Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

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Gotham, City Hall Office Building, 8:00 AM.

Knock, knock, knock—the sound of knocking arose, followed by the creak of a door opening as a woman in formal attire walked into the office holding documents, her badge hanging around her neck identifying her as Ms. Weiss, the Mayor's Assistant.

"Mr. Napier, here's the final revision of the draft for your press interview this afternoon. You can look it over and note the important points."

The figure seated before the desk didn't move, merely lifting his eyelids before speaking, "Just leave it here, I'll look at it in a bit."

"In two hours, you have a hearing about the pollution at the X15 district chemical plant. We've already prepared the venue, would you like to check it out in advance?"

"No, I have a visitor in half an hour."

"Name?"

"Mr. Neway and Professor Rodriguez."

"Alright, I'll have Angel greet them."

"No, don't let Angel go, send Gley instead."

"Okay, sir."

The figure at the desk set aside the documents he was looking at, let out a soft sigh, and rubbed his forehead before picking up the press release that had just been placed on the desk.

He flipped through it casually; pale fingers glided over the black ink, the straight lines making the English alphabet seem contorted.

His eyes darkened upon reading an entry, and he shifted his gaze back to the document he'd been reviewing before—the keyword 'X15 district chemical plant pollution' appeared in both documents.

He stood up from his chair and walked over to another table that held a map of Gotham City dotted with color-coded pins, the meanings of which only he knew.

Gotham was divided into five areas: B, E, F, G, P, X.

This was not the original geographical layout of Gotham; like most other universes, it was divided into four directions—east, west, north, and south—and could also be segmented into New City and Old City, which are akin to the American convention of downtown and uptown.

The letter designation was a zoning strategy he had adopted since taking office, with B representing business, E education, G politics, F finance, P public, and X production.

It wasn't a simple geographical concept but a zoning one instead, and many areas weren't located in a single place but were instead scattered all around, hence the letters were often followed by a number indicating a specific area.

The incident at the X15 production area occurred at a chemical plant in the eastern part of Gotham. About half a month prior, a Super Villain took hostages there. To hinder the police investigation, he damaged the chemical production pipeline, causing hazardous materials to leak.

Batman successfully apprehended the criminal and rescued the hostages, but the leaked chemical gases had entered the atmosphere of Gotham. To prevent public panic, the media mostly referred to the leaked gas by the code "X15."

Seated in the Mayor's office chair, he now recalled the charade of the past half-month.

About over three months ago, Jack Napier, who had formally announced his mayoral campaign, received a mysterious invitation. The invitation informed him that he was granted participation in a multi-universe grand carnival that could resolve all his current predicaments.

They called that promise land—Battleworld.

Napier knew well what plagued him, his most significant worry being that his body had started to become immune to the medication, the drug that helped him regain lucidity and maintain his sanity was losing its effect.

The madman was nearing his return.

What was more terrifying, he used public opinion to dethrone Batman, seating himself upon the pedestal, but if the madman known as the Joker once again took over this body, all his efforts would be for naught.

Napier had no other choice but to gamble.

And fortunately, he won.

In this special space, his illness wouldn't worsen, the crazy whispers that always appeared late at night, the terrifying laughter that ensnared his soul, never surfaced in Battleworld.

Although he met more crazy Jokers here, they were not him, and they wouldn't contest for control of his body, so listening to their tedious jokes didn't matter much.

But this was never a permanent solution; he would have to leave Utopia someday and return to the shattered city in search of a cure.

Fortunately, he also met some friends here, and that particular Bruce was one of them.

The pale knight invited Bruce to his universe, hoping he could help his Gotham—as things stood, the more strength they had, the better.

Bruce didn't disappoint him, Maria, who was deemed a substitute for Harley Quinn but had fallen wholly into madness, was no match for him.

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He thwarted Maria's conspiracy, defeated her legion of madmen, and, considering subsequent arrangements, made Batman, who had been spurned by the public, a true hero for once, salvaging his reputation.

With Bruce's help, the pale knight reconciled with Batman. Although Batman still didn't join the pale knight's GTO (Gotham`s Special Anti-Terrorism Squad), the two achieved a subtle balance.

Batman continued to fight crime on the front lines, while the GTO made efforts to clean up Gotham's security. Bruce believed he could replicate the drug that saved Nepier, which relieved the pale knight, seemingly indicating that everything was developing for the better.

But how could things be so smooth?

All these actions, following the toxic gas leak incident in the X15 industrial district, revealed their deepest flaw – they had run out of money.

Batman invested over three billion US Dollars every year for natural disaster funds, but these funds were pocketed by those who speculated on land prices using Batman's actions, or in financial investments.

Three billion a year, is thirty billion over ten years.

They used this money to heavily short the local Gotham industries of Wayne Enterprises, bribe officials, empty the term of every mayor, then take out more funds from the city government, putting all of Gothamites' money into their own pockets.

Fighting crime requires money. Keeping the anti-terror squad running requires money. Investing in slums requires money, and even the pale knight himself needed money to produce more drugs.

But they had no money, Wayne Enterprises' liquid funds were drying up, the city government's coffers were emptier than clean faces, and the pale knight himself couldn't contribute a dime.

This left the pale knight, Batman, and Bruce, who had finally glimpsed hope and held great ambitions, completely dumbfounded.

"'Where did the money come from to save Gotham?' he asked me," Bruce said to Shiller in the car heading to the city hall. "I answered him as truthfully as possible."

"What was his reaction?" Shiller asked.

"He said I had a good dad, I told him that in fact, I have a bunch of good friends too. Without Oliver and the others, we wouldn't have been able to get so much military funding so easily."

"Of course, you also had a good professor, without him, the Soviet Union wouldn't have helped Mexico stoke that fire so fiercely."

"Indeed," Bruce said with a tone of reflection. "But not everyone in this world is so lucky, at least the Batman and Joker of this universe aren't. They have no way to generate wealth, let alone get rich overnight."

"In the end, it's because he's unwilling to undergo a thorough revolution," Shiller pinpointed the issue, but then shifted the subject: "I completely understand what he's worried about, his very basis for existence is the support of Gotham's poor, but to strike at the rich would certainly cause pain, a single grain of sand is a mountain to the people in these times."

"So I didn't persuade him," Bruce continued. "Nowadays, 80% of Gotham's industries are in their hands, over 90% of Gotham's permanent population depends on them for sustenance. Even if we killed them all, what then?"

Shiller also shook his head and said, "There are always people who say that to solve Gotham's problems, just flatten it with a missile; and when it comes to the problem of wealth inequality, there are always those who feel, just kill all the rich people."

"But this world will always have rich people. If one is killed, someone else will replace them, whether it's his child, a stranger, or even a poor person, it doesn't matter."

"What matters is, the new person in power is no different from the last, just as selfish, just as acquisitive, and it's the same with the one who kills him, the one who kills the successor, it's all the same, wealth always flows at the top of the pyramid, no matter how many people are swapped out, it remains the same."

"That's because they lack thought," Bruce said. "They are unsupported by anything nobler, without intellectual innovation, endless killing and switching places means nothing. Without a truly great idea nurturing a great person who stands with the majority to rebuild the distribution system, wealth will still not circulate."

"Yes, your Gotham succeeded because those who took over, like your father, friends, professors, and yourself, just happened to be those who value ideals over wealth, unafraid ideologists. I am also the same."

"While I believe it's all about human effort, you must also admit that there is an element of luck. Without the right time and the right people, miracles will never happen."

"This is obviously impossible here," Shiller turned to look out the car window and said: "There aren't so many ideologists here, and even the pale knight isn't lucid and determined enough."

The atmosphere in the car fell silent.

"Let's talk about what you did when you first came here instead," Shiller played with the ring on his other hand, as gray mist hummed a song in his mind.

Bruce looked out the car window and then said, "That's nothing compared to the difficulties we face now; the only interesting part is that it was the pale knight's just desserts."

"Oh?"

"The woman named Maria, the madwoman who nearly caused a disaster, was actually a stand-in trained by the pale knight when he was still the Joker."

"A stand-in?"

"That's right. Maria thought she was Harley Quinn, but in reality, she was a bank employee who was driven mad by the Joker after he took her back, plunged into madness, believing she was the Joker's only lover."

"What about Harley?"

"She is the real Harley Quinn, but she was in love with the Joker before he went mad, the pale knight. The drug that rehabilitated the Joker was also developed by her. I met her once before; she is a very strong and intelligent woman."

"That's quite interesting," Shiller commented. "How is she now?"

Bruce sighed and said, "Her life is hanging by a thread."