"This place is spacious, the rent is cheap, the water and electricity work, and it even gets plenty of natural light. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better basement in Gotham.
What do you think? If you're happy with it, you can move in right now, and I can guarantee that absolutely no one will come bother you."
In an excessively spacious basement, the real estate agent stooped carefully, his face plastered with a fawning smile as he showed Jack the place.
He'd been stuck with this property for ages. If he couldn't get it rented out soon, he was finished. Now this big lug from who knew where happened to need a place-he had to seize the opportunity!
As for the minor detail that this basement had once been the battlefield for a shootout between a Gotham Gangsters outfit and the cops, leaving over a dozen dead, he didn't think that needed mentioning.
Looking at the bullet holes everywhere and smelling the faint scent of blood lingering in the basement, Jack could more or less understand why it was so cheap.
But he didn't care. It was spacious, quiet, and cheap. It suited him perfectly. A few dead people were hardly worth mentioning.
After all, the rent was only three hundred dollars a month. What more could he ask for?
"Well, Mr. Hanma..."
"I'll take it."
"Of course, of course. Here's the contract. Please take a look..."
Once the contract was signed, the agent had the good sense to leave with a beaming smile, leaving Jack alone.
"Now that I've got somewhere to live, it's time to make some money."
After arranging the few pieces of furniture he'd swiped from the shop, Jack took out a little notebook with his to-do list written inside.
He was short on money. Very short. His immediate priority was to get his hands on a large sum as quickly as possible.
That wasn't to say Zuo Ci treated him poorly. Quite the opposite-Jack was very satisfied with him. The pay was good, and his food expenses, one of his biggest costs, were covered.
But food and drink weren't all Jack needed. His biggest expense had always been drugs.
Enormous quantities of chemical ingredients and specialized preparation equipment-every single one of those things burned through money. If he relied on his wages alone, a month's pay would last three days at most.
So, to keep himself sufficiently supplied with drugs, he still had to find some money.
At that thought, Jack remembered what Zuo Ci had told him earlier. Gotham apparently had Gangsters and lawless districts everywhere.
Well, that made things simple.
After tidying up a little, Jack headed straight out. His first thought was to see whether he could find an underground fighting ring. Those places usually paid well.
If not, he'd just find some small Gangsters outfit to rob.
Jack walked outside as he considered his options, but before he'd gone far, someone gently tugged at the hem of his clothes.
Looking back, Jack discovered that the person holding him was a woman.
To save as much money as possible, Jack had rented a place in the East End, Gotham's most chaotic district. Every kind of freak prowled its streets, and naturally, there was no shortage of people selling their bodies.
The woman holding him now seemed to be one of them.
"Hey, big, strong sir. Interested in having some fun? We've still got plenty of time~"
Jack was completely unmoved by her words. He merely looked her up and down coldly.
Her skin was unusually pale all over, with even a faint greenish tinge. As for her clothing, almost everything was exposed except the essentials, and even those were barely concealed beneath what looked like leaves.
Jack Hanma had never had much interest in women. Normally, he would probably have turned and walked away in a situation like this, but this time, he actually stopped.
Of course, it wasn't because he'd suddenly developed an urge to spread his seed. He'd simply remembered something Zuo Ci had told him.
No matter how he looked at her, this woman looked like Poison Ivy.
"Sir, you... you're embarrassing me, staring at me like that..."
Under Jack's intense gaze, Poison Ivy deliberately put on a shy expression.
But how should he put it? Jack really couldn't think much of that performance.
I don't know why you've targeted me, but isn't this disguise and act a little too halfhearted? Do you really think I'm an idiot?
"You're Poison Ivy, right? Cut out the boring tricks. What exactly do you want with me?"
Bending down, Jack was curious about what this so-called Poison Ivy wanted. According to Zuo Ci, she could apparently control plants?
"P-Poison Ivy? Sir, what are you talking about?"
Even though her identity had been exposed, Poison Ivy continued her performance with that clumsy disguise.
Bang!
Not interested in playing along any longer, Jack sent his fist-almost half as big as she was-whistling straight at her.
People who dragged things out like this were the most annoying. The martial artists he knew were much better. When it was time to fight, they fought, without wasting a second.
In fact, if not for the fact that Poison Ivy wasn't a martial artist, Jack wouldn't have bothered saying anything at all.
With a thunderous crash, the utterly unprepared Poison Ivy took the punch head-on and hurtled toward the wall.
But just before she hit it, countless thick vines surged in from every direction, weaving a great net that caught her.
"Cough, cough... Why does this lunatic start throwing punches at the slightest disagreement...?"
After spitting out a couple of mouthfuls of something that might or might not have been blood, Poison Ivy leaned against the vines, breathing heavily.
Although she was now far removed from human and had a much stronger constitution than an ordinary person, that blow had still injured her badly.
"Interesting."
Although she had clearly struggled to take even his probing punch, those vines that had appeared out of nowhere were a real eye-opener.
He'd never seen an ability like this in all his years. It was fascinating. He hoped she wouldn't disappoint him.
Crack, crack...
Jack loosened his joints as he walked toward Poison Ivy. Faced with his overwhelmingly imposing physique, she didn't dare take any chances and immediately commanded a mass of vines to coil around him.
Throughout the process, Jack offered no resistance. He even deliberately let them wrap around him.
Soon, every part of Jack except his head was tightly bound, making him look exactly like an enormous rice dumpling.
"Stop wasting your strength. Once you're caught, there's no way you can... FUCK!"
Looking at the gigantic rice dumpling, Poison Ivy had been about to declare victory. Then Jack exerted a little strength, and the vines immediately groaned in agony before snapping apart with ease.
"What a disappointment..."
Looking at the strange plants scattered across the ground, Jack's eyes filled with disappointment. He'd thought they might be strong, but after trying them himself, they were only slightly tougher than ordinary iron chains. How boring.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is this guy?"
Poison Ivy was starting to regret accepting the Maroni Family's commission.
Not long ago, the Maroni Family, Gotham's second-largest Gangsters outfit, had approached her. They'd hired her to deal with Zuo Ci, offering generous payment and Gotham Greening as incentives.
While the shop was empty, she'd slipped inside and chatted with the potted plants, learning that Jack was his newly hired employee. She'd decided to go after the easy target first, taking control of Jack and getting some information out of him.
Who would have thought he wasn't an easy target at all, but a monster even more outrageous than she was?
Before you continue