Chapter 19: Shadow of the Bat

In the quiet streets of the Old District at night, a heavy truck was hauling cargo through the city.

Carl held the steering wheel with one hand and a hamburger with the other, glancing absent-mindedly out the window. This was Gotham at night. The time was 10:05 PM, and there were hardly any pedestrians or vehicles on the street. The empty road undoubtedly sparked his excitement, and he pushed the speed up to eighty.

He was an old freight driver in Gotham; he had been running this cargo route for several years, so this speed was nothing to him.

Drivers in Metropolis might try to balance their speed with pedestrian safety, but in Gotham, Joel had long grasped a truth: only by smashing conventional thinking could one earn money, and of course, when necessary, smashing a few pedestrians was acceptable too.

After all, the reason he had managed to survive until now without ending up in the Gotham Police Department lay not only in his driving skills, but also in his speed, and a few good brothers who specialized in cleaning up traces.

And to be fair, his driving skills were indeed quite good; over the years, he hadn't actually run over many people. Although significantly fewer people passed through this route at this time of night, he didn't think it was his fault.

"Life will find a way~"

While munching on his hamburger, he mumbled incoherently, calculating in his mind that he hadn't run over a single person this year, so he could consider himself to be living a life of doing good and accumulating virtue.

"Woo-hoo—!"

Just as he was silently proud in his heart, a shrill cheer accompanied by a dazzling stream of seven-colored light flew past the car window.

That cheer seemed to carry four parts excitement, three parts joy, two parts terror, and one part relaxation.

Damn relaxation.

What the hell was that thing?

His eyes bulged like copper bells; he casually tossed the hamburger aside, leaned forward, and stretched his neck as hard as he could, trying to get a clear look at the true form of that seven-colored light. In that instant, many things flashed through his mind.

A rock-and-roll ice cream truck with rockets attached to its rear, a terrorist's colorful motorcycle bomb, the midnight legend of the highway ghost racer, a ghost-fire teenager riding a ghost-fire motorcycle, a mentally unstable person in a tight suit driving a homemade super-war vehicle...

"No, that's not right..." He looked at the stream of light speeding away into the distance, his eyes revealing a confused expression that questioned his very existence.

"What the hell is that? A glowing wheelchair?"

"Woo-hoo—!"

At the same time, Ma Ma Zhaodi on the heavily modified electric wheelchair was experiencing the ultimate sensation of flight.

One heavy modification, full horsepower! Full speed straight to 120! Paired with the Intermediate Wheelchair Driving Mastery skill purchased with 300 Asset Points, right now you are the wheelchair version of Takumi Fujiwara on Mount Akina! Eighty miles per hour is the limit of this electric wheelchair, but it is far from your limit!

Flowing with light and color, the LED light strips built into the entire wheelchair instantly transform you into the brightest kid on the street! From now on, you never have to worry about the awkward situation of no one noticing you when overtaking on the highway; even if you share a frame with the Ghost Rider, you won't lose out on the special effects!

Thoughtful design, shielding you from wind and rain! Streamlined body structure, comfortable shock-absorbing seat, seatbelt and airbags all included, providing excellent protection for your body!

In just seven minutes, Ma Ma Zhaodi had already driven this wheelchair out of the Old District and was about to enter the East District. Seeing the dazzling wheelchair speeding across the road, the few greenwood heroes on the street basically lost all desire to rob or steal.

Damn it, who can hit something drifting at such high speeds with a gun?

Of course, Gotham City never lacked crazy people; there were still a very few individuals confident in their marksmanship who aimed at this ghost-fire wheelchair and fired.

However, those bullets naturally missed. The stream of light just swerved a few times, shaking their aim all over the place; the few shots they managed to fire had no accuracy whatsoever.

Only a few people seized the fleeting opportunity, capturing this ghost-fire wheelchair in their phone cameras and uploading it to blogs and forums.

It was comforting that, before it ran faster than light, at least this method could confirm it wasn't just an urban legend.

Ma Ma Zhaodi, speeding at maximum velocity, ran from the main road into the narrow building clusters of the East District, yet his speed did not decrease even slightly.

Any alleyway wide enough for the wheelchair to pass through was a road he could take; thus, this seven-colored ghost-fire drilled through the alleys of the dilapidated housing complex with extreme agility, like some elusive ghost.

However, the route was based on the Gotham map navigation provided by the system Q&A; to be honest, its reliability was far superior to that of the "Depraved Navigation."

Finally arriving in front of a narrow alley, the map indicated he needed to get off. Ma Ma Zhaodi braked quickly; after a drift, the wheelchair stopped precisely at the alley entrance. He stood up and gave a light lift; the two sides of the wheelchair immediately contracted and folded inward, transforming into a unicycle.

After pushing the unicycle through the narrow alley, Drake's house lay right before his eyes.

"Let me see—10:12 PM. Not bad. If I modify it again tomorrow, I can still improve this time."

It was hard to say whether an urban legend about a ghost wheelchair race would emerge in Gotham a few days from now, but anyway, since this city had already gone this crazy, what did a wheelchair traveling at 120 miles per hour amount to?

So he casually picked up the "Old Man's Happy Chair" and carried it into the stairwell.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of a certain building in the East District, Catwoman watched the young man she had previously saved disappear from view carrying that ghost-fire wheelchair. She silently digested everything she had just seen; at this moment, she felt somewhat regretful about what she had done.

"I originally thought Gotham couldn't get any crazier..."

Ma Ma Zhaodi: Nonsense!

At this moment, Carl was still driving with one hand, cursing on the road.

"This is damn ridiculous... I've never seen anything like this in my life—Gotham is getting more and more sinister."

At this moment, a black bat shadow flew across the sky; the huge shadow it cast quickly enveloped Carl's truck, then slid down toward the roof.

"What the hell with Scarecrow, Penguin, and that Freeze Guy who popped up recently... Screw it, there are more and more freaks in Gotham. Oh right, there's also that urban legend about a bat monster."

He spat fiercely out the window: "All of them deserve to die."

"Crash!"

The front windshield was shattered directly, and a pitch-black figure instantly appeared inside the narrow cockpit.

It was like a ghost, like a nightmare, like fear itself.

Like some unstoppable, calm madness.

Looking at its pupil-less eyes, its wide black wings, and its sharp ears, Carl couldn't help but recall the urban legend he had heard countless times.

Whenever night fell, a terrifying black bat would circle above Gotham City; it would fixate on every person daring to commit a crime, or who had already committed a crime, bringing them bone-chilling fear and a ruthless, decisive execution.

Thus, trembling with fear and despair, he stammered out its name.

"Bat-Batman!"

(End of Chapter)