Thompkins had applied for a doctor's job, so Li Wei invited her in and began interviewing her.
• Leslie impressed Li Wei with her résumé, which included graduating from Harvard Medical School.

Li Wei accepted Falcone’s ten-million-dollar donation, settling the danger posed by Fish’s death, and asked Falcone to arrange for Gordon to work at Arkham Asylum. Falcone agreed, bringing Li Wei’s plan to draw Gordon and Leslie together closer to fruition.

• Li Wei told Stan, Ian, and Dr. Hugo to conceal their unusual abilities from Leslie, while Stan chose the new identity Warwick Vander.
• Falcone arrived at Arkham Asylum with Victor Zsasz and offered Li Wei another donation.
• Li Wei accepted Falcone’s ten-million-dollar check, and the two silently agreed that Falcone’s family would not be blamed for Fish’s death.
• Li Wei said Arkham Asylum needed better security and asked Falcone to help bring Sheriff Gordon there.
• Falcone agreed to arrange for Gordon to report to Arkham Asylum.

Li Wei’s maneuvering helped Arkham Asylum become Gotham’s feared underworld power while Gordon’s investigation went nowhere. When Gordon pursued Selina Kyle, a young witness to The Waynes’ murder, Li Wei recognized that her appearance could affect his plans.

• Falcone left Arkham Asylum after agreeing to arrange Gordon’s assignment there, and rumors of his visit strengthened Gotham’s belief that Arkham was behind Khada Jhin and the Gotham Beast.
• Maroni realized that even victory over Falcone would leave him facing Arkham Asylum, but he continued the war because he expected Falcone to kill him if he backed down.
• Gordon failed to get evidence from an underworld informant, while Li Wei watched his investigation and concluded that it was futile.
• Li Wei noticed that Selina Kyle claimed to have witnessed The Waynes’ murder and recognized her as a potential Catwoman Hero Template vessel.
• Gordon pursued Selina as a lead in his investigation of The Waynes’ shooting, prompting Li Wei to consider the consequences for his plans.