American comics: Starting in Arkham, a system-based Batman

Chapter 109 Robin's Debut Preparations

Bruce didn't try to be brave; he simply said, "I understand."

It was just nightfall, and although it wasn't yet time for the Maroni family to receive the weapons, and no guests had yet visited Falcone's private villa, Zheng En and Bruce had to go there early to make preparations, just in case.

Jung Eun put on a hood, casting a deep shadow on her face, with a glimpse of skin underneath; Bruce changed into a bat costume, his face mostly covered by a hood, with only half of his chin showing.

Both the hooded cape and the serrated cape were uniformly black. Zheng En got a ride in the passenger seat, and when the Batmobile left through the passage, he opened one of the doors and floated into the sky.

"This is the Bat Cave, and Penny is online."

Alfred's voice came through the earpiece, and Zheng En immediately responded, "This is Zheng En/Batman—"

His response coincided with Bruce's, and he realized that everyone else except himself had a code name.

It's a bit odd that Penny One, Batman, and Robin, who hasn't been allowed to join the mission yet, are mixed in with his real name.

He hadn't realized it before when they weren't on missions together, but now that he thinks about it, he needs to give himself a codename.

Call me Z.

Jung Eun simply capitalized the first letter of her name. Although she really wanted to give herself a cool nickname, she couldn't think of one in a short time. Besides, it would be too childish and make others feel embarrassed when they called her that.

Alfred readily agreed, "Okay, Z."

"This is Penny One. Everything is normal in Miller Port and the Roman's private villa. No suspicious persons have been found in the surrounding area."

The Batcave's large screen is divided into several windows, some of which contain content from hacked public cameras, but mostly from footage that Batman has been installing over the past few days.

Gotham's infrastructure isn't bad; the Wayne family has been dedicated to building the city since its inception. However, for Batman, it's far from enough.

Public security cameras are sparse in number and scattered.

Ports like Miller Port, with their massive throughput, should have a large number of surveillance cameras. However, to facilitate gang activities and various illegal trades, the original cameras were either removed or destroyed, leaving only a few scattered cameras in the main areas as a mere formality.

When necessary, these cameras will malfunction, run out of power, or be damaged, leaving no one to check against.

Bruce initially invested in the infrastructure in the name of Wayne Corporation, putting the original cameras back in their places, but in less than three days, the cameras were rendered unusable.

There was no need for the gang to intervene; it was just that no one stopped them. Kind passersby, homeless people, and the like dismantled and sold the cameras. With all that commotion, even the few remaining fugitives were caught.

Bruce could only install a few in key areas, just as his predecessors had done. They survived only because the guards were willing to stop them.

If open methods don't work, then covert ones will. After suffering a loss in silence, Bruce simply started secretly installing cameras during his night patrols.

This time he learned his lesson and either changed the shape of the camera to be less noticeable or installed it in a hidden corner. After a lot of trouble, he finally got a grasp of the situation in Miller Port and its surrounding area.

The same principle applies to a Roman's private villa. During the day, he would disguise himself as a cleaner and easily access and install cameras in the nooks and crannies.

Thanks to these prior preparations, Alfred was able to provide them with information about the surrounding area inside the bat cave.

Dick sat in the swivel chair and watched and learned.

Bruce initially didn't intend for him to learn these things, only teaching him self-defense skills and physical training. But Dick wasn't satisfied with that, and Bruce couldn't persuade him otherwise, so he taught him everything at once.

Alfred was his senior and one of his mentors. What the other was doing now, Bruce had done before when he was on night patrol.

The dazzling screen held little appeal for Dick. Seeing Alfred intently staring at the windows, he quietly got off his chair, then furtively took a step and glanced back before sneaking back upstairs.

He's not going to stay obediently in the bat cave.

Dick believed he was ready to fight alongside Batman, but he was just too busy with too many things to do. One minute it was the Riddler, the next it was the Calendar Man.

He wanted to help Batman, but was ruthlessly rejected.

"Your presence will only distract me."

"No way, I can take care of myself!" Dick retorted. "If I had gone that day, you wouldn't have been ambushed and hit in the back by the Riddler!"

This happened before, after Jung Eun teamed up with Batman, he thought things would take a turn for the better.

With another person helping out, Batman's burden was significantly lightened. He hoped Batman would realize the power of numbers and join the night patrol.

But it still didn't work.

Dick had had enough, and he decided, today! Zheng En went to Falcone's private villa, while Batman had to deal with so many gangsters by himself. He wasn't a god with three heads and six arms, so there was bound to be oversights.

When the Riddler attacked Batman, Dick could only watch helplessly from inside the Batcave through a screen.

When he returned that night, he volunteered to treat Bruce's injuries, which were long, grotesque bruises running across his back.

The next day, while walking, he saw Bruce gasping for breath.

Dick didn't want to see Bruce turn out like this again. That day it was just the Riddler and his henchmen, but today it was a large group of gangsters, all armed with guns, far more powerful than the mentally ill man who played riddles or killed people on holidays.

He slipped upstairs back to his room and pulled out a red and green outfit from the bottom of the wardrobe.

Green short-sleeved shirt and shorts, red jacket and relatively short yellow cape.

This is a uniform he modified from his own clothes. Back in the circus, everyone designed their own costumes. Although there were prop masters who would help sew them, most people preferred to do it themselves.

Dick's first costume was designed and sewn by him and his parents. If he could make the first one, he could make the second.

Unlike Batman's suit, his pants are very short, like those of traditional circus costumes, designed for ease of movement, allowing him to make various movements and poses.

As for the cape that might add air assist—it's cool, and both Batman and Jung Eun have it.

He quickly changed his clothes, combed his hair in front of the mirror, and put on a small black mask he took out of the drawer.

"Alright, Robin, it's time for you to head off and help Batman!"

Dick, full of confidence, opened the door, only to be instantly enveloped by a dark shadow.

He looked up and involuntarily took several steps back.

"Young Master Dick, if I remember correctly, you don't seem to have any plans to go out tonight."

Alfred was standing in the doorway. Dick smiled awkwardly and said, "Well, it's not that we can't increase it."

Alfred: "I don't think Master Bruce will agree."

"Okay, okay."

Seeing the old butler's unyielding attitude, Dick had no choice but to walk back to his room dejectedly. But after taking only two steps, he realized something and went back to find Alfred.

"Weren't you in the Batcave?" He frowned, looking around, and quickly spotted a small dot in the corner above the doorway. "Could this be a surveillance camera Bruce installed?"

Faced with Dick's questioning, Alfred remained silent for a moment, "He installed surveillance cameras at the door of everyone's room."

"Just the doorway?" Dick asked, hands on his hips.

"---I don't know about that. You should ask Bruce when he gets back."

Dick was so angry he was jumping up and down, his face burning as if smoke was coming out of his head. "Bruce is absolutely awful!"

Alfred offered no comment and turned to leave.

"I still need to go and help Young Master Bruce and Young Master Jung. Please come down with me after you've changed your clothes, Young Master Dick."

"No way!"

Dick caught up with Alfred in a few steps. "My combat suit is with me!"

The old butler, feeling guilty because of Bruce's actions, sighed helplessly but couldn't say anything more. "Whatever makes you happy, Master Dick."

The two returned to the Batcave, where Bruce had already arrived at the port.

Although it was still a long time before the weapons were to arrive as reported, the Maroni family was already at the port, ready to depart.

This is easy to understand, after all, it was a batch of weapons that gambled on the fate of the entire family.

Batman was waiting in the corner with a group of gangsters. Dick got bored and turned to look in the other direction.

Dick looked around but couldn't find Jung Eun in the camera's view.

"I'm here."

Jung Eun pointed the camera at herself, then at the brightly lit villa below and the large forest nearby.

The villa is built not far from the main road, but it's completely invisible when you're just passing by. You have to turn onto a side street that doesn't appear on navigation maps, and follow the winding road for a short distance before you can see the outline of the house.

Several cars were parked in front of the villa, and armed gang members were conducting a search.

People got out of the car and went through the carved railing-style gate, but they still had to walk another ten meters or so to reach the main entrance.

Wearing a monocle, Jung Eun searched for the nearby claws. "One, two, three—oh no, there are five claws here."

He wasn't sure if the Court of Owls and the Joker had reached an agreement, or if the Joker had taken control of Claws, or for some other reason, but he knew that the other party truly wanted Rob dead.

Is it really necessary to deal with a random NPC who only appeared briefly before being sidelined?

Zheng En was puzzled and confused. He originally thought that at most there would be two or three Claws. In the original story, there were only about ten Claws who attacked Wayne Manor. Could Rob be some important character that the Joker had to kill?

But it's too late to think about that now.

Rob's car has arrived.

He went in with his entourage. Everyone inside was chatting and laughing. The long dining table was already quite full. Rob was considered late to the party.

"Oh, look who's here, our old friend Rob."

Falcone raised his glass, and a waiter refilled it. Rob clinked glasses with him across the glass. "It's good to see you're still in such good health, Carmine."

"You too, Rob." Falcone took a sip of his drink. "I heard that the criminal who killed the mayor has his eye on you. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Of course, I would be very grateful for your help."

Rob was waiting for Falcone to say that, so he quickly told him about how the mayor had been sewn and manipulated into the shape of a bat. Even though Falcone had already found out about it, he couldn't help but change his expression when Rob vividly described the details.

It's not that he would find it particularly terrifying or creepy. To be able to suppress numerous gangs in Gotham and become the undisputed godfather of the underworld, his methods would only be far more ruthless, depending on whether he wanted to use them or not.

But it's dinner time now.

Falcone didn't want to spoil his own appetite at this time.

"Alright, that's enough." He stopped Rob from complaining. "We've been friends for so many years, of course I'll help you."

"only----"

Falcone paused for a moment as waiters filed in carrying trays to him, and then passed them on to the seated guests in turn.

Rob was sitting to Falcone's right, with someone between them.

He noticed that the Romans were looking at the person next to them rather than at him.

"Friendship should be reciprocal, and right now I happen to need your help with something," Falcone said slowly. "What do you say?"

"You're right." The man raised his glass to both Falcone and Rob. Rob, who had been looking worried since entering, realized that the man was one of the mayoral candidates in the previous election.

The mayor of Gotham remained unchanged for a long time simply because the Romans and the former mayor, Aubrey, maintained a long-standing friendship.

With the current mayor dead, this man finally had a real chance. A new election was scheduled for soon, and Rob realized what Falcone wanted him to do.

"I'll support you," Rob clinked glasses with him. "After all, a friend of a friend is a friend."

Falcone smiled with satisfaction. "Enjoy your meal, everyone."

Amidst the passing of cups and toasts, a flying knife shattered the glass, piercing through the window and heading straight for the servant who was preparing to leave.

Two fingers appeared out of thin air, clamped the blade, and then disappeared.

"Ding-dong."

After the glass shattered, a crisp sound followed as the knife fell onto the ceramic floor.

The servant looked in astonishment at the black-robed figures that had suddenly appeared around him. A scream came from not far away as a man who had been stabbed in the temple with a flying knife collapsed to the ground, and the woman opposite him screamed.

Zheng En turned around abruptly and met Li Zhao's gaze.

The opponent immediately lunged forward, aiming the dagger at Zheng En's heart. The sharp blade pierced through the fabric, but could not go any further.

The clone that existed only in her retina held the dagger firmly in place, and Jung Eun stared intently at her.

"Who gave you permission to kill someone right under my nose?"

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