Chapter 1 Welcome to Gotham City (Ch 821643426)

Gotham’s weather has never been very good. This is not only a fact, but also closer to a truth.
It is located in the subtropics and has a subtropical monsoon humid climate with abundant precipitation, rain and heat occurring at the same time, and mild winters and hot summers.
If this is the case from a scientific perspective.
But perhaps due to plot requirements, the “rain” content in this climate type in Gotham is already too high.
It’s like a witch’s castle with a dark cloud hanging over your head every day.
This is a good metaphor. After all, Gotham is as evil and crazy as a witch in a fairy tale. But the inappropriateness lies in that Gotham is not a fairy tale.
————
[You exchanged your illusion for the ability to be immortal]
【Welcome to Universe-22】
Lucian woke up from his sleep…or rather, coma. His pupils gradually focused and he saw grayish-white walls and dark rolling clouds.
“I exchanged my hallucinations for the ability to be immortal?”
“How come I don’t know?”
Lucian tried to recall, but found that his memory was extremely blank. He completely forgot his previous job, the house he lived in, and the things he experienced. But fortunately, he did not lack things like “knowledge” and “instinct”.
For example, he knows the harm of nicotine, but he still habitually reaches for his pocket to smoke a cigarette.
But I touched nothing.
Lucien lowered his head and looked at the black windbreaker, turning every pocket inside out, and finally came to a conclusion.
Not only the cigarettes, but also his lighter, wallet, resident card, cell phone, keys…or in other words, everything was gone.
That’s quite normal.
Lucian thought that if there was something left behind, perhaps it would allow him to have a basic judgment of himself.
For example, judging the economic situation by the brand of cigarettes.
But there was no need to go through so much trouble, Lucian rubbed the texture of the clothes.
80% acrylic.
Then I must be penniless.
“This is not a very unexpected but not very happy news either.”
Regarding himself, Lucien could only infer based on his current state.
In addition to ascertaining his former financial status, he also determined his gender by feeling it out.
But Lucien soon realized the folly of trying to seek information about his past self.
“I have traveled through time… so I don’t have any memories.”
He sighed and looked around, deciding that he had taken in enough information from his surroundings.
An old building that is not very tall, seems to be on someone’s balcony. Standing on the edge and looking down, you can see a dilapidated cement road.
It is about twenty meters high.
The balcony where he was was a bit dusty and messy, with a few men’s and women’s items hanging on it and some bags of dog food piled in the corner.
It seems to be a family of two with a dog.
Lucien turned sideways and looked inside through the glass. It was dark outside and there was no light in the house. It seemed that no one was there.
He lowered his head and met the eyes of the German Shepherd lying in the corner of the living room.
“Bah—”
The door suddenly opened.
——
“Hi~baby~”
Julie works as a receptionist in a company. She carries a high-end imitation branded bag and holds her cell phone in one hand, and uses the other hand to unlock the door with a key and push it open.
As soon as she entered the room, she kicked off her high heels and greeted the German Shepherd lying there enthusiastically. Then she threw her bag onto the sofa, with the pistol inside it spilling out.
The German Shepherd whimpered twice and tried to get up several times, but after wagging its tail, it finally lay there without moving.
This abnormality attracted Julie’s attention, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. She threatened him coquettishly: “You’d better not scratch the sofa or the floor…”
The German Shepherd wagged its tail and turned its head away, facing the balcony.
Julie wrinkled her nose and was about to take a closer look when her cell phone rang. She turned into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
She didn’t take off her clothes, letting the water spray onto the ground, steam rising, pressed the answer button, and then said in a sweet tone:
“Hey baby, I’m taking a bath.”
“Oh, of course, I missed you too baby~ wanna come tonight?”
“Okay…what about tomorrow? I’ll come to your place tomorrow? Of course! Okay, that’s it~ Good night, darling~”
After hanging up the phone, Julie was a little irritable: “He must be seeing someone else outside. Damn it, even my wet body temptation is useless.”
“Don’t let me catch you!”
Julie cursed a few more times, still indignant, and reached out to test the water temperature. When she felt it was suitable, she was about to wash it, but she realized that she had forgotten to bring in the nightgown, so she shouted to the German Shepherd a few times: “Baby, help me bring in the nightgown.”
But there was no response, so I asked again with a little suspicion:
“baby?”
There was total silence, even the dog’s whimpering was gone.
Julie became alert: “Baby, are you being naughty again? Mommy doesn’t blame you…”
She complained a few more times in a low voice, but became more and more stiff, so she gradually calmed down and tiptoed to take out a boning knife for self-defense from the drawer. The water droplets from the shower head formed mist around her.
Suddenly, a puppy-like whimpering sound was heard with some fear and vigilance.
The woman thought of the German Shepherd’s abnormal behavior, and the hair on her back stood up. She turned around suddenly and said, “Who!”
The tall and thin man in the living room turned his head slightly to look at her, and the pistol thrown on the sofa was pointing its black muzzle at its former owner.
…
“The money is in the drawer of the room.” Julie slowly raised her hands with a calmness that comes from having seen everything.
“If your goal is to have sex with me, then put it under the TV cabinet in the living room.”
…
“…Give me the phone.”
Lucien was a little surprised by her reaction, but out of respect for the cultural customs of the other world, he did not show it. Instead, he raised the gun and signaled.
Julie squatted down, skillfully and obediently slid the phone across the floor to him, then raised her hands, exposing her belly like a cat to show her softness and harmlessness.
Lucian picked it up and looked at the page that had been thoughtfully unlocked. After a moment, he raised his eyes and asked:
“You should know why I’m here.”
Lucien was bluffing her. He always felt that Julie’s attitude was a little strange.
Julie didn’t raise her head to look at his face: “I don’t know… Don’t worry, I didn’t see your face, so I don’t have to kill you.”
“As for news… maybe you’d like to know about some of the giant toys’ facing customers or distributors?”
Giant toys?
Lucien thought he was overthinking, so he stopped talking and started looking at his phone.
It is considered to be of low to medium quality, with some diamonds on the phone case, and a trendy and eye-catching style.
The language used was English, much to Lucien’s relief.
At least English is spoken all over the world.
Then I looked at the positioning.
…It was too early for him to relax.
Gotham, USA
Lucien:?
His remaining memory obviously did not forget how Gotham existed, and then he understood the phrase “Welcome to Universe -22”.
What universe is named after a number and a minus sign?
Oh…it’s the dark multiverse in the DC worldview.
While Lucien was silent, Julie suddenly thought of something and spoke tentatively:
“Wait…Favorites and History…”
Lucien came back to his senses and gave her a complicated look, somewhat understanding her previous reaction: “I’m not interested in this.”
“That’s not what I meant…” Julie said, “The signal tower was blown up. You can only see my favorites and history.”
Lucien: …
He didn’t think it was strange that the signal tower in Gotham was blown up, but he had a question: how did Julie’s boyfriend call her if there was no signal?
Julie also realized that this was not right, and explained without any psychological burden: “I suffer from hallucination-delusion syndrome, I think I am not mistaken.”
“Don’t worry about it. I just fantasize about a cheating boyfriend… and then set an alarm every afternoon to pretend it’s a call.”
Lucien curled his lips, not quite understanding, and hummed lightly in response, then opened the history and favorites on his phone.
This is a record that is very consistent with that of an urban female white-collar worker.
It involves professional knowledge inquiry, interpersonal communication collection, psychological state assessment, major news interpretation, and some reeds.
Lucien can see Julie’s basic information and some famous events in Gotham.
For example, the discussion about Robin’s reverse growth.
Unable to find anything useful, Lucien turned on the map function, observed the surrounding terrain and urban areas, and found something that surprised him.
——The place where he was was once Park Street, but now Crime Alley.
In DC comics, besides Arkham, this is the second place most closely associated with the Bat-Family.
Lucien looked at Julie, who was squatting obediently, and asked, “Why was the base station blown up? What happened recently?”
“…Maybe Arkham has escaped again.” Julie wasn’t sure either.
Instead of expecting to learn something from her, Lucien turned his gaze to her long blond curly hair: “What’s wrong with your mental illness?”
He still remembered the words: “You exchanged the ability of immortality for illusion.”
Whether it was true or not, it was too much of a coincidence to encounter a hallucinating lady as soon as I opened my eyes.
Although Julie was surprised, she didn’t think there was anything to hide, so she explained: “My boyfriend died, and I didn’t believe it, so I imagined that he just cheated on me – that’s what the doctor told me.”
“How do you feel?” Lucien asked.
“Well… I don’t know. After all, I don’t love him that much, but maybe… I have some cuckold complex…”
Lucien always wanted to smoke when he didn’t know how to answer, so he asked, “Do you have cigarettes?”
“Under the TV cabinet in the living room.”
Lucien flipped through the boxes and found several unopened packs of condoms placed next to the cigarettes and lighter. He pondered for a moment, then took out a pack and put it in his pocket.
He didn’t recognize the brand of cigarettes, but after lighting them with a lighter and putting them in his mouth, Lucien was surprised to find that they tasted quite good.
“One last question, how many floors does this place have?”
The man walked up the stairs. There were some black dots on the gray cement stairs, which were traces of chewing gum stuck to the ground. The handrails were made of iron and were rusty. Many places on the white walls were covered with mold and the wall paint was peeling off.
Ninth floor.
Lucian walked to the rooftop, which was also dilapidated. Looking around, he saw buildings that were almost as high as him.
He walked to the edge and looked down. There was a light mist.
Like rain.
Lucien dropped his hands on the fence.
There is a concrete floor below, and if it is hit hard, the best outcome would be paralysis of the lower limbs.
[Trading the ability of immortality at the cost of illusion]
Is immortality the law of cause and effect or the immortality of the body?
Lucien tapped the ash off his cigarette.
The clouds were dark and the whole city was dim. The air was very high in moisture, making it seem like it was raining, yet not.
“This weather…”
He inexplicably felt somewhat out of place and uncomfortable, as if the place where he had lived before was a sunny and dry environment.
He shook his head: “There’s no point in thinking about this.”
“I should be thinking about Gotham.”
Through Julie’s favorites, Lucien knew that there were four Robins now, so Batman should be in his middle and late stages, a period when he was cunning, calculating, and stubborn.
“It’s difficult.”
Lucian is not a die-hard fan of comics. He can only remember some basic settings and major events in the early and middle stages of Batman.
Besides, it’s still the dark multiverse.
“The Destroyer, The Dawn Lantern, The Drowned Soul, The Laughing Bat, The Red Death, The Merciless Iron Fist, The Killing Machine, The Destroyer…”
“It’s still the more niche dark ones: silent bats, angel of death bats, black magic bats, etc.”
“The only thing that can be ruled out is the ghosts of drowned people… At least we can be sure that the superheroes in this world have not changed their gender.”
Lucian exhaled a puff of gray smoke, quietly finished a whole cigarette, and his brows gradually relaxed.
“Forget it, let’s just find someone from the Bat Family and have a good chat.”
He looked down and thought of the phrase [The power of immortality]
“What will happen if I jump?”
But Lucien had no intention of jumping.
If it’s fake, you won’t survive even if you jump down.
If that’s true, then there’s no need to jump.
Lucien went to the rooftop just as a physical habit: to go up high to smoke a cigarette and calm down.
He walked down slowly.
The building was very quiet, with no sound of talking or walking.
After all, it is an old building, and perhaps the occupancy rate is very low.
Lucian walked out and saw the gray-white walls and gray-black streets, and when he looked up he saw rolling clouds.
“I should go to Wayne Manor to find someone.”
The owner of Wayne Manor is Bruce Wayne, also known as Batman.
“Take a cab or something, and have Batman pay for it.”
Suddenly, there was an explosion in the distance and flames shot up into the sky, interrupting Lucian’s thoughts.
The red flames broke through the misty vapor, and then the thick black smoke curled up and merged with the clouds.
“…I guess I can’t get a taxi.”
The explosion seemed to trigger the sound button of this world, and even louder sounds rang out.
Messy footsteps, excited roars, and the crisp sounds of fighting…
There were a few people around who hurriedly passed by Lucian, looking for cover in a well-trained manner.
“Well-trained.” Lucian chewed on the description.
“I should also hide, and then take a cab to Wayne Manor when this is over.”
Moss and mildew grow in corners that are never exposed to sunlight all year round, sewage accumulates in sunken areas, and fresh, moist vomit and excrement drip onto the walls of the trash can.
Lucien hid in the corner of the trash can, holding his breath slightly.