The Ventriloquist

"What are you going to do?" Bai Lang asked.

"I'm still looking for a way, but every way I can think of to keep them all alive through the winter... is written into the law."

Harley Quinn shrugged helplessly, and her little camisole nearly slipped off.

"Sheriff Bai Lang, after hearing what you said last time, I decided to be true to myself again. I want to try everything this world has to offer..."

As she spoke, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly, and that crazed smile seemed ready to return to her face.

"Life is short. I want to do something meaningful. I want to fuck my way through the entire—"

Seeing her about to lose herself in that mad state again, Bai Lang hurriedly grabbed her arm and sent a current through his body to shock her.

Harley trembled all over from the jolt, rolling her eyes.

It took a while for her to recover.

She looked at Bai Lang, panting hard. "Sheriff Bai Lang, what was that just now?"

"An electric baton."

"Can I see it?"

"No." Bai Lang shook his head.

How could he let anyone inspect something like that so easily?

He looked at the Night Raven Gang members before him. Some seemed to be suffering terribly from addiction after injecting drugs, their faces contorted.

Others seemed to have given up on themselves. They were just passing the time here, staring blankly at the sky.

But one man was still reading an old physics textbook. If they ever got the chance, they could leap out of this swamp like fish leaping over a dragon gate and leave it behind.

As Bai Lang watched, a yellow-skinned, gaunt man as thin as a rail stood up beside the one reading the physics book and came over.

"Boss, Mike stole a necklace. We can eat our fill tonight."

Though he was skinny, his face was full of excitement.

Harley nodded and looked toward the young man reading the physics book.

"Excellent! Mike did great! Now all of us can have bread porridge for half a week!"

Bread porridge was made by crushing stale bread and boiling it in hot water until soft.

Bai Lang turned to the excited Harley and said, "I'll allow you to steal things from rich people's cars on Park Street to support yourselves."

"But, Harley, you need to teach them some vocational skills. And they can't touch those drugs anymore. Ideally, you'll help them kick the habit."

"I'll make sure every one of them survives and lives well."

Harley had barely finished celebrating when she received such good news.

She looked at the Asian young man before her, somewhat taken aback.

"Sheriff Bai Lang, are you serious?"

For some reason, she felt that the man before her had changed in some subtle way.

"I promise," Bai Lang replied.

Since Harley was the Night Raven Gang's leader, it would be easier to put Bai Lang's plan into action.

The Night Raven Gang had thirty-eight members: thirteen women between the ages of twenty-six and thirty-eight, fourteen men between twelve and forty-eight, and the rest were children under ten.

They were of different races and skin colors. The most educated among them was a college graduate who had finished school a few years ago and once worked as an accountant for a small company.

He still owed the bank money on his student loans.

Bai Lang planned to have them start by stealing valuables from rich people's cars, so they could solve the problem of having enough to eat.

In the meantime, they would need to kick their drug habits and study the subjects Bai Lang had planned for them.

Once the time was right, Bai Lang planned to withdraw a year's salary from the police department and use it to transform the gang living in the vacant lot of an unfinished building.

The sun sank below the mountains as time slowly passed, and night soon fell.

A few dark clouds hung high overhead, obscuring the moon.

Steady rain fell onto the rooftops of tall buildings, then ran down their solid reinforced-concrete walls.

It flowed along the roadside, past the low buildings, and eventually into the sewers.

On Arkham Island, not far from the city center, the Bat-Signal had already appeared in the sky.

In downtown Gotham, Bai Lang stood atop Wayne Tower in a Batman suit, surveying the city.

In recent days, the real Batman, Bruce Wayne, had gone to Arkham Island to protect Dr. Arkham from assassination by the Court of Owls.

Gotham was being protected by the fake Batman, Bai Lang.

[Ability Points +4]

A pale blue notification window appeared before Bai Lang.

He knew why. Surveillance cameras had captured him wearing the Batman suit.

For a time, there were two Batmen in Gotham.

Bai Lang paid it no mind. He needed Ability Points to improve his strength so he could protect himself in the events to come.

And changing Gotham also required great strength.

Without a path, a magnetic-field warrior's strength grew very slowly.

In the Tiger of the Sea worldview, a path was the belief and pursuit deep within one's heart.

If a person did not find their own path, it would hinder both their growth in strength and their ultimate achievements.

So if he wanted to become strong, he had to find his own path.

His conversation with Death had also taught him that, at his core, he was human.

Over the past few days, Bai Lang had constantly wondered what his path was.

Now, he finally understood: his path was to let the people at the bottom live well in this city.

To let humanity flourish.

He stood high atop the building, gazing down below.

A crime was taking place nearby. Bai Lang suddenly moved.

A dark figure tore through the air and shot downward.

Uptown Gotham.

Members of Joker's Gang, their skin pale and their faces painted in the same exaggerated makeup as Joker's, were holding pistols and shooting recklessly in the street.

Glass shattered under the gunfire, and stone chips flew everywhere.

Bullets whizzed about wildly. Even when they hit their companions, these people didn't care in the slightest.

It was as if tonight was their party.

Bai Lang, wearing the Batman suit, landed squarely in the middle of a road riddled with bullet holes.

Several bullets tore through the air from different angles and shot straight toward him at incredible speed.

But a thin defensive wall of golden-red electrical current appeared before Bai Lang.

The iron bullets, carrying tremendous kinetic energy, struck the golden-red current wall.

In almost an instant, the hard bullets melted into puddles of iron and fell to the ground.

Bai Lang stamped hard on the ground. A small hole, three centimeters across, suddenly appeared in the hard concrete.

At the same time, his figure flashed repeatedly among the members of Joker's Gang.

"Bat... It's the Bat?!"

"Hahahaha!! The Bat! I'll take care of things for Boss Joker... Uh..."

"..."

[Ability Points +4]

In a few breaths, Bai Lang had subdued every member of Joker's Gang.

With his current strength, he was invincible unless they brought out heavy firearms.

But before he could stop and rest for even a few minutes, a violent explosion sounded nearby.

Bai Lang handcuffed the members of Joker's Gang together, then dragged the dozen or so people toward the explosion.

The explosion had come from a bank. Several officers who had stayed behind in Gotham had already arrived.

Bai Lang handcuffed the group of Joker's Gang members beside a police car, then strode inside with nimble steps.

The explosion had taken place on the bank's second floor, but the suspect was on the first.

As soon as Bai Lang went in, he saw an officer lying on the ground, panting hard.

There was a bloody hole in his body, and fresh red blood flowed out, staining half his body.

The pungent smell of blood spread through the air, making Bai Lang frown.

He turned his gaze toward the corner.

There, a bald white man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties was crouched against the wall, a pistol in his hand.

Beside him were several hostages, panicked and visibly terrified.

"Mr. Scarface, is this really a good idea?" the white-haired man said to the knitted Scarface Puppet on his hand.

"He's almost done for..."

The Ventriloquist was a middle-aged, paunchy white man with a cowardly look on his face.

"If we don't shoot him, how are we supposed to get out of the bank?"

His mouth was firmly shut, but his voice came from his abdomen. At the same time, his hand wore the Scarface Puppet and made its mouth open and close.

It looked as though the Scarface Puppet itself was speaking.

Watching this scene, the hostages couldn't help finding it eerie. Their scalps prickled with fear.