Laughing American comics, I am becoming more and more like a clown

Lucian used the word looter, which refers to the looting behavior of people in panic when social order is destroyed.

He asked the Bat-Lantern: "Should I knock him down? Then hang onto the streetlight and return the gum to the boss - just like Batman would do."

The Bat Lantern should refuse and talk some sense: "Look at you."

He said, "What do you want to do?"

……

Like a parent giving earnest advice to his or her child, giving the child the greatest freedom within controllable circumstances.

Lucien naturally couldn't beat Andrew up and force him to hand over the chewing gum, but he also couldn't turn a blind eye and ignore the old lady who had already suffered a lot of losses.

He was hesitating, constantly shifting his center of gravity, feeling uneasy. Lucien had never done such a thing, and he always turned a blind eye to it.

"I have money. I can give her the money and buy all the supplies... and then just treat it as if I bought them."

Lucien said, he was ready to be refuted and persuaded, but the Bat Lantern didn't even make a sound.

I hesitated and thought: Money can solve the problem temporarily, but what happens next? What if I get robbed again? Do I have to pay it back again?

Lucien tried to recall what Batman in the comics or in his own encounters would do in such a situation.

But at this time, he realized his indifference to this role - he was familiar with all the major events and insignificant trivialities, but he couldn't say how Batman dealt with Gotham.

What Lucien likes is the dark struggle of the character of Batman, watching Batman vs. Justice League, Arkham, alien villains, etc.

When interacting with Batman, he also adheres to the principle of "villains save Batman, Batman saves the world."

And now it's his turn to be Batman.

All the difficult problems worth worrying about came up.

……

"Click——"

There was the sound of a person's weight pressing on the broken glass, crushing it even more.

The old lady raised her head, put the outdated newspaper on her legs, turned down the corners of her mouth, and looked at the person who came in strange clothes with an expressionless face.

She showed no unusual emotion, but something that could be described as despair was spreading in her eyes.

To whom she was addressing she said, "Buy price, seven dollars and twenty cents."

Chapter 200 Injustice

Lucien knew clearly that neither the buyer nor the seller could be blamed... This was not a matter of being petty or ungrateful.

This is a city disease, a social problem. He can't solve the root of it, and neither can Batman.

They can only patch things up like Sisyphus pushing a stone that always slips.

"Do you hate him? Or them?"

Lucien asked, but the old lady still had a confused look on her face. She opened her mouth, perhaps wanting to talk about the chewing gum, perhaps preparing to complain, perhaps asking who Lucien was. For a moment, her emotions were mixed, and she didn't say anything, but just slowly shook her head.

"...I don't know." The voice was very soft.

……

Don’t know what?

On the other side, Andrew returned home. His son heard the sound and ran out of the room. Andrew obediently took out slippers for him to change into. Andrew touched his son's hair and whispered a few words of praise.

Later, my wife brought out the food and placed it on the table - pasta, potatoes, and mushroom soup, not a lot of food.

As the wife took off her apron, she casually said, "Things are becoming increasingly difficult to buy and more expensive these days."

He picked up the fried potato chips with a fork, dipped them in ketchup and put them in his mouth: "They cost eight dollars... God, three potatoes for eight dollars! Why don't they just rob them!"

Eight dollars.

This brought back bad memories for Andrew. He pursed his lips and had no mood to eat. He stroked his face up and down with his palm, and a muffled voice came: "How much food is left at home?"

"It'll last three days... Honey, you have to think of a way. More and more supermarkets are being looted, and I'm worried... I don't know what they're stealing!" He angrily said, "What should we do? We can't even buy it with our money! Those bastards!"

Normally, Andrew would join his wife in condemning things. For someone like him who had no intention of resisting and just focused on his work, any sudden accident would be an obstacle that disrupted his regular life.

But now Andrew became the accident, with the gum lying in his pocket.

He lowered his head, knitted his brows, and cast down his eyes, mashing the potatoes into smaller and smaller pieces with the spoon in his hand, seemingly unconsciously.

"...There will be a way." He murmured.

……

What can we do?

The old lady's expression was still detached. I don't know what she was thinking about. A feeling of panic gradually emerged, but she soon became serious again, with only an increasingly deep despair in her eyes.

Lucien could foresee that if she had a gun in her hand, she would be able to perform a suicide by swallowing a bullet on the spot.

So he said:

"The basic cost of chewing gum is one dollar, the bulk of which is raw materials and machine wear and tear, while the workers' earnings are no more than one cent. Add in shipping, packaging, and advertising... In Gotham, its price tag won't exceed four dollars."

"But now the cost is almost double that, seven dollars and 20 cents, so a retail price of eight dollars is not unusual."

This was a comfort, but the old man seemed not to hear it and was just as dazed as death.

"The workers who produced it didn't make any money, the merchants who sold it didn't make any money, and the buyers didn't have any money either." Lucian continued, "This isn't your fault, and it's not theirs either. The real culprits are those who stole your wealth and forced you to death."

"...Who is it?" the old lady asked with trembling lips, her eyes fixed on the void, not knowing what she was looking at.

"You should know."

……

She really should know.

This old man had experienced the Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal, the days when coal miners could not afford coal and textile workers could not afford clothes, and the days when only one man needed to work in the factory to screw screws to support a housewife, three children, a cat and a dog, and live in a house with a yard.

The current situation is extremely similar to the early stages of the Great Depression, so similar that she even asked in a daze: "Where is Roosevelt?"

Roosevelt is dead.

The wrinkles on the old woman's cheeks stretched and shrank, stretched and shrank again, as if she had just woken from a dream: "...Roosevelt is dead."

……

When Roosevelt was in power, businessmen had to pay 95 percent in taxes. This money not only allowed any ordinary worker to live a good life, but also made the United States a true beacon of the world.

After Roosevelt's death, a court composed of businessmen made Lincoln March president. Tax evasion and tax avoidance became rampant, and the resulting burden fell on the people. Businessmen once again began to toast.

……

"There's no Roosevelt now." Lucian looked at her and said, "Even if there was, Roosevelt no longer has the right to hold a gun to businessmen and force them to pay up their money."

After all, after Roosevelt's death, many restrictions were placed on the president to ensure that there would not be another Roosevelt.

"But you can."

Hearing this, the old lady turned her head.

"Since they won't let you live, you can just rob... You have nothing now, it can't be any worse."

"...But I've been robbed." As if he didn't understand what Lucian said, the old man couldn't help but ask some questions.

Lucian looked around, took out a stack of US dollars from his belt, counted out ten thousand, and placed them on the table: "No way, I bought them."

“…” The old lady picked up the US dollar bills, counted them, and looked at Lucien: “Not enough, it should be 30,000.”

Unlike Andrew, Lucien did not question it and counted out 20,000 and handed it over: "Don't blame him."

"You cherish your phone's battery differently if it's 100 or 10... This money is insignificant to me, but for him, three dollars is a lot."

Surprisingly, the old lady said, "I know, because three dollars is a lot for me."

At this time, light came in through the window, shining on her silver hair and blue eyes. She squinted slightly like an old cat, with her hands crossed in front of her abdomen.

---

This behavior is actually unjust...it encourages people to oppose the government, oppose public security, and rely on gang robbery to make a living.

This is of course unjust. The looting crowd is growing larger and larger—the workshops have no workers, society has no consumers, and the goods on the market are disappearing one by one. Every additional person joining makes the situation worse.

"Why did you do this?"

After landing on the dripstone again, the bat holding the lantern, who had been silent the whole time, asked.

Lucian felt himself being watched—it was the Silent Bat—and lowered his eyes. "Because it's for the best."

Lucian doesn't have Batman's external power or Batman's fighting ability, and he is unfamiliar with Gotham and the United States... This is his limitation. No matter what, Lucian cannot become a hero who can be called Batman in the traditional sense in a short period of time.

What's more, he knew that Lucian didn't think he could become the next Roosevelt, even if he reconciled with the Silent Bat and resurrected Jack to unite with him.

Chapter 201 You Will Cover It

"What's that saying? Life will always find a way." Lucian's eyes fell on the intricate pattern of the bat lantern. "What else? Am I going to hunt someone down and beat him up just for a piece of chewing gum? Or am I going to follow the clues and find the person who robbed me in the first place?"

"Or do you expect me to do this?"

Bat Lantern simply said, "I respect your choice."

"Respect." Lucian smiled, unable to describe his emotion. "The people who robbed them were instigated, and I was the one who instigated them."

"Unless I'm really losing my mind, I won't hit myself in the face."

"I wouldn't mind doing that though."

It sounded like introspection, but Lucian wasn't. "But now, I'm just trying to make the people here see clearly, to let them find a way out from the bottom up... We—me and Silence—are essentially the same. We both want to make this city a better place. He's just patching things up on the existing foundation."

And he wanted a revolution from the bottom up.

Reckless.

……

Bat Lantern looked at him, his tone firm: "You will get into trouble."

Lucien looked at him, his tone firm: "You will cover it."

……