PFC Chapter 4497 The Darkest Night (25)
Chapter 4497 The Darkest Night (25)
Chapter 4497 The Darkest Night (Twenty-Five)
Having witnessed Perrotta's miraculous resurrection, neither Alberto nor Tim could readily conclude that "an unknown fate necessarily means death." Let alone an unknown fate, even those already confirmed dead are now far from being truly gone.
“There are two questions.” Tim held up two fingers. “First, why Hugo Strange?”
“Because he was pretty capable,” Jenna said. “Although I’m from a long time ago and I’ve never met him in person, being able to serve as the director of Arkham Asylum must have meant he was highly skilled.”
"Moreover, mental and psychological skills are exactly what Brainiac is good at. For example, Brainiac couldn't find anything wrong with the background of that corpse collector. This proves that Hugo may have already used his abilities to erase the information. This also shows that the mastermind was right to choose to resurrect Hugo. If they had resurrected someone else, a lot of information would probably have been found out long ago."
“That makes sense. But don’t forget, we fought Darkseid before.” Tim turned to the side, resting an arm on the bar, and said, “Darkseid also lost many skilled fighters in the Brainiac War. Hugo is just an ordinary human, no match for those super soldiers. If one of those aliens were to be resurrected, it could wreak havoc in a city.”
“I understand what you mean,” Alberto said. “What’s strange is that this mastermind didn’t choose to launch a direct attack, but instead chose to cause trouble in the shadows. You know, resurrection skills are best suited for use on Earth.”
Neither Jenna nor Tim objected. It's important to remember that Earth had just fought a cosmic war; Brainiac led all of humanity in retaliation against Darkseid and various alien civilizations, suffering countless casualties. Therefore, resurrecting these individuals was likely the best option. Even if they resurrected an old Hugo, no matter how powerful, his numbers and quality couldn't compare to Darkseid's army.
“I have a feeling,” Jenna said, “that he doesn’t not want to go all out, he might just be afraid to.”
"You mean he's afraid of Brainiac?"
"Shouldn't he be afraid?" Jenna countered. "The Brainiac Wars weren't fought against some nobody. After that war, all the known civilizations in the universe are avoiding the Milky Way, afraid of getting a beating if they pass by Earth. It's only natural that the mastermind behind it is afraid."
“The multiverse isn’t peaceful either,” Tim said. “The Batmen seem to be tracking down dark forces. If the mastermind is the one they’re looking for, then this guy may have invaded more than just our universe.”
“If that’s the case, I think I understand why he didn’t choose to launch a direct attack.” Jenna tapped the table and said, “It must be because the previous direct attack failed, so he had no choice but to take the covert route. Moreover, I suspect that his covert route in some universe also failed.”
"What do you mean?"
“Look, his ability to resurrect humans is probably not limited by time. After all, Hugo has been dead for so many years, yet he can still be brought back to life. In that case, instead of resurrecting Hugo, it would be better to resurrect our own relatives.”
Tim raised an eyebrow, and Jenna continued, "For example, my boss, Amanda Waller, is still haunted by the case of her entire family's deaths. If her family could be brought back to life, do you think she would work for the mastermind behind it all?"
“With Brainiac around, Amanda doesn’t have much real power, but if she’s focused on covering things up, she could cause us a lot of trouble. Besides, there are plenty of people more useful than Amanda. If we handle things carefully, we can achieve a much better situation than we are now.”
“But it’s not easy.” Tim thought for a moment and then sighed. “Manipulating people’s hearts with emotions is a very difficult thing. We don’t even know who the mastermind is, whether he can accurately understand human emotions, or whether he can make good use of these emotions. These are all unknowns.”
"He might not be as cautious as you. Who wouldn't be shaken by seeing their loved ones come back to life? Being able to perfectly resurrect someone who has been dead for many years is a huge advantage in itself. There's no reason for him not to use this trick. I'm more inclined to believe that he probably did use it, but failed, and may even have lost badly."
Tim paused, then said, "You said the ability to resurrect itself is a huge advantage. There's no reason this move shouldn't succeed, unless he runs into... Batman."
The two exchanged a glance, then looked away, a smirk playing on their lips. Although their universe no longer had Batman, they could still imagine how the mastermind behind it all had fallen to Batman.
Let's put it this way. Batman became Batman because of the death of his parents, but after being Batman for so many years, he hasn't researched how to resurrect them. This shows that he's not just indifferent to the idea of the dead being brought back to life, but rather extremely opposed to it.
No one knows exactly how many Flashes were in the house when the Flash's parents died. This might be because Barry Allen's abilities are special, which is why he attempted it. But thinking about it, it's not that Batman couldn't do it; he just didn't want to.
Against such an opponent, the ability to resurrect would offer no advantage; on the contrary, it would inflict the greatest blow. Batman would undoubtedly be on high alert, giving no opening whatsoever. If the tactic of emotional blackmail is countered, it might actually foster unity within Batman's side.
“It seems he’s learned his lesson,” Tim said again. “A direct assault didn’t work, and emotional blackmail didn’t work either. So, he turned his attention to supervillains who can operate in the shadows, which is a kind of innovative approach.”
“Honestly, this style of fighting is really difficult to deal with,” Jenna said, frowning. “To accuse Hugo Strange, we first need to prove to Brainiac that he is abnormal. Considering that Perrotta seems no different from a normal person, proving it from a physics perspective is almost impossible. So we can only approach it from a sociological perspective.”
“Alberto,” Tim called out, turning his head, “could you please help us find out how Hugo died back then?”
Alberto nodded and said, "Back then, he was the director of Arkham Asylum, which put him in high society. I can ask some of my old friends from the Twelve Families; someone should know."
“The body collector is also an important clue,” Jenna said.
“Do you think it’s possible,” Tim said, “that Jeretta is the one who collected Hugo’s body.”
The other two looked at him, and Tim continued his analysis: "It seems that the resume killer just wanted to remind us that Jerita and Hugo had some connection. But this happened when they were both still alive, so it's just old news and doesn't offer us any useful information."
“The resume killer only conveys valid information, and his information is very likely to be correct. Just like the second case that pointed precisely to the shared villa in the South District. He wouldn’t just randomly pass on useless old stories; he must want to tell us some definite and reliable information.”
"So, by inferring from the pattern in the second case, the problem lies in the victim's profession. The victim in the second case was identified as living in a shared villa in the South District, so the victim in the first case must also be related to the message he wanted to convey. The corpse collector is a very special profession, and what makes it special is that we were just worried about not having any evidence to prove that Hugo was dead, while Jerita just happened to be the one who announced his death."
Jenna's face paled as if she had thought of something, and she said, "You don't mean to say that he also... ugh!"
Tim glanced at her, then said with a wry smile, "How did you come up with that idea? Whether it actually happened or not doesn't matter. What matters is that he might be a witness who can prove Hugo is dead."
“But he’s dead now,” Jenna said. “And killed by that resume killer who wanted to pass on a message to us. If he wanted to help us, he should have kept that guy alive.”
She paused abruptly, then gave a knowing look and said, "This might not be the first time Jeretta has died."
Jenna thought for a moment, then continued, "The crime scene in the first case looks like the resume killer killed Jeretta and then arranged his body like that. But in reality, the resume killer may have just dissected a body."
Tim narrowed his eyes. Jenna looked at him and said, "I killed Perlotta, I mean the time in the transport vehicle."
Tim's expression remained unchanged. He had seen the photos of the accident scene and knew about Jenna's superpowers. This wasn't something difficult to deduce. He said, "You mean, the resume killer did the same thing as you, re-killing a corpse that had come back to life?"
Jenna nodded and said, "What I mentioned is absolutely important. If Jeretta really did desecrate Hugo's body, do you think Hugo would have that memory?"
“This is a rather profound philosophical question,” Tim said. “When people cannot be brought back to life, we usually discuss the body and the soul separately. People think that the body remains on earth while the soul goes to heaven. But if resurrection were possible, would the body and soul be resurrected together, or just the body? If only the body is resurrected, would it still remember the process of its gradual decay and eventual demise?”
“Even if he has no memory, he definitely knows why Jeretta went to collect his body.” Jenna smiled and raised an eyebrow, as if gloating. “You can’t expect someone like that to be grateful. Besides, although Hugo saved him back then, who knows how many horrific experiments he did on him. Revenge is much more plausible than gratitude. What would someone with such a fetish do when seeking revenge?”
Tim also covered his mouth. Clearly, some images that flashed through his mind were too much for him to bear. He said, "So after Hugo is resurrected, he will definitely go after Jeretta."
"Yes. It's possible that Jeretta was already killed by Hugo at that time, then resurrected, and then caught by the resume killer and killed again. It's similar to Perrotta's experience."
“If Jeretta isn’t going to betray Hugo, then there’s no point in him living,” Tim said. “No wonder the resume killer killed him again. But that way, we’ll lose an important witness.”
“You may not know this, but in Gotham, body collectors always work in pairs,” Alberto said. “A former mob boss who used to run Pier 14 told me that Jeretta and his wife used to work for him. His wife is still alive.”
“My God, a man like that even has a wife,” Jenna said, slapping her forehead.
“Birds of a feather flock together,” Tim said. “Looks like this is the key clue. Let’s go.”