Chapter 3503: A Study of Cats and Dogs (62)

John looked a bit exhausted when he walked out of the room. But Schiller knew that reading a little girl's mind wouldn't make him this tired. He might just have thought of some bad memories.

Back then, his wife and daughter died in his arms, and Betty's mother died in front of him. Those fearful emotions accumulated in Betty's spiritual world were so familiar. John had to search for the truth among these emotions, which was a very terrible torture for him.

"Professor Rodriguez, I think we need to talk." John glanced at Schiller and turned to walk toward his office.

Schiller followed behind him and entered his office. Schiller saw the commission and medals hanging on the office wall.

He is the sheriff of this village where Tan Da's family is located, belonging to the town police station, but has a certain degree of independent management authority. Most of the time he enforces the law independently, but once such a major case occurs, he still has to listen to the police chief.

John sat down behind his desk, but Schiller looked at the coffee machine on the side. John took off his hat, combed his hair with his hand and said, "If you want to drink coffee, please feel free, but I have to remind you that there is no high-end coffee here."

Schiller took two paper cups from the side, poured two cups of hot water with the coffee machine, put one in front of John, and one in front of himself.

"I won't hide it from you," Schiller said, "Mr. J'onzz, I am the director of the 11th Bureau of the KGB. Coming to find you this time is both for public and private business."

Although John was prepared, he was obviously still shocked by these words. He stared straight at Schiller and said, "You are KGB? I mean... the Soviet secret agent organization?"

Schiller nodded and said, "That's right. But I didn't come on behalf of the Soviet Union, you don't have to be so nervous."

John licked his lips, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and then said, "I heard you slice aliens..."

"Rumors, all rumors," Schiller smiled and said, "In fact, I am here on behalf of the Justice League. Have you heard of the Justice League?"

"Seems to have some impression," John frowned slightly, touched his chin and said, "Is that the superhero organization on the East Coast?"

Schiller nodded and said, "Originally this should have nothing to do with you, but recently a group of aliens invaded Metropolis, which is the city where the Justice League is stationed. One of the aliens is Superman's fellow villager, and the other is yours."

John's expression became stiff. He obviously already realized something and looked up at Schiller.

"According to our investigation, it should be a Martian, named Ma'alefa'ak. In terms of kinship, he is your younger brother."

"How did you investigate it?" John couldn't help asking, "You shouldn't know..."

"There is nothing the KGB shouldn't know," Schiller blocked all of John's questions with one sentence.

Thanks to the somewhat fantasy reputation of the KGB, John didn't pursue it anymore. He just said, "Okay. He is coming for me, it must be so. He never intended to let me go. Coincidentally, I don't want to let him go either."

"After the Justice League learned of your existence, they have always wanted to invite you to join. And Ma'alefa'ak wants to take advantage of this loophole, impersonate you to join the Justice League, figure out the secrets of the Earth's defense network, and then dismantle this network from the inside, so that the Kryptonians can invade on a large scale."

Schiller's words obviously contained too much information. Many were things John hadn't heard of, he wanted to ask, but didn't know where to start.

"We know something about you, Mr. J'onzz. Next, I will open all the information you need to know in my brain, and you can read it directly. This can save a lot of time."

John widened his eyes slowly, looked at Schiller and said, "You mean, you want me to read your mind? You..."

"There is no need for any concerns," Schiller looked into his eyes very calmly and said, "I have come into contact with telepaths like you. Your abilities are evenly matched. We communicated like this before."

"But aren't you worried that I will see something I shouldn't see?"

Schiller saw from John's expression that he was still a bit fearful. It seems that this Martian has also been beaten by reality, and has made up his mind not to use superpowers, but to be a good ordinary human.

"You won't see anything you shouldn't see," Schiller said, "Even if you deliberately want to pry into my heart, you can't do it."

John re-examined Schiller, seemingly wanting to find the reason for his confidence. But no matter how he looked, he couldn't see any clues.

"Okay, if you insist." John looked a bit frustrated, possibly feeling that he had already broken his principles once today, so it didn't matter if he did it again.

Soon, countless data poured into John's brain. What surprised him was that these data were clearly organized, and unlike the information in ordinary people's brains, they were not messy. The order and logic were very smooth, and he didn't need to adjust them himself.

And apart from useful information data, there were no impurities mixed in. And for the way human thinking works, this is almost impossible.

John couldn't help but re-examine Schiller, but finally explained all the unreasonable things with "he is a KGB."

Silently reading these materials, John can be said to have opened his eyes. He didn't know that the world had undergone such great changes in the past ten years, and a group of people who silently guarded the Earth had actually built a comprehensive defense network and had actually successfully resisted the frontal attack of aliens in this invasion.

John, who knows Ma'alefa'ak, knows how troublesome his crazy brother is. Without the magic defense network, combined with frontal attacks and rear sabotage, the Earth would probably have been in chaos long ago.

"I think you can also introduce yourself to me, Mr. J'onzz. I think this is more formal and polite."

"Okay. But you already know that Ma'alefa'ak is my younger brother, I'm afraid there is nothing you don't know," John lowered his head slightly and said, "J'onn J'onzz, the alias used on Earth is John Jones, currently just an ordinary sheriff in Middleton."

"Regarding my past on Mars, I don't want to talk about it either. The Martian civilization has been destroyed and poses no threat to Earth. Ma'alefa'ak's act of invading Earth is purely because he is too evil. Nevertheless, I still want to express my apology."

"No, no need to talk about these," Schiller said, "In our investigation, in the past few decades, you have been living in the human way and have never exposed your differences."

"Yes. My own home has been destroyed, and now Earth is my home. I don't want to disturb you with my special abilities. Even if many people don't realize it, I don't want to do so."

Schiller nodded and said, "I can understand you. Humans are fragile and easily frightened. Once you expose your specialness, you might be hunted down like a witch in the Middle Ages."

"Although they might not have the ability to hurt you, the eyes of monsters from former friends and colleagues will never make people feel good. The best way is to pretend to be an ordinary person."

"But in fact, J'onn, you are not reconciled to this," Schiller pointed out, "If you only longed to live in obscurity like an ordinary human, you wouldn't have chosen to be a police officer."

John, or Martian Manhunter J'onn, twisted his fingers together tightly and said, "I was a police officer on Mars."

"But being a police officer on Mars is definitely different from being a police officer on Earth. The police station here won't recognize your resume on Mars," Schiller said with a smile, "You chose to do this, just because you wanted to do it. Or rather, you have a sense of responsibility."

"Do you know? Earth not only took me in, but also helped me walk out of the shadows of the past," J'onn said, "It was humans who helped me get rid of the entanglement of pain. I want to do something to repay you, but I am worried that my specialness will scare you, so I can only use the human way."

"But in fact, I didn't do well enough," J'onn sighed long and said, "Actually, I saw long ago that the little bastard in Tan Da's house was not right, he looked good to his sister on the surface, but actually... I couldn't save Catherine."

"But you saved Betty, and you saved Aisha, and you can also choose to join the Justice League to save more people. I think your human friend must have taught you that you don't have to indulge in the past, but should look forward more."

J'onn suddenly laughed, and when he looked up at Schiller, there seemed to be water in his eyes, he said, "You humans are really interesting. Obviously fragile and powerless, but always talk about such difficult things as if they are easy."

"The key is not how we say it, but whether you believe it," Schiller still smiled and said, "The suffering that made you drift away also brought you the opportunity to get rid of the shadows of the past. This is the interdependence of misfortune and fortune. Humans always firmly believe that good things will happen after bad things."

"Will they really?"

"Whether to join the Justice League is your business, you can consider it carefully, and then give me an answer. But solving Ma'alefa'ak is indeed your responsibility. This is an imminent trouble. You will solve it, right?"

J'onn took a deep breath and said, "I can subdue him, but I might need your help. Perhaps you don't know that Martians have a fatal weakness..."

"You are afraid of fire," Schiller said.

J'onn showed a helpless expression, he looked at Schiller and said, "Have you KGB established a cosmic branch? Why do you know so much about Mars?"

"This is a long story," Schiller showed a standard smile, obviously not wanting to talk more.

"Okay. But what I want to tell you is that the lunatic Ma'alefa'ak is not afraid of fire, and he is very likely to use this trick to deal with me. Apart from that, I can easily subdue him."

"What do you think he will do?"

"He possesses a very deadly virus, so I cannot directly establish a telepathic link with him, otherwise I might be poisoned. And if I use physical means, he might hide in the fire, or even attack me with fire."

"If we let him appear first, and then control him for a few seconds, can you subdue him?"

"What does control mean..."

"Let him stay in place for about two seconds."

"No problem at all," J'onn said, then frowned and said, "But how are you going to make him appear?"

"Of course, prepare a bait," Schiller simply stated his guess about Ma'alefa'ak kidnapping Betty.

"You mean, he wants to use Betty to torture me?"

Schiller nodded and said, "For such people, pursuing evil desires is higher than any priority. Betty being rescued might make him very crazy. And if he is given a chance at this time, he will try his best to kidnap Betty again."

"You want to use Betty as bait? I don't agree!" J'onn said decisively, "This is too dangerous!"

"Of course not. Betty is just an ordinary child, and now she needs to recuperate. We can let Aisha go."

"Is Aisha not..."

At this time, Aisha had already pushed the door in, ran to Schiller's side, and smiled at J'onn—what was revealed was a mouth full of shark-like teeth.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3504 =====

(End of Chapter)