Chapter 37: The Third Job

When Sheriff Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent arrived near the warehouse, most of its contents had already burned away.

The reason was quite simple: no one called the fire department because calling the fire department costs money.

Whose house catches fire, naturally that household calls the fire station; if a house in the community catches fire, perhaps a friendly neighbor might help call the fire truck, but no one knew what was inside this warehouse, no one could find the person in charge at the first moment, so the fire truck arrived late.

Picking up several hundred-dollar bills drifting out of the roaring blaze, both men's expressions grew solemn; judging by the intensity of the fire, this warehouse likely held even more paper currency, and hiding such a massive quantity of bills in this kind of warehouse was itself a very suspicious matter.

"Who on earth could it be?"

—

"Tsk, who on earth could it be?"

"So... it wasn't you?"

A low voice sounded from behind; Catwoman startled, turned her head to look behind her, where a tall, pitch-black figure stood, beneath two pointed bat ears lay a pair of indifferent blue eyes.

"You're more like a cat than I am," she said displeased: "Always appearing or disappearing without a sound."

"You haven't shown up for a while—where did you go?"

"In case you haven't heard the news, Falcone has put a million-dollar bounty on my head."

"Same here, but I'm still investigating this case tonight."

"Yeah, yeah—but I'm not a bat, I'm a cat."

"When did you get here? What did you see?"

"Not much earlier than you—and I saw the same thing you did."

"Just happened to bump into it?"

"Want to know?" she giggled: "Catch me, and I'll tell you."

The cat and the bat leaped and darted between the high-rises, chasing each other as if playing an amusing game—of course, perhaps only the cat was enjoying it.

"Someone! Open the warehouse door!"

On the other side, Sheriff Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent quickly used brute force to break open the warehouse door, only to find before them nothing but a mountain of ash from the paper currency, plus a few bills that escaped the flames.

"Well, this is great; now we have to investigate another massive counterfeit bill case—and one with practically no leads."

"They aren't counterfeit."

"Hm?"

Harvey Dent turned his head toward the warehouse corner; Batman's figure had appeared in the innermost area at some point.

"When did you get in... never mind, what did you just say?"

He didn't answer, simply walked over and handed a notebook to Harvey.

"What is this?"

Harvey flipped open the notebook and asked casually.

When he saw the densely packed numbers on its pages, his heart immediately skipped a beat.

"Falcone's home was broken into a few days ago, and his safe was opened," Batman said: "Inside was a ledger—a very important ledger; at the time, both Catwoman and I were at the scene—that's also why he put a million-dollar bounty on Catwoman and me."

"Catwoman stole it? But how did you get it back?"

"I'm not sure why she wanted me to know this, but according to her, if you follow the money, the end result leads here, to this warehouse."

"You mean..."

—

Meanwhile, Ma Ma Zhaodi had arrived at the center of Gotham City; this was the hint location for his third job tonight.

"Although the hint told me to bring a gas mask, I really didn't expect this..."

Ma Ma Zhaodi held a Whopper from Burger King in his hand, looking at the sewer manhole cover before him, his mouth twitching slightly.

"Who on earth orders takeout from a sewer? Killer Croc? Is he really that desperate for this one burger?"

"Holy crap, wait, the burger is the appetizer; I'm the main course!"

Thinking this, Ma Ma Zhaodi broke out in a cold sweat; he just wanted to deliver takeout, not die!

But then again, he had a necklace and a save point, so maybe he wasn't actually that afraid of dying?

To be safe, Ma Ma Zhaodi immediately spent 100 USD Asset Points to place a save point right then and there; this way, if Killer Croc really intended to make him the main course, he could reload the save when he was at his wit's end.

"Or..." Ma Ma Zhaodi looked at the System Shangcheng; his first and second jobs had already been settled, and at this moment his Asset Points had reached an all-time high, a full twenty-plus thousand USD.

Although these Asset Points couldn't give him the power to fight a man-eating mutant crocodile-man over two meters tall, weighing three hundred kilograms, possessing super strength, speed, endurance, and super regeneration, they could allow him to heal the creature back to normal, and then use a Colt to teach him how to be a good person.

"Put your opponent on the same level as yourself, then defeat him with superior experience; rather than improving yourself, lower the other person." Ma Ma Zhaodi understood this principle clearly, immediately feeling confident; he opened the sewer manhole cover and climbed down the ladder.

"Ugh, stench!"

Less than three seconds after Ma Ma Zhaodi climbed down, a foul odor immediately drilled into his nose, nearly making him vomit.

He immediately held his breath, suppressing the urge to vomit, and bought a gas mask from the System—the gas masks in the gun shop were way too expensive; the ten-dollar domestic product in the System was much more practical, right?

Anyway, as long as it blocked this smell, it was a good mask.

"Is anyone there? Hello? Who ordered the takeout?"

In the pitch-black sewer where one couldn't see a hand in front of one's face, Ma Ma Zhaodi put on his gas mask, then took out the newly acquired small pumpkin lantern from the System.

"This really is small..."

A tiny pumpkin lantern, only slightly larger than a quail egg, appeared in Ma Ma Zhaodi's hand; this size could even be worn as a keychain, but strangely, the pale yellow light it emitted was very bright, with a range large enough to illuminate a ten-plus-meter field of view around Ma Ma Zhaodi, and it even carried a hint of warmth.

It even came with a cute miniature lamp post.

Carrying the small pumpkin lantern, Ma Ma Zhaodi advanced deeper into the sewer; in the empty, unoccupied circular pipes and spaces, only his footsteps echoed, and even with the pumpkin lantern illuminating this space, a certain amount of fear inevitably arose in his heart.

"Is anyone there? Burger King takeout!"

Except for a few squeaking rats darting out of the sewer, no one responded to his words.

Ma Ma Zhaodi couldn't help scratching his head: "Either the System has a problem, or I..."

"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday!"

A muffled roar erupted like a thunderclap, making the entire sewer space hum; heavy, thudding footsteps, as if a giant beast were running, rushed rapidly toward Ma Ma Zhaodi's position.

"Damn! It's not a killer crocodile!"

(End of this chapter)