amaotonovel Chapter 4524 The Darkest Night (52)
Chapter 4524 The Darkest Night (52)
Chapter 4524 The Darkest Night (52)
Schiller's thoughts drifted back to Novie's mental realm. As he stood outside the door, he could clearly see her chaotic thoughts and ideas gradually losing their luster. Not because Novie had given up thinking, but because she was moving towards death.
But amidst the gradually graying colors, one hue stood out exceptionally rich. It was a vibrant, clear blue, like a glacier, like the ocean. It was the color of Bruce's eyes.
In her final moments, Novi finally realized what Bruce's gaze meant. He wanted to save her. He was the person she most wanted to save in her short and painful life.
But he was about to fail. People often display wisdom far beyond their years in their final moments. Novi realized she was dying. No matter what Bruce wanted to do, no matter how much he wanted to save her, he could never succeed.
From her appearance to her disappearance in his life, she left him with no good impression whatsoever, only frustration. After the storm, there was no sunshine, no happy ending like in a family movie; it was still a complete tragedy.
Following this sea-like trajectory, looking at Bruce Wayne's entire life, tragedies surged like waves, and disasters powerful enough to destroy an ordinary person's entire life were merely ordinary tides in his life. She shouldn't have become one of them, but she was truly too tired.
If death is inevitable, then at least let the person who tried to save her know that he has done enough. Death is not the end, but merely the beginning of another story.
Sadly, even her small wish in her final moments remained unfulfilled. She didn't live to see Bruce Wayne again, nor did she get to express her gratitude. Death came too soon, too easily.
After hearing the story, the room fell silent. Victor and Schiller sat on either side of the desk, the scene like a transition in a black-and-white silent film. In the silence, emotions become more powerful.
“That’s Gotham people for you,” Victor said. “I’m increasingly agreeing with what Jenna said. In dark times, Gotham people always understand and support each other.”
“Because their misfortune did not come from each other.” Schiller lowered his eyes. “The closer one gets to death, the clearer one can see the truth of the world. Even a child like Novi could only glimpse the hidden truth of this dark city in the last moments of her life. She knew that Bruce was just a slightly more respectable victim than her.”
Victor picked up his notebook and began to revise it. He had originally intended to follow Bruce's suggestion and have Schiller demonstrate Bruce's incompetence to Novie. But he realized that was unnecessary.
In reality, no one had given the child any hints. She simply relied on her own thinking and the wisdom that erupted before her death to understand everything and make the same choice as most Gotham residents—to stand with each other and fight against the darkness of the world.
Hugo, however, was an exception. One could even say he was a traitor, for he resolutely chose to become a shameless perpetrator in this disaster-stricken city. Instead of fighting the darkness alongside the people of Gotham, he turned his sword against his own people, and even took pride in it.
Leaving aside justice and empathy, even in terms of intelligence, he is inferior to a child. Losing humanity means losing much; losing animality means losing everything. The most primal animalistic instinct is to seek advantage and avoid harm. If individual struggle were sufficient, humanity wouldn't exist in groups. Those who choose to betray their people in the face of uncontrollable external forces will ultimately be swallowed by disaster.
Victor's inspiration flowed quickly, and he soon wrote the second half of the final showdown—it was not Schiller who defeated Hugo, but Novie, whom Hugo had never taken seriously and had only used as a tool and weapon.
"The rain in this city always comes at just the right time. I stood behind the glass facade of the cliffside restaurant and saw two figures standing on the edge of the cliff. I roared at them, but both Rodriguez and his old nemesis Hugo seemed to be isolated in another world by the fine rain. That world consisted only of the two of them, and only of their debate about morality. What they actually said was only revealed to me later, when I was shoving a soaking wet Rodriguez into the police car.
"'God never loves mankind'—'I regretted standing there in the rain with him when I heard this cliché,' that was Rodriguez's later assessment. And I shouldn't have chimed in, 'it was indeed quite foolish,' which led him to add two-thirds of an ounce of sugar to my hot tea—Hugo smugly remarked: 'And his creations would never love one another; all that surrounds them is desire and hatred.'"
'Only you would think that way, because you're just a nameless criminal.' Rodriguez was always good at poking people. I knew the bullet in that gun must be 'nameless.' Hugo wasn't famous in either the criminal or academic world. He even had to use the name 'Moriarty' to get the detective's attention.
As they were still debating, Rodriguez's gaze fell upon a shadowy figure appearing and disappearing on the path leading to the edge of the cliff. He himself described it as something he never expected to be reinforcements. But what happened next happened in the blink of an eye, so fast that no one anticipated it, not even me.
A small figure rushed up, while Hugo continued his boastful talk. When he heard footsteps behind him and instinctively turned around, the frail girl, like a strong calf, rammed into him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and with all her might, lurched forward, and the two of them fell off the cliff together—one hand had caught her!
Standing behind the glass wall, I screamed, ignoring Hugo's warnings, and dashed to the edge of the cliff. Rodriguez had actually caught Novi before she fell; only Hugo went down. Thank God! We won!
Schiller's gaze fell on the last line, and he sighed helplessly, saying, "What a cliché plot."
“But it’s a happy ending!” Victor stood up, spreading his hands at him. “Do you know how many people would have hunted me down if Novi and Hugo had fallen together?!”
Schiller chuckled and then said, "A fall won't kill Hugo Strange, you know that."
“I didn’t originally intend to kill him off. After all, apart from me, they would probably all be focused on the story of the sun going out, and no one would help me to sway public opinion. If I wrote it too far-fetched, it might be difficult to achieve.”
Victor sat down again and said, "Don't think I'm making this up; I've thought it through carefully. Admittedly, Novi doesn't hate Bruce, and her hatred for you won't affect you at all. But if her obsession with being resurrected is to thank Bruce, then she will definitely go to him."
"What do you think she'd think if she knew you were Bruce's teacher? If she's the evil genius of Gotham City, she'd definitely want to kill you. If she isn't, then she'd probably question her choice, and wonder if Bruce is like the person she remembers you as..."
Victor gestured, then continued, "So we changed Hugo's brainwashing content to make her hate Bruce. That way, she can break free of the brainwashing on her own, it has nothing to do with you, and naturally there won't be any problems later."
“It’s not impossible. But he won’t let it go if we don’t kill Hugo.” Schiller picked up his cup and took a sip of hot tea.
“Don’t rush, it’s not over yet,” Victor said. “Although we’re writing a prequel to The Sun Goes Out, we can still make changes within the prequel. Perhaps we can have The Fall kill Hugo Strange?”
What are you planning to do?
Seven days before the sun goes out.
"In this lesson, we'll be discussing the definition of cognitive perception. To distinguish it from sensory perception, we first need to understand what cognition is. Some people believe that cognition is simply the brain's view of certain things; this view isn't wrong, but it's not comprehensive enough..."
The only sounds in the classroom were the soft rustling of writing on the blackboard and the scratching of students taking notes. Schiller paced back and forth on the platform, his students' eyes following him. Most listened attentively, nodding occasionally.
As the lecture drew to a close, Schiller picked up his cup and took a sip of water. Jenna, sitting in the front row, looked around and received encouraging glances from her classmates. She cleared her throat, raised her hand, and said, "Professor."
Schiller put down his cup and looked at her. People around her nudged her, and soft laughter filled the air. Jenna stood up and said, "Um, Professor, is the activity room open all day?"
"What's wrong, miss? Aren't 12 hours a day enough for you to practice dancing?"
“My dance partner is a graduate student,” Jenna said somewhat shyly. “He has an off-campus internship and really doesn’t have time during the day…”
"That's his problem. Do you remember what I said?"
"Don't fight amongst yourselves when things go wrong; look for the reasons in others—" the students chimed in.
“No, it’s really important,” Jenna said. “You’ve all heard about the mass hysteria incident in Brudhaven, right? He was one of the agents sent there to investigate. He had to work in Brudhaven during the day and could only come back at night. But he came back too late; the classrooms were all closed, and he simply didn’t have time…”
Schiller paused, looked Jenna up and down, and then said, "When did you start talking to Barry?"
A commotion erupted in the classroom; everyone was yelling like a swarm of frenzied frogs. Jenna's face was flushed crimson, and she roared, "I'm not dating him! We were just dancing!!!"
“I would suggest that Mr. Allen look for the reasons within himself,” Schiller said with a smile. “But opening the activity room all day is definitely not an option. You would be spinning around there until dawn and then sleeping in class during the day. It would be fine at the beginning of the semester, but the knowledge in this unit is very important. If you don’t listen, you can expect to fail.”
"Ah!!!" A scream erupted from below. Jenna roared and sat down.
Schiller knocked on the podium several times to quiet them down. He said, "Well then, since Miss Jenna mentioned the Brudhaven mass hysteria incident, let's write down your thoughts from a cognitive and perceptual perspective. If I can pick out five decent articles, I'll extend the activity room's opening hours by three hours."
"Oh!!!" The students cheered again, grabbing the few who had written good papers and shaking them wildly.
Then everyone gathered around Jenna, because she had just said that her dance partner was involved in the case and must have some inside information, which would be perfect writing material.