amaotonovel Chapter 3571 Edge of Tomorrow (7)
Chapter 3571 Edge of Tomorrow (7)
Chapter 3571 Edge of Tomorrow (Seventeen)
"What a rare guest." Victor turned around and looked at Schiller who appeared at the door and said, "Don't you always think my lab is too cold and don't want to come? Why are you here now?"
"I'm here to remind you to update your cleaning equipment because we may have a 'big battle' coming up," Schiller said, crossing his arms.
"Are you reminding me that you are going to go on a killing spree?"
"I don't have the time, and we are the logistics team, we are only responsible for cleaning up the scene."
"That's easy to say. Last time I cleaned the rehearsal room, my back and waist ached all night. Cleaning is not an easy job."
"Thinking about that 50 yuan annual salary, does it make you feel better?"
"You're so good at comforting people." Victor stretched, turned around and leaned on the lab table and said, "Have you read the email the support club sent you?"
"Yes, they really are becoming more and more like a housekeeping company. They have learned the spam trick well."
"Two of my students complained to me about them," Victor said, crossing his arms. "What surprised me was that the more troublesome students were, the more they disliked them. On the other hand, those students who usually followed the rules and obeyed the order chose to withdraw or join them."
"This is normal. People who are used to following order are not necessarily people who deeply understand the significance of order itself. Many people are just disciplined and choose a way of life that requires the least brainpower, so it is inevitable that they have some blind obedience mentality."
"When a certain order emerges, they choose to follow it; and when another order overwhelms the normal order, they will change themselves and continue to adapt to the new order. This significantly increases their survival rate, so there are more people like this now."
Schiller said this, but his tone was not contemptuous or sarcastic. He went on to say: "This is a kind of survival wisdom, although it may occasionally make them accomplices of evil, but considering that those who are mavericks are sometimes more evil, it is really hard to blame them."
"That's true," Victor said. "When a person needs to protect himself by not showing his own individuality and instead following the crowd, you can't expect him to fight back."
"Instead of discussing these philosophical issues here, it is better to consider something more practical. I guess someone will take action against the support soon. In order to prevent things from getting out of hand, we need to help them clean up the mess."
"Do you know where the support group members are? Has Cobblepot's investigation yielded any results?"
“No, that’s not something we found out,” Schiller said, shaking his head. “They told me this themselves in an email. If you respond to them, maybe they’ll tell you.”
"It's crazy." Victor sighed, "In fact, I have never felt so clearly how much Gotham has changed. The new generation seems to have lost all vigilance and have no worries that such actions will attract demons."
"The essence of Gotham has never changed, it's just that the sunlight creates a peaceful appearance, which makes people pay too much attention to the glittering things during the day and fail to see the truth at night. The monsters lurking deep in the shadows have never gone far, they just hide and wait for an opportunity to strike," said Schiller.
"If you put it that way, your place can be called a monster's lair. Is this another way of saying birds of a feather flock together?" Victor said with a smile.
"Perhaps you could call this the real bat cave. Bats themselves are a symbol of darkness and fear. When they choose not to live in the cave but to fly out and do something, darkness and fear will descend."
"Yes, this interpretation is more in line with common sense than the Dark Knight." Victor walked behind the laboratory table and said, "I got a cleaning machine that automatically sprays detergent from the equipment manufacturer. The cleaning power is very strong. Maybe we don't have to worry about the bloodstains on the floor anymore."
"Bring all your things with you, and let's go take a look around the old campus."
"Are they there? No wonder we didn't hear anything here. But it's okay. Something happening in the old campus won't affect the football game. That's what you think, right?"
"They picked out a nice coffin for themselves, so why should we postpone the funeral? Come on, maybe there will be a good show tonight."
As we were about to leave, it started to drizzle again in Gotham. However, because the temperature was still acceptable during the day, the rain was not so cold, just slightly damp, making the lush greenery in the new campus look a little more verdant. Pedestrians hurried in the rain, and the sound of footsteps trampling water droplets sounded like another rainstorm.
The car went around the east side of the old campus of Gotham University and stopped under a beech tree. From here, we could just see the huge graffiti on the side wall of the art gallery.
The bolt of the side door was a little rusty, and it made a teeth-grinding sound when it was pulled open, but it was drowned out by the sound of the rain and did not attract anyone's attention.
Victor pushed open the door and turned to look at Schiller. The globe under the umbrella was slowly turning, and looking through the hazy rain, it gave people a sense of unreality as if they were still in a dream.
“Should I also design myself a mask or something?” Victor whispered, “so that no one can spam me because they recognize me.”
The two of them walked in through the side door and came to the top floor of the art gallery. They pushed open the door to the rooftop and stood on the rooftop of the art gallery looking down.
The Art Museum is the tallest building in the old campus, from where you can overlook the rest of the campus. The teaching building next to it is very quiet, and you can vaguely see a few people moving around.
Victor stood on the edge of the roof and looked for a while before saying, "It looks like they are all students from other places. Yes, people from other places always have a naive fantasy about this place, thinking that their methods will work in Gotham."
"Have you heard of the Illuminati?" Schiller suddenly said.
"You mean the urban legend? If they hadn't invited you to join, then the status of this evil organization would have been greatly reduced in my mind."
Schiller laughed and said, "I've never had much interest in secretly controlling the world. I mean, the membership requirements of the Brainiac Support Society are a bit like the legendary Illuminati."
"You mean you have to do something bad?"
"To be precise, you have to do something extraordinary. In psychology, this is called a 'compliance test'."
"I don't understand." Victor said, "You join this organization to be the mastermind behind the world. If you still have to kowtow to others and obey their orders and make a fool of yourself in public, what's the point?"
"Controlling the world is just a slogan. Just like the Brainiac Supporters, do those who were threatened to join really think that by welcoming Brainiac, they can gain the status of lord and rule even a city?"
"It doesn't sound very realistic. If a super artificial intelligence also uses a backward system like feudalism to govern humans, I'm afraid it won't last long."
"That's right. All cults are like this. Their grand goals are just slogans. What attracts others is the practical benefits that this group can bring to them - immediate and undelayed benefits."
"What benefits can the Support Group bring to its members?" Victor said as he thought. "The software created by Brainiac can be used by anyone. There is no threshold. He doesn't seem to be biased towards them. At least the fact that Harley's evidence of guilt has not been made public proves that he really doesn't care about the Support Group."
“Sometimes, benefits don’t just refer to additional wealth and power, but can also be something more basic.”
"Basic?"
"Yes, for example, safety," Schiller said. "If people who don't join are made unsafe, then gaining safety by joining is like gaining a benefit."
"It sounds like a total scam."
"That's true. For ordinary people, everything they have is easily taken away, including security. They have too many loopholes and handles for people to catch, so they can be easily threatened. Threatening their security and then asking them to join to obtain basic security is indeed a scam."
"That sounds like a big loophole," Victor said. "What if they can't secure the basics?"
"We'll know soon," Schiller said, looking at the teaching building opposite.
When it was just getting dark, car lights could be seen flashing in the distance. A car was approaching here, as if it had planned in advance, or just passing by.
Several cars stopped by the roadside, but the people in the cars did not move. It was not until it was completely dark that a few figures could be vaguely seen entering the teaching building, and then there was a long silence again.
Victor thought he would hear gunshots and screams, but the deathly silence lasted for a long time. Even when the rain stopped, there was still no movement in the teaching building.
"What's going on inside?" Victor couldn't help but ask.
"They won't use guns," Schiller said. "This is a school, not a neighborhood dominated by gangs. If the gunshots are heard, the police will arrive quickly. If there are survivors, the risk of being exposed will increase."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire teaching building suddenly went dark and all the lights went out in an instant.
"The power was turned off," Victor said. "That's a good idea. Most people will lose their vision in the moment of darkness and will be very panicked, which makes it easier to succeed."
"That's true. More importantly, if there's light through the window, the movements of people inside the room might be visible, which would be bad if captured by a camera."
"Will there be any movement?" Victor narrowed his eyes and stared at the teaching building. He thought there would be some screams.
But the truth is there was nothing. If you listen carefully, you can hear some very slight noises of tables and chairs colliding, but no human voices - no screams, calls for help, or voices.
"This is one of the benefits of cold weapons," Schiller said. "Humans rely too much on their vocal cords to produce sound. As long as you can touch the neck, death will come very quietly."
"Should I say that a good teacher produces good students?"
“I didn’t teach them that.”
"Yes, you just moved up the date of the next group meeting and assigned them a new paper revision task. This greatly shortened the time they had to deal with these idiots, so they could only take such an immediate measure to solve problems other than the paper."
“That’s the power of knowledge.”
"No, if you weren't the one doing this, they would have taken a simpler approach."
"what way?"
"Kill this damn mentor."