Oswald

That night, Qin Wei tossed and turned in the police station's holding cell, unable to sleep.

The crazy woman in the next cage wouldn't stop babbling, and the burly man across from him snored like a saw cutting through wood. Only his cellmate seemed normal.

Well... normal wasn't quite the word for him, either.

His gaze kept roaming over Qin Wei's body like a slick, greasy hand.

He was a handsome young man with slicked-back hair and a striking hooked nose beneath his blue eyes.

He wore a slightly oversized suit and sat upright on the bunk with his legs crossed.

Their eyes met, and the young man spoke first.

"My name's Oswald. I work for Mr. Maroni. What's your name?"

"I don't know." The thought of being sent to Arkham the next morning had left Qin Wei in a foul mood. But if he had talked to Gordon a little longer, he would have learned that he wasn't going to be locked up in Arkham outright. He would only be undergoing a simple psychiatric evaluation.

Still in the dark, he rolled over sulkily, pointing his round backside at Oswald.

But the other man apparently had no intention of ending the conversation.

"You've got a great body!"

"What are you trying to do?!"

Qin Wei shuddered at those words, covered his backside, and rolled back over.

"Just a little joke. Don't take it seriously!"

Oswald grinned, revealing a mouthful of pearly white teeth.

"But you really do have a great build. You're practically born to be an enforcer. I happen to be recruiting lately. Interested in joining the Roman, moving into the Senate, and embracing a bright future?"

"The Roman?"

Qin Wei felt that the name sounded familiar.

"Wow! Someone from Gotham who doesn't know the Roman? Don't tell me you've never heard the great name of Mr. Carmine Falcone, either!"

That name Qin Wei knew: Gotham's biggest Mafia boss. He seemed to remember that his gang was called "the Roman."

So Oswald was actually inviting Qin Wei to join the Mafia.

He hadn't found Batman, yet somehow he had been invited to join a gang. Reality and his dreams always seemed to head in opposite directions. But the question now wasn't whether he wanted to join. It was that he would be sent to Arkham if he didn't.

"If I agree, can you get me out of here?"

"Of course, my friend. We run errands for Mr. Maroni. You think we can't even get out of some lousy police station?"

No sooner had Oswald finished speaking than footsteps sounded in the corridor, followed by the jingle of keys. A potbellied guard came over and opened the door.

"I want to take him with me." Oswald straightened his collar and pointed at Qin Wei.

"He costs extra."

The corridor was full of surveillance cameras, but the guard held out his hand for money without a shred of hesitation.

"We in the Roman pay on time every month. You should ask your goddamn commissioner for that money, not me!"

"But he isn't in your gang. Besides, Gordon interrogated him personally."

"Is that so? All right..."

At that point, Oswald knew there was no room left to negotiate. He shook his head in disappointment.

He took off his watch.

The watch gleamed gold and felt quite heavy in his hand.

Qin Wei was puzzled. He and Oswald had only just met, so why would the man be willing to ransom him with something so valuable?

Only when he saw Oswald slip the watch over his right fist and punch the guard hard enough to make him spit bile did Qin Wei realize he had been flattering himself.

As the prisoners jeered and cheered, Oswald gave the fallen guard another kick, then turned and beckoned to Qin Wei.

"Now you're free of charge."

After that day, Qin Wei joined the Roman and became the underling of an underling of Maroni, the gang's second-in-command.

An under-underling, for short.

Having moved into the Senate, he had a "bright future" ahead of him.

Incidentally, Oswald had come up with the name "Senate," taking it from ancient Rome's legislative assembly. He had also solemnly assured Qin Wei that the gang would unite Gotham, and everyone living in this building would one day become a true Roman senator.

In reality, however, the Senate was just a run-of-the-mill slum apartment building in the Lower East Side: a damp, two-story wooden structure with cockroaches and woodlice hiding beneath every floorboard. Step on one, and you could hear the crisp crack of insect shells-crunch!

Their miserable circumstances made it hard for Qin Wei to believe in Oswald's grand promises.

Three months passed in a flash, and Qin Wei gradually grew accustomed to life in the Senate.

Collecting rent, guarding establishments, getting into all-out armed brawls with rival gangs that came looking for trouble-he gradually realized that being a gang underling wasn't nearly as glamorous as the movies made it seem. Most of the time, the glamour was only skin-deep. Patrolling the streets with a crowd surrounding him looked impressive, but sitting on a concrete block gnawing on black bread was the reality of his life.

Fortunately, he had Oswald.

He was a minor boss who took good care of his men. Without his patient guidance, Qin Wei might not have made it through the adjustment period.

Back in the present, Qin Wei felt much more awake after washing his face. He ran into Oswald on his way back to his room.

"Hey, brother, we've got another job! Mr. Maroni's casino this time. All we have to do is handle security until three in the morning, and we each get two hundred dollars."

Qin Wei nodded mechanically.

"What's wrong? Cheer up! This should be your first job outside the Lower East Side. You might even get a chance to see Mr. Maroni in all his glory!"

"Oh... right!"

Not wanting to make things awkward for Oswald, he forced a smile. Honestly, though, it looked so awful that he would have been better off not trying.

How could Qin Wei possibly smile? Ever since he had crossed into this world, no system had appeared. There was no shop he could unlock by completing quests, no superpowers of any kind, and he didn't even know how to get home.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, once people satisfied their two basic needs-physiological needs and safety-they naturally began looking for something to do.

But what was he supposed to do?

Qin Wei loved open-world games. He had spent countless nights playing Skyrim, but now all he wanted was to switch off his brain and pray for an automatic navigation system.

Fine, I can put up with you dumping me in this godforsaken place. But why? You've got to at least tell me what I'm supposed to do!

Back in his room, he opened the wardrobe, which reeked of mothballs. An all-black suit hung inside.

A crisp suit was a prerequisite for joining the Roman. Slicking your hair straight back with gel was even better.

They lived in a bottom-tier apartment building but still had to dress like somebody.

Just as Qin Wei took down the suit, a superhero comic fell out of its inside pocket.

He didn't remember reading any comics. In fact, he wasn't even sure superhero comics existed in this world. He picked it up and flipped through it, quickly realizing there was more to this than met the eye.

It was actually a Batman comic.

After three whole months, Qin Wei had finally seen that name in Gotham.

Even if it only appeared in a comic, that was enough to excite him.

The comic's villain was a biologist named Dr. Hugo Strange.

Needing money for his experiments, Dr. Strange had borrowed from Maroni at exorbitant interest. Unable to repay the loan, he was humiliated by his creditor. Nursing a grudge, the doctor attacked Maroni's casino with the fruits of his research-three Biomans-killed everyone inside, and swept up all the money on the gambling tables.

The story stopped abruptly there. Plenty of pages remained, but they were all blank.

"So this is the system's hint? It really is a fucking open-world game!"

Qin Wei raked his hands through his long, messy hair and swore.

He wasn't an idiot. Once he picked out the keyword "casino," it only took a little thought to figure it out.

There was no further story because he and Oswald would go to the casino as bodyguards, then get torn into strips of flesh by the Biomans, just like those cannon-fodder characters whose faces the artist hadn't even bothered to draw.

Looks like that two hundred dollars is the price of our lives!

Without the warning, Qin Wei would certainly die tonight. But with this prophetic comic, he felt he might still have a shot at saving himself.

His most pressing concern was finding a way to survive.

Tell Oswald the truth outright?

"Hey, brother, I've got a comic here that says we're both going to drop dead tonight!"

There was no way Oswald would believe him!

Besides, two hundred dollars was no small sum, and Oswald was the sort of man who would take desperate risks for money.

And he did have the ability to back that up.

Last week, the two of them had run into a gang of lunatics wearing red hoods outside the apartment building. Oswald had single-handedly beaten more than a dozen of them until they couldn't get up. The only price he had paid was a torn seam in the seat of his suit trousers.

Or should he just pretend to be sick and stay home?

That was a good solution, but he didn't want to let Oswald face the danger alone.

Oswald had gotten him out of jail, found him a job, and even lent him money to buy a suit. In this hellhole called Gotham, Oswald was a breath of fresh air, and the only person Qin Wei could call a friend.

"Forget it! Why overthink this? I'll just deal with whatever comes!"

Qin Wei put on his suit and tucked the comic into the back of his waistband.