Chapter 4886

Everyone stared at him with wide eyes. Tim read the sentence carefully, as if he didn't recognize English. But he repeated it again: "The body is gone."

This was sent to him by Brainiac. No context, no data report. Tim even sensed a hint of human surprise and speechlessness in it. It's hard to imagine what mood Brainiac was in when he typed this line.

"The body really is gone." Tim received a very blurry photo—not pixelated, but a view through the water surface at night toward the glass behind the window, almost nothing visible.

However, if you increase the brightness and look closely, you can see—there's nothing there, just an empty room. The so-called floating corpse simply does not exist.

Ethan signaled he had something to say, and Victor released him from the ice seal. Ethan chambered his police pistol and then said: "Is it possible this artificial intelligence is playing us?"

Now everyone truly fell silent. According to their understanding of Brainiac, he wouldn't do this. But the bizarre turn of events has exceeded expectations somewhat.

Brainiac was eager to prove his innocence. He sent over a large batch of images, which were actually just photos—taken on the water surface when the body was discovered.

"So you do have photos, then," Ethan said, "why didn't you produce them earlier?"

They quickly understood why. Because this photo is even blurrier than the later one. Only after various enlargements and brightness adjustments could the corpse's shadow be faintly seen.

"Is this really a corpse? Or just some model prop you made?" Ethan pressed on, "Afraid we'd spot the problem, so you made it this blurry?"

"That's not the case," Tim said, "If we wanted to mislead you, we could just place a real corpse. Gotham doesn't lack corpses."

"I don't play with corpses," Brainiac finally couldn't help but say, "If I wanted to mislead you, I wouldn't pick a time when Xilei is present."

Everyone turned to Xilei, who nodded and said: "I've said it all along—this is a murder. Not a scam by Brainiac to waste our time. Someone died, there is a corpse, and there is a killer."

No one asked Xilei for evidence. Countless facts have already proven that in this regard, you only need to treat Xilei as a narrator from a god's-eye view. Everything he says is established background setting, with no need to debate true or false.

Xilei said there is a murder, so there definitely is. Rather than some scheme by Brainiac to occupy their time and prevent them from causing trouble, painstakingly arranged.

However, Brainiac's explanation also makes sense. If he truly wanted to set up a scam, first, there's no need to let Xilei be present, as he'd surely be exposed; second, he wouldn't set up such a scene. One can only say human creativity in this regard far surpasses artificial intelligence—Brainiac couldn't conjure such a bizarre situation.

A storm. A corpse completely soaked in water. A midnight deduction with no leads. And now even the sole possible breakthrough—the corpse—has vanished.

The worst part is, the surveillance in the room where the body was is already unusable. And because of the water, there won't be footprints on the floor. Drone footage also can't capture anything clearly. So now no one knows who moved the body.

Of course, the only good news is that everyone present has an alibi. They certainly didn't move the body.

But this adds difficulty to the deduction. Because clearly, the suspects among those present are significant—either they participated, or they knew. If it wasn't them, then the killer's identity becomes even more of a mystery.

"Where is Edward?" Tim asked.

"He's in the hospital," Brainiac said, "constantly solving riddles, never leaving his chair. And he seems unable to swim."

"He really can't," Cobpot said, "I didn't mention it earlier because moving the body to the first floor doesn't necessarily require swimming. This also doesn't rule out his suspicion. But to pull the body out of the water, one must be able to swim. So it definitely won't be him."

Tim also nodded. Now the body is gone, so likely no new clues will appear. They had no choice but to sit down again and re-examine every detail of the known clues.

With the photos, there's more to study. They gathered around the fireplace, passing the photos around, and a bottle of whiskey was unknowingly emptied, yet still no breakthrough.

By the end, Tim grew a bit annoyed. Because besides Alberto attacking him, Ethan also attacked him due to wanting to attack Brainiac, Cobpot stood with Alberto, and Victor stood with Cobpot. He was practically surrounded by enemies.

Sometimes I truly don't know how Commissioner Gordon has endured this for so long. This job really makes whoever does it go crazy.

"Announce the answer, professor," Tim said, handing that stack of photos to Xilei, then added, "I just want an answer now, then return to the police station to file my report."

Xilei had already seen those photos. He said: "Even if I were truly a medium, the medium requires material discrimination. These things are like you randomly plucking a weed by the roadside, placing it on the offering table, and insisting Satan come look at it. Sorry, I can't do that."

Tim let out a long sigh, leaning back against the sofa. Fortunately, Xilei is on Tim's side. He half-comforted, half-reminded: "Regarding getting Brainiac to see the corpse, perhaps there are other possibilities."

Tim began thinking again. And when Holmes gained the upper hand, he quickly had an inspiration. He said: "Brainiac cannot be disturbed, nor is he easily misled. But the police and the helpers he recruited could possibly be."

"Brainiac investigates cases with emphasis on evidence. So before the water recedes and the body is fished out for autopsy, he has no evidence. Without direct evidence, one must seek indirect evidence. And indirect evidence relies on reasoning. He can certainly use logical chains, but the clues are truly too few. Without sufficient samples to support it, logic is hard to establish."

"So he turns to humans. He first came to me, then had me come find you. Precisely speaking, to have me find Professor Xilei. Because Professor Xilei uses a different method, not relying heavily on evidence and samples, possibly directly identifying the killer. In that case, the corpse faces not just an artificial intelligence, but also a group of human detectives. Then delay and deception become meaningful."

"The killer isn't unfamiliar with Brainiac—rather, he knows Brainiac too well. He knows when Brainiac will seek human help, so he showed the corpse's state to Brainiac. The purpose isn't to mislead Brainiac, but to mislead the humans behind Brainiac."

"But what did he mislead us about?" Cobpot asked, "Using giant observation levels to mislead the time of death is frankly too lowbrow. Earlier we also said, given the corpse is known to be soaking in water, everyone would rule out this interference factor and not make mistaken inferences. Moreover, time of death isn't that important—likely during the chaotic evacuation; earlier would make success unlikely."

"What about the floating state?" Tim muttered to himself, "Although it might be to be seen, perhaps there are other reasons. Maybe there's something inside him—what could it be? Is it what the killer wants us to see?"

The crowd gathered around this discussion. But still, that sentence remains—there is absolutely no clue, the photos are hopelessly blurry, and after hours of debate, there's still no result.

At this moment, Ethan held one of the photos, somewhat puzzled, and said: "Don't you feel the corpse's clothing is off?"

Everyone looked up at him. Ethan pointed to the very blurry human-shaped outline in the photo and said: "It looks like the clothing is black. But, who in the hospital wears black?"

Everyone froze. This is a rather commonsense question. Hospitals worldwide are the same—they avoid dark clothing.

Some might wonder, dark clothing is more stain-resistant, so why don't doctors and nurses wear all black? But actually, the logic of medical uniforms is the opposite—it's to show stains. Only by showing stains can you know where it's dirty, so you can clean better.

The white coat was actually invented for this purpose. Before that, doctors and nuns preferred gray and black robes, which looked neater. But precisely because of that, clothes easily harbor dirt and grime, and blood splatters go unnoticed. After Lister required white clothing, hygiene conditions indeed improved.

In modern times, medical staff in hospitals do not wear dark clothing. Operating rooms are usually blue and green, pediatrics pink. These colors also have high brightness, not particularly dark.

Likewise, patients wear hospital gowns, not because the director has OCD and demands uniform attire, but because hospital gowns allow quick judgment of whether a patient is bleeding. Wearing black, blood seeping out would be invisible—definitely not acceptable.

When they began reasoning, Tim said this person wore all black, but at the time no one thought it problematic. Because they forgot to place the victim in the hospital environment. Many non-hospital workers might also not have noticed the issue—this is also a typical knowledge blind spot.

"Could it be visiting family?" Cobpot asked, since Victor accompanied him that day, making Victor a visitor. How visitors dress, the hospital doesn't control.

Victor shook his head and said: "Visiting hours end at 8:30 PM. Before that, all visitors must leave. I stayed longer only because I know acquaintances. There should be no other visitors in the hospital."

"Moreover, even if it was chaotic then, if I truly saw someone in all black, I should have an impression. Not completely forgotten, but I indeed didn't see such a person."

"So the victim isn't from the hospital?" Tim wondered, "Could the killer have killed elsewhere, then dumped the body into the hospital during chaos? But how would that be done?"

"Also," Ethan raised another question, "the corpse is this swollen—clothes shouldn't fit this well, possibly even torn apart. But this clothing looks like it still has room. Surely not coincidentally all bought in large size?"

They hurriedly looked at the photo and found Ethan was right. Although the photo is very blurry, clearly there's no clothing damage, and the hem seems to faintly float upward. This means the clothing hasn't been stretched to its limit.

This is truly bizarre. Tim even felt his scalp tingle. A image flashed in his mind—this black layer isn't clothing, but something like a wrapping enveloping the corpse, adhering to the skin and drifting with the water.