Chapter 9: A Different Gotham

Just as Zi Liang had anticipated, soon a batch of police arrived on the scene, nearly ten police cars surrounding the bank. An officer stepped forward, picked up a megaphone, and shouted at the bank, “Listen up, this is the Gotham police! You are surrounded! Put down your weapons and surrender!”

These lines were the most classic useless chatter, like telling a child not to cry when getting a shot or yelling “Stop!” when chasing someone—saying it was pointless, but not saying it felt lacking, and this behavior clearly communicated to the robber: “Look! I’m the boss here!”

From the criminal’s perspective, this loud megaphone shouting was a blatant insult to their intelligence. If the criminals inside the bank wanted to resist, the first one to be targeted would definitely be the one holding the megaphone; there was no doubt about it.

After a while, seeing that there was no response from inside, the police chief signaled the SWAT team to prepare for a possible forced entry.

But at that moment, several pieces of paper were taped to the bank’s windows, with the words written on them—“Stop shouting, this is my phone number.” Below that was an actual phone number.

The police chief froze for about a second. “What the hell?” he muttered, but he still put down the megaphone, took out his phone, and dialed the number.

Soon, the call connected.

“Hello! This is the Gotham police! You are surrounded! Put down your weapons and surrender!” He repeated his opening lines.

However, as soon as he finished, a timid voice came from the other end. “I... I’m a hostage...”

“Uh?” The police chief was taken aback again. “Where’s the robber?”

At that moment, the phone seemed to have been handed to someone else.

“Hi, I’m the person you’re looking for. May I ask who you are...?”

This voice sounded very calm; it must be the robber.

“I’m Police Chief Tom Hill.”

“Nice to talk to you. You can just call me Zi Liang.”

Police Chief Tom Hill frowned slightly. “Alright, Mr. Zi Liang, it sounds like you’re not too panicked, so I’ll temporarily classify you as an experienced player. You should understand your situation; you are surrounded, so...”

“So now I only have one option, which is to obediently open the bank door and walk out to surrender, right?” Zi Liang interrupted. “But unfortunately, I don’t want to do that.”

“Then what do you want?” Hill asked.

“You don’t need to know. To save time, I’m going to say something you want to hear.” Zi Liang quickly said, “I have no accomplices; there’s only me in the bank. Right now, I have 31 hostages. They’re very lucky; they’re all alive. One guard was shot in the leg, but no major arteries were hit, so to put it bluntly, he’s not dying anytime soon, and I’ve already had his partner bandage him up. Do you know what that means?”

Police Chief Hill was stunned again, partly because the other party was speaking too quickly, making him take a second or two to fully process it, and partly because this robber was clearly a professional who understood what the police were most concerned about.

But why would such a professional put himself in such a desperate situation?

Seeing that the other party remained silent, Zi Liang continued, “Alright, let me explain. What I just said means that I’m a conscientious robber. I haven’t killed any hostages, and everyone here is currently safe. That means I haven’t given you any reason to violently storm the bank. So if I find out that you’re trying to cut off the bank’s power, sending in a SWAT team to sneakily remove the protective bars next to the door, or throwing smoke bombs through the ventilation ducts, basically doing anything I’m not happy with, I’ll start shooting hostages. Right now, I have three guns and 55 bullets. From the moment I sense something is wrong until you manage to subdue me, I’m confident I can kill more than half of the people here.”

Zi Liang deliberately slowed his speech, making each word very clear. “I think I’ve made myself clear enough, and just as a friendly reminder, all the hostages in the bank heard what I just said. I started recording as soon as this call came in. Trust me, if you don’t heed my warning and force your way into the bank or try to pull any clever tricks, I have a hundred ways to make sure the families of the deceased hear our conversation. You should know what the police will face afterward.”

Cold sweat broke out on Police Chief Hill. He tried to mask the tension in his voice. “What do you want?”

“What do I want? Hahaha—” Zi Liang suddenly burst into a chilling laugh. “You’re asking too many questions, and I don’t like your voice. I want to speak with Commissioner Gordon. You have about ten minutes to bring him here. If I don’t hear Commissioner Gordon’s voice on the next call, I think I’ll do something you’ll definitely regret!”

After saying that, there was an immediate busy tone on the line, leaving no time for Police Chief Hill to ask questions or explain.

“Damn it!” Hill cursed. “Contact Commissioner Gordon, hurry! Tell him there’s a major situation here!”

He shouted at one of the nearby officers... Meanwhile, a very ominous premonition began to creep into his mind... because this robber named Zi Liang gave him a sense of déjà vu, a feeling he hadn’t experienced in many years.

...

...

Zi Liang quickly hung up the phone and tossed it to a hostage in the corner, not forgetting to yawn and say thank you. Then, as if nothing had happened, he sat back in his chair and pulled out his notebook, flipping through it.

He had been in this city for three months, and only in the past few days had this notebook finally begun to resonate with the city. Some information had started to slowly surface on the pages. Although it was still fragmented, from these seemingly meaningless bits of information, Zi Liang was able to deduce a few things.

That is, this city called “Gotham” was no longer the sinful city people once knew. Although evil still lurked, a significant difference was that the so-called super criminals hadn’t been seen in a long time.

Seven years ago, something happened one night, but no one knew exactly what. All that was clear was that from that night on, all the super criminals vanished without a trace... Some said they were all locked up in Arkham Asylum, others said they all died, but regardless, since that day, Gotham had transformed into something entirely different.

...

Even that cloaked figure known as “Batman” hadn’t been seen since that night.

Chapter 10: Following the Rules

Zi Liang ran his fingers through his messy hair, scratching it fiercely.

“This version of Gotham feels off. Is the ‘compass’ malfunctioning?”

He mumbled to himself, slapping his notebook as if trying to knock some signal back into a suddenly dead TV. But in the end, nothing came of it, and he could only sigh and tuck it into his pocket.

Then, Zi Liang kicked the ground with his foot, sliding the chair over to a hostage...

After this time, everyone had clearly understood that as long as they cooperated, this doctor in the white coat wouldn’t kill anyone. So when they saw Zi Liang’s movements, they instinctively flinched a bit but didn’t scream.

“Hey, do you have a cigarette?” Zi Liang asked.

In front of him was a typical office worker—suit, tie, slightly overweight, balding, lips a bit purple, and nails yellowed. Generally, if you asked someone like that for a cigarette, eight out of ten would say yes; the other two would just not want to share.

Sure enough, the man nodded immediately, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and handed it to Zi Liang.

Zi Liang unceremoniously stuffed the entire pack into his pocket, then lit one with his lighter, taking a deep drag.

“Do you know Mr. Bruce Wayne?” he asked.

“Bruce Wayne...” The office worker repeated, as if searching for a long-unused memory. “Ah! Of course I know him, but he’s been dead for many years.”

Zi Liang’s expression fell immediately, looking quite frustrated. He took a long drag of his cigarette, which felt like a laborer who had been denied wages finally getting a taste of despair.

To be honest, having been in this world for three months, with daily occurrences of robberies, homicides, explosions, and so on, he thought that was just the way things were here. Plus, since Zi Liang had been lounging in his little clinic all day, he hadn’t realized until now that the man named “Bruce Wayne” had already died...

Of course, the reason he only realized this now, something he should have discovered long ago, was that Zi Liang didn’t know much about “Gotham.” He had experienced too many worlds to focus on any one of them—actually, he only vaguely learned from his notebook half a month ago that a wealthy man named Bruce Wayne was actually the one who called himself “Batman.”

...

After a little while longer.

Soon, the phone rang. Zi Liang slid over to another person, who cooperatively handed him the phone.

Zi Liang answered, “Hello, hi.”

“Hello, Zi Liang, I’m Commissioner Jim Gordon from the Gotham Police Department.” A deep male voice came from the other end.

“Ah, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Zi Liang replied lazily.

Just as he finished speaking!

“Bang!” A gunshot rang out.

“Ahhhhh—” The crowd erupted into chaos again.

“Damn it! What are you doing?” Commissioner Gordon exclaimed, sounding both angry and panicked.

Zi Liang, satisfied after identifying the gunshot and screams coming through the speaker, nodded. “Oh, nothing. I just wanted to confirm you’re really outside.”

“You... Alright, stop doing that!” Gordon said, suppressing his anger. “I’ve gotten a general understanding of the situation from Officer Hill. You’re a smart man, so you should understand that you can’t escape. Since you haven’t killed anyone or caused any damage so far, if you surrender, I can guarantee to plead for leniency with the judge for you!” His tone was earnest, deliberately lowering it to create an atmosphere of “this is reliable.”

“Ah, thank you for your kindness.” Zi Liang mumbled. “But I don’t want to accept your kindness, and now you need to understand that I’m in charge here.”

“Fine, you’re in charge.” Commissioner Gordon said in a deep voice. He knew that those earlier promises wouldn’t change the situation. Anyone with a bit of sense knew that as long as there were hostages, the police’s promises were basically worthless. “Now that I’m here as you wished, you need to show some sincerity.”

“Hahaha—” Zi Liang suddenly laughed. “You really are experienced. Alright, what do you want?”

“I need to confirm the safety of the hostages!”

“Of course.” Zi Liang replied. “And I won’t just tell you the hostages are safe; I’ll directly release a hostage.”

“What!” This response surprised Commissioner Gordon, and for a moment, he thought he had misheard.

“Yeah, you heard me right. I will release a hostage; just give me a little time to prepare. And during this time, you all need to stay put and not break the rules. That’s it... So, goodbye.” With that, he immediately hung up the phone.

All the guards exchanged glances, stunned by the sudden turn of events, seemingly not expecting that this bank robbery would resolve so smoothly.

...

...

About five minutes later.

With a sudden creaking sound, the bank’s previously closed door swung open.

At the same time, the sight before everyone made them slightly taken aback; they saw a person kneeling inside, dressed in police uniform, with a paper bag over his head, hands bound, and a sign hanging around his neck with a number on it: “31.” Below it was a line of smaller text, but it was too far away to read clearly.

“Binoculars, binoculars!” Commissioner Gordon shouted.

Someone nearby hurriedly brought over a pair of binoculars, and Gordon immediately looked through them at the sign on the hostage’s chest. The large “31” was followed by the words—“Please call me.”

“Damn it, what the hell is this jerk doing?” Gordon muttered to himself, then picked up the phone and immediately dialed that number again...

The call quickly connected, and Zi Liang’s voice came through. “Hi, Commissioner Gordon, here’s the hostage you wanted.” 

Gordon lowered his voice. “This is just one person; I need to confirm the safety of all the hostages, and you said you would release them!”

“Got it, got it...” Zi Liang sounded impatient, then suddenly raised his voice. “Alright, the one at the door can go now!”