Penguin Man was yet to be shocked, and Batman who was watching a movie in the Batcave was the first to be stunned.
Of course, he knew about the mayoral election, and he knew clearly what Lincoln March was up to, after all, before the reboot of the cosmos, he had already tangled with March.
Robin, Penguin Man, the mayoral election - these three words individually were normal, yet when combined together they seemed peculiar, or the fact that these three words could have a chance to be combined was strange enough.
By this time, the Joker, sitting on the couch, was roaring with laughter. He wiped the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes, opened a new bag of chips with a bang, and started talking while munching away on his snacks.
"I must say, it's a good choice, if they really want to achieve their goal, they naturally need to find enough of their own men, scattered around various industries, and classes, and Oswald Cobblepot who has been trapped in the role of a gang boss and a businessman for many years, who can say he has no further ambitions?"
Joker crossed one leg over the other, shook his foot, and said: "He owns a lot, but he lacks more. Violence can help him to preserve his own industry in a city full of chaos, but to go further, he lacks a long-term perspective, deep understanding and real gangster mentality."
Batman's fingertips moved gently, indicating his curiosity about a specific word in Joker's speech. Therefore, he repeated this word: "Gangster mentality ..."
"Have you ever wondered why the Italian Mafia thrived in the Americas? They even managed to transcend the stereotypical impression of being just street thugs, they had developed a unique family culture and Godfather culture."
"Of course, Batman, you certainly have!" The Joker deliberately raised his tone and said: "After all, you were the one who destroyed all of it, you killed the Italians."
"Falcone's death was only an accident." Batman said after a moment of silence, as if he had already accepted the current situation, he was casually talking as if in small talk.
"The success and failure of the Italian Mafia come from the same reason, they need a leader with enough personal charm. He is the head of the gang, the shepherd of the flock, and the father of all."
"His strength, wisdom, and invulnerability gave all the Italian Mafia families confidence and motivation, he is more like a cultural symbol, which unites all the families."
"At the same time, if he dies and there is no credible successor to lead instead, then the family will collapse in an instant - it is the Italians who killed themselves."
Joker, as if suddenly thinking of something, showed a somewhat malicious smile. He placed his thumb on his lower lip and asked: "Do you think Cobblepot can become a Godfather of the Mafia?"
Batman considered for a moment and said: "What I care more about is what the Robins are up to, it seems you know more than I do, Joker."
"Yes, but I won't tell you so easily, Batman, you should keep more eyes open, as usual, closely watch any changes in this city."
Joker turned his head back, squinted his eyes slightly at the screen and said: "Then you will understand, a creature born in darkness should not shed its egg from the nest, because what will that egg hatch into, I can't even guess."
"Now, Nottingham Street, Baladi Street in downtown Gotham, and our previously taken Swan Street, have formed a perfect triangle block, radiating to half of the downtown, even the upper and right corner of the triangle can radiate to the upper city area and lower city area."
On the roof of an apartment building at the corner of Nottingham Street, Jason was holding a baton, pointing at the map he had just drawn on the blackboard. He tapped the center of the triangle area and said.
"In the end, we will establish the base of the Naiwei Family in the center of the three streets, and then expand outward, until the whole downtown area is within our influence, but to control such a vast territory, we need to recruit enough manpower first, do you have any good suggestions?"
Sitting on the sofa were Dick, Tim, and Aisha. They were giving their suggestions while pointing at the map drawn on the blackboard, unaware of the small black dot outside the window of this building centering a flash of light. The interior of the room was captured by a camera, everything was caught in the act.
Upon hearing the name "Naiwei" Family, Batman's eyes opened slightly. This shallow wordplay couldn't deceive the Joker, and naturally, it couldn't deceive Batman. But at this moment, he still didn't think this was Robin's idea.
According to usual logic, they had no motive to do so. Whichever world's Robin they were, they are Batman's adopted sons and his great allies. Although their styles differed slightly, they were mostly just. There was no reason for them to become gangsters.
But what appeared on the screen next once again defied Batman's expectations, even the Joker's.
After both sets of Robins successfully took over three major downtown streets and established a solid rule, the little Robins began to make their move.
First, Jason began to search for all children under fifteen in this area, to understand their situation and gather them together.
The condition of the children in Gotham now was not good, or more accurately, it was much worse than during the Mob era.
It wasn't to say the Mob was any good, but the Mob needed them, and the stronger individuals among them could at least carve out a way.
Being a Mob henchman was not a good path, brutal and dangerous, with a high risk of death, but at least it was a path, one that could be continued and had room for progression, and a certain probability of promotion and development.
As long as they were young and strong enough, they could rise from the lowest ranks of the searching Mob to become henchmen. Having participated in a few firefights and becoming a veteran from a newbie, they could oversee clubs or bars once they understood the rules of all Mob levels. If they were more agile or wiser than three or four others, they could become the smallest capo with a few people under their wing, greatly increasing their chances of survival.
If they were a bit smarter, able to read people, using their position to enrich themselves by bribing the upper bosses, they might even crawl further up, becoming a low-level capo managing a venue. If they studied some quick money-making business, even if they happened to die someday, at least they enjoyed life when alive.
It would seem this upward mobility is a far cry on the path of lawbreaking, but people need to have hopes to live. Without an upward path, without hope, life could change people drastically, and Jason had seen what.
The three streets formed a large area with many children, but mainly Jason found them in the dirty restaurant kitchens, dark and closed heartless factories, cramped and cold sewers, never-sunlight-seen underground marijuana plantations, and even in unbearable bottom-layer brothels.
Most of these children were the products of one-night stands, the more uneducated people are, the more they focus on short-term indulgence. They never cared about the consequences of their indulgence, so the offsprings they left became the cheapest labor force.
All they needed to do was to look after the darkest alleys and the most chaotic red-light districts, picking up the randomly birthed and discarded children to feed. Those who could grow up would work, and if they worked to death, nobody cared; they were just like batches of consumables.
The lucky ones who could survive and escape could not form a stable family either. They could only linger in the same area, reproducing another batch of offsprings.
During the mob order, every able-bodied person was a Mob's asset. There weren't any human rights, but at least the Mob knew that adequate reproduction was the source of obtaining ample fighters, so they would painstakingly maintain and ensure a stable human output as much as possible.
But without these rules, the reproduction of bottom-tier humans seemed more like producing livestock. There was no need for them to be robust or intelligent. The exploitable things changed from labor to every piece of flesh on their body. Though they still appeared human, every part of their body had been priced upon birth.
This was the status quo of the bottom-tier citizens in Gotham during the post-Mob era, without any prospect for promotion, living was merely for survival, what was left wasn't even pain, but numbness.
When the Robins rushed into such places with guns to get the children out, they didn't cry or scream or resist. They simply followed the instructions to a room, squatted down, consulted no one, said nothing, only waiting to be sold to the next place to repeat their lives.
Seeing the environment in which these children of his own age had lived, Jason once thought that if one day he fell into such circumstances and was unable to resist, he would rather choose to die.
But as he stood in the room, watching the gathered children with almost identical expressions, he understood that these children would not choose death — the depth that would make a normal person think about welcoming death was perhaps their life's peak.
However, faced with such a situation, the Robins didn't seem helpless. They weren't trying to make these children do something with them through impassioned speeches. They just brought some food to ensure that no one would starve and left these children in the room.
The Robins were not furious enough to rush into these sweatshops and shoot the bosses who exploited child labor. They did not try to follow the vine to find out who was primarily responsible. They just simply, very pragmatically, began to collect protection money.
Literally, they burst into every retail store in the block, guns in hands, requiring all to kneel, heads down, and the boss to come out and meet them. If the boss didn't pay, they would change the boss.
Moreover, they would take all the cash from the store and the capital from the boss's pocket, requiring them to pay protection money at a regular place and time. If they couldn't, water and electricity would be cut off, and shit would hit the fan.
This behavior, very similar to robbery, accumulated a large amount of capital for them in a short time. It's true that all the ways to make money are written in the criminal law. As fast as these people exploited, the Robins robbed just as fast.
But soon, the ones who controlled these industries reacted. Trying to deal with the suddenly revived traditional mob with the methods they used against business competitors seemed powerless.
Battling over exchanging interests, court debates, hiring assassins, and black-gun wars — these popular mechanisms promoting redistribution of upper-tier interests in the post-Mob era Gotham could not resist the Mob model that directly cut resources from the middle and bottom tiers.
All of a sudden, the murderous intent that was originally hidden beneath Gotham's undercurrents was shattered like a vase, "shattering" audibly and clearly onto the table, pricking the fingertips of all the behind-the-scenes culprits, making them truly bleed.