Chapter 3243

The car stopped in front of the Municipal Building. Shiler was rarely wearing a suit; he straightened his cuffs before stepping out of the car, with Bruce following closely behind.

Stepping into the sunlight, Shiler noticed that his complexion was indeed a bit paler than usual, but standing in the sunlight, one couldn't see any discomfort; Cat Getan's ultraviolet rays were indeed too weak.

They quickly walked into the reception hall and then took the private elevator. Shiler looked over the decor here.

The era of this universe was 2007; modern decorative styles were not popular, and the Municipal Building adopted the most classic American luxury style of decoration, with very particular materials and likely a very expensive construction cost.

Shiler had his own calculations in mind.

While in the elevator, Shiler looked at Bruce and asked, "Who was the previous mayor? Where is he now?"

Bruce was stunned; he lowered his voice and said, "I don't know, I haven't looked into it; he disappeared after he left office."

"Can you guarantee that you will fully cooperate with me for the next period of time?"

Bruce nodded and said, "Of course, I brought you here to be the backbone; everyone will cooperate with you."

"Then go and look into him." Shiler straightened his tie and then said, "Find out who he is, his past, and where he is now."

A flash of insight struck Bruce, but he didn't grasp the key point and could only agree for now.

The elevator stopped, and Shiler walked out first. Bruce discovered more and more the difference between Greed and Pride; Greed was a person who valued efficiency, and in the face of efficiency, he almost ignored the atmosphere.

Without needing the reception staff, Shiler walked directly to the door of the Mayor's office and knocked. When a "please come in" came from inside, Shiler pushed the door open immediately.

His previously expressionless face immediately put on an enthusiastic smile. He walked up and shook hands with the White Knight, who was circling out from behind the desk, and said, "I've long admired your name, Mayor Napier."

"You are too kind, Professor, please sit here."

The three of them sat down in the adjacent reception area. Shiler looked over the decor of the Mayor's office; everything was very new, and the style was much simpler than the outside, which let him know that the White Knight must have redecorated the office after he took office.

Then whose construction team did he use?

With calculations in mind again, Shiler spoke, "Time is tight and the task is heavy, so I won't waste words. What forces can you mobilize now? How much money is left on the books?"

Mentioning this question, the White Knight felt a bit awkward, but he still said, "The most powerful team I have in my hands is the GTO."

"The team with Robin in it?"

The White Knight frowned sharply and said, "It has nothing to do with who they are; they are all for the good of this city."

"Then that is Cat Getan's team, not yours."

The White Knight was choked up. Shiler seemed to have lost hope and looked at Bruce. Bruce said, "The criminals of Arkham listen to me, but they cannot appear in public."

"What about the police?"

"With James Gordon there, we can't do much." Bruce gave the White Knight, who was about to speak, a look, but the White Knight was not stopped by him.

"We cannot bribe the police like they do; on one hand, we have no money, and on the other hand, police bought with money are not good people to begin with, and they won't risk their lives." The White Knight tried his best not to appear pedantic, so he didn't talk at length about justice or anything, just stating the current problems.

"Indeed." Shiler nodded and said.

The White Knight's eyes widened slightly; he thought Shiler would refute him, after all, the other party asked if they had any forces under their command as soon as he arrived, and their answer was probably not the answer he wanted to hear.

"What is the relationship between the Cat Getan Police Department and the Counter-Terrorism Squad?"

"The Counter-Terrorism Squad follows James's orders." The White Knight said, "I believe he can lead this team well."

"That's right, I believe so too." Shiler said.

The White Knight always felt something was wrong.

He recalled Greed's style in the previous game and still spoke up, "I know you feel that we need people to work for us, but the problem is we can't afford our own separate forces, and I don't want to use justice and ideals to kidnap others."

Shiler nodded along.

This made the White Knight even more confused.

In fact, he had talked to Bruce before, and although Bruce was very tactful, the White Knight could understand what he meant.

The so-called "those who achieve great things do not fuss over trifles" doesn't mean that if you want to achieve great things, you don't care about details, but rather that you need to be unscrupulous when necessary.

An honest official must be more cunning than a corrupt official; justice and a sense of morality are invisible shackles one puts on oneself, and you can't dance the striptease that those shameless people dance while wearing shackles.

The White Knight understood this truth, but his inner sense of morality indeed required him not to do those disgusting things, but he felt he could walk in the gray area without hurting others. The problem now is that they don't even have the capital to enter the gray area.

Cultivating one's own forces costs money, clearing relationships in secret costs money, and public opinion and news reports all cost money; they can't come up with any extra money at all right now.

"How much money is left on the books?" Shiler asked again.

"There's only about a million dollars left now."

"How much of the tax revenue is used for public security?"

"The basic public security maintenance cost is about 120 million dollars per quarter; if you count all the miscellaneous things, it's about 200 million."

"What about the funds used for the GTO you newly established?"

"About one-third."

Shiler frowned slightly, which made the White Knight's heart skip a beat. The White Knight said, "I know this is high, but the role of this squad is very great; they have significantly improved Cat Getan's public security situation."

"Specifically, how was it improved?"

"The crime rate has dropped significantly, mainly the crime rate of supervillains has dropped to one-fifth of the original."

Shiler took a deep breath and said, "Have you ever thought that the crime rate hasn't dropped, but that it should have been this low in the first place?"

Now it was the White Knight's turn to frown.

Shiler remembered very clearly a sentence said by that group of elites in the comics—"In Cat Getan, crime is the best investment."

"You throw a large amount of money into maintaining public security, and the crime rate will never drop." Shiler pointed out very bluntly, "Because someone can profit from this money, they will keep the crime rate soaring so they can keep getting the money."

"But it has dropped now..."

"It won't drop for long... Forget it, you seem unable to understand this aspect of things." Shiler thought for a while and said, "Can you guarantee to cooperate with me? If not, perhaps I'll have to think of some other way."

"Tell me your plan first." The White Knight said.

"If you are willing to cooperate with me, I will use conventional means to make them spit out the money, at least part of it, enough for your turnover."

"If you are really unwilling to cooperate, I can also take some unconventional means; I can guarantee that no ordinary people will be hurt, it's just that the commotion will be relatively large, and it will look very scary."

If Shiler had forcefully demanded the White Knight's cooperation, he would have felt more at ease, because in the process of working with Bruce, the two often had such friction, and it was about the same with Batman and Gordon.

But Shiler acted as if he had his own ways if you didn't cooperate, and combined with his performance in the previous game, this method would probably be very bad.

"If I don't cooperate, what do you plan to do?"

"There is a nuclear power plant in New Jersey." Shiler suddenly said, "The state government has been considering canceling the nuclear power ban; we can start from this aspect."

The Salem Nuclear Power Plant had very good conditions and was also very close to Cat Getan, but it still had the problems of aging pipes and tritium leaks common to most nuclear power plants in the United States. Once a large-scale leak accident occurred, it could seriously affect Cat Getan's land prices.

The White Knight was startled and immediately said, "I am very willing to cooperate with you! Do whatever you want, just don't touch the nuclear power plant!"

Shiler smiled and said, "That's more like it."

"Next, let's talk about how I want to do it if you cooperate with me. First, I need to make the funds subsidizing the GTO independent from the municipal funds."

"I certainly understand the benefits of doing this, but we don't have that much money; no one can spend 100 million dollars per quarter to support a counter-terrorism squad; this is of no benefit to them."

"Batman can." Bruce added.

"We can't let Batman do it." The White Knight frowned and said, "It's not that I don't trust him, but the problem is that the elite class is determined to use him to accumulate wealth, and they watch him very closely; if he provides the money, it will also be eaten up completely, just like the natural disaster fund."

"I didn't say don't let the city government provide the money." Shiler said, "I'm talking about making the funds independent; the money still has to be paid."

Bruce's eyes rolled.

"Originally, this part of the funds was categorized under the basic public security maintenance funds, right?" Shiler asked.

The White Knight nodded.

"Then from now on, this money will not come from the basic public security maintenance fees."

"Then from where?"

"Advanced public security maintenance fees."

"What?"

"Now we are going to establish a municipal project, give it any name, such as 'Cat Getan Public Security Efficiency Improvement Plan', and then apply for special appropriations for this project; from now on, this money will be called 'Advanced Public Security Maintenance Fees'."

The White Knight was a bit dizzy from listening and said, "What is the use of this?"

"The people who used to manage the basic public security maintenance fees can no longer touch the advanced public security maintenance fees; to touch the advanced public security maintenance fees, you need to recruit new people."

Bruce suddenly realized.

"But..." The White Knight was a little embarrassed and said, "We can no longer afford the salaries of more employees; even if we maintain the status quo, we must cut wages by 10% next quarter to barely maintain operations."

"The people who manage the basic public security maintenance fees no longer manage the advanced public security maintenance fees, so there is no need for so many people." Shiler said, "Just lay them off directly."

The White Knight was stunned and said, "But they didn't manage the advanced public security maintenance fees to begin with."

"Right, but after all, the work of appropriating funds for the GTO has been cut out, and the workload has dropped by at least 50%, so naturally, people can be laid off."

"Then doesn't managing the new project also require recruiting new people?"

"Right, we need to recruit, but whether we can recruit them is another matter."

"Ah?"

"This project is very important." Shiler said, "We must have graduates from the Babson College Marketing and Financial Management majors, who also have internship experience in the police department or other administrative units, a height between 1.79 and 1.80 meters, myopia between 190 and 200 degrees, and to take care of the employment of disabled people, it is best to have six fingers."

"Ah???"

Bruce understood everything and said, "Mr. Mayor, this is not to move the GTO, but to lay off civil servants."

The White Knight also reacted; this had nothing to do with any public security management funds; it was actually breaking down the project, then laying people off on the grounds that the workload of the small project had decreased, and then letting the people from the old project continue to manage it on the grounds that the new project could not recruit people for a long time.

In this way, 50% of the original people could operate it, and the funds for personnel would naturally decrease.

"But this will cause many people to lose their jobs." The White Knight said with great concern.

"Yes." Shiler did not deny it and said, "But have you ever thought about how the funds that didn't fall to the poor but were hijacked halfway were hijacked? Who did it?"

The White Knight opened his mouth and said, "They might have been forced to."

"But they have eaten enough." Shiler said, "If you really don't believe it, you can go check; you are the poorest in the entire Municipal Building."

"But if you lay off so many people at once, it will cause chaos, right?" Bruce also asked with some concern.

"Chaos is exactly what I want." Shiler said, "The next step of my plan is to bribe a few people to go on strike."

"Go on strike?!" The White Knight widened his eyes and said, "We can't go on strike, I have a lot of work to..."

"Whether the city government goes on strike has nothing to do with whether you work."

Just as the White Knight was about to speak, Shiler continued, "Or do you have to have such a spacious, bright, and expensive office to work?"

"Of course not, but if the city government goes on strike, where am I supposed to work?"

"Wayne Manor."