Chapter 43: Introduction Reclaimed

"Boom—"

A muffled thunderclap exploded within the dark clouds over Gotham City; pale lightning suddenly illuminated this city of sin amidst the night rain, also lighting up the silhouette of a bat cutting across the sky.

"Santos, here is your salary for this month; take it."

"Thanks, Philip."

"Rick, come here; remember to cause less trouble at parties in the future—I have to bail both of you out of the police station every time."

"Alright, alright, I know."

"Castro."

When the supervisor's gaze swept past the clerks and landed on Ma Ma Zhaodi, whose face was brimming with excitement, his heart instinctively spasmed; nowadays, every time he saw the other man, he would subconsciously recall that god-tier shot from the shootout that day, along with that expensive, high-end chandelier.

"Ma Ma Zhaodi, why are you so excited?"

"Because today is payday."

"Let me remind you that your salary was already advanced at the beginning of the month; don't think I'm going to pay you twice."

"The one at the beginning of the month was money; this one at the end of the month is happiness—it's a sense of ritual, Philip; a sense of ritual is very important."

A look of bewilderment appeared on the supervisor's face; he struggled hard to comprehend Ma Ma Zhaodi's strange line of thinking, but after pondering for a long time still could not figure it out, so in the end he could only shake his head: "In any case, consider your salary as already iss—"

Ma Ma Zhaodi stared intently at the supervisor's mouth, excitedly waiting for him to speak those few words; for him, the feeling of several thousand asset points arriving in his account was undoubtedly joyful.

"Crack!"

The sound of shattering glass seemed exceptionally sharp and piercing at this moment; in his panic, Ma Ma Zhaodi subconsciously turned his head to look, seeing only a pitch-black shadow crash into the restaurant from the night curtain.

The supervisor differed from Ma Ma Zhaodi; his experience in shootouts was rich, allowing him to notice many details.

Such as several bat-shaped throwing stars shooting forth at high speed.

"Batman!"

An ominous premonition immediately arose in his heart; as a gang member who had stayed in Gotham for a long time, he had once seen this bat before, and that one time, he had lain in bed for a full three months.

The moment he realized the bat's arrival, he immediately recalled the painful memory of having his bones broken last time; he vaguely remembered that last time, this bat's method was to first turn the entire venue into its home turf—that is, a completely dark environment.

Thinking of this, his gaze involuntarily shifted toward that newly installed luxurious chandelier; at this moment, the passage of time seemed to become abnormally slow for him, the flight of the bat-star becoming so clear in his mind that although his eyes could not track that ultra-fast flying throwing star, his brain had already subconsciously filled in its trajectory.

Thus, he could only watch with eyes full of despair as it unswervingly struck that chandelier, squeezing a desperate wail from his throat.

"No—!"

"Smash—"

A series of shattering sounds rang out; the huge crystal chandelier immediately plummeted to the ground, scattering like splashing water and exploding into clusters of tiny gem fragments shimmering with colorful light.

Although it was very rude to say so, at this moment the supervisor's voice made Ma Ma Zhaodi feel as though he had traveled back to that rainy night a few days ago.

Familiar music seemed to ring in his ears once again.

"Snowflakes drift, the north wind blows—"

Ah, how strange; why did I say "again"?

"Batman!"

Amidst the pitch darkness, the supervisor's furious roar rang out once more, sounding exactly like last time.

"Damn bastard! I'm going to kill you! Do you have any idea how long ago that chandelier was just repaired—"

Batman remained unmoved, continuing to dive calmly; he tackled a waiter who had reacted quickly and already drawn a gun, pinning him to the ground, then swung a fist the size of a sandbag, following through with a powerful hook punch that precisely struck his jawbone; the trigeminal nerve connected to it was immediately stimulated, rapidly transmitting the signal to the cerebellum controlling balance, and thus that enemy was knocked directly to the ground by this single heavy blow, too dizzy to rise again.

After knocking down one enemy with a single punch, his figure flashed; like a phantom in the night, he silently appeared behind another enemy, delivering a knife-hand strike to the back of the neck, and thus the second enemy was also knocked unconscious with one hit.

"Supervisor! Supervisor, are you okay!"

Ma Ma Zhaodi fumbled in the darkness, shouting toward the supervisor, his voice carrying a tearful tone.

"Someone! Someone come! The supervisor has fallen again! Call an ambulance quickly!"

"Get lost!"

Hearing Ma Ma Zhaodi start wailing again, the supervisor's vision instantly went black; his low blood pressure immediately shot up, solving his problem of not yet having high blood pressure.

"You're okay! That's great! Supervisor,"

At this very moment, Batman had already knocked down seven or eight of the waiters in the restaurant; although he was currently bare-handed, in combat he was almost like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, sweeping away everything before him.

"Use the muzzle flash to illuminate him!" someone shouted, but in the next second, his two hands gripping the gun were firmly seized; one finger pressed behind his trigger, preventing him from firing, while the other hand gripped his wrist like a tiger's clamp and gave a gentle twist.

"Ah—! It's broken! My hand is broken!"

Intense pain caused him to curl into a ball in the darkness, trembling with fear as he hugged his broken hand.

Then came the next one.

"Don't come over; don't you come over, you bastard!"

One enemy seemed to have learned a bit of martial arts; after Batman kicked a gun-wielding colleague beside him hard enough to break his ribs, this man thrust a knee strike forward.

Batman sidestepped to evade, casually grabbed his lower leg, straightened that leg, and slammed a vicious elbow down onto the knee.

"Snap."

"My leg! My leg!"

The crisp sound of bone breaking immediately made everyone present tremble twice in their hearts; yet Batman's attack still did not end. Crisp sounds of bones snapping, screams, and the dull thuds of fists colliding with human bodies echoed throughout this dark space, while the mournful thunder roaring outside the window made people's hearts pound with terror.

Wild winds and cold raindrops shot into the room through the shattered window; no one knew whether their hands were trembling from the bone-chilling cold or from fear, but all the bullets indeed seemed to have flown into empty space; that phantom-like bat shadow truly seemed like some sort of monster from an urban legend—no one could see it clearly, no one could capture it, as it hunted the gang members in the restaurant like an experienced predator.

"What exactly are you doing?!"

Batman gave no answer; at this moment, dialogue was meaningless—only by rendering everyone incapable of action could his interrogation proceed.

However, the supervisor's words were not shouted at Batman.

"Just one sentence; just one will do! Quick! Otherwise it will be too late!"

Ma Ma Zhaodi begged the supervisor with a face full of despair: "Quickly say that you've already paid me my salary! I worked hard for a whole month!"

(End of Chapter)