PFC Chapter 4512 The Darkest Night (4)
Chapter 4512 The Darkest Night (4)
Chapter 4512 The Darkest Night (Forty)
Victor thawed the room, and Brainiac finally saw Schiller, who was frozen in an ice sculpture and looked helpless.
“I have a new respect for you,” Brainiac said. “It seems that my plan to reorganize nature reserves around the world has the potential to be implemented…”
“Impossible,” Victor said. “I didn’t trap him with dense ice.”
With a "bang," the ice shattered. Schiller steadied himself against the wall, smiled, and said, "It seems the other matters are settled. Now, can we talk about the case, Mr. Fries?"
"Any other cases?"
"You don't really think I risked my life by going to find Hugo without any preparation, do you?"
"I thought this time, you were just going to deal with him as soon as possible."
“That was indeed the original plan.” Schiller let out a sigh of relief and went over to sit down. Victor poured him a cup of hot tea and sat down opposite him.
“During his years of imprisonment at Arkham Asylum, Hugo was never well-behaved. He constantly used his mind control abilities to do dirty tricks, persecuting many people and offending many others. I found some of his former victims.”
"Can they handle Hugo?"
“Normally, that wouldn’t work. But Hugo is clearly not normal now—after fighting me, he’s been blinded by rage. Just one small mistake and he’ll be devoured by those lunatics.”
"A very good plan. So, are there any other questions?"
“The problem is, he can’t die yet,” Schiller said, taking a sip of tea. “The reason I say he’s somewhat capable isn’t because he dug up Bruce’s past, but because he brainwashed that little girl.”
"As far as I know, these zombies are not entirely without the power to resist. Some of them can actively activate the death power within their bodies, unleashing extraordinary strength."
"You mean..."
"The resurrected zombies should have been controlled by the mastermind behind them. Hugo was like that, and so was the little girl. But they were both clearly out of control."
Schiller sighed and said, "Resurrecting Hugo was the stupidest decision that mastermind made. You can't induce a psychologist to make the choices you want by altering memories or deleting certain emotions. People like Hugo usually have a very sophisticated mental self-examination mechanism. After regaining consciousness, he could immediately realize what was wrong and correct it. So it's very likely that he had already broken free from the mastermind's control shortly after his resurrection."
"Why didn't the mastermind turn him back into a corpse?"
"Because the mastermind behind the scenes is not as skilled as him. He can conceal his mental abnormalities and even prevent the mastermind from noticing that he has repaired the errors in his mental system."
"Because he lost control, he also caused the little girl to lose control. But why can't it be that the two of them cooperated and set a trap for you?"
“While that’s a possibility, the biggest problem is that if the little girl doesn’t really believe it, then I could find flaws in her lies. That’s too risky.”
Schiller rested his elbows on his knees, holding his teacup in both hands, and said, "Hugo has always wanted to defeat me in a battle of wits; it has become an obsession for him. He lost last time, but this time he has a seemingly fair chance, and he will definitely give it his all and leave no room for error."
“He didn’t know that little girl, nor was he interested in knowing her. He wouldn’t believe she could tell a lie that completely deceived me or Brainiac. He only believed he could do it, so he did it. He must have figured out a way to fool the mastermind and alter her memories.”
“I completely understand,” Victor said. “He knows Bruce feels guilty about what happened to the little girl, and you might want to make up for it. But if she has the wrong memories, it’s impossible to do that. You have to find a way to solve this problem.”
“This is the ‘fair match’ he wanted,” Schiller said, “to see who can really control her.”
“My God,” Victor exclaimed, “so you accepted this challenge because you don’t want Hugo to die at the hands of those madmen? You want to defeat him head-on, and then…”
Schiller shook his head: "I suspect that if he dies, his mental control over that little girl will never be broken."
"The key point is him, not the little girl?"
“That’s right. Because he wants to defeat me head-on. He wants it to be a duel between him and me, not someone else. The little girl is just a prelude.”
“This is troublesome now,” Victor said, looking troubled. “The people you’ve brought in want revenge, and they may have even gotten close to Hugo. But you want to save Hugo, which means you have to stand on the opposite side from them.”
“No.” Schiller shook his head again. “I warned them long ago that things weren’t that simple, and there was no way to defeat him physically. If they are thwarted, they will still come to me.”
"So you think they can't kill Hugo?"
"Who will win between them and Hugo depends on who I help. If I do nothing, even if Hugo escapes death, he will suffer a great loss. If I help him, he should be able to escape smoothly."
"Do you want to help him?" Victor frowned.
“He thinks I’ll help him,” Schiller said, taking another sip of tea. “And I will indeed help him. He should be arriving soon.”
“Good heavens! That Brainiac government clerk is practically everywhere,” Victor exclaimed. “Looks like I have to risk plagiarism and include him in my work.”
"He's going to save Hugo?" Victor asked, somewhat curiously. "Then what are we going to do?"
Victor was puzzled as to why they were discussing this matter when someone else would handle it.
“We’re here to see what’s going on,” Schiller said. “I have a feeling we’re going to see something really exciting. You have to trust my gut feeling about this.”
After saying that, he stood up and put on his coat. Victor hadn't quite grasped what was going on. He had originally thought this was a very serious topic, that they would have to engage in a battle of wits and reasoning, at least three or four rounds of back-and-forth deduction before they could even begin to glean some of the mastermind's evil intentions. It turned out that Schiller had only explained the whole story to him in advance, just to watch the spectacle.
“Let’s go, Mr. Frith. We need to find a good sniping spot; we might need your help.” Schiller walked over and patted Victor on the shoulder, who was still in a daze. Victor had no choice but to stand up and grab his coat.
"What's all this commotion about?" Victor asked in the car.
"You'll find out soon enough. This is a great opportunity for you to unleash your imagination and writing skills. Whether this case can have a romantic and poignant ending depends on your writing ability."
The car slowly drove into the northern district, where the snow had lessened somewhat. However, since most of the houses were uninhabited, the atmosphere was even more desolate, with only a few houses in the distance lit up. The car twisted and turned until it entered a long street. At the very end, a manor house appeared old and rustic, its roof covered with a thick layer of snow, and gray-green climbing plants, neglected for a long time, covered an entire wall.
At that moment, light was shining from a room on the second floor of the house, though it was difficult to see clearly from below. Schiller got out of the car, looked around, and then said, "Let's go over there."
He pointed to another house on the side of the manor. The roof of this house was slightly higher than the second floor of the manor's rooms. There was a platform there; if you stood on it, you should be able to see right into the room.
Walking around to the front of the house, Schiller simply unlocked it. It was also an abandoned villa; the interior doors were unlocked. They quickly reached the second floor and then went up to the roof via the rooftop stairs.
"Alright, Mr. Fries, use your dense ice to create a room here, otherwise it's too cold."
Victor was somewhat speechless, but he still used the dense ice walls to create a relatively enclosed space. Schiller took out the heater he had brought from his office and placed the teapot on it.
The small space quickly warmed up. Schiller then produced a pair of binoculars from somewhere. Victor took them and looked them over; they weren't very professional binoculars and couldn't see very far. But luckily they weren't far apart, so he put the binoculars over his eyes.
“It really is him,” Victor said, looking at the figure standing in the center of the room. “It really is Hugo Strange.”
Although they had previously speculated that it was him, no one had actually seen him, so they couldn't be entirely certain. But now, seeing a man who had long been dead standing right in front of them, Victor truly felt the reality—such a miraculous thing as resurrection had actually happened.
Hugo stood beside the sofa, seemingly waiting for someone. A short while later, another black car circled around to the other side of the manor, and a man in a long trench coat and hat walked through the manor gate.
He looked remarkably like Schiller, or rather, he *was* Schiller. Furthermore, he was wearing the exact same long trench coat and black suit as Schiller, and carrying an umbrella.
"Is he imitating you?" Victor asked, holding up his binoculars.
“It seems so,” Schiller said, also holding up his binoculars.
Why would he do that? What's the difference between you going and him going?
“Nothing is different, but if he goes, I can watch the show,” Schiller said, “and I can take you with me.”
The figure entered the manor and quickly reached the second floor. Because some people had their backs to the windows, their lip movements couldn't be seen, so it was unclear what they were saying. But it seemed to be about old times, perhaps related to their first duel.
Just then, with a crash, the window of that room shattered, and a throwing knife was thrown in. Hugo dodged somewhat awkwardly, shouting something at Schiller, but his lips remained unreadable. Schiller stood still. Suddenly, several people burst into the room.
"Those are the victims?" Victor asked. "Hugo is in big trouble."
“Not necessarily,” Schiller said. “This guy has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Hugo scrambled to a corner of the room, but suddenly threw a machine at the female assassin. The assassin blocked it with her arm, but the instant she touched the machine, she went into a daze.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hugo charged forward and grabbed the female assassin by the neck. The others, hesitant to act, began exchanging shouts.
It's unclear what they discussed, but ultimately, the tall man leading the group, carrying a shotgun, retreated out of the room. The figure who looked like a child also seemed somewhat helpless. After they had all left, Hugo knocked the female assassin unconscious and threw her out the window.
“Good heavens, if he hadn’t been able to control that killer, we probably would have witnessed one of the largest murders ever,” Victor clicked his tongue. “What a pity.”
"The best is yet to come," Schiller said, holding up his binoculars.