Observing that there was no other way out of the locker room, Rex tensed his body, readied himself for a fight, and then opened the door.
A hand immediately reached out, grabbing him and pulling him outside.
After getting a clear look at the person’s face, Rex quickly halted his counterattack.
From the original host’s memories, Rex knew this was his manager at the boxing arena, who had always treated him well.
“Run, there’s no time.”
The manager slapped a hat onto his head and used a scarf to cover half of Rex’s face.
“Why?” the manager couldn’t help but complain as he led him toward the back door of the arena.
“It was just a fixed match.
Winning only gets you 120 dollars, while losing pays 300.
Is it really that hard to choose?”
“Don Sal Maroni is very unhappy.
The Maroni family lost over thirty thousand dollars tonight, and they’ve already put out the word to kill you to save face.”
Approaching the back door, the manager stopped and urged Rex, “The Maroni family is the second-largest mob in Gotham.
You need to flee immediately.
Leave Gotham, go anywhere else.”
“The main entrance of the arena is swarming with their men.
The back door hasn’t been surrounded yet, so go, quickly!”
Rex couldn’t help but ask, “What will you do if I leave?”
“Don’t worry about me.” The manager forced a smile.
“We’ve worked together for three years; I can’t just watch you die.”
After saying that, he gave Rex another push, urging him to hurry.
“Take care of yourself, then.”
Taking a deep look at the manager, Rex ran toward the back door.
However, once he reached a spot out of the manager’s sight, Rex smartly turned the corner and changed directions, never actually heading for the back door.
He found a concealed window.
After observing carefully for a moment and confirming no one was paying attention, he slipped straight out.
Once outside, Rex sneaked a peek at the back door.
Just as he expected, the area outside was blocked by men from the Maroni family.
Sure enough, the manager had sold him out.
Rex secretly rejoiced at his own alertness.
Had this been anywhere else, he might have believed the manager’s sincere tone.
But here?
You’ve got to be kidding me; this is Gotham!
Only the naive original host would have thought the man was actually a good guy.
“Ring, ring, ring…”
A cell phone ringtone suddenly sounded from Rex’s jacket pocket, instantly drawing the attention of the people nearby.
He hastily pulled out the phone to silence the ringer, and when he checked the caller ID, it was none other than the manager.
How could there be cell phones in 1988?
Rex immediately realized that the timeline in the Gotham TV series was very ambiguous; despite being set in the eighties, it possessed early 21st-century technology.
“There he is!”
A mob underling immediately recognized him, shouting loudly to gather backup.
Rex bolted, not forgetting to turn off the phone as he ran.
Now fortified by the original host’s attributes, Rex didn’t have to run far to shake off his pursuers.
However, as the Maroni family was the second-largest gang in Gotham, new mobsters converged from all directions to intercept him.
Just as Rex ran out of the arena’s vicinity, pursuers appeared right in front of him.
Stumbling slightly, he hurriedly ducked into a nearby alley.
The mobsters followed closely behind, but after seeing the alley’s layout, they slowed their pace and began to chuckle maliciously.
They realized there was no exit ahead; it was a dead end.
“Keep running, Rex.”
“Don’t waste your energy.
Don Maroni might just take one of your hands, hahaha.”
The mobsters mocked him from behind, but Rex didn’t stop for a second.
He hadn’t chosen this path blindly in a panic.
The original host had grown up in Gotham, and the surrounding terrain was deeply ingrained in his mind.
He ran to the end of the alley, climbed onto a dumpster, and pushed off the wall for extra momentum.
With a leap, he slipped through an open window into the second-floor hallway of the adjacent building, leaving the thugs staring at each other in bewilderment.
Locking the window behind him, Rex climbed to the roof without pausing.
By frequently shifting his position across several rooftops, he successfully lost his pursuers.
To be absolutely safe, Rex ran several blocks away before finally coming to a halt.
Rex descended from the rooftop and sat on the second-floor stairs; if he were discovered here, he could still vault a wall and escape.
He panted heavily.
Even though his physical constitution was significantly enhanced, such intense exertion still left him exhausted.
He roughly estimated his location; he should be near Park Row.
This area was Fish Mooney’s turf, so the Maroni family wouldn’t act too recklessly here.
[Initial Task: Evade pursuit completed.]
[Reward obtained: 500 points, 3 free attribute points.]
[Main Quest unlocked.]
[Main Quest: Rise of a New Faction.]
[Task Requirements: Establish a new faction within a six-month time limit.
The task rating will be determined by the size of the faction.]
[Note: The task is only considered complete if the rating reaches Rank C or higher.]
Establish a faction within six months?
Rex felt a bit troubled.
A group could only be called a faction if it had power, influence, and territory.
Seeing that the task also required reaching a certain scale, none of these conditions were simple.
Establishing a new faction would inevitably lead to clashes with the old ones.
And who were the main factions in Gotham right now?
The mob.
Mobs, big and small!
Turf wars between gangs without shedding blood were impossible.
Yet, joining the mob was the easiest way to rise to power from scratch in Gotham.
Rex thought for a long time and decided to go down the mob path.
However, the conventional method of recruiting underlings to slash people and seize territory definitely wouldn’t work.
Although he could fight a little better than an ordinary person now, it was useless.
The gangs in Gotham used machine guns to spray bullets everywhere!
“Heh, the underworld isn’t just about fighting and killing.” Rex hadn’t forgotten that he still possessed the advantage of knowing the plot.
If he planned carefully, he just might have a chance.
Moreover, this task aligned perfectly with Rex’s current situation.
He hadn’t forgotten his true purpose for accepting the Abyss’s invitation—to cure his mother!
There were plenty of bizarre things in Gotham, even bringing the dead back to life.
If he wanted to find something helpful, he couldn’t do it without a faction of his own.
He allocated the 3 free attribute points rewarded from the initial task entirely to Constitution.
The original host had suffered from malnutrition since childhood and accumulated numerous hidden injuries as a boxer.
After adding the 3 points, his Constitution reached 12, and Rex instantly felt much more comfortable in his own body.
“Bang!
Bang!”
Two loud noises from the alleyway below suddenly caught Rex’s attention.
Gunshots!
He quickly poked his head out of the window.
At the far end of the alley, an armed thug was pointing a gun at a young boy, while a man and a woman were already lying in a pool of blood on the ground.
An armed robbery and murder!
Seeing that the boy could be killed at gunpoint at any moment, Rex had no time to think.
He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and threw it at the mugger, swift and precise.
He wasn’t one to meddle in other people’s business, but he couldn’t remain indifferent in the face of such a tragedy.
“Ah!”
The phone struck the thug’s gun-wielding wrist dead on, causing him to cry out in pain.
Seeing Rex vault down from the second floor, the mugger didn’t bother to pick up his gun and fled straight out of the alley.
Rex didn’t give chase.
He walked briskly toward the boy to check on the situation.
The boy slumped to the ground, legs giving way.
He shook his parents’ bodies left and right, but received no response.
He could only stare blankly at the approaching Rex.
Only after a long while did he begin to wail loudly.
“Sigh.”
Rex sighed.
He crouched down to examine the man and woman on the ground, but unfortunately, both had already lost their vital signs.
He placed his hands on the boy’s uncontrollably trembling shoulders, trying to offer him whatever warmth he could.
Waiting for the boy to cry for a while and gradually stop sobbing, Rex then asked in a gentle tone, “You’re safe now.
Don’t worry, I’m here.”
“What is your name?”
He felt an undeniable sense of déjà vu about this scene, but he couldn’t be certain.
Nighttime, an alleyway, a robbery-turned-murder.
There were countless cases in Gotham linking these three elements.
Perhaps because Rex had saved his life in the nick of time, the boy was cooperative, replying in a low voice:
“Bruce Wayne.”