While a minor discussion about the incident at Gotham Academy started on the school forum, Millie was tidying up the house, while Selina sat leisurely on the railing, swinging her slender and powerful legs just like a real cat.

Selina Kyle, her sister, the one who rescued her from darkness, her guardian… and also a thief known as “Catwoman.”

Millie patiently sprinkled water on the table, then wiped it dry, repeating the process. In the repetitive work, she found her mind gradually calming down.

Since childhood, she had found solace in such simple chores, a way to momentarily forget her drunken father and his iron fists. Millie grew up obedient, enduring, and cautious—

It wasn’t until she met Selina that she realized women didn’t have to be submissive to survive; they could also resist.

She had thought her father, seemingly unbeatable in his drunken stupor, had been long corroded by the alcohol. He fell with just a gentle push.

Then, she escaped from that home, living with Selina and other sisters saved by her. Hardworking and a bit smart, Millie managed to get into university and then returned to Gotham.

“You’ve become like one of those upper-class people,” Selina suddenly spoke, breaking Millie’s reverie, “Have you started defending the rights of your upper-class now?”

“No,” Millie blinked, “Why would you think that?”

“You go to work all dressed up, and you rarely come back here,” Selina leaped down from the second-floor railing without making a sound, holding Millie’s face gently, “Being an upper-class isn’t bad. Is being like those people outside something good? Everyone was happy when you got into university—why did you come back, little Mildred?”

“I just came back to see you all—”

Selina cut her off: “I mean back to Gotham!”

Millie gasped for air, tears falling onto Selina’s gloves, and asked, “Why are you opposing the mayor, Selina?”

Shaken by the event, she had taken a few days off and quickly noticed something off about Selina. Then, using some tricks, she found out Selina’s motive. Although Millie lacked combat talent, she was diligent and attentive.

Catwoman aimed to blow up the “Iceberg Pharmaceuticals” invested in by the city government. But Millie knew what was inside the chemical plant: the Mayor was acquiring building materials in the name of the chemical plant, which would be used for constructing new sewers.

“I just don’t understand, Selina,” Millie sobbed, “Why are you doing this? Isn’t this supposed to help us?”

“It’s ‘you,’ not ‘us,'” Catwoman stroked her hair, “Do you really trust these politicians? The real you left us when you returned from school. We’re no longer the same, go be your upper-class, Millie.”

“I just…” Millie paused, wiping her tears, “I just realized you all… were wrong.”

After graduating from university, or rather, after receiving a proper education, Millie started to see that Catwoman, though saving some, was wrong in her acts of theft.

After discovering the thrill of theft, Catwoman began to steal art and jewellery from the rich. While such losses didn’t cripple the wealthy as they would the poor, Millie rejected the act of theft itself—but was ashamed to admit this.

…After all, she was raised on money obtained through her sisters’ thefts.

She felt ashamed; she wanted to change or save her family, but instead pushed them further away.

“So, you want to go tell your lady Mayor?” Catwoman leaned against the window, unconcerned.

“No,” Millie said, “I will explain the Mayor’s intentions to you, and tell you how this policy is implemented. If you can’t understand, I’ll keep trying, instead of secretly informing others to stop you—I don’t want to be pushed away anymore!”

That was betrayal, and she didn’t want that!

Catwoman: “Then you are bound to fail.”

Millie shook her head fiercely, embracing her waist: “I will do everything to stop you, and no matter what you end up doing, I want to bear it together.”

She hugged her sister, her family, wanting to cry again. She felt Catwoman’s attitude soften slightly, patting her shoulder—Millie’s vision went dark.

Catwoman knocked out Millie and took her back to the room, closing the door.

As she was about to leave through the window, their door was knocked on. After a brief knock, someone called, “Is anyone there?”

Catwoman frowned, observing the people below from the rooftop eaves—

The man was clearly a cop, though in plain clothes, but Catwoman, having dealt with such people for a decade, could tell at a glance. The other two were likely students, clearly young, but the woman in the middle was a bit strange.

She looked well-trained and strong, not like a cop, more like a mercenary, someone you could negotiate and deal with.

Catwoman noticed their car parked across the street. It had rained the previous night, so the tracks were obvious. They had driven straight to this house and stopped. Why?

As she pondered, the woman below suddenly looked up, directly at her. Catwoman blinked but didn’t shy away, instead, smiling slightly at her.

Then, she returned to the room and made a phone call.

“What are you looking at?” Tim asked, also looking up, but he only saw the dark window.

The two boys they were Tim and Peter, while Wydrian was yelling about posting pictures on the forum if they didn’t bring him along, but they ignored him.

“By the way,” Vivi remembered something, “Doesn’t Wydrian Scott’s name sound familiar?”

“Maybe you’ve heard of Justice Meg Scott? Meg Scott, the judge,” Joe said, “He became famous after the Penguin’s trial. Wydrian is his nephew. These old families always have such convoluted names.”

Thanks to his uncle, the judge, Wydrian was never expelled from Gotham Academy despite causing trouble.

After all, Gotham Academy is a private high school, and Scott is one of its trustees.

Compared to the boy with the camera, Wydrian, the other two seemed much easier to get along with. Joe didn’t comment on their hitching a ride.

Tim was keen to observe the policewoman who had seen the ‘deceased’, while Peter was simply concerned about the outcome of the case.

In theory, they should have first taken the body back to the GCPD for the coroner to determine the cause of death and find information about the deceased, interview people who had seen the deceased, and then deduce what happened. But all this assumed one thing—

“Are we really investigating a murder?” Peter asked, somewhat uneasy, “But there’s no dead body.”

“No,” Vivi said definitively, “Maybe the body was just disposed of in some special way after the person died.”

Tim, about to speak, choked on his words, as if his line had been stolen.

—But indeed, he was thinking the same.

Gotham was no stranger to death, psychopaths, lunatics, and geniuses, and occasionally some super-powered individuals beyond rational explanation. Tim quickly adjusted his mindset, and Peter… he wasn’t unable to accept it, but he always wanted to save everyone, which Tim understood.

As they entered Crime Alley, guided by the policewoman, they drove straight to this house.

“I remember I saw that kid here,” Vivi said, “Should we knock and ask about the situation?”

That was the reason they were now knocking on this door.

Of course, Vivi didn’t need to have seen “that kid” here. She couldn’t see herself, but after entering the Crime Alley map, she spotted a green-named [Secretary] here. Although she wasn’t the only one who had a secretary and it wasn’t clear whether it was Shelk or Millie, or possibly neither, the green name suggested it was a character easy to interact with—especially when surrounded by red-named characters in Crime Alley.

She looked up at the tall trees beside her, moving her neck:

Crime Alley is just Park Street… I wonder if planting this shimmering [Colorful Street Tree] brought out a bit of childhood in the people here. Judging by the density of the red names, probably not.

No one answered, but Vivi was sure that in addition to the green-named [Secretary], there was also a red-named [Thief] inside. Likely they just didn’t want to open the door.

Joe waved his hand for them to step back a bit, deciding to break in.

Watching Joe struggling to break down the door, whether it was the super-strong Vivi, Peter who had super strength from a spider bite, or Tim, who was far stronger than an average person, they all fell silent for a moment—

“Why not do it together?”

After all, the combined strength of three people, and me putting in a bit more effort, is fine, Vivi thought.

Then, the next second, the door flew inwards under their actions, and Joe, caught off guard, fell to the ground.

Joe: “?”

After they all entered, suddenly the sound of a car engine starting was heard from outside—

Joe and Tim reacted first, with Joe immediately shouting, “Our car!”

Damn, this is Crime Alley, the den of thieves and pickpockets; he should have left someone in the car!

Vivi: “…”

The body was still in the car!

Who would even think to steal a dead body!

Tim immediately jumped out of the left window, dropping a word: “I’ll chase it, don’t worry about me.”

He had left a tracker in the car, might as well follow it to find out where this “body thief’s” hideout was.

And in a blink, Peter had already jumped out of the right window, hurriedly saying, “My ears are pretty good, I can hear where the car is going—”

Suspicious noises came from outside, apparently, he had knocked over a trash can.

Joe cursed, pulling out his gun: “Rookie, stay here, I’ll go find those two kids.”

Although losing the “deceased’s” body was important, Crime Alley was far more dangerous than the two kids imagined.

At that moment, all three forgot something—

Maybe the person who drove away the car wasn’t necessarily there to steal the body? After all, they didn’t have x-ray vision to know there was a special body in the trunk without opening it?

But the trait of smart people is that they always think too much.

Just as Joe rushed out, he suddenly heard the sound of a motorcycle engine behind him.

His rookie was on a cool black heavy motorcycle, waving at him: “Come on, how can you catch a car on foot?”

Joe: ?

Wait, where did you get that motorcycle?