Chapter 1501

"... That is how things are. This time, we must unite to make up for the losses we have suffered over the past period. I think the thieves of Cat Getan have never collaborated on such a large scale before; it should be quite interesting, don't you think?"

In front of the bar at the Golden Cup, Catwoman paced slowly, holding her whip. The bar was packed with people, while the gang enforcers—who usually stood guard with fierce expressions to prevent thieves from sneaking in—were now standing outside the door, telling every guest who arrived that the place was closed early.

Everything was because of Cobblepot, who sat behind the bar, and the two gang members from the Falcone family he had brought with him.

After Catwoman finished speaking, Cobblepot stood up, walked to the bar, leaned against the counter, and said, "I know many of you are unhappy with Cat Getan's massive construction projects and the renovations happening everywhere. The Wei En Enterprises projects in the East End are also annoying. Those security robots don't just affect you; they affect people in every industry in Cat Getan."

"But you also know that we cannot look only at short-term gains. I believe many of you have already moved into Wei En Enterprises housing, or your children have already started attending school in the building's daycare centers."

Cobblepot's gaze swept across the room. A few people nodded slightly. Most of the thieves who came here wore masks and were unwilling to reveal their true faces; this was actually their way of protecting themselves.

Within Cat Getan's criminal industry chain, theft is undoubtedly at the very bottom. Even for a master thief like Catwoman, what she is most famous for is not her thieving skills, but her beautiful appearance. No one in this city looks up to thieves.

Most Cat Getan thieves are not thieves by choice. They also have a heart that strives to advance and climb to the top within the criminal industry. But then again, if one could occupy a place within a gang, who would choose to be a thief?

Although there are people like Catwoman who become thieves specifically because they have a hobby for certain types of items, theft requires more agility and speed. They must also undergo intensive training in these areas, which leads to them being far inferior to gang members in both defense and attack. Most of the time, when bullied, they can only swallow their pride; if they are unfortunately caught, there is only one way out: death.

It can be said that Cat Getan's thieves are a class between gang enforcers and ordinary lower-class citizens, only half a level higher than occupations like doormen, car washers, or street vendors who provide services to gangs. They barely count as being self-employed and don't have to look at anyone else's face.

But being a thief in Cat Getan is not easy either. There are too many people who are unwilling to be low-level characters in gangs but lack the ability to climb higher. Everyone thinks that stealing is easier, which leads to this industry being even more competitive than that of gang enforcers.

Cat Getan is, after all, a massive city with a population of ten million. The public security situation is terrible, and the police department doesn't have enough manpower, so it can barely support these staggering numbers of thieves. However, ever since the gang reforms and urban renovations began, the internal competition in the theft industry has become increasingly fierce.

The thieves gathered at the Golden Cup bar now are all top figures in their respective areas. They can be said to be the "kings of kings" who have fought their way out of the brutal slaughter of the theft industry. If it weren't for Batman using his era-defying tracking technology, it wouldn't have been certain that they could be gathered so completely. This group of people has nothing else, but their escape skills are top-notch.

Among them are kleptomaniacs with astonishing intelligence but twisted minds, master thieves with top-tier physical conditions and naturally gifted hands, and "collectors" whose knowledge is so profound they could go directly to auction houses to appraise various cultural relics and jewelry. But the biggest difference between these people and gangs is that they live among the common people.

Without the complex relationship networks of gangs, they naturally cannot live in the North District. Without legitimate jobs, they cannot explain the source of their money and need to fence stolen goods frequently, so it is also difficult for them to live in the South and West Districts. Therefore, most of them live in the East End.

They are also beneficiaries of the East End renovation plan. Even if their income is not as high as before, they cannot say anything.

Before Cobblepot gathered them here, most of them used methods of cutting off supply chains to save money, but many among them were no longer in the situation where "one person is full, the whole family is not hungry."

Once they move into a new home, the human instinct for courtship comes into play. Once they find a partner and get married, they will want children. Once a child is born, expenses skyrocket while income drops, making it inevitable to be overwhelmed.

So, before Cobblepot could say anything, someone asked, "I heard that mages and vampires are coming? Fine, I really don't care what they are. I just want to ask, can I take what I steal?"

"Of course you can, but the premise is that you must follow the arrangements."

The blond man who spoke sighed deeply and said, "I've been a thief for almost twenty years, and I've never heard of a thief having to follow arrangements."

"Of course, you can also work alone, but do you think you can out-compete so many people here?"

Cobblepot's words made many experts present hesitate. Top figures in an industry inevitably cross paths, and everyone knows each other's skills. The Cat Getan theft industry has become so competitive that everyone is a master thief, and no one is confident that they can grab the most theft opportunities in the first instance.

Besides, what if someone trips others up just to grab the prey? Mages and vampires sound difficult to deal with; one mistake could cost a life. If everyone present had even a shred of morality, they wouldn't be completely devoid of it. If it eventually turned into a competition of who is more ruthless, why wouldn't they just go and compete with gang enforcers?

A thin woman in the front row sighed and said, "It's also to blame that the market is bad now. If everyone could be full, they wouldn't be staring at this little bit of meat."

"You should also be able to guess that the market will only get worse from here on out." Catwoman leaned against the bar and sighed, "The mayor is vigorously developing the tourism industry, which will definitely suppress theft. Gangs want to wash their hands and go legitimate, and they won't have anything to do with us."

"Those who can leave have already left." The blond man said again, "Several of our old partners have already changed careers to set up barbecue stalls."

"Who would want to be a thief if they could do business? Isn't it because there's no money?!" Another voice complained, "If I could pull off one big job and get some startup capital, I'd go set up a stall selling snacks in front of the Phase 4 project. My neighbor got rich selling that."

"I don't want to do it anymore either. I'm getting old, my physical strength is failing, and one day I won't be able to run away." The thin woman sighed and said, "But my sister is very promising. She wants to go to college in another city, and I still have to scrape together her tuition."

Hearing the sighs and endless complaints from below, Cobblepot clapped his hands and said, "I know everyone has their difficulties, which is why I called you all here. This time, it's a batch of fat sheep. If everyone works hard on this one job and earns a big sum of money, wouldn't it be great to wash your hands and go legitimate?"

Upon hearing Cobblepot say this, the voices below grew louder. The same blond man raised his hand and asked first, "Can we really earn big money? Are those mages and vampires that rich? Will they bring money when they come here?"

"Old K, you really are an idiot. Who doesn't bring money when they go out?"

"You're all wrong. What they have is definitely not just money." A man who looked refined and wore black-rimmed glasses pushed up his glasses and said, "Vampires can live for a very long time. Anything they picked up casually hundreds of years ago is an antique now. Do I even need to say what the value of an antique is?"

With a "whoosh," the discussion below became heated. This time, Catwoman clapped her hands and said.

"Now you know why I gathered you all together, right? Some of you have fast hands but don't know what is valuable on them. Some know a lot about antiques but aren't good at stealing from people."

"For example, although I know a lot about gemstones and can tell the quality of the gems embedded in their clothes from a glance, I often frequent museums and the villas of the super-rich, and what I excel at is architectural infiltration and picking locks."

"Picking people's pockets on the street was something I did when I first started. I was just a little girl then, and I've long forgotten those techniques. I can't just hang a grappling hook above his head out of thin air, can I?"

The people below all laughed, obviously remembering the most famous "Lover's Eye" gemstone theft case.

That was Catwoman's breakout battle. A stubborn gemstone collector from Metropolis wanted his collection to tour the East Coast. Everyone advised him not to come to Cat Getan, but he insisted on coming and even hired over two hundred security guards to surround the museum.

As a result, Catwoman, the flying thief, directly hung a grappling hook and stole the most famous gemstone, the Lover's Eye. The gemstone collector was furious.

But unexpectedly, when this batch of exhibits left Cat Getan, the Lover's Eye returned, along with a note written by Catwoman—"Your taste is really not very good. The gemstone is too ugly, so I returned it to you."

From then on, this collector basically had no place in the gemstone collecting world. If even a thief wouldn't steal a gemstone, what value did it have for a touring exhibition?

After successfully enlivening the atmosphere at the scene, Catwoman crossed her arms and adjusted the mask on one side of her head with her hand, which was actually pressing the earpiece in her ear. She followed what Bruce told her to say.

"So, this time we must divide the work and cooperate. Moreover, we must utilize the different positioning of different types of work to fully squeeze the value out of this group of people, and then use their wealth to feed every class of Cat Getan's theft industry."

"Now that you have houses to shelter from the wind and rain, complete families, children with expectations, and a considerable amount of wealth, you can go do safer work instead of clinging to a theft industry with increasingly bleak prospects and torturing each other with Cat Getan's tourism industry."

"I have some inside information to tell you." Cobblepot looked around and said with a smile.

"Cat Getan is about to host a grand music festival. The rappers who have recently become popular on the East Coast will all be coming. The tickets released on the website were snatched up in an instant. The scene will definitely be very explosive."

"Cat Getan has no experience in hosting such large-scale events. Organized commercial activities cannot meet the needs of a large number of tourists, and the remaining part naturally needs to be filled by individual operators."

"The processing plants under Wei En Enterprises and Falcone have already produced a batch of peripheral products for the hottest album, 'King of Cat Getan.' Once you have money, you can come to us to get the goods."

"By then, if you block the entrance to the venue or the outskirts of Golden Beach Plaza to sell peripherals, paper cards with a cost price of three cents can be sold for five dollars and still be snatched up like crazy. Isn't this earning much more than you risking your lives to steal money from gangs?"

The atmosphere in the room became increasingly heated. These top thieves in the industry began to whisper to each other, thinking about how to use this opportunity to get rich.

For a long time before this, thieves were in a state of relative despair. They knew that things couldn't go on like this, but they didn't know how to solve it. And the Cat Getan police and government obviously couldn't catch all the thieves and beat them to death; that wasn't realistic.

But now they saw another possibility, and in this possibility, they saw something incomparably precious—hope.

Just as people in Metropolis who are used to comfort will pursue excitement, Gothamites who have licked blood from the edge of a knife for years will sometimes dream of a peaceful and happy life.

By the time Catwoman walked out of the Golden Cup bar, it was already dawn. She stood at the door, stretched out a long stretch, sighed comfortably, and then said to Bruce on the other end of the earpiece.

"For so many years, I have always fallen asleep under the shining luster of various precious gemstones. I think I am much happier than the vast majority of Gothamites. At least I still have some leeway to pursue what I like in a rotten job in a rotten city. Most people are not so lucky."

"I kept saying before that I couldn't understand what you were doing. One moment you're starving in the slums, the next you're building buildings, and then you're gathering thieves to steal things."

"But now, I understand a little." Catwoman looked up at the glimmer of light occasionally peeking through the still-gloomy clouds and continued: "Although I didn't sleep all night, I had a good dream."

"I dreamed that the gangs in this city stopped killing each other and gave up ruling this city through violence and terror. I also dreamed that many people gave up being thieves and chose to earn money in a way that doesn't hurt others, to live a stable life."

"I dreamed that my mother liked me, not cats. I dreamed that the woman who taught me theft techniques said she liked me, not the things I stole. I dreamed that everyone firmly chose me."

"I also dreamed that one day those dark pasts finally faded away, Cat Getan truly cleared up, and you stood at my door and asked me if I would marry you."

"Then would you agree?" Bruce's voice, carrying a current, came from the earpiece.

"Then will Cat Getan truly clear up?"

"It will. One day, it will."

"Then perhaps... I will too."