Chapter 4484: Blackest Night (19)

"Wait, how do you have time to come here again?" Victor finally reacted and said, "Aren't you going to deal with that mastermind who is hiding somewhere?"

"The mastermind has already targeted me. This means that no matter where I am, he will find a way to find me." Schiller stood by the door and said, "This means I might be in danger, so staying by the side of my assistant with excellent marksmanship will be safer."

"Alright. But this time is different from usual. I need to concentrate, so you'd better shut your mouth."

"First time hearing Watson tell Sherlock to shut up."

"Come on, there's no case for you to investigate here. Or do I have to have Mrs. Brainiac find something to eat to plug your mouth?"

It seemed Victor was trying hard to get Schiller to be quiet. But in reality, the two chatted on and off like this for over an hour. Feeling that the time was about right, Schiller looked at his watch and got up to leave.

"Why are you leaving again?" Victor said, "Aren't you afraid he'll really find you?"

"I set a trap for him. I should be able to see the results when I go back now." Schiller shrugged lightly and walked out the door without looking back.

He returned to his office again and saw an ice sculpture in front of the felt board he had just installed. Of course, it wasn't Hugo Strange; he wasn't that reckless. Schiller walked over and took a look, finding it seemed to be a lower-grade student, still wearing a rehearsal costume for the Christmas dance. Looking a bit unfamiliar, he shouldn't be a student of the Psychology Department or the Physics Department.

The trap Schiller set had no psychological factors at all. He just bought a felt board with great fanfare, nailed some photos randomly—the photos were even requested from the Cat Getan Police Department—those were the evidence photos taken by Gordon. He was even too lazy to print them, but directly printed them out on paper, imitating the way in those detective movies, nailing the same type of clues together, and then connecting them with some strings, making it look decent.

But in reality, this wasn't to mislead anyone or guide them to investigate in any direction. It was Schiller swiping the low-temperature trap box Victor put in the storage room. The box was placed under the felt board, and a stack of photos was placed on top; whoever touched it would be frozen. This wave was answering low-temperature physics fiercely on a psychology test paper.

But it had to be admitted that this method was simple and easy to use. Precisely because Hugo Strange was watching him with some method, and also watching Cat Getan University, any movement here would be discovered. So this movement in Schiller's office didn't escape his eyes. Perhaps he inferred that Schiller intended to be a detective, so he almost immediately sent someone to see how far Schiller had investigated. And then it was the delightful "Freeze, don't move".

Ten minutes later, Gordon stood with his hands on his hips in front of that ice sculpture and then said, "So you asked me for those evidence photos just to let him come and steal them? And the reason you're calling the police now is that he intended to steal police data?"

Schiller nodded and said, "You don't need to care where those materials were stolen. But in any case, he wanted to take away these evidence photos, otherwise he wouldn't have been frozen. I think this has already met the charges of obstructing official business and stealing secrets in Brainiac's law. Any problem?"

"Any problem? Isn't the biggest problem that these photos were asked from me by you?" Gordon rolled his eyes and then said, "You aren't a member of the Cat Getan Police Department. I gave you the photos privately; both of us count as stealing secrets. This charge can't be established."

"Any other charges? Illegal entry?"

"He's a student at Cat Getan University, you're a professor at Cat Getan University. He can completely argue that he came to find you for something, even if he walked through the window, it's not completely unexplainable. Besides, Cat Getan University has had too many things happen recently, Principal Sivan has already contacted me..."

Before he had even finished speaking, Schiller's phone rang. He answered it, and Sivan's voice appeared on the other side: "Professor Rodriguez, I heard you detained a student who broke into your office?"

"Yes, there are more complex reasons for this."

"But you can't deny that so many students having accidents in a row will seriously affect the reputation of Cat Getan University. I hope this matter can be slowed down before proceeding. What do you think?"

"It can be slowed down. But I hope you can do me a favor." Schiller switched the phone to the other hand and then said, "My student provided a location related to the previous cases—the shared villa area in the South District of Cat Getan. I hope you can send some people to watch that place. You know, those who have the ability to protect themselves."

"Alright. I will find some good hands among this year's graduates of the Magic Academy. But are you sure you need such a big fuss? What exactly is there?"

"If you can discover the abnormality, naturally you will know." Schiller hung up the phone.

He waved his hand at Gordon, letting Gordon take the person away. Gordon seemed surprised by his tolerance, looking him up and down as if he didn't know him. Schiller lowered his voice and said, "This is just a poor little thing being manipulated. Hugo Strange might have returned."

"What?!" Gordon almost jumped on the spot, "Are you kidding, didn't he die long ago?!"

"Pelota also died, didn't she resurrect?"

"My God." Gordon opened his mouth, "I mean... God, how is this possible?"

"This is just the beginning." Schiller patted him on the shoulder and then said, "You were right about one point, I'm not a person from the police department. Even if I want to help you investigate the case, I'm not in a legitimate position."

"My God, it's been over a dozen years, you finally thought of this point." Gordon raised his hand and said, "What do you want me to do?"

"Is it possible..."

"It's not possible." Gordon said, "There was a bit of a possibility before Brainiac came. But now the electronic files are too perfect. Your resume indicates a history of mental illness, it's absolutely impossible to pass the file screening for police officers or consultants. It's useless to find me for this."

"It seems it's indeed a bit late." Schiller shook his head, sighing, "If I had known, I would have asked for a consultant quota earlier."

"It would have been useless to ask earlier," Brainiac said, "The global police system has been reorganized. Everyone who used false information and unqualified information to maintain their police identity has been kicked out. The resumes of current law enforcers are all qualified."

"I know you're powerful." Gordon said somewhat helplessly, "Clear water has no fish. Sometimes, you need people with criminal minds to deal with criminals. Now is an example."

After Gordon left, Schiller tidied up his office. With Sivan watching the South District and Brand watching Arkham Asylum, Hugo Strange couldn't completely hide his tracks.

But Brainiac being too fair wasn't entirely a good thing. He was more particular about physical evidence than the previous judicial system of humans, and didn't allow unreasonable accusations. The judicial process was refined, and the status of the jury was greatly reduced. This made it more difficult to fabricate charges against someone.

Framing and planting evidence indeed became more difficult, but it would lead to many suspects being sentenced too lightly due to incomplete evidence chains and insufficient physical evidence. Moreover, Brainiac's research on the human mental state wasn't deep enough, and the identification of mental patients wasn't that accurate, so some people also used this point to escape responsibility.

If Hugo Strange discovered this point, then he would definitely choose to use it. As long as he was careful and didn't create physical evidence, Brainiac would find it hard to catch him.

Not creating physical evidence sounded very difficult, but Hugo could completely do it, because he was a master of psychology, and what he was best at was brainwashing and manipulating others. He could completely stand behind the scenes forever, only sending small soldiers like that previous freshman to die.

Brainiac had no way to accurately identify the degree to which a person's mental state had been affected, so he couldn't catch Hugo's tail.

In fact, the main reason Brainiac didn't want to provoke Schiller was also this. All abilities involving the human mental world belonged to his blind spot of knowledge. He understood the theory, but had no practical experience, let alone any talent for psychoanalysis, so the attitude he had always held was "respect ghosts and gods but keep them at a distance".

He didn't deny the talent of people like Schiller, but what he could do was just to avoid stimulating them as much as possible, and keep them away from ordinary people. As for active research and utilization, it was still too advanced for electronic life.

As for why he didn't use Schiller to catch Hugo, this was also one of the weaknesses of electronic life. He was relatively fair and had no bias. In his view, the danger of Schiller and Hugo was the same. Hugo committed crimes, didn't Schiller? Hugo could perform mental manipulation, couldn't Schiller? In the case where resumes and danger levels were highly overlapping and neither could be controlled, using one to catch the other wasn't wise.

The key to the game between the two of them now was who could first gain Brainiac's trust and obtain an official identity, so that they would have a way to find charges to accuse the other.

The breakthrough point Schiller could think of now was to prove Hugo Strange's death. If he could prove that he died and resurrected, then he could link him to Pelota's death and resurrection, forcibly binding him to the previous cases. This would significantly affect Brainiac's evaluation of him.

But the problem was also that Hugo died in the mental world back then, melted by the surging energy of Superman's mental body. Although his physical body died later, there was no clear death footage or witnesses like Pelota. Things had passed too long, and proving death and resurrection was relatively difficult.

Perhaps he had to think of other ways to break through from another direction. Although it was hard to say whether Hugo had thought of this method, Schiller was confident that he shouldn't be able to do better than himself.

Schiller turned his head and looked at the pitch-black sky outside the window. Nekron probably would never have thought that while the Blackest Night brought nightmares to ordinary people, it also created a long-lost stage for another part of people. Those beasts that had been locked in the nature reserve for a long time were all restless, and Brainiac would soon understand that avoidance was not a solution, and isolation policies could only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

Schiller stood up, put on his overcoat, picked up his umbrella from the umbrella stand, and walked into the dark night of Cat Getan just like a dozen years ago. ===== CHAPTER 4485 =====