2213 Side Story: Fantasy Journey 54

Thanks to Luke deliberating avoiding Gotham and Metropolis, a new undercurrent appeared in the two cities.

Master Wayne had noticed this and had taken action, and him beating up bad guys made the news once again. However, Luke knew that Master Wayne had yet to find the main source, and was underestimating this hidden opponent.

Then, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, a carefully planned performance finally kicked off.

Although it was a holiday full of burning passion, it was still cold in the two cities next to the Atlantic Ocean.

People on the streets wore thick winter coats, and couples snuggled with each other.

In the afternoon, snow fell from the gloomy sky.

For romantics, this was a beautiful omen.

For the homeless, it would be a difficult night; they would also have to worry about where to stay for the next few nights.

Shabby shacks made of plastic sheets and cardboard clearly weren’t enough to keep out the snow and low temperatures.

Master Wayne had a rare break today, and was dressed for a big dinner party for Gotham’s upper class.

Originally, this was a charity dinner to help the poor. Now, the host even added, “people stranded by the snow,” which could be considered keeping up with current events.

In fact, the 200 or so upper class members present had only donated more than a million dollars in total – there was no way they would give more.

It was just a gimmick.

A million dollars could be used to buy unsellable or inventory goods of participating companies that were present; this could significantly reduce costs, and was enough for the poor to quietly get through this sudden cold snowstorm.

After that? What did that have to do with them?

The overall economy wasn’t in good shape, and plenty of capitalists went bankrupt. Anyone with a kinder heart could go help out; there would be no need to perform on this occasion.

Even Master Wayne, who had donated the most, only spent 50,000 dollars to buy a painting by a group of children from a welfare home.

Under the supervision of his professional team, 80% of the money would go to the children in the welfare home.

He couldn’t care less about other people’s donations.

However, Master Wayne wasn’t idle.

He was so busy setting up the Justice League that he hadn’t bothered to look for a date for this event this time.

This would have been practically impossible in the past.

As the head of Wayne Enterprises, Master Wayne always had enough beauties around him who were at his beck and call.

It was just that there would be small problems every now and then.

There would always be some women who would try to get a permanent credit card off him, preferably the kind that could be swiped with no limit.

Of course, they were dreaming.

Master Wayne had a professional team to help him with this sort of thing.

Without a date, he was quickly surrounded by three beauties, and there were even more eyes fixed on him, ready to join in.

Master Wayne barely needed to think to interact with these women.

In any case, what they were interested in wasn’t his eloquence; they would happily carry the conversation on their own.

For some reason, in this grandiose environment, Master Wayne remembered a certain person who was still on a business trip in Europe.

Previously, he had been troubled by this person running wild, but after more than ten days of quiet, he felt that his surroundings had fallen into stagnant silence.

It wasn’t that people had stopped doing bad things, but that everything around him had returned to that lifeless atmosphere of decades ago, like the sludge at the bottom of a pit.

There was no light, no prospects, and no future; everyone was born and died in this rotten and filthy abyss.

He envied Bale. Master Wayne was well aware of this, but he hadn’t told anyone, including his butler and the other members of the Justice League.

It wasn’t because Bale was handsome or had stolen some of the limelight; it was because he brimmed with energy inside out. Another way to put it was that he was on an upward trend.

Master Wayne got this feeling not just from the battles, but also based on what Luke’s company was doing.

Although Luke’s expansion plan was still in its infancy, Master Wayne could already see some signs.

The food delivery system which Luke had set up in Gotham and Metropolis could take in tens of thousands of people at the bottom who were willing to work.

As long as Luke didn’t take a huge cut, these people could at least earn enough to support their families.

Luke moved at a steady and orderly pace, and didn’t rush things at all.

When he discussed it with Master Wayne, he had said bluntly, “Just change whatever can be changed. I’m not raising pigs. I may earn a little less, but if tens of thousands of people can benefit from this, how can I not be satisfied?”

Old Master Wayne fell silent.

Could he do that? No.

That was because he wasn’t that patient, nor did he have trusted subordinates.

A system that involved tens of thousands of people also cost money to operate.

Master Wayne was afraid that he would have to personally cripple a bunch of corrupt subordinates even before a system like this could be established.

Luke said that he had a separate system which could monitor these people and prevent that from happening, but it wasn’t something that could be used with other organizations.

It was impossible for Master Wayne to set up a similar system himself; it would be too obvious that he was targeting Luke.

So, he just personally invested ten million dollars in Luke’s food delivery system as a sponsor.

Luke also said that Master Wayne was free to monitor these two new companies at all times to prevent anything from slipping through the net.

Master Wayne didn’t really believe it.

Since Luke dared to promise him that nothing would go wrong and didn’t explain the surveillance method, that just proved that there was indeed something fishy about this.

It was very likely that it involved some underhanded trick, and it was very unlikely that most people would be able to escape such surveillance.

That was also what puzzled Master Wayne.

Could a person maintain inner calm while watching all sorts of evil deeds being committed and beating up bad guys? This required extremely tenacious conviction.

Master Wayne knew what his conviction was, but he didn’t know what Luke’s conviction was.

Also, this ‘conviction’ wasn’t something like belief in God, but some unique ‘point.’

For a bad guy, it might be ‘pain,’ and they wanted other people to feel the same sort of pain.

Or perhaps it was a ‘choice’ – a choice between life and death, or a choice between heaven and hell.

This had to do with each person’s own views and experiences; the conviction might look similar on the surface, but could be completely different on the inside.

As a bystander, Master Wayne could only analyze it from various angles at most; he wasn’t stupid enough to ask Luke what his ‘conviction’ was.

Just as he was using his ability to multitask to deal with the beautiful women and ponder life at the same time, there was a faint flurry of activity outside the banquet hall.

The lively scene gradually quieted down, and many people looked inquiringly in the direction of the doors.

Everyone here were bigwigs in Gotham. If they got even a little annoyed, the person in charge of the banquet would definitely reprimand the waiters and even cut their bonuses.

The waiters near the doors immediately went out to check the situation, and were prepared to report back after they figured out what was going on.

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