The moment Will heard this, the blood drained from his face.
He was just about to find an excuse to slip away when Oswald grabbed him and pressed him against the door.
“Do you hear that?
The cabinet door opened…
Rustling sounds.
It sounds like someone’s taking their clothes off!”
Oswald lowered his voice and listened intently while quietly placing his hand on the doorknob.
He gestured to Will, telling him they would rush in together after counting to three.
Will nodded, secretly delighted.
The biological monsters were incredibly strong.
There was no reason for them to sneak up to the second floor.
Someone had clearly broken into the room.
If they could use the intruder to lure Oswald away from the casino, that would be better than anything he could have hoped for.
Three.
Two.
One.
The two of them burst through the door.
But the scene of catching a thief red-handed that Will had expected did not appear.
Instead, what entered their eyes was a pair of long, smooth legs.
The beautiful blonde woman was wearing nothing but her underwear.
The moment she realized that someone had barged in, she let out an enormous scream.
Will recognized her.
She was one of the servers he’d seen on the first floor.
Because she was pretty, he’d deliberately taken a couple of extra glances at her.
“Didn’t Mr.
Maroni tell you that you’re not allowed to come into this room?!”
The woman crouched down and hugged her knees.
Whether from embarrassment or anger, her pretty face had turned bright red.
“Who are you?
What are you doing here?”
Oswald wasn’t fooled by her one-sided explanation.
He pulled the brass knuckles from his pocket and advanced on her.
Clearly, if her answer failed to satisfy him, a brutal outcome was unavoidable.
“Do you think I wanted to come here?
It’s that damn Maroni who forced me to…”
The woman bit the corner of her lip, looking so pitiful that it didn’t seem fake.
“Don’t insult Mr.
Maroni!”
“All right…
Mr.
Maroni sent me here.
If you don’t believe me, I can make a phone call!”
She covered her chest and walked over to the table, picked up the telephone receiver, and dialed a series of numbers.
Whether intentionally or not, Will noticed that the distance between Oswald and the woman, which had originally been only a few steps, had now increased.
“Yes, didn’t you tell your men?
They’re suspicious of me now!”
After complaining for a few moments, she pointed at the receiver, signaling for Oswald to listen.
She then left the table and pulled a set of leather clothes from the small bag she was carrying.
“I don’t even know why Mr.
Maroni is so obsessed with leather.
Does he really like role-playing that much?”
In just a few sentences, the woman had already put on the leather outfit.
She twisted her hips as she struggled to pull the zipper upward.
An ordinary person might have been completely captivated by such a seductive sight.
Unfortunately for her, she’d encountered Will.
The instant he saw that sexy leather outfit, he knew exactly who she was.
To confirm his suspicion, Will tried calling out her name.
“Hey, Selina!”
Catwoman was still immersed in her role-playing, continuing to complain incessantly.
But the sudden shout dragged her off the stage.
When she heard her own name come from the mouth of a stranger, her delicate body trembled.
It’s really Catwoman!
Selina Kyle!
“Oh, shit!
Don’t touch the phone!”
The warning came just a little too late.
Oswald had already touched the receiver.
Catwoman had apparently tampered with it somehow, and a powerful electric current instantly shot through him, making his eyes roll upward.
Will decisively kicked into high gear.
With a flying kick, Oswald toppled straight to the ground like a log rolling out of the back of a truck.
Uh…
The plan had gone awry, yet things were proceeding smoothly.
Now all he had to do was figure out how to get Oswald out of here.
“All right, handsome.
The nuisance is gone.
Can you answer a question for me now?”
Selina slowly approached Will with the graceful stride of a runway model.
In her eyes, the threat had been eliminated.
She removed the exaggerated blonde wig, revealing her neat silver-gray short hair.
She closed the distance to Will and pinned him against the wall.
Not with her hands, but with her legs.
Catwoman, clad in a leather suit, performed a full split, her long, well-proportioned legs pinning Will in place and leaving him unable to move.
Damn, she’s good at this!
“Where did you hear that name?
Or, to put it more directly, how do you know who I am?”
How could Will withstand this?
He almost succumbed to the temptation.
Fortunately, he hadn’t forgotten what was important.
Just 0.1 seconds before losing himself, he pushed Catwoman’s leg aside.
“Help me get him out the window.”
Her usually infallible charm had failed.
Catwoman was somewhat surprised.
She frowned and pursed her lips, experiencing a serious crisis of confidence in her own allure for the first time.
“What are you standing around for?
Give me a hand!”
Will impatiently urged her on.
“Oh…
All right.”
They tied a rope around Oswald.
Catwoman lowered him from the window while Will waited below to receive him.
After some effort, they finally got him down safely.
Catwoman performed a graceful backflip from the second floor and landed without making a sound.
“Good lord, those are some iron knees!”
Will couldn’t help commenting.
“Now you can answer my question, right?
Don’t think you can keep avoiding it…”
Catwoman muttered as she approached him again, apparently intending to use the same trick.
But Will nimbly slipped aside with a shoulder feint and avoided her.
The cold night wind dispersed the restless hormones in his blood.
He understood that no matter how intense and beautiful his fantasies about Catwoman had once been, he couldn’t equate a work of art with a living person.
Hidden beneath that exquisite exterior was a dangerous serpent’s apple.
Selina also realized that the man before her was immune to her usual tricks.
Her extraordinary beauty had brought Selina countless conveniences from a young age, and had naturally led her to assume that men should all fall at her feet.
Moving through the cracks between Gotham’s light and darkness, she was a glamorous socialite who made people’s hearts race, as well as a captivating cat-eyed thief who stole both fortunes and hearts without ever failing.
Her powerful self-esteem and desire for control would not allow Will to become an exception, even if she had to resort to violence.
Catwoman said nothing more and revealed the claws hidden beneath her leather suit.
But just as the tension reached its breaking point, a sudden, thunderous crash of splintering wood tore through the tranquility of the night.
A scream loud enough to shatter glass announced the beginning of the main event.
The pivotal event foretold by the comic had finally arrived.
Doctor Hugo Strange had come with his biological monsters!
“This place is dangerous.
Come with me!”
Will hoisted Oswald onto his back, grabbed Selina’s hand, and pulled the stunned woman into the shadows of a nearby alley.
Will should have been grateful that he had left early.
Because this massacre was even more brutal and bloody than the one described in the comic.
The multiple locks originally installed to keep the Gotham police out had now become an impassable barrier blocking the gamblers’ escape.
Countless gamblers were trapped inside, frantically and futilely pounding on the doors, while the approaching shadows behind them completely shattered the crowd’s psychological defenses.
The shadows drew closer, step by step.
Ritchie Pantone knelt helplessly on the ground, tilting his head upward.
His unfocused pupils resembled the primitive fertility totem from some ancient field, as though he were waiting for the gods to answer.
A gigantic hand descended in judgment.
There were no survivors in the casino.
That included every member of the Senate except the two who had escaped.
When the Gotham police arrived and cut through the casino doors with welding equipment, thick blood mixed with organs and other filth poured out of the venue.
Even Gordon, a veteran police officer, couldn’t help covering his nose and frowning at the pungent stench of blood.
“Goddamn it.
I’m going to have nightmares tonight!”