Chapter 51: Shadows of Gotham

After saying goodbye to Jonathan and his wife, Marcus took a car to Metropolis.

Although Superman would one day become the guardian of Metropolis, Clark was still just a baby now, and there were no supervillains destroying the city yet.

Looking at this peaceful metropolis, no one could have imagined that such a powerful guardian would emerge from here in the future.

Marcus spent a day in Metropolis. After visiting the Daily Planet Building and the towering skyscrapers of LexCorp, he caught a bus and headed to other cities.

Time passed quickly. Marcus traveled through many cities, and in each one, he would visit the local museums searching for traces of artifacts.

But each time he left disappointed. The items displayed in these museums were, without exception, ordinary objects without the slightest energy signature.

Of course, he also visited many special locations during his journey: Star City without its Green Arrow, Blue Valley where no one picked up discarded items from the streets, and Central City where the Flash hadn't yet been born.

He spent more than half a year wandering through these cities where superheroes would eventually emerge. Now he sat on a transport vehicle heading from Blüdhaven to Gotham, the hometown of a certain bat.

"I heard the police in Gotham are extremely corrupt and often blackmail people. Is that true?" Marcus leaned back in his seat as he chatted with the driver.

"That's absolutely true. I don't know why you want to go to Gotham, but let me give you some advice. Don't mess with anyone there, especially Mr. Falcone's people."

The Falcone family was Gotham's largest crime family. They were so powerful that even the Gotham City Police Department kept their distance.

"Sounds like Gotham is even more chaotic than I've heard." Marcus smiled.

He wasn't going to Gotham just for sightseeing—he was after something that might exist within the city.

After dropping Marcus at Westward Bridge, the driver headed off in another direction as Marcus walked into the perpetually cloudy city.

"I didn't expect there to be so many Gothic buildings in Gotham. No wonder Bruce dressed himself up as a bat," Marcus muttered, looking at the architecture around him.

These buildings looked fine during the day, but at night, combined with Gotham's perpetually overcast weather, they resembled vampire nests.

Wasn't the symbol of vampires a bat?

Marcus wondered if Gotham's high crime rate might be connected to the depressing atmosphere created by these Gothic structures. The gloomy environment seemed to weigh heavily on people's spirits, which could explain the rampant criminal activity.

But that wasn't his problem. He wasn't here to be a savior.

Walking through Gotham's streets, Marcus had to admit that despite the high crime rate, the people maintained good appearances. Everyone seemed to take care of themselves rather well.

"Well, it's not as bad as I imagined."

As he said this, a thin man approached him. The moment they brushed past each other, the stranger's hand slipped into Marcus's pocket.

"If it weren't for bugs like you, I might actually have a better impression of Gotham!"

Grabbing the guy's arm and twisting it hard, Marcus kicked him to the ground. Stepping on the thief's head, he squatted down and said slowly:

"I may not know all the rules in Gotham, but I don't think anyone will mind if I teach you a lesson."

He touched a sharp kunai at his waist, which appeared in his hand, flashing with metallic luster under the dim streetlights.

Swish! Swish~

With a quick movement, Marcus drove the kunai through the guy's palm. Blood gushed from the wound.

The intense pain made the thief scream, while people nearby just looked on coldly.

"Next time I catch you, it won't end this easily!"

After saying that, Marcus pulled out the kunai and wiped it on the guy's clothes. He stepped on the bleeding palm as he stood up and walked away. The thief was just a petty criminal, so Marcus felt a small lesson was sufficient.

After walking for a while, as he passed a particularly dark street, gunshots suddenly rang out.

Bang! Bang!

"Is someone else on this road? Some kind of revenge hit?"

The gunshots suggested someone had been killed, which piqued Marcus's interest. He always enjoyed watching some excitement.

The moment he walked into the street, he encountered a panicked man who seemed to be carrying something in his arms.

Marcus didn't intend to pay him any attention at first, but the man appeared extremely anxious. Upon seeing Marcus, he immediately pulled out a pistol and fired.

Bang!

The bullet shot from the muzzle, and when it hit Marcus, there was a crisp "ding" sound.

"A mugging?" Marcus looked at the hole in his clothes and kicked the man viciously. "You ruined my clothes."

Though the shooter was solidly built, he couldn't withstand Marcus's kick. He went flying and couldn't get back up.

"That's Gotham for you. I've barely been in the city an hour and this is already the second incident!"

As he spoke, Marcus straightened his clothes and extracted the deformed bullet from the hole in his shirt.

"We don't have any grudges, right?" He grabbed the guy by the collar and walked deeper into the street. "Or is murdering innocent people just how things are done in Gotham?"

As Marcus carried him, the man struggled, trying to break free and escape.

Marcus wasn't having it. He swiftly stabbed two kunai into the man's shoulder joints.

"Move again, and the next one goes in your eye!"

After waving the kunai threateningly in front of the man's face, his captive stopped struggling and allowed Marcus to carry him back to the murder scene.

At the scene, two adults lay on the ground, and a terrified ten-year-old boy knelt beside them, shaking their bodies desperately.

This situation... seemed oddly familiar!

Walking up to the boy, Marcus observed that both adults had been shot in the chest. Judging from the amount of blood, they were already dead.

"Well... one shot kills. You're quite the professional!" Marcus commented as he threw the man down next to the child. "He killed your parents, right?"

Seeing the man with kunai embedded in both shoulder joints, the boy began crying and beating the murderer with his small fists.

Marcus picked up a wallet from the ground and pulled out a business card.

"Thomas Wayne?" Looking at the boy who continued to pummel the man, Marcus raised his eyebrows slightly. "So it really is the bat!"

Though the scene had felt familiar from the start, now he could confirm that this young boy was indeed the future's most suspicious vigilante—Batman.

Looking up, Marcus noticed a girl with a terrified expression hiding on the external staircase of a building. When she realized Marcus had spotted her, she stood up and prepared to flee.

Whoosh!

A white flash shot in front of the girl, and a sharp kunai embedded itself in the wall ahead of her, half the blade sinking into the brick.

"Little girl, are you coming down on your own, or do I need to fetch you myself?"

Hearing Marcus's threatening words, the girl grew frightened. Although she could move easily between buildings, she wasn't confident she could outrun his flying knives. Left with no choice, she descended the stairs but didn't approach Marcus—instead, she edged toward a nearby drainpipe.

"Are there many little thieves like you in Gotham?"

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