To defeat a madman, you have to be madder than him, and now, Bruce is madder than the Joker.
Cobblepot was not that crazy to start with, he suffered from physiological mental problems, he was at the bottom of the villain disdain chain. In the face of a batman who was not lightly mad, he had to admit, he had lost.
"Wayne, our competition ends here, I admit, you won. I don't care what the end result is for the kids you took away, given your current state, you have indeed won."
Backing away with his hands up, Cobblepot said, "If you want to torment me in this way, you really don't have to. We're all business people, let's not make it so undignified...."
Bruce just stared at him with piercing eyes, he said, "Why can't you understand what I'm saying? I really am here to do business with you. I already said, I remember all the information around Living Hell, I have all the information you want here, you just need to pay for it..."
Cobblepot revealed a helpless expression, he stood in place, took a deep breath, and walked towards the phone booth behind him to call the Gotham Police Department.
Cobblepot wasn't trying to let the police take Bruce Wayne away, he wanted the police to take him away.
If I can't handle it, I can at least hide. The worst-case scenario would be to spend a few months in jail and take the opportunity to reconnect with the mob boss I hadn't seen in a long time.
And so, Cobblepot was taken away by Gordon. Bruce's plan to earn extra money fell through, and his memory, far superior to that of an ordinary man, had nowhere to shine.
Watching the departing back of Cobblepot, Bruce felt no joy of victory, only full of regret, thinking Cobblepot had gone mad.
Cobblepot wanted to rearrange the rules around Fire Hell, and Bruce just happened to come to him with a solution and sincerity, but he chose to call the police and turn himself in. If this isn't madness, what is?
Standing in front of the Iceberg Restaurant, Bruce sighed and looked at the still gloomy sky of Gotham, he knew, he had to find another way.
It's not that he was tired of working as a truck driver, but mainly because the truck he got had reached the end of its life, and he really didn't have that much money to pour into the bottomless pit of car repairs.
Luckily, the place he'd just moved to, though leaky and noisy, had one advantage – it was in a great location.
It was near the dock, much closer than Selina's place, which meant Bruce could look for work as a stevedore.
After discovering this, Bruce felt a sense of excitement and joy that he hadn't felt in months, because the threshold for stevedores was even lower than truck drivers. They didn't even check your background, as long as you were a person, you could go to work.
On a warming morning, Bruce arrived at the docks to apply. The man in charge of hiring took one look at him and shook his head, saying, "You're too thin, there's not much muscle on your arms, I can't get a good price for you."
"But I'm very strong." said Bruce.
The hiring man impatiently flipped through his book and said, "Everyone who comes here says that, even if they're as skinny as a bamboo pole.... Fine, if it weren't for the fact we're missing people right now, I really wouldn't bother with you."
"Firstly, do you smoke? Where do you live? Do you know anyone from a gang?" The hiring man asked a series of questions, and Bruce answered truthfully. After hearing that he didn't smoke or drink, the hiring man sighed and said, "You're from out of town, huh?"
All Bruce could do was nod and say, "But before, I've been a truck driver for a while, I know the roads well."
"That's actually a plus." the hiring man replied, "But you can't handle the work of unloading cargo from the ship, you will be coughing blood in a week. You should go inside the warehouse and sort out the goods instead, oh right, are you brave?"
"Brave?" asked Bruce, "Do I need courage to work as a stevedore?"
"Don't ask so many questions." The hiring man seemed a little impatient again, he rolled his eyes and said, "Normally, the pay for sorting goods indoors is very low, but there's a special job now. Your partner is a special case, as long as you're brave, you'll get a 30% raise."
"I'm very brave." Bruce immediately answered.
He didn't think there was anything in the world that could scare him, okay, there were academic papers before, but there shouldn't be anything after that.
It wasn't until he arrived at the warehouse where he was going to sort out the goods that Bruce discovered his partner was an alligator.
Calling him an alligator isn't accurate, it would be more appropriate to call him a crocodile, because this crocodile had a crocodile head, was tall, and his muscles were very strong. Bruce stared at him for a minute and realized that this crocodile could do the work of three people.
Therefore, Bruce's first emotion wasn't fear, not disgust, not doubt, but envy. Bruce thought, if he looked like this, the middleman wouldn't dare to rip him off.
In fact, Bruce recognized him. When he was in the dream world, there had also been such a crocodile in Cat City Gotham, but at that time, he was the Crocodile Cat. Bruce had thought there might be a corresponding criminal showing up in the real Gotham City, but he didn't expect it to be in this way.
But Bruce wasn't nervous, because he knew that Crocodile Cat was quite easy to get along with, so he stepped forward, greeted the crocodile, and said, "Hello, I'm your future colleague, I also work here in the warehouse."