The East District is an area.

When Millie arrived near Bowery Street in Crime Alley, she found it quite different from her childhood memories, having changed significantly.

Buildings shrouded in the morning fog, her old Jeep couldn’t make it all the way, so she hurriedly left it with a convenience store and walked in, stepping cautiously.

Fortunately, not all the land in the district was in such poor condition. Holding a black cat, she saw the convoy from afar.

An SUV with its door open, the lady mayor inside, seated with a cup of hot coffee at her side, occasionally someone would jog over to report something, then hurry away.

There was a busy air about this simple, vehicle-surrounded temporary camp.

“Millie?” The lady mayor noticed her, and Millie quickly approached.

“I remember you were born in the East District, right?”

Millie nervously affirmed, the black cat perched on her arm and bared its teeth slightly but ultimately didn’t act out.

“Don’t be nervous,” the mayor glanced at the documents in her hand, and stood up, “Do you see that building over there?”

She pointed to a Gothic-style building, about two stories high, originally white but now grey and unkempt from years of neglect.

“That used to be a church in this area, later abandoned by the priests and occupied by various gangs, though never for long,” the lady’s voice echoed, “The church has long been reclaimed by the city hall. Now, with the unrest in the East District, I want you to help me transform it into a youth shelter, for all children under 15.”

Millie was stunned.

Her… But why her, could she do it?

The mayor seemed to sense her unease: “I’ll have half the guard stay to maintain order, but not for long. It’s essentially an official orphanage. I’ll allocate funds for the children’s schooling, but they’ll also need to undertake some simple work, like handicrafts. City hall will assist with arrangements—Millie, I hope they won’t become criminals one day. You can change their future.”

Millie pursed her lips, finally saying, “I understand, ma’am.”

“Oh, right,” Vivi added, “Go meet with logistics and accounting, and leave Catwoman here.”

Millie’s eyes widened.

Right… the lady mayor had asked her to bring her family’s cat…

Vivi smiled at her, putting a finger to her lips with a “shush”: “I have something to discuss with Catwoman.”

The black cat glanced at Millie, then elegantly leapt onto the car seat.

Millie looked worriedly at her but eventually left first.

Selina, turned into a black cat and taken in by Sheila, Millie’s roommate, had been keeping her temper in check. And for some reason, she could sometimes communicate with Millie… so their house had been chaotic these past few days.

—Damn it, why is Sheila Flannegan a rat-catcher! She hated rats!

“Meow? (What exactly are you planning?)” Partly because Millie worked for her, and partly because Anna Alec’s arrangements for the children had somewhat improved Selina’s opinion of her, she refrained from lashing out immediately.

“I just want to change this city,” Vivi shrugged, speaking the truth, “But we all know how hard it is to change this city—I just wanted to renovate the East District’s underground pipe system, reorganize the sewers, yet so many people emerged to obstruct me.”

Vivi found it absurd—

From the misunderstanding Catwoman, to the naturally resistant people of the East District, and then the disruptive Owl Court… Even Vivi herself almost forgot her original purpose. Why did it feel like she was trying to conquer the East District?

Catwoman meowed skeptically twice.

Looking at the current state of the East District, she doubted this woman really just wanted to fix a sewer.

“I didn’t find you to seek your approval, Miss Selina,” Vivi said bluntly, “You’re a thief, though you’ve done good deeds, if you appeared before me in human form, my only choice would be to send you to prison, but now you’re a cat…”

She finished before Catwoman could angrily meow: “Cats can do what cats can do. Do you want to continue overseeing the East District?”

“I never controlled it,” the cat’s voice, transformed into an elegant female voice by the Stray Animal Tag, said, “I just tried to protect it.”

She sheltered the children but didn’t condone the crimes happening there.

Selina was curious about what the woman before her wanted to do.

Vivi looked outside at the heavy fog and obscured sunlight: “Animals are better observers than humans. My people will be renovating the East District, and I want you and the cats to oversee human behavior.”

“Like… cat guards?” Vivi decided not to restore the original police precincts in the East District for now. People can be bribed, appeased, threatened, but cats… probably not?

Catwoman’s paw unconsciously stroked the seat cover, and Vivi added, “Your current situation, letting Millie care for you is fine, but caring for all those cats would be too much for her, right?”

Selina suddenly remembered the cat treats she owed, her black cat face stiffened slightly, but it wasn’t visible.

“What authority would I have?” She was already halfway convinced but needed clarification.

Vivi raised a finger: “I’ll require people in the East District not to harm or catch cats, on the condition that all stray cats be neutered… ah, except you.”

Catwoman gritted her teeth; the demand was reasonable, so she continued listening.

“Also, you’ll be employed by the city hall as cats, wearing ribbons with the Gotham City emblem as identification. You can deal directly with ordinary criminals, but for dangerous ones,” Vivi pondered, “try to find Millie, let her bring city hall guards to send them to prison.”

Catwoman huffed.

“After all, it’s too dangerous for little kittens to catch criminals…” Vivi seized the opportunity to pet the black cat’s head. The cat, realizing what happened, bristled and glared fiercely at her.

Being officially employed always irked Catwoman, but now she was just a cat, so she begrudgingly agreed.

“But you can’t just order everyone not to catch or hit cats.”

“There’s nothing impossible,” Vivi said, “Ribbons will be ready in three days. Good luck, be an excellent cat.”

Catwoman: “…”

She didn’t want to hear anything about being an “excellent cat”!

She deliberately left a few black paw prints on the seat before swishing her tail and walking away.

As she left, Vivi opened the gold coin shop, buying all ten 【Slogans】 refreshed today, sticking two at the shelter, two on the streets, two at the construction units… tsk, ten barely seemed enough.

She then met with Shelk.

Now, the real troublemakers of the East District either laid low or had fled during the previous battles, and some were even recruited by Violinist’s people. Among them, some had criminal records, but for the main mission, Vivi could temporarily leave these people be.

If they couldn’t resist reoffending, then their past crimes would be tallied and sent as a package deal to Blackgate Prison — and then they’d be brought back to clean the sewers.

What she discussed with Shelk was the specific construction method. However, after listening to Vivi’s plan, the man asked, “Are you trying to support Penguin’s remaining forces?”

Support them to become the bosses of the East District?

Vivi thought for a moment: “No, just a collaboration.”

She remembered she had Mr. C’s blank alias, so it didn’t seem like the “mayor” needed to support these people. Just like she never met with Violinist directly, as he wasn’t officially under her command and wouldn’t give her face anyway.

This was convenient for Vivi to do things the mayor couldn’t be seen doing.

—So she couldn’t lose “Mr. C’s” alias.

Shelk seemed to ponder something but then nodded seriously: “I understand.”

He took out a tablet and showed Vivi the three-dimensional view of the underground construction plan for the East District, speaking calmly: “Currently, there’s hardly any force in the East District capable of resistance. Our people and those from Iceberg Company can start demolishing buildings.”

Vivi hadn’t really looked at this map in detail. She knew the East District’s biggest problem was subsidence causing internal flooding, but she was unclear about the specifics of the construction plan — after all, she was here to play a game, not to study.

“Can you elaborate?”

Shelk explained: “According to the construction plan, we need to raise the entire ground level of the East District. It’s a huge project—”

And seemingly impossible, but the mayor provided a plan and seemingly feasible blueprints.

“Firstly, the East District has existing underground pipelines, but according to this blueprint, some need updating. The more challenging part is that where there were pipelines, we need to fill in, and where there weren’t, we need to create new ones. This new plan is more rational than the original.”

Vivi nodded: It meant new routing for the underground.

“Since there are new routes, it means some routes above ground were buildings. To proceed with construction, we must demolish these buildings,” Shelk said. “These buildings account for about 1/10th of all buildings in the East District, mostly illegally constructed two or three-story houses, not many high-rises.”

Vivi understood: “Does the government need to buy these properties?”

“No need,” Shelk smirked coldly. “Most are already government properties, long abandoned due to various legacy issues. This area is like a semi-autonomous zone; the government couldn’t reclaim the land, so it became a haven for some vagrants and gangs. But now, with a mayor as decisive as you, those squatters can be driven out without compensation and without the power to resist. For the other few buildings, we just need to pay a small amount.”

Shelk didn’t care about these people’s fates; he felt a hidden excitement in following Mayor Anna Alec, believing they were changing the city.

Indeed, this night made history for Gotham, but one wrong step, and Gotham could revert to its old ways.

Vivi covered her face in dismay: No, this is important, right?

Those unemployed vagrants needed resettlement, stretching the budget even thinner.

She wavered internally, not interrupting Shelk, just nodding for him to continue.

Shelk, of course, had a “but.”

“But,” he adjusted his glasses, frowning, “one building is problematic, namely the MCU headquarters.”

“Apart from the MCU headquarters, there must be other high-rises…” Vivi could see from here. Some bold people had set up companies in the East District, more than one, like Daggett Enterprises and some archaic Gothic buildings. Once demolished, some historically significant buildings might disappear forever.

Shelk nodded: “That’s related to the later phase of raising ground levels. We plan to use cement filling, essentially abandoning the first floors of some buildings, turning them into underground levels, while other buildings aren’t on the pipeline route.”

“So, it’s the MCU…” Vivi had thought of letting Bella join the MCU, never imagining her interaction with it as mayor would be to demolish it.

“According to the plan, we could choose to demolish the MCU headquarters last, as it’s still needed to maintain order in the East District…”

Well, Vivi thought, so it will be demolished when it’s no longer useful?

She considered: “No, follow the construction route and demolish it. And I think it’s better to do it sooner.”

The mayor, intending to repair sewers, and even demolish the MCU, should show her resolve.

Shelk, however, seemed to misinterpret, asking, “Is that so… Well, it could be a warning to Batman! I understand!”

No! What did you understand?

Vivi: “?” What does this have to do with Batman?

Minutes later, Vivi realized what was going on.

“The MCU headquarters rooftop… with the Bat-Signal for summoning Batman at night?”

So what to do with the Bat-Signal once it’s removed, Vivi wondered blankly.

Sell it for scrap?