PFC Chapter 4487 The Darkest Night (5)
Chapter 4487 The Darkest Night (5)
Chapter 4487 The Darkest Night (Fifteen)
"Edward, are you alright?" Schiller stepped forward, shook hands with a thin young man, and then said, "How have you been feeling lately?"
“Uh…not bad.” Edward nodded repeatedly. His behavior was still somewhat erratic, but his language and logic were much better than before. He said, “Mrs. Miller gave me a leather-bound notebook. She said I could write down my riddles and then publish them. That way, people all over the world could see the riddles I write. She said they could all guess them, but I don’t think they could.”
“You can try,” Schiller said, “but if you let the whole world try to guess, they will definitely be able to guess most of them. Correspondingly, the ones that remain unsolved will be the best riddles.”
“That’s not how it works,” Edward retorted. “A riddle is only a good riddle if it can be solved. If so many people in the world can’t solve a riddle, then there’s something wrong with it. There are plenty of intelligent people in the world. If they can’t understand me, then who can?”
Schiller looked at Edward with some surprise. Not because of his argument, but because he could speak such a long and logical string of words. This proved that Edward's condition was beginning to improve.
They went into the ward together. Edward said, "It's good that you came to see me, Professor. Have you seen Cobblestone recently?"
“No, he’s busy with the factory,” Schiller said. “I’m not sure if he went to Krypton. Maybe I can have him send you a postcard.”
“Did he go to another planet? Can’t I go?” Edward scratched his face and said, “I want to go too, but Brainiac probably won’t allow it. It must be very interesting there. I can think of a hundred riddles about the universe.”
“You can go,” Schiller said. “I was just about to tell you this. You can’t stay in the hospital any longer. But you can choose where you want to go.”
"Why can't I stay in the hospital anymore?"
Do you like being here?
“Of course. Mrs. Miller is very kind to me, and so is Dr. Brand. The doctor even gives me riddles. But his riddles are all too strange. There’s too much theological knowledge in them, and I can’t figure them out. But they’re very interesting.”
Schiller gently patted Edward's back and said, "It might be dangerous in the hospital. So you need to leave here for a while. Is there anywhere else you'd like to go besides the hospital?"
"Can I go see Cobblestone?"
"Of course. I can ask him for you. But if he's on another planet, would you still go look for him?"
“Hmm.” Edward nodded.
Schiller picked up his phone and said, "Brainiac, find out where Cobbler is. If he's not on Krypton, transfer him there temporarily, and then have Edward go find him."
"Why?" Brainiac asked.
“It’s safer this way,” Schiller explained patiently, “I roughly know what the mastermind is up to. It’s not wise to leave the patient here, especially Edward.”
"That's exactly what I'm asking: why is it only Edward?"
“Because he is special enough,” Schiller said, “his genius will attract a certain type of person, which will put him in danger.”
"Okay, I understand. I'll arrange it right away."
Schiller quietly closed the ward door and turned around to see Mrs. Miller. Mrs. Miller was as always, her hair neatly combed, and she was carrying a watering can.
“Oh, Dr. Rodriguez! It’s been a long time. How are you?” Mrs. Miller smiled.
"I'm doing well, how about you?"
“I had already retired, but I was rehired. You bunch of clumsy doctors always manage to cause all sorts of trouble. Even Brainiac was driven crazy by you and eventually had to ask me to come back.”
“Yes, you are indispensable here.” Schiller made way for her, then said, “Is Dr. Brand in his office?”
"He's here, go find him."
Schiller went upstairs to Brand's office. Brand was still sitting in his office studying pathology. Seeing Schiller arrive, he raised an eyebrow and said, "You're later than I expected."
“You should be glad it’s because I didn’t make you the prime suspect.” Schiller sat down opposite him, pointed upwards, and said, “What’s going on here?”
"You still don't know? Haven't you checked your memory bank?"
“I know who the culprit is, but I don’t know the principle behind it,” Schiller said. “Did he tamper with the sun, or the earth?”
“The initial estimate is the sun,” Brand said, looking at Schiller. “That means that darkness will be accompanied by extreme cold. Are you prepared?”
"You'd have to ask Brainiac. I'm curious how he did it. The sun must be protected by the Justice League, right?"
“I don’t know either, but I can guess.” Brand twirled the pen in his hand and said, “He chose the location of the channel for releasing the power of death on the sun and accelerated its decay, which means that our star quickly transitioned to the black dwarf stage. Without light or heat, like a corpse.”
"A rapid transition? But it did not go through the red giant and white dwarf phases."
“It’s just decay, not acceleration,” Brand said, shaking his head. “Death is the inevitable outcome, but the process doesn’t necessarily have to follow scientific laws. It’s just fortunate that it didn’t follow scientific laws, otherwise the expansion phase of the red giant would have directly engulfed the Earth.”
“That makes things simpler.” Schiller lowered his eyes, seemingly lost in thought. He said, “Will they act without any warning?”
“Generally speaking, yes,” Brand said. “The Justice League might have thought he would sabotage Earth, but instead he targeted the Sun directly. But if decay is fast enough, what good are precautions?”
“It seems he learned enough lessons from that previous universe,” Schiller said, shaking his head.
“That’s right. He probably already knows that the core of the White Lantern’s power resides at the Earth’s core. Tampering with things on Earth would be easily countered. It’s better to directly control the lifeline of human civilization—the sun.”
"I mean, it seems that the Superman from that universe has caused him a lot of trouble. That's the main reason he's targeting the Sun. Otherwise, igniting a gas giant would be an option."
Brand nodded and said, "That's true. However, the energy he can use is limited, and the fact that he's putting so much effort into targeting the sun proves that his plans on Earth aren't very large."
“This means he believes he has grasped the crux of the matter,” Schiller tapped his fingers lightly on the table. “What could it be?”
“He also suffered a lot at the hands of Batman,” Brand reminded him.
“Gotham is already showing signs of trouble. Three murders in one night is not a small number.” Schiller sighed softly and said, “Enjoy your rare moment of peace and quiet. A tough battle is ahead.”
Rodriguez walked out of the gates of Arkham Asylum. The snow was falling harder, settling on his shoulders and at his feet. The dim light streaming through the windows cast him like a projection on an opera stage. I stood beside the car watching him, seemingly lost in his thoughts. This gave me a bad feeling, because I sensed he might be thinking about me. I admit I hadn't done anything that night; instead, he had to comfort me. If he was in trouble, I should have tried my best to help him, because that's what he did for me. But then, he made me wonder if I'd misheard. 'Freeze Gotham, Frith.' My jaw nearly dropped. But his expression was so serious that I couldn't question whether he should go back to the hospital to get his mental state checked.
Schiller opened the car door and got in, followed by Victor who took the driver's seat and said, "I was hallucinating, wasn't I?"
“You don’t,” Schiller said. “If you think you do, I can repeat it to you again. Freeze Gotham, Mr. Freeze.”
“Give me a reasonable explanation,” Victor said. “Of course, I know this night has been quite eventful for me. I haven’t stayed up all night like this since the Dark Ages. But it’s clearly not enough to break me. Like you said, I still have Nora. It’s too early to destroy the world now.”
“On the contrary, you are saving the world,” Schiller said. “Dense ice can isolate the exchange of heat between the inside and outside, right?”
“It has to be a single, solid block of ice; holes or cracks won’t do. But usually, there aren’t any,” Victor said. “I’m quite confident in that regard.”
"The sun has gone out." Schiller's words caused a sudden stop, and he almost hit his head.
Victor turned to look at Schiller, who said, "Breaking news: someone has caused the sun to decay, directly entering the black dwarf stage. You should know better than me what kind of catastrophe this will lead to."
Victor looked as if he was about to faint, closing his eyes and drooping his head back, then gritted his teeth and said, "Who did this?"
"The Black Death. I know you don't know him, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that he has plans in Gotham. And we can't deal with the extreme cold disaster brought by the sun going out while also dealing with his endless conspiracies. So, let's freeze Gotham while it's still not too cold."
Victor restarted the car and drove forward, then complained, "This reminds me of that joke about beer being frozen at room temperature. The one in the freezer is actually warmer than the one outside."
“Without a doubt, Gotham will be the next one,” Schiller said, turning to Victor. “In fact, if I could, I’d like you to freeze the earth, but that’s obviously unrealistic and too much of a burden for you. So let’s focus on Gotham first.”
“We don’t have enough raw material reserves,” Victor explained. “Obviously, none of the contingency plans I’ve developed involve freezing the entire planet.”
"In other words, if you have enough raw materials, you can do it."
"Of course, and it's quite simple. It might even be simpler than freezing a city, because there's nothing in the outer layers of low Earth orbit that can be used to maintain the shield's stability using Earth's gravity. But for Gotham, I'll have to figure out how to dig deep into the ground."
“I disagreed with removing the dense ice underground,” Schiller said. “It would come in handy someday, and here it is.”
Victor sped up and soon arrived at Gotham University's cryogenic laboratory. Clearly, even freezing an entire city was a significant undertaking for him. He shouted to Brainiac, "Mrs. Brainiac! Get me a few trucks! And gather everyone from the physics department. This is a massive undertaking!"
Schiller frowned, then said, "Didn't freezing Gotham only require throwing something?"
“That’s destructive work,” Victor explained as he worked. “We’ve worked so hard to build the city into what it is now, so of course we have to destroy as little as possible. Both above and below ground. It requires very precise calculations and execution…”
“Alright,” Schiller nodded and said, “it’s your turn now, Mr. Fries. I’ll be your assistant.”
“No,” Victor refused outright, “I don’t want the whole world to see what I was thinking when Gotham was frozen in time…”
“This is necessary,” Schiller said. “My chapter can help you shed your image as a mad scientist and transform you into a compassionate hero…”
Victor stopped what he was doing, placed his hands on the table, and said, "Alright, Assistant. Now go and turn on the lights in the storage room for me, thank you."
"Okay, Mr. Mad Scientist."
Gotham was eventually frozen in time.