Chapter 4887

Tim was startled by his own imagination—he considered himself not the psychic-detective type; he prided himself on logical analysis and evidence chains, and was quite effective at it. The reason he could temporarily serve as Gotham Police Commissioner was precisely because he had used his detective talents to help Gordon many times, earning deep trust.

After Bruce ceased being Batman, Batman did not distance himself from this city. Batman's cape shattered into many pieces, each person inheriting one. Undoubtedly, Tim Drake inherited the detective portion—not just behavioral analysis, but also the ability to adopt the perspective of Gotham natives, combining the city's characteristics for comprehensive reasoning, and he has never failed so far.

Detectives are imaginative. Yet Tim's imagination is mostly very practical, grounded in reason and evidence, reconstructing crime scenes and killers' behavior in his mind, rather than wild, unfettered fantasizing. Nor is it like now, suddenly conjuring a horror-movie-like image.

But Tim is also very sharp. He won't over-trust his rationality, and at the same time he gives space to his brain's instincts. He realized this moment's association might be a valuable inspiration, so he reached out and caught that fluttering butterfly.

"This is what the killer wants us to see," Tim suddenly said, "the abnormality of the corpse is what the killer wants to tell us."

Everyone turned to look at him. Victor asked: "What?"

Compared to doubt, there was more surprise. They were all very familiar with Tim's state just now: after gaining some new clues, staring for a while, then suddenly zoning out, and upon snapping back, uttering something astonishing—you're also a medium?

But Shiler said he couldn't perform mediumship, yet Tim had the discovery first. Could this be a rising star in the field of psychoanalysis?

Unfortunately, Tim glanced at Shiler. This made everyone realize Shiler probably wasn't unable to see it—he just didn't want to say. As for why he didn't want to say, there are many reasons; the lessons of so many years haven't failed to teach people—Shiler's unwillingness to speak is best not probed further, regardless of the reason.

"You're right," Tim looked at Ethan, "this blackness is not clothing, but some abnormality manifested by the corpse. The killer deliberately placed it in a first-floor room and let the corpse sink, so that Brainiac would find the corpse, just to tell the detective behind Brainiac: this corpse is abnormal."

Everyone began scrutinizing the picture again. Without saying it, one might not notice much, but now that it's been said, this blackness does look somewhat eerie, not like any clothing fabric, but rather like something oozing from the corpse. Thinking this really sends chills down the spine.

"Brainiac," Tim called out, "have you gone to arrange underwater salvage equipment?"

"Yes. All underwater salvage equipment will be in place within 15 minutes. What's wrong?"

"Have them stop," Tim said firmly, "this corpse is not right; it cannot be easily salvaged. Even if salvaged, it cannot be easily disposed of. We must first figure out what's going on before contacting the corpse."

"Alright, I'll have the salvage team stand by while continuously monitoring the surrounding water. If any abnormality occurs, I'll activate the emergency disposal procedure to prevent large-scale water pollution."

Brainiac's tone remained as flat as ever, but at this moment it seemed especially reliable. Tim turned his gaze back to the photo. He began to carefully ponder what this black thing is.

He would of course prefer to make a rigorous scientific hypothesis. For example, this might be some mutant bacteria inside the corpse, i. e., corpse fluid containing special ingredients. But if it were truly some microscopic anomaly, it would be hard to form such a regular film, and completely non-diffusive, to the point of truly resembling a garment worn on the body. This doesn't quite conform to physical laws.

That sudden inspiration led Tim to think this is more likely related to mysticism. He felt this might be some precipitated curse. As for why there would be a curse, no special reason is needed; as long as he is a Gothamite, from birth onward he has already been a petri dish for all kinds of curses. In Gotham, corpses showing abnormalities after death are not uncommon, and Tim thinks this one is no exception.

But Tim's lack of surprise means the killer wouldn't be surprised either. If it were merely a corpse abnormality, it wouldn't be worth his effort to display. Certainly, this person had problems while alive, so the killer set up this trap, killed him, and deliberately displayed it afterward.

"Brainiac," Tim shouted, "have you detected any large-scale behavioral abnormalities at Arkham Asylum or among North District residents?"

"No detection," Brainiac replied, "no behavioral abnormalities monitored."

"Then it hasn't spread," Tim said, "but this doesn't mean the aftermath of this abnormality won't spread. The killer might be trying to stop it, then warn us. But why doesn't he come forward?"

"Perhaps he doesn't trust this artificial intelligence," Ethan said, "I really can't see anything about him worth trusting."

"But if he doesn't trust Brainiac, he wouldn't have designed it for Brainiac to see. He could have acted earlier and let others in the asylum see it, or let Professor Fulisi see it. That would be better than waiting until after the killing, then letting Brainiac find the corpse."

Thinking of this, Tim had another flash of insight and said: "The difference between artificial intelligence and humans is that the former is unaffected by hallucinations. Perhaps the killer himself isn't sure whether the victim truly has a problem, so he displayed it to Brainiac."

"Your meaning is, the killer discovered the victim had an abnormality, but couldn't judge whether this abnormality was real or merely his hallucination. He thought other humans might also be unable to judge, so he displayed it to Brainiac. Because Brainiac is an electronic lifeform unaffected by hallucinations, if he truly felt there was an abnormality, he would naturally go investigate."

"This signifies one thing," Tim said, extending a finger, "the killer is very likely someone who frequently faces hallucinations—a mentally ill person."

Victor turned to look at Cobpot, who pulled out his phone and walked to the side saying: "I'll contact Edward."

"So Brainiac also detected the abnormality?" Alberto frowned, saying, "This black substance can be seen and photographed, proving it's not a hallucination. Precisely for this reason, Brainiac came to us for help solving the case. The killer's purpose has been achieved."

"But even without this black substance, Brainiac would investigate the murder case, after all a life was lost." Victor said, "Moreover, even if Brainiac hadn't detected it, that black thing having something wrong—he would just treat it as a regular murder case."

"This may not be the case," Tim said, "he would have me come find you, proving his attitude toward this case is extraordinary. To protect your mental health, he has always opposed letting you, these preserve beasts, come into contact with murder cases."

"Then why didn't he say anything at first?" Ethan still wanted to pick on Brainiac's flaws, "If he initially thought this case was off, he should have shared more clues instead of letting us guess wildly here. He didn't even give us the photos."

Tim, however, shook his head and said: "Perhaps someone might think electronic lifeforms have stronger logic, so reasoning would be more accurate, but the problem is, electronic lifeforms are only strong in logic. Even if Brainiac now has some emotions, they are far inferior to humans. His reasoning based purely on logic is very likely to contain major fallacies and be highly misleading. So he restrains himself as much as possible, describing only completely certain clear facts, without adding his own judgment."

"Moreover," Tim pointed out, "this black substance is very likely something science cannot explain, and mysticism is even a knowledge blind spot for electronic lifeforms. He can't explain it, so he won't make wild guesses to avoid misleading us."

"I think this might be the consequence of water pollution," Brainiac suddenly said, "toxins accumulate in the human body and are released at death. This is the most likely conclusion."

"Don't reason anymore," Shiler's evaluation was very objective.

If following electronic lifeform logic, that is indeed very likely. Because previous water testing results were not optimistic, and drinking water is most prone to causing human toxin accumulation. At this time a corpse entirely black appeared; according to normal logic, it should be water poisoning, death presenting a special body surface condition. This is not murder, but merely an accidental case of drinking water poisoning.

But Shiler's view is completely opposite. He believes this is a murder case, noting that unnatural death includes not just unnatural death—drinking water poisoning also counts as unnatural death. But Shiler said over and over, this is a murder, meaning a premeditated killing, not an accidental case like historical causes leading to drinking water poisoning.

They cannot accept each other's conclusions. But obviously, in this aspect Shiler is the authority, and Brainiac likely knows this, which is why he didn't immediately jump out to state his own conclusion, but let them reason instead; facts prove this is correct, because everyone's conclusion also differs completely from Brainiac's.

"First, this precipitated black substance could not possibly be some chemical component," Victor pointed out, "molecular diffusion cannot produce such a state, even if you asked Jonathan—same thing. There must be some mystical influence here."

"Second, if it were drinking water poisoning, it wouldn't be only him showing such symptoms; you also said earlier, no large-scale behavioral abnormalities were monitored. This clearly doesn't match the situation of mass poisoning cases."

"Third, corpses in poisoning cases don't run themselves to the first floor, nor do they sink themselves in water. If there's no second person acting, many corpse states cannot be explained. And if it were merely a poisoning case, the second person has no reason to do these things to the corpse. Even if you wanted to warn you this way, delivering the corpse would be better."

"Wanting to convey information to us, yet not wanting us to touch the corpse, the only reason is: the killer thinks this corpse is highly unusual, anyone touching it might be in danger, so he uses display as a warning, but uses water to trap the corpse, preventing you from immediately undertaking salvage."

"This doesn't conflict with what Tim said," Victor continued, "the killer discovered the abnormality, again uncertain, so he planned to first let us take a look. If we figure out the trick, this also counts as a warning. If not, naturally we'll send people to salvage the corpse, and there won't be any problem."

"If there's no problem, then this person died for nothing?" Ethan asked.

"Of course not, we're not looking for the killer, are we?" Tim looked toward Cobpot's direction.

At this moment Cobpot returned with his phone. He said: "Edward is also missing."