Petty

Batman was observing Miao Mu, and Miao Mu was observing him as well. The two stared at each other for a moment.

Judging by Batman's equipment—his matte-black armored chest piece bearing a black bat emblem, serrated black cape, and special combat boots—this should have been the very first generation of Batsuit.

Since Batman could not turn his head, he could only turn sideways to look around. His cowl seemed severely restrictive.

"Why are you here?"

Batman spoke in a hoarse, indifferent voice, his gaze fixed on Miao Mu's eyes as though he wanted to read his emotional fluctuations.

Miao Mu had no such awareness. He simply smoked to his heart's content, opening his mouth without a shred of decorum and blowing out a smoke ring.

"Of course I'm here to work. Want one?"

"That guy got away..."

Batman turned slightly to look at the damaged warehouse door. A trail of fresh bloodstains lay there, dripped from Dollmaker Barton's shotgun-wounded hands as he fled.

"Don't worry, he can't get away. I just need to find his hideout. The sewers aren't that easy to crawl through."

Miao Mu shook his head. He was here to stop Batman and let Dollmaker Barton escape. If Barton did not run far enough, how could Miao Mu reasonably and legally kill him?

Send him to prison? Better not.

Miao Mu had promised Oswald that he would hand this guy over to him so Oswald could kill him. Besides, prison was not the end.

Police sirens sounded outside, followed by the screech of hard braking as tires scraped against the ground. Car doors opened.

"Mumu! Where are you?!"

Wearing a bulletproof vest, Jerry cautiously approached the warehouse entrance with a revolver held in both hands and shouted inside.

Otis, who had stepped out of the police car, wore a yellow gas mask and waterproof waders, with an iron cage in one hand.

With a clang, the cage was set on the ground and opened. More than a dozen rats swiftly rushed through the broken warehouse entrance.

Inside the warehouse.

"No more chatting. My friends are here."

Miao Mu tossed away his cigarette butt, picked up his shotgun, chambered a round, and fired at the rope binding him to a nearby pillar.

Batman's expression tightened. He did not understand what Miao Mu was doing, but the rats charging in from outside pounced directly onto him, forcing him to raise his arms and kick out as he dodged.

"One more thing—your anesthetic isn't that effective!"

After saying that, Miao Mu ran toward the door.

Batman had just shaken off the two rats clinging to him when the awakened Masterpiece No. 29 sent him flying with a charge.

He slammed heavily into the loading truck beside him, making the entire vehicle shudder. Masterpiece No. 29 opened its metal-wire-stitched mouth, let out a furious roar, and swung three arms forward.

Its other arm had already been torn straight off by Batman's grappling gun. Batman had never gone easy on criminals.

Seeing the arms smashing toward him, Batman quickly rolled aside. This equipment was not agile enough, but Batman's speed and dexterity vastly surpassed Masterpiece No. 29's.

The loading truck boomed under the blow. Its dashboard shattered outright, and even the steering wheel was knocked flying.

Batman turned, drew a Batarang, and flung it backhandedly. However, this Batarang was not aimed at Masterpiece No. 29.

It flew toward Miao Mu, who was running out through the warehouse entrance. Batman was not that broad-minded either—at the very least, he was unwilling to take a loss.

With the Eye of True Sight, Miao Mu's three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vision was fully open. He had spotted the Batarang coming from behind long ago.

Just before it struck, he spun sharply and thrust his shotgun forward. The Batarang hit the shotgun and lost its accuracy, allowing Miao Mu to snatch it from the air.

"I'll take this as a meeting gift. Bye, big bat!"

Holding the Batarang as though showing it off, Miao Mu grinned and waved it at Batman before turning and running out.

Seeing this, Batman's mouth twitched involuntarily. This guy... was really... irritating...

"ROAR!!!"

Masterpiece No. 29 lunged at him with a howl, saliva spraying from its mouth. Batman glared at it darkly and raised his fist, smashing it forward.

Miao Mu ran out of the warehouse. Seeing that he was completely unharmed, Jerry excitedly pounced on him.

Miao Mu kicked him away. "Get lost."

"Where's Oswald?" Miao Mu glanced around. Only Jerry and Otis were here; he did not see that stupid little runt who wanted to be a good man.

"I had Bastian notify him. We were worried, so we came first," Otis said as he removed his gas mask.

Arkham District was in the north, while Triangle Cape District was in the south. Getting here meant crossing the entire city.

They did not have time to stop the car and head to the Lower East Side to get someone, so they had thrown Bastian out along the way to deliver the message.

In the Lower East Side, Oswald had just woken up after finishing his night shift. Staring at the huge rat in front of him that was holding a small loaf of bread and eating it, he felt as though he had not fully awakened yet.

"Alright, the three of us are enough."

Miao Mu turned to Otis. "Can you find someone with injured hands in the sewers?"

Otis the Ratcatcher smiled, put on his gas mask, and said in a muffled voice, "No problem."

As he spoke, Otis took out a small copper whistle, placed it against the gas mask's exhaust valve, and blew.

All the rats inside the warehouse ran out, while rats from the surrounding warehouse district also began scurrying over restlessly.

Within seconds, rats had surrounded the area.

"There's blood here!"

Jerry pointed at the string of tiny blood droplets on the ground and shouted. Following them with his eyes, he saw that they stretched all the way to an open manhole by the street.

"Chase!"

Miao Mu shouted as he pulled shotgun shells from his pocket and loaded them. Otis waved a hand, and all the rats surged into the sewer.

Jerry stood beside the manhole with his pistol, warily watching the warehouse. The sounds of fighting inside were incredibly fierce, as though lions and tigers were battling within.

Miao Mu glanced back into the warehouse, then ran toward the sewer as well. "Come on, come on. No need to worry about that big bat."

"Bat?" Jerry was somewhat surprised by that.

Miao Mu had already jumped into the sewer. Jerry looked around, then hurriedly jumped in after him, gripping the rusty ladder with his hands as he climbed down.

The sewers below were quite spacious. Gotham's sewers had been built even before the city itself, their crisscrossing tunnels spread throughout every corner of the city.

Even Gotham City's current sewers had been constructed through repairs and additions atop that foundation. No one knew where the four-tiered structure led.

Otis took a portable lamp from his belt and slowly turned it on. A beam of light lit up the dark sewers, illuminating the broad path beside the channel ahead.

The rats licked at the trail of blood on the ground as they tracked it onward.

The rolling sewage in the channel beside them carried a faint scent of seawater, far better than the stench near the wastewater plant.

Miao Mu walked in the middle with his shotgun raised, while Jerry gripped his revolver and warily watched behind them. The three of them moved quickly forward.