44. Gotham: Mirror Image

52.

"Of course!" Aria seemed to be quite dissatisfied with the security job: "Lewis basically didn't pay me any money. If this was the only job I had, I would have starved to death long ago." Although she could survive without eating, such metaphors are always the easiest to understand.

Talking about his job, the farmer seemed to be gleaming: "I have a farm! It was left to me by my grandfather."

The stirring spoon tinkled against the glass, and Aria stared down at her reflection. "Working in the city is too hard, so I decided to leave."

The protagonist must have been driven by this thought: he didn't want to be reduced to a mere cog in a modern assembly line, a mere mechanical laborer. He resolutely left the city and returned to the unfamiliar countryside.

While farm life is tiring, with players waking up at six and going to bed at two, the experience is vastly different. If Areya had to pinpoint the difference, it's the freedom of choice—you can be a fully accomplished player, exploring every gameplay mode. Or you can be a mining enthusiast and a fishing expert, leaving the farm bare and planting nothing.

Players can even do nothing and sleep in bed for three years. When the yard is full of tall mushrooms, grandpa comes back to give you a rating and he still just hopes you are happy.

If real life is unhappy, go to Stardew Valley. If reality is full of strangeness and insecurity, then use Stardew Valley as a safe house for your spirit.

At least that's what AAA agricultural and sideline product distributors think.

"The farm is now well-maintained. Perhaps I'll be able to invite you guys over for a visit soon." Aria smiled happily. "I haven't invited many friends to visit the farm yet."

Of course, it would be even better if the visit could be in the summer, so that she could have the group help pick hops for an afternoon under the guise of experiencing the beer brewing process.

A plain, simple backstory, full of the smell of sun-baked straw. But Lincoln March didn't believe her.

Before the court found him, Lincoln March had spent a long time at the Willow Grove Children's Rescue Center. This memory was not a pleasant one, as the red cross, symbolizing the rescue of the wounded, was shrouded in endless shadows.

The man who now wears the Lincoln March mask and another leather suit was once abandoned there, and could only perceive the world through the occasional kindness of those around him - like being pushed alone in front of a mirror, no matter how he moves, he will only get a response from himself.

That's when the idea formed - the whole world is a huge mirror, and everyone is just a pitiful person standing in front of it, admiring their own reflection. All the disguises done in front of others are just futile attempts to get the powder of happiness on themselves.

If Aria truly had a family that loved her, she wouldn't have such a fondness for trash cans, even going so far as to try to catch aquatic life in Gotham's sewers to feed herself.

…But whether he believed Aria or not wasn't important; at least Bruce Wayne did. Rich people who had clearly never suffered much hardship were filled with embellished visions of pastoral life, especially Wayne. His interest made Lincoln March wonder if Gotham would immediately splash out cash if Aria offered a farm expansion franchise plan right then and there.

"So that farm is close to Gotham?" Bruce Wayne asked with interest. "If it were too far, it would be inconvenient to work for the mayor."

Aria was a little surprised that Wayne was concerned about the commuting issue. After all, he looked like the kind of rich young man who thought that the fruit in the refrigerator would be refreshed every day: "Is it okay actually?" Although the actual distance from the farm to Zuzu City depends on the logistics distance of the latter, it is just a matter of closing an eye and opening a eye for the farmer and is not a trouble at all.

"Actually, the mayor doesn't need my constant protection." The snacks on her plate were so small she could almost fit in one mouthful. Aria swallowed them with a gulp and continued, "I think the mayor can be quite formidable sometimes."

If she thought about it carefully, there were probably only two reasons why she had fought with the monsters for no apparent reason - one was that she had entered the monsters' territory and was attacked harshly as an invader, and the other was that someone had deliberately released monsters targeting her.

As an ordinary farmer, Aria hadn't done anything to arouse envy, and most of the NPCs she met in Zuzu City had positive favorability. Excluding various factors, someone was targeting Lewis - they probably wanted to weaken the new mayor's security forces first, so that no one would help him when they attacked him.

A farmer who had a lot of combat experience but was defeated because of the iron rule of having to go to bed before two o'clock, and Lewis who had little combat experience but was able to survive the siege of the Owl Monster's accomplices. Judging from the combat record alone, Lewis is the more powerful one.

"Mayor Lewis does have his own ideas about running Gotham." Thinking of Cobblepot trying to sue Batman for the new mayor being a corrupt official, the corners of Bruce Wayne's mouth couldn't help but rise a few pixels.

He should have been worried about the new mayor's safety because he had made enemies with the Penguin right after taking office, and he should have been afraid of the Penguin's style of doing things because of this violent tax collection method, and he should have deduced whether the new mayor would take more drastic measures to lead Gotham in the future. But when he learned that the taxes were collected by the new mayor himself and that the Penguin was shot by Aria with a toy-like slingshot, an indescribable sense of absurdity still hit him.

Nightwing, who occasionally returned to the Batcave to borrow the database, had a strange expression on his face. As soon as he was out of Bruce's sight, he sent a message in the communication group: "B must be mad at the new mayor. Today I saw him sneering at the data - I heard that people will laugh when they are speechless to the extreme. It seems that this new mayor is more aggressive than the previous ones." I hope he can get through the rest of his term safely.

Unlike Nightwing, who thinks he is mad, Bruce Wayne is actually quite tolerant of the new mayor's big move - he has been watching over Gotham for many years and he knows the glory and hopelessness of this city.

He used to have companions fighting side by side, and several people worked together to try to pull Gotham out of the quagmire. Now Harvey has become Two-Face, and Gordon is exhausted just dealing with the affairs of the Gotham Police Department. The city does not seem to have emerged from the quagmire at all because of their efforts, but instead drags those who try to pull it out into hell.

If the emergence of a new mayor can make this quagmire clear, or at least make it active again, Batman doesn't mind tolerating some of his behaviors that walk on the edge of the law and giving him a hand outside the law.

Faced with a city that is terminally ill, perhaps only drastic measures can make it better.

——But the premise of all this is that Lewis is still Lewis.

He had to prove that the mayor's death was an illusion created by the Gotham Gazette reporter, and that Lewis himself had not been replaced or become a puppet of some behind-the-scenes force.

There was no way to break through with the new mayor, but Aria, whose bodyguards had almost zero vigilance, was the best option.

"I mean fighting." Being able to fight with the owl monster at least shows that Lewis is quite capable.

"In terms of fighting?"

Bruce Wayne spoke carefully, disguising the question as curiosity: "Who did he fight?"

————————

Aria thought Lewis fought: fought back and forth with the enemy and won with superior skills, or dodge points were full

In fact, Lewis fights: he is weak and beaten, but he is very resilient

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