Uncomfortable

At least, that was how it looked on the surface.

Ordinary people still muddled through as usual, watching street crimes, listening to gunfire, paying protection money, and so on. Nothing was much different from before.

But the underworld was different.

Every active criminal organization knew that a crazed, brutally murderous lunatic had recently appeared in Gotham.

Don't ask how they knew. They knew from firsthand experience.

This guy would suddenly appear somewhere, chattering cheerfully about inexplicable things, and then... things would become a little surreal.

He clearly wore an enormous gas mask and was covered in technological gear like tactical vests and night-vision goggles, yet rumor had it that he was actually a Druid.

If you ran into him, you could basically kiss breathing goodbye. Unlike that bat, he had no interest in respecting the law or leaving survivors to stand trial.

Though he constantly claimed to have trained under Batman, nearly a hundred people from Gotham's major underground organizations had died at his hands so far. Batman could not have accumulated that number in several lifetimes.

Batman had been operating for three years and had not killed a single person!

And this guy had an exceptionally vile personality. He did not seem to care much about human lives. More than once, they had found floors littered with corpses in one of their raided hideouts, along with bloody words left on the walls.

It was not "judgment on behalf of God," nor was it "a life for a life."

"Move, move, move! What are you doing? Hurry up!"

The docks at night were not as busy as they were during the day. Places close to the water always made it easy for unnecessary accidents to happen when people could not see clearly.

Yet this privately constructed little dock was packed with people, all of them carrying and hauling things like frantic ants.

"Hurry the fuck up!"

The bald man in a black overcoat cursed. Everyone knew exactly who he was cursing.

Pulling out his phone, the bald man turned away and dialed a number. "David, do we really have to do this? This is... Yes, I know... I know a lot of people have died, but... all right. I hope you're right."

After hanging up, the bald man rubbed his hands and stamped his feet twice. "This damned weather! That damned Druid!"

Though Gotham's underworld was currently dominated by Falcone, plenty of smaller groups still existed.

Gotham was too big. It was especially difficult for one man to swallow up such a massive business when that business could not be exposed to the light.

The bald man was one of the vultures fighting Falcone over carrion. He had always called himself and Gotham's other underworld bosses that, and he had always insisted that he was the fiercest among them.

Yet now he had no choice but to leave Gotham, even though he was unwilling to do so.

Over the past few years, the once-thriving drug and flesh trades had suddenly become difficult to run. It was not because Gotham's people no longer liked those things, but because a certain big bat had appeared three years ago. 💢♬ 69shuЖ.com 👊🎃

Dealing with that bat had already been difficult enough, but at least they had endured.

Then an even fiercer one came along.

"Fuck!"

The bald man cursed again. "Why can't vultures eat bats?!"

"That makes sense."

"Right? I'm no animal expert, but I think... Huh? Who are you?"

"Me?"

The man scratched his head, but his helmet got in the way.

"I don't know how many nicknames you've given me, but I prefer John Wick. Look, this is a pencil I swiped from a bar. The magic is about to begin..."

"FUCK—!!"

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat...

The battle began in an instant. Explosive sparks and deafening gunfire flashed throughout the smoke, while flames burst from gun barrels and filled every corner of the cluttered dock with a strange smell.

Yet the side with more men was clearly the more frightened of the two. They fought as they retreated, having no idea what they were shooting at. They only knew to empty every round in their magazines, then kept their guns raised and clicked their triggers uselessly afterward.

As they retreated, unlucky men occasionally screamed after being hit by friendly fire. Mixed among those screams was someone shouting, "Fuck! Stop stealing my kills! How the hell can you miss with Q?!"

Then came a burst of completely incomprehensible language, spoken at a breakneck pace with an absurdly high repetition of words.

After that, wild serpents danced across the deck.

Countless vines became long whips and spears, lashing through the air. Sometimes they snagged someone's foot and dragged him into the sea; sometimes they looped around someone's neck and hoisted him high into the air; sometimes they pierced one person sideways before going through another, like fucking candied hawthorns on a stick.

Before long, no other sounds remained on the dock's thick wooden planks.

Only cursing remained.

"Fuck, I should've just brought out the goddamn minigun! Damn it!"

Lynn truly felt sorry for those two unlucky bastards finished off by their teammates. Whoever killed them, they were dead anyway. Couldn't they have just come over and let him finish them off?!

"Lynn."

At the soft sound of someone landing, Lynn did not even need to turn around to know that Batman had come again.

Over this period, the two had become fairly familiar with each other. After all, they both operated at night, and their targets and potential clients were the same, so they inevitably ran into each other often.

Before long, it had become impossible not to know each other.

"Lynn, I knew it was you. The firelight and gunshots over here came from—"

"Yes, yes, yes, I know, I know. I'll be more careful next time."

After they became familiar, they spoke much more casually. Batman rather regretted that.

"Lynn, I know you don't want to hear this. But you can't keep doing this.

"They kill people, and you kill people. When you kill them, you become a new murderer. The number of criminals still hasn't decreased. You—"

"You're talking nonsense!"

Lynn proudly pointed behind him. "I can kill more than a dozen at once! You dare say the number of criminals hasn't decreased?!"

Batman: "..."

Uncomfortable.

Seeing that he had rendered the old bat speechless with a single sentence, Lynn took the initiative to soften his tone and say something polite. "All right, I know your principles, but I have principles too, don't I? Before we carry our principles through to the end, you can't say I'm definitely wrong, can you?

"Hmm... How about this? I'm a mature person. If I really discover that I was wrong, I'll apologize to you."

Batman spoke quietly. "I have never heard you apologize."

"Exactly. That proves I've never been wrong."

Batman: "..."

Uncomfortable. Even more uncomfortable.

Seeing that the conversation had gone cold again after only a few words, Lynn hurriedly changed the subject. "Say, haven't you been busy these past few days? What did you come here to find me for? Don't tell me it was just a coincidence."

Only then did Batman finally emerge from his frustration. He looked at Lynn with great seriousness and said, "Lynn, Falcone has just issued a bounty for your capture. The reward is twenty million."

"So... Damn, I thought you were my friend, but you, with those thick eyebrows and big eyes, actually betrayed our friendship and came to kill me! And after I even introduced you to Old John's family Chinese medicine clinic for that phlegm-stuck-in-your-throat problem last time. Do you even have any humanity? Just tell me, are you—"

Lynn chattered on without stopping, while repeatedly rubbing at his windproof goggles. He clearly had quite the flair for acting.

And Batman?

He felt even more uncomfortable now.