52. Gotham: Chairgate

60.

Gotham in the daytime is a beast with its claws folded. If you want to find help, you have to go to places where the sun doesn't shine.

When you push open the glass door, you are hit by a gust of cold air that gives you goose bumps. Lyrical jazz music is still floating in circles above the bar, as if there is no place to rest.

This was Aria's second time stepping into this bar. Perhaps because she had shocked this group of people so much the last time, even though she was only wearing ordinary clothes this time, many eyes were staring at her, both openly and covertly.

Old Sa had a very good memory. Even if someone only met him once, if they paid him enough, he could easily recall their face. He was currently wiping the water stains off a freshly washed wine glass with a handkerchief. Seeing Aria sitting at the bar, he asked without even looking up:

"What would you like to drink?"

Although she was a big winemaker in every gear, Aria rarely drank anything that would reduce her speed by one. To sound more intimidating, the farmer lowered his voice deliberately: "Do you remember the man who put a red barrel on his head last time?"

The corners of Lao Sa's mouth, which had always drooped, twitched noticeably. Unless the other party had irresistible financial power, he would be clueless when asked about other guests' information: "I don't remember."

"I don't believe that," Aria curled her lips. Remembering what Red Bucket had done last time, she pulled a Franklin from her bag, pressed it against the table, and shoved it across the table. She spent a hundred dollars with the same audacity as if she were spending ten million. "How much do you want to open your mouth to that?"

Under the bar lights, Aria's dark eyes flashed with clarity and sincerity: "I'm not his enemy, I just need his help with something."

The farmer didn't know that the last incident had successfully made her known as the "mad woman with a pitchfork" in the underground world. Not only did the ordinary minions no longer dare to pick a fight with her, even a seasoned bartender like Old Sa was skeptical about the truthfulness of her words - after all, the last time Red Hood took her out, they had already exchanged contact information, so why did she come back and ask him, a bartender, now?

"Miss," the bartender said, still being polite despite thinking so. He didn't want to be treated like a drum kit. "Even the Black Mask from back in the day would have spent a case of US dollars almost as big as this to inquire about our boss's whereabouts."

Lao Sa lightly tapped the alloy toolbox next to a mercenary not far away. One can imagine the money needed to fill such a box.

Aria was stunned. Zuzu City's inflation rate was still too rapid. Something that had been solved with a hundred dollars last time had skyrocketed hundreds of times this time. Her original budget was a thousand dollars, but with the bartender's voracious appetite, it was just a drop in the bucket.

But the rescue of Selena could not be delayed any longer, so Aria put the farm construction plan aside and took out all the money in her account - for safety reasons she did not let Holly come with her. If this amount of money was not enough to impress the bartender, she would probably have to borrow more from her.

A total of three thousand eight hundred and seventy-four dollars and one cent - that one cent was picked out by Aria just now by bending over from the crack in the bar floor. This Lincoln cent gleamed with a coppery luster on a stack of mixed banknotes, adding a somewhat miserable atmosphere to the environment in front of her.

Aria bit her lower lip. "If you're interested in ore, I have some crystal balls here, but I can't guarantee you'll find gems."

In fact, the farmer had also prepared a second plan, which was to use force to force the bartender to hand over the contact information of Red Bucket, but this plan was no longer applicable after the other party stated that Red Bucket was his new boss - since he needed the other party's help, causing trouble in his place would only backfire.

Seeing that the bartender still had no reaction, the farmer became a little impatient: "My friend is missing, and now we need to search Zuzu City on a large scale. It would be great if we could see the city-wide surveillance..."

"...So you came to me?"

A familiar voice exploded behind Aria, and the farmer turned around in surprise. Red Bucket, wearing a leather jacket, sat down next to her.

He still smelled of gunpowder, and there were several bullet holes on the hem of his leather jacket. He gently adjusted his belt to put the weapons back into place. He looked like he had just escaped a fierce battle - which he really was.

Red Hood sat casually, one foot on the footrest of the bar stool, the other resting casually. While the pose looked cool, the farmer could sense a hint of fatigue in it.

"What do you think I am? An NPC that respawns regularly in the bar?" As soon as Red Hood's voice came out, that feeling immediately disappeared like the wind - he sounded like he could still fight for another three hundred rounds and kick the enemy into the ditch by the way.

Jason Todd certainly didn't miss Aria's eyes, which lit up as if they had seen a windfall: "Friend, my friend, you're finally here!"

"Stop, stop, stop. Who is your friend?" He was overwhelmed when he heard the word. Unfortunately, the enthusiastic farmer did not give him more opportunities to refuse. Aria caught her friend and blamed her: "Selina Kyle disappeared today. When she went out today, she only told Holly that she was going to meet a friend, and then she disappeared!"

"Is there any surveillance in Zuzu City that can track her whereabouts? Or perhaps finding her spending records would be fine!"

Selina Kyle. Red Hood thought the name sounded familiar; it seemed like she had appeared in a restaurant with the person she was monitoring a few days ago.

He sent a message to his subordinates, but the red-hooded man remained motionless, looking unhurried.

He had to first figure out why Aria was looking for him.

Now that Black Mask has been driven to insanity, the power transfer process is often turbulent. Whether it is aimed at ordinary people, surveillance targets, or the poor farmer in front of him, Red Hood prefers to listen to her explanation before making a decision.

"Why not Batman?" He even got goosebumps when he said this. "Go to the roof of the Gotham Police Department and turn on that ridiculous light-up toy, and you'll see him. A guy with a perverted desire to control Gotham should be able to find someone faster than a criminal, right?"

Aria was stunned. Red Hood could see the obvious emotions of "there's such a thing" and "shock" in her intelligent eyes. Just as he was about to leave, the farmer immediately shook off his shock, shouting words like friendship and bond, and hugged his waist like a dog-skin plaster.

"Friend! Don't leave, friend!" Aria was about to cry: "This is a human life!"

In fact, it would be best if the farmer didn't get involved. He was confident that the information could be retrieved by Batman anonymously. If there were any forces behind this, the one who would deal with them would only be him, who was more experienced - or at worst, the old man.

But this unreasonable way of asking for help disrupted Jason Todd's language function. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, he struggled to break free from the farmer's rather strong shackles and tried to maintain the Red Hood's usual cool image.

"The only thing that matters here is money. Why should I help you if you don't have money?"

The farmer is indeed broke now, but she has more wicked ideas than the lunatics in Gotham who keep growing new crops after harvesting them: "I still have carrots, parsnips and potatoes...all of them are pollution-free and harmless...if you want them, I can give them to you..."

Don't make this cold, cold money transaction sound like the gratitude you'd receive for helping a neighbor! Red Hood couldn't stand it any longer. Under the gazes of those who had finally learned to restrain themselves, he grabbed Aria's three thousand and led her out of the bar.

"Here you go." Red Hood folded the money and threw it back to her. Just then, his subordinate sent a message back. He suppressed a strange feeling that he couldn't describe and started the modified motorcycle.

"Come up, I'll take you to find someone."

"Thank you, my friend!" The farmer couldn't hide his excitement. "You are simply the best person in the world!"

"And you don't remember the name of the person who helped you." Jason Todd complained mercilessly: "I'll only say it once, I'm 'Red Hood'." Maybe he didn't introduce himself last time, but if he can't call out the name next time, it will definitely be some people's problem.

…

Surveillance footage captured Selina Kyle going to the zoo this morning, but only captured her entering the tiger enclosure, with the rest of the footage "accidentally" lost. To be honest, Red Hood sees such accidents a thousand or eight hundred times a year in Gotham, so it's no longer surprising.

However, one thing that was worth noting was that after investigation, a zoo security guard claimed to have witnessed this beautiful woman. According to his description, she was accompanied by a very strange-looking man, and then the two of them disappeared together.

"Quasimodo and Esmeralda," Red Hood complained, "but apparently this Mr. Quasimodo isn't as kind as in the book."

With the target person in place, the search became easy. Although the ugly man tried hard to avoid surveillance all the way, the surveillance system that the old man had spent so much effort on was far more than he could have imagined. Finally, he captured the man's trace again on the beach - he left Gotham in a speedboat with a box. Satellite surveillance relay showed that the man's destination was an island medium distance from Gotham.

As a friend of Selina Kyle, Holly also rushed to the beach after receiving the news, but this cunning man had obviously anticipated this move. When he evacuated, he did not forget to destroy the speedboat parked nearby, leaving only a pile of charred scrap metal at the scene.

"I'll go find another speedboat." The man with the red hood handed Holly a tissue. When she learned that Selina was most likely kidnapped to another island, the woman could no longer hold back her emotions and shed tears. She was very emotional.

"According to the aerial photos, there's a jungle on the west side of the island. Approaching from there shouldn't attract his attention—if they have surveillance cameras." Jason sighed, quite confused as to why he'd been so foolish as to wade into this mess. "Let me make this clear: I have my own rules of conduct. Once we get here, we'll split up and not interfere with each other."

"It's too late to find a speedboat now." It seemed that Aria had already put a round of thought into her clever little brain. "Since we already know that he has captured Selina and brought her to the island, the better time to rescue her is sooner rather than later. Now is the best time to go."

The man was wearing a hood and her expression was unclear, but Holly felt that his eyebrows were almost sticking out of his face under the hood: "Go now? Gotham's speedboat is not that fast, it will take at least an hour and a half..." He didn't have a character like the Flash among his men, and it would take time to avoid the Gotham police and send the speedboat.

Aria glanced at the sea in front of the three of them. Even with the bright sunshine, the water along the coast of Zuzu City still appeared dull, like a blue eye covered with gray. "Perhaps there is another possibility."

The farmer did it right away. He jumped onto the wooden pier on the beach, took out a wooden chair from his backpack and placed it facing the pier. He then moved the box next to the pier and placed it behind the chair.

If Aunt Susan didn't know what Aria meant by "internal use" and "external use" before, she would understand now that she was there.

Aria jumped onto the chair, and when she jumped off again, it was as if she was stepping on a deep blue mirror.

She stood on the water.

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[Stardew Valley Tips]: Take out chairs and furniture, and use the positioning to allow players to stand directly on the water. So, chair door!

Give Jason Todd some little shock bushi

I believe that some of the little angels who have watched Batman TAS should be able to guess which villain will appear.