"Boom."
A dull peal of thunder exploded among Gotham City's dark clouds. Pale lightning suddenly illuminated the sinful city in the night rain, as well as a certain bat-shaped shadow slicing across the sky.
"Santos, here's your pay for this month. Take it."
"Thanks, Phillip."
"Rick, get over here. Remember to cause less trouble at parties in the future. Every time, I have to go to the police station to bail you two out."
"Yeah, yeah, I know."
"Castro."
As the manager's gaze swept across the staff and landed on Ma Zhaodi, whose face was glowing with excitement, his heart instinctively clenched. Now, every time he saw Ma Zhaodi, he would instinctively remember that day—the single shot during the shootout, and that expensive, high-end chandelier.
"Ma Zhaodi, why are you so excited?"
"Because we're getting paid today."
"I need to remind you that you already received an advance at the beginning of the month. Don't think I'll pay you twice."
"That payment at the beginning of the month was money. This one at the end of the month is happiness. It's a sense of ritual, Phillip. A sense of ritual is very important."
A bewildered look appeared on the manager's face. He tried hard to understand Ma Zhaodi's strange line of thought, but after thinking for a long while, he still couldn't make sense of it. In the end, he could only shake his head. "In any case, your pay has already been—"
Ma Zhaodi stared intently at the manager's mouth, excitedly waiting for him to say those words. To him, the feeling of several thousand Asset Points arriving was unquestionably happiness.
"Crack."
The sound of glass breaking was exceptionally sharp and piercing at that moment. Ma Zhaodi instinctively turned around in alarm, only to see a pitch-black shadow crash into the restaurant from the night sky.
Unlike Ma Zhaodi, the manager had plenty of experience with shootouts and was able to notice many details.
For example, several bat-shaped darts shooting through the air at high speed.
"Batman!"
An ominous premonition immediately arose in his heart. As a gangster who had lived in Gotham for a long time, he had once encountered this bat before. That time, he had spent three whole months bedridden.
The moment he realized that bat had arrived, he immediately recalled the painful memory of having his bones broken last time. He vaguely remembered that the bat's first move had been to turn the entire area into his home field—in other words, a completely dark environment.
At this thought, his gaze involuntarily shifted toward the luxurious chandelier that had just been installed. At that moment, the passage of time seemed extraordinarily slow to him. The flight of the Batarang became incredibly clear in his mind. Although his eyes couldn't keep up with the dart's extreme speed, his brain had already instinctively filled in its trajectory.
Thus, he could only watch in despair as it flew unwaveringly toward the chandelier, forcing a desperate wail from his throat.
"No—!"
"Crash—!"
A series of shattering sounds rang out. The enormous crystal chandelier instantly crashed to the floor, scattering like splashing water and exploding into countless tiny, dazzling gemstone fragments.
Though it was rude to say so, the manager's voice at that moment made Ma Zhaodi feel as though he had traveled back to that rainy night a few days ago.
It seemed as if familiar music was playing by his ears again.
"Snowflakes drift, the north wind howls—"
Ah, how strange. Why had he said "again"?
"Batman!"
In the darkness, the manager's furious roar rang out once more, sounding exactly like that previous time.
"Goddamn bastard! I'm going to kill you! Do you know how long ago that chandelier was repaired—"
Batman remained unmoved. He continued his calm dive, tackling a quick-reacting waiter who had already drawn his gun to the ground. He swung his sandbag-sized fist and followed through with a powerful hook, striking the man's jaw with precision. The trigeminal nerve connected to it was immediately stimulated and rapidly transmitted the signal to the cerebellum, which controlled balance. Thus, the enemy was knocked flat by a single heavy punch, left dizzy and unable to rise.
After knocking one enemy down with a single punch, he blurred away like a ghost in the night and appeared silently behind another enemy. He struck the back of the man's neck with a knife-hand blow, and the second enemy was knocked unconscious in one hit.
"Manager! Manager, are you all right?"
Ma Zhaodi groped around in the darkness and called out to the manager, his voice carrying a sobbing note.
"Someone help! Someone! The manager's down again! Call an ambulance!"
"Shut up!"
Hearing Ma Zhaodi start wailing again, the manager's vision immediately went black. His low blood pressure shot upward, sparing him the trouble of developing high blood pressure.
"You're fine! That's great, manager!"
By that time, Batman had already beaten seven or eight of the restaurant's waiters to the ground. Although he was fighting bare-handed, he tore through them like a tiger charging into a flock of sheep.
"Use the muzzle flashes to reveal him!" someone shouted. The next second, both hands holding his gun were seized firmly. One finger pressed behind his trigger, preventing him from firing, while the other hand clamped around his wrist like a pair of pincers and twisted lightly.
"Ah—! It's broken! My hand is broken!"
The violent pain made him curl into a ball in the darkness, trembling as he clutched his broken hand in terror.
Then came the next one.
"Don't come over! Stay away, you bastard!"
One enemy seemed to have learned a little martial arts. After Batman kicked a gun-wielding colleague beside him and broke his ribs, he drove his knee forward.
Batman sidestepped it and caught his lower leg in passing. He straightened the leg, then viciously slammed an elbow down onto the knee.
"Crack."
"My leg! My leg!"
The crisp sound of breaking bone made everyone's hearts tremble twice. Yet Batman's assault still hadn't ended. The sharp cracks of fractured bones, screams, and the dull impacts of fists against flesh rang through the dark space. Outside, thunder roared with a shrill fury, making the scene even more terrifying.
Gale-force wind and icy raindrops shot into the room through the shattered windows. No one knew whether their hands were trembling from the bone-chilling cold or from fear, but all the bullets did indeed seem to be flying harmlessly into empty space. That ghostlike bat shadow truly seemed like a monster from some urban legend. No one could see him clearly or capture him, as he hunted the gang members in the restaurant like an experienced predator.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
Batman did not answer. Conversation was meaningless at that moment. Only after everyone had lost the ability to fight could he begin his interrogation.
However, the manager had not shouted that at Batman.
"Just one sentence, one sentence is enough! Hurry! Otherwise it'll be too late!"
Ma Zhaodi begged the manager in utter despair. "Hurry and say that you've already paid me! I worked for a whole month!"
Before you continue