New Employment Relationship

"Stop him!"

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

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

He was barefoot, his feet numb with cold.

The wind was truly freezing.

Batman was blocked by a group of enforcers in black masks, while Li Zu, dressed in prison clothes, was ignored as if he were Translucent.

Elsewhere, a middle-aged man in a police uniform was being escorted by two of Black Mask's enforcers.

"You can't do this, Roman! You can't do this! I'm the police commissioner!" Gotham's police commissioner was thrown into a sealed compartment.

Someone pulled a lever.

The space was quickly filled with green poison gas.

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

The green gas made his voice sound muffled and indistinct.

"Of course I can~" The man in the 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. Police Commissioner~~"

Black Mask held his head high. It was as though he had kicked a man who thought himself a "hero" into a crowd of criminals awaiting execution. The disbelief on the police commissioner's face was enough to amuse him for an entire day.

Black Mask turned toward Li Zu. Perhaps the person beneath that black mask had suddenly taken an "interest" in him.

He walked up to Li Zu.

The black mask hid every expression, revealing only a pair of eyes.

"You're like an old friend~"

He extended his right hand as though he wanted to shake Li Zu's hand in greeting, but held the gesture for only a second. The next moment, he withdrew his hand and pulled a pistol from his pocket.

Clearly, he preferred this sort of greeting.

The barrel pointed at Li Zu's head. "Interested in working together? Wealth, women, fear—this place has everything you could want~~"

Ignoring the gun aimed at his head, Li Zu could barely consider this an olive branch from Black Mask.

Shivering in the cold wind, his ankles bluish from the chill, Li Zu did not look like an expert. Even the toy Meat Saw in his hand made him look more like a mental patient.

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

Perhaps, in his eyes, a pitiful fool like Black Mask, someone destined to enter the fray ahead of schedule, was not worth being curious about.

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

This was merely a "supporting character," and Li Zu was too lazy to think about why a "supporting character" would do anything.

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 shifted toward Batman, who was still fighting fiercely behind him.

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

Black Mask quickly left, leaving Li Zu—thin no matter how one looked at him—to stop Batman.

It was a joke.

A vulgar joke.

Perhaps the strange "hehehe" laughter Black Mask could not suppress 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, they might as well hope Batman had never existed in Gotham.

Batman.

From afar, he looked like nothing more than a giant humanoid bat, appearing only in the dead of night, at criminals' sides.

Bringing fear.

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

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

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

Whoever ended up in Blackgate Penitentiary could possibly be calm?

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

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

Soon, among Black Mask's "men," only Li Zu remained standing.

Batman's gaze naturally shifted to him.

Batman could not pretend he had not seen their conversation just now.

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

He had never intended to stop Batman from the beginning.

He had 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 a gun from his chest and point it at Li Zu's head. Instead, he raised his fist in threat.

If Li Zu failed to give him a satisfactory answer, he would definitely swing it.

That was the message in his eyes. It was unwavering.

"I was only forced into joining them just now, but... Joseph definitely knows. If you can find him, and if he hasn't been dismembered yet."

Li Zu looked as though he were thinking hard.

He only did so to emphasize his willingness to cooperate, lest he invite Batman's heavy fists.

Even if the gun had been replaced by a fist, no one wanted to take a beating for no reason.

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

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

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

Li Zu hugged his arms as he watched Batman chase upstairs through the cold wind, then chose to head back inside.

In weather this cold, rushing straight out was not a good choice.

Blackgate Penitentiary had already been claimed by the riot.

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

They grabbed guns and fired wildly.

Or they fought, trading blows that landed with solid force.

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 wounded some people with the pistol he was least familiar with.

The savagery of this crowd had not faded.

Some even cursed as they lunged at Li Zu.

The out-of-control Blackgate Penitentiary had become the most dangerous place in the city, perhaps even the entire 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 inside the prison.

In the cell diagonally opposite, the muscular bald bastard lay in a pool of blood, lifeless.

Li Zu arrived at the room where the one-eyed man was.

"Get 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. It seemed only a bounty could stir his interest.

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

"Wait!"

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