Chapter 3864

After being injected with the antidote, Shiler was clearly much more awake. He raised his eyebrows hard, then blinked forcefully, and said, "I need to confirm, am I in your safe fortress?"

"There is no internet here," Arkham Batman said.

"Very good. Later you will send me back to the FBI base to be detained, and then prepare to charge me." Shiler shook his head, seemingly trying hard to clear the effects of the drugs.

"Is this your plan?" Arkham Batman asked. "What is the point of this?"

"If the electronic lifeform is just a ghost in the network, then we will never be able to catch it." Shiler shook his head again. He took a deep breath, coughed forcefully a few times, sniffed, and said somewhat vaguely, "No, need more antidote."

"Your heart rate might not be able to hold up," Seeing Natasha said. "I mean, we can't strengthen you anymore, otherwise no one will be able to hold you down if you go crazy."

"It's fine, just a little more. I'll go to sleep after I finish what I have to say."

Seeing Natasha had no choice but to step forward and give him a little more antidote.

Shiler looked much better. He seized this rare moment of clarity and said rapidly, "We must find a way to force the ghost on the network out. He showed up when I sniped Luthor before, which proves he has a reason he must protect Luthor—perhaps to deal with you, or perhaps to keep me in check."

"And when I saw the words on the corpse from another universe, I realized he was coming for me, so he absolutely won't let me die, not even if I'm severely injured to the point of affecting my mobility. So when I was hunted by you, he would definitely show up to protect me, and you can take the opportunity to catch his tail."

Arkham Batman just wanted to say something, but Shiler interrupted him: "I know this isn't enough. Whether it's modifying the information sent by Ms. Gordon, controlling the car explosion, or controlling the car I was driving to dodge your pursuit, these aren't enough. His ability to eliminate evidence is very strong; by the time you go back to look, he will have already erased all traces, and you won't find anything."

"But we can predict his appearance in advance, wait for him somewhere, monitor his activities, and catch his tail the moment he appears, not giving him a chance to erase the traces."

"I am very clear that I will face at least 20 serious charges for what I've done, and as a former law enforcement officer, it is highly likely I will be sent to a maximum-security prison. Gotham doesn't have such a prison, so I will definitely be sent away. And since the other party chose to stir up trouble here, he won't just watch me be sent away."

"Breaking out of prison is risky; he won't wait until then to act, so he will find a way to clear my name."

"Resisting arrest and such are minor crimes; the most troublesome is the attempted murder of Jason Todd. He needs to erase all evidence in this entire criminal chain. Other things are very simple for him, nothing more than deleting surveillance videos, but for human witnesses, he must contact them to change their minds, even if he hires a hitman to kill them, he still has to send them an email."

"He doesn't have much time, finding a hitman might not be enough, and if it's not a professional, there will be loopholes, so I am more inclined to contact the witnesses directly and threaten them. And on the way to finding Jason Todd and injuring him, I deliberately left many witnesses."

In a daze, Shiler recalled what happened during that operation.

Knowing full well that the Arkham Knight might be not far from Wei En Tower, he still took a taxi to the old town district first, dressed in a way that clearly wasn't poor, holding a laptop that clearly wasn't cheap, and sat in a chaotic bar in the old town for half a day until he was targeted by quite a few people before leaving.

Then he took a taxi to circle around Wei En Tower, and immediately after, dressed like that, holding a strange briefcase, he took a taxi back to the black community in the old town, dealt with black people, and then deliberately exposed the silenced pistol.

Driving a car with fake plates back to the vicinity of the Brother Eye headquarters, when drugging the coffee, he could have waited for the delivery driver to finish the handover and the staff to get off work before prying the door open to add things to the milk, but he insisted on knocking out the truck driver and meeting the staff, even saying a few words.

In the process of infiltrating the headquarters, knowing that the security guards were in pairs and knocking one out would likely attract the attention of the other, he still chose to knock one out when both were in the restroom.

In this series of operations, a witness was left for every link in a complete chain of evidence: in the planning stage, seen by the taxi driver and people in the bar; in the preparation for infiltration stage, testified by the taxi driver and the coffee shop clerk; in the infiltration stage, identified by the building security.

In other words, to get everyone to change their story in unison, the mastermind must send at least five or six emails. And this operation was completely predictable; as long as Arkham Batman and Barbara Gordon did something to these people's email accounts, it was highly likely they would catch the moment the email was sent and find the traces of the electronic lifeform.

"Why are you so sure he won't let you go to jail?" Seeing Natasha asked.

"Of course, because the information on the corpse was for me to see, which proves I am very important in his plan. And I have already verified it; if he wanted to give up on me, he couldn't have turned on the headlights to expose himself while I was fighting Batman."

"Are you sure he will send emails to those people?" Arkham Batman asked.

"Yes. Judging from the intern John and the hitman manipulated by him in another universe, his way of threatening others is to grasp their weaknesses. Because he is omnipotent on the internet, and the modern society's internet is pervasive, he has the weaknesses of almost everyone."

Shiler sighed softly and said, "Or there is another more extreme way, which is to let the victim Jason Todd change his statement. As long as the victim says he won't pursue it, I can naturally clear my name."

Arkham Batman's fingertips moved, and he said, "How is he going to convince Jason?"

"Everyone has weaknesses, and Jason is no exception. He is your weakness, and you are his. So to solve Jason, you have to solve you first, but you aren't that easy to solve, so he must use your weakness, which is Jason."

"Wait a minute, I'm a bit confused," Seeing Natasha said, covering her forehead. "The two of them are each other's weaknesses; to solve Jason you have to solve Batman first, and to solve Batman you have to solve Jason. Doesn't that amount to an infinite loop?"

Shiler shook his head and said, "Normally that's the case, but he has other ways. For example, impersonating Jason to lure Batman out, and then impersonating Batman to lure Jason out. Do you think he can't do that?"

Seeing Natasha just wanted to say something, but Arkham Batman's communicator rang. After a pause, he turned on the speakerphone.

"Batman! Batman! Save me! Zzzzt—"

The moment the Arkham Knight's voice came from the communicator, Arkham Batman clenched his fists. Seeing Natasha clearly saw a trace of gloom and distraction flash across the man's brows.

"You must have heard this kind of thing many times in your dreams, right?" Shiler's tone was as flat as ever, as if he weren't bringing up Batman's biggest psychological shadow, but just discussing what to eat later.

This nonchalant attitude clearly angered Arkham Batman. Just as he was about to speak, Shiler said, "I have already clearly told you this is a trap; if you still want to go, I have nothing to say."

"Jason might be in danger," Arkham Batman turned and stared at Shiler. "You are also responsible, because you injured him."

"There is no such possibility, because I didn't injure him," Shiler sneered and said, "Did you think those 'agent violent means' and such were said for you to hear? I just wanted the electronic lifeform to hear it, so that even if he knew Jason was fine, he would still want to use this to trick you."

Arkham Batman's hand paused. Shiler relaxed his body and leaned back in the chair, saying, "If violence could solve all problems, then anyone could do the job of an agent. Being able to solve problems beyond those that can be solved by violence is the standard for judging an agent's level."

"I think he makes sense," Seeing Natasha said, looking at Arkham Batman. "This is clearly a trap. But if you really want to go, then bring Superman and Wonder Woman along; he shouldn't be able to handle those two."

"Could Jason have received the same information?" Arkham Batman asked with a frown.

"Very likely, and he would easily believe it." Shiler looked at Arkham Batman's suddenly furrowed brows again, smiled, and said, "Fortunately, I was prepared; the injection Dr. Houston gave him is enough to keep him asleep until tomorrow."

Arkham Batman suddenly relaxed. He turned his head to look at Shiler, the expression on his face uncertain, paused for a moment, and then turned and walked out the door.

Seeing Natasha followed him out and closed the door, saying, "He really is a good agent, right?"

"A bit too good," Arkham Batman said.

"What do you plan to do next? I might have to go back there later; it's a complete mess over there."

"Try what he said first," Arkham Batman said somewhat hesitantly. "But Barbara can't know; information leaks too easily on her end, I have to do it myself. I'm afraid I'll have to connect part of the magic defense network here to the internet."

"I'm a bit curious, you set up a small magic defense network here?"

"Yes, it's something I learned from the magic school. And at that time, we also tried to use magic power to connect to the outside internet, and the result was very successful. And we confirmed that it was a one-way connection, meaning we could access the internet through magic power, but the internet's network could not access the magic defense network."

"Isn't this a permanent one-way firewall?"

"You could say that, but he might also create some information on the internet to numb us, so either don't do it, or strike once and hit the mark, don't let him be on guard."

"So you were actually waiting for such an opportunity, right?"

"That's right. I originally wanted to use Brother Eye to create such an opportunity, but because communication with the outside world was inconvenient, the progress wasn't that fast. I didn't expect Agent Shiler to make the first move."

"You really should give him a raise," Seeing Natasha turned around, walking backward while looking at Arkham Batman and said, "If I'm not mistaken, he still has injuries on his forehead and the corner of his mouth. Did you hit him?"

"He asked for it," Arkham Batman said coldly. "It's not more damaging than those thirteen tranquilizer darts of yours."

"That was also him asking for it," Seeing Natasha snorted coldly.

Then the two fell silent together. Arkham Batman stopped, turned on the communicator, and said to the other side: "Flash, bring a medical kit over."

?? Sorry for being a bit late.