There is no Batman in Gotham City comics.

Chapter 60 Recruiting

After leaving Catwoman's small apartment, he took a taxi to the bank to withdraw some money.

Falcone's death caused a minor upheaval in Gotham's financial world. Banks and the adjacent stock exchange saw a surge in foot traffic, with businessmen and investment advisors rushing around on their phones, carrying boxes of cash for trading.

Capital is like a bird perched on a branch; it flees at the slightest sign of trouble. The economic losses that this faked death plan has brought to Falcone are immeasurable.

As is customary, Qin Wei waited in a private room in the bank's VIP customer area, sipping coffee. At the end of the corridor diagonally opposite the private room was the vault door.

Qin Wei, who had come with a purpose, pretended to stroll around and secretly observed the lobby manager from the doorway, witnessing the manager unlock the vault door with his fingerprint.

Fortunately, the current timeline is still the 1990s, when the world's technology was not as advanced.

If we move the timeline forward a bit further and equip the vault doors with technologies like iris scanning or biometric palmprint unlocking, the difficulty of infiltrating and stealing the blueprints would likely increase exponentially.

All we need to do now is find a way to get the manager's fingerprints and make a thin-skin mold.

Carrying two suitcases full of US dollars, Qin Wei took a taxi back to the Lower East Side Senate.

The Senate was empty. Oswald had already found a location—an abandoned auto repair shop—and was currently helping Reuss move his weapons there. From now on, the auto repair shop would be their secret base.

Qin Wei dialed Falcone's number, and after a busy signal, the call was connected.

The voice on the other end sounded very young.

"Hello, Mr. Wei, this is Alberto. My father will not be making any public appearances during this period, and I will handle all matters with you. I will do my best to meet all your reasonable needs."

"I want to rob a bank. I need someone who can take fingerprints, and I also need a hacker."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. Asking Alberto, an MBA graduate, to go to the back alleys and find lowlifes was really asking too much, but the other party didn't refuse and promised to call back soon.

But before hanging up the phone, Alberto told Qin Wei something.

"Father sent out many assassins to make this play a good show, but they were ordered not to kill you. I will tell you the exact time when the assassins will strike. It's up to you whether you run away or fight back, as long as Maroney doesn't doubt the authenticity of this matter."

Qin Wei verbally expressed his understanding, but many doubts arose in his mind.

Falcone's decision to feign death at this critical juncture suggests he is plotting something significant.

……

When Qin Wei arrived at the abandoned car factory, a large number of people had already gathered inside.

A young man with a cold gaze wiped his dagger; a muscular man taut his arm muscles as he surveyed his surroundings; a group of bikers with mohawks parked their motorcycles in a circle, twisting the throttle and blasting the exhaust pipes; thugs who didn't like each other rolled around on the ground, tearing at each other's hair...

"A chaotic scene of demons dancing wildly" is an understatement to describe the utter chaos.

In order to recruit reliable teammates, Qin Wei offered an attractive price of $200,000 plus a share of the looting profits, but so far, it seems that all those who have come for the interview are desperate people who are willing to risk their lives.

As long as they can make money, these guys don't care about losing their lives in the operation, nor will they listen to any of Qin Wei's orders.

Qin Wei could almost foresee the outcome of the operation: a group of people burst into the vault, laughing wildly, stuffing banknotes into the sacks until the Gotham police arrived, and a gunfight broke out.

This outcome was unacceptable to him.

Qin Wei called out to the little penguin, but because he was wearing a mask, he didn't call out its real name.

"Oss, let these guys fight you. Show them that only those who stand up deserve to stay!"

"Yes, sir!"

Qin Wei climbed up the rusty iron ladder to the top floor, where there was a protruding cement platform overlooking the entire area. In the center of the platform, a mountain of ammunition boxes was stacked, almost touching the ceiling.

Reus stood up to greet Qin Wei.

"Boss, the flyers are very effective; quite a few people have come to apply."

"It works? Are you kidding me? This isn't the kind of trash I want!" Qin Wei frowned, pointing to the rabble at the bottom.

Their sparring matches against Oswald have already begun.

At first, it was a one-on-one situation, but when they saw the little penguin knock down four or five people with a single punch, these guys realized that this interviewer was ridiculously powerful.

The group exchanged glances, then swarmed forward.

Oswald twisted his neck and dodged the dagger thrust. He then punched the knife-wielding youth who was charging at the front, knocking him to the ground.

Before becoming the boss, he was Richie Panton's most powerful henchman, and the Red Hood gang, which caused trouble, was suppressed and unable to raise their heads during the two years he took over the lower district.

In hand-to-hand combat, ordinary thugs are no match for him.

Just as he was kicking someone away and then catching up with a punch, facing the swarm of interviewees, he broke their noses with one punch and crushed their jaws with one palm, sending them sprawling.

Oswald only needed to show off his martial arts skills to scare these guys away.

"See that? None of them are any good fighters."

Qin Wei shook his head in disappointment.

He understood that robbing a bank wasn't about fists and kicks, but fists and kicks represented a person's ecological niche in the lower district—whether they were prey or hunter—a simple test would make it clear.

Don't be fooled by their menacing appearances; most of them are cowardly cowards who only dare to attack innocent civilians. To include these people in the plan? Unless Qin Wei has gone mad.

Of course, there were also experts present. Qin Wei's gaze fell on a young man in a faded denim shirt in the corner.

The young man crossed his arms and leaned against the scaffolding, yawning.

He had broad shoulders, and his well-developed biceps filled the sleeves of his denim shirt. With the sleeves rolled up, swollen veins snaked along his muscular, scarred forearms.

Seeing that Oswald had frightened the mob so much that they dared not approach, the young man finally straightened up.

He stretched out his arms and pulled at his chest, then swung his fists at the air a few times.

"Hey! Little penguin, you've made quite a bit of progress while I was away!"

The loud voice resounded throughout the factory like a megaphone, involuntarily drawing everyone's attention.

"Who are you?"

Oswald was unfamiliar with the face, but the powerful sense of oppression emanating from the young man made him automatically ignore the nickname "Little Penguin," which always made him lose control of his emotions whenever he heard it.

"Who am I? Heh heh heh! When my fist smashes your jaw like it did two years ago, you'll remember!"

His fists were clenched so tightly they cracked, and a sneer clung to the young man's face.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a red hood stained with dark brown blood.