After retrieving the Stray Animal Sign, Vivi chose to appear in the surveillance room, as it paradoxically was the only place where it made sense to have no surveillance.

She habitually opened the game map:

Sheila requested to go to sleep, as it was her bedtime, and if she didn’t get to bed, she wouldn’t be able to wake up early the next day, leading to being late for school.

— Vivi, of course, approved.

The AI named “Jar” asked if she wanted the study to be cleaned, but Vivi had not granted access to the study; it was currently locked.

— Vivi replied with a “No,” as there was still a corpse hidden in the study.

Then there was [Spider-Man]. Honestly, Spider-Man’s movement pattern was quite peculiar; he had been circling the entire factory, seemingly… lost?

— This left Vivi speechless for a moment before she decided to skip him.

Finally, Robin, who was still busy with the bombs. Thanks, Robin.

— Vivi mentally gave him a thumbs-up, then stepped out of the surveillance room as Bella.

The diligent Miss Officer didn’t manage to catch the ill-intentioned Catwoman, but with Robin’s help, they foiled Catwoman’s evil bomb plot. Although the police were absent from beginning to end, they still successfully claimed a share of the credit. Kudos to them.

She stretched, greeted the factory’s deputy manager, and rode her motorcycle to her “home.”

To be precise, it was a house she had obtained through backdoor methods.

For now, the safety of the Mayor’s office was entrusted to the AI. When using the identity of Bella, Vivi needed a safe and private residence, and this house was just perfect. During this time, it would be her temporary base of operations—occasionally good for storing corpses too.

Stupid game, anything theoretically small enough to fit in a bag should be able to be stored in the inventory, but apparently, corpses didn’t count: didn’t the developers realize there’s a kind of bag called a body bag?

The key was with the property management, saving Vivi the trouble of lock-picking. The security personnel even reminded her, “Don’t casually bring cats and dogs back, and if you do, make sure they’re vaccinated, walk dogs with a collar, and cats too… Today a girl’s cat wasn’t vaccinated and wasn’t registered…”

It was a 60 square meter flat, perfect for single residents, with a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, and a small study. The interior had simple furniture, and the previous tenant had just moved out, only covering everything with white cloths, so there wasn’t much dust.

Vivi changed the bed sheets and sofa cover, placed the red bucket in the kitchen, the standee beside the bed, strung the sonar rings around her neck, hung the sign on the wall, and even casually watered the plants.

Then, she surveyed the entire space—

Vivi opened the bedroom closet and pulled out three sniper rifles with ample ammunition from the inventory, ensuring she could grab a gun as soon as she opened the closet. On idle nights, she could practice sniping from the bay window, which offered the best view.

She stored away the regular kitchen knives and replaced them with high-grade alloy tools she had taken from Penguin, incredibly sharp, cutting with every strike.

A metal bow hung on the living room wall, and behind the decorative painting in the bathroom, she stuffed a few pull-ring grenades. If things ever got so dire that she was forced into the bathroom, then everyone could go down together.

They would go down, but she didn’t have to, as she could respawn indefinitely.

Then, Vivi hid numerous little “surprises” in every corner of the room. After all, having raided Penguin’s warehouse, she possessed what could be considered the highest-grade arsenal in Gotham, essentially a walking armory.

She also installed surveillance cameras in the room, feeding the footage into her police officer’s phone. Although the map and AI were reliable, the AI had mentioned it almost got hacked, so Vivi had to prepare multiple backups—never put all your eggs in one basket.

In addition, she cleaned up a bunch of trash that needed to be discarded. The room’s transformation tonight was only halfway done, like the anti-peeping glass not yet installed, and she needed to drill a hole in the wall for the infrared scanner at the door…

But, dawn had already broken.

April 22nd.

This was Vivi’s 22nd day in the game.

In 8 days, at the game’s first monthly settlement, Vivi would face the following situations—

Pay 800,000 gold coins in wages to employees, repay 1.545 million gold coins to First Bank, and update the city level.

Because Gotham’s current comprehensive level was negative, she couldn’t collect taxes and was scrimping every day!

She locked the door and went downstairs, straddling her motorcycle, this time properly wearing a helmet.

In broad daylight, she had given the criminals in the Eastern District a whole night to prepare. Now, it was time to grind and level up.

The police officer’s matte black motorcycle first stopped at the GCPD. She rushed into the archive room—bumping into Joe with coffee in one hand and a Mexican roll in the other, triggering a daily dialogue, something like, “The chemical plant guys said you did well yesterday, did you see Catwoman?”

Of course, she hadn’t, and Vivi hurriedly bypassed him, borrowing a computer in the archive room.

While she was hard at work in the archive room, Joe outside had a conversation with Commissioner Gordon that she didn’t know about—

“How’s Bettywen doing, Joe?”

“Like me when I was young, and like you when you first became a cop. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, she’s as righteous as I was and as impulsive as you.”

“… Still too green,” Gordon laughed, not minding, “Every cop at her age is full of passion, wanting to execute justice, thinking they are saving Gotham.”

“We are saving Gotham,” Joe shrugged, “just not so obviously. But she’s not bad, although the Catwoman case is doubtful, she at least truly did something.”

Gordon was silent for a moment and said, “Don’t let Winston get close to her.”

Winston, head of the SWAT special forces… a well-known scoundrel in the police department, but without evidence, they couldn’t put him in jail.

While they chatted, the police officer rushed out again, casually waving at Joe, obviously not noticing Commissioner Gordon nearby.

She said, “I’m going out on patrol!”

Joe: “?”

What business does a rookie have patrolling alone, and we’re not traffic police!

Before he could stand up, the sound of a motorcycle was already fading into the distance. The rookie was gone in a flash.

Gordon was silent for a while, then said, “She’s your responsibility.”

Joe: “…Damn it!”

He really didn’t want to deal with an overly enthusiastic rookie!

Vivi revved up her motorcycle, heading towards the Eastern District.

Just now, she had accessed and imported a list of criminal suspects who had warrants issued but had not been apprehended, suspected of hiding in Gotham’s Eastern District, along with their descriptions.

The young policewoman thought: “If I can catch a criminal, I’ll catch one… Even if each time only improves Gotham’s safety rating by 0.0001, that 0.0001 is still meaningful.”

Therefore, she decided to try the simple method first. Who says simple methods don’t work? Besides, she still had the privilege to make mistakes, right?

The closer she got to the Eastern District, the more bizarre it became.

The atmosphere here was lively, yet people were cold towards each other. In fact, there wasn’t a clear boundary line entering the Eastern District, nor was it like suddenly entering another world. You would just notice—

Kids’ gazes would fall on your waist and pockets, planning to steal your wallet at the first opportunity.

Adults’ gazes would also linger on your waist, but they were assessing whether you were carrying a weapon.

And at night, prostitutes would appear, trying to attract clients. Despite the city hall’s multiple attempts to eradicate them, this situation persisted. Ironically, Gotham had legal brothels, so cracking down on prostitutes only deprived them of their last means of livelihood and changed nothing.

This was Gotham.

To understand a city, see how its underprivileged live. Because when disaster strikes, anyone can become “underprivileged.” This is the most real aspect of a city.

Vivi, with a gun at her waist and straddling her motorcycle, her jacket unbuttoned and muscles visible on her arms, deterred those sharp-eyed individuals with her gaze alone.

Her gaze made everyone she looked at feel like sheep being watched by a wild wolf.

Vivi got off her bike, holding the gun from her waist. She noticed someone eyeing her bike. If it had been a regular motorcycle, by the time she returned, even the handles and wheels might have been stripped off, right?

“Hi,” she approached a group of three playing dice, tapping one of the guy’s heads with the butt of her gun and showing him a photo on her phone, “Have you seen this guy?”

The thug was stunned at first, about to curse, but then he saw the barrel of the gun pointed at him.

His mouth twitched, and his trembling gaze fixed on the photo held to his face: “Bob? Who are you, are you here for revenge?”

If Joe and Gordon saw “Officer Bettywen” now, they probably wouldn’t be able to utter words like “justice” or “passion.”

Her way of doing things wasn’t passionate; it was more about making others bleed!

“You ask too many questions,” Vivi glared at the guy’s two fleeing companions, “Do you know what skill I leveled up on my last mission?”

【Your Interrogation lv1 has been upgraded to Interrogation lv2】

Half an hour later, Vivi climbed into a red-walled building from a second-floor balcony.

There was a red [Murderer] inside, motionless, probably sleeping.

She had to gather information first to avoid wasting time—when Vivi zoomed in on her map, the entire area was dotted with identical red [Murderer] points, over a hundred, shocking enough to exclaim, “How can Gotham be this terrible?”

“So,” she whispered, “are you looking for this gold murderer, the silver murderer… or just an ordinary bald murderer?”

Vivi had figured out that the people of the Eastern District were night owls. The district was a haven for criminals, sheltering many fugitives, and not suitable for morning outings.

A few people were moving around on the first floor. It seemed that even the “murderer of three policemen, slaughterer of a family of four, drug dealer, child molester” found some underlings to order around.

Bob was lying on the sofa, fast asleep, but even in sleep, he clutched a gun. Wasn’t he worried about it going off?

Vivi crouched, calculating the distance, then pounced on him with the agility of a feline predator.

Of course, this woke the criminal. He immediately tried to call his underlings.

But Vivi silenced him in three steps.

First, she choked his throat with her arm, but he still struggled.

Second, a 【Razor Blade】 slid between her fingers, and she kicked Bob’s gun away.

Third, using the razor blade, she instantly gave the guy a buzz cut.

“…Of course, I’m looking for this ordinary bald murderer.”

【Razor Blade】

【The more hair you shave, the more desires you reduce】

Bob entered a state of “indifference to the world” under Vivi’s control. She picked him up with one hand, like a chicken.

She frowned in disgust, dragging him down from the second floor and handcuffing him to the back seat of her motorcycle.

Across from the little red building, a man using the bathroom on the second floor happened to see this scene, his eyes widening in shock.

Vivi glanced at him.

She raised her hand, forming a knife shape with her fingers, and lightly traced her neck.

The man’s expression was like a rooster being choked, and the next second, the curtains on the opposite second floor were drawn.