Chapter 4516

"I think our planet was swallowed by a black hole. After I expressed this view, Rodriguez unexpectedly didn't laugh at my childish metaphor. 'Darkness causes time to fall into stagnation; I think that's what you want to say, Mr. Fries. Whether from the perspective of physics or sociology, this makes sense, and it's very interesting.' I didn't think I would get such an evaluation; maybe he was just comforting me, but it really made me feel better. Look, when a cold and arrogant detective wants to comfort someone, he is not stingy with comprehensive discoveries.

The phone suddenly rang. I looked in that direction, the screen lit up, but only reflected Rodriguez's stern expression. 'Moriarty is here.' he said. Judging by his expression, it wasn't a good sign, but we had experienced too many bad things, and even I generously felt that one more wouldn't hurt.

'He greeted an old friend, Mr. Fries; what do you think this means?' Honestly, I don't know. But I still tried my best to guess: 'He knew you before, I suppose.'

This was simply a stupid answer. Of course, an old friend; a stranger you've never met wouldn't use such a term. But if he compared himself to Moriarty, it didn't sound like someone Rodriguez would know.

'Who is Moriarty's opponent?' Detective Mr. asked and answered himself, 'Of course, it's Sherlock Holmes.' He paced, seemingly reasoning, but actually carrying a kind of contempt, 'Only this level of puzzle...'

I looked at him with some confusion, but he had already put on his coat and walked toward the door. I followed his footsteps into the damp night. Until the two of us got into the car, I still hadn't guessed what that meant.

'Cliff,' he said, 'the cliff restaurant by the seaside.'"

Victor raised his head and shook his somewhat stiff neck. Don't look at this section as short; in fact, he had modified it several times. Knowing that the location where Hugo met Shiler was the cliff restaurant, he had to reverse-engineer what kind of puzzle Hugo had set.

But Victor himself wasn't a person who was very good at designing puzzles; even if it was a word game, he could only think of using the cliff where Holmes and Moriarty died together to imply it. Perhaps Hugo might have designed some more complex puzzles, but he really could only think of this.

Victor took back his previous view that he didn't need to check information. To make the showdown appear tense, exciting, and wonderful, all kinds of puzzles were indispensable. But what information should he check for this thing?

Sitting there thinking for a long time without coming up with anything, Victor had no choice but to take out his phone, preparing to ask Brainiac. But he found that there was no signal here, so he could only take his phone to the first floor.

"I only know puzzles of numbers and symbols," Brainiac said, "but I think neither of these two is this style, don't you think?"

"Uh, indeed." Victor touched his forehead; he really couldn't imagine the scene of Shiler cracking a numeric combination password.

"I can help you consult a professional," Brainiac said, "I happen to know a riddle master, and this riddle master happens to know Shiler. He might be able to tailor a few riddles..."

"That couldn't be better," Victor said, "not just riddles, but also the process of cracking the riddles. It's best if it's wonderful, with the style of psychology and psychoanalysis."

Not long after, Brainiac gave a reply. The message was very long, making Victor's head buzz. However, one had to admit that this riddle master really had some skills. He wrote a serial riddle around the "imagery" and "metaphor" of the spiritual world, and also gave a detailed Shiler-style cracking method.

Inside, there were not only professional terms, but the key was the confrontation between the views and concepts of the two sides. Shiler's view was "the essence of manipulation is love," while Hugo's view was "the essence of manipulation is hate." The two sides used this as a topic to carry out a series of clashes.

This also gave Victor inspiration. He knew how to handle the little girl part. He returned upstairs and wrote furiously, soon finishing the prelude to the clash, which was the part where Hugo set the riddle and Shiler cracked it. In addition to solving the riddle, there were also a large number of verbal clashes.

Immediately after, the little girl Novi appeared. Of course, she wasn't thrown down as a corpse, but stood in front of Shiler, and the two had a conversation.

The main content of the conversation was the experience of the little girl in Wei En Manor that Shiler had told Victor earlier. In the story Victor created, Hugo didn't distort the little girl's memory to make her hostile to Shiler, but strengthened Novi's "hate" for Bruce, letting her use this point to attack Shiler. This also showed Hugo's view, which was that the essence of manipulation is hate. If Novi didn't hate Bruce, Hugo's manipulation couldn't have succeeded.

But how to embody Shiler's view made Victor a bit troubled. He wanted Shiler to persuade Novi, but the matter between Bruce and Novi was Bruce's fault to begin with. No matter how he persuaded her, it was a bit like sophistry. Although Shiler was also very good at sophistry, the occasion wasn't very suitable now.

Sure enough, this way of creating by designing the ending first and then reverse-engineering the process was still a bit anti-human. To wrap these dumplings for this dish of vinegar, the vinegar just needed to be poured out, but there were many things to consider for the dumplings.

Victor scratched his head there for a long time and couldn't write it. No way, he went to find Brainiac again, but Brainiac didn't understand any literary creation.

"I think you should ask the person involved," Brainiac said, "why don't you ask Bruce Wei En?"

Victor was stunned for a moment, then said: "Isn't he busy now?"

"Depends on how you define 'busy'. If being busy forming the Dark Knight group to destroy the harmony of the multiverse counts as busy, then he is indeed quite busy."

"Forget it, help me send him a message, ask him what to do in this situation. By the way, remember to emphasize that I am writing a novel, otherwise he should come to destroy my harmonious life."

Brainiac did as he was told. Then not long after, Victor received a reply from Bruce—"The professor should show Novi just how bad I am at psychoanalysis, and then Novi should understand me."

Victor suddenly realized. Why hadn't he thought of that?

Although Victor wasn't involved in what happened back then, he could also imagine roughly what was going on, especially after he and Nora adopted Billy. He completely understood how difficult it was to raise children.

He and Nora had both been elementary school teachers, had dealt with quite a few children in the past, and both of them belonged to the type who were quite patient. Respecting children, willing to communicate, rich in knowledge, and experienced. Billy was also that kind of sensible child who never made unreasonable trouble. Just because he had been fostered before, he was still a bit cautious and very good at reading people's expressions. But even so, sometimes it was still chaotic and turned upside down.

At that time, Bruce wasn't even 20 years old, hadn't been a parent, and hadn't been in contact with any children. It just so happened that when he was a child, his parents passed away early. So whether it was being a parent or being a child, he was extremely lacking in experience. Even until now, it was the same.

Now Bruce and Dick and the others had no conflicts, not because Bruce had become how mature and skilled, but because Dick and the others had grown up. Those children from the past had all passed their rebellious phase and became Bruce's peers, naturally being able to understand and tolerate each other.

As long as Novi understood Bruce's difficulties and could think from his perspective, perhaps she would forgive Bruce.

However, Novi was a child after all, and a child who had been brainwashed and distorted by Hugo. Adults couldn't even manage to think from another's perspective, let alone her. How exactly could she be made to understand?

Writing to this point, he was stuck again. Victor was really a bit crazy. Sure enough, once anything became a task with a goal, it would become very painful. There was no longer the joy of free creation in the beginning.

Victor didn't know if this pain came from the restrictions or from literary creation itself. Perhaps both, but there was no turning back once the bow was drawn. No matter what, he had to finish writing.

Victor sat behind the desk in the study, quietly thinking about how to make the plot perfect. He wanted to discuss it with Brainiac again, so he went to the first floor. But at this time, he received a text message, "I'm back. —Shi"

Victor immediately put away his phone, walked out of the library, and drove back to Gotham University. Seeing Shiler standing at the door of the office, Victor walked up and gave him a hug.

"You don't know how worried I was." Victor said.

"You have too many unrealistic fantasies about me." Shiler looked at him and said, "You know that if there is no absolute certainty, I am the person who would least take risks."

"That's what you say..."

"How is your novel coming along?"

"Your way of changing the subject is too stiff." Victor walked into the office with him and said, "I'm encountering a difficult problem."

"Tell me about it."

Victor briefly described it, Shiler was stunned, and then said: "I sent you rings to let you expel the mastermind, not to let you fabricate my..."

"Then how do you plan to lift Novi's brainwashing?" Victor spread his hands, "This is the fastest way."

"No need to lift it." Shiler shook his head.

"What?"

"Hugo only modified Novi's understanding of me. That is to say, she only hates me. I just need to not appear in front of her."

"But..." Victor didn't react for a moment, but soon remembered. He said, "But aren't you trying to manipulate her to comfort Bruce? How can you manage to not appear in front of her?"

"I don't need to manipulate her." Shiler looked at him and said, "This is the biggest gain from this journey."

Victor looked at him with a face full of confusion.

"Novi doesn't hate Bruce." Shiler walked over and sat down, saying, "Remember what I said about her extremely strong will to survive?"

Victor nodded and said, "So where did that come from?"

"At the last moment of her life, she digested the vast majority of information through thinking, and understood—Bruce wanted to save her."

Victor's expression froze, and he said somewhat shocked: "So..."

"She just wanted to say 'thank you' to him."