New Employment Relationship

A New Employment Relationship

"Stop him!"

Black Mask, clearly the leader, casually pointed at Batman.

The cold Christmas Eve wind poured in through the stairwell, whipping against Li Zu's thin yellow prison uniform and carrying snowflakes with it.

He was barefoot, and his feet were numb with cold.

The wind was truly freezing.

Batman was blocked by a group of black-masked thugs, while Li Zu, dressed in prison clothes, was ignored as though he were invisible.

On the other side, a middle-aged man in a police uniform was being escorted by two of Black Mask's thugs.

"You can't do this, Roman! You can't do this! I'm the commissioner of the Gotham Police Department!" The GPD commissioner was thrown into a sealed compartment.

Someone pulled a lever.

The space quickly filled with green poison gas.

Yet the commissioner's shouting did not stop. "You can't just kick me aside... after everything I've done for you!! You said we were in this together..."

The green gas made his voice sound choked and indistinct.

"Of course I can~" Black Mask adjusted his collar and lightly flicked away a strand of black hair with his right hand.

His voice sounded relaxed and leisurely.

"The victor's floor has already been cleaned, but there's no place for you to stand on it, Mr. Commissioner~~"

Black Mask held his head high. It was as if he had kicked someone who considered himself a "meritorious official" into a crowd of criminals awaiting the gallows. The disbelief on the commissioner's face could delight him for an entire day.

Black Mask turned his face toward Li Zu. Perhaps the man beneath that black mask had suddenly become "interested" in him.

He walked up to Li Zu.

The black mask concealed all of his expressions, revealing only his eyes.

"You're like an old friend~"

He extended his right hand, seemingly intending to shake Li Zu's hand in greeting. But the gesture lasted only a second before he withdrew it and pulled a pistol from his pocket.

It was obvious that he preferred greeting people this way.

The muzzle pointed at Li Zu's head. "Interested in working together? Wealth, women, fear—this place has it all~~"

Ignoring the pistol pointed at his head, Li Zu could barely take this as Black Mask extending an olive branch.

Shivering in the cold wind, his ankles turning blue, Li Zu did not look like an expert. Even the toy meat saw in his hand made him look more like a lunatic.

Everyone was curious about Black Mask's invitation except Li Zu.

Perhaps, in his eyes, a pathetic fool like Black Mask, someone destined to enter the stage too early, had nothing worth being curious about.

He had always been too lazy to remember unimportant "supporting characters," even if that supporting character currently seemed infinitely glorious.

This was merely a "supporting character." As for why a "supporting character" did something, he was too lazy to think about it.

He only knew that his life was currently in this "supporting character's" hands.

"What's my first job?"

As Li Zu asked, his eyes turned toward Batman, who was still fighting fiercely behind him.

"That's right~" Black Mask patted Li Zu on the shoulder, confirming his guess. "Good luck. I hope to hear your good news soon. Hehe~"

Black Mask swiftly left, leaving the frail-looking Li Zu behind to stop Batman.

It was a joke.

A vulgar joke.

Perhaps the strange "hehe" laughter that Black Mask could not hide beneath his mask as he left came from imagining Li Zu's skinny body being beaten black and blue by Batman.

Who could expect a skinny, shivering Asian man to defeat Gotham's urban legend?

Rather than expect that, it would be better to hope Batman had never appeared in Gotham.

Batman.

From afar, he was merely a giant humanoid bat, appearing only in the dead of night, at the sides of criminals.

Bringing fear.

Until tonight, many people had even believed he did not exist and was merely fictional.

The horn of battle had already sounded. Criminals wrapped in wool-lined prison uniforms eagerly swung their fists at Batman.

It perfectly proved what the guard had told Li Zu before.

Who came to Blackgate Penitentiary with a peaceful mind?

Batman swiftly swung his cape over one thug's head, then knocked him down with a rapid barrage of punches.

Four or five men surrounded him. From roaring their threats to collapsing beneath his fists, it took less than thirty seconds.

Very soon, Black Mask's "men" had only Li Zu left standing.

Batman's gaze naturally shifted to him.

Batman could not pretend he had not seen the conversation between the two of them just now.

"If you chase after him now, you can definitely catch that guy wearing the tasteless mask!" Li Zu raised both hands and pointed toward the stairwell where the cold wind kept rushing in.

He had never intended to stop Batman from the beginning.

He bore no grudge against Batman of this world... at least, that was how it seemed for now.

"Why did Black Mask start the riot? What does he want?" Batman did not pull out a gun and point it at Li Zu's head. Instead, he raised his fist in threat.

As long as Li Zu failed to give him a satisfactory answer, he would definitely swing that fist.

That was the message in his eyes, unwavering and firm.

"I was only forced to join them just now, but... Joseph must know. If you can find him, and if he hasn't been torn apart yet."

Li Zu appeared to be thinking hard.

He only did so to emphasize his cooperation and avoid drawing Batman's heavy fist.

Even if the gun had been replaced by a fist, no one wanted to get beaten up for no reason.

"I'm afraid he doesn't know either." From Batman's words, it seemed he had already spoken with Warden Joseph.

As he left, Batman still had his right hand pressed against his ear. He was speaking to someone through an invisible earpiece.

"I need detailed information on Blackgate Penitentiary..."

After watching Batman chase upstairs through the cold wind with his arms folded, Li Zu chose to head back inside.

Charging straight outside in this freezing weather was not a good choice.

Blackgate Penitentiary had already been consumed by the riot.

Criminals in yellow prison uniforms had locked the guards in cells, roaring madly.

They clutched guns and fired wildly.

Or they fought, trading brutal blow after brutal blow.

Even though Li Zu had turned four people into toys on his way back, chopped two unlucky men into pieces with the meat saw, and even injured several people with the pistol he was least familiar with.

The savagery of this group had not diminished.

Some even cursed as they lunged at Li Zu.

The out-of-control Blackgate Penitentiary had become the most dangerous place in this city, perhaps even this country.

This was a carnival. Even if they could not escape Blackgate Penitentiary, they could still find joy in it.

The toy iron bars still stood within the prison.

In the cell diagonally across from his, the muscular bald bastard lay in a pool of blood, devoid of life.

Li Zu arrived at the one-eyed man's cell.

"Take me out of here." He was brief and direct.

"How much can you pay?" The one-eyed middle-aged man unusually turned to look at Li Zu. Only a bounty seemed capable of stirring his interest.

"I don't have a single cent on me~" Li Zu patted both sides of his thighs, indicating that his pockets were empty.

"Wait!"

Seeing the one-eyed middle-aged man preparing to lie back down and pretend to sleep again, Li Zu added, "Does Black Mask have money? Let's rob him! You can have all the money we take!"

(End of chapter)