Chapter 37: The Third Job
When Sheriff Gordon and District Attorney Harvey arrived near the warehouse, most of the contents inside had already been burned. The reason was simple: no one had called the fire department, because calling the fire department cost money. When a home catches fire, naturally, the family calls the fire department. If a house in the neighborhood catches fire, perhaps a friendly neighbor might help call the firefighters. But no one knew what was inside this warehouse, and no one could immediately locate the person in charge. As a result, the fire trucks arrived late.
Picking up a few hundred-dollar bills drifting from the raging flames, both men wore solemn expressions. Judging by the intensity of the fire, there must have been much more cash stored inside the warehouse. Such an amount of money hidden in a warehouse like this was itself a peculiar matter.
“Who could it possibly be?”
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“Tut... who could it be?”
“So... it’s not you?”
A deep voice sounded behind her. Catwoman startled and turned around. A tall, dark figure stood there, his pointed bat ears framing a pair of cold blue eyes.
“You’re more like a cat than I am,” she said discontentedly. “Always appearing and disappearing without a sound.”
“You’ve been missing for a while—where have you been?”
“In case you haven’t heard, Falcone put a million-dollar bounty on my head.”
“Same here. But I’m still here tonight, investigating.”
“Yeah, yeah—but I’m not a bat, I’m a cat.”
“When did you get here? What did you see?”
“Not much earlier than you—saw the same thing as you.”
“Just happened to run into each other?”
“Want to know?” she giggled. “Catch me, and I’ll tell you.”
The silhouettes of cat and bat leapt and darted among the skyscrapers, chasing each other like playing an amusing game—though perhaps only the cat truly enjoyed it.
“Someone! Open the warehouse door!”
Elsewhere, Sheriff Gordon and District Attorney Harvey quickly forced open the warehouse door with brute force. Before them lay only piles of ash from burned currency, with a few scattered bills miraculously spared.
“Well, this complicates things. Now we have to investigate a major counterfeit currency case—one with almost no leads.”
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“Not counterfeit.”
“Hm?”
Harvey Dent turned toward the corner of the warehouse. Batman’s figure had appeared in the innermost area without anyone noticing.
“When did you come in... never mind, what did you just say?”
He didn’t reply but walked over and handed a notebook to Harvey.
“What’s this?”
Harvey flipped open the notebook and casually asked. When he saw the dense numbers inside, his heart skipped a beat.
“Falcone was broken into a few days ago. His safe was opened,” Batman said. “There was an important ledger inside. Both Catwoman and I were at the scene—that’s why he put a million-dollar bounty on us.”
“Catwoman stole it? How did you get it back?”
“I’m not sure why she wanted me to know about it. But according to her, if you follow the money, it leads here—to this warehouse.”
“You mean...”
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Meanwhile, Mazhadi had arrived at downtown Gotham City—the third location for his job tonight.
“Although the tip told me to bring a gas mask, I really didn’t expect this...”
Mazhadi held a giant Whopper in his hand and looked at the sewer entrance ahead, his mouth twitching slightly.
“Who orders delivery from the sewer? Killer Croc? Is he really that desperate for a burger?”
“Wait, no—the burger is just an appetizer. I’m the main course!”
At that thought, Mazhadi broke out in a cold sweat. He only wanted to deliver food, not become a meal.
But then again, he had a necklace and a save point, so maybe he wasn’t that scared of dying?
Just in case, he immediately spent a hundred dollars of his assets to move his save point to his current position. That way, if Killer Croc really wanted to eat him, he could reload from the save point when all hope seemed lost.
“Or...”
Mazhadi glanced at the system store. His first two jobs had been completed and settled, and now his asset points had reached a historic high—over twenty thousand dollars.
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Although these asset points couldn’t make him strong enough to fight a two-meter-tall, three-hundred-kilogram mutated crocodile man with super strength, speed, endurance, and regeneration, they could cure the opponent back to a normal human. Then Colt could teach him how to be a good person.
“Bring the opponent down to your level, then use experience to defeat him. Instead of raising yourself, lower others,” Mazhadi thought this through and felt confident. He opened the sewer grate and climbed down the ladder.
“Ugh... disgusting!”
Within three seconds of descending, a stench flooded his nostrils, nearly making him vomit.
He immediately held his breath, suppressing the urge to throw up, and bought a gas mask from the system—masks from the gun shop were too expensive. The system’s ten-dollar domestic mask was far more economical.
As long as it could block the smell, it was a good mask.
“Is anyone here? Hello? Who ordered delivery?”
Pitch-black inside the sewer, Mazhadi put on the gas mask, then took out a small pumpkin lantern he had just acquired from the system.
“Oh, it really is small...”
A tiny pumpkin lantern, just a bit bigger than a quail egg, appeared in Mazhadi’s hand. This size was even suitable to be worn as a keychain. Strangely, the faint yellow light it emitted was very bright, illuminating a radius of several meters around him with a warm glow.
It even came with an adorable mini lamp post.
Holding the little pumpkin lantern, Mazhadi ventured deeper into the sewer. In the empty, circular tunnels, only the echo of his footsteps could be heard. Even though the pumpkin lantern lit the space, a flicker of fear crept into his heart.
“Anyone here? Burger delivery!”
Only a few squeaking rats responded, darting about.
Mazhadi scratched his head. “Either the system glitched, or it’s me…”
“Solomon Mengland, born on a Monday!”
A hoarse, thunderous roar exploded like lightning, shaking the entire sewer with buzzing vibrations. Heavy footsteps pounded like a giant beast running, rapidly approaching Mazhadi’s position.
“Holy crap! It’s not Killer Croc!”