Chapter 2482: The Cape War (49)

"Woof... woof woof!"

A few barks came, and a cat's paw immediately landed on the dog's nose. Batman Cat pressed Krypto's muzzle down, telling him not to continue barking, and turned to walk to the corner of the sewer, taking a look over there.

"Sure enough..." Batman Cat muttered in a low voice, "Bark two more times, Krypto, see if there's any response."

The big dog wagged its tail and barked twice more, but the end of the sewer was dead silent, and there was nothing.

"Damn it, it was clearly here. Where did he hide the person?... Forget it, let's go up and take a look."

One cat and one dog found the exit of the sewer at the fastest speed. After the small cat head unscrewed the sewer cover, what they saw was the familiar scene. This was his hometown, Maocheng Cat Getan.

"So where is that intruder?" Krypto asked.

Batman Cat shook his head, appearing not that he didn't know, but that he couldn't be sure. The two of them drilled out of the sewer, secretly slipped into the alley by the street, passed through the alley, walked through a few more streets, and found another sewer entrance.

Krypto leaned over and sniffed, smacked his lips, and said, "I've always been able to smell a disgusting smell. If that intruder is this taste, then he should have indeed been to the sewer."

"Can you really distinguish the smell of the sewer and his..."

"Don't question my sense of smell." Krypto proudly raised his head, but was slapped again. The two followed this entrance and drilled down.

Krypto sniffed left and right in the sewer, while Batman Cat observed the traces nearby. There were some blurred footprints on the platform of the sewer, but most were left by cats, and what made them trace to here was half a blurred human footprint.

It was very difficult for humans to mix into Maocheng in an ordinary way. Although in Maocheng, the cat's body size was about the same as a person's, after all, one was standing on two feet, and the other was standing on four feet. Walking in like this would definitely be discovered.

However, there was one exception, and that was walking through the sewer. No matter which Cat Getan it was, the ecology of the sewer was quite wonderful. It wasn't strange for anything to appear here, and no ordinary cat would spy on the sewer. Whether it was mixing in from here or hiding some things here, it was simpler than entering the city directly.

So when noticing that there might be an intruder in the dream world, and his landing point was very likely Maocheng Cat Getan, Batman Cat realized that this guy must have walked

After searching the sewer for a while, they naturally found half a footprint. However, because it was too blurry, it was difficult to infer the identity of the other party from this half-print. But at the time, Bat-Cat was acting together with Super-Dog. Krypto said he smelled a foul odor in the surroundings, which made it hard not to arouse Bat-Cat's vigilance.

Most people should still remember that when the group from the real Cat Getan first made contact with Maocheng Cat Getan, they were frightened by the Dream of a Thousand Cats, which forcibly dragged several of them into a dream.

But after a careful investigation later, it turned out that the Court of Owls wanted to usurp the authority of the Dream of a Thousand Cats and had slaughtered many cats in reality to perform cult rituals. At that time, they discovered that some kind of dark energy was being continuously transported into Maocheng Cat Getan through these rituals, in order to pollute the Dream of a Thousand Cats.

Krypto was not there at the time, but when he said there was an abnormal aura here, Bat-Cat immediately thought of that incident.

At first, Bat-Cat thought this might be the smell of that dark energy. After all, the entire Maocheng Cat Getan had been infiltrated by the Court of Owls for so many years, and it was very likely that the influence of the polluting energy still remained in the sewers.

But if you factor in the suddenly appearing footprints, things weren't that simple. The Schiller group that came here back then was disguised as cats, and the Court of Owls back then was also disguised as cats. Why did human footprints suddenly appear this time? And why were there abnormal energy traces right around the footprints?

Feeling that something was wrong, Bat-Cat and Krypto began to search the sewer. It was very simple to test whether the other party was a human or a cat: Krypto was a dog, and if he barked, a human would realize it was a dog, while the cats of Maocheng Cat Getan had never seen a dog, so their reactions would definitely be different.

Sure enough, when they went down into the sewer again this time, Krypto had just barked twice when they heard a complaint coming from the end of the sewer: "What the hell? What's making that noise?"

An ugly cat crawled out from the corner at the end. His whole body was covered in crocodile-like scales, and his head looked more like a reptile than a cat. A pair of cold-blooded vertical pupils stared fixedly at the Bat-Cat walking over.

Seeing Bat-Cat's classic blue eyes, this cat that looked like a crocodile was stunned for a moment, and Bat-Cat obviously recognized him too, tentatively calling out: "Crocodile Cat?"

"Bat-Cat? What are you doing here?"

Bat-Cat walked up and rubbed against Crocodile Cat, then looked at the surrounding environment. He found that this was clearly a small base; it looked like Crocodile Cat's home.

"Why haven't you moved out yet?"

"I've already adapted to life here. It's too sunny on the surface, which is very bad for my skin." Crocodile Cat led him inside, then turned his head to look at the big dog behind Bat-Cat and said: "What is that thing? Is it a robotic cat you built?"

"No, he's a different kind of creature."

"A different kind of creature, like those two-legged, stick-thin hairless cats?"

Bat-Cat's footsteps paused. He looked at Crocodile Cat and asked: "What are two-legged, stick-thin hairless cats?"

"It's just that a few days ago, when I was scavenging for trash in the sewer, I saw a monster with a very strange appearance. I didn't know what it was, so I called it a two-legged, stick-thin hairless cat."

"What exactly did it look like?"

Crocodile Cat described it to him, and Bat-Cat immediately realized that it wasn't a hairless cat at all; it was a human.

"That guy seemed to be carrying something in his mouth; it looked like one of his own kind, but it seemed to have no consciousness. They just passed through that street over there like that."

Crocodile Cat pointed in a direction, and Bat-Cat immediately realized that it was the place where they had found the footprints before. This showed that his speculation was correct: this intruder was active in this area.

However, if one person was holding another person in their arms, and that person was unconscious, this was very likely a kidnapping case. But why would the other party kidnap this person into the dream world? And why come to Maocheng Cat Getan?

This made Bat-Cat couldn't help but recall the time when the Dream of a Thousand Cats was polluted. At that time, there were too many mysteries left unresolved, such as where the source of the dark energy actually came from, and what the essence of that terrible pollution—which even the Dream Lord Morpheus and the Dream of a Thousand Cats feared—actually was.

Bat-Cat asked again what the human Crocodile Cat saw at the time was wearing. Crocodile Cat described it for a long time but couldn't make it clear, because cats themselves have fur and don't wear clothes, so they have no concept of clothing.

From the fragmented bits and pieces, it could be inferred that the other party seemed to be wearing an ordinary human hoodie and a pair of jeans.

After repeated questioning, which finally annoyed Crocodile Cat to the point of bristling, Bat-Cat finally dug out the last bit of information: the guy's hoodie had a smiley face printed on it, just two bean-like eyes and a curved arc for a mouth.

A hand reached into the washing machine, pulled out the crumpled, spin-dried pile of clothes, sorted them out one by one, put them on hangers, and hung them on the drying rack on the balcony.

White shirt, black hoodie, dark jeans... until the dark gray hoodie at the very bottom was pulled out, the movement of those hands paused for a moment.

Bruce's gaze lingered on the smiley face pattern in the center of the hoodie. In the end, he didn't hang this piece of clothing up, but instead threw it into the trash bag next to him.

Walking out of the balcony, Bruce heard Gordon's call. After he walked over, he looked at Gordon lying on the bed and said: "What's wrong, Uncle? I was just hanging up the laundry."

"The radio..." Gordon had become increasingly aged, and even his voice carried an indescribable dryness, as if he were an old man on the verge of death.

Bruce then helplessly took the radio from under the bed and handed it to Gordon, then urged: "I'm going out to work this afternoon. Don't listen to it for too long; it's better to sleep a little more."

Soon Bruce took his work uniform and left. Gordon hugged the radio and listened for a while to the latest reports about the Talon serial killer, but soon he turned off the radio, struggled to press the radio against his side, and used his only movable hand to open the battery cover of the radio.

Then he brought the radio in front of him and carefully observed the inside of the battery compartment.

This radio wasn't bought by Bruce, but the one Gordon used to keep in his office to listen to nostalgic radio stations when he was still the Commissioner.

Bruce knew that Gordon was a radio enthusiast, but what he didn't know was that Gordon liked military-grade radio communications. This radio of his wasn't simple either; besides being able to listen to various channels, it could also transmit radio signals at a certain frequency, making it a small radio station itself.

Although it couldn't achieve the clear communication with the other party that a regular radio station could, it could transmit syllables. As long as both parties had a tacit understanding, they could understand what was being said.

Gordon struggled a bit to flip a small switch inside the battery compartment, felt around with his finger for a small hole below the switch, and then used his finger to pry up a corner of the cover plate further down, revealing a row of buttons.

About an hour before Bruce was due to return, Gordon heard some movement by the door. In the past, he would have been nervous at this time, because if a thief were to sneak in, he certainly wouldn't be able to stop them in his current state.

But today he felt a bit pleasantly surprised, because the person who had picked the lock and entered was his student, Ge Yin.

Ge Yin very cautiously put on shoe covers, holding a pistol in one hand and supporting herself against the wall with the other, hunched over as she slowly moved toward Gordon's bedroom. Soon she walked in, and the moment she made eye contact with Gordon, she let out a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong? Commissioner, I heard the secret code you tapped out on the internal channel. It was the same version I used when I just graduated from the police academy. Did you run into some trouble?"

"Tell me about that Talon serial killer first."

Ge Yin showed a difficult expression, which then turned into a look of shame. She said: "I'm sorry, Commissioner, I really couldn't catch him. He... he might not be human, but a vengeful spirit."

Ge Yin was already prepared to be scolded by Gordon, but when she looked up, she didn't see anger or disappointment in Gordon's eyes. Gordon's expression was inscrutable; it seemed he was actually seriously considering whether this Talon serial killer was human or not.

To avoid looking like she was shirking responsibility, Ge Yin immediately stood up and said: "But as long as you give me some more time, I will definitely be able to find his tracks, figure out what's going on, and bring him to justice."

"Commissioner, don't worry, I won't let such a cruel and arrogant serial killer remain at large for too long. I..."

"Wait a moment." Gordon said: "Do one thing for me. Remember, don't let anyone discover you, and never tell anyone that you came here today."

"Commissioner..."

"I am no longer the Commissioner, Ge Yin. Now, you are the one who has the power to turn everything around." Gordon looked at this student he had personally trained, seemingly having a thousand words he wanted to say, but in the end, it only turned into one word: "... Go."