Chapter 395 - 395: Karl’s Choice

Jason found himself with a headache.

He was the kind of person who could look down on almost anyone, but he did not enjoy bullying people weaker than himself. When someone behaved this deferentially and voluntarily backed down, Jason found it difficult to be ruthless.

"It's not like there's absolutely nothing we can do..."

Jason thought for a long while before finally speaking.

"I remember Karl spent several days out at sea once and shot a lot of footage. Give me a few days, and I'll put together a new movie for you."

Back when Karl had gone to rescue Green Arrow, he had claimed that he was heading to the island to shoot footage.

Oliver had even offered to help him make a movie.

Once the footage had been shot, Karl had basically treated it as useless and tossed it aside. At the time, he had only wanted to smooth things over with the future Green Arrow; he had never seriously intended to go down some ridiculous adult-film-mogul route.

Jason, however, suddenly remembered that footage now.

"That sounds great!"

The young man brightened immediately.

"If you're willing to provide us with a new movie, every cinema in our neighborhoods will be grateful for the Lord of Arkham's help!"

"I'll send copies of the advertisement over later," Jason replied casually.

With their conversation finished, the two bumped fists like old friends and said goodbye.

Bruce Wayne, who had been hiding off to the side the entire time, finally relaxed when he realized that nothing particularly suspicious had happened.

Even so, he sighed inwardly.

On one hand, he found it unfortunate that Jason's considerable talents were being used on something like adult films.

On the other hand, he had also realized that Karl's influence within Gotham's underworld was continuing to grow.

Even minor gangs were beginning to fear and respect him.

That was something Bruce did not want to see.

If Bruce Wayne was merely disappointed, Harvey Dent was utterly dejected.

He had originally come here hoping to uncover something suspicious about Karl.

Instead, after failing to find any obvious weakness, Harvey became even more frustrated—especially after seeing how prosperous the business here was.

Seeing the expression on his old friend's face, Bruce quickly spoke up, worried that Harvey might completely lose his fighting spirit.

"It looks like Karl isn't doing anything illegal here."

Bruce's expression hardened.

"But don't worry. He's supposed to announce the judges for his talent show this morning. No matter who he chooses as the first judge, I'll step in and oppose it."

He spoke firmly.

"If we're going to stop this, we can't simply play by the usual rules."

Deep down, Bruce still did not want his own image appearing in a television show, especially if Batman was going to be thrown into some ridiculous plot alongside a collection of pretty actresses chosen purely for their looks.

At that moment, one of the televisions hanging inside Luna House switched over to the news.

Naturally, the televisions here were tuned to ABC Television.

They had originally been used mainly for on-demand entertainment, but now a beautiful female anchor appeared onscreen.

Over the past few days, Karl had recruited several new presenters and performers. After training and repackaging them, he intended to keep them as part of ABC's future talent pool.

The female anchor smiled at the camera.

"Only three days remain until Gotham's highly anticipated talent competition officially begins. Today, we will be announcing the first members of our judging panel."

Bruce Wayne immediately perked up and stared intently at the television.

The host deliberately paused, drawing out the suspense.

"Since the purpose of this competition is to produce the Batman television series, we naturally need someone with genuine acting experience on the judging panel—someone who understands performance and also fits the fundamental style of the project."

She smiled.

"After careful consideration, we have selected our first judge."

"Please welcome Simon Trent, star of the classic television series The Gray Ghost!"

Karl's choice instantly knocked Bruce Wayne off balance.

He had never imagined that Karl would bring in his childhood idol.

A moment later, the familiar voice of the Gray Ghost reached Bruce's ears.

But compared with the confidence and commanding presence Bruce remembered from childhood, Simon Trent now sounded noticeably more restrained and cautious.

"You're flattering me. I'm nowhere near as impressive as you make me sound."

Simon Trent smiled awkwardly.

"I didn't have any particularly noble reason for accepting this position. Mainly... Mr. Karl offered me far too much money to turn down."

Almost immediately, Karl's self-satisfied voice came through the television.

"But when I visited Mr. Trent's apartment, I was genuinely shocked."

"This is a good man who brought so much happiness to so many of us, yet he was living in poverty—far worse than I had imagined."

Karl continued without hesitation.

"During our meeting, Mr. Trent was actually preparing to pawn memorabilia from his acting career, along with trophies he had won over the years."

"He was living in one of the cheapest places he could find in Gotham City, still worrying about how he was going to pay his bills."

Bruce Wayne stared at the television in stunned silence.

He had never imagined that his childhood idol had fallen into such desperate circumstances.

That was not the kind of ending a childhood hero was supposed to have.

Bruce became so absorbed in the broadcast that he completely forgot what he had originally been planning to do.

In truth, this was not the first time Bruce Wayne had failed to notice a problem close to home.

In the film version of Justice League, Ben Affleck's Batman had largely overlooked the difficult situation facing Superman's mother, only stepping in to help after Superman returned.

It was the sort of plot point that could be rather frustrating.

The 1992 animated series handled the Gray Ghost very differently.

Simon Trent had fallen on hard times there as well. It was only after he joined forces with Batman to solve a case that Batman finally learned just how badly his childhood idol was struggling.

Put simply, Bruce Wayne was Gotham City's richest man, but he still had countless things demanding his attention.

He could not possibly notice everything happening throughout the city.

That gave Karl an opportunity.

Karl had moved first and appointed Batman's childhood idol as the first judge on ABC Television's talent competition.

Simon Trent would also serve as a consultant for the Batman series afterward.

It was easy to imagine that this job would dramatically improve the Gray Ghost's circumstances.

At the very least, it would save him from becoming so desperate that he had to pawn his old costume and memorabilia just to survive.

By this point, Bruce had almost forgotten that he and Harvey had originally come to Luna House looking for a way to obstruct Karl's television project.

Bruce had even been prepared to use public pressure to disrupt the production—or, at the very least, force Karl's judges to back away during the selection process.

Who could have expected Karl's very first move to be bringing out Bruce's childhood idol?

Faced with the Gray Ghost—especially after learning that Simon Trent desperately needed a source of income—Bruce suddenly found all of his plans useless.

He might have been determined to sabotage Karl's television series.

But he simply could not bring himself to go after his own childhood hero.

(End of Chapter)

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