Will’s legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees.
He wanted to run.
But his muscles were spasming so violently that he couldn’t muster even a trace of strength.
An overdose of adrenaline causes the muscles to contract, compressing blood vessels and forcing more blood toward the brain.
Normally, this is a protective mechanism, allowing humans to think more clearly for a brief period in moments of crisis.
But now…
That same mechanism had turned against Will.
What do I need a brain for?
I need my legs!
At the very brink of death, a whip suddenly dangled down beside the corpse of the biological monster.
Looking up, Will saw Bullock sprawled across its body, gasping for breath.
He had already completed most of the work for Will.
Only the final step remained.
“Just…
just a little more!
The end of the whip’s on your side…
Hurry and tie a dead knot!”
Despite his carefree appearance, Bullock was an incredibly dependable adult.
Seeing Will frozen in terror, he dragged his battered body forward and silently took over the burden.
In the blink of an eye, the biological monster reached Will.
It lowered its body and twisted one shoulder forward.
Its rock-like deltoid bulged like an unstoppable battering ram as it slammed toward him.
At that exact moment—
The knot was finished.
“Here it comes!
Get out of the way!!”
Bullock shouted.
Almost simultaneously, both he and Will rolled aside, barely escaping the impact.
BOOM!
The two mountains of flesh collided with each other.
The impact resembled an out-of-control dump truck smashing head-on into an African elephant.
How much did one of these biological monsters weigh?
A brown bear of similar size weighed roughly a ton.
Considering these creatures possessed even broader, more monstrous physiques, their actual weight was probably even more absurd than Will had imagined.
Yet even with such impossible mass, the collision couldn’t be withstood.
The corpse of the dead monster was ripped clean in half by the tremendous force.
The two mangled halves were launched more than a dozen meters away.
Watching the scene sent chills down Will’s spine.
If Bullock hadn’t helped him…
He’d already be reporting to the next world.
“What are you spacing out for?
Planning to stay behind and wrestle that thing?”
Bullock smacked him across the back of the head.
Only then did Will snap out of it.
The metal grate had been pried open, leaving a massive hole.
The plan had worked!
Catwoman and Gordon jumped through first.
Bullock followed immediately after.
But when it was Will’s turn…
He hesitated.
Beneath the grate lay a bottomless abyss.
Filthy water thundered into darkness.
What was waiting below?
Flowing water?
Or rocks that would smash him into paste?
As he wavered, the dazed biological monster slowly regained its senses.
Only then did Will realize…
He had never had a choice.
Closing his eyes, he leaped.
Fortunately, luck was finally on his side.
Before he had fallen very far, rushing water swallowed him whole.
Otherwise, even if there really had been water below, a drop of nearly a hundred meters would’ve reduced him to little more than a bloody stain.
But the real ordeal had only just begun.
Before long, the drainage tunnel narrowed.
Twists and turns appeared one after another.
His head bounced from wall to wall like a cue ball struck by an amateur billiards player, ricocheting violently through the pipe.
It felt as though his brain was being shaken into soup.
Bang!
A thunderous boom exploded beside his ears like a cannon firing.
Suddenly, all sense of weight vanished.
Cold sea wind carrying a faint salty scent brushed against his exposed skin, making his empty stomach shiver from the chill.
Did…
I make it out?
Even with his eyes closed, he could feel sunlight.
Slowly opening them, he saw a crimson sun blooming above the burning-red horizon.
As far as Will remembered…
Gotham’s sky was always buried beneath dark clouds.
Its damp air and rotting mildew defined the city.
Gray-black Gothic architecture painted everything else.
Sunlight…
He hadn’t seen it in so…
So very long.
“Beautiful…”
Will murmured unconsciously, reaching out as though he could capture the sunlight in his palm.
But after that brief moment of weightlessness came another violent plunge.
Head-first, he crashed into the black sea.
Two mouthfuls of seawater rushed down his throat without warning.
His lungs and windpipe burned as if they had been set on fire.
Through his fading consciousness, someone embraced him tightly from behind, dragging him back toward the surface.
“Can you hear me…
Stay with me…”
Selina’s voice drifted beside his ears.
Sometimes near.
Sometimes far.
Sometimes so faint he couldn’t tell whether it was real.
But Will was too exhausted.
The moment he closed his eyes, he never wanted to open them again.
“I…
can’t…
hold on much longer…”
“Will anyone come save us…?”
Selina’s voice trembled.
It sounded tired.
Cold.
With all his strength, Will forced one eye open.
He saw her wrist, already purple from the freezing water.
Don’t save me anymore.
If you keep carrying me…
neither of us will survive.
He wanted to tell her to let go.
But he was so exhausted that he couldn’t even part his lips.
He had no idea how much time passed.
Eventually, both he and Selina sank beneath the waves.
He could feel icy seawater invading his lungs through his windpipe, filling every alveolus it could reach.
What a ridiculous transmigration.
Will felt unwilling.
He opened his eyes one last time, hoping to see this world again.
Beyond the distorted seawater lay a pink sky.
A tiny black dot hung there.
It gradually grew larger.
Only after it stopped directly above the water did Will finally recognize it.
A bat-shaped aircraft.
They said people hallucinated before death.
Now Will believed it.
Even now…
I’m still imagining Batman making a heroic entrance.
I’m hopeless.
There is no Batman in Gotham.
…
His body sprang upright like a snapped mousetrap, nearly headbutting the young woman who had been about to change his bandages.
“You’re awake?
Wait here—I’ll go get my dad!”
She looked about seventeen or eighteen.
Her beautiful blonde hair was tied into a high ponytail.
She wore an oversized T-shirt with Winnie the Pooh printed on the back.
“Where am I?”
She hurried away before Will could ask another question.
Turning his head, he found the answer on Gordon’s family portrait sitting atop the bedside table.
“The Gordon house…”
“…Thank God.”
Perhaps this was the safest place in all of Gotham.
Out of habit, he reached for his hair.
Whenever he felt stressed, he liked tugging at it.
Instead, his fingers found layer upon layer of bandages.
The horrors of the sewer slowly resurfaced in his memory.
He spread open his hands.
Moved both legs.
Then cautiously checked the part of his body every man instinctively worried about.
Only after confirming everything was still intact did Will collapse back onto the bed in relief.
After surviving such a brush with death…
He’d escaped with nothing more than superficial injuries.
He honestly couldn’t decide whether he was unbelievably unlucky…
Or unbelievably lucky.
Not long afterward, Gordon entered the room.
“You look pretty energetic.”
“Seems your brain didn’t suffer any permanent damage.”
“Yeah.”
“And you don’t look bad yourself.”
“In fact, you’re even more handsome than the first time I met you.”
In unusually high spirits, Will joked.
“Keep that silver tongue inside your mouth.”
“I’m not some young girl who enjoys sweet talk.”
Gordon laughed and shot back.
“How’s everyone else?”
“Bullock got the worst of it.”
“He’s still in the hospital, but at least he’ll live.”
“Your friend woke up a day before you.”
“Then she climbed out the window and disappeared without saying goodbye.”
“That’s good…
that’s really good…”
Hearing that Selina was safe finally put Will’s mind at ease.
But then another sentence struck him like lightning.
He stared out the window into the night, a terrible feeling rising in his chest.
“Wait.”
“She woke up a day before me?”
“So…
what’s today’s date?
What time is it?”
“The thirteenth.”
“Eleven at night.”
“It’s been two and a half days since we escaped the sewers.”
“What?”
“Got a date with your sweetheart?”
Gordon had absolutely no idea how enormous Will’s problem was.
The thirteenth.
11:00 p.m.
One more hour…
That was all the time remaining before Maroni’s deadline expired.
“A date with my sweetheart?”
Will laughed bitterly.
“The one waiting for me isn’t a sweetheart.”
“It’s a demon straight out of Hell.”