章 2388: Chapter 1650 - No Time to Die (Part 13)_1

Ever since he met Bruce, Shiller had assumed for a long time that Bruce wanted to become Batman because he saw a bat flying over the gloomy attic on the night his parents died. The remaining fear in his heart led him to believe that the bat was the embodiment of fear. By transforming into a bat, he could bring fear to the criminals of Gotham City.

But after Bruce graduated, Shiller discovered that it was not that convoluted and wasn't because the bat had any special connotations - Bruce just liked bats.

It was after this, that Shiller learned that Bruce had always wanted to raise bats at Wayne Manor, but Alfred disagreed. This was due to possible disease-carrying risks and also because their droppings were difficult to clean up, one of the few things Alfred would say no to Bruce about.

With the creation of the inner world, Bruce finally fulfilled his dream of raising bats. After all, the buildings here are constructed with magic and have self-cleaning capabilities, and no one here was afraid of bat-borne germs.

Moreover, because magicians often need to concoct potions and draw arrays, bats can be considered traditional domestic animals in the magic realm. They have a quite mature artificially selected breed, very stable rearing methods, and practitioners. Hence, Bruce funded the rebuilding of the Forgotten Bar. The Master of the Dark Night helped him find a group of small nocturnal elves from Magic World Maya to help him raise bats.

Maybe it was due to some special disturbances that all the naturally existing city animals in Gotham City understood magic perfectly.

After creating a two-story high Magic Spider Spirit, a Magic Transformed Stray Cat with eight tails, a stray dog that transforms into the King of the Werewolves on full moon nights, and a Magic Transformed Sparrow Demon with a wingspan of twenty-two meters, Shiller and other magicians unanimously considered Batman raising bats was a practical and visionary move.

Of course, bats, in the understanding of ordinary people, could not be used to deliver mail. On the one hand, they could not be trained like pigeons to have a sense of space and distance. On the other hand, their body size was not suitable for carrying heavy objects, nor did they have the stamina of pigeons. But these shortcomings are not a problem in the face of magic.

Although the bats raised in the magic realm were previously used to extract alchemy and Pill refining materials, a slight adjustment to their wingspan and bone structure would enable them to deliver mail. But in order to diversify the admission letters and avoid them from being too traditional, Bruce, the biggest sponsor of the inner world, added a lot of extras.

The letter paper was printed with bat patterns, the envelope was a variation of the classic bat tag, the seal for the envelope was a combination of the bat and the Wayne Family's crest. Each letter also came with a keychain-sized Batman puppet made of rabbit fur, which was soft and fluffy.

Bruce had previously produced four versions of the Batman puppet, and to observe the effect of the fire-lithography seal, he also customized some badges with the same pattern as the seal. There were also bat stickers, bat flashlights, Bat-spray paint guns, bat cookies, bat candies, and even industrial products such as bat oil drums, bat gas cans.

Anyway, Bruce tried all of the production lines of Wayne Enterprises, creating a great deal of bat-themed merchandise. Thomas was confused but helpless about this. After all, playing with bat merchandise was better than being bat merchandise, right?

But soon Thomas discovered that this action had more positive effects than he thought. Suddenly one day, Mayor Roy approached him, hoping that Wayne Enterprises could establish a specialized cultural and entertainment industry department to interface with the City Government, to commercialize all the bat-themed merchandise, especially for the upcoming music festival.

It is well known that the first time Gotham City appeared in the public eye in a positive light was due to the popularity of Clark's Batman photos. It wasn't strange for people to naturally associate Gotham with bats.

Gordon had previously borrowed the original Bat Light from Batman and used it as the Central Roundabout's traffic light. But the police obviously had no technical ability to change the pattern of the Bat Light. So far, when the Central Roundabout's traffic light turned on, it would still project either a red or green bat pattern in the sky.

Most tourists coming to Gotham would pass by the Central Roundabout no matter where they planned to visit. When seeing the bat pattern for the first time, they would question; the second time, they would be curious; the third time, they would take commemorative picture. By the tenth or hundredth time, dozens of incredible stories about this unusual bat pattern would be created and it would become one of the classic attractions that tourists must visit when they come to Gotham.

Although the network media is not very developed at this time, various types of web pages had been developed quite adequately. Coupled with the word of mouth from tourists who visited, the bat gradually became Gotham's representative animal, even the image symbol of the city.

The ordinary people of Gotham had no objections to this. Gotham indeed had quite a few bats that would flutter past the windows at night. People rarely paid attention to these animals, but they wouldn't mind if they became a tourist attraction loved by foreign visitors.

Under the guidance of the locals, many tourists found the perfect spot to watch the bat colony. At dusk, a large number of wild bats would fly from the outskirts of the West District all the way to the North District, passing by the Gotham Cathedral on the way. The dark night, the ancient cathedral, and the flock of bats created a fascinating Gothic atmosphere that was photogenic from any angle.

Mayor Roy was even more delighted with this situation than the ordinary people. Many city tourism logos often took ten or even dozens of years to establish, and many logos that are now considered classic were criticized as ugly when they were first built, such as the iconic "Hollywood" sign erected on the hillside.

Surprisingly, people accepted the bat, an animal with a not-so-good image, as the symbol of Gotham with high enthusiasm. Mayor Roy was quick to capitalize on this trend, first by setting up a few fake bat lights in the center of a roundabout. At night, a splendid light show would be held, attracting a swarm of tourists to watch from the rooftops of nearby buildings.

Then, in collaboration with the animal science faculty at Gotham University, he developed a bat lure capable of guiding the wild bats outside of the city to perform flight shows along a pre-assigned route. Viewing points were established throughout the city to divert the tourists.

Moreover, the image of a bat was incorporated into the final promotions of the music festival, solidifying the bat as a representative symbol of Gotham in people's minds.

Towards the end of these initiatives, one primary task remained - turning the bat's virtual fame into a real bat-related economy. The simplest and fastest step towards this goal was to start selling bat-themed merchandise.

Whether it was street stalls near the central roundabout or vendors on the tops of buildings surrounding tourist spots, Gotham citizens had long been selling various items. However, Gotham had never done tourist business before, and many people simply didn't know what to sell to get the maximum profit.

Either the items being sold were weird and unusual with no demand, such as mobs setting up stalls to sell guns, or they were just food and drink vendors. Considering the high cost of living in Gotham, tourism didn't seem like a kidnapping scheme, so who would have such a high budget to buy an assault rifle to take home?

For those not selling dangerous items, most sold food and drink. However, there were only a few types of local snacks, and no more than three types were seen on a street. The one who set up their stall first always made more money, while similar stalls didn't receive much attention.

Gotham's street economy was now busy, chaotic, and not profitable. If this continued, it could easily dampen the enthusiasm of the locals and mobs for tourism. The city government had to find a solution to convince everyone that tourism could be a more profitable business.

Roy's idea of selling bat merchandise came from Gordon, who got it from Joker Jack. As mentioned earlier, Bruce had created several samples of the Batman puppet before finalizing the right size and appearance.

Once the final version was decided, the sample versions became useless. So, he gifted his friends a Batman puppet each. Joker Jack received the largest one, with a wingspan of two meters, which could be described as grand.

When Gordon visited Jack's house one day, he found the puppet interesting and took a picture to share with Roy. Overjoyed, Roy immediately asked Gordon about the producer, only to find that it was a product of Wayne Enterprises.

Once Roy tracked down Thomas, he could hardly contain his tears of gratitude for his foresight and business acumen. It took Thomas a while to understand that what Bruce had piled up in the warehouses could be sold, and what's more, people were actually buying it.

Not only did people buy them, but the sales were also booming. After all, the price expectation of such merchandise was different from that of food and drink. People might find a ten-dollar snack expensive, but if it's a beautifully crafted city souvenir, they would find it worth every penny.

With Bruce's authorization, factories owned by the Twelve Families began the non-stop production of bat refrigerator magnets, bat T-shirts, car stickers, ornaments, and even bat puppet bouquets, which were then distributed to various tourist spots for sale.

The mobs were amazed to find out that selling these items was more profitable than selling narcotics. Almost all the plastic or metal merchandise had a very low production cost. Even if they didn't sell, they wouldn't take up much space or spoil, and could be sold at any point in the future.

Printed products required a bit more effort but sold at higher prices. A simple white t-shirt cost a few dollars, which seemed quite expensive considering Gotham's cost of living. However, if a unique pattern was printed on it as a city souvenir, it could easily sell for over ten dollars.

The economy of the United States was booming in the early 90s with ample employment opportunities and long vacations. Everyone had extra money and was willing to spend on travel. All travel cities made a fortune during this time, and Gotham was no exception.

As a consequence, tourists who arrived early for sightseeing in the outskirts of Gotham had already brought in a lot of revenue for every strata of society in Gotham, even before the music festival began.

This allowed every section of Gotham's residents, particularly the Twelve Families of the Underworld, to realize the potential of the tourism business. After all, why would they exert themselves robbing traditionally when they could comfortably profit by robbing the tourists through tourism and merchandise sales?

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