Chapter 109: Battle of the Living Hell (Part 1)

In the early morning, the sun shone into the bedroom of Wayne Manor. Bruce sat up from the bed. Alfred stood outside the door. Bruce asked him, "What time is it now?"

"Nine o'clock, young master."

Bruce was a little surprised. He walked to the window, opened the curtains and took a look. He found that the sky outside was indeed very bright. It was the first time he got up so late since returning to Gotham.

Butler Alfred looked very happy. When Bruce went downstairs for breakfast, Alfred stood beside him with a smile.

"Alfred, what's wrong with you? Why do you look so happy?"

"Because young master seems to be very happy recently."

Bruce was stunned for a moment. Is he happy? He touched his face and tried to recall his recent behavior patterns.

Because Schiller's genius and creative Gotham University student internship program, Bruce has been very busy recently. He has to go out with other classmates to control traffic during the day, and run between hospitals and prisons at night to properly arrange those gang members who can't live here and move there, and those who can't live there and move here.

He suddenly realized that he had been Bruce for much longer than Batman.

In the past, he would not hide his true nature in Wayne Manor. He rarely smiled and was relatively taciturn. Although he was very close to Alfred, he rarely had any emotional fluctuations.

But recently, because he had been Bruce for too long, his behavior patterns became more like the playboy he pretended to be. He no longer had a stern face all day long, and occasionally joked with Alfred.

This made him feel a sense of alarm. Since returning to Gotham, he had never naturally slept until nine o'clock before waking up. This was a manifestation of his mental relaxation.

From a psychological point of view, this is actually very normal. Who a person becomes is largely due to who he thinks he is. Bruce is only 18 years old now and has just started college. When he devotes himself to playing a cheerful and sociable rich man, he cannot clearly find the boundary between this disguised identity and his own personality.

After another busy day, Bruce returned to the bathroom in his bedroom. He turned on the faucet and washed his face with cold water.

The curtains beside him were gently blown by the evening breeze. The cold light above his head made a dark shadow gather under his feet.

Bruce supported his hands on the washstand and looked at the mirror in front of him. The person in the mirror had a pair of blue eyes, but the light from top to bottom made his eyes shrouded in the shadow of the brow arch.

"Who am I?" he asked.

"Who am I?"

"Who am I..."

His voice echoed in the empty room, hitting the wall and returning to his ears, as if another him was asking him this question. He felt vaguely that he seemed to hear the answer, but it seemed that he heard nothing.

The reflected echo could not give him an answer, Bruce knew this very well.

He reached out his hand to wipe off the mist condensed on the glass and see his eyes clearly, but in the end, he still didn't do it, letting his entire face and eyes be covered by the mist on the surface of the mirror, and then he stood up straight, looking down at himself in the mirror.

"I am Batman."

"I am Batman..."

The corners of his mouth began to move down little by little. He was not wearing a mask, but when the shadow climbed up his face, his whole face seemed to be covered by a black mask again.

The shadow covering the blue eyes became thicker and thicker. In the end, only his low voice echoed in the empty manor. He said: "I am, Batman..."

Bruce walked out of the bathroom. In the dark bedroom, he didn't turn on the light, but walked to the door and opened it, and then continued to walk through the dark corridor. When he stood by the stairs, he happened to see Alfred standing downstairs, wiping the old telephone with a piece of felt cloth.

Since Bruce came back, he invented a new mobile communication device for himself, that is, a mobile phone. He has never used that phone again. The old rotary dial phone is too old, and every time it rings, the manor will seem even more empty.

But Alfred cherishes that phone very much. Bruce has never seen a trace of dust on it. Today is the same, but the difference is that Bruce heard Alfred humming a song, which is a bit like a jazz tune, full of the style of the last era, just like the happy and lively mood of immigrants when they just discovered this gold coast.

Bruce looked at Alfred's back, and he closed his eyes in some pain. He clenched his hands holding the railing, and the old wooden handrail made a slight sound. Alfred turned around and saw Bruce standing on the stairs. Before he could ask, Bruce returned to the bedroom as if he was running away.

When he closed the bedroom door, he almost gasped heavily, as if this distance was more tiring than running a few thousand meters.

He felt a strong emotion churning in his heart, as if something was constantly stimulating the emotional system in his brain.

Bruce hadn't felt such intense emotions since a long time ago. After the gunshot on a dark night, Bruce's emotional world lost half of his emotions. All those cheerful, happy and touching emotions had been away from him for a long time.

But when he saw Alfred so happy, Bruce didn't know how to describe his mood. This problem has troubled him for a long time.

Bruce, who was upset, tossed and turned in bed and couldn't sleep. An inexplicable impulse was affecting him. He had no other choice but to put on the bat suit and leave Wayne Manor.

This was the first time Batman put on this suit and left here not because he wanted to fight criminals, but just to escape the emotions he didn't want to accept.

Therefore, after leaving Wayne Manor, he almost wandered aimlessly over Gotham. Bruce had never expected to meet a criminal quickly, bring him to justice, and send him to prison like he did now... No, today should be his turn to be sent to a mental hospital.

Thinking of this, Batman covered his forehead with some discomfort. What was he thinking? Wake up! You are not Bruce now! Forget about the mess of hospitals and prisons going back and forth!

But Batman still couldn't control himself. When he thought about the prison population exceeding 28% tomorrow and the vacancy rate of the wards being less than 15%, he felt that this pressure was more terrible than anything else.

But damn, in this city where you could encounter three robberies every two steps, Batman walked around for half an hour and didn't encounter a single criminal.

Now the streets near the downtown roundabout can be said to be brightly lit. There are thousands of meters of night markets on the four avenues extending from the roundabout, and the lights are bright all night.

Most of those who come here are people who work the night shift, not only truck drivers who have to transport goods at night, but also dock movers, warehouse guards, security guards, etc. who work the night shift. Now this group of people are the most active citizens in Gotham.

Batman stood on the top of a tall building. He knew very well that if he jumped down wearing such clothes, he would be shot twice before landing. Moreover, there was no crime here. Obviously, the city center did not need Batman. He could only leave here and go further away.

Gotham City’s central turntable and main transportation hub are not all. There are more dark blocks in places where lights cannot cover. Batman followed his dark instinct and came to the darkest place in the whole Gotham.

This is the East District of Gotham. The East District has always been synonymous with chaos in Gotham. The gangs here can be said to be entangled and complicated, but the chaos in the East District is also divided into levels.

One of the most terrifying places is called "living hell". This is the westernmost block in the East District, which is the farthest place from the dock. It is also the most crowded, densely populated, darkest and poorest place.

Living Hell is often called "Gotham in Gotham" by Gotham people. All the residential buildings here are crooked and squeezed together. The width of the alleys between the buildings is not even wide enough for an adult to stretch out his arms. In such a dark and narrow alley, there are a lot of debris piled up, and there is almost no place for people to stand.

Batman fell from the roof and walked into the first street of Living Hell. He found that when he looked up from the ground, there was only a very narrow gap in the sky above his head. The dense wires and antennas above blocked most of the vision, like a big net covering his head.

It is very difficult to move forward in such an alley, even Batman is no exception. There is almost no light here, only a few high windows reveal a little faint light. Batman finally turned on the flashlight after being almost tripped by the garbage bag several times.

But even so, walking here is a very difficult thing. Batman just took two steps in an alley and found an extremely twisted staircase spiraling into a dark corridor.

He walked up the creaking stairs, and when he came out after entering the corridor, he found another flat ground in front of him. He walked forward and found that this was the roof of a building, and under his feet was another dark alley.

Batman found a ladder on the roof of this building that led to the roof of the other side. Even with Batman's skills, he had to walk over this ladder carefully.

When he stood on the ladder, he looked down. It was like an endless abyss below, with layers of windows, wires, and garbage bags. All the complicated things were entangled together, like a hell spreading downward.

After crossing the ladder to the other side, he saw a mountain of garbage bags piled on the corner of the roof. Walking to the other side, there was another high-rise building with layers of layers. There was a small door on the side that required bending over to pass. After Batman walked in, he really came to the building of the living hell.

The situation here is worse than outside. There is almost no light. The corridor is so narrow that Batman has to lower his head and tighten his arms, otherwise he can't climb the stairs at all.

Batman felt that it was not accurate to call this passage a staircase. It was more like an intestine. It was very appropriate to call it a living hell.

This narrow, dark and cramped corridor is like an intestinal organ in a living being. After Batman went up two floors, he finally saw another small door next to it.

After going out of this door, the corridor in front of him finally became a little wider, but the door here was still closed. There were various signs hanging in the corridor, such as delicatessen, grocery store, barber shop, etc.

Batman was suddenly surprised to find that there seemed to be an ecosystem of his own in the living hell. He walked through this corridor and found that there were a total of six small intestinal doors leading here. According to Batman's estimation, the structure of these six intestinal channels should be the same as when he came here, corresponding to the entrances in the six directions of the building.

This is really weird and wonderful, Batman thought.

This city is like a miniature of Gotham, and it deserves the title of "Gotham in Gotham".

He was surprised to find that there were not only various living facilities here, but also electricity, water and communication systems. Thick water pipes spread forward in the dark corridor like thick blood vessels, and wires hung messily above the head like dense nerves.

Countless posters and advertisements were posted on the side of each door, and there were even mailboxes hanging in front of many doors.

This was the first time Batman saw such a Gotham. After all, he didn't have a Batmobile before. His scope of fighting crime was basically based on the Wayne Building as the center of the circle, spreading out a distance around, and those robbers basically appeared within this range, after all, it was the most prosperous commercial street in Gotham.

But now, he was in this living hell and saw the unknown side of Gotham City, or the real side under the prosperous surface of Gotham.

But it was strange that this place was dark, cramped, scary and weird, but it had a complete ecological system, showing a different kind of vitality and charm, and even a fascinating beauty.

Batman felt that he might be crazy. He even felt that such a real and chaotic scene was the final answer to this city.