Your Motorcycle Is Pretty Nice

A long, narrow shadow was cast onto the ground by the lights on the outer wall of the Continental Hotel's top floor.

The shadow had wings on its back and two pointed ears, resembling a giant humanoid bat.

Amid cries of surprise, people looked up into the distance.

They saw that the source of the shadow was at the very top of the Continental Hotel.

A tall figure stood there like a mountain, like a banner flying in the wind.

"Batman?"

Someone immediately recognized him.

Quite a few of the police officers present had seen the recently released hit movie.

The officer who had received the report and happened to be patrolling Manhattan was especially dumbfounded.

"Th-this-this..."

The reporters instantly grew excited.

This was huge news!

The feud between the Life Foundation and the Daily Bugle had been plain to see from their recent war of public opinion.

The Daily Bugle's exposé had put the Life Foundation in an extremely awkward position, nearly halving its market value.

How could Carlton Drake not be furious?

He had sent people from San Francisco to New York, across thousands of kilometers, to deal with the Daily Bugle, only to be stopped by Batman, who had appeared out of nowhere.

The Batman movie happened to have been created by Anton Jameson, the grandson of the Daily Bugle's owner.

Did Anton Jameson have some connection to Batman?

Did Batman have some connection to the Daily Bugle?

The reporters immediately imagined an entire drama.

They glanced at the police outside the Continental Hotel, exchanged looks, and all understood.

Officially, of course, they had to praise the New York City government's effective governance and the police department's swift case-solving.

The gossip was for the entertainment tabloids operating under different names.

Time to put on a new disguise!

That was the proper way to make a living.

They could avoid offending those in power while not missing a single chance to make money.

Click, click, click!

Camera flashes kept blinking on and off.

Whoosh!

A powerful gust swept past.

The figure overhead transformed into a giant bat, and the shadow cast on the ground suddenly spread its wings.

Amid more cries of surprise, Batman swept through the air, flying from the Continental Hotel to a building on the other side before vanishing into the darkness.

"Everyone, no filming will be allowed during the next phase of the operation."

George Stacy looked grim. After speaking to the reporters beside him, he turned to the man in charge of the Continental Hotel. "Mr. Winston, I'm sure you won't mind coming with me to the police station?"

"Of course. Serving the people is our duty."

Winston went along with it readily.

The next day.

"I want to file a report... These people were sent by the Life Foundation. Those San Francisco people wanted to destroy my hotel... The Life Foundation and the Continental Hotel have no grudge against each other. Their goal was to retaliate against the Daily Bugle... As for the reason, everyone knows it perfectly well."

San Francisco, Life Foundation headquarters.

Seeing the news on television, Carlton Drake trembled with rage. His eyes were bloodshot, and he wished he could climb into the TV and fight Winston for three hundred rounds.

On top of that, the Daily Bugle published Winston's accusations against the Life Foundation on its front page that day.

It caused a sensation and an uproar.

The Life Foundation had become a target of universal condemnation.

Its market value had not merely been cut in half. It was now less than a third of what it had been at its peak.

If not for the Life Foundation's valuable pharmaceutical patents and relatively solid foundation, it would have already been delisted in the face of such a frenzied and one-sided situation.

Bang!

Drake slammed a hand onto his desk and glared at the head of his bodyguards.

"This is how you work for me?"

Unable to contain his fury, he swept everything at hand toward the bodyguard chief. Even after being battered until his head was bleeding, the man did not dare say a word.

"This is what you meant by handling it?"

His voice was clenched between gritted teeth, filled with rage.

If Anton had died, then faced with this kind of accountability, Drake would not only have been unangered—he would have been delighted. At least the objective would have been achieved.

But what was this?

He had lost both the lady and the army.

Seeing today's news made Drake's head buzz. He felt like everyone around him was useless.

They could not catch Eddie.

The experiment to merge symbiotes with humans could not progress.

Even their retaliation had come to nothing—and the basket had been swept away by the water too.

This is too damn hard!

"Boss, the Continental Hotel is an assassin organization. They broke the rules, so we have grounds to file a complaint with the High Table."

Seeing that Drake had finally calmed down after a long while, the bodyguard chief could not help but say, "Winston will pay the price! The High Table won't let them off."

"A complaint?"

Drake shot him a cold glance. "You're still counting on others at a time like this? Last night, every assassin in the Continental Hotel was taken down by Batman, then hauled off to prison by the police. Instead of relying on the High Table, think about what we have that can deal with this Batman who appeared out of nowhere."

"This..."

The bodyguard chief's mind went blank for a moment.

He had spent many years in the underworld. Though he was not particularly famous, he was highly capable and knew full well how terrifying the Continental Hotel and the High Table were.

Only in recent years had he gone legitimate, recruited by the Life Foundation to serve as Drake's bodyguard and handle Drake's security.

But he had never imagined that the Continental Hotel, whose name thundered through the underworld, would fall to this suddenly appeared bat.

"Who is this Batman?"

The bodyguard chief could not help asking Drake, "Boss, anyone who can force the Continental Hotel to negotiate is no nobody."

"No nobody?"

Drake snorted, his face dark. "He certainly isn't." He looked coldly out the window without turning his head. "He's the one we wanted to kill."

"Anton?"

The bodyguard chief's eyes widened, disbelief filling his face.

"Anton, Batman, Daily Bugle..."

Drake could not be bothered with his dimwitted confidant. He muttered the names that were giving him such a headache and gradually clenched his fists.

New York.

A villa district.

Anton looked at Jameson in front of him, rather helplessly.

"Old man, you've been staring at me all day. What exactly do you want to say?"

His face was full of exasperation. He felt the old man's gaze was incredibly strange—at any rate, it was not the way one looked at a normal person.

"When did you get skills like this?"

Jonah Jameson clicked his tongue repeatedly and spoke with absolute conviction. "Batman? If you really are Batman, I'll eat the newspaper in front of me right now."

"Is that so?"

Anton raised a brow and entered his Batman state.

Whoosh!

In an instant, he transformed into the mysterious figure who had stirred up such turmoil the night before.

"Shit!!"

Jameson stared, dumbfounded.

His words had merely been a test. It was not as though he did not believe Anton was Batman.

What he had never expected, however, was that Anton would reveal his secret so easily and without the slightest concealment.

"Y-you-you-you..."

Jameson was at a loss for words. His eyes were wide as he stared at Anton in armor, completely overlooking the mysterious means Anton had displayed.

"Out of the kindness of my heart, and out of respect for the elderly, I'll spare you from eating the newspaper."

Anton waved a hand again and returned to his original form. "But there are some things you shouldn't ask about. Old man, you'll slowly come to know this world all over again."

Jameson paused, then came back to himself. He was brimming with childlike excitement.

"Where's your motorcycle?"

"I have to say, you inherited my taste. That motorcycle is pretty well made..."

"Bring it out and let me try it. Hurry!"