Chapter 44: Interrogation

For a second, Ma Ma Zhaodi's voice made the manager think of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, a rat-faced, hunched monster cursing over the alluring One Ring in a dark corner.

"Precious! My precious!" (Treasure! My treasure!)

"Wages! My wages!"

Exactly the same.

"You've already got your One Ring!" The manager, who had already been driven somewhat mad by the damn chandelier and Batman, now lost his temper and ranted incoherently: "You got it at the start of the month, damn it! It's wages, not a ring—I'm a damn fool too!"

Ma Ma Zhaodi was certain that if there were any light source in the room at that moment, the manager's face would be red.

But no light wasn't a bad thing, because the manager now sounded like he really wanted to shoot him, and maybe even shoot himself.

Batman didn't understand what these two were babbling about; he simply calmly took down the restaurant employees one by one as they drew their guns. Finally, after two minutes, all the armed employees in the restaurant were down. Only the manager, entangled by Ma Ma Zhaodi, hadn't been able to draw and fire, so he temporarily escaped disaster.

"Speak up! Speak up!" Ma Ma Zhaodi watched Batman disappear into the darkness with wide eyes, his alarm bells ringing wildly. He frantically shook the manager's body: "Say it! Say that sentence!"

"Get out of my way so I can shoot! You damn—"

The manager's words cut off abruptly. A tall, stern black figure appeared silently beside the two of them, reached out a hand to grab the gun in the manager's grip, and slammed him to the ground.

"No—"

A desperate cry rose from Ma Ma Zhaodi's heart. At this moment, he finally understood the manager's feelings: the sensation of watching a huge sum of money slip through one's fingers while helpless to stop it.

Of course, he also cared about the manager's safety, but since Batman didn't kill people anyway, he definitely wouldn't die; at worst, he'd just suffer some pain.

But he himself was in much worse shape. Putting aside whether Batman would break his bones, he had worked himself to death for a month, barely managed to clock in enough hours, and now, just as it was time to get paid, the company was about to vanish.

For Ma Ma Zhaodi, this was simply the most desperate thing he had encountered today.

"On the night before Halloween, someone carved an ugly pumpkin in the restaurant. Where is he?"

Retract the previous statement; that earlier incident was the second most desperate thing Ma Ma Zhaodi had encountered today.

A cold, low voice rang out. Batman completely ignored Ma Ma Zhaodi, who was already lying on the ground beside him. This guy hadn't even drawn a gun; the moment the manager was subdued, he had put his hands on his head and sprawled on the ground. There was not a shred of resistance in him, only an overwhelming will to survive.

But the instant he heard Batman's words, Ma Ma Zhaodi's eyes went black, and he started frantically searching the Shangcheng for a Life Quick Recovery item.

"Tnnd, I knew Batman was the biggest psycho in Gotham City; he can even dig up news like this—I only carved in the shop for half an hour!"

Hearing Batman's question, the pinned manager first froze, then threw his head back and laughed loudly on the ground, rolling back and forth.

"Hahaha—just this?" He mocked while laughing: "Ha, Gotham's midnight nightmare is just this? Hahaha, cough, cough, investigating a murder case and ending up on some idiot who carved an ugly pumpkin?"

"So what if I can't carve pumpkins? Does a slightly ugly pumpkin eat your rice?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi couldn't help but raise his head to retort: "The pumpkin I carved clearly had a strong artistic aura; you just don't have an artistic cell, okay?"

At that moment, the manager and Batman both turned their gazes toward him. The manager's eyes held the look of someone looking at an idiot, while Batman casually placed him on the ground.

"So, that pumpkin was carved by you?"

Asking the obvious. Would Batman have acted without first verifying the identities of everyone in the restaurant? He simply hadn't had time yet to confirm whether he was truly just a passerby who had just arrived in Gotham.

Ma Ma Zhaodi's heart pounded wildly. Only when truly facing that giant black bat could he comprehend how terrifying the opponent's pressure was. In just two minutes, he had knocked more than a dozen Falcone gang members, all holding guns, to their knees, immobilized. Even though he did it under the cover of tonight's thunderstorm, it was enough to show how strong he was.

Muay Thai, boxing, taekwondo, judo, ninjutsu, Brazilian jiu-jitsu... He mastered all 127 martial arts in the world; degrees in criminology, law, biology, physics, advanced chemistry, medicine, and so on could only represent a mere Bingshan of his knowledge. The brutal physical training starting at age eleven, specific dietary structures, and biofeedback training made his body represent the absolute peak of normal human physical capability. Titles like Tactical Master, Interrogation Master, and Embodiment of Fear were all his.

Batman could almost be called a perfect human in some sense, and only such a person could, with flesh and blood alone, knock Gotham's gangsters, assassins, criminals, and super-villains who used ice, fire, schemes, human nature, magic, mutations, immortality, or undead states to their knees, then drag them back to cells or Arkham Asylum.

And now, such a figure stood right before his eyes. Although he was not yet as sharp and terrifying as in his later, mature years, extracting secrets from his mouth would still be effortless.

"Boom!"

A thunderclap exploded outside the window again. Lightning slicing through the night sky illuminated the room. The cold, solemn shadow of the bat was cast upon Ma Ma Zhaodi, completely engulfing him in darkness.

"I-I carved it. Carving a pumpkin on Halloween isn't illegal—"

"But murder is illegal, and the pumpkin left at the murder scene is equally ugly."

"What do you mean 'equally ugly'? The locals of Gotham City are really too rude."

Saying this, Ma Ma Zhaodi pulled a small jack-o'-lantern from his pocket. The eyes and eyebrows carved on it were almost as ugly, each in its own way, as the pumpkin found at the scene of Johnny Viti's death.

But if Batman were to judge, the one in front of him did indeed seem a bit uglier.

"Where did you go after you left on Halloween night?"

"On the streets, playing along with the costumed crowds of Halloween night."

Batman's eyes narrowed slightly, revealing a look of dissatisfaction.

Seeing the situation was unfavorable, Ma Ma Zhaodi immediately begged for mercy: "Don't hit, don't hit! I went to the Diamond District, wearing the pumpkin mask I carved myself."

"And where is your mask?"

"At home, I haven't had time to eat it yet."

"Did you see the factory fire?"

Hearing this question, Ma Ma Zhaodi's heart tightened.

(End of this chapter)