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 are three Batman games on the Famicom. The scenario Cheng Tian finds himself in is based on the first one, adapted from the 1989 film of the same name. This game was also ahead of its time, adding cutscene animations similar to Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Cats/Kung Fu Cats Party. This was a pretty bold move for a Famicom cartridge that measured memory in kilobytes.

However, these cutscenes were already heavily reduced. The reason was that the Japanese developers naturally referenced many classic scenes from the original comics during production. The scene where Batman confronts the Joker, in particular, closely recreated a famous scene from The Killing Joke.

The result, of course, was a cease and desist letter!

The most troublesome aspect of this Batman adaptation was the setup of the BOSS lineup.

In the movie, there is only one supervillain, the Joker, and Batman is constantly locked in a love-hate relationship with him... but the problem is, you can't have only one BOSS in an action-adventure game, right?

So, the Japanese developers designed a series of original BOSS units in a way that referenced, but didn't completely copy, the source material, and they added a lot of detailed, unnecessary character settings to them.

As usual, the Japanese and American versions inevitably had differences in character design.

When Cheng Tian heard the thug mention "Killer Moth" and combined it with the gang name "Moth Gang," he basically confirmed that the current scenario was using the American version of the character design rather than the Japanese version. Otherwise, Killer Moth might have become "Sergeant Fred."

Of course, the so-called American character designs were just forcibly attaching the names of DC villains to vaguely similar original BOSS characters. The settings and abilities weren't a 100% match.

But the Chosen Evolution Space has a wonderful mechanism: while retaining much of the original fun of the game blueprint, it also improves and supplements some of the unreasonable aspects of the generated instances.

So, Killer Moth and the Moth Gang, which should have had nothing to do with the original movie, appeared logically.

With the "it's almost New Year" mentality, Cheng Tian planned to extract more information from the two before him. Unfortunately, these two were just pure bluffers. Besides knowing the gang leader's name, they knew nothing about other core members, giving Cheng no chance to exploit them for information.

Just as the white thug thought Cheng Tian had no more questions, Cheng Tian, after pondering for a moment, spoke again. But the next question was a strange one that made both the white thug and the black thug behind him, who had woken up from his daze and quickly adapted to or blocked out the stench, involuntarily freeze.

"If Gotham City catches fire, does insurance cover it?"

"Um... if the place that burned down has Wayne Enterprises insurance, then it should be covered, right?"

As the lowest of the low, the white thug naturally couldn't afford Wayne Enterprises insurance, but he hadn't heard of any news about insurance claims being denied.

Although Gotham is a haven for gangs—the Moth Gang, the Electrocutioner Gang, the Firefly Gang, and the most vicious Joker Gang are all gathered here—what truly extends to almost every corner of Gotham is a huge conglomerate called "Wayne Enterprises."

People can hate the rich all they want, but Wayne Enterprises' insurance services haven't had any major scandals that even someone like him would know about.

"Then, are the fire trucks prompt? Is there water in the fire hydrants? Who pays for the fire department's services?"

Cheng Tian asked three questions in a row.

"The speed seems okay. I overheard some Firefly Gang bastards in the underground tavern talking about how the fire department came too fast and they didn't get to burn enough, so the water in the hydrants should be plentiful.

As for the money, I think Wayne Enterprises sponsors it."

Perhaps Cheng Tian had loosened their tongues. The two unlucky thieves who had been defeated had relaxed a lot, entering a state where Cheng Tian asked questions and the white thug answered, with the black thug occasionally adding something. This allowed Cheng Tian to learn a lot about the city.

For example, guys like the white and black thugs, who were technically gang members but practically homeless, could go to Wayne Enterprises' aid stations to receive assistance, guaranteeing at least one free, filling meal a day.

And those unlucky souls who were caught up in some tight-suited bat-freak's pursuit of justice and got injured could have their expensive ambulance and medical fees waived, with significant reductions in subsequent medical expenses, all paid for by Wayne Enterprises.

Learning about these real aspects of Gotham was a truly dark joke for Cheng Tian.

For a long time, not just him, but many people thought that Gotham, this place of remarkable people and resources, was the most unsuitable city for humans to live in. But now, with real-world examples to compare it to, Cheng Tian genuinely felt something called "the conscience of a capitalist" in Gotham City, a phrase that shouldn't be combined.

As the actual controller of Wayne Enterprises, which controlled almost every field in Gotham City, Bruce Wayne, who should have been like most capitalists, exploiting the lower classes to the bone, had his greatest hobby as running around in a tight-suited freak costume at night, fighting crime!

Insurance? Covered!

Fire? Rescued!

Homeless? Helped!

Criminals? Fought!

I now declare—Gotham is a better, more livable 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 of the conversation had clearly become very friendly, so friendly that the black and white duo thought Cheng Tian would invite them for a drink. But after asking a bunch of questions, Cheng Tian, seemingly reminiscing about something, turned and left, very smoothly.

The sound of the cane tapping the ground stopped. Cheng Tian turned around, and the tapping sound resumed.

"You didn't think that just chatting for a bit would erase the fact that you tried to rob me, or even kill me, did you?"

Looking down, Cheng's eyes stared straight at the black and white duo, causing them to almost instinctively swallow hard.

"No matter how twisted and miserable your experiences as homeless people are, since you've already attacked me, it means you've done this more than once. You're trash, scum, and you need to be punished."

"...Bro, are you one of those vigilantes who just starts killing without saying a word?"

The black thug seemed tough, but his tone was trembling uncontrollably.

But then they saw Cheng Tian shake his head, and then say something that made the black and white duo feel a chill from the bottom of their hearts.

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

Cheng Tian smiled very brightly.

Ten minutes later, a black shadow that seemed to block the narrow sky of the alley descended from the sky.

Because the material of the cowl didn't allow him to turn his head freely, Batman, who could only face the target with his whole body, was shocked when he saw the scene before him.

The black and white duo, with all four limbs twisted in the opposite direction, were tied together in a Taiji yin-yang diagram.

A sensory stimulation called "eye-searing" entered Batman's brain before any other emotion.

At the same time, Cheng Tian had appeared, dressed inappropriately gentlemanly, in an underground tavern that was clearly not a place for normal people to be. This was the same small tavern that the white thug had mentioned earlier.

He sat at the bar, tapped it with his left index and middle fingers together, and said something that made him even more conspicuous.

"Bartender, a glass of milk, please."