Chapter 13: Arrested

The super criminals of Gotham had been silent for many years, so the current police force lacked experience dealing with such eccentric individuals. Fortunately, the police here had always been highly effective, and under Commissioner Gordon’s command, the ambulance was quickly surrounded four blocks away.

Of course, the smooth encirclement of the ambulance was largely due to Zi Liang’s cooperation; fearing that the police would lose him, he drove at the slowest possible speed, deliberately taking routes with surveillance cameras. Otherwise, if he had stopped by some alley, changed clothes, and emerged in a crowded area with his head covered, finding him again would not have been so simple.

On the street, dozens of police cars had surrounded Zi Liang, and officers held their guns, eyes fixed on the ambulance, afraid of any sudden developments.

Zi Liang didn’t keep them in suspense; he cooperatively pushed open the car door and stepped out.

In an instant, all the police officers went on high alert, the sound of bullets being chambered echoed.

“Don’t move!”

“Put down your gun!”

“You are surrounded!”

Alright, the same old lines; Zi Liang listened with visible impatience. He lazily surveyed his surroundings, facing the sea of police officers and dozens of gun barrels, and naturally finished his last puff of smoke before tossing it to the ground.

In fact, just the act of throwing the cigarette made several timid individuals in the crowd flinch instinctively. Some even imagined a scene where “a puff of smoke exploded, and the person vanished,” a scenario that belonged only in movies.

However, such a scene would not occur because as long as he stepped out of his clinic, Zi Liang was just an ordinary person. So when that cigarette hit the ground, it merely bounced and nothing happened.

Then, Zi Liang slowly raised his hands, turning in a circle as if taking a bow to indicate he was unarmed...

The next second, more than a dozen officers rushed forward, swiftly binding him and handcuffing him.

...

...

Three hours later, Gotham Police Station.

The door to the interrogation room swung open, and Commissioner Gordon walked in, tossing a wired earpiece and a blood-stained shirt sleeve onto the table.

At that moment, Zi Liang was handcuffed to the chair, wearing only a wrinkled shirt.

“You recorded the gunshots on your phone, then used a lighter to distract the guard, took his gun, and lured the police over. After that, you made the injured guard kneel at the entrance, bound everyone’s hands and feet, and put paper bags over their heads, so no one could see what you were doing...” Commissioner Gordon said steadily. “But then you switched clothes with the guard and put on a bag, disguising yourself as him kneeling at the door... During this time, you were using this.”

Gordon picked up the earpiece and held it up in front of Zi Liang. “Then you pretended to be injured, walking toward us while talking to me through the bag. The mic was wired to the door; as long as it was pulled a certain length, it would be removed. In the end, you just had to act in immense pain to get the medical staff to carry you onto the ambulance.”

After saying all this, Gordon sat down in the chair opposite Zi Liang and quietly stared at him.

“Hey, heh—” Zi Liang chuckled. “Did you come up with all this yourself afterward, or did you check the bank’s surveillance?”

Gordon ignored Zi Liang completely. He leaned on the table, leaning in close to exert pressure on him... “Who the hell are you?”

“I told you, I’m Zi Liang.”

“That’s just a name. I checked your information; there’s no record of you in Gotham City, and there’s no entry record for the past six months. So who are you really, and how did you get here?”

“This—” Zi Liang drew out the sound, as if struggling to think. “I’m sorry, I can’t explain that to you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you wouldn’t understand, and even if you did, you’d think I’m insane.”

Commissioner Gordon slammed his hand on the table. “Bastard, don’t mess with me.”

“Alright, alright.” Zi Liang said helplessly. “I’m a traveler. I traverse time and space, breaking through the barriers between different worlds to find an element that makes up this universe because…”

“Damn it!” Before Zi Liang could finish, Gordon pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. He immediately realized that this Zi Liang was exactly the type of person he least wanted to deal with.

Whether it was those self-proclaimed clever criminals or muscle-bound murderers known for their brutality, Gordon had many ways to handle them. But the most troublesome were these utterly incomprehensible lunatics because people didn’t know what they were doing or what they wanted. A person you couldn’t understand at all... was like... someone from many years ago.

Just thinking about that guy made Gordon feel a strange chill wash over him, as if he were back in the darkest and most terrifying era.

“He’s dead... you saw him die with your own eyes…”

Gordon kept repeating this in his mind, finally pulling himself out of that mad memory.

“Uh... you seemed uncomfortable just now.” Zi Liang’s voice came through, seemingly with genuine concern.

Gordon raised his head, scrutinizing this suddenly appearing guy.

“You’re a complete lunatic,” he concluded.

Zi Liang immediately nodded, seemingly pleased that the other person recognized this, and added, “Right, right—lunatic, a lunatic criminal who just blew up a bank.”

Gordon jumped to his feet. He didn’t resort to punching or yelling at Zi Liang because he knew that wouldn’t work. After years of battling various lunatics, he had summarized the simplest and most effective method.

Just capture them; there was no need for interrogation or to try to understand them. Just lock them up directly, and even skip the trial if necessary; otherwise, there was a high chance of falling into their traps.

So without saying a word, Gordon exited the interrogation room...

“Arrange for the personnel immediately. Right now, send this bastard to Arkham Asylum. I’ll handle things with the judge.”

He said to a nearby staff member.

Chapter 14: Arkham Asylum

On the outskirts of Gotham City, there stood a massive Gothic-style mansion. Although it was grand in scale and design, whenever people mentioned it, they all thought of the dim courtyards, deep corridors, dark nights filled with thunder and lightning, and the eerie cries emanating from the yellow light shining through the windows.

This place... was Arkham Asylum.

It was an ominous place, and the people of Gotham were deeply convinced of this.

In fact, a long time ago, it was built as a large general hospital, but before it could be completed, the chief architect inexplicably went mad and committed suicide, killing all the workers there before his death.

After a while, a psychiatrist bought the place and transformed it into a large mental hospital. However, not long after, a patient named Martin suddenly went insane and killed the psychiatrist’s entire family...

Six months later, Martin’s body was found; he had been electrocuted to death in his bed, and it was also discovered that the psychiatrist had long gone mad.

By this time, the mental hospital had already been transformed into a dark prison by that psychiatrist.

Not long after, the psychiatrist also died, and the government simply took over the facility, naming it Arkham Asylum after that psychiatrist. Its purpose was to imprison the most dangerous criminals.

Yes, this place was not a hospital but a genuine prison.

...

...

On this day, Arkham Asylum welcomed another new patient.

Outside the holding area, two uniformed guards pushed a rusty gurney down a dark corridor.

On the gurney lay a disheveled man in his thirties, with obvious dark circles under his eyes. His hands and feet were firmly shackled to the bed, and his body and head were tightly bound with straps. A special mask covered the lower half of his face, locking his chin, rendering him unable to open his mouth.

For a newly incarcerated prisoner, not allowing him to open his mouth seemed excessive; after all, how could they even interrogate him like that? But Arkham Asylum was indeed the place with the highest concentration of talent in Gotham City. It was rumored that several years ago, a newly incarcerated inmate somehow managed to bite off his own molar and accurately spit it into a guard’s eye, leading to that guard’s immediate retirement. So since then, masks had become standard equipment for prisoners at Arkham.

...

At the end of the black corridor was a large iron door, covered with steel bars thick enough to be the width of a thigh, making it feel like it would be easier to break through the wall beside it than to open that door.

However, the gurney didn’t head straight for that door; instead, it turned and entered a room that looked like an office.

The gurney was then lifted upright, and Zi Liang found himself facing a desk where a middle-aged man sat. He wasn’t wearing a guard’s uniform but was dressed in a suit, a smile on his face that hovered between amusement and cruelty. He was casually flipping through a report.

Upon seeing the prisoner pushed in, he tossed the report onto the desk and looked at him.

“Hello, Zi Liang, nice to meet you. I’m the warden here, Quincy Sharp.” He smiled and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t read your file in detail, but I can assure you that your presence here indicates you are a vicious, ruthless, unsympathetic individual with mental issues. I like to refer to you all as... scum.”

As he spoke, he walked toward Zi Liang, and it was clear that Quincy Sharp was a very meticulous man, even a bit obsessive-compulsive. Though he had little hair, it was meticulously styled, and the edges of his clothing were neatly tucked.

“You should have realized that the door ahead is the last door leading to the prison area. According to protocol, I need to meet every new inmate and share some little knowledge with them... or rather, how to survive here.”

His gaze scanned Zi Liang’s face, and upon seeing his messy hair, he displayed obvious disgust.

“First, I need to tell you that you are a life-sentenced inmate. Most of those who come here are like that... so once you walk through that door, you are no longer yourself. Whatever you once had will be left behind; there’s no chance of parole, no court notifications for trial. The only ways to leave through that door are two: first, you die; second, you escape.”

After saying the word “escape,” Quincy Sharp suddenly paused, staring intently at Zi Liang... After a long time, he continued.

“Maybe you’ll feel excited upon hearing the word ‘escape,’ or perhaps you’ve already thought of a plan for how to escape on the way here. But unfortunately, no matter how much you’ve heard that Arkham Asylum is a place where you can ‘come and go as you please,’ since I took over as warden, no one has successfully escaped.”

“Second, once you pass through that door, you will lose all the basic rights of a citizen: freedom, human rights—all stripped away. You must respect everyone not wearing a prison uniform because they are your masters. If you don’t follow the rules, we will punish you. If you glare at a guard, we will punish you... In fact, as long as you laugh oddly after lights out, spit on the floor, leave leftover food, have a strong odor of urine, or simply look too ugly and ruin someone’s mood, we will punish you. The only thing you can do is to try to behave yourself. Oh, by the way, there’s a psychiatrist here who is very knowledgeable about ‘electrotherapy,’ but I guess you wouldn’t want to meet him.”

“Third, there’s a tradition in Arkham Asylum that every new arrival goes through a welcoming ceremony. Of course, this welcoming ceremony isn’t prepared by us for you, but by the inmates inside... As for how they will welcome you, I don’t know, but the guards generally won’t intervene. So, I’ll give you a piece of advice: I hope after dinner, you’ll spend more energy crying... rather than calling for help. This is my last piece of concern for you.”

Quincy Sharp smiled.

“Well then, welcome to Arkham Asylum.”