A red-named individual stood outside the door, his title was [Talon].

In a flash, Vivi did three things—

First, she turned the human-shaped standee in her arms into the likeness of [Bella Bettywen] and threw it on the bed.

Second, she immediately rolled off the bed and stood against the wall, hidden from the sight of the person opening the door, who would first see the standee on the bed.

Third, she loaded her gun.

At that moment, she realized that despite all her preparations in the house, the intruder was still able to silently penetrate the room, indicating an extraordinary capability.

Wen had told her in the car what “Talon” was about. This is another part of the armed force of the Court of Owls, besides SWAT, but only a few people seem to know about it. He had only heard the name; “Talon” is very special.

Wen had already reported to the Court that he had recruited Officer Bella as their ally. Simply put, in the eyes of the Court now, “Bella” was their person, undercover in Mayor “Anna’s” office.

The presence of Talon under these circumstances meant there was a problem… Was there a disagreement within the Court’s actions?

The door silently opened. Vivi had only closed the door and not locked it, but she noticed the door lock dropped onto the carpet.

—Well, Talon removed her door lock. Couldn’t he just learn to twist open the door?

As Vivi was internally complaining, a uniformed figure lunged from the door gap, targeting the standee on the bed—his speed was too fast, and Vivi’s shooting skills weren’t high, mainly due to lack of practice. She felt her shooting at such a moving target was lacking.

Thanks to the fake “Bella” standee on the bed, she at least gained time to shoot.

“Bang, bang, bang—”

Ignoring the recoil, she fired three shots.

The first three bullets only hit one, but she confirmed that it definitely struck a vital part of the body, yet the bullet ricocheted off!

The bullet only caused a momentary delay in the assailant’s action.

During this time, Talon’s attack was aimed at the standee, but as a system-produced prop, it would not be damaged by external forces—its weakness was burning.

Talon’s attack seemed to hit a phantom, and Vivi took this opportunity to observe his full appearance.

He was a very strong person, initially indiscernible of gender, dressed in a black bodysuit resistant to bullets, his face covered by a mask, several knives on his back, and his most lethal weapons were his claw-like knives on his hands.

As the bullets ricocheted to the wall, Vivi inwardly clicked her tongue.

The gun and bullets she used were issued by the police department and failed to penetrate the opponent’s “armor.”

At this moment, Talon, deceived by the standee for a moment, turned his head—he obviously noticed Vivi, as she had attacked him.

Without a second thought, Vivi immediately bolted towards the living room, but this was her first direct confrontation with an opponent of such a higher level in close combat—

Talon was faster than her.

Despite her using various methods to delay and gaining the upper hand in the fight, the gap in sheer power was evident… she couldn’t defeat him!

The adversary named Talon leaped, his explosive power allowing him to directly catch Vivi from behind, then he locked her throat and pierced her chest with a claw, twisting his arm, her neck turned 180 degrees.

【You have died】

Vivi: “…Tsk.”

She had a 30-second opportunity to pause time and choose whether to resurrect immediately or later.

Resurrecting immediately would place Vivi near her corpse, which currently resembled [Bella Bettywen], and upon revival, she could choose whether to keep her glasses in her inventory.

Resurrecting later would restart the flow of time, and Talon might choose to leave, with Vivi appearing in her current location.

Thirty seconds.

As the world stood still and silent, Vivi’s perspective rapidly shifted. She remembered she had buried a trigger-activated small mine in the living room, and her shooting skills weren’t high enough to ensure hitting Talon’s vital spots. What did she have that was not too loud but could penetrate? A rocket launcher would likely blow up the house… right, the bow!

Vivi had tried that bow, which could pierce through walls when fully drawn, and it was currently hanging on the living room wall as a decoration. Her corpse lay at the bedroom door leading to the living room, and the only uncertainty was whether she would resurrect in the bedroom or the living room—Vivi didn’t care, she could die a few more times—but Talon must die!

No one could walk out of that door after entering her house and killing her!

Vivi chose to resurrect and immediately equipped 【Officer’s Glasses】 upon revival. Luckily, her resurrection point was closer to the living room. Talon was still in the posture of pressing down on the body, but the body beneath his hand had changed appearance, with brown hair spread all over.

1 second.

Vivi didn’t think of anything else; her target was the bow on the wall three meters away. Unfortunately, the moment she resurrected, a system pop-up appeared in front of her, seemingly saying something, but Vivi didn’t have time to look and closed it immediately.

2 seconds.

Talon behind her reacted, Vivi heard the collision of weapons on his body, and at the same time, she had grabbed the bow.

3 seconds.

She stepped on the sofa, her hands pulling open the steel longbow. Originally as a decoration, the mechanical bow’s arrow was already placed on the string. At this moment, Talon had already approached, with less than one meter between them.

Talon raised his arm to cover his face, and Vivi slightly lowered her aim, without time to adjust her target further—

The arrow whistled through the air, breaking the oppressive silence with a muffled sound.

The arrow embedded halfway into the opponent’s abdomen, hindering his movement. Talon’s form staggered, and Vivi, without hesitation, shot two more arrows. When shooting the last arrow, she fully drew the longbow.

The arrow penetrated the opponent’s body and exited through the back.

A tall man was thus nailed to the wall.

Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, instinctively wanting to wipe sweat, only to touch her forehead with the back of her hand and realize that game characters don’t sweat.

She was just nervous inside.

Vivi searched her inventory, having been too rushed before to test the effectiveness of her weapons. Even though she carried Penguin’s entire armory, she hadn’t had time to select a weapon. She found a hand-held laser cutting gun, strange in name but seemingly capable of emitting a linear laser to cut objects. She thanked Penguin for providing the dismemberment tool.

Talon’s blood had soaked her carpet. Although Vivi acted in self-defense—she would have been killed (actually, she was already killed) by not acting—dismemberment didn’t seem to fall under self-defense.

With a bow in one hand and a gun in the other, she quickly checked the props in her room, discovering that Talon had bypassed (and destroyed) her small gadgets to enter the room silently. He hadn’t come through the door, and Vivi hadn’t been constantly monitoring her internal surveillance.

Frowning, she placed her own corpse in the bedroom wardrobe, then returned to Talon. Just as her gun pointed at his forehead, she saw Talon move slightly.

Vivi: “?”

A normal person would have died from such injuries long ago!

“Stay calm,” she told herself, “you knew Gotham had many unusual people when you met Sheila.”

At least half of them were locked up in Arkham.

She thought fiercely of eliminating the Court of Owls and cramming the masterminds into Arkham to coexist lovingly with the Joker.

Seeing Talon seemingly struggling to rise, Vivi immediately fired at his heart. The shot cleanly burned through his heart and even pierced the walls of her living room and bedroom.

“Didn’t Penguin provide a manual when he sold these things…”

Vivi had already turned off her pain, smell, and taste systems, so the scene, although gruesome, didn’t affect her. But she guessed…

Five minutes later, the corpse struggled to move again.

Vivi: “…I want to swear.”

No wonder the Court of Owls had controlled Gotham’s underground power for so long; their “Talon troops” were undying.

She had removed the mask from the individual before her and disarmed him. He was a man with dull yellow hair, ordinary looks, and a blank expression. His bare upper body bore numerous scars, his muscles were strong but his skin was pale, like a demon living in darkness.

“Even if they are undead soldiers, burning them to ashes should kill them, so the Court must have a way to mass-produce these people. If Talons were precious, they wouldn’t risk them to kill a common officer like me…”

But now, she was a deputy warden.

“What kind of people do they use to create Talons?” Vivi wondered. “If I were them, I would choose individuals whose disappearance wouldn’t cause problems…” such as civilians from the East End.

The East End’s personnel records were chaotic. If someone from there disappeared, even if reported to the police, they wouldn’t care.

“And prisoners and stowaways…”

After all, it’s the Court of Owls. Extracting prisoners from jail wouldn’t be difficult, and stowaways in Gotham, lacking identity and protection, even hiding their real information, made it hard for police to trace their disappearances.

Now the question was—

“Is this guy alive or dead…”

Should she burn this Talon to ashes?

Vivi remembered she hadn’t checked a 【System Prompt】.

She burned the undead man’s heart again and opened the system panel in front of the corpse—

【To VV:

Dear player, regarding your submitted BUG “Why didn’t my corpse disappear after I resurrected,” it’s detected that this is not a BUG but a special game setting. We welcome players to continue exploring the game for a better experience.

——《I Am the Mayor》GM】

And another prompt was;

【Congratulations on completing a hidden achievement!】

【Hidden Achievement: Three Strikes】【Completed】

【Three Strikes: Normal people don’t just die three or more times in a construction game unless you’re an extraordinary gamer】

Vivi felt this was mocking her!

Achievement reward—

【You’ve earned the bound skill: Door of the Dead】

【As long as the corpse is not destroyed, you can teleport to the death marker point

(Only for the first three deaths per month, subsequent month deaths will overwrite the first three death markers, if no deaths occur next month, the markers won’t be overwritten)】

【You are walking between the doors of the dead, don’t look up】

Three markers appeared on her map, one grey and two red.

The red markers were at 【First Death Location: Mayor’s Office】【Third Death Location: Bella Bettywen’s Home】

The grey marker was at 【Second Death Location: City Hall Garden Path】

The second death’s corpse had been destroyed, so that marker couldn’t teleport.

But since she had already died three times this month, even a fourth death wouldn’t refresh—

Vivi: “I feel like…”

This game design is outrageous! Who comes up with such designs?

Three self-inflicted death targets per month? Well, at least her deaths were meaningful, thanks to the game developer!

The future Gotham will be built on the mayor’s countless corpses.

This mayor job is too tough!

The Talon nailed to the wall began to move again, and Vivi slapped the back of the idiotic assassin’s head: “Shut up!”

More whining and you’ll be taken for cremation!