[3rd POV]
"Screech—"
The truck's brakes were pressed, and Batman stretched out a hand with immense strength, effortlessly snatching control of the steering wheel away from Karl's hands.
"Karl Scott."
A cold and merciless voice emerged from his mouth, making Karl shiver all over.
"You know the two people from the Falcone family."
"I—"
Karl instinctively wanted to deny it, but the words got stuck in his throat, and he dared not say them out loud.
Batman didn't have pupils in its eyes, but it stared at Carl anyway. Its cold gaze felt like it could see right into his heart.
However, Karl could never voluntarily reveal any information about the Falcone family.
After stammering in silence, he finally trembled and said, "I—I'm just a truck driver."
"What did those two people make you do at four in the early last Wednesday?"
"I—"
"On September 16th, three years ago, you were involved in a hit-and-run. You hit a woman carrying a child, her internal organs ruptured, and she died on the spot. You got out of the vehicle and watched the child in her arms bleed to death, then left the scene."
"On December 7th and December 25th, two years ago, you crashed into a motorcycle and then ran over a drunk person who had fallen on the road. Last year—"
Karl listened to the voice recounting his deeds, his fear surging in his heart until it twisted into a guilty, hysterical anger.
"Enough! I don't know even what you're talking about! You freak—"
"Click."
"Aaaah—!"
The black handgun dropped at his feet.
Karl's right arm, which he had originally tried to use to draw the gun, had now turned into a limp, slightly bent limb hanging by his side.
"Answer my question."
Batman's tone remained calm and cold as if it hadn't just broken Karl's arm.
"I don't care what you—AAAH!"
"Crack."
Karl fell from the truck's door onto the ground. He had just tried to open the door with his left hand to escape, but this time, it was his right leg that was broken.
"I'll talk! I'll talk!"
The intense pain radiating from his right arm and leg was unbearable. He no longer dared to fight back against this monster for the sake of those so-called 'brothers'.
"I'll tell you everything! Just don't hurt me anymore!"
Batman climbed down from the truck and effortlessly lifted Carl with one hand, like picking up a cat.
He swung his arm and shot out a rope. In just a few seconds, the two of them soared up into the air and landed on the roof of a tall building.
"Talk."
...
After he finished explaining everything he knew, Karl saw him withdraw his gaze from him and couldn't help but let out a long breath.
"I've told you everything I can say. You can let me go now, right?"
However, Batman didn't even turn his head. He casually pulled out Karl's phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, this is the Gotham Police Department."
"Tell Gordon to come to the Otisburg to make an arrest. There's a fugitive here wanted for multiple hit-and-run incidents and intentional homicides."
Karl heard their conversation, and instantly, his eyes widened with anger, "No! You damn well can't treat me like this! You lying freak!"
"Bang!"
A fist the size of a sandbag lightly struck his mouth, and two of his front teeth even flew right out and hit the ground.
Karl's cheek swelled up, and he didn't say a single word after that.
"I'm leaving the phone on. You can track the location and find him inside the truck."
Batman said as he lifted Karl again and chopped him lightly on the neck with his hand, causing him to instantly pass out.
"Come quickly, and remember to bring an ambulance."
Afterward, Batman spread his wings and flew into the night sky, disappearing into the thick darkness over Gotham.
He still had more people to stop.
...
"Where did you get such a weird thing?"
"What weird thing? This beauty got me from Otisburg back here in twelve minutes. Please show some respect to my beloved ride."
"What thing? That unicycle can fly?"
"It's a wheelchair, thank you."
Tony casually flipped the unicycle, and it transformed back into an electric wheelchair.
The colorful lights were already turned off.
Drake fell into a brief silence.
"Anyway, today went pretty well, right?"
"Harvey Dent showed up."
"…You didn't fight?"
"I knew you already knew what was going on over there!"
"I'm not dumb, you know. I heard some stuff."
Seeing Tony's mood seemed a bit upset, Drake quickly tried to calm him down.
"Hey, relax, relax. These kinds of incidents are rare. Harvey usually doesn't go there."
A year ago, someone really couldn't hold back and shot him. Luckily, the bullet hit his bulletproof vest, and he got out safely.
While he was in the hospital, Harvey cooperated with Batman and Commissioner Gordon.
They used that moment to take down a bunch of businesses run by the Falcone family and even managed to capture an important member of the Falcone family.
"And setting aside these rare incidents, the tips are still pretty decent, right?"
"That's true."
As soon as tips were mentioned, Tony immediately calmed down. The three hundred dollars he spent today on Electric Wheelchair and Intermediate Wheelchair Driving Proficiency came from his tips.
The only problem was that the perfume of the rich lady he helped today wore some really strong perfume.
After enjoying a dinner cooked by Mrs. Camilla, Tony took a hot shower, counted his earnings, glanced at the unlucky soul hanging on the gargoyle status tonight, and then drifted off to sleep.
...
"Good, bad morning, Gotham."
Tony woke up from a dream and greeted the city with his usual first thought of the day.
It all started because Tony had a terrible nightmare.
He dreamed he was hung up on the tallest clock tower by some pervert wearing a tight bat costume.
Then... the bat started tickling his feet.
It was horrifying, like some kind of tickling torture from the deepest, scariest part of his brain.
He'd only seen him twice hanging some bad guys tonight and last night.
Why did he have to suffer in the dream?
Tony instinctively put on his clothes and glanced out the window at the dawn light.
The next second, he lay back down.
It was still dark.
He grabbed his phone and checked the time.
11:22 PM.
He'd only been asleep for ten minutes, but his mind was still buzzing with energy, and he checked the system.
"Whoa… this stuff's really strong."
He opened the system store, carefully browsed through it, and checked how long this state would last.
[Tea]
[Price: $30 per serving]
Description: A revitalizing herbal tea infused with natural caffeine, ginseng, and adaptogens. This blend provides steady, long-lasting energy without the impact of typical energy drinks. This keeps the user alert, focused, and refreshed throughout the day—perfect for long work sessions, study marathons, or endurance missions.]
[Note: I can do this all day!]
'Great.'
Tonny had been a bit stressed out in the morning and just wanted a little energy boost for the afternoon.
However, Tony didn't expect this state to last until the afternoon the next day.
'I never thought this stuff would keep me awake, even when sleeping. The original description never said it had this effect. Steve even needed to sleep after taking his serum. You're even more badass than Steve.'
After swearing secretly not to buy stuff blindly next time, Tony opened the store again and carefully looked around, and sure enough, found something.
Heh.
Tony's energy was way too high now and there was no way he was falling back asleep.
He flipped through the store again and bought a beginner's driving manual to read.
[Beginner's Driving Manual]
[Price: $5]
He could earn more asset points later, but he still needed to be careful with spending.
He didn't need to rush into driving anyway.
If he learned it on his own, Tonny could save some of the points it would cost to get the Beginner Car Driving Proficiency.
The system shop was actually pretty fair. He could pay a little extra later to upgrade the skills he already bought to higher levels.
For example, Tony already had Intermediate Wheelchair Driving Proficiency, and he only needed 200 more points to level up to Advanced Wheelchair Driving Proficiency.
Similarly, if he reached Beginner Car Driving Proficiency himself, Tony wouldn't need to spend 500 asset points to buy that skill.
Just then, he spotted another interesting service option.
"Hm? Driving Simulator Training?"
He clicked in with interest.
[Driving Simulator Training]
[Price: $5 per session]
[Description: The user is capable of acquiring practical driving skills through immersive virtual environments. This allows the user to instinctively respond to various road scenarios such as weather, sudden obstacles, or high-traffic situations without real-world consequences.]
"I can change scenes, terrain, road conditions, and vehicle models at will. That's pretty cool. Wait—I can only choose normal cars? Yeah, that makes sense."
"Speaking of which, does an F1 car count as a normal car?"
He flipped through the manual casually but didn't find any sections about race cars.
That made sense because it was a Beginner Driving Manual and teaching to drive an F1 car would be kind of ridiculous.
He first carefully read through the manual and also opened the video section of the manual.
After spending about half an hour getting somewhat familiar, Tony finally started the simulated mental training.
...
Two hours later, Tony came back to the real world after crashing like crazy in the simulator and enjoyed every second of it.
Since it was just a simulator, Tony couldn't actually get hurt, and he could change the roads and scenery however he wanted.
Who wouldn't want to drive a car flying over the Grand Canyon, then crash straight into the DC Studio and take out a few executives who keep messing things up?
Unfortunately, this driving simulator didn't include planes, and that really limited his creative ideas.
Afterward, Tony didn't even look at the skill list in the store since his driving obviously hadn't reached Basic Driving Proficiency yet.
The two hours of practice only taught him how to accelerate, slow down, and brake to stop.
After driving for two hours, Tony opened the system store and spent 1 asset point to finish watching a show he never finished.
Then he used 3 more points to buy a pile of grilled skewers and a big soda.
He decided to just stay up all night and enjoy himself.
...
3 A.M
Suddenly, a sudden gunshot rang outside the window. The sound was so close to the house that Tony instinctively tensed up.
He reached for his waist, touching the gun he hadn't dared to take off.
"Bang!"
"Tch."
Tony thought for a moment.
The person who got shot twice was probably already dead, and it was too late for him to do anything.
"Bang!"
"Damn it, is this never going to end?"
Tony opened the store and started browsing again.
Suddenly, a loud voice echoed through the neighbourhood from somewhere out in the dark night sky.
"HEY! WHO THE HELL ISN'T SLEEPING AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT? YOU WANNA DISTURB THE PEACE? COME AT ME THEN—STAND STILL AND DON'T RUN! I SWEAR I'LL SHOOT YOU, AND YOU'LL FEEL IT FROM YOUR ASS STRAIGHT INTO YOUR MOUTH!
In the dark alley, a woman was pressed against the wall, softly groaning in pain with blood streaming out from the shot.
A man holding a gun was tearing at her clothes with bloodshot eyes, his pupils flashing with greed and madness.
Suddenly, he heard the cursing voice and stopped in shock. Then… he heard footsteps coming from another nearby alley.
"Bang!"
The sound of a shotgun echoed through the East End.
"YOU SON OF A B*TCH! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
...
150 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
250 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
450 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
2000 Power Stones = 3 Extra Chapters