The main urban area of Gotham City is surrounded by numerous islands connected to it, collectively forming Gotham.

City Hall is located in the old town, while Blackgate Prison is on Blackgate Island.

It took about an hour to travel from City Hall to Blackgate Island by helicopter, and in this hour, Vivi managed to buy all the items in the gold coin shop.

There were three items, specifically:

[Sonar Rings, priced at 4400 gold coins]

[A pair of tail rings, a device that uses sound waves to explore the surrounding environment. The cooldown period is 30 seconds, and the explored environmental map will automatically upload to the panel, with the level of detail dependent on distance]

[Even if left alone, it will automatically emit sound waves and can be used as a monitoring device when necessary]

[Slogans x3, single item priced at 700 gold coins]

[Are you still troubled by insufficient reputation? Want to leave your own mark in the city? Using this item, you can leave a “Slogan” at any location on the map, essentially creating a large-scale graffiti for your city (each sentence must not exceed 30 words)]

[Observers will be deeply impressed by the slogan, which may influence their views to some extent]

[Barber’s Razor Blade, single item priced at 3000]

[Excessive desires are the beginning of chaos. The desires of all those trimmed with this razor blade will diminish as their hair length decreases. Unfortunately, it has no effect on the bald]

[Perhaps this is one of the reasons why prisoners are always shaved bald in prison? The blade will wear out with excessive use and become unusable]

The sonar rings could clearly be used to complete the [Main Mission: Underground Map], the slogans could improve reputation, and the razor blade could be used on troublesome criminals. Vivi bought everything in one go, with a remaining balance of 78200 gold, filling her with the joy of a poor person suddenly becoming rich. She placed the rings in her bag and, after some thought, chose landmark locations in the city to use the three [Slogans].

She didn’t take out the final barber’s razor blade. Obviously, this was an item with durability, suitable only for use on difficult criminals—and besides, hair would grow back anyway. It was merely a tool for temporarily reducing the city’s crime rate when necessary.

…So why can’t she buy them wholesale?

The gold coin shop really had a lot of good stuff, which solidified Vivi’s resolve:

“I need to keep making money.”

The dire situation in Gotham obviously wasn’t something new. Following the regular infrastructure route, the office would run out of space for corpses. Reluctantly and by necessity, Vivi took an unusual path.

She quietly looked towards the ground getting closer: “But once the city government starts profiting, I won’t do this anymore…”

…Probably.

On the map, after having notified Blackgate Prison of her impending arrival, the dot representing the warden of Blackgate Prison remained motionless.

[The Assassin], sandwiched between two guards, had been eyeing Vivi on the plane without saying a word.

Refusing to let the prison guards take over [The Assassin], Vivi had the guards escort him, following behind her—

Using the map, she took the shortest route to the warden, which was, unsurprisingly, his office.

Warden Joseph Ronald, upon seeing the blonde woman pushing the door open, just raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise. The room fell silent. Vivi stood at the door, and it seemed that noticing the Mayor hadn’t walked in, the man casually walked over, a cold smile playing on his lips.

“My dear Madam Mayor, allow me to—” He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Click,” that was the sound of his bones hitting the wall.

Joseph was stunned for a moment, and in the instant he regained consciousness, he began to struggle. However, the opponent used only one hand, and he couldn’t move at all.

“Mmm, hmm—”

“I know,” Vivi pressed her hand casually against his head, “I know I should treat you like a person…”

After all, the AI of these NPCs was as realistic as real people.

“But I really don’t want to go through these boring ‘necessary negotiations’…” Since there was no button to skip CG and dialogue, Vivi had to “manually” interrupt, “I also don’t want to think about what you’re thinking, then ‘conquer’ you one by one. I just want to emphasize one thing—”

“I am the Boss.”

People whose attributes aren’t outstanding and can be replaced at any time, do they deserve this?

She released her hand, letting Joseph slide to the ground, ignoring the prison guards who, like startled cats, drew their guns but didn’t know whether to raise them. She naturally pushed past them and sat in the warden’s seat.

“Now, prepare the cell according to my requirements, and then bring all the files of the prisoners in Blackgate Prison to me.”

Since she had fired eleven guards, it was time to look for suitable employees as replacements.

She pulled out the M1911 that Shelk had contributed (and later forgot to ask back) from her pocket, gesturing awkwardly at Joseph with it—she didn’t know how to use a gun, but it seemed she could learn on the spot.

Joseph, touching his forehead, managed a brief eye contact with the woman, then quickly looked away.

He had seen the eyes of many criminals, and thus he knew the look of someone who truly didn’t care about life: indifferent to others, indifferent to themselves, the eyes of a real madman.

The council actually pushed a madman to become the Boss of Gotham City, but in reality, they just wanted a temporary substitute, a puppet sitting in that position.

…What a ridiculous dark joke!

Vivi got the files she wanted.

As she unlocked one [Data Card] after another, she paused on a certain page.

“Blackgate Prison… why is an innocent person locked up?”

The Rat Catcher, Sheila Flanigan.

She was the daughter of Otis Flanigan, the former criminal known as “The Rat Catcher,” who once was responsible for exterminating rats in the sewers. However, after being wrongfully imprisoned one day, his life changed. After his release, he sought revenge on the officials and attempted to infect all of Gotham with a plague, leading to his re-imprisonment—Vivi noticed that this time, he was captured by “Batman”—the file stated that he had some ability to control rats, and after his death, his daughter also acquired such ability.

Vivi stared silently at the word “supernatural” on the document, and then at the confirmed description on the data card, slowly… frowning.

Wait a minute.

Isn’t this world supposed to be scientific?

“Get ready,” she slapped the file on the table, “I want to meet Sheila Flanigan.”

*

Shelk crawled out of the archives, famished.

Since this morning, he had been busily following the orders of Mayor Anna, who was more demanding than the strictest female tyrant. She seemed completely unaware that humans needed to eat and rest. Shelk had to find ways to feed himself and rest briefly during work intervals—if he didn’t eat, he would faint and then be unable to complete her tasks.

Although his workload was heavy, the new mayor seemed to never rest, always appearing energetic. The closer Shelk got to her, the less he understood her, and thus, the more he revered her.

Anna’s instructions were to relocate everyone to the nearby museum by ten o’clock, and to investigate a list she had earlier assigned.

It was a list of layoffs.

There were over 400 employees at City Hall, with 72 people on the layoff list, a significant downsizing plan. However, the mayor wasn’t asking him to investigate whether these people truly deserved to be on the list, but to add some more people to it—

Here, it’s necessary to mention, exactly what salaries should City Hall bear.

Besides the over 400 employees working in the old town City Hall, naturally, there were staff responsible for other districts. Moreover, the prison, education department, courts, police stations, and other judicial departments were closely related to City Hall. First, Shelk had to organize the list of all personnel, then, through investigating old archives, visits, and a bit of insider information, find out which of them were not suitable for their positions and didn’t deserve the salaries issued by City Hall.

Was Miss Anna planning to fire them to save on salaries?

No, that couldn’t be it. The new mayor clearly wanted to kick these lazy and useless people out of the public service. She was bringing about a major reform to Gotham.

Shelk licked his lips, feeling like he had become an important pawn in her game, excited and thrilled.

When he left, the employees, who had been relocated during the chaotic period, were back at their posts, working absent-mindedly, whispering about the recent close gunfight.

They also talked about the female mayor—

This operation seemed to have been under her control all along. Shelk could see that the mayor’s prestige had increased.

They might not love her, but they certainly feared her.

In a city like Gotham, fear was enough. Love wasn’t necessary.

The outsourced repair work was also taken back by the logistics department—because the wall was aging and also a protected structure, they couldn’t keep outsourcing the work at a high price to find people who could genuinely repair such walls—though the mayor had directly replaced one wall with steel.

Sherlock chuckled modestly, and nodded to Millie, who seemed to be talking to a worker, ignoring her speechless glare as he returned to his secretary’s office.

But seeing the scene outside the window, Shelk: “…”

He instinctively grabbed the boy who seemed to be a temp worker: “Did you see what they are doing?”

Peter, who was coincidentally asked, was stunned: “I saw, they are painting a slogan, sir.”

He added: “Ten minutes ago, the mayor called and asked to paint this slogan, the paint is still drying.”

The red slogan was painted on the wall opposite City Hall, completely ruining the century-old artistic building. But the words seemed magical, giving a stirring feeling at just a glance, as if subconsciously wanting to follow the slogan’s directive.

[Be frugal and efficient. Start with a voluntary pay cut.]

Shelk: “…”

He silently looked at the freshly organized layoff list in his hand.

What’s wrong here?