Study Room.

【C, Spend 5000 gold (personal property) to purchase a luxury tombstone (chance to encounter investor·Cobblepot)】

Truthfully, Vivi was quite curious about how this chance encounter would happen.

With a balance of over seventy thousand, she had the capital to try.

【You have selected C.】

After the selection, the system panel suddenly started vibrating, and then, a huge telephone icon occupied Vivi’s vision.

She raised an eyebrow, propped a hand against the bookshelf, and answered the call with her mind—

“Hello, this is the Iceberg Lounge, please confirm your meal order. Is it gin, tomato salad, and mayonnaise shrimp?”

【Please read this sentence “No, I ordered the number five set meal…”】

“No,” Vivi said, “I ordered the number five set meal, rum, thank you.”

The other end replied: “Okay, do you need anything else?”

【Please read this sentence “Three liters of high-purity mercury, to be traded at __ (time and place)”】

Vivi stared at the reflection on the glass of the bookshelf and slowly read out a line: “Three liters of high-purity mercury, to be traded tonight at nine o’clock, below the third sewer manhole cover on Assel Street in the Diamond District.”

“Okay, guest, we will deliver your meal on time.”

The call ended.

The mayor’s dialog box to choose “Millie” started typing—

[Where can mercury be purchased?]

Secretary: [ACE Chemical Plant, and some enterprises in our city, like Daggett Enterprises and Wayne Company. Daggett is in the pharmaceutical industry, Wayne Company is diverse, and they have various laboratories. These are companies where mercury can be legally purchased, but their purchase quota is limited, as it’s a dangerous chemical product.]

Secretary: [Besides, the city hall also has some in stock, and we can also legally purchase various metals. Ms. Alek, how much mercury do you want to buy?]

Factories, enterprises, and laboratories… None of these include Penguin’s Iceberg Lounge, which clearly operates a smuggling business, now even extending to the mayor.

Smuggling typically doesn’t pay taxes.

Casually stroking the hair of a corpse beside her, Vivi pondered thoughtfully. She felt the information she had gathered about dealing with the Penguin seemed useful, but not quite sufficient yet.

But then again…

Why does disposing of a corpse require three liters of dangerous mercury? To prevent reanimation?

That much could completely submerge the corpse, right?

And this mercury wouldn’t just appear on her table; she would have to personally go and retrieve it from Penguin’s men.

Use the opportunity to take them out? But how many could she eliminate that way? Vivi immediately dismissed the idea in her mind, and besides, how uncivilized would it be to resort to violence as a mayor?

After all, red names were also her reserve labor force.

She gazed at her own corpse beside her and noticed that the choice panel hadn’t disappeared yet—

Still the ABCD four options, with the C option seemingly available for selection again.

Compelled, Vivi pressed it once more.

“Hello—”

“Number five set meal, rum,” she interrupted, lowering her voice, “I heard that I can buy everything I want at the Iceberg Lounge, is that right?”

“Of course, guest, what do you need?” The voice on the other side carried a hint of a smile.

Vivi repeated her request: “Three liters of mercury, is that possible?”

The operator paused.

“Certainly, but…” said Penguin’s subordinate, “we need some time. After all, such metal isn’t easy to store and is quite dangerous. We don’t have enough in stock. Can we make it in three days?”

The call ended.

But at least Vivi gained two pieces of information from the call:

The operator didn’t realize she was the same buyer as before, and Penguin’s mercury stock wasn’t that abundant.

Vivi keenly sensed there was something she could exploit, but the information… she still didn’t have enough.

The door was knocked.

Vivi stuffed the corpse back, stepped out of the door, and sure enough, it was Millie coming with Sheila.

Sheila crouched on her chair, a grey rat resting in her palm, looking over with a shocked and somewhat bewildered expression—

“Mr. Scott thinks we should start working as soon as possible.”

A spray paint can sat on the table, and the rat named “Scott” had a bit of red at the corner of its mouth.

“So I’m very happy to provide an opportunity for you to work,” Vivi paused with a smile, “By the way, do I need to pay it a salary?”

Sheila: “Of course not, it can take care of itself.”

Vivi: Wow—

She felt like she had hired a rat army for 2000 gold coins.

Seemed like a great deal.

“Then let’s start with cleaning.”

【You have received a side mission: More Eavesdropping?】

【Mission Description: When you find the first eavesdropping device, it means you will find a pile of them in the corners of the room】

Having a bunch of rats crawling around city hall wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience—but fortunately, everyone else had left work. Millie stood pale-faced beside Sheila, although the real queen that attracted the rats was this young girl.

Broken nails in the corner, used razor blades, and various tiny eavesdropping devices, only the size of buttons, emitted a faint metallic luster. Even when Millie saw them, she just muttered, “Why are there so many buttons dropped?”

Each was a different colour.

Vivi picked up and examined the [Rainbow Button Disguised Micro Eavesdropping Device]. Apart from that, there was no other description.

Who exactly needs to eavesdrop on the City Hall?

—The technology behind these eavesdropping devices seemed quite advanced.

Vivi threw the button back into the trash bag, opened the panel to confirm that the entire City Hall had been cleared, and instructed Millie to call the guards: “Dispose of this trash as soon as possible.”

No matter who the person behind the scenes was, let them eavesdrop on the garbage!

Sheila obediently followed the rats around, and Millie got her a uniform from logistics, a bit large, but after all, she didn’t have much to wear. Time slowly reached seven in the evening, time for Millie to leave work.

Vivi asked Sheila to stay. The little secretary hesitated for a moment, and a few minutes later, quietly placed a steaming cup of coffee on the mayor’s long table.

“I thought you might need this,” she said softly, head bowed, “You seem to have not rested properly, please take care of yourself.”

The scent of coffee lingered around her nose, the office door silently closed, the little secretary’s footsteps light—

But Vivi ultimately didn’t touch the coffee.

She said to Sheila: “I think you did well… so I want to give you another task, um… and I need to assign someone to work with you.”

Sheila’s eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously.

You’re great, the mayor loves employees like you!

Ten minutes later, Vivi, without her glasses, stood with Sheila, who was holding a sonar ring and looking slightly nervous, at the sewer entrance inside the City Hall.

The “another person” she mentioned was actually herself.

For her first deal with Penguin, Vivi decided to check it out herself, but how could a mayor crawl into a sewer? It had to be the [Nameless] Vivi.

“We need to be quick,” Vivi said rapidly, “in three minutes the guard team will patrol here.”

Sheila: “?”

Vivi didn’t explain to her, lifted the manhole cover, climbed down, and beckoned Sheila to follow.

As the last sliver of light disappeared, the two girls walked in the pitch-black sewer.

“You didn’t bring a flashlight…”

“Do you need one?”

“Of course not, the rats are my eyes.”

“Then I don’t need one either, I can see clearly.”

“…Weirdo.”

“If I’m a weirdo,” Vivi spoke calmly, “aren’t you a weirdo’s companion?”

The grey rat Scott, carrying a ring, swiftly moved through the sewer, as Sheila commanded it to go further and deeper, to places usually unreachable. According to Sheila, Scott was a long-time companion, more reliable than the other temporarily summoned rats—this translated in Vivi’s mind as “this rat won’t run away with the ring.”

As for the other ring, it was on Vivi’s left index finger. As they moved forward, the map became increasingly complete, but after almost an hour of walking, it had only risen from 【1%】 to 【7%】. Clearly, it was a long-term task.

This required patience and tolerance for terrible conditions. Vivi turned off her respiratory system so she couldn’t smell the stench, but Sheila seemed well-adapted, occasionally a small rat scurrying over her toes, crossing smelly ditches, and diving elsewhere.

“Diamond District, Assel Street, the third sewer manhole, right?” Sheila turned her head at this time to confirm their destination with the brown-haired girl behind her.

And Vivi nodded.

She didn’t notice Sheila staring at her.

A weirdo, but not unlikeable.

Because Sheila found that Vivi didn’t look at her with pity or disgust. Her gaze was like looking at a useful tool, full of appreciation. Sheila felt valued as a tool should.

And she was extremely happy.

The two girls trekked to the underground of the Diamond District, but Vivi pulled Sheila to a stop. They were less than a hundred meters from their destination, but the map on the ring was blurry, indicating more than one person. Vivi took off the sonar ring, and let Sheila control a rat to carry it closer, and human figures appeared on the map.

Not just one person—

It seemed Penguin’s men were punctual. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet, and they had already arrived.

Switching the map to the surface, there was more than one red name gathered nearby, all labeled [Penguin’s Subordinates].

“I’m just buying three liters of mercury,” Vivi whispered, “is such a big fuss necessary?”

Did she really empty Penguin’s stock?

A not-so-small sealed box had already been placed right below the sewer manhole, but if Vivi emerged now, who knows what Penguin’s men might do to her, a buyer—supposed to be for corpse disposal, this place might end up with an additional corpse.

And people can’t respawn when dead. Vivi turned to look at Sheila…

Her newly acquired SSR couldn’t just disappear like this.

They could only continue to wait, might as well let the rats keep unlocking the map.

Fortunately, Sheila wasn’t the type to ask why. When Vivi told her not to move, she squatted down, hugging her knees, motionless.

The situation changed slightly at exactly 9:00, ten minutes later.

The red dots a hundred meters away inexplicably became agitated—

A green dot named [Robin] was rapidly approaching [Penguin’s Subordinates], looking like a green patch buried in a sea of red.

Vivi and Sheila simultaneously looked up, silent, the sounds of physical fighting echoing through the sewer walls to their ears.

Robin, isn’t that the name of a bird?

Vivi gradually conjured the image of a large, muscular bird walking upright. With someone who could control rats by her side, it seemed Gotham’s citizens were indeed quite peculiar.

Vivi spoke: “Can the rats… carry a box weighing about 100 pounds?”

Sheila: ==

“I can try.”

But that might require more than one rat. Rustling sounds mingled in the sewer noise, pairs of dark red eyes lighting up.