Chapter 4777

A slash came down, but the imagined blood did not spurt forth; instead, flames abruptly lit up the rainy night. Constantine slowly turned into a pile of ash, and the ash was beaten into the mud by raindrops, vanishing without a trace.

Constantine emerged from the shrubbery again, his face pale, breathing heavily. The bone fragment he had been holding in his hand had already turned into grayish-white powder. He gritted his teeth and cursed, but then fished a small paper figurine from his bosom.

He looked left and right, wanting to toss the thing here, but seemingly felt it was not safe enough. So he walked briskly toward the large tree in the garden. And just then, on the way, he caught a glint of bright reflection under a flash of lightning. Constantine glanced around, walked over carefully, and discovered a mirror placed on the swing.

He picked up the mirror and held it up to himself; blood coalesced into the number "1".

"Damn it!"

Birds startled by Constantine's curse fell into the view of Spider-Man on the roof. Rain washed over his suit, reflecting dim light. He stared fixedly at a corner of the garden.

There stood a black-clad figure, soaked even more thoroughly by the rain, like a pale, gaunt ghost. The long, sharp knife gripped in his hand flashed a ghastly white cold light under every bolt of lightning.

Spider-Man observed for a while, waited for his skill cooldown to finish, then climbed down the wall silently like a spider, slowly reaching the first-floor balcony, then circled around to the side door and went inside.

The castle was not brightly lit; only a very limited number of candles were lit, flickering in the howling gale. The draft through the hall brought a noise like ghostly wails; the whole castle was gloomy and terrifying, even more making one want to flee than the stormy night outside.

Spider-Man slipped inside silently. He stood quietly behind Arkham Batman by the spiral staircase without drawing his attention. He just stood there watching Arkham Batman until he turned around.

Arkham Batman was genuinely startled, then let out a light sigh: "How do you walk without making a sound?"

"Skill." Spider-Man was concise and to the point.

Arkham Batman narrowed his eyes. He only knew that most Spider-Men were motor-mouths. How was this Spider-Man so silent?

Before, he was too far away to see the suit clearly. Now, though still a bit dark, he could tell this Spider-Man's suit was almost entirely red.

"Scarlet Spider-Man." He introduced himself.

Arkham Batman nodded. Even among Batmen there was a lively one like Lego Batman; it was only normal for a few Spider-Men to be taciturn. This Scarlet Spider-Man looked more reliable than most Spider-Men, which was really great.

"Which number are you?" Arkham Batman asked in a low voice.

The other shook his head. Arkham Batman could only say: "Use your wall-crawling ability to go upstairs and look for mirrors. Those small mirrors can show which number you are. If you're Number 1, you'd better hide first."

The other nodded again, then left silently and soundlessly. Arkham Batman watched his retreating figure with some emotion; someone who walks without sound is even more like a ghost.

Arkham Batman stayed at the bottom of the stairs mainly because there was a cabinet here. His skill Clue Master indicated there was a clue here, but because the cabinet was locked, the clue could not fly out; he could only try to pick the lock.

This lock had a puzzle — actually just addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — but it required many operations. It was a bit better that Shiler was not in the castle right now; if he had to solve the puzzle while being hunted, this lock would probably never be opened in this lifetime.

Just then, he suddenly heard the sound of a grappling hook. Because he himself often used this equipment, he was very familiar with the sound; it should be a grappling hook descending slowly right now.

He turned around, and a flash of lightning happened to illuminate the other's red hair. Arkham Batman sighed; running into Black Widow in this place was no good thing.

"Which number are you? Mr. Batman?"

The moment this Black Widow spoke, Arkham Batman knew it was not the one he was familiar with. He asked: "Are you from the main universe?"

"Yes, the Avengers on our side sent me over to check the situation." Black Widow sighed and said, "Did you run into that masked guy?"

"Masked guy?"

"Right, he said his name is Rorschach. Dressed like a Western bounty hunter, wearing a black-and-white mask; I didn't get a clear look at the specific pattern. He said he was going downstairs; you didn't see him?"

"No." Arkham Batman counted silently in his heart; his teammates should all have arrived by now. Obviously, not a single one was a pushover.

Regarding Rorschach, Arkham Batman had heard of him, because they had investigated the Watchmen team. However, their focus was on Doctor Manhattan; they only knew Rorschach was a masked hero with somewhat extreme methods.

Arkham Batman's conception of him was roughly a Captain America type — a character embodying the classic American Dream — otherwise he wouldn't be dressed like a Western bounty hunter. But precisely because the team had Doctor Manhattan, their whereabouts were more secretive; Batman couldn't find out much and could only speculate.

"Is he easy to talk to?" Arkham Batman asked.

"Can I say?" Black Widow paused, then said, "He looked mentally unstable, muttering to himself; couldn't understand what he was saying. I felt unable to communicate with him normally."

"Do you know your own serial number?"

Black Widow nodded: "There happened to be a mirror in the room I spawned in. I'm Number 4."

"Great," Arkham Batman said, "Do you have many survival skills?"

"I have a stealth skill," Black Widow said, "As long as I stand in one place for a period of time, remaining motionless, I can block all detection skills, including both enemy and friendly ones."

Arkham Batman immediately thought of some tactics. He said: "Too bad you're not Number 1; otherwise you could stall for a very long time."

"As I thought, we have to kill in order?"

Arkham Batman nodded and said: "Both of us are relatively late in the order. Right now I want to find something that can swap serial numbers; I'm sure such a thing exists."

"I'll go look too." Black Widow said, "No one's been to the main hall side yet; I'll go check."

Arkham Batman briefly explained Shiler's skills, then said: "Be careful. If he fully locks onto you, your stealth skill might also lose its effect."

Black Widow nodded and left. Arkham Batman could tell her grappling hook should also be a skill, and its cooldown wasn't long. She probably had other skills like Widow's Bite, just uncertain if they could hurt Shiler.

Arkham Batman ran through the possible skills of his teammates. The best case now was if he or Black Widow were Number 1; that would buy a long time. Spider-Man would work too, but his wall-crawling skill — once stuck to a wall he's a sitting duck; if Shiler has ranged skills, he'd definitely take a hit. Shiler might not be unable to get on the roof either. As for Constantine, he couldn't be counted on at all.

Arkham Batman sped up, doing those arithmetic problems. He did about twenty or thirty before finally opening the lock. Sure enough, a clue lit up inside the cabinet; Arkham Batman picked it up and looked — an old photograph taken with a vintage camera. A noblewoman with her hair coiled up stood before a patterned stained-glass window, gazing into the distance.

Arkham Batman frowned. This clue might be plot, or it might point to a location; the latter was more likely, otherwise they wouldn't give a window with such a distinctive pattern. This place should be assigned to Spider-Man to find.

Arkham Batman immediately picked up the photograph. Then he discovered something else placed at the bottom of the cabinet — looked like a camera. But it didn't seem to be the camera that took this photo, because it looked a bit too advanced.

He picked up the camera and gestured with it. Just as he brought his eye to it, he saw a skill icon on the camera's interface, reading: "Helps you glimpse the devil's true face."

Arkham Batman understood somewhat; this should allow photographing the devil to obtain information. That information might be quite direct — skills or identity details, etc. — and might help with the sealing.

Arkham Batman immediately knew what to do next. Since he wasn't Number 1, he would use the time the devil spent hunting Number 1 to gain as many clues as possible. First go photograph the devil; if he ran into Spider-Man on the way, give him the photo and have him find this window to see if there were any clues.

Arkham Batman walked out with the camera. But before he could exit the main hall, he heard heavy footsteps from upstairs — definitely not Shiler, because this kind of footsteps could basically only be made by boots.

Arkham Batman turned back with the camera; a hatted figure was descending the spiral stairs. This man's build wasn't very muscular, but he was very tall. Wearing a brown trench coat wrapped tight, straps fastened tight. Topped with a small brown bowler hat, and a mask covered in ink blots.

Arkham Batman's hand paused. With just one glance, he instantly realized his previous understanding of Rorschach was completely wrong — this guy was a lunatic, and seriously ill at that.

Captain America indeed represented the American spirit of a certain era, but America in that era was still relatively normal, so Captain America was fairly reliable. But the guy standing before him, even if he also represented a certain era of America, that era might not be very healthy. Arkham Batman even momentarily couldn't tell which was more unreliable — this guy or Constantine.

Arkham Batman couldn't do psychoanalysis, but this guy's abnormality no longer needed psychoanalysis to analyze. He had been muttering nonstop since coming down from upstairs. When he saw Arkham Batman, he stopped. Although the mask hid his eyes, that head tilt and raised hand — Arkham Batman had only seen such mannerisms on the Joker. This proved Rorschach's mental state was indeed not good.

Considering this was his teammate after all, Arkham Batman still spoke first: "Do you know your own serial number?"

The other didn't answer. Arkham Batman didn't intend to waste more time on him, so he turned to walk out the door. But the person behind pursued, footsteps getting faster; Arkham Batman even worried he'd get struck.

He had to turn back again; Rorschach braked sharply and stopped, saying in a somewhat hoarse voice: "... Are you the Batman who became President?"

"That's right, it's me." Arkham Batman said patiently, "But obviously the President's orders don't reach here..."

"I want to talk to you." Rorschach's tone was urgent, clearly agitated, "I feel we can talk about some very meaningful things, like the immigration issue. What do you think of those immigrants?"

A big question mark popped up on the head of Arkham Batman.

?? This is the comic book Rorschach; the original comic actually had a theme similar to a satirical superhero in black robes, so the comic book Rorschach is far-right and mentally not quite sound. The movie version of Rorschach will be written separately later.