"...That's the thing. This time we have to join forces to make up for our losses in the past period. I think the thieves in Gotham have never had such a large-scale collaborative activity. It should be quite interesting, isn't it?
?”
In front of the bar of the Jinbei Bar, Catwoman was walking slowly with a whip in her hand. The bar was full of people at this time, but the gangsters who usually looked fierce and guarded against thieves sneaking in were guarding the door, warning everyone who came here.
Customers said the place had closed early.
It all happened because of Copot, who was sitting behind the bar, and the two gang members he brought with him who belonged to the Falcone family.
After Catwoman finished speaking, Cobot stood up, walked to the bar, leaned on the cabinet of the bar, and said: "I know that many of you are very dissatisfied with Gotham's massive construction projects and renovations everywhere. The Wayne Group in the East End
The project is also very annoying, and those security robots not only affect you, but also people from all walks of life in Gotham."
"But you also know that we can't just look at temporary gains. I believe that many of you have already lived in Wayne Group's houses, or your children have started to go to school in the building's nursery."
Cobot glanced around, and several people nodded slightly. Most of the thieves who came here were wearing masks and were unwilling to show their true faces. This was actually their way of protecting themselves.
In Gotham's criminal industry chain, theft is undoubtedly at the bottom. Even for Catwoman, a master thief, her most famous reputation is not her stealing skills, but her beautiful appearance. No one in this city looks down on thieves.
Most of the thieves in Gotham are not willing to be thieves. They also have the desire to work hard and strive for the top in the criminal industry. But then again, who will become a thief if they can occupy a place in the gang?
Although there are people like Catwoman who specialize in being thieves because they like certain types of things, stealing requires more agility and speed, and they must also strengthen their training in this area. This results in their defense and attack power being lower than those of thieves.
They are all a lot worse than gangsters. Most of the time they can only swallow their anger when being bullied. Unfortunately, if they are caught, they will die.
It can be said that the thieves in Gotham are a class between gangsters and ordinary people at the bottom, which is half a level higher than the doormen, car washers, small vendors and other professions that provide services to gangs, which is barely considered a class.
Work for yourself and don't have to look at other people's faces.
But it’s not easy to be a thief in Gotham. There are too many people who are unwilling to play a lower-level role in the gang, but don’t have the ability to climb up. Everyone thinks it’s easier to steal things. As a result, this industry is even worse than that of gang thugs.
Competition is still fierce.
After all, Gotham is a big city with a population of tens of millions. The security situation is very bad, and the police department does not have that many police personnel, so it can barely support these staggering numbers of thieves. However, since the gang reform and urban reconstruction began, the thief industry has been involved.
More and more intense.
All the thieves summoned to the Golden Cup Bar now are top figures in each area. They can be said to be the king of kings who have fought fiercely in the thief industry. If Batman hadn't used his tracking technology that transcended the times, he would have been the best in the world.
It's really not possible to gather so many people together. This group of people has nothing but top-notch running skills.
Among them are kleptomaniacs with astonishing intelligence but twisted minds, thieves with first-rate physical condition and natural hands, and "collectors" who are so knowledgeable that they can directly go to auction houses to identify various cultural relics and jewelry. But the biggest difference between these people and gangsters is
The reason is that they live among civilians.
Without the intricate network of gangs, it is naturally impossible for them to live in the North District. They have no legitimate occupation, cannot explain the source of the money and have to frequently sell stolen goods. It is also difficult to live in the South and West Districts, so most of them live in the East District.
They are also the beneficiaries of the East District's renovation plan. Even if their income is not as good as before, it's hard for them to say anything.
Before Copot summoned them here, most of them used the method of intercepting traffic to save money, but many of them are no longer in the original situation where one person can have enough to eat and the whole family is not hungry.
Once you move to a new home, the human courtship instinct will come into play. Once you find a partner and get married, you will have children. Once the child is born, your expenses will increase sharply and your income will decrease, which will inevitably make you very stressed.
So before Copot could say anything, someone asked: "I heard that magicians and vampires are coming? Well, I really don't care what they are, I just want to ask, what did I steal?"
Can I take the stuff?"
"Of course you can, but only if you obey the arrangements."
The blond man who spoke sighed deeply and said, "I have been a thief for almost twenty years, and I have never heard of a thief who still obeys orders."
"Of course you can also work alone, but do you think you can defeat so many people here?"
Cobot's words made many experts present hesitate. It is inevitable for top figures in an industry to meet each other. Everyone knows each other's skills. Gotham's thief industry has been so complicated that everyone is a master thief and no one is.
Seize the opportunity to steal the most at the first time.
Besides, what if someone makes a trap in order to snatch the prey? Magicians and vampires are difficult to deal with at first sight, and one mistake may lead to death. As long as everyone here has a little bit of morality, it is not as if there is no morality at all. If the time comes to change
They have become ruthless gangsters, so why don't they fight with gangsters?
A thin woman in the front row sighed and said, "It's no wonder the market is so bad now. If everyone could eat enough, they wouldn't focus on this little meat."
"You should also be able to imagine that the market will only get worse and worse in the future." Catwoman leaned against the bar and sighed: "The mayor's vigorous development of tourism will definitely suppress theft, and the gangsters want to clear their names.
If you go ashore, you won't have anything to do with us."
"Everyone who can leave has left." The blond man added, "Several of our old guys have already changed careers and set up barbecue stalls."
"Who wants to be a thief if they can do business? Isn't there no money?!" Another voice complained: "If I can get some start-up capital by doing something big, I will set up a stall selling snacks in front of the fourth phase of the project. My neighbor
I made a fortune selling this."
"I don't want to do it anymore. I'm getting older and I'm not strong enough. One day I won't be able to run away." The thin woman sighed and said, "But my sister is very ambitious. She wants to go to college in another city, and I still have to
I’m raising money for her tuition.”
Hearing people sighing and complaining, Cobot clapped his hands and said: "I know everyone has difficulties, so I called you here. This time we are a group of fat sheep. Let's work hard and earn a fortune."
Isn’t it good to wash your hands and go ashore with the big money?”
As soon as Cobot said this, the voice below became louder, and it was the blond man who raised his hand and asked first: "Can you really make a lot of money? Are those magicians and vampires so rich? Will they bring money when they come here?
"
"Old K, you are really an idiot. Who doesn't take money with them when they go out?"
"You are all wrong. What they have is definitely not money." A gentle-looking man wearing black-rimmed glasses pushed up his glasses and said: "Vampires can live for a long time. They lived casually hundreds of years ago.
If you pick something up and put it now, it is considered an antique. Do you need me to tell you the value of an antique?"
After a "wow" moment, the discussion below became heated. This time Catwoman clapped her hands and said.
"Now you know why I gathered you together, right? Some of you are quick, but you don't know what valuable things they have. Some of you know a lot about antiques, but are not good at stealing things from people."
"For example, although I know gems very well and can tell the quality of the gems inlaid on their clothes just by looking at them from a distance, I often hang out in museums and the villas of wealthy people. My specialty is building infiltration and lock picking."
"Going to the streets to touch people's pockets happened when I first debuted. I was still a little girl at that time and had long forgotten all my skills. I couldn't just hang a hook over his head out of thin air, right?"
The people below all laughed, obviously thinking of the most famous theft case of the "Lover's Eye" gemstone.
It was Catwoman's battle to become famous. A hard-nosed gem collector from a metropolitan city wanted to tour his collection on the East Coast. Everyone advised him not to come to Gotham, but he insisted on coming and specially invited
More than 200 security guards surrounded the museum.
As a result, Catwoman, the snitch, directly hung up a hook and stole one of the most famous gems, the Lover's Eye, and the gem collector was furious.
Unexpectedly, when these exhibits left Gotham, the eye of the beholder returned, and they also came with a note written by Catwoman - "Your taste is really not very good. The gems are too ugly, so I gave them back to you."
.”
From then on, there was basically no problem with this collector in the gem collecting world. What value does a gem have for a traveling exhibition even if it is not stolen by thieves?
After successfully livening up the atmosphere at the scene, Catwoman crossed her arms and adjusted the mask on the side of her head with her hands. In fact, she was pressing the earphones in her ears. She followed what Bruce told her.
"So, this time we must divide our labor and cooperate, and we must take advantage of the different positions of different types of work to fully squeeze the value of this group of people, and then use their wealth to feed every class of Gotham's thief industry."
"Now that you have a sheltered house, a complete family, a child to look forward to, and a lot of wealth, you can do some safer work instead of relying on the increasingly bleak future.
The theft industry and Gotham's tourism industry are at each other's throats."
"I still have some inside information to tell you." Cobot looked around and said with a smile.
"Gotham is about to hold a grand music festival, and rappers who have recently become popular on the East Coast will come. The tickets posted on the website have been sold out in an instant. The scene will be very popular by then."
"Gotham has no experience in hosting such large-scale events. Organized business activities cannot meet the needs of a large number of tourists, and the remaining part naturally needs to be filled by individual operators."
"The processing plants owned by Wayne Group and Falcone have already produced a batch of peripheral products for the most popular album 'King of Gotham'. If you have money, you can come to us to get the goods."
"When the time comes, you will be stuck at the entrance of the venue or outside the Golden Beach Plaza selling peripherals, and you will be robbed of money if you buy a piece of paper worth three cents and sell it for five dollars. Isn't this much more than what you can earn by taking risks and stealing money from gangsters?"
The atmosphere in the venue became more and more lively, and these top thieves in the industry began to talk among themselves, thinking about how to take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune.
For a long time before, the thieves were in a relatively desperate state. They knew that this was not going to work, but they didn't know how to solve it. And the Gotham police and the government obviously couldn't arrest all the thieves.
Death, that is not realistic.
But now they see another possibility, and in this possibility they see something extremely precious - hope.
Just like the people in the metropolis who are accustomed to ease and comfort will pursue excitement, the people in Gotham who often lick blood from time to time sometimes dream of a peaceful and happy life.
By the time Catwoman walked out of the Gold Cup Bar, it was already dawn. She stood at the door and stretched, sighed comfortably, and then said to Bruce on the other end of the headset.
"For so many years, I have always fallen asleep under the bright luster of various precious gems. I feel that I am much happier than most people in Gotham. At least I still have some leeway in a rotten city.
Most people are not so lucky to pursue what they love in a crappy job.”
"I always said before that I couldn't understand what you were doing. One moment you went to the slums to starve, the next moment you were building a building, and the next moment you were gathering thieves to steal things."
"But now, I kind of understand." Catwoman looked up at the glimmer of light that occasionally came out of the still gloomy clouds, and continued: "Although I didn't sleep all night, I had a good dream."
“I dreamed that the gangs in this city stopped fighting and killing and gave up ruling the city through violence and terror. I also dreamed that many people gave up being thieves and chose to make money in a way that did not harm others.
Live a stable life.”
"I dreamed that my mother liked me, not the cat. I dreamed that the woman who taught me stealing skills said she liked me, not the things I stole. I dreamed that everyone firmly chose me.
"
"I also dreamed that one day the dark past finally faded away, Gotham really became sunny, and you stood at the door of my house, asking me if I wanted to marry you."
"Then would you agree?" Bruce's electric voice came from the earphones.