amaotonovel Chapter 4505 The Darkest Night (33)
Chapter 4505 The Darkest Night (33)
Chapter 4505 The Darkest Night (Thirty-Three)
Schiller produced his identification. The identification of law enforcement officers in the Brainiac government is standardized: a green icon on the cover, containing an anti-counterfeiting code and a chip, and is fully connected to the internet to track the officer's location; any anomalies are reported immediately, making it impossible to forge.
“I am now a criminal investigation consultant for the Gotham Police Department, and my judgment is strong evidence. If you think it's unreasonable, then go to Brainiac for arbitration. Until then, please cooperate with the police. Thank you.”
After saying that, Schiller turned and left, leaving Victor alone to deal with the mess. Clearly, Schiller's words had done nothing to explain the situation; his attitude was far too forceful, practically saying, "What I say goes."
It's important to understand that universities abroad, especially in the United States, are privately owned. Professors are responsible not only to students but also to the shareholders. If a professor receives too many complaints, they could be deemed to be negatively impacting the university's operations and lose their job.
Therefore, they are often not arrogant, and may even be overly polite. For example, many professors won't let students call them "professor," preferring to use their surname or even their first name. And to avoid accusations of racial discrimination, even if you have an English name, they will still very carefully call you by your original name. Some will even ask what gender pronoun to use to refer to you. If you point out that one of their statements might be ambiguous, they will at least apologize superficially, many out of fear of being complained about.
Although the situation improved considerably during Brainiac's presidency, with professors becoming more confident, most still followed old habits and did not treat students very harshly, unless they were extremely irreplaceable or had powerful backers.
Schiller clearly belonged to the former category, single-handedly carrying the entire psychology department. Therefore, he had always acted very firmly and hadn't attracted any complaints. However, this time he had obviously gone a bit too far.
Association culture is very prevalent in the United States, and everyone has their own gang. Being labeled a "murder suspect" can make it extremely difficult for someone to join any gang, including fraternities and sorority in the US. This can potentially ruin a person's life.
Some students immediately expressed their dissatisfaction and wanted to file a complaint. Normally, Brainiac takes student complaints very seriously; even without concrete evidence, he'll at least send a message to inquire. But this time, all the complaints vanished without a trace.
A smart person immediately realized that Brainiac was completely on Schiller's side this time. There were only two possibilities: either those people really were serial killers, or something big was about to happen at Gotham University, and Brainiac didn't want to let the faculty and students fight amongst themselves at this critical juncture.
Either way, they had no choice but to accept it. Victor was caught in the middle, caught between a rock and a hard place. He could understand the students' resentment; after all, the Christmas ball was just around the corner, and if you kidnapped someone's dance partner, it wouldn't be easy to find another one; even if you did, there wouldn't be much time for practice.
Moreover, these students had shown no unusual behavior, and some even seemed to have no opportunity to commit the crime. This arrest is utterly absurd and completely unreasonable.
However, Victor also believed that Schiller wouldn't harm the students. He should know better than anyone the trouble that simply taking students away from the school would get them into. Schiller would never intentionally harm students; he must have been absolutely certain of his success in doing so.
The problem lies with psychoanalysis, Viktor thought. "Who researched this stuff?" There's absolutely no room for explanation. Viktor couldn't even begin to fabricate a story.
But soon, Victor realized that Schiller wasn't targeting low-temperature physics, because he had also arrested three people in the psychology department.
It's clear these three are just ordinary students, not the cleaning staff in protective suits we've seen before, and we haven't seen them in the past few days. They either stayed in their dorms or went home and only just returned. And as soon as they came back, they were arrested and taken away without any room for explanation.
Next up was the Chemistry Department. Jonathan Klein was busy testing whether the Black Death Emperor was afraid of him, and completely ignored the situation. Schiller took six people with him at once, which naturally caused a huge uproar.
In addition, several other departments also took away a few people, though the number was relatively small. This sparked discussion throughout the entire university, with everyone speculating whether Rodriguez had truly gone mad, leading the police to randomly arrest people on campus.
However, most people dared not speak out against it. On one hand, Schiller had long held considerable power, and on the other hand, Brainiac did not side with them. So at most, they would mutter a few words, but no one dared to actually cause trouble.
After arresting a large number of people and bringing them back to the police station, Gordon arranged for interrogations. Only then did Victor have a chance to ask, "Are you serious? These people are all murderers?"
Schiller shook his head, and Victor's heart leaped into his throat. But Schiller quickly added, "They're not all murderers, but they're all living corpses."
Victor's eyes widened instantly. He said in disbelief, "They're all zombies?! How is this possible?? So many people..."
“We discovered Perrotta too late,” Schiller said, wiping his hands with a towel. “Clearly, she came with a mission. She wanted to infect as many students as possible in these three departments to sow discord. So they were her primary targets.”
"How...how did you make that judgment?"
“I can tell,” Schiller said. “And that’s thanks to this.”
He pulled a small vial from his trench coat pocket. Victor glanced at it—wasn't that fear gas? Then, as if struck by a sudden realization, he stared at Schiller and said, "You didn't drink it..., did you...?"
“Just a little bit,” Schiller said. “If the Grey Mist hadn’t stolen all the crazy cocktails I made before, I wouldn’t be drinking this. Jonathan really should consider improving the flavor.”
"Why did you do that?!" Victor couldn't help but ask, "Most people can't stand being sprayed with that, but you actually drank it..."
Only then did he take a closer look at Schiller. What he saw shocked him. When Victor looked into those grey eyes, he instinctively took a half-step back.
"What's wrong with your eyes?" Victor asked, looking into Schiller's eyes.
As Schiller's friend, Victor knew him quite well. He knew that Schiller looked even more aloof and neurotic, and somewhat frightening, when he took off his glasses. So Schiller generally didn't take off his glasses.
But now, even without taking off his glasses, that coldness and abnormal focus pierced through the lenses, making Victor feel his heart skip a beat.
“Aftereffects,” Schiller said. “I’m not pathological; I need some external help to see things more clearly.”
"You mean, drinking fear gas helps you use mind reading?"
"It actually has nothing to do with fear of poison gas. You can freeze me half to death if you want."
“Then let me do it next time,” Victor said. “At least I can control the degree. Who knows what Jonathan Klein added to it…”
“I trust his professionalism,” Schiller said. “Besides, I didn’t capture all the zombies; I left one behind.”
“Oh, I see. You want that guy to tip off Hugo, right? If he finds out you used your superpowers to capture all his men, he'll be furious!” Victor laughed again.
"Alright. Weren't you going to freeze the sewers? The police station should have some manpower available now, so go ahead."
Victor nodded and went inside to talk to Gordon. A squad of policemen quickly followed him. As he walked out, he glanced at Schiller, who was standing motionless by the door, and said, "Aren't you coming with me?"
Schiller shook his head and said, "You go ahead. I need to go back to Gotham University and wander around a bit to see if there are any other fish that have slipped through the net."
Victor thought about it; one of them had to be in charge at the university anyway. Although Schiller's actions had caused quite a stir among the students, it was unlikely that anyone would be crazy enough to provoke him.
So Victor left with his men. Schiller stayed at the police station a little longer, but didn't observe the interrogation; he simply sat in the meeting area, had a cup of coffee, and then drove off to Gotham University.
About three miles from Gotham University, the car suddenly broke down. Schiller tried to start it several times without success, so he got out of the car.
This place is practically in the middle of nowhere. In better weather, you could walk back. But with the heavy snow, even driving is difficult, let alone walking.
Amidst the heavy snowfall, Schiller looked around and noticed a convenience store with its lights on in the distance, so he walked over there.
The wind chimes tinkled as I pushed open the door. The room was very warm. The owner, a tall, fat, bald man, was fiddling with a hot dog machine at the counter.
"Hello, what would you like to order?" the owner asked.
“My car broke down,” Schiller said. “I’m a professor at Gotham University. Do you have a car that can take me home?”
“I have a car, but I don’t have snow tires, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” the owner said. “My home is in the East District, and I’ve wanted to go back for a long time.”
Schiller nodded and said, "Then I'll stay here for a while. Someone should be coming to pick me up soon."
"Would you like a hot dog?" the owner asked again.
"No, do you have hot coffee?"
"Just a moment, it'll be ready soon." The owner turned around to operate the coffee machine.
As the hot coffee was served, the wind chimes by the door rang again. A man in a black jacket walked in, wearing a mask, his face unfamiliar, and headed straight for the counter.
Schiller's hand gripped the handle of the umbrella beside him. But the next second, the shopkeeper pulled a double-barreled shotgun from under the counter. The man stopped abruptly.
"What are you holding in your right hand?" the boss grumbled. "You think you can fool me, you bastard? If you walked like that in Gotham before, you'd be riddled with bullets within two feet."
The man seemed angry, but kept his hand in his jacket pocket. Taking advantage of the man's focus on his boss, Schiller grabbed his umbrella and stabbed the man's right arm. The blow caused him to lose his balance, and the object in his hand fell to the floor with a sharp, gleaming sound—a razor-sharp knife.
"What the hell?" the shopkeeper said. "These days, young people can't even find a non-reflective carbon fiber knife?"
“That era is long gone.” Schiller walked over, picked up the knife, and took a tissue from the counter to wipe it.
"How so?" the boss asked him. "I wouldn't mind sharing half with you. But my place is small, and the two of us probably won't have enough room to work properly."
“He came for me,” Schiller said. “Otherwise, you can’t explain why a novice who’s not mentally or physically fit would dare to wander around outside. My car was tampered with, and he probably couldn’t find me there, so he chased me here.”
The shopkeeper gave Schiller a second look. Schiller, wiping his knife, looked at him and said, "I doubt he'd ever imagine that the famous 'Deer Hunter' would choose to open a convenience store here."
“It’s been a long time since anyone called me that.” The boss licked his lips, narrowed his eyes, and stared at Schiller, asking, “Who exactly are you?”
“I said I am a ‘professor’ at Gotham University.”
The boss paused for a moment, then his pupils contracted sharply, and his hand on the trigger trembled.
"boom!"
The man in the jacket slowly fell to the ground, and out of the corner of his eye, Schiller gave him a sinister smile.
The next second, a certificate with a green logo was placed on the table.
"Give me another coffee, Mr. Deer Hunter, the night is still long."