Chapter 1: Who on Earth Would Want to Find a Legal Job in Gotham

Cold, trembling.

A clanging sound rang in his ears; groggy, Ma Ma Zhaodi was jolted by the ground's vibration until the back of his head throbbed with pain.

"Sir."

Between dream and wakefulness, a voice seemed to echo beside him again and again.

Who is this?

"Sir!"

Who is this voice calling?

Me?

"Wake up! Sir!"

Cold, damp air rushed in, filling Ma Ma Zhaodi's nostrils; this air seemed to carry a hint of blood scent and a strange sense of danger.

This atmosphere seemed to pierce straight from the nose to the soul; Ma Ma Zhaodi's mind, as if dragged from the deep sea to the surface, became instantly clear.

He suddenly opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling.

No, not a ceiling.

The floor swayed rhythmically with clanging sounds; thick, gloomy clouds outside the window beside him were moving at high speed, rows of seats lined both sides, and he was lying in the aisle between them.

He was on a train.

But why am I in such a place?

Just regaining consciousness, Ma Ma Zhaodi pushed himself up from the floor; around him were rows of empty train seats, and a conductor standing beside him.

"Sir, are you all right?"

Why is a foreign conductor asking me questions in English?

When the hell did I board a foreign train?

No, no, I wasn't on a train before.

Ma Ma Zhaodi shook his head hard, trying to confirm that everything before his eyes was not an illusion.

Regrettably, everything before him appeared utterly real; the slightly cold air, the icy train metal, the scratches and damaged details on the carriage, and the roaring sound of the moving train all proved to him the reality of this world.

"But wasn't I staying up late writing code?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi struggled to recall his last memory; it seemed he had been too tired while coding and had collapsed onto the keyboard.

I probably fell asleep from staying up too late and am now dreaming, or perhaps some boring variety show team is pranking me?

He thought so.

While thinking, Ma Ma Zhaodi stood up and sat in a nearby seat; meanwhile, the conductor continued asking about his condition, and seeing this Asian passenger still remain silent, he felt a slight fear rise in his heart.

Ordinary passengers were of course nothing to fear, but the train had only one stop left—the final destination.

That final destination was called Gotham.

It was possible for normal people to go to Gotham City, but it was unlikely for normal people to go to Gotham City.

Steeling himself, he asked once more, but that passenger still gave no response, only staring at him eerily with a strange look.

That gaze was terrifying; merely being glanced at, the conductor could no longer bear the psychological pressure, muttered an apology, and fled in panic.

Seeing the conductor leave, Ma Ma Zhaodi turned his head to look out the train window; on the slightly misted glass, he could see the gray sky outside, and beneath the rain clouds, the city in darkness—towering clock towers, densely packed skyscrapers, bizarre Gothic architecture, and faintly visible in the distance, dirty, low-rise building clusters, along with various English slogans and signs.

Clock towers? Slums? English signs?

Given the architectural style of these buildings, this city was clearly not in Dongda.

"Where the hell has this taken me? Is this still domestic?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi murmured unconsciously.

"Woo—"

Just as he was still pondering why he would dream of being in a foreign country he had never visited, the train's whistle sounded, then it began to slow down, and immediately pulled into the station.

Looking at the station platform style he had never seen before, and the golden-haired, blue-eyed Western faces standing nearby, Ma Ma Zhaodi froze beside the window.

"Clang."

The train doors opened; passengers carrying luggage and bundles of various sizes streamed out of the carriage, walking onto the platform outside.

Swept along by the crowd toward the exit, Ma Ma Zhaodi felt at this moment like a rootless duckweed, drifting unsteadily toward an unknown distance.

"Why won't I wake up? Why won't this dream end..."

He walked off the train in a daze, but after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped, staring blankly at the English text on the station sign above his head.

Gotham City

"?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi, who had originally wanted to deceive himself a little longer, instantly broke down; although he did not know much English, he had watched quite a few superhero movies and naturally understood the weight of this English word.

"Damn it, which vicious bastard made me transmigrate to such a hellish place!"

Nearly despairing, Ma Ma Zhaodi raised both hands to cover his face; he greatly doubted whether he would be skinned, dismembered, and completely devoured by criminals in a dark alley on his very first night in this city. As one of the cities with the highest crime rate in all of America, normal people here could be described as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, while innocent and upright people could be described as nonexistent.

If an ordinary thief were placed in any other city, he would undoubtedly be a common criminal; but if someone in Gotham City only stole without robbing, killed no one, and set no fires, then he would fully qualify to run for the title of Good Citizen of Gotham City.

Seventy percent of the people in this city were gang members; beyond that, there were some world-class terrorist organizations, world-class assassin groups, followed by some children, the wealthy, capitalists, and a few lone-wolf super-villains, plus the single greatest psychopath in all of Gotham.

And then there were world-class unlucky bastards—those pure passersby who knew nothing about this city and accidentally wandered into it.

As for the police? There was not a single officer in the precinct who had never collaborated with gangs or psychopaths. This was a city soaked in darkness; if there was any place in this city that was not black, it might only be Ma Ma Zhaodi, who had just arrived here.

"Ding."

"The Start-from-Nothing System has finished loading; please work hard to earn money and achieve prosperity through diligence. As the saying goes, money can move gods; before you are penniless, you always have a chance to continue."

"Current assets: seven dollars."

"Current mission: Rely on your own hands to find a job in Gotham City and earn your first pot of gold since transmigrating."

"Newbie bonus options are as follows:

Available for purchase:

Basic Proficiency in English

Price: $1

Note: How do you spell "abandon"?

Local Identity

Price: $1 per copy

Note: In Gotham, a boss is a boss — every single day it's nothing but gunfights and slashing people, nothing else!

Rapid Life Recovery

Price: $1

Note: If it works well, come back next time — next purchase gets a 99.999% discount

Save Point

Price: $1

Note: Acting fee is one hundred million, can't afford it next time"

"Please note, you can only earn assets through legitimate work — down-to-earth, prosper through diligence"

Seeing the system, and the contents within the system, Ma Ma Zhaodi's mood rose and fell like a roller coaster, a thousand thoughts swirling, until at last it all became a single sigh.

"What kind of lunatic would think of finding legitimate work in Gotham"

(End of this chapter)