The Death Knell

The once-glorious Iceberg Restaurant was one of the favorite gathering places of Gotham's upper class.

Except for the businesses of a few large families, there are almost no people who can open a good restaurant in Gotham.

For ordinary people with no background to open a small shop in Gotham, you don't need to be good at cooking, but you must be good at at least one of martial arts, tactics or marksmanship.

Although this is no longer the era of the eight major mafia families, there are still many small gangs on the streets. The new gangs have no rules and act unscrupulously.

Old-fashioned gangsters collect protection fees and at least provide protection. But now, because the underworld has no leader and is under an organization divided by heroes, the dark order is extremely chaotic.

The sovereignty of some sites changes more frequently. Doing business there may require you to pay protection fees more than ten times a month, and you will not enjoy protection at all.

Although the police station is now more useful than before, there are still very few things that can be managed due to the constraints of the police force.

Needless to say, 8 million people and one police station are too many.

It's not that he doesn't have money, Bruce donated a lot of money to the Gotham Police Department, and he even gave away police cars and weapons for free.

The problem is that there are so few people in Gotham willing to be police officers.

Gordon once formed a SWAT team and selected a group of reliable and young people to join, hoping to use them as the backbone to expand the police force.

But it hadn't even been a week, and all the hard-core members of the SWAT team had been killed by sharp claws. The rest had either resigned or been bribed to become rogue police officers. Bruce's donation had also 'mysteriously disappeared' from the city government's account.

There was one honest female police officer who survived among that group of people, because she was in Arkham Asylum when the Court of Owls launched the Claw Purge.

But after she was discharged from hospital and regarded as a hope by Gordon, she directly resigned and went to work as a bodyguard for a rich lady...

Gordon thinks so, but in reality the officer joins the Infamy Squad and is now an anti-heroic murderer.

This is what this city is, rotten to the core.

The target of the humiliation team is destined to be out of sight. There will always be a steady stream of outsiders coming here, and then it will become equally dark very quickly.

The reason why they are anti-heroes and not madmen is because their double standards are a bit serious. If they are treated as one of their own, it doesn't matter what crime they commit.

You must know that Xia Ruisi's teacher, James Gordon Jr., was a serial killer, and he was still living a happy life. Su Ming suspected that if Hallie killed someone in front of them, Xia Ruisi would still help.

I don't know what they think, and Su Ming doesn't bother to understand them. Gotham is a city that has never been short of mental illness.

And now the Bingshan Restaurant in front of a few people looked like it had been robbed.

After stepping in, the tall crystal statue in the foyer was full of bullet holes, and the fragments fell on the ground, reflecting a faint light.

Blood light.

The situation here gave a new definition to the corpses littering the fields. The gang members in black suits probably did not expect the sudden attack. Many of the corpses had not yet drawn the pistols from their arms.

As one of the gangsters of Gotham, Penguin, who usually dares to raid his place?

Although Su Ming came twice to freeload, these subordinates were obviously not vigilant enough. They never thought about being shot with a machine gun as soon as someone entered the door.

Green Arrow's figure flashed for a moment, and moved from Su Ming's side to the statue. He traced his fingers on the bullet holes, and then flashed back again.

"7.62 NATO standard bullets. There are at least hundreds of bullet casings here. It should be a heavy machine gun, but there are only a few people's footprints on the bloodstains."

Su Ming knelt down and picked up a bullet casing soaked in the blood pool. These bullet casings were scattered in every corner, indicating that they were shot while moving.

Bullets are generally divided into four parts: warhead, charge, primer, and cartridge case. Generally speaking, there are two sets of numbers engraved on the bottom of the cartridge case, which are the manufacturer's code name and the production number of the goods.

The bullet casing in Su Ming's hand was a special bullet. It did not enter the market and was forged for his own use.

Because there are no two rows of numbers on the bottom of each cartridge case, there is only a small bat etching.

"Tsk, tsk, it seems that the Laughing Bat has found a new helper. I don't know that the Dark Multiverse has a murderous Batman who is good at firearms."

Su Ming threw away the bullet casing and began to observe the footprints. He shook his head and said to the two people around him.

Green Arrow has always been vigilant, turning his head around to observe the surroundings. Hearing this, he smiled: "Maybe there is a 'Death Knell Bat' in some world, haha..."

Su Ming shrugged, it was really hard to tell.

Deathstroke's body was strong enough for him to carry a heavy machine gun and do somersaults while firing. He could rush into a crowd and kill less than a hundred gang members as easily as drinking water.

But that's not Deathstroke's style.

Because no matter which world the death knell is, it is impossible to choose to carry a heavy machine gun and shoot at others. Even if it were Su Ming himself, in this case, he would give priority to explosives and directly blow up the restaurant to the sky, and everyone inside will naturally die. .

This new perverted Batman is different. He has a special affection for guns. He likes to see others being killed by guns...

"Are there any survivors?" Su Ming did not pick up the topic of 'Bat Clock', but asked Diana who was walking around.

Wonder Woman shook her head. These people were all dead. She was familiar with battlefields and naturally familiar with corpses.

Although the bodies are not rigor mortis yet, which means they have not been dead for long, there is still a difference in temperature between the living and the dead.

"There are probably more than a hundred people here, but they were shot either in the forehead or in the chest. They were all fatal injuries." Diana held the sword in her hand and said helplessly: "You should shoot with such accuracy with a heavy machine gun. It’s clearer what it means.”

The table where Su Ming and Diana had dinner was also broken, and a corpse was pressed on the tilted table. Su Ming walked over with some pity, lifted the tablecloth, looked at it, and then put it down.

"It means that this Batman has better marksmanship than Deadshot, which means that his shooting can even take into account ballistic reflection."

Green Arrow looked at his face, Zoro's mustache was curling up and down as he spoke, but he didn't find it funny at all, because he also needed to master ballistics when shooting arrows.

"If you want to catch these people off guard, the time from entering the door to killing everyone will not exceed a few seconds. Then the weapon used by the opponent is likely to be a weapon like a multi-barreled Vulcan cannon. This is not something that ordinary people can do. For play."

"Batman has never been ordinary, and we should now note that there are several different kinds of footprints in the blood."

Su Ming interrupted the discussion of marksmanship and pointed to a line of footprints left on the semi-coagulated blood.

These footprints obviously go in the same direction. Although the patterns on the soles are not the same, it can be seen that the shoes are all about the same size.

Among them were a pair of footprints of the murderer and a pair of footprints of a maniacally laughing man. Su Ming had already identified them, but there were also a pair of leather shoe footprints and a pair of bare feet?

Diana is also quite knowledgeable about footprints. After all, she used to have nothing to do on Paradise Island except hunting.

"It seems like good news. There are only four people in the new Dark Knights." She observed for a while and winked at Su Ming.

"It's also possible that there were twenty perverted Batmans on standby outside the door who didn't bother to come in, and the rain took away the traces of their presence..." Green Arrow came up with the worst possibility and thought about it. My scalp feels numb just thinking about it: "Last time, the Laughing Bat suffered the loss of splitting its forces into six groups. This time, no matter how many Batmans are concentrated on the operation, no one can be sure."

Speaking of this, Su Ming was a little numb. A perverted Batman was fine, but if there were enemies with complementary abilities, even if he were to deal with them, he wouldn't be completely sure.

Batman has never been hit by the light beam of a light ring. He can even dodge the light... Sure enough, the trump card still depends on Green Arrow...

Su Ming didn't want the two of them to scare him, so he waved his hand and motioned for them to follow: "Don't worry about how many enemies there are for now. If we find where the enemies are, we will naturally know how many there are. The bloody footprints extend to the back hall. Let's go. "

Green Arrow followed him around the border. Although his eyes were still looking around, he whispered: "Those are really not problems. The key is that there is one thing I can't figure out... That is why Penguin became the target of laughter? It doesn’t make sense, does it?”

The fake Zorro touched his mustache, and the golden rapier in his hand swayed in the darkness with his steps.

As for the reasons, Su Ming might be able to think of some, but they are too far-fetched and worth considering.

"The Penguin is most famous for his arms smuggling business, but the Dark Knights have proven that they can't use it. They have customized weapons from the Bat... So what else does the Penguin have? Seafood? Or money? I don’t think Crazy Laughter would be interested in that.”

Diana held up her shield and walked back. She also remained alert: "This building looks beautiful, but it is not strong at all. Laughter would not choose such a stronghold. The Penguin has no biological and chemical weapons, and logically speaking, he has no merit. Something to be remembered for.”

Su Ming suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Diana. Her words reminded him that he remembered something.

"The Penguin's identity, that's why he was targeted by Laughter."

He picked up his pace a bit and spoke quickly.

The other two people quickly followed. Although Diana's body reacted, her brain did not. She asked with a confused look: "What is your identity? Gotham's gang boss?"

"He is not an ordinary gang boss. There is one fundamental difference between him and others." Su Ming stepped over a body lying in the corridor and raised a finger.

"Um?"

"He is the only survivor among the eight major gang families in the past who is currently engaged in gang activities." Su Ming pushed away the pile of corpses blocking the road.

Diana still didn't understand, let alone her, even Green Arrow didn't expect what Deathstroke was going to say.

"Gotham was built at the end of the 19th century, and gangs were generally born around 1930. Why? Because U.S. policies at that time provided the soil for the birth of gangs." Su Ming shook off the intestines in his hands with a smile, and gave another Give a hint.

Green Arrow understood, and he was somewhat impressed by Deathstroke's thinking ability, and said with admiration: "During Prohibition, the high profits of bootleg liquor at that time were no less than those of drug trafficking today, which led to the prosperity of gangs across the United States. And because at that time Those who manufacture and transport illegal alcohol will be jailed, and gangsters often choose to build underground wineries and use sewers as transportation lines for alcohol."

Su Ming nodded and couldn't help showing a nostalgic expression: "Yes, and the Cobot family must have done such a business at that time, so he must have a sewer map from that year. Gotham's sewers are divided into four parts. There are different systems. The city came with one when it was founded. The gangs built one during the bootlegging era. The Court of Owls built a new one. Bruce donated one to the government after returning from school. The one he built now is the latest one. That one."

Oliver gave a thumbs up: "So there are still three sets of abandoned sewers. The old sewers are often tangled together like a maze. No one knows their existence and where they lead. If you want to use the old sewers to do something, Maps are essential.”

"Is this the reason why Laughter attacked him?" Diana thought for a while, and it did make some sense. The satellite could not see Laughter, probably because the other party went underground.

Deathstroke's guess is probably right.

She stared helplessly at the back of Su Ming's head from behind: "If you weren't old enough, I would have suspected that you had experienced that era and had been in the bootlegging business. Why are you so skilled?"

Su Ming shrugged with a smile. There was no way to explain this. Diana's warrior intuition was sometimes so accurate...