Nobody can stop me from drawing cards in Gotham!

Chapter 64 Cat Law: Hehe, I must get my master's guidance!

To find out what exactly "status has changed" means, you really have to check it yourself.

Thinking of this, Jaeger raised his hand and touched the [Unknown Identity Card].

As before, the familiar pulling sensation of consciousness came, followed by a suffocating feeling of stillness.

As the mist rolled in, the cries of unknown creatures echoed—and in the blink of an eye, Jaeger found himself once again in that familiar, mysterious place.

But unlike last time, this time when he opened his eyes, a colossal gate, so huge it seemed to support the heavens and the earth and inlaid with countless golden locks, appeared before Jaeger.

"Huh?" Jaeger immediately noticed that one of the locks on the giant door in front of him had an extra key inserted in it.

The color and pattern of that key looked very familiar; it was the key to the door that he had found near the vanished rift in the world!

Sure enough, this key to the door is the reason why the status of the [Unknown Identity Card] has changed?

Thinking of this, Jaeger tentatively raised his hand, grasped the key, and turned it clockwise.

The golden lock immediately clicked, and a line of text appeared before Jaeger's eyes:

[Activated (1/?)]

The Gate of Ten Thousand Gates has become slightly loose.

"The Gate of Ten Thousand Gates?" Jaeger looked at the giant gate and thought that this might be the name of the gate.

However, one key was far from enough; it only made the door slightly loose.

I wonder how many I'll need to collect to open this so-called "Gate of a Thousand Gates," and what will happen then...

But is that all there is to a status change?

Jaeger remembered the strange table from last time and decided to go take a look.

Perhaps the key to the door has brought changes not only to the door of all doors.

To Jaeger's surprise, when he returned to the table, there was something new on the square displaying the Gotham map.

It was a lifelike little owl sculpture that looked like it was made of marble.

"What is this?" Jaeger looked around but couldn't figure it out, so when in doubt, he just started doing it.

The moment Jaeger touched the statue, it was as if he had seen the real Gotham City when he first used the Wizarding Art: The Wizarding Art. A flood of images and sounds rushed into his mind!

"All roads will eventually turn to darkness..."

"I swear my allegiance to you, great Barbatos..."

"We hide beneath Gotham, we plunder the fears of the ignorant masses... and offer them all as a sacrifice to our exalted master..."

—Those were countless devout and fervent prayers, countless faces wearing white owl masks.

They knelt on the ground, performing incredibly elaborate rituals, praising the names of the objects of their sacrifice.

Despite the discomfort of mental overload, Jaeger persevered as he reviewed the so-called sacrificial scenes of the people wearing owl masks.

There are many scenes, each corresponding to a sacrificial ceremony held in a different setting.

In some scenes, Jaeger sees a group of assassins called "Claws," who seem to be loyal to the owl-masked man, sneaking into the shadows to assassinate those who defy their will.

In some scenes, Jaeger sees a group of frightened children huddled in the darkness of the street, softly singing a nursery rhyme about the court of owls.

……

Such scenes span a long period of time, perhaps close to a century.

But similar sacrificial rituals have never stopped, only their superficial forms have been constantly changed.

Imagine an organization that worships an evil god, operating behind the scenes from the very beginning of a city's founding, spreading fear, suppressing those who disobey their will, and proclaiming themselves the true rulers of the city...

Everything they do is for the day when they can open the gate hidden beneath Gotham and welcome their great god to truly descend into this universe.

—It's absolutely chilling.

What surprised Jaeger even more was that among the many images secretly promoted by the Court of Owls to spread fear, he discovered two images that particularly caught his attention.

One of them was actually a surveillance video that circulated widely in Gotham City during the counterfeit incident... the footage of the counterfeiter impersonating Batman kicking three people off a rooftop.

The other scene was in a deep, dark alley filled with yellowish-green mist, where a person lay on the ground, wailing in fear, and was being dragged away by a gaunt man whose face was obscured by a large straw hat.

The former needs no further explanation, while the latter reminded Jaeger of Jason's descriptions of monsters.

This made Jaeger realize something instantly:

Could it be that these events, from the counterfeit goods to the straw-hatted monster searching for targets in Crime Alley... seemingly unrelated, are actually being secretly watched by the court behind the scenes, and even connected to this organization's sacrificial rituals?!

Jaeger could sense that the ultimate purpose of these rituals was to collect enough negative emotions such as fear, darkness, despair, and terror to offer as a sacrifice to the god followed by the Court of Owls.

But the problem is...

Jaeger's expression turned strange.

What does this have to do with me and the [Unknown Identity Card]?

Why can I hear their prayers, their praises to the gods, and even sense the sacrificial rituals...?

Although these negative emotions from the sacrifices are of no use to Jaeger.

So Jaeger thought for a moment, and from the descriptions of the court members, he began to piece together the image of "Barbatos," the figure they worshipped. The general descriptive terms were: god of darkness, bat demon, ruler of the dark universe, and so on...

But these words are clearly unrelated to who I am after using the [Unknown Identity Card].

A cloaked, grayish-white mist, shimmering with countless stars, hardly qualifies as a "demon capable of spreading enormous wings"...

Jaeger could only guess that, for some reason, the members of the Owl Court had made a mistake in their prayers and sacrifices to Barbatos, which was why the prayers had inexplicably been directed at him.

This occasionally occurs in mysticism, since in mysticism, language, runes, symbols, and other items all have a strong directional function.

Even the slightest problem could point to a completely different situation.

"So..." Jaeger pondered, "I've somehow ended up stealing the home of some evil god and kidnapping all his followers?"

Moreover, these believers seem to have a rather high social standing. They've existed since the founding of Gotham City, secretly control an entire city, and have cultivated a group of seemingly immortal and loyal assassins known as "Claws"...

It's unclear whether Batman was aware of this organization's existence.

When Batman was mentioned, Jaeger seemed to be inspired, and his gaze immediately fell upon one of the many images that appeared before his eyes—

In the scene, several senior members of the Court of Owls performed a simple sacrificial ceremony, requesting their gods to send down divine pronouncements, offer guidance, and dispel their confusion.

But the questions they asked made Jaeger's heart skip a beat:

"We, the Watchers of Shadow, loyal servants of darkness, beg our great master to tell us... is that bat roaming Gotham City connected to you, the great Bat Demon?"

"He hindered the court's rule over Gotham City and stole the fear that should have been yours..."

"We are still observing whether to take action against the bat—everything is entirely at your discretion..."