The gangsters didn't resist much. They knew how things worked. Killing a cop over a brawl might be easy, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't worth the trouble.

  After all, they would only be sitting in jail for a few hours. There was no reason to put up a fight.

  Oher hand, if they killed Gordon here, and their boss had to buy the life of a cop, they would be in serious trouble.

  Killing a cop didn't scare them, but making their boss lose money over something like that was a huge problem.

  Ohe gangsters had calmed down, Gordon didn't keep firing. He checked the injuries of the Falember, called for an ambunce, and then brought in his fellow officers to take the Maroni thugs to Gotham Police Station.

  He noticed the hate-filled gres from the Maroni thugs, but he didn't care.

  He had e to Gotham to up its mess. He , and they were criminals. Why should he be afraid of them?

  ......

  But the evening, his fidenbsp;was shattered.

  "Still so cocky, huh? Keep ag tough!"

  The Maroni thugs, who had been arrested the day before for causing serious injury, were back. This time, they found Gordon in a dark alley. He was bound, helpless, and at their mercy.

  They started beating him without hesitation, delivering punches and kicks mercilessly.

  "How tough are you now, huh?" one of them sneered, delivering a harsh blow to Gordon's side.

  With each strike, Gordons earlier resolve began to fade, and he realized the true nature of Gotham–Its corruption, its violend how little he had truly uood befotham was far darker than he'd ever imagined. His idealistic view was crumbling fast, and the brutal reality was taking its pce.

  "Cough!"

  A mouthful of fresh blood at from Gordon's mouth.

  The light had faded from his eyes.

  It wasn't because he was afraid of the gangsters, nor because his internal ans were damaged, but because of everything he had entered.

  In the police statiht there iham City Police Department, he had been ambushed and knocked unscious. When he woke up, he found himself in an alley, enduring the attacks aaliation from these gangsters.

  He could accept that these gangsters held a grudge against him, but he couldn't accept the corruption of the Gotham Polibsp;Department.

  He olice captain! Right there in the police station, his own colleagues had handed him over to these gangsters.

  What kind of deal had they made? Gordon had no idea, but he could clearly see the corruption in Gotham.

  The righteous ideals in Gordon's heart began to crack at that moment. Even the pain from the gangsters' attao longer bothered him. He only felt sorrow, sorrow fotham, this once-prosperous city.

  "Hey, hey, hey, what are you guys pying at…?"

  As the group of thugs reveled in their abuse of Gordon, apanied by a sinister ugh, Reid, pying the role of Joker, appeared at the alley entrand sloroached.

  "Who are you, and what do you want?"

  These thugs kly what Gotham was like. In Gotham, a cop like Gordon was far less dangerous than a lunatic dressed strangely like the Joker.

  "Nothing much, I just wao... join your little game."

  Saying this, Reid g Gordon, who colpsed on the ground.

  He wasn't here to rescue Gordon. Indeed, Gordon was a charismatic character in the Diverse, but just being charismatic wasn't enough to warrant Reid's personal visit.

  The real target of his visit were these thugs from the Maroni gang.

  Before Batman made his appearance, Reid wanted Gotham's nights to be steeped ierrht by the Joker.

  This required the Joker's reputation to echhout all of Gotham, and the Maroni gang's thugs, as stepping stoo that reputatiohe perfect targets.

  As fordon, he was merely a casualty of circumstance.

  'So, it's another criminal?'

  Lying on the ground, tears of bitterness fell from Gordon's eyes, but they only strengthened his resolve.

  He couldn't give up. It was precisely because he was the st person holding onto the light in this city that he couldn't let go. He had to fight against this evil to the end.

  "So, you have a grudge with this officer?"

  The Maroni thugs chuckled, not at all bothered by someoomping on this annoying cop a little more. But Reid simply shook his head.

  "No, no, no. My target isn't this poor officer."

  As soon as the words left his mouth, the Maroni thugs tensed up, gripping their ons tightly. If this wasn't here fordon, then he was undoubtedly here for them.

  "Bingo~~ Looks like you guessed right!"

  Reid raised a hand, causing the thugs to jump in fear. At the same time, the motion revealed the tig time bomb beh his purple suit, its timer already ting down the final ten seds.

  "Run! He's a lunatic!!!"

  The first thug to react tried to flee, but before he could take more than a step, Reid swung a baseball bat—seemingly pulled from nowhere—crushing the man's skull with a sirike. It was as effortless as smashing a watermelon.

  Though the Joker's frame appeared thin and frail, in truth, whe serious, he was capable of taking on Batman in hand-to-hand bat and even ing out on top. His strength was anything but ordinary.

  "Son of a—!"

  The remaining thugs had no iion of avenging their fallen rade. No one wao risk being taken out by a madman like him. Survival was their only .

  But as the thugs rushed toward the alley's entrahey discovered that the narrow passage was blocked by two massive figures.

  It was Solomon and Killer Croc.

  However, Killer Crog toward the interior of the alley, occasionally dispyed an expression of fear. Unlike Solomon, who had been calmed by Red with a simple nursery rhyme, Killer Croc was utterly terrified of the Joker. As far as he was ed, as long as that lunatic didn't cause him trouble, he'd do whatever was asked.

  Uo get past the two, the thugs were forced to retreat.

  At that moment, they deeply regretted ning guns. If they had, they might have stood a stead of being utterly defenseless.

  And so, uhe desperate gazes of Gordon and the thugs, the tdown oime bomb reached zero.

  "HAHAHAHA!!!"

  Instead of an explosion, what followed was the sound of the Joker's iic ugh, pying from a small speaker attached to the bomb.

  "You're messing with us?"

  The thugs turheir angry gazes toward Reid, who was standing there with a smile on his face.

  Reid's response was simple and calm.

  "Didn't I say we were pying a game? And games should always be pyed with a smile. Hehe…"

  The moment, a massive burst of green ughing gas sprayed from the bomb, engulfing the entire alley in an instant.

  "Hahaha... What's... hahaha!! I 't stop... hahaha!!"

  The thugs who ihe gas began to ugh untrolbly. Their wide-open mouths straiheir airways, and one by ohey started to asphyxiate, their ughter turning into grotesque, dying wails.

  On the ground, Gordon, seeing the green gas flooding the alley, immediately held his breath. But as the eerie, wailing ughter filled his ears, terror crept into his heart.

  Holding his breath could only st so long. No matter how hard he tried to resist, he eventually gasped for air, uo hold out any longer.

  Just as Gordon was about to inhale a lungful of the toxic gas, Reid crouched doressed a gas mask over his face.

  "No, no~ You're not part of the game. You're not allowed to ugh."

  **

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