As soon as Selina finished speaking, the small space fell silent, save for the faint hum of medical equipment on standby.
William sat on his swivel chair, his fingertips tracing the plastic casing of a ballpoint pen.
Just as he was about to speak, ghostly blue characters flickered at the edge of his retina, and a mechanical voice rang in his ears.
[Sudden Chain Mission: Redemption of Catwomen.]
[Mission Requirements: Cure Maggie Kyle’s illness and recruit Selina Kyle.]
[Mission Reward: 100-cubic-meter Subspace Storage Ring.]
His breath hitched for a beat.
William stared intently at the reward description.
A 100-cubic-meter Subspace Storage Ring.
For a black-market Doctor who relied on a backpack to ferry supplies between two Universes, the value of this item far exceeded the million dollars from Gotham’s richest man.
Antibiotics, surgical instruments, even large shadowless lamps and oxygen concentrators—everything could be transported without a trace.
The logistics pain point would be solved instantly.
Scrap materials from Stark Industries in the Marvel Universe, phased-out military products from Wayne Enterprises in the DC Universe—with this ring, his business empire of cross-world arbitrage could expand indefinitely.
Over the past three months, carrying two crates of penicillin had left purple-red bruises on his shoulders and nearly caused a herniated lumbar disc.
Whenever he stepped through that blue vortex portal, the change in gravitational acceleration always made his life miserable while heavily loaded.
Now, the system had practically slapped the perfect smuggling artifact right onto his face.
Notably, the mission requirements specifically highlighted the word “recruit.”
This meant he couldn’t simply cure the illness, take the money, and leave; he had to establish a long-term employment relationship.
Binding a future anti-hero to his side carried high risks, but the rewards were equally enticing.
Selina’s stealth, intelligence-gathering skills, and her familiarity with Gotham’s underground network were exactly the missing pieces he currently lacked.
For this ring, let alone recruiting a stray cat, even if the system asked him to pluck Superman’s cape, he would dare to take a scalpel and give it a try.
“Your sister’s illness isn’t hard to treat.” William tossed the ballpoint pen back onto the desk with a sharp clack.
Selina, still huddled on the inner side of the surgical bed, shuddered violently upon hearing those words.
“Two injections of a specialized targeted drug to block the inflammatory cytokine cascade.
Plus, half a month of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a sterile chamber to repair damaged alveolar epithelial cells.” William leaned back against his chair, his tone returning to the objective professionalism of an attending physician making rounds.
“After all that, she’ll be able to run normally in the sunshine without so much as a cough.”
Selina was stunned.
The Doctors in Gotham’s public hospitals wouldn’t even give Maggie a second glance; they only issued expensive bills before kicking them out.
Yet the man before her had provided such a definitive treatment plan without even seeing the patient.
She knew the rumors about this East District black clinic all too well.
It was here that a Maroni Family enforcer, who had been nearly hacked into mincemeat, was painstakingly put back together.
If anyone could snatch a life from the God of Death, it had to be him.
Selina rolled off the bed, her combat boots hitting the concrete floor.
Without any hesitation, her knees buckled, and she knelt straight down before William.
“Save her, please save her.” Selina looked up, her eyes frighteningly red and her voice terribly hoarse.
Money, intel, or even my life—you can take it at any time.
My earlier attack on you was because I was blind; do with me as you wish.”
The most defiant stray cat in Gotham’s East District had unhesitatingly broken all her pride for her only family.
William looked down at the girl on the floor.
“Stand up.” He kicked the trash can by his feet.
“This is a clinic, not a mob hideout.
We don’t do the whole kowtowing thing here.”
Selina didn’t move.
“Get up,” William said, his tone hardening.
“I don’t need your dirty money pulled from the pockets of scumbags.
Do you really think money from the Gotham black market is that easy to take?
A piece of work like Benjamin is backed by the largest smuggling network in the East District.”
“If you take his money, assassins will find their way to the convent tomorrow to chop you and your sister into pieces and feed you to the dogs.
Benjamin won’t be able to pin this debt on me, but he has the resources to find you.”
Selina bit her lower lip and climbed to her feet.
She knew the risks of stealing from criminals, of course, but she had been at a dead end back then.
“Gotham’s waters run deep.” William’s gaze swept over her worn leather jacket as he threw out his terms.
“I need a runner who knows the rules of the sewers and can help me acquire prohibited medical equipment and intel.
You, little cat, are just right.
Work for me, and your sister’s medical fees will be waived.
I guarantee her cure.”
Selina was dazed.
She had prepared for the worst.
In Gotham, the price a young, beautiful girl had to pay when falling into the hands of certain mob bosses or top socialites was often more disgusting than death.
she had even rehearsed in her mind how to endure those humiliating conditions.
And yet, it was just to be a runner and informant?
“It’s…
that simple?” she stammered, doubting she had heard correctly.
“What else did you think?
That I’d have you assassinate the Mayor of Gotham?” William stood up and walked toward the glass medicine cabinet against the wall.
“I deal with all sorts of patients who can’t see the light of day, and I need a lot of specialty drugs and equipment that aren’t available on the market.
You’re agile and have top-tier stealth skills; you’re much better for this job than those muscle-brained idiots from the Maroni Family.”
Selina’s chest heaved violently as the boulder that had weighed on her heart for months was completely shattered.
William!” She bowed repeatedly, her words jumbled.
“I promise, from now on, if you tell me to go east, I won’t go west.
Anyone who dares speak ill of you, I’ll scratch their face off!”
William ignored her pledge of loyalty.
He pulled open a hidden compartment at the bottom of the medicine cabinet and took out a silver aluminum spray bottle.
This was stock he had brought back yesterday from Hells Kitchen in the Marvel Universe.
It contained a trace cellular activator developed by a Stark Industries outsourced lab, originally intended for intraoperative emergency relief for damaged organs.
It worked wonders for severe asthma and bronchial spasms.
William walked back and tossed the spray to Selina.
Selina scrambled to catch it.
“Two sprays in the mouth will get her through tonight.” William put his yellowed white coat back on.
“At dawn tomorrow, bring your sister here.
Remember, don’t alert anyone.”
Selina clutched the cold aluminum bottle tightly, as if afraid it would grow wings and fly away.
She gave William a deep bow, then turned and stumbled out of the clinic, pushing open the rusted iron door and plunging into Gotham’s thick, cold night rain.
The iron door swayed in the wind, making a piercing screeching sound.
William walked to the door and watched Selina’s silhouette disappear at the mouth of the alley.
This stray cat was indeed agile, but Gotham’s night hid too many variables.
Sentries from the mobs, thugs hired by Benjamin—any one of them could take her sister’s life on a rainy night like this.
The system mission explicitly required curing Maggie and recruiting Selina.
The reward was a 100-cubic-meter storage ring.
If this girl got clubbed in the back of the head on the way or had the medicine bottle stolen, his storage ring would be completely down the drain.
“She really is a handful.
Better follow her and see; I’ll have nowhere to cry if the mission fails.”
William sighed and pulled a large black umbrella from the stand behind the door.
Opening the umbrella, the rain drummed against the waterproof fabric with a pitter-patter.
He stepped out of the iron door, locked it, and silently merged into the shadows of Lake Street, following Selina’s pace from a distance.
The rain poured down, washing over the decaying buildings of Gotham’s East District.
Selina ran fast, her combat boots splashing in the puddles.
She had the aluminum spray bottle tucked tightly into the innermost pocket of her leather jacket, her hands protecting her chest.
From Lake Street to St.
Marys Convent, she had to cross at least three chaotic blocks where different gangs’ territories met.
It was very dangerous.
Usually, she would take the rooftops or fire escapes, but today the rain was too heavy and the outer walls were slick.
The risk of climbing was too high, so she had to choose the ground route.