Chapter 16: Morning Sucks, Stupid Gotham

Today is the second day in Gotham, and nothing happened.

This is Ma Ma Zhaodi's summary of his second day in Gotham; it is already ten o'clock at night, and he lies on the living room sofa, closing his eyes in peace.

Drake and he bought quite a few ingredients on the way home; Lady Camilla was pleasantly surprised, happily prepared a fairly abundant dinner, and everyone ate very happily. Drake also talked quite a bit at the dinner table about plans for the future made with Lady Camilla.

Their room is not very noisy tonight; Ma Ma Zhaodi's ears are very quiet. He supposes that last night was just because the couple had not had a normal life for too long, and a short separation makes the heart grow fonder, while perhaps today they are just embracing silently in bed to cherish each other.

In any case, Ma Ma Zhaodi spent tonight very quietly. Except for the occasional sporadic gunshots and the sound of fine rain coming from outside the window, he could hardly hear any other sounds of Gotham. Looking at the pitch-black night sky, apart from the colorful bright lights in the misty rain curtain, there were no other messy lights; perhaps he could have a good sleep tonight.

"I have mostly been tamed by Gotham," he thought. Just being able to have a good sleep actually made him feel a hint of happiness.

But looking at it from another angle, perhaps this city is just not as crazy as imagined, and Gotham does not have major incidents every day.

He originally thought this, so he opened his eyes and instinctively glanced out the window. A blurry black shadow flashed across the tallest clock tower in Gotham, and a human figure was hanging on the gargoyle sculpture beside the tower, swaying back and forth, seemingly struggling desperately and begging for mercy.

He silently withdrew his thoughts, lay back on the sofa, and went to sleep.

Bullshit, nothing happened. Today another unlucky guy was hooked by the Bat and hung on a gargoyle. Hopefully, he won't be left with psychological trauma after being taken down.

The next day, Ma Ma Zhaodi got up and washed normally at seven. It wasn't that he liked getting up so early, but the rainy night yesterday was truly hypnotic. He slept very comfortably, so much so that when he woke up at seven, he couldn't fall back asleep.

It's quite good.

He ran into the kitchen and started making breakfast. Yesterday he bought eggs, milk, cheap ham, and some bread. It was nothing more than frying them directly and eating them sandwiched together; he still had this culinary skill.

The sizzling sound of frying arose, quickly waking Drake and Lady Camilla in the room. The two also seemed to have slept quite well last night; Ma Ma Zhaodi's slight movement woke them up.

"Good morning."

"Good morning."

Lady Camilla's mood seemed even better than yesterday. For a long time, she had suffered from the dual torment of mental stress and sleep deprivation caused by illness. Last night was almost the night with the highest sleep quality she had had in a year.

After breakfast, Ma Ma Zhaodi said goodbye to them and went out. Today he should go to work; going to the shop a bit early might not be a bad thing, and it would be just right to get slightly familiar with the surrounding environment.

As for the Old Jack bus, that is definitely not something to take.

He won't ride a bicycle today either. He clipped the Beretta pistol to his waist and walked out the door. At this time, there were already quite a few people on the street. Some with gloomy expressions and hurried steps were rushing along. Seeing people with tattoos or staggering steps and pale faces, they would move aside to avoid trouble.

These people are the true color of Gotham, Ma Ma Zhaodi thought silently. Not black, not white, but a gray like struggling desperately, like walking corpses.

Even someone like Drake could rely on his own courage and a little savings to gain a bit of breathing space in Gotham, while these bottom-level commoners who have nothing and have almost no margin for error in their lives are the foundation for the growth of Gotham's black network.

To buy a birthday cake for a daughter, someone would agree to transport drugs for a gang once; to earn some milk powder money for a child, perhaps a single mother would become a street prostitute.

What a bullshit world, Ma Ma Zhaodi thought. Gotham City's developed criminal industry is built on their suffering.

But if all the criminals were wiped out, could they change their way of life?

The sense of security from living a routine life disappeared completely at this moment, and Ma Ma Zhaodi's day started with a bad mood.

Morning sucks, stupid Gotham.

Ma Ma Zhaodi called a taxi. When he went out, he only carried less than two hundred dollars in cash on him, just in preparation for being robbed. Anyway, he could bring the tip home at night. He had already calculated that if his luck was good enough, today's tip would be sufficient, and he might as well use it directly to buy a wheelchair.

At that time, find a place with no people and directly modify it. The price of a Junior Wheelchair Driver skill is only one hundred dollar asset points, plus the modification service, totaling two hundred dollar asset points.

This move, this move is extreme cost-performance ratio.

Getting into the car, Ma Ma Zhaodi roughly adjusted the position of the pistol to let the driver see it through the rearview mirror, and then started flipping through the System Shangcheng.

There was no choice; taxis daring to start from the East District were all battle-hardened. Without showing the gun a little, he would be more worried about attracting trouble.

Of course, this also has something to do with him not having a gang. Otherwise, having gang tattoos and symbols on his body could also serve a self-defense effect. As for the level of safety, that would depend on the size of the gang's power.

Junior Car Driving Proficiency, five hundred dollars. Hmm, very affordable; Intermediate is two thousand dollars, you are a bit too ruthless. Advanced is ten thousand?! Holy crap, is this skill meant for driving rally equations?

There is also Bicycle Driving Proficiency, but this skill is useless. Emm, what is this thing? System Record Board, System Custom Q&A? One dollar per time? I said AI application prospects are broad; look, even this kind of Golden Finger comes with an AI Q&A function.

"Feels inferior to Mobius."

"Mr., we have arrived."

The taxi driver's voice interrupted Ma Ma Zhaodi's muttering to himself. He glanced over, and it was barely seven forty.

Sigh, Old Jack really isn't good, is he?

"That will be fifty-seven dollars."

Sigh, the gold content of Old Jack needs no further explanation.

This ghost place of Gotham, even taking a taxi is so expensive.

Ma Ma Zhaodi, secretly complaining, paid and got off the car. If he hadn't taken the gun, the driver's quote would probably have been heading towards one hundred dollars.

He walked along the street, strolled around the blocks and streets surrounding the Red Dragon to get familiar with the terrain, and then entered the restaurant through the back door.

At eight o'clock in the morning, there were almost no people in the restaurant, only the black-clad men responsible for restaurant security, and the waiters about to get off work and the shift-receptionist. Ma Ma Zhaodi greeted his colleagues all around, then immediately found the supervisor and returned a book to him.

This was the training guide of the shop. Generally speaking, new employees should undergo training for a period of time, but Ma Ma Zhaodi's situation of being penniless and urgently needing a job was quite special, so Donnat made an exception to allow him to learn while working. The supervisor had given him this book yesterday, and unexpectedly, he returned it today.

"Did you memorize the book?"

"One day is enough; I often did this before exams."

(End of Chapter)