"All this money... No way! There's actually this much gold in here?! My God, am I dreaming?!"
Captain Boomerang was dumbfounded. Despite being a born-and-raised Australian, he had never seen so much gold in his life.
Karl looked at his stunned expression and grinned slyly.
"Oh? You think you're dreaming? Then bite one yourself and see whether it's real."
Captain Boomerang chuckled and immediately picked up a gold bar. He had almost brought it to his mouth when, after thinking for a moment, he turned and held it out toward Killer Croc.
"Big guy, your teeth are tougher than mine. Why don't you check whether this stuff is real?"
Killer Croc didn't even bother looking at it. He simply grabbed the gold bar and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Of course it's real! If the boss says it's real, I believe him. If you don't want yours, I'll take it!"
The exchange between the two clowns immediately sent everyone in the room into laughter.
The gloomy atmosphere from moments earlier disappeared amid the glittering gold and their antics.
"You guys have put in this much work for me. I'm not going to shortchange you."
Karl spoke with complete confidence.
"That Harvey guy thinks getting the Police Commissioner's job means he can do whatever he wants? That's what I call naive. Without Gordon and me, how many cops do you think are actually willing to listen to him?"
"We're much better off here in Arkham, where we can run things our own way."
And that was true.
After leaving GCPD headquarters, Karl had specifically instructed Bullock to spread the word among the officers there.
Loeb's blackmail material—the leverage he had used to keep countless police officers under his thumb—had been destroyed by Karl.
From now on, no one would be restrained by it anymore.
Strictly speaking, destroying the material had only been an improvised measure Karl had been forced to take when Harvey Dent had cornered him.
But after Karl's careful presentation of the story, the entire incident had somehow become a great and righteous deed.
Bullock already felt that he owed Karl.
On top of that, his partner Gordon had been removed from his position and sent home.
Bullock naturally believed Harvey Dent had deliberately pushed Gordon aside so that Gordon couldn't compete with him for the Commissioner's position.
Needless to say, Bullock was furious.
So when Karl asked him to spread the story, Bullock enthusiastically sold it for all it was worth.
Before long, practically the entire police force knew that Karl had been the one who destroyed Loeb's files, and countless officers were grateful to him for it.
Whenever Harvey Dent's name came up, however, all it usually earned was ridicule.
Some accused him of secretly stealing credit for other people's accomplishments.
Others complained that putting such an inflexible man in charge would only make everyone's lives harder.
As a result, Harvey's prestige hadn't risen after becoming Police Commissioner.
Instead, it had fallen even further.
For Harvey, it was an embarrassing blow.
"In short, the position of Gotham Police Commissioner is practically cursed. Nobody who sits in that chair can completely clean up the city's crime, so sooner or later they end up taking the blame for everything."
Karl spoke seriously.
"We're much more comfortable running our own little corner of Gotham."
"Batman is badly injured, and Gotham's police leadership has just changed hands. This is a period of instability, but it's also the best possible opportunity for us to transform."
"Our next step is to gradually clean up the businesses under our control and start moving them onto legitimate ground..."
Before Karl could finish, Captain Boomerang immediately interrupted.
"What? Boss, you're planning to change the way we do things?"
His expression changed dramatically.
"No! You're saying you want to get out of the mob business? That's terrible!"
Captain Boomerang spoke anxiously.
"You just said it yourself! Batman is badly injured and practically out of action, the police department is going through a leadership reshuffle, and the underworld doesn't even have a real boss anymore."
"If we plant our flag now, recruit more people, and combine that with your position as the head of the Arkham police, how could we possibly fail to take over even more territory?"
Karl looked at Captain Boomerang and immediately understood what the man was thinking.
Captain Boomerang was one of the most important members of the organization's combat wing.
He had always been deeply interested in their underworld operations and had been responsible for nearly all of the organization's mob-related activities.
If Karl now announced that their focus was changing, Captain Boomerang's role would inevitably become less important.
More importantly, more and more capable people had been joining Karl's organization lately.
Captain Boomerang had no superpowers, so he was becoming increasingly worried that his place within the organization would shrink.
He hadn't even been allowed to participate directly in the battle against Bane.
Because of that, he was constantly looking for an opportunity to pull off something big and earn Karl's praise before some newcomer eventually replaced him.
At that moment, Red, who had been standing nearby, noticed something unusual in Karl's words and asked curiously,
"Investment in fifteen stores? Karl, are you sure you have enough money to carry out that plan?"
"We've had to shut down a lot of our stores recently because of the fighting, and there was nobody available to keep them running."
"If we're really going to transform the business... financially, we're already in pretty bad shape."
Red didn't finish the rest of the sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.
Supporting an organization with several hundred members required enormous amounts of money, while the profits from Miss Buffet's branches had been dropping sharply.
Things would become difficult in the future.
"If I can pull out enough gold to hand all this out to everyone, then obviously money isn't a problem for me."
Karl spoke with absolute confidence.
"In fact, I own a private bank in downtown Gotham."
"That place will provide more than enough funding for our new businesses in the future, so there's nothing to worry about."
However, Karl quickly began thinking about the situation more carefully.
The bank wasn't located inside his own sphere of influence.
Once Harvey consolidated his control over the city, there was a good chance he would target it.
In that case, Karl might as well bring the bank fully into the open, start taking deposits and conducting legitimate business, and gradually clean up its operations.
That would be much better than allowing it to fall into the hands of a political rival.
When everyone heard that Karl actually owned a bank, they immediately erupted into cheers.
A bank was practically a treasure vault generating income every single day.
No wonder Karl had the confidence to announce such a large-scale transformation.
"If that's the case, then that's great!"
Red looked at him curiously.
"But I'm wondering what you're planning to go after next, Karl."
This time, Karl didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he stared directly at the image playing on the television screen in the neighboring office.
Then he quietly said,
"What do you think about buying this television station?"
(End of Chapter)
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