Chapter 478: When Schiller Finds a New Streetlight (Part 3)

By the time Batman climbed out of the car somewhat disheveled, his understanding of vehicle emergency safety systems had reached another level.

He shook his slightly dizzy head, opened his eyes, walked to the side of the car, and wanted to fish the Joker out.

But at this moment, he discovered that the car door in the back seat had already disappeared in the explosion, leaving just an opening for someone to crawl out. While he was struggling with the airbag, the Joker had already secretly slipped away from the back.

Batman took a deep breath. Through the Batmobile, he looked at the giant pit that had been blasted out in front of the steps.

Then he raised his head and looked around, confirming that this was indeed the waiting hall of Arkham Asylum, not some Elizabeth Street in Cat Getan or a water pump room in the Living Hell.

In the short time it took him to break free from the car, the situation at Arkham Asylum had changed again.

Because the ghost appeared on the third floor, the patients on the third floor were the first to act. After the fourth and fifth floors were startled, they provided fire support for the third floor one after another. That poor ghost didn't persist for very long before it turned into a wisp of faint green light and disappeared on the spot.

But the "finishing move" consciousness of the people of Cat Getan had always been very strong. To ensure the ghost had been thoroughly killed, they used some safe and compliant weapons to carry out a thorough "elimination."

The patients here didn't have much culture, and they didn't understand any load-bearing walls or architectural mechanics. They grabbed a corner of the wall and hit it to death. Not only did they use guns, but they also used explosives. The result was that the corner of the third-floor corridor was directly blown down.

Fortunately, Arkham Asylum was not a high-rise building, and the overall building was very large and stable, so it didn't collapse as a whole just because a corner of the wall cracked.

But what was more unfortunate was that the ceiling of the third floor was the floor of the fourth floor. After this layer collapsed, the unlucky guy in the corresponding room on the fourth floor fell directly to the third floor and was injured by the falling floor slab.

Among these people on the third floor, quite a few were subordinates of the injured person. Seeing their boss injured, they naturally rushed up to maintain order and pointed fingers angrily, accusing others of acting too violently.

"Fisherman! Are your eyes growing on your nose?! Can't you see that the corner of the wall has already cracked? And you still dare to throw a grenade??"

"Shut your mouth, Lawrence! You and your father are both cowards from the West District. Who the hell cares if the corner of the wall cracks during a firefight??"

"You Pelican Gang are just looking for trouble! When distributing water sources before, you snatched two of our pipelines. It was for Dr. Schiller's sake that I didn't find trouble with you here!"

"I will blow your dog head off with one shot, Antonio! Do you have a say here? Have you forgotten how your uncle died?"

"Shut your stinking mouth, Fisherman! Bang!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat..."

Instantly, the entire corridor was in a mess. Everyone picked up weapons nearby and started a firefight. The entire corridor was illuminated by muzzle flashes like daylight. The whole scene couldn't be called peaceful negotiation or friendly exchange, but it could be said to be settling old scores and grievances.

The third floor started a firefight, and the fourth floor didn't escape either. Very quickly, the spokespeople of the four districts of the Living Hell started an intense confrontation. The Four Giants of Elizabeth Street joined the melee, and the heads of the Twelve Families also wanted to help out. The entire Arkham Asylum was fought into a pot of porridge.

In an office at the very edge of the second floor, a thin figure held the phone and said to the other end:

"Yes, I'm looking for Cobblepot... Right, please tell the boss that the situation here is a bit chaotic, he had best come over in person..."

"It's like this, at the very beginning, it was that Fisherman from the South District of the Living Hell, do you know him? That big bearded guy, suddenly fired a shot, and then said there was a ghost. People on the third floor all said they saw a ghost..."

"... I don't know about that, because I didn't see it with my own eyes either. After they started fighting, they asked me to go upstairs to call others..."

"Right, that's what I thought too. If they fight too fiercely, the doctors and nurses will be angry..."

"If he wants to come, he had best be fast..." The little boy with a face full of freckles turned to look outside the window and said:

"Looking at this weather, I'm afraid it's going to snow again."

Looking outside the window, in the pitch-black sky, a piece of crystal-clear snowflake drifted down slowly, followed by more snowflakes.

When the snow fell, everything was silent. But when the breeze rose, the drifting snow turned into blades, carrying a terrifying whistling sound, rolling up the thin ice on the Cat Getan road that hadn't melted yet, and swept all the way into the Cat Getan Manor area.

In Schiller's manor, the atmosphere was still peaceful and harmonious. The fireplace flame rose, leaving all kinds of shadows on the wall behind. Hal looked at those jumping shadows and was slightly distracted, but very quickly, Schiller came downstairs with Dick and Aisha.

Merkel immediately stepped forward and said to Schiller: "Mr. Hal has been waiting for a while."

"Oh, it's fine, I came too early." Hal hurriedly said.

"No." Schiller patted Dick's back and said: "The knowledge points covered today are relatively important, so I dragged the class out for a while. I hope you don't mind."

"But why are you the one picking them up?" Schiller asked somewhat confusedly: "Where is Alfred?"

"Oh..." Hal revealed a somewhat embarrassed expression. He rubbed his hands and then said: "This is a Wei En family matter. I feel I cannot..."

Schiller looked at him from above his glasses. Hal sighed, helplessly said: "Alright, Alfred went to find trouble with Constantine."

Schiller gave Merkel a look. Merkel immediately walked up and said to Dick and Aisha: "Miss, and young master, Mr. Rodriguez recently bought two new picture books. Let's go to the study and take a look."

After the two children left, Hal sat back on the sofa, leaned against the soft sofa back, and sighed. He said: "You should know, Batman has been investigating that Constantine..."

"The method he uses to investigate is to take all his spare time to follow him. Recently, it seems he's been following him especially closely."

"Alfred is dissatisfied with this. Originally, I didn't understand it very well. I felt that Bruce was also an adult, and how he wants to do things is his own choice. But later I found out that that Constantine actually..."

Hal revealed a somewhat speechless expression, helplessness mixed with a trace of disgust. He said: "He plays a bit too openly. If I were Alfred, I wouldn't let Bruce contact this kind of person either."

"So, Alfred intends to go and warn Constantine?"

Hal pursed his lips, recalling the expression on Alfred's face when he went out, as well as the hunting rifle in his hand. He said:

"The word 'warn' might not be very accurate..."

"But why did he go today?"

"I didn't dare to ask. However, I heard from the radio that that guy called the Joker seems to have planned some bombing case again. He should be able to drag Batman away, and Alfred also knows this point, so he has enough time to go and 'warn' Constantine."

"And... I feel that the Alfred of the past shouldn't have been so impulsive. But ever since he went to Metropolis and came back, his mood seems to have been a bit bad. Do you know why this is?"

Schiller lowered his head to study the patterns on the table. Hal revealed a suspicious expression, but his gaze didn't have as much lethality as Batman's. Schiller didn't say, and he had no way either.

"Oh, right." Schiller said as if he suddenly remembered something: "Originally, I wanted to find a time to invite you over. Since you are the one picking up the children today, that's just right."

"What?" 【

Shiler rummaged through his clothing pocket and then took out a piece of ore emitting a green light.

Seeing this eerie ore, Hal instinctively dodged to the side at first, but soon, he widened his eyes, staring straight at the ore, and then said: "This is... Green Lantern energy?"

"That's right." Shiler nodded, acknowledging this point, and said: "I had quite a harvest during this trip to Metropolis, and the most important thing among them is that I obtained a type of ore."

"This ore was originally intended for certain people with superpowers; it can weaken their abilities. But after some processing by me, they became... like this."

As he spoke, Shiler took out a transparent, colorless crystal from another pocket. He turned the crystal around and said:

"A certain glutton ate the energy here, but spat out the ore itself like a peach pit."

"Previously, the radiation here was also green, and the Green Lantern energy is also green, so I thought, could this ore also carry Green Lantern energy?"

"After conducting some experiments, I discovered that my hypothesis was correct; this ore can indeed become a carrier for Green Lantern energy."

Hal hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping. After thinking for a moment, he asked suspiciously: "Setting that aside, where did you get the Green Lantern energy?"

"Oh, you mean this? I suffer from a rare mental illness called dissociative identity disorder. Among my several personalities, there happens to be one that can summon a Green Lantern ring, so I summoned a ring and did a small experiment..."

Hal looked at the mineral filled with Green Lantern energy. He had also been a Green Lantern and knew the nature of Green Lantern energy. He shook his head and said:

"The amount of Green Lantern energy contained in the thing in your hand is not something a single Green Lantern ring could provide."

"I didn't say it was provided by one ring."

"But..." Hal reached out his hand and said: "Fine, even if you have some mental illness and have many personalities, Green Lantern rings recognize their owners based on the number of physical bodies. There won't be two Green Lantern rings finding the same Lantern."

"Moreover, Green Lantern rings all have safety locks. Green Lantern energy can only stay in the ring or be infused into the Lantern's body by the ring. There is no way to extract it. If everyone could pull Green Lantern energy out of the ring, wouldn't it have been chaotic long ago?"

"That is indeed the case."

Contrary to Hal's expectations, Shiler not only did not deny it but very seriously admitted this point. He said: "Everything you said is correct, but how I managed to do all this still has to start with you."

"Start with me?" Hal was completely bewildered.

Shiler toyed with the green crystal in his hand and said in a nonchalant tone: "Remember what happened after you broke into Wei En Manor before?"

"I remember, but how did you know?... Oh, I get it. Dick, that little traitor, he actually told you everything!"

"Yes, including the embarrassing sight of you begging for mercy while being pointed at by a shotgun."

Hal's face fell, and he muttered under his breath. Shiler continued: "Remember how the ring fell off your hand?"

"Aisha attacked me and bit my arm. I wanted to shake her off, and as a result, she flew away with my ring... Wait, you don't mean..."