Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Now this has gone beyond something confined to the upper-class society's circle of freaks.

You can play your twisted games behind closed doors; no one minds, given that no one cares about the lower classes or how many of them die.

But you can't keep messing around and drag us into it. Trouble from nowhere lands right in our laps when we haven't done a thing, then suddenly we're forced to face a formidable rise from our competitors.

Those who didn't bet are naturally complaining, saying, "Are you bored, raising funds for this? Now you're happy with the emergence of this upstart behemoth?"

But as much as they whine, they obviously want the money in their own pockets. Even if they don't set up traps, there are certainly some who will try their luck betting.

Those who bet later did so not for the thrill like the earlier ones, but for profit. They are much cooler-headed. To win money, they naturally apply all sorts of professional methods.

Of course, there were also attempts to infiltrate Arkham Asylum. Although Gray mist is no good at physical labor, he is professional at scaring people. It's the old trade of the Outer God. A mere gesture is enough to make the Invaders flee in terror.

Those betting understood that the new director of the asylum had some tricks up his sleeve. It made no sense to confront him head-on: on one hand, they couldn't win, and on the other, if he pulled some dirty trick, wouldn't they be left with nothing, not even their pants?

But just because they couldn't confront him head-on and didn't want to overspend, that didn't mean they couldn't use some special methods.

As everyone knows, gambling is essentially a matter of probability. Without the Banker interfering, one could use mathematics to derive outcomes. Someone had done this before with quite high accuracy, and it wasn't even considered cheating.

Even if you're not mathematically inclined, having the skills to remember and calculate cards can give you a great advantage in card games. Understanding the opponent's thinking makes it even easier to win.

So, for the sake of this money, these people started thinking of such methods.

The first step, of course, was to get the most detailed data on every Super Villain to analyze who would be easier to win against.

So, who has this data?

Isn't it just perfect that Gotham City happens to have a Superhero who has been engaged in a long-term struggle with these Super Villains—Batman.

The most comprehensive analysis of Super Villains is in Batman's database. That's common knowledge among high society.

But when Batman received the call asking him to provide this data, he was completely bewildered.

Naturally, Batman asked what they needed this data for. But these people also had an understanding of Batman, knowing he was stubborn, so they certainly wouldn't tell him straight up, "We're planning to gamble." That would be too easy to hold against them.

So, these people simply insisted that they were going to fight crime. Even though you've been fighting crime, you can't prevent others from doing the same, right?

Of course, Batman didn't want to give it to them. He valued intelligence more than his life. Even information on Super Villains wasn't something he'd simply hand over to others.

When they realized this wasn't going anywhere, these people naturally started to make offers.

Their reasoning was simple: the previous batch of bettors spent a lot of money buying traps, all to win, right? If I spend money on intelligence and spend less than they did, won't I come out ahead?

They also offered a pretty penny. Though no individual spent much, it wasn't just one or two people buying—the later bettors were several times more numerous than the earlier ones. They may not have bet big, but they had resources.

After calculating the total sum, even Batman was taken aback. With that amount of money, Wayne Enterprises's problem with insufficient working capital could definitely be eased.

Batman wavered for three seconds, then quickly, resolutely refused. He made money to fight crime. If selling intelligence led to more chaos, then better not to earn it at all.

When they realized they couldn't buy him off, these people started scheming again. They sued Batman.

Batman was almost amused to the point of laughter upon receiving the court summons.

These people accused him of not disclosing the in-depth information on Super Villains, of refusing to contribute to public safety, demanding the immediate implementation of a Super Villain registration act—a crime under real names is everyone's responsibility.

But coincidentally, this hit right on one of Gordon's sweet spots. A real-name system would be great, wouldn't it make catching people easier? And if it's only the Super Villains who need to register, isn't it up to me to define who they are?

Needless to say, Batman didn't hold back. He tackled the issue from the perspective of privacy rights and fought a war of words in court. The jury was speechless.

But again, coincidentally, the Pale Knight was precisely someone who didn't care about criminals' rights. Otherwise, he wouldn't have smashed Clayface to pieces and fed him to others.

Here came the grand entrance of Pale Knight versus Batman 2.0. The two people, who had just made peace not long ago, were back at each other's throats in court.

Batman was skilled at persuading others, and Pale Knight was no worse. And the lower-class populace backing him actually supported the real-name system.

Previously, it might not have been the case, but since the establishment of GTO, efficiency in capturing criminals had greatly increased. As long as you dare to cause trouble, I dare to arrest you. If real-name registration and criminal records could be instituted, efficiency would heighten, and public order would improve.

This time, oddly enough, Gotham's high society stood united with the lower classes, all supporting Pale Knight, pressuring Batman to release detailed information on the Super Villains.