The New York night was ablaze with lights.
Inside a hospital room in the city center, a handsome man wearing sunglasses, his right hand and left leg in bandages, lay on the bed.
This man was none other than Daredevil, Matt Murdock, whose hand and leg had been broken the previous night by White Night's rifle. He was now using his uninjured left hand to grip a charcoal pencil, furiously sketching in a notebook.
Although it seemed impossible for a blind man to draw, for Matt, whose senses surpassed ordinary humans, he could generate the shape of objects in his mind just from the echoes of sound. In daily life, he was even more agile than a sighted person.
With the scratching sound of the charcoal pencil sliding across the paper, he finished the last stroke. The image of a handsome man, looking around eighteen and as beautiful as a celestial being, appeared on the paper.
After finishing the drawing, Matt put down the pencil. Thinking of the previous night's events, he remained utterly puzzled: Who exactly is this guy? Why does he know so much about my identity and weaknesses?
Recalling what White Night had said the previous night – that if he dared to continue investigating his identity, he would reveal Matt's real identity to Kingpin – Matt's heart clenched. The feeling of his and his friends' lives being in someone else's hands was truly unsettling.
Just as Matt was hesitating whether to continue pursuing White Night's whereabouts, he heard movement outside the hospital room. Judging from the sound, he knew it was his friend from the law firm, Amy, who was coming to visit him with a flower basket.
With a "click," the door lock was pressed, and Amy walked in quickly, concerned. "I heard you were caught up in a gang shootout last night. How are your injuries?"
"I'm fine. The doctor said my constitution is good, so I'll recover quickly. But I shouldn't work for a month," Matt said with a smile.
Amy breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. The security situation has been getting worse lately. We're almost overwhelmed, and we're waiting for you to come back and help us."
Then, she noticed the paper upside down on the bedside table. "Hey, what's that?"
Amy picked it up and, looking at the sketch, her eyes lit up. "Who drew the sketch next to your bed? This young man is drawn so well. Is there a real person?"
Amy's expression was somewhat strange. Who would send a blind man a portrait? This behavior was a bit too abstract.
"Oh, this was drawn by a friend of mine. As for the person in the picture, it's actually a student I saw on the street. He was impressed, so he drew it right after he got home," Matt explained with a smile.
"You don't know him? What a pity. I wanted to see him in person. But, this must have been beautified, right? I've never seen anyone so good-looking," Amy said regretfully.
"I'll tell my friend to leave his contact information next time he sees him, and I'll introduce him to you if there's a chance," Matt said, then subtly changed the subject. "I overheard the family of the patient in the next bed talking – has there been another bank robbery recently?"
"That's right, it's a big deal. Even our firm is discussing it. Last night, a gang went to rob the vault at Terry Bank. They'd already blown it open, but then a supervillain showed up and stole their loot, along with the car."
"When the police arrived, they only caught the gang, and they all had their ankles shot out so they couldn't run. As for the supervillain, after a whole night of searching, they only found the car he abandoned."
"Because of this, it's been the front-page headline in the papers this morning. The police have lost face."
At this point, Amy suddenly raised a finger and said, "Hey, right, I heard the police department is holding a public briefing tomorrow morning."
"Public briefing?" Matt asked curiously, knowing who the one who stole the cash was.
Amy nodded and explained, "That's right. It's been a long time since a bank robbery happened in New York. The public is all riled up, so they have to hold a briefing to calm the people of New York down."
"Is that so? It seems the New York police are taking this seriously," Matt nodded. After chatting with Amy for a while longer, he saw that it was getting late and made plans to visit him again tomorrow morning.
At the same time, in the home of the New York City Police Commissioner, George watched the online criticism of the police department, and his hair was turning white.
As an ordinary person, he had worked diligently over the years to climb to the rank of police commissioner in a cosmopolitan city like New York, a place teeming with all sorts of people.
But anyone with eyes could see that these police officers were only effective against ordinary criminals. When facing superhuman beings, mutants, and vampires, just surviving was a struggle.
He had repeatedly asked his superiors if they could deploy a special police unit equipped to handle such threats. Otherwise, in major incidents, they were forced to rely on the city's super-powered vigilantes, which was far too reactive.
However, these requests were always brushed aside. He was told that the military's research project based on the Super Soldier Serum had been halted because an experimental subject had escaped. The military was currently focused on recapturing the escapee, and they would have to wait.
Despite everything, he managed to navigate the dangers through careful planning and a clear understanding of his own limitations. Compared to other major cities, New York City's annual police casualty rate was only 5%, which was no small feat.
Thinking about the press conference he had to give in the morning, he rehearsed his speech before bed. Feeling utterly exhausted, he declined his wife's invitation and fell asleep.
"I should get the money laundered as soon as possible," White Night thought while working out in his bedroom.
His funds were getting tight recently, and he needed to legitimize them quickly.
Just as White Night was thinking this, in a certain warehouse, several men with fierce appearances and large muscles were sitting together.
"Tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, the police will begin a press conference. Many police officers will be there at that time, and it will be when police presence is at its weakest."
"At that time, we just need to do the opposite, and we can carry out the operation fully armed," a man with a scar said.
"Then, Brother, which bank should we rob?" one of the men asked.
"Of course, it's Lansher Bank. I've done a thorough investigation. The cash reserves in this bank are definitely the most abundant in all of New York City, but the security is not very strict," the scar-faced man said.
But at this moment, they ignored an important question: why was this bank, which held a lot of money, so lightly guarded?