Chapter 3883

Gotham Dock was built right at the mouth of the Gotham River. Due to the terrain, every time there was a heavy rainstorm, the area near Gotham Dock would flood severely, making it a key focus for flood prevention during the flood season.

Gotham Dock was the original Gotham City. Most of the houses here are over a hundred years old, impossible to demolish, and difficult to renovate, let alone establish any proper reinforcement measures. Therefore, the annual flood prevention measure is simply stacking sandbags, as long as the flood peak of the Gotham River does not overflow.

Easier said than done. The dock area is inherently chaotic and hard to coordinate. The sandbags normally stored in the air-raid shelters along the coastal cliffs are in very awkward positions, accessible only by a single narrow road. Everyone drove their private cars to move them, ultimately blocking the road completely.

When the Joker and Shiler stepped out of the car, they saw that the uphill slope on the west side of the parking lot was full of cars. A red car and a white car had scraped against each other, with each driver holding a long gun, while a figure wearing a red hood stood in the middle earnestly trying to mediate.

The Joker became even happier, hehehe laughing a few times before slipping and sliding over to Gordon's police car and saying: "Looks like our chief here will have to moonlight as a patrol officer today."

Gordon got out of the car with a dark face, then leaned in to pull a police light from the patrol car. He didn't install the light on the car, but instead unplugged the light's charging cable, took the light, and walked up the slope.

Seeing the familiar red and blue lights, Gotham residents, as expected, pretended not to notice. Gordon drew his gun and fired a warning shot, finally drawing their attention. He shoved the drivers aside while cursing loudly, finally squeezing to the accident scene, first snatching the red car driver's gun, then using it to butt the white car driver to the ground. Amid the cheers of the crowd, he shoved them back into their respective cars, had them reverse, and only then did the uphill traffic jam finally clear.

The state trooper captain watching from behind was stunned. State troopers outrank regular local police, but in Gotham, compared to Gordon, he seemed like a raw recruit.

After the road was cleared, police set up barriers at the entrance, prohibiting any private vehicles from passing. This allowed the Joker to drive his truck through. The Joker experienced for the first time the scene of police lining the road to welcome him, sitting in the truck's driver's seat, excitedly looking left and right, constantly shifting his posture, and occasionally honking in response.

Shiler did not accompany him back into the truck, but instead went to the entrance of the slope. He pushed through the crowd, intending to go look beside the dock, but was suddenly stopped by someone.

The moment a hand slapped his shoulder, Shiler instinctively twisted back and grabbed the person's wrist, pointing the gun at their head. The youth wearing a red hood let out a series of cries:

"Eh eh eh eh eh!"

After realizing who it was, Shiler lowered his hand. The red-hooded youth finally straightened up, saw Shiler's face, and exclaimed:

"Heavens! I thought I was mistaken! You're really Professor Shiler? How did you become so young?"

Before Shiler could answer, the red-hooded youth continued on his own: "I get it, you must be his isotope. Your reaction just now was really not bad…… hey, don't go!"

Shiler walked toward the dock on his own. From this angle, he could just see the river mouth. Possibly because the hurricane warning came early, the boats at the dock had all gone to other ports, leaving this place empty and desolate, conveying a sense of loneliness and bleakness.

Just as Shiler turned to head back, large raindrops began to fall. He immediately quickened his pace, but did not drive away; instead, he sat down at a nearby restaurant-bar, ordered a specialty seafood pizza and two fingers of whiskey, and sat by the window watching the workers moving sandbags at the dock.

These people are generally volunteer laborers, since they live here, and if they don't take flood prevention measures, their homes will be flooded. Some are hired by local shipping and engineering groups, and there are also police and some volunteers. Several hundred people scattered at the river mouth actually don't look very substantial.

Gotham does indeed have volunteers; wherever disaster strikes, they are there. Of course, they are not exactly good people, merely similar to mutual aid organizations of the lower classes. Whenever nearby communities have trouble, they go to help, otherwise it would be impossible to survive in such a harsh natural environment in this city.

The Wayne and Kane families naturally had a hand in the dock shipping business, so they also sent people over, and even brought in two flood prevention experts, who were currently holding blueprints and directing the workers below.

Shiler sat by the window, eating while watching the outside scenery, his expression highly focused, as if he were intently observing, not just passing time.

The red-hooded youth wanted to go in and find him, but the work at the dock was truly overwhelming, and he, being a rare strong laborer, was quickly grabbed to stack sandbags.

Suddenly, Shiler's gaze fixed on a dockworker walking toward the truck's cargo area. His steps were quicker than average, and his eyes were not fixed on the sandbags inside the cargo, but looked toward the front driver's cabin.

Shiler slapped some dollars on the table, reached into his pocket for his gun, and quickly walked toward that direction.

The Joker turned off the truck, opened the door, seemingly intending to open the cargo door. As he just opened it, a gunshot rang out—bang! —hitting him in the shoulder. If he hadn't ducked back quickly, the next shot would have definitely blown his head off.

Hearing the gunshot, Gordon in the distance immediately started running over, but his movement was much slower than Shiler's. Bang! —a shot, and Shiler directly knocked down the attacker who had shot the Joker from behind.

The Joker, shot in the shoulder, jumped down from the truck as if nothing had happened, walked over, and grabbed that guy to take a look.

"I haven't offended him at all," the Joker said, setting the person down, "Who would hire an assassin to kill a madman?"

"And you," the Joker said, looking at Shiler, "you must know something. You already knew someone wanted to kill me. Not letting me touch the truck was to avoid letting me get into a car accident. Watching this guy is because you knew he was incited by someone else. So who exactly is it?"

"Anyway, it's not Batman." Shiler lifted that person up for a look. He looked like an ordinary dockworker, with no distinctive features at all. There might be an email lying in his mailbox, but Shiler also couldn't be bothered to check. Barbara had already told him that emails alone couldn't catch the other party's trail.

"But he gave me a shot," the Joker continued arguing, "as a victim, do I not even have the right to know?"

Gordon was about to speak when Shiler waved his hand, signaling him to step back. He looked into the Joker's eyes and said: "Don't forget the mission Batman assigned you—he wants you to get things done, not to engage in wits and courage with assassins. You went after the mastermind—what about the dock?"

"Impossible," the Joker said, pouting, "Batman's intention is just to let you and that guy counterbalance each other. Don't get it wrong."

"As an agent, fully understanding the employer's requirements is my basic skill. You'd better not argue with me on this point." Shiler picked up the shell casing from the ground and said: "I'm very certain Batman just wants you to work properly, not to go after some mastermind—you also couldn't catch him……"

"Who said that!" the Joker nearly jumped up, "Batman definitely believes in me, he knows best how strong I am! How could he not let me go after the mastermind, but instead have me move these boring sandbags here?! You must have heard wrong!!!"

After saying that, he turned and walked toward the truck, saying: "Even if you point a gun at my head, I won't take back my opinion—I'm going to catch him right now!!!!"

Watching the Joker turn his head and not look back as he climbed into the truck, then with several times more skill, he reversed quickly, then turned around and sped off.

Gordon turned his head to look at Shiler, but saw Shiler slowly putting his gun away, with a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"You did that on purpose?"

"Of course. I'm not a riddle person—why would I deliberately hide it from him? Besides, I didn't say anything wrong. What can the Joker do against electronic life?"

Gordon shook his head and said: "If you didn't mention Batman, maybe he wouldn't be so eager. But if you say Batman is stopping him from going, then even if he gives it his all, he will definitely want to drag that guy out."

Then he paused, and added: "But I really can't think of how he could deal with electronic life. I've never heard of the Joker having hacking skills."

Shiler glanced at him, then turned and walked away. Gordon felt somewhat bewildered, but the rain was getting heavier and heavier, the dock was beginning to howl with fierce wind, and they had little time left, so Gordon could only turn around and get to work.

In the Prophet's base, Barbara picked up the water cup beside her and gulped down several mouthfuls of water, leaning back in the chair with a somewhat pale complexion. Her originally smooth red hair hung in strands by her ears, she tilted her head and sighed, her fingers lightly tapping on the keyboard.

As if to respond to her, the computer case suddenly emitted a few beeping sounds. Barbara muttered: "What exactly do you want to do? You're really crazy……"

With a crack, lightning suddenly flashed on the horizon, allowing Barbara to see the black shadow in front of the window. She sucked in a breath of air, turned her wheelchair to face the window. Immediately after, crash! —the glass shattered, and a figure with green hair, grinning sinisterly, appeared at the window.

Barbara controlled her wheelchair to retreat, and the lights in the room suddenly went out. She felt her phone vibrate once in her hand, Barbara lowered her head to look, and the screen only displayed a single word—"Run!"

Barbara gripped her phone tightly, then suddenly discovered the wheelchair's electric switch had been turned on, requiring no control from her—the wheelchair wound its way around tables and chairs, passed through the living room to the door, and boarded the elevator. The elevator descended at a speed far exceeding normal operation, flying like to the garage.

The wheelchair's speed was also abnormally fast, but at this moment Barbara suddenly remembered she hadn't charged her wheelchair the previous night. She turned her head to look, and sure enough, the low-battery indicator light lit up, and the wheelchair's speed began to slow down more and more.

Finally, the wheelchair drove itself to the rear of a pickup truck. The entire parking lot's lights went out, and the elevator also stopped running. Barbara hid behind the pickup truck, her palms sweating, she wanted to say something, but the underground parking lot was so silent that any slight sound would carry far.

Not daring to speak, Barbara could only slowly type on her phone screen: "Is it you?"

No response came. Barbara bit her lips tightly, then typed another line: "If you don't speak, I'm leaving now."

As she finished speaking, she was about to manually turn the wheelchair to leave the back of the pickup truck, when at that moment, footsteps came from the emergency stairwell.

"Don't go." Another line appeared on the screen.

Barbara's fingertips trembled, she took a deep breath. Over the past week, she had tried every possible method to track this guy's traces, but found nothing, and had even been turned against by him. Now the Prophet system was almost completely paralyzed, those cameras and communication terminals belonging to Barbara could no longer be used.

But she hadn't expected that at this very moment, the situation would take a turn for the better—this hidden electronic life had actually appeared before her of its own accord.

However, the bad news is, the Joker is hunting her down. Although we don't know what madness the Joker has gone into again, Batman is not in Gotham, and today she probably cannot escape disaster.