Chapter 34: The First Job on Halloween Night
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“Knock, knock, knock! Knock, knock, knock!”
An urgent, disorderly pounding broke the silence.
“Who is it?”
Footsteps thudded toward the door. The old woman called out as she approached, but no one answered from the other side.
She reached out and opened the door, asking again,
“Who’s—”
“Rawr!”
A thin white shadow suddenly drifted past the doorway. It had no limbs, no body, not even any facial features—only two eyes gleaming from an otherwise featureless ghostly form.
Before she could let out a scream, the white shadow lunged forward and darted straight into her arms.
Then it hugged her tightly.
“Trick or treat!”
Small shadows poured out from every direction. Some wore enormous witch hats and carried brooms; some were dressed in black robes and held sickles; some had little demon horns and carried pitchforks. There was even one dressed in blue with a red cape.
“Oh, sweetheart, Superman doesn’t count as a ghost.”
Tonight was Halloween. Alongside the adults dressed as monsters in the streets, children had donned all manner of bizarre costumes and transformed themselves into little devils, going from house to house to ask for candy. If they were not given any, they would cause trouble.
Smiling, the old woman brought out some sweets and handed them around to the children beside her. Just then, she happened to glance outside and saw someone standing in the street with a pumpkin over his head. He was holding another small jack-o’-lantern in his hand.
“What an ugly pumpkin...” she murmured unconsciously. “Has anyone ever worn such an ugly pumpkin on Halloween before?”
...
Ma Zhaodi felt somewhat uneasy.
He had merely followed the system’s instructions and used the navigation to reach the delivery location. To be honest, however, he had never expected the customer to choose this place to receive a pumpkin.
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This was Gotham City’s Diamond District. It stretched almost the entire length of Gotham between itself and the East End. As its name suggested, it was where Gotham’s wealthy congregated.
Across Gotham City, the crime rate decreased steadily from north to south. The Upper Town, where the East End was located, was the most chaotic and crime-ridden part of the city. It accounted for the majority of Gotham’s criminal cases.
Farther south lay the area containing Otisburg and Burnley, a relatively stable section of the middle city. It was wealthier than the East End and had far less crime. Only criminals plotting something truly major usually came here to cause trouble. The crimes committed in this area were generally serious enough to affect the entire city; the least severe were on the level of a bank robbery.
At the southernmost end of Gotham lay the Lower Town, the district containing the Diamond District where the wealthy lived. It had the best public order in the entire city. Those who lived there seemed to inhabit a completely different world from everyone else in Gotham. If one looked only at the Lower Town, Gotham might even have had a chance of becoming the city with the lowest crime rate in the world.
The irony was that Gotham’s greatest mafia godfather, Carmine Falcone, and its second-most powerful crime lord, Sal Maroni, both lived openly in the Diamond District. So rather than saying that the crime rate there was low, it would be more accurate to say that the criminals there were never held accountable.
By now, groups of people dressed as ghosts had begun wandering through the dim streets for Halloween: hulking men wearing hockey masks, masked figures in black robes carrying knives, clowns with grotesque makeup and red balloons, men with paper bags over their heads and chainsaws in their hands, zombies with rotting flesh, and more.
Each costume was more convincing than the last, each more terrifying. Ma Zhaodi could not help shivering several times.
He glanced at the abstract little jack-o’-lantern in his hand. Its lifeless pumpkin eyes emitted an eerie glow, while its jagged, crooked mouth looked almost as though it were drooling.
“Would some rich guy really want to buy a pumpkin like this? Can this thing actually scare anyone?”
Just then, a man appeared before him. He wore a black bowler hat and an oversized trench coat. His features were indistinct, and rough men’s gloves covered his hands. He looked exactly like the sort of killer seen on television who might draw a gun at the slightest provocation—another member of the “monsters” roaming the Halloween streets.
Without saying a word, he walked over to Ma Zhaodi’s side and pointed at the little jack-o’-lantern. He paid for it, took the pumpkin, and immediately left the district. He did not speak once, nor did he make a single unnecessary sound.
“How can anyone come up with such an abstract Halloween costume...?”
Ma Zhaodi scratched his head. But when he saw the system notification reading “Task Complete,” he did not give the matter much more thought. He still had two other jobs to work, and no time to investigate what this mysterious customer intended to do.
Thus, on that Halloween night, an indescribably bizarre and hideous pumpkin-headed stranger wandered aimlessly through the streets of the Diamond District. Dressed in a cheap overcoat and wearing oversized men’s gloves, he looked remarkably like the nonsensical serial killers seen on television, drawing curious onlookers to a halt.
...
“How can anyone come up with such an abstract Halloween costume?”
The trench-coated man could not help recalling the person who had sold him the pumpkin on the street.
No. This was not the time to think about that.
Its footsteps were light as it silently climbed a narrow staircase. It was already late at night. Most of the lights in the grand, luxurious mansion had been extinguished, and only a few scattered rays from the second floor spilled down into the hallway.
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It moved along the corridor, feeling its way inward in search of its target. Most of the people in the mansion were already asleep, yet from one of the rooms upstairs came the faint but distinct sound of rushing water.
Like a shark that had caught the scent of blood, the trench-coated figure glided soundlessly toward the noise.
Creak.
A hand turned the faucet beside the bathtub. The water, which had nearly filled the tub, stopped rising. Amid the curling steam, a figure hummed softly as he lowered himself into the bath.
The bathroom was very dim. The man in the tub had recently developed a dislike of harsh light; it made him uncomfortable.
“Hmph. That fool Daniel...”
He submerged his entire body in the warm water and could not help humming again. The heat seeped through him, surrounding him like darkness, and reminded him of the sensation he had felt when shooting the former bank president in the street.
Back then, he had been sheltered by the night and the shadows inside the car, just as he was now. The feeling had been so comforting that he had almost become addicted to it.
Of course, he was not always like this. He only enjoyed such darkness after killing someone. Under ordinary circumstances, what he loved most were lavish banquets filled with clinking glasses, glamorous socialites, and the satisfaction of being the center of everyone’s attention.
Creak.
A sliver of light suddenly fell across his face, making him narrow his eyes as they adjusted to the unexpected brightness.
Why had the door opened?
The instant that thought arose, his pupils contracted. He realized what the answer was.
“No...”
“Bang! Bang!”
The response came in the form of two muffled gunshots.
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