Chapter 802: The Killing Joke (Part 26)

"Schiller, I think we really should have a good talk." One morning, Bruce stopped Schiller who was about to go out and said to him very seriously.

"What are you doing? Don't stop me from going out to find a job. Don't you know the situation is very severe now? I've been here for several days, and I haven't found a formal job yet." Schiller pushed away Bruce's arm and wanted to walk out.

And Bruce looked at Schiller. A few days had passed, his clothes, shoes, and watch were all intact, his complexion was ruddy, and he was energetic. He spent more than twelve hours a day looking for a job and wouldn't be tired at all.

Schiller was about to walk out again. Bruce stopped him and said: "No, you can't go out. What you are doing now is too dangerous. Can't you just find a job in the 'Living Hell'?"

Schiller thought about it and said: "Fine, actually it's not completely unreasonable. I've wandered here for so many days and haven't found any promising jobs. I haven't tried looking for a job at my doorstep either. Forget it, I'll try."

Bruce breathed a sigh of relief, but before he could breathe for half a minute, his heart was in his throat again, because Schiller went straight for the water purifier.

Bruce spent a lot of effort pulling him back. At this time, he had almost exhausted all his physical strength, much more tired than the previous few days combined, and even his body couldn't stand straight.

He leaned against the railing next to him and said to Schiller: "You can't poison the water source, you can't threaten all the gangs here with chemical agents to provide you with job positions, and you can't collude with newsboys to intercept purified water and sell it at a high price..."

Schiller thought about it and said: "Fine, then I'll go upstairs and look around."

Ten minutes later, Bruce stopped in front of him again and said: "No, you can't go find newsboys to monopolize newspapers, and you absolutely can't open other people's milk bottle caps..."

"Schiller! Don't go to the rooftop! Don't touch the green plants here. You can't dig them out to sell for money. This is a public facility..."

"Don't touch the sewer pipes! What? Owls? There are no owls!"

"Hans came to find you? You can't kill for him. You are not a killer! You are a university professor!"

In the next few days, Bruce fully realized how serious the consequences would be if he made decisions when his brain lacked nutrition.

During these few days, Bruce's main job was to follow Schiller to find a job. Schiller could always create perfect job opportunities for himself in every job-seeking process.

In fact, there were only a few places with employment positions in Cat Getan's East End. And without leaving this district, if you want to find a job, you can only go to those few places to look. So Schiller basically wandered around the warehouse area, dining area, truck area, and "Living Hell" every day.

Schiller had been looking for a job, but in fact, he had never really found a job.

In the warehouse area, he was a warehouse manager, cooking the books, changing labels, stealing things. In the dining area, he helped this shop poison the food of that shop, and helped that shop poison the food of this shop. In the truck area, he helped this gang "touch porcelain" with that gang, and then helped that gang "touch porcelain" with this gang. In the "Living Hell," he looked down at the water purifier and up at the sewer pipes...

Logically speaking, engaging in such cheating and swindling wouldn't last long. However, Schiller could really turn these jobs into long-term, sustainable, and quite developmental careers.

First, let's talk about the warehouse work. At first, he changed the goods records just to steal some goods out to ensure his basic survival. But later, I don't know if it was an accident or if he did it on purpose, this matter was discovered by a gang leader.

Logically speaking, this was the beginning of his bad luck. But Schiller went to talk to the gang leader, and then the opponent's warehouse suffered bad luck. Today, due to a truck rollover, 1200 pieces were lost. Tomorrow, due to a warehouse fire, 800 pieces were lost.

The gang leader who was being targeted also got anxious and found Schiller. But Schiller provided him with another idea.

As long as there are no goods, there is no profit. As long as there is no profit, according to the rules of the gang, there is no need to pay protection money. Of course, if you change the word "protection money" to "tax," many people might understand.

A total of 2000 pieces of goods, of which 1200 were crushed due to a truck rollover and could not be sold at all, and 800 disappeared completely due to fire. Then the profit of these 2000 pieces is 0. So when reporting accounts to the above, the protection money to be paid is also 0.

At the same time, transporting these 2000 pieces requires labor costs, storing these 2000 pieces requires storage costs, and selling, promoting, or transshipping requires costs. Adding all of them together, excluding the purchase cost of the 2000 pieces themselves, the cost has to triple.

And because of the disappearance of the 2000 pieces of goods, all the costs paid became losses. Then in the year-end financial report, the equivalent profit would be crossed out. This part of the profit would not need to be paid upward according to the proportion, which is direct tax exemption.

Watching Schiller's behavior rise from petty theft to tax evasion, Bruce had to change the rules of the game. The warehouse area definitely couldn't be gone to. If this continued, the speed of reconstruction wouldn't keep up with the speed of the fire dragon burning the warehouse.

And in the dining area, at first, it was just helping small stall owners eliminate competitors, but soon, it began to aim at the meat import channels.

If you want to get low-price, high-quality meat, you can only aim at frozen smuggled meat. But Schiller seemed to feel that the cost of frozen smuggled meat was not low enough, so he aimed at sick cows.

But the number of sick cows was too small, and it was a one-off deal. Schiller planned to unite with veterinarians to disguise cows as sick cows, and in the end, he started contacting ranchers to collectively lower the price of calves.

For the sake of Cat Getan's food safety in the future, Bruce also excluded the dining area from Schiller's scope of activities. Schiller didn't say anything, turned around, and went to harm the truck drivers.

Of course, the truck drivers were able to escape, thanks to Joker Jack. The hero named Jack guarded the truck drivers' territory and drove Schiller, who wanted to start a truck union there, away. This time, it was the victory of the bottom-level people.

Although this was the case, Bruce still excluded the gathering place of truck drivers from Schiller's scope of looking for work. After all, he didn't want to wake up in the morning and see two Jokers squatting at his bedside, asking him to judge.

Nowhere to go, then just stay in the "Living Hell"? But obviously, even staying in the "Living Hell" couldn't stop Schiller's heart that wanted to find a stable job.

After accumulating original capital, Schiller started flipping houses.

It is indeed difficult for one person to flip houses, but Schiller is best at drawing a bunch of big cakes and then pulling a group of people into the pit.

The "Living Hell" has a considerable locational advantage in the East End, with perfect supporting facilities, good living conditions, and more importantly, unique sanitary conditions. And it is the only school district. If you don't flip this, what are you waiting for?

Bruce is of course not stupid. When Schiller started the first step, he discovered that the end of flipping houses is to drive away all the residents who originally lived here, and all the houses will be vacated to serve investment customers. The gap between the rich and the poor will further increase, and then bring greater chaos.

During this period, in order to prevent Schiller's various behaviors of creating employment opportunities and broadening investment channels, Bruce didn't sleep at night and had to get up early in the morning, and just dealt with eating, even more embarrassed than when he was wandering before.

When wandering, he had to fight against the crazy reality, and now, he had to fight against a madman who couldn't even be helped by the crazy reality.

Bruce discovered that the most fundamental reason why Schiller could gain an advantage here was that he had no morality.

And from this, Bruce discovered that Schiller's original doubt about what was hard about living in the slums was very reasonable, because in Schiller's view, living in the slums was not hard at all; he came here as if he were returning home.

This made Bruce start to think, was the hardship he experienced here because he wasn't "bad" enough?

When he exhausted his last strength and couldn't even leave the room, only half-leaning on the bed to talk to Schiller, the first question he asked Schiller was: "You think I deserve it, right?"

Schiller moved a chair, sat at his bedside, peeling a fresh apple in his hand, and said: "I know what you want to ask. Do you want to ask, should a good person be pointed at by a gun?"

"You discovered that you are having such a hard time here, not because you are not smart enough or not hardworking enough, but just because you are not bad enough."

"You don't want to take the initiative to hurt people, nor are you willing to abandon your conscience to compete for survival materials. This makes you have no advantage in competition. You discovered that following the rules here can only lead to death."

Bruce can now be described as haggard. In just over two months, he had become so thin that the shape of his skull could be clearly seen, his eyes were deeply sunken in their sockets, and the handsome appearance that had once troubled him as a nuisance was also gone.

He became more like a thorough East End person, and it was those at the very bottom of the East End. But his pair of blue eyes were still very bright, like the blue sky Cat Getan had never had.

"If, in a city, good people have no way out and will only die in such a social environment, then perhaps this city is unsalvageable, isn't it?" Schiller looked at Bruce.

Bruce was silent and didn't answer.

"I appreciate this persistence of yours." Schiller stood up, turned, and walked toward the door, saying: "I am also a person with persistence, so I am going to find a job."

In the gap when Schiller turned his head, Bruce saw the smile on his face.

After the sound of the door closing, he climbed out of bed in a hurry, because, in Schiller's last smile, he saw a terrible madness.

Now, he understood what all these abnormalities were because of. The person sharing the room with him was not a professor, but Cat Getan's eternal nightmare.

Bruce climbed up with his last bit of strength. He knew he had to catch up with Schiller. A force was urging him to do so.

After the laughter that was almost non-existent almost disappeared, another force erupted from his chest.

He stumbled out the door. There was no sign of Schiller outside, but Bruce knew where he should go.

In the production workshop of the ACE Chemical Plant, Schiller was standing on a feeding platform of a huge chemical agent mixing tank. He was holding a match in his hand, and Bruce saw a "No Open Flame" sign on the side wall of the mixing tank.

Schiller looked at the flame of the match quietly as if he didn't see Bruce. Bruce stumbled up to the feeding platform. He exhausted his last bit of strength and fell to the ground.

The figures of the two looked very small against the backdrop of the fluorescent chemical agent. The circular storage tank was like a sun, and Schiller and Bruce were floating above the sun's flames.

Bruce really had no strength left. The long torture made him no longer have the ability to fight with anyone. He could only watch Schiller strike a match again, and behind the firelight was his crazy smile.

Bruce closed his eyes in pain. When the hoarse voice squeezed out of his throat, it was lower than the sound of the wind on the boundless desert:

"Joker..." ===== CHAPTER 803 =====

"Joker..."