Chapter 2170

Of course, it couldn't be decided just like that; no one wanted to stay, and everyone was clamoring to get out.

This also has to do with the social atmosphere in the United States. Many people say that studying here isn't competitive, but in reality, the competition here is social. Many people say that schools here let out at 3:00 PM, but no one mentions that after school, you still have to attend six clubs and two community activities.

These clubs and activities aren't actually that tiring, and they can train one's social skills, but as long as the starting point for doing these things isn't the pursuit of happiness, then it is bound to be painful.

Socializing due to one's personality and hobbies is one thing; socializing for the purpose of broadening one's network, squeezing into the upper class, and achieving class mobility is quite another.

At least studying has a standard answer. If you do something wrong in a social setting, you might not even know where you went wrong. If your parents are equally ignorant, it completely cuts off any possibility of upward mobility.

The vast majority of American teenagers follow the social path. After all, schools basically teach nothing. If you want to be a real scientist, you either have to invest heavily in elite education, or you can only rely on your own intuition and talent, like Peter.

Although the vast majority of people cannot be called psychology geniuses, they have had some insights from doing this since they were young. They understand very well how to achieve social dominance. Still, the same saying applies: the golden rule of social dominance is to absolutely never stick to the facts.

"This damn lunatic! He just doesn't like the look of me!" The woman with the wavy hair started clamoring again. She used that standard Kardashian tone, gritting her teeth at the guy in the baseball cap: "You're that typical kind of sexist, right? Do you know that this great body of mine is worth 200,000 US dollars? That's money you couldn't earn in a lifetime!"

At this moment, the Black woman spoke up: "Alright, honey, the reason I didn't want to speak up before is that I believe we should focus our energy on the real business."

The Penguin almost wanted to applaud her, but immediately after, he heard this Black woman say:

"You shouldn't constantly bring up breasts, butts, and a good body; this is serious body shaming. Do you really have to link your artificially enhanced, fundamentally unattractive figure to money? Who do you think you are? That bitch Kim Kardashian?"

"Hey, don't talk about her like that." The tattooed man spoke up, saying: "I actually quite like her husband."

The Black woman was like a powder keg suddenly ignited, her mouth beginning to spew a series of Black slang profanities to curse Kim Kardashian, with spit almost spraying onto the Penguin's face.

But this was just the beginning. The Penguin finally managed to interrupt their argument and decided to let them all go out to notify the others, while he and Peter stayed behind to work. As a result, the short-haired girl raised an objection again.

"Why do we have to use cars to block the door? We should go get some weapons instead of hiding in this shack, as if we're afraid of them."

"You say it easily, where are we going to get weapons?" The tattooed man raised his voice and said: "Rely on you to bribe those police?"

"We should show those police some real power." The woman with the wavy hair said again: "I agree, we can't just hide here, we must go to the street to defend our rights."

This actually received echoes from the others. The Penguin helplessly stretched out his hands and said to them: "Wait, listen to me first. These security measures are only temporary, in preparation for us to fight for our own rights."

Hearing him say this, the short-haired girl muttered a few words and fell silent, but the woman with the wavy hair flipped her hair and said: "Those two scrapped cars are of no use at all. When I came, I saw a bus stop at the intersection. We should let the bus driver drive the bus over."

"Now our Mr. Mayor is in danger. He ended up like this because he spoke for us. Are we the only ones standing up to protect him? Why shouldn't the bus driver stand up?"

"Makes sense." The short-haired girl nodded and said: "We aren't trying to hijack the bus, just let him drive it over to temporarily block the back door. This is to defend our collective rights; he has no right to refuse."

"But I saw police over there." The tattooed man said with some hesitation.

"If the bus driver drives the bus over voluntarily, can the police still do anything?" The woman with the wavy hair said, affecting a tone: "This is our freedom, why should he be able to control it?"

As they spoke, the few of them were about to go to the bus stop to find the bus driver. The Penguin hurried to the door and stopped them, saying: "It is not appropriate for us to have a conflict with the police right now. After all, no one knows if they are real police or assassins sent by someone."

The few of them immediately showed surprised expressions, and the short-haired girl stepped back in fear, as if they hadn't thought of this possibility at all just now.

"Let's go call more people first." The Penguin still said, adhering to his plan: "I need more people to know what we are doing. Only by spreading our voice will there be greater hope."

In fact, the Penguin just saw that the few people who stayed behind voluntarily were all weirdos. His rich experience from being a gang boss to dealing with both the underworld and the authorities gave him superb skills in judging people. Now, except for him and Peter Parker, everyone in the room was just someone who could only talk the talk.

However, in this situation, one couldn't have higher requirements. So-called trash is just resources in the wrong place. Since they can talk the talk, if they call more people, there will always be someone who can do the work.

Then the Penguin realized he was dead wrong.

At first, the few people in the shack did indeed call more people. In less than an afternoon, more than 50 people had gathered on the street, and many more were on their way.

The Penguin hoped to eventually organize more than 200 people to go to the entrance of the Gotham Police Department to protest. The police department must be made to withdraw the arrest warrant, followed by the issues of the City Hall and the State Legislature. Of course, those upper-class enterprises targeting him could not be let off either.

But the problem is that when there are many people, there are many contradictions. The argument between the few people in the shack earlier was just a condensed version. After the number of people expanded to 50, they split into several factions and began to attack each other crazily.

Even more terrifyingly, the environmentalists led by the short-haired girl accused the people of Hell's Kitchen of dumping dirty water into the river at will, and even using chemical agents to wash clothes upstream, so they led people to rush over and beat those standing by the river.

The transgender group represented by the woman with the wavy hair believed that others in the group were discriminating against them and demanded that they apologize immediately, otherwise they would call a lawyer to resort to the law.

The small group led by the tattooed man seemed to have gotten into a fight because of different musical opinions with another rock group, and someone even had their front teeth knocked out.

The Black woman organized a Black group and had a fierce verbal confrontation with the white people on the other side, which was even about to develop into a physical confrontation.

The gamer kid mixed with the group of street kids led by Gonzalez. They weren't very aggressive, they just planned to go to the nearby electronic machinery waste treatment plant to scavenge some equipment to play games.

"I'll warn you one more time, you damn transgender sissies, what right do you have to deny our musical taste?!"

"Say that again, I recorded that word just now, and I will have my lawyer sue you until you're penniless!"

"You don't understand what we are doing at all! We are fighting for our legitimate rights, you damn loser! This is the reason for your failure!"

"Quiet, everyone quiet, can't we just talk?"

"Who wants to talk to this group of..."

Bang!!!

The moment the gunshot rang out, no one reacted. The short-haired girl let out the first scream, trembling all over as she looked at the woman with the wavy hair, who now had a bloody hole in her chest.

Peter immediately pulled the few people around him and ran backward. Everyone screamed and scattered. By the time the crowd dispersed, Peter realized that the guy in the baseball cap was holding a gun.

Bang!!

Another shot hit the abandoned iron barrel nearby. The bullet ricocheted and hit someone's calf. He let out a scream and shouted to the people in front: "No, I've been shot, he's going to kill me, he's going to kill me!!"

The guy in the baseball cap started shooting indiscriminately. Peter immediately circled around from behind the small house, picked up a piece of scrap metal, and threw it at the head of the guy in the baseball cap with all his might.

Because the angle was diagonally behind the guy in the baseball cap, it was in his blind spot, so it wasn't noticed. With a bang, the guy in the baseball cap was knocked down.

Gonzalez and Peter's group rushed up to pin him down. The police arrived soon, and the guy in the baseball cap was also put into a police car.

Then people learned that he was an accomplice in a school shooting three days ago. Because the suspicion was very small, and it was even possible he only tipped them off, he was only sentenced to community service.

But now it seems very likely that he framed someone else, and he was the real mastermind who fired the shots. There was no other criminal motive, just pure retaliation against society.

This finally shocked this group of monsters and freaks, and they were finally able to be a little quieter and listen to the Penguin speak.

Just when the Penguin thought things had improved and began to convey tasks for them to do in an orderly manner, he realized that this was not the end, but just the beginning.

The short-haired girl thought the Penguin's idea of having them protest and march was good, but she firmly forbade the protest team from using signs made of cardboard and plastic, and insisted on using eco-friendly cardstock made from recycled paper pulp.

Otherwise, they would not only refuse to participate in the march, but also hold a new environmental protest here to protest the un-eco-friendly behavior of the people of Hell's Kitchen.

Although the woman with the wavy hair who was shot was sent to the hospital, other transgender groups demanded that since their group participated in the march, they must display their banners. They proposed that rainbow flag elements must be added to the march team, otherwise, they would not only not participate in the march, but also protest against the people here for discriminating against transgender groups.

The music group represented by the tattooed man believed that they must add rock elements to the march, perhaps by getting some musical instruments and car audio systems, and demanded that the streets they march on cancel the noise ordinance.

The Black group led by the Black woman demanded that the Penguin must speak up for the Black race, because although the victim Anderin was not Black, after he fell, it caused two car accidents at the intersection, and one of the overturned buses had two Black people sitting in it.

Everyone demanded to express their demands during the march, and it must be based on their demands. No matter how the Penguin tried to persuade them, their opening line was always "Although you are a hero, we...", followed by a series of fierce outputs of ideological viewpoints.

The Penguin finally saw it: heroes were not important to them; they themselves were important to them.

Then the Penguin discovered something even more terrifying, which was that he couldn't escape.

It was no longer a situation where he could shout for everyone to stop and go home obediently. The topic of the hero Mayor Penguin was being argued more and more hotly. All the ideologues who came wanted to take advantage of the heat of this topic. They wanted the Penguin to stand on their side and express their demands for them.

Soon the Penguin began to face hellish questions.

"Mr. Mayor, why don't you answer my question directly? Do you think the environmental problems in Brooklyn are not worth paying attention to?"

"I didn't say..."

"Answer my question directly, Mr. Cobblepot. Why can you ignore the harm suffered by the transgender group? She was even shot, she's dying! And you are actually indifferent. You see how this society persecutes us!"

"I didn't either..."

"I must emphasize to you again, Mr. Mayor, during your tenure, the employment rate of Black people has not improved, which shows that we are still facing severe discrimination problems. You have to give us an explanation."

"I am not..."

"Why is it not allowed for niche art lover groups to exist? The strange looks we face are the bad consequences brought about by the lack of education! We need space to survive! Don't you think so?!"

"I..."

Looking at the Penguin, who was surrounded by the crowded crowd and whose face was flushed but couldn't say a word, Peter wanted to say that he was professionally trained and generally wouldn't laugh, unless he couldn't help it.

Peter couldn't help it, and neither could Bruce. The two of them were as happy as two huskies frolicking in the snow.