Gordon instinctively reached for his gun.
Only when his hand found an empty holster did he remember that Catwoman had taken it.
A biological monster’s massive fist came crashing toward him.
Its foul stench hit him in the face, accompanied by the whistling of the wind.
An immense terror was like a wooden wedge driven through the sole of his foot, pinning him firmly in place.
At the critical moment between life and death, his old partner lunged forward and knocked him aside.
The fist grazed both their faces, the monster’s sharp bristles slicing open Gordon’s cheekbone.
That close.
He had come that close to dying!
The two men fell awkwardly and rolled aside to avoid being trampled.
They had no time to celebrate surviving the attack before they were once again thrown into an endless game of pursuit.
Bullock drew his gun and fired back.
He was the police department’s crack shot.
In a well-lit area, he was ninety percent certain he could shoot out the monsters’ eyes before they got close.
But this was an underground drainage shaft.
That dim flashlight was their only source of light.
He could only fire blindly toward the nearest sound of heavy breathing.
The tactic actually worked.
The biological monsters were temporarily driven back.
But they still refused to give up.
Growling like enraged apes, they circled the two men while beating their chests.
The situation appeared to have reached a stalemate, but it was as unstable as a seesaw balanced on a mountaintop.
A single gust of wind could shatter the equilibrium.
Meanwhile, Will was crouched motionless in a corner.
The moment he reached the bottom of the shaft, he had discovered the biological monsters’ weakness.
The monsters had spent years living inside nutrient chambers and had only recently been released into the sewers.
But whether inside the chambers or in the sewers, both environments were dimly lit.
In other words, their visual systems had severely deteriorated.
They could basically only sense sources of light.
Gordon and Bullock were shouting and waving their flashlight around.
They might as well have put up a sign pointing toward a buffet, just in case the monsters couldn’t find where to eat.
Will had wanted to warn them.
But the situation had been too urgent, and he hadn’t had much time.
If things went wrong, he might even have gotten himself killed.
Of course, he had no intention of pretending to be dead.
Gordon and Bullock were his shield.
Without a shield, how could soldiers withstand an enemy’s barrage of arrows?
“Think of something.
Hurry, think of something!
Think about what Batman would do!”
…
Everyone who had known Will since childhood said he was exceptionally intelligent, but hopelessly lazy.
That was right.
The word “lazy” could be said to perfectly summarize his attitude toward life.
It had been the same at school.
As long as he could remain somewhere in the middle, he would never bother trying to stand out.
After entering society, he was just as unwilling to change his habits.
If he could coast through work, he would.
Sleep at work.
Play on his phone during meetings.
Always wait until almost quitting time before starting his assignments.
After all, he was talented, his mind worked quickly, and one hour of his work could be worth an entire day’s work from someone else.
His favorite thing was teamwork.
Within a team, he didn’t have to use his brain.
If something went wrong, he wouldn’t be the one blamed.
Of course, he wouldn’t get the credit either…
But what did someone as unambitious as him care about credit?
As long as life went on, he could just coast along.
But after transmigrating, one heavy responsibility after another had fallen onto his shoulders.
He had to save Oswald.
And now he had to rescue Gordon from the biological monsters.
He hated responsibility.
He hated having no choice.
Now he had both.
Will really wanted to lie down and let everything end.
But his survival instinct whipped him onward, preventing him from stopping.
Like an overheated engine, his heart pounded furiously, pumping an endless stream of adrenaline throughout his body.
At this moment, Will’s thoughts became extraordinarily sharp.
A crazy idea suddenly appeared in his mind.
“Commissioner Gordon, the handcuffs!”
“What?”
“The handcuffs!!!!”
His hoarse roar pierced through the surrounding noise and reached Gordon’s ears.
Under the beam of the flashlight, Will saw a pair of handcuffs fly toward him.
But his roar had also attracted an uninvited guest.
That particular biological monster had been shot by Bullock and was retreating to the rear, licking its wounds.
Will’s sudden shout immediately caught its attention.
The flashlight’s beam flashed and disappeared.
Will heard the crisp sound of the handcuffs hitting the ground.
He recalled their location and felt around with both hands braced against the ground.
At the same time, the filter grate beneath his feet suddenly began vibrating violently.
Something was approaching.
It stopped.
It was hanging directly above his head.
Hot air sprayed across the back of Will’s neck, soaked with sewage.
A rotten stench slowly burrowed into his nostrils.
He held his breath and remained perfectly still.
But his heart was pounding like a war drum.
At last, his fingers touched the handcuffs.
Unfortunately, the handcuffs were caught in a gap in the filter grate.
A light poke sent them tumbling downward.
At the critical moment, Will lunged forward and hooked the falling handcuffs with his fingertips.
But he had made far too much noise.
Even with the surrounding racket providing cover, the biological monster still noticed the disturbance.
It lowered its body.
Two nostrils resembling rotten strawberries flared as it tried to pick out the scent of human beings from the jumble of smells.
In truth, it didn’t need to bother.
Another half-step forward would have been enough to crush Will’s skull.
“You can’t find me…
You can’t find me…”
Will silently repeated the words, trying to hypnotize himself.
Unexpectedly, it actually worked.
The biological monster didn’t move any closer.
His wildly beating heart gradually settled down.
He naively thought he had escaped disaster.
Before one problem could be resolved, another appeared.
Without warning, a stringy blob of foul-smelling mucus landed on his head.
Will could endure it.
But his body’s instinctive disgust made his stomach churn and contract.
For an instant, the overwhelming urge to vomit even surpassed his fear.
Will’s face instantly turned pale.
If he vomited at a moment like this, his life would probably be over.
He bit his lip hard and finally managed to suppress the urge.
But that blob of mucus seemed almost alive.
After disgusting Will, it continued flowing down his arm.
In the blink of an eye, it seeped into the gap between his fingers and the handcuffs.
Lubricated by the mucus, the handcuffs were gradually slipping out of his control.
Will’s face turned ashen.
These handcuffs were their only hope of escape.
If he let them fall, it was over.
He tried to retrieve them.
But the slippery mucus was no different from lubricant.
Every time he was about to get a firm grip, the handcuffs slipped free again.
After rubbing against the holes in the filter grate for so long, Will’s wrist was already covered in blood.
The biological monster also caught the scent of blood.
Its head drew closer and closer.
Plop!
Will suddenly felt the lightness at his fingertips.
After toying with this poor man time and time again, the god of fate still wasn’t finished with him.
The handcuffs fell into the darkness together with Will’s sinking heart.
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!
YOU MOTHERFUCKER!”
He broke down completely, roaring wildly to vent his fury.
The biological monster was still searching for its target.
The sudden roar beside its ears startled it into retreating several steps.
But it quickly recovered.
What was there to fear about food?
It extended its hairy hand and grabbed Will.
Bullock also noticed that Will was in danger after hearing the roar.
As he frantically swung his gun toward the sound, he failed to notice the biological monster lurking in the darkness and preparing to ambush him.
Bang!
A muffled impact rang out.
The monster’s long arm smashed into Bullock.
He crashed to the ground, his fate unknown.
The biological monster opened its enormous maw.
Under the flashlight, Will saw two rows of yellow teeth riddled with cavities.
The stench washed over him.
The aura of death filled the entire scene.
But just as everyone was falling into despair, a beam of light shot through one of the holes in the shaft wall and shattered the darkness.
Then came two gunshots.
One bullet entered through the monster’s mouth and exited through its jaw, startling it into throwing Will aside.
The second shot struck the biological monster that had ambushed Bullock.
The bullet pierced through its eardrum and burrowed deep into its brain.
The monster’s expression twisted hideously.
Driven mad by the pain, it abandoned its pursuit of Gordon and crashed around like a crazed bull, clutching its head.
Before long, it stopped breathing.
Seeing its companion killed, the remaining biological monster didn’t dare make a move.
“Gentlemen, are you completely useless without a woman around?”
A melodious, playful female voice echoed through the drainage shaft.