Chapter 4131: When the Pumpkins Ripen (Part 24)

Everyone laughed. And Brainiac chose to defend himself, saying, "Actually, there is a small path under the cliff; he didn't see it himself. And I warned him not to run around here with the Speed Force. He didn't listen once."

"So you were taking revenge for personal grudges?"

"I said I pointed you to the correct destination..."

The dishes were served very quickly. The food here was authentic Cat Getan local cuisine. Because the route in the East District was a bit too complicated, ordinary tourists couldn't find this place. It retained a very rich local flavor. Chili mixed fish pie, Wickbick braised beef knee, living hell seafood fried rice, Cat Getan specialty Fujian shrimp noodles...

In short, whether it was white-people food, black-people food, or Chinese food, it was all integrated, and then specially improved to become Cat Getan specialty food full of flavor.

Barry and Jason were exhausted. The two buried their heads in eating until they were full of wine and food. They asked for desserts and coffee before they talked about their investigation results in detail.

"Paul Austin's father used to be a financial practitioner."

Everyone was a bit surprised, Greed leaned his body forward, and then asked, "Isn't it said that he is an alcoholic gambler?"

"Also. Since Brainiac banned the financial industry, most financial practitioners have changed jobs. But that depends on what kind of financial practitioner. Technical talents, such as accountants, financial product managers, cartographers, software engineers, etc., were basically transferred to factories to do their original positions.

"There are even some occupations with relatively blurred definitions, such as venture capitalists, trust managers, stock traders, etc. As long as they are not the kind of apprentices who can't do anything, they can generally do their old jobs and go to offices in factories in the real industry. After all, most of them graduated from prestigious schools, and doing some financial work is not a problem.

"But there is indeed a group of people who can't do anything, or who are always adding leverage and shorting, or fooling investors. You know, those are the old tricks of Diamond Street. And they are very dissatisfied with Brainiac, and their resistance psychology is too strong. Brainiac dare not arrange important production positions for them, so he can only let them do physical labor."

"Is Paul's father one of them?"

"Actually, he's not bad. Although he is very dissatisfied inside, he pretends to be very good. He also works quite neatly, so he was initially assigned an accountant job in a factory."

"Then there was a problem, right?"

"Correct. He wanted to lower the shipment rate of products by adjusting the production line, so as to play tricks on the accounts."

"Isn't this looking for death?" Pamela asked.

"At that time, people didn't know Brainiac well enough. Or rather, they didn't know at all what a real super artificial intelligence was like. They thought there was room to play tricks."

Pride nodded. He could actually understand. Because this year is the millennium, although American society is indeed more developed, it is indeed not yet the Internet era. Even if computers are no longer rare, they are far from the level of the true information age after the 2020s.

Most of Diamond Street is still paper-based office work. Better ones might be able to use computers to watch the market; companies with worse conditions still have to go to the stock hall to stare. For people in this era, it is impossible to imagine how intelligent Brainiac can be.

They thought Brainiac could only look at cameras or perform some superficial data comparison, not knowing that all their operations on all equipment were under Brainiac's control.

"Then he was fired?"

"More than that, he went to jail for about three months."

"But you said he gambled. Didn't Brainiac ban all casinos?"

"Yes. But he was a gambler when he was on Diamond Street. He should thank Brainiac for saving him, because before Brainiac came, his last investment failed completely. It is estimated that it would have left him with a debt of about 1.5 million US dollars."

Pamela gasped. In the era before Brainiac, this money was definitely a huge sum. This was 1.5 million US dollars in 1999.

"Even so, he still didn't stop gambling, but continued to add leverage. If it weren't for Brainiac, Diamond Street would definitely have one more 'air flyer'."

"Not necessarily," Barry said, "People like him won't go to die themselves, but have to empty everyone around them, and even sell them, just to realize their desires."

"Fine, I roughly understand what kind of person he is," Greed said, "What does this have to do with Paul's kidnapping case?"

"He sold Paul."

"Sold? Under Brainiac's supervision, how can there still be human trafficking cases?" Pride was quite puzzled.

"It's not that kind of blatant transaction; you can understand it as them having a secret underground resistance organization with a device that can shield Brainiac's monitoring. The organizational form is a bit like a cult."

"Oh, I see, the sacrifice thing, right?"

"Correct. Paul's father has a very serious alcohol addiction. This was a problem that existed before Brainiac came."

"It should have been dyed during the period when his investment failed, right?"

"Yes. And the situation is very serious; alcohol has fundamentally changed his brain. Since the prohibition of alcohol, his alcohol dependence has been recurring."

"I understand. That underground organization promised to provide him with alcohol, right?"

"We suspect it has already been provided. After all, they have the means to shield monitoring, and brewing wine is not a difficult thing."

"This reminds me of the Prohibition era," Pamela said, "Global prohibition is indeed a very courageous thing. I dare say, if it weren't for Brainiac, no human could do it."

"Indeed. Although the harm of nicotine addiction is also very large, it is reasonable that alcohol dependence is listed as a mental illness," Greed said, "Alcohol will fundamentally change your brain, prompting people to make many irrational behaviors. The damage is permanent and incurable."

"So in order to get alcohol, he sold his own son?"

Jason nodded and said: "Yes. When we went to his house to investigate, we couldn't tell at all. He looked quite sober. Perhaps precisely because of this, Paul's situation was not taken seriously."

"I thought before, if Paul's father had domestic violence, why didn't Brainiac deprive him of custody. Now it seems that he has probably been abusing him in places Brainiac can't see."

"Correct, we have gained a lot from this trip," Barry said, "We have now initially determined that there should be a passage in his house that shields Brainiac's sight, leading to a gathering place that also has no monitoring equipment. That is their base camp."

"Where would it be?"

Barry shook his head and said: "He lives on the first floor. The passage might be underground. We don't have a good excuse to search his house for the time being. After all, Paul is the victim, and we don't want to cause panic."

"Did you bring cameras in?"

"Yes, but we didn't enter other rooms, just put a few in the living room. I don't think the entrance will be there."

"Perhaps we can start from the neighbor's house," Greed said. Then he looked at Pamela and said: "Is Brainiac planning to clear the underground ice?"

"Yes, but this is a long-term plan. It shouldn't have developed to the East District yet."

"It doesn't matter, as long as there is this plan. Brainiac, I think you can announce this plan, in the morning news or morning paper, mention it a few more times recently, and let people be familiar with it. Let Victor draw a route map, mark a few key areas, one of which happens to be near Paul's house. Then you can justifiably check the neighbor's house, and perhaps you can see if Paul's house has an underground passage."

"This is a good plan," Barry said, "As long as there is a famous teacher, we can search with peace of mind, and they will always show their feet."

Then Pamela told them about the Mother Box. Barry was stunned, and then said: "Brainiac came to Earth, is it to find the Mother Box?"

"Yes, but now he says that relying on such a thing alone, it seems that he cannot break through the limitations of his life form. They still have to study this thing."

"That is to say, there won't be a Cyborg in our universe?"

"Not necessarily. Cyborgs in other universes shouldn't be formed by coincidence. If only a specific person can use the origin power in the Mother Box, I'm afraid there will still be one."

"My God. I can't imagine a person and a box merging together," Jason shook his head and said, "I don't mean to target Iron Man, but no matter who embeds a big bomb in their chest, I will feel that he is crazy."

"I think so too," Greed said, "But this is cool enough, you have to understand, there are some people in this world who can not want their lives for the sake of fashion."

"Perhaps we can come up with a better way to use it," Pride said, "Even if it is really embedded in the chest, there are safer and more secure ways, instead of having too many accidental factors mixed in like in other universes."

Then they talked about today's banquet again. Barry shrank his neck and said: "Just now I was talking to Harley and the others in the group, maybe we should go later today."

"Why?" Pride asked.

"Because those who go early might become ingredients," Jason answered, "But I think the person who spread this rumor should be dissatisfied with you being very picky at her banquet."

"This can't be considered a rumor," Barry said, "Harley told me that she once saw eight pairs of moose hooves in your refrigerator. Can you really finish eating them?"

Pride didn't know how to answer for a while, because this really couldn't be considered a rumor. There were indeed eight moose in his refrigerator at the same time, but that wasn't eaten by him alone.

"Brainiac calling you Ouroboros makes a lot of sense," Pamela said, "You are the first one who can eat with yourself and eat eight moose."

"That wasn't eaten by me alone..." Pride's defense seemed a bit pale and powerless.

"According to body weight, we can't be as heavy as eight moose together," Jason was still calculating, "That is to say, no matter whether we go early or late, we can't avoid becoming ingredients. We don't need to be anxious about this."

"If Brainiac had a body, I would be very happy to let him visit my refrigerator," Greed said, "I don't know what it tastes like to stew circuit boards with wires."

"We have listed the menu!" Pride emphasized, "There is no meat that shouldn't be eaten on it. We have fish, lamb, chicken, and duck. See? They are all conventional meats."

"Fine, Professor, can I ask a question?"

"What?"

"How many ribs does a fish have?"

"Perhaps 8... Where does a fish get ribs?"

"How many legs does a sheep have?"

"Four, all on the ground!"

"Hahahahahaha!" ===== CHAPTER 4132 =====