2207 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 48
Superman was also very high-profile. He easily held up cars, planes, rockets and buildings, but that was mainly to save people.
The Dark Knight, however, was a little different.
He appeared at violent crime scenes every time, but not as a CSI member.
Regardless of whether the offenders were about to commit a crime, or were in the middle of carrying it out, or it was after the fact, the moment they showed themselves, Knight would beat them up, rescue and treat the victims, and call the police.
He didn’t leave until the police arrived. Every time, the police officers would see his fluttering cape gradually change color before he disappeared into the night.
Superman liked saving civilians more than fighting crime.
The way Knight appeared and crippled criminals was undoubtedly very ruthless.
But compared with Batman, who didn’t get close to ordinary people and only liked to ‘have a chat’ with the criminals, Knight’s actions focused more on saving people.
Compared with the crippled criminals, the victims who were injured or whose lives had been in danger were the ones who deserved sympathy.
Here, where crime rates were far higher than back home, ordinary people didn’t dislike this sort of ‘vigilante’ at all.
Growing up here, everyone had been robbed and beaten up at least three to five times in their lives.
Master Wayne was notorious in Gotham, but the GCPD police were still happy to clean up his messes for him – this was also a form of self-protection.
Who knew, they might be the ones who needed rescuing one day — even police officers on the front line thought the same.
Thus, Victor, who had ‘infiltrated the enemy’s ranks,’ realized that no matter how much he shouted, public opinion was always lukewarm, rendering the second half of Project Shadow useless.
Luke found it strange. “Why the second half? The second half of the plan is the last resort when things get serious. It’s best if it doesn’t happen in this lifetime. This saves time.”
After thinking for a moment, Victor had to admit that he really wanted to show off.
After conning Victor, Luke mumbled to himself, If I could rouse local opposition just by harvesting points, would I need to carry out such a long-term investigation?
There was no strong public opinion at the bottom, mostly because the guys who did bad things could be considered the boogeymen who could be used to stop children crying at night.
Unless a TV station hired professional actors or had the locals lie through their teeth, it was impossible to wash away these people’s evil deeds.
Of course, there was one TV station that tried this.
Then… that was it for the station.
Online chat records were leaked which showed that the TV station staff had been hiring actors and fabricating fake news for years.
Slandering Knight was just one of their ‘businesses.’
Even more seriously, there was proof they had fabricated evidence of the previous American president taking bribes, which caused a stir among the masses.
This instant slap in the face dealt a huge blow to the major TV station’s reputation.
More importantly, that fallen president’s rival wasn’t doing well right now. The ex-president couldn’t wait to grab attention and turn things around.
That was right. Politicians were very familiar with this sort of thing.
This person immediately jumped out and announced that he would participate in the next election, and wouldn’t let those despicable people continue serving.
This person had already lost three times; if he didn’t seize the opportunity to counterattack, he would be unworthy of this tenacity.
For a moment, the Dark Knight wasn’t in the limelight anymore.
All sorts of dirt flew over the Internet. Although it didn’t involve a lot of people, there was a lot of it.
Of course, this was because Luke had fanned the flames and helped throw out some especially ‘shocking’ news.
Was it news that American politicians operated behind the scenes and traded power and money? It barely counted, and it definitely wasn’t a surprise to ordinary people.
What politician would have the cheek to say that they didn’t do these things?
So, Luke deliberately released explosive scandals, such as XX chatting up his sister-in-law or daughter-in-law.
Strictly speaking, these actions were moral issues at most, and weren’t against the law.
But their reputations would be tarnished, and these scandals would be brought up again and again.
Luke had no qualms about doing this.
The government here really held too little control.
The economy was in poor shape, and the people at the bottom here generally lived poorer lives than those back home. They were very resentful of the government, and could easily stir up trouble.
So what if Batman broke the law? So what if the Dark Knight broke the law? At the very least, these two dealt with criminals and bad guys.
Those government people broke the law by making money illegally. If they opposed these vigilantes, they would be the first ones in the line of fire.
Master Wayne couldn’t sit still anymore.
It wasn’t that he was jealous; he just felt uneasy when he realized that Luke was too proficient at this.
Master Wayne was good at playing with all levels of society in the palm of his hand as he did his own righteous thing.
It was just that he might be very successful in Gotham, but his efforts in the rest of America just barely passed muster.
After all, he was only human, and was almost 40 years old. How could he compare with someone who didn’t need to sleep, but forced himself to do so for two hours every day?
So, when Master Wayne had a chat with Luke at the base, he had mixed feelings when he looked at Luke, who was still young and handsome and as fair as a pretty boy.
However, their conversation was quite amicable.
As a big capitalist, Master Wayne had been in the business world for many years. He looked calm on the surface, and just tried to sound Luke out, hoping that he wouldn’t cause too big a stir.
Luke didn’t agree right away. Instead, he presented the facts and explained the situation, and made it clear that he wasn’t planning to create a commotion in Gotham and Metropolis.
Master Wayne felt a little suffocated.
The truth was that the economy was in bad shape. While the financial sector flourished, manufacturing had stagnated, and there were few jobs to go around.
Without jobs, or given how hard it was to find stable and suitable employment, a lot of people at the bottom would naturally rely on illegal means to survive.
If all the gang bigshots in Gotham City were wiped out in one night, there would be other groups fighting for money and power the next day, and everything would go back to what it was like before.
If something this big did break out, many people would definitely blame it on Knight.
Thinking of it this way, Luke said that indeed, the only feasible plan was to ‘distribute’ his efforts evenly across all the major cities in America.
It wasn’t like Luke couldn’t do what Master Wayne had done in Gotham, right?
After going back and forth for a while, they finally reached a compromise.
At that moment, Barry, who had returned earlier on, was already a little sleepy. He could only stuff snacks into his mouth to stop himself from dozing off.
After listening for a few minutes, Victor decisively left.
He wasn’t interested in politics at all, much less in this squabble between two rich bigshots.
As he was pouring tea for Master Wayne to moisten his dry throat, Luke’s phone pinged.
His expression changed. He picked it up and gave a light exclamation of surprise. “No wonder Arthur hasn’t contacted us recently.”