Chapter 1177: The Cry of the Lamb (Part 6)

"Three more missing persons cases have been reported in Central City recently. The families of the missing gathered at the entrance of the Central City Scenic Area to protest the police's inaction, claiming that 'insufficient police force' is no excuse..."

"The 'Bone-Eating Demon' of Coast City has struck again. A 26-year-old female teacher was found in a cabin in the suburbs with her ribs removed. The police are conducting a full-scale investigation, but no effective clues to identify the suspect have been found yet..."

"Citizens, please do not panic. Citizens, please do not panic. The Imperial City police force has been fully deployed to search for the 'Streetlight Killer.' The FBI's Pennsylvania criminal investigation team has fully committed to this case..."

"The 'Human Skin Hunter' of California has been brought to justice. The seven skinning cases he committed are considered the most cruel and insane in California's criminal history. Next, our reporter will bring you a detailed report on the process of the cases..."

With a "click," a hand pressed the switch on the radio. Gordon pulled his hand back and pressed it against his temple. He sighed helplessly and lamented, "What is going on? Has the whole world started to become Gothamized?"

"Boss, the news this past week has been really strange. Every state is reporting on serial killers. When I turn on the radio, I think I tuned to the wrong station and ended up on a local Cat Getan channel."

A young officer sat at his desk, organizing files while shaking his head. A female officer next to him hung up the phone and said with some surprise, "In the past week, it seems like serial killers have popped up everywhere. Many regions don't have enough police force, and some places have even called us, saying we have experience and want to borrow some."

"Where did this group of people come from?" the young male officer asked, puzzled. "And why are they committing crimes frantically at the same time?"

Gordon's brow furrowed deeply as well. He lowered his voice and said, "This is definitely not a coincidence. Based on my many years in the profession, although there is no shortage of serial murder cases every year in various places, this is the first time I've encountered such a dense concentration of cases."

The female officer grimaced and said, "And these serial killers are much crazier than before. In the past, if they could commit three or four cases, it could be called a brilliant record. But this time, serial killers in several states are killing seven or eight people at a time, and their methods are extremely cruel, as if they are afraid others won't know how vicious they are."

Gordon sighed. Although he didn't continue speaking, he had already made up his mind in his heart: he had to go find Batman and ask what on earth was going on.

The night grew deep. Gordon finished all his work for the day, grabbed his car keys, and intended to drive to Wei En Manor to find Bruce. But just as he was about to walk out the door, he caught a glimpse of a black shadow appearing behind him.

"Batman, you always give me a big scare every time you come here." Gordon shook his head and turned to look at Batman, who was standing in the shadows of the room.

What surprised Gordon was that Batman's state was very poor. His body was covered in rainwater, his face was as pale as if he had lost too much blood, and even his eyes appeared somewhat hollow.

"Have you been following the recent news?" Batman's low voice sounded. Without waiting for Gordon to answer, he muttered to himself, "Serial murders are occurring frequently in many places. The number of killers and the number of crimes have increased more than tenfold in just one week."

"Of course I've heard." Gordon walked back to his seat and sat down. He took out several files, threw them on the table, and said, "I was planning to go find you and ask if you knew what was going on. It seems you don't know either."

"This has to do with Schiller," Batman said.

Hearing Schiller's name, Gordon's expression stiffened. He sighed with a complex look on his face and said, "He's only been gone for a week. I thought a year had already passed."

After saying this, Gordon leaned forward, picked up a pen from the table, fiddled with it in his hand, and then said, "I know Schiller is guilty. Even if murder is common in this city, it only shows that this city is abnormal. Criminals must pay the price for their contempt for the law."

"But I don't think Schiller should have been sent to a maximum-security prison with such a long sentence. Batman, you wouldn't want to know how prisoners are treated in that kind of prison."

"I know you are all dissatisfied," Batman said. "You think Schiller didn't get a fair trial, and I, as his most valued student, didn't strive for fairness for him."

Gordon shook his head gently and said, "No one has the responsibility to strive for anything for another person. It's just that I'm worried that hatred for criminals might affect your standard for judging justice."

Gordon glanced at Batman again, and seeing his poor state, he didn't continue.

"Schiller is the leader of these serial killers. He is the founder of a mysterious club, providing a stage for these serial killers to showcase themselves... He is their shepherd."

As Batman's voice fell, Gordon's hand clenched abruptly. He turned back to look at Batman and said, "You mean, it's Schiller who is driving these serial killers to commit crimes frantically?"

"Quite the opposite," Batman stared into Gordon's eyes and said, "It is precisely because Schiller is gone that this group of serial killers is committing crimes frantically."

Gordon was stunned for a moment, unable to react for a while, but soon Batman said, "Yesterday, Jonathan Crane, who is also a serial killer, found me and asked if I knew Schiller's whereabouts."

"When I told him Schiller had been imprisoned, he seemed very excited. Later, he told me that once serial killers believe the owner of this club will no longer appear, they will spontaneously start competing."

"When the flock loses its shepherd, all the sheep want to become the leader." Batman's expression was very serious, and his tone remained very low. He said, "Just yesterday, I learned of something Schiller has been doing all along."

"What thing?" Gordon asked.

"Schiller has been saving the world."

"What???!!!"

Gordon widened his eyes and looked at Batman as if he didn't recognize him. He thought he had misheard. Just as he opened his mouth to ask again, Batman explained:

"Last night, after Jonathan left, I started investigating information about this mysterious club..."

Accompanied by Batman's narration, the lights in Wei En Manor slowly turned on. Looking in through the bright window panes, Bruce was deep in thought at the desk in the study.

In front of him were stacks upon stacks of newspapers, with dates even tracing back two years. He spread out every newspaper on the table, and after reading and putting them away, he memorized all the content in his mind.

After about three hours of comparison and organization, Bruce discovered that the so-called newspaper clues Jonathan provided him might have been toying with him; there were no usable clues on these newspapers.

With reasoning and investigation reaching this point, even if Bruce didn't want to use it, he had to start adopting the method of exhaustion.

Bruce searched his mind for keywords like Schiller, newspaper, serial killer, etc., as well as all the vocabulary derived from these words. This process took him about another two hours.

Just when he searched for vocabulary related to newspapers, Bruce suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He thought of a keyword, and that was "thesis."

As it happened, before Angela read Bruce's thesis at Wei En Manor, she had printed out a copy. Bruce found that printed copy of his own psychology department graduation thesis and began to recall the time he spent creating this thesis.

Of course, during the time he was writing the thesis, the memory that took up the highest proportion was the constant mutual torture with Schiller, modifying some flaws in the thesis that were so subtle they couldn't be more subtle.

And the one that gave Bruce the most headache was punctuation.

English writing uses half-width punctuation, but many separators require a half-width space after them. Moreover, improper use of commas, separators, and connectors can change the meaning, but long, difficult sentences without separators are prone to grammatical errors. The use of punctuation is also an important part of English grammar classes.

Bruce's grammar was quite good, but everyone who has written a thesis knows that in a state of confusion, it's good enough to remember the clauses. Dropping a space here or missing a separator there is very normal.

On the punctuation issue alone, Schiller and Bruce fought at least hundreds of rounds. Sometimes the punctuation was corrected, but after changing large sections of content, the new content and punctuation had to be changed again. Sometimes the content was corrected, but because the sentence structure was inappropriate, the punctuation had to be changed again.

In this process, Bruce fully understood Schiller's punctuation habits. And if one looks at certain articles in newspapers or magazines based on Schiller's habits, clearly, the use of some punctuation was wrong.

Ordinary regional daily newspapers and some less formal magazines actually don't have such strict requirements for submissions, which is completely different from the requirements for academic theses. Punctuation errors are normal; not everyone has a Schiller following them, demanding they use every punctuation mark correctly.

But if one puts this kind of punctuation error together with Schiller's club and the potential connection between serial killers, then punctuation is very likely an important clue.

After Bruce repeatedly compared all the newspapers and magazines together, he discovered that the punctuation errors in many articles really had a pattern.

These reports were not just about criminal cases; there were also some messy contents, such as advertisements that could be posted for money, gossip news, citizen complaints, nutrition science popularization, etc.

Bruce guessed that serial killers were precisely informing other serial killers who also knew about this matter of certain information through the pattern of punctuation errors by publishing articles with similar punctuation errors in newspapers or magazines.

And Schiller might have been releasing different new secret codes by changing the pattern of punctuation errors to avoid the prying eyes of certain interested parties.

"Through deciphering the pattern of punctuation errors, I learned the content of their communication. I discovered a fact that shocked me very much." In Gordon's office, Batman's tone trembled slightly, and he continued:

"Schiller was not encouraging these serial killers, but controlling them, and even preventing them from killing. He was saving ordinary people."

Gordon, who was listening to him, slowly widened his eyes. He said to Batman in an extremely absurd tone, "Do you know what you are saying??! A club of serial killers, how could it prevent them from killing??!"

"Sounds absurd, right?" Batman shook his head gently.

"But the fact is, Schiller established a series of evaluation standards for serial killers. Only serial killers who meet these standards can be called talented and tasteful serial killers."

"This standard includes, but is not limited to, that every serial murder case should have its own theme. Slaughter without thought is rejected. It doesn't work to make up for lack of thought with quantity. Only cruelty and bloodiness without soul are meaningless."

Batman's mouth turned down, his lips pressed tightly together, and he continued, "He created an academic circle for serial killers and established extremely strict standards for this circle."

"He used his cruel, ruthless, but extremely self-consistent horror theories to demand that serial killers treat every case seriously and carefully, demanding that they must prove their academic status with a perfect serial murder case."

"And in order to complete the perfect serial murder case in his words, this group of killers had to spend years thinking of a perfect theme, and then spend years finding a perfect victim."

"Then spend years formulating a perfect plan, and finally spend years putting this plan into practice, and then spend the rest of their lives savoring this perfect serial murder case."

"Becoming the perfect serial killer in Schiller's eyes became their lifelong pursuit. He established new societies and shaped new rules for these born perverts who lacked a sense of morality and shame, making them feel ashamed of their wanton killing."

Batman slowly closed his eyes and lifted his head slightly. His tone trembled slightly. His pale complexion was precisely because the trap he had originally envisioned as deep enough had an abyss even deeper than deep.

"He used these serial killers' thirst for recognition and perception to forge chains to bind them, guiding their actions."

"He let the madmen cry out wantonly in the silence that ordinary people couldn't see. While controlling them, he made them love him, shout his name, and sing praises for him."

"And his actions, in fact, saved countless victims who should have died because of unbridled slaughter..."

Batman lowered his head again. Before his eyes was still the hazy and dreamy moonlight, and Schiller's low voice. His voice and Schiller's voice gradually overlapped.

"He knew that after he left, this group of madmen who had lost control would make me understand everything he had done."

"And even more, make me understand that he was not destroying, but saving, and doing it better than me, saving more than me, and going further on this road than me."

"Making me know that he was not a criminal, but a true educator."

"He wanted to use this to make me love him, respect him, and walk on the path he wanted to guide me on, willingly becoming his tame lamb."

Hiss...