บท 3004: Chapter 2162: Battle of the Twin Cities! (Part 2) _1
The fusion of the two Earths wasn't as simple as overlaying them, because if that were the case, there would be many irrationalities.
For instance, even the affluent East Coast of the United States could not possibly sustain three mega-cities. The existence of Gotham and Metropolis alone was already implausible. There would simply be no room for a third.
At the same time, it wasn't as if one replaced the other. All differences between the two Earths were preserved, the people, buildings, and all types of social relationships were transferred as they were.
This causes a problem, as Gotham and Metropolis could not accommodate another mega-city with a population close to ten million. But this was the easiest to solve: just enlarge Earth a bit.
In fact, Lucifer, as the Battleworld Administrator, had experience in this regard, because Duel World New Earth was an enlarged version of Earth. To some extent, this new Earth No.1 could be considered the beta version of Battleworld Earth.
After enlargement, the buildings originally in New York could fit into Metropolis and Gotham after some minor planning, and the same would be true for the population.
That is to say, New York now weaves through Metropolis and Gotham. But, it doesn't look weird, because Metropolis and Gotham were initially designed based on the day and night of New York. Although the details of each building were different, the style was perfectly unified.
The biggest changes happened mainly in Gotham, because the wealthiest Manhattan only occupied a small part of New York City. In essence, Metropolis got another business center. The other three areas fell squarely into Gotham, and the remaining island was closer to Gotham. So, it wouldn't be overstating to say that New York and Gotham have merged.
So, what actions were taken by the citizens facing such drastic changes?
Surprisingly, the ordinary people of these two cities demonstrated remarkable mental stability.
After seeing their city burgeoning, let alone doubling in size, and accompanied by a doubling of the population, their first reaction was to open Google Maps and ridicule the outdated map.
Of course, this was just the reaction of a minority. The vast majority of people's first action was to check the bus and subway routes, as they needed to get to work in the morning.
What does city integration matter to them? Even with alien spaceships battling above, it would not prevent them from going to work. Who cares about these bizarre developments? Not going to work for a day could dock them a few tens of dollars. How would they pay next month's exorbitant rent?
This is what it's like for workhorses in big cities. For the disaster-prone people of these two cities, even if there were another ten million monkeys, their allocated time to gawk and marvel would only last a few dozen seconds while waiting for the subway.
The biggest reactions came mostly from the disconnected upper class because one glaring issue now was, who should be the boss of the merged city?
A city can only have one group of city officials. They could peacefully coexist if they were separate, but in this intertwined situation, the mayor of New York City wouldn't be able to determine which building used to belong to his administrative area. In fact, he wouldn't know either.
You couldn't possibly ask New Yorkers to step forward and claim their own buildings, could you? In that case, no building would belong to New York.
As a result, when the cities merged in an instant, the group always seated at the top of the pyramid was the first to panic.
A man in a brown leather jacket rushed through the hallway at top speed and pushed open the slightly old office door.
"Dingling! Dingling!"
The phone was ringing again; it had been ringing incessantly.
The man in the jacket heaved a deep sigh, his face visibly tired. As soon as he picked up the phone, he heard an ear-splitting roar.
"James Gordon! What on Earth do you do for a living!? It's almost an hour since the disaster occurred, and you haven't provided me with anything!!!"
Gordon sneered, half-closing his eyes, rested the receiver against the wall and said, "What would you have me give you? Oswald, my dear Mayor, everything happened as you saw it. What else do you want?"
"Legitimacy, lawfulness, and your police cars and guns!"
"Directed at whom? Sir."
Gordon took a sip of water, somewhat surprised at seeing Barbara walking into the office with a glass of water for him. But he waved her off, indicating he didn't need any help, and then said over the phone, "Have you forgotten the words you spoke during your inauguration? The constitution gives you legitimacy and lawfulness. Your unwavering dedication to the public provides you with responsibility and capacity."
"You're asking me to provide you with police cars and weapons in a crisis? If I had them, you wouldn't be in the Mayor's office right now!"
Hanging up the phone after his words, Gordon took another sip of water, then sighed at his daughter and said, "Given the choice, I wouldn't waste a single word on him. God help us, I hope the Mayor of this mysterious city gains his so-called legitimacy and lawfulness quickly. He's bound to be worse than Penguin Man, right?"
Barbara hesitated to speak, finally saying softly, "Actually, Vena sent me."
"What happened? Is there an issue on her end?"
"Just now, there was a power outage on Ger Street. The technical team checked and found that someone had struck the electrical system there with a voltage far exceeding the safe limit. I've come to check the surveillance."
"Don't kid me, my sweet girl." Gordon said as he sat down in his chair, beginning to go through his emails. "That area is our dear Mayor's cash cow, where he has opened six nightclubs and bars this year."
"Did you see any insurance company vehicles conveniently passing by? If so, it's another one of his insurance scam schemes. Don't bother with it. I have to check my new partner's background information."
Barbara shrugged her shoulders and went over to the nearby seat and began working on her computer.
"Dingling! Dingling!"
The phone rang again, like the annoying cicadas on a summer evening. Without a second thought, Gordon knew who was calling, so he just glanced in that direction, having no intention of picking it up.
"Buzz—Buzz—"
His private phone rang again. Bowing his head to look, a text message appeared on his screen.
"James Gordon, if you do not answer the phone, think about your daughter."
Gordon's face immediately darkened. He picked up the phone and said to the caller, "Mr. Cobblepot, the message you just sent me is enough evidence of your personal threat."
"You don't understand a thing!!!" The furious roar came again, "Those lunatics who fell from the sky blew up a street's cable line, that's money I've spent a pile on!!!"
"Yes, for your opium farms hidden under those bars and nightclubs. Without enough ultraviolet light, they will die in at most three days. This is the best news I've heard this year."
Gordon could hear the Penguin Man's silent panting; finally, he spoke in a low tone: "Listen, James. We agree on this case. You can't let those yokels who claim to be New Yorkers do whatever they want on our turf. Gotham does not tolerate such provocations!"
Gordon crossed one leg over the other, flipping through the calendar as he spoke: "Do you know? I've never marked the election date on my calendar before, but I'm considering doing so."
"Let me see, there are just two months left until the election. It's getting more and more exciting."
Penguin Man scoffed, "Do you really think it would be better to have the mayor of New York City replacing me? Perhaps you should investigate what attacked my storefronts."
"Do you think a mayor who can tolerate such criminals wandering around the city would do better than me? At least I'll give the mob hitmen enough guns to blast those troublemakers into smithereens!"
The Penguin hung up first. Gordon glanced at the calendar again. About two months ago, the Penguin declared his candidacy for the next mayor of Gotham. His party only had two participants, and the other one was Penguin's subordinate.
The opposition party had over a dozen candidates. Within three weeks, 11 of them were dead; the rest were on vacation or sick leave. This race seemed decided.
The sudden city merger was a silver lining for Gordon because, evidently, this city sprouting from the soil of Gotham was also a major city just like Gotham. The party strife here must be equally fierce.
If the merged city was also an American city, the two parties would first unify their opinion. But regardless of whether they were from the same party or not, they would compete until one side collapsed.
So, within these two months leading up to the next election, assassination attempts would spring up like mushrooms; Gordon knew the Penguin too well. Perhaps, this attack was just a pretext for the hit.
Despite all that, Gordon still needed to investigate. The death of the hitmen whom the Penguin had won over didn't count for much, but not far from there was a community school and a welfare home. A blackout could affect the children's schooling. Since the tech team was in trouble, Gordon had to step in.
Gordon led a small team of cops to the disaster-stricken street. They expectedly received cold glances from the mob's hitmen. However, he didn't care; he lifted the cordon tape and wriggled under it.
A middle-aged black-haired woman in a technician's uniform and another big guy walked over. Gordon approached them, patted her on the shoulder, and said, "What's the matter? Vena, did you run into any problems?"
"You're quite early this time. Didn't that hook-nosed man give you any trouble?" Vena's voice was deep. She sneezed, rubbing her nose and said, "I didn't expect you to come. I know you're busy with your problems."
"What problems." Gordon nonchalantly shook his head and said, "How can anything be more vexing than Bruce Wayne's disappearance and the fusion of two major cities?"
"You know those are distant disasters." Vena led Gordon to the scene and said, "But you have immediate problems to solve."
"Look at this." Vena led Gordon alongside the power distribution room. She stacked two fingers together and lightly knocked on the already charred door.
Gordon leaned in for a look, but only saw darkness.
"What is this?"
"The explosion scene."
"Was there an explosion here?"
"Worse than that." Vena sighed and said, "A local short circuit can cause small-scale explosions, but our mayor has heavily invested in the circuitry here. The safety precautions are very comprehensive, and the routing is scientifically sound."
"So this small-scale explosion shouldn't have been enough to destroy the electrical facilities of the entire street. But it did, which is why I started questioning my years of knowledge in electrical engineering."
"Go, James, find a better electric engineer. This is beyond me. In fact, I question whether this is within the scope of electrical engineering."
"Why do you say that?"
Vena nodded her head upward. Following her instruction, Gordon looked where she was pointing. Amidst the darkness, he saw footprints left by what looked like rubber shoes.
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