The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4511 The Darkest Night (39)

Chapter 4511 The Darkest Night (Thirty-Nine)

Victor walked out of the room and closed the door. The next second, Brainiac's voice rang out: "Why did you block me? What did you do to Schiller?"

"Don't you know why I blocked you?" Victor said coldly.

"...You've become very unfriendly. What happened?"

What did that little girl say to you?

"It's a well-worn topic."

"for example?"

"Schiller wants to kill her."

"This is considered old news???"

"Since I took over Earth, I have received 16531 messages with the keyword 'Schiller wants to kill me.' There are also 3522 distress messages that are very similar. None of them have the same name, and they all point to Schiller Rodriguez, a psychology professor at Gotham University."

Victor had the words on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them back. He still managed to say, "Those were just ordinary complaints, but she made a formal accusation, didn't she?"

“I can also formally reject her accusations.”

"...Why won't you accept it?"

"I suspect she's a zombie."

"Do you...do you have any evidence?"

"It will be available soon."

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"

A scream rang out from the hospital ward. A nurse rushed out in a panic, bumping into a doctor who was making rounds. The doctor quickly steadied her. The nurse, catching her breath, pointed to the ward and said, "She...she..."

"What's wrong? What happened to little Novi?"

"She's turned into a zombie!!!"

The doctor's eyes widened slightly. He adjusted his glasses, stroked his beard, and said, "After the sun goes out, all sorts of monsters and demons come out. Go find the head nurse first; I'll go take a look."

"No, no, no, don't go over there! She looks too scary. What if you get infected by her?"

"Young lady, I've worked at this hospital for 20 years. I've seen all sorts of strange patients, let alone zombies. Alright, if you're scared, you should go home now."

After saying that, the doctor pushed open the door to the ward. He paused, stunned, when he saw the little girl sitting by the bed. The doctor was indeed experienced, but his professional knowledge was even more solid: she was perfectly fine just a moment ago, how could her veins have started to decay after only an hour?

This little girl named Novie was actually very thin, in extremely poor physical condition, clearly the result of long-term abuse and torture. Malnutrition caused her skin to cling tightly to her bones. She wasn't entirely white; she appeared to be either mixed Black and White or mixed Brown and White, with darker skin, but her skin tone was still discernible.

But then, countless brown, net-like streaks emerged from beneath her skin. While this is a common scene for forensic pathologists, after 20 years as a regular doctor in Gotham, he was no different from a forensic pathologist—this was the venous putrefaction phenomenon that appeared in the initial stage of decomposition of a body 24 hours after death.

Many people may not understand this, but after the veins decompose, the abdomen of the corpse will gradually begin to swell, eventually evolving into a "giant's appearance," then oozing bodily fluids, and finally completely decompose.

Because the little girl's clothes were a bit loose, and the buttons on the bottom of her shirt weren't fully fastened, the doctor could see that her lower abdomen had developed a livid green tinge—a sign that intestinal bacteria were beginning to spread. No wonder the nurse said she was turning into a zombie; all these symptoms were typical of the process of corpse evolution.

Novi seemed to notice the changes in her body as well. She looked at the doctor with some alarm and walked towards him. Just then, the sound of high heels came from outside the door, and the head nurse walked in.

Seeing Novi's condition, she was also startled. The next second, she pulled out a gun, pointed it at Novi, and said, "Don't move."

Novi stood there, somewhat bewildered. The doctor said, "I heard before that someone had kidnapped a zombie from Gotham University, and I was a little skeptical. I didn't expect someone to actually turn into a zombie. What do we do now?"

“What else can we do? Call Brainiac and isolate him,” the head nurse said. “We’ll probably have to be isolated too. We’re really unlucky. The last time we were isolated was when that super-virus patient with 26 different viruses came to the hospital.”

The situation was quickly reported to Brainiac. A group of people in protective suits rushed into the room, led by Victor, who was carrying a freeze gun. He was also startled when he saw Novie's appearance.

With a "bang," he froze Novi. Meanwhile, the Psycho flew in through the window.

"What are you doing?! Brainiac, you can't make things difficult for me... Good heavens! What's going on?"

The superhero was also shocked when she saw Novi's appearance. Although she didn't know anything about things like corpse decomposition, her appearance alone was abnormal enough.

"Why is this happening?" Superbody circled the frozen block of ice, utterly perplexed. "Could something have changed with the power of death? Damn it, it must be that mastermind who knows what I'm trying to do. He altered the nature of the power of death, and that's why..."

Lucy's brow furrowed deeply. At that moment, Brainiac spoke up: "Honestly, ma'am, you don't necessarily have to experiment on her. After all, the process could be very painful, and a child can't bear that."

"But I want to save her..."

"Like you said, it's either don't save them, or save them all. There happen to be some zombies being held at the police station, why don't you go try your luck there?"

Lucy hesitated for a moment, but she seemed to feel a little guilty, thinking that she had alerted the mastermind, causing the power of death to be transformed and turning the little girl into this state. She dared not act rashly again, so she could only say, "Okay, but you must keep a close eye on her condition. I'll go check if the others are in the same situation."

After saying that, she left. Brainiac directed the medical staff to take Novi and the others to a secure isolation ward built in the hospital's underground.

Victor didn't go with them. He stood in the ward, taking off the hood of his protective suit. The next second, he sniffed, because he caught another familiar scent amidst the pungent stench of decay.

"Fear gas?!"

Victor understood completely. He looked up at the IV bag by the bedside. The prescription only said "nutrient solution," but the liquid inside was probably the "zombie virus" created by Jonathan Klein.

"Is this your evidence?" Victor asked.

Is there a problem?

Victor narrowed his eyes and said, "Why would you... don't you believe what she said?"

“I’m not that stupid,” Brainiac said. “She might be telling the truth. In her memory, Schiller kidnapped her, abused and tortured her, and then tried to kill her. But who can be sure her memories are true?”

“You’re much smarter now,” Victor said.

“That’s not all,” Brainiac said. “She said Schiller killed her because she discovered his secret.”

"What secret?"

"The so-called psychoanalysis is nothing but a fraud, and Schiller is just a charlatan. In reality, he was a pedophile and a psychopath, but he used his social status and fame to cover up his many crimes."

“A classic case of sowing discord,” Victor said. “You probably didn’t believe it, did you?”

“As I said, I believe that the psychoanalytic method used by Schiller has accuracy in reality, but he really couldn’t provide reasonable evidence for the process. I want this evidence not to defend myself, but simply to appease the public.”

"If not, what do you plan to do?" Victor himself was taken aback at this point. From Brainiac's tone, it was clear he understood the flaws in psychoanalysis. So why did he side with Schiller, orchestrating this whole thing, isolating the little girl like a zombie?

Then Victor realized that Schiller wasn't joking with him, nor was he playing a Sherlock Holmes reference. The so-called "brother," a minor official in the Brainiac government, was a real person who had played a remarkable role in the matter.

Wait a minute, Victor was a little confused. The Brainiac government wasn't the British government, so how could a human being hold such power? But if it wasn't really "almost equivalent to the Brainiac government," how did it influence Brainiac to so decisively stand on Schiller's side and even break the rules by using the skills of a madman that he used to despise to poison the little girl and forcibly lock her in an isolation room?

Victor was genuinely puzzled. But then he heard Brainiac ask, "How did you feel when you saw your wife wake up?"

Victor paused. Asking such a question in such a flat, cold, mechanical voice felt too incongruous. So Victor could only counter with, "Why do you ask that?"

"In order to answer your series of questions."

"You know what I'm going to ask?"

"I can probably guess."

Victor sat down by the hospital bed, looked out at the darkness of the night, and said, “I’ve heard this argument before: people are sad about what they lose only because there is no better substitute. If you lose 10 dollars, you’ll feel sad. But if you turn around and find 100 dollars, you’ll just be happy.”

"For me, the significance of seeing Nora alive again is that those people or things that I thought could replace her and fill the void in my heart were not as effective as I thought. What I thought I filled was more like numbness than real fulfillment. Only when I saw her again did I realize that my despair over losing her was not because there was no better replacement, but because I loved her—I loved her hopelessly and irrevocably."

Brainiac remained silent for a long time, until Victor also snapped out of his reverie. Victor cleared his throat and said, "Alright, now it's my turn to ask you. What kind of spell did Schiller cast on you to make you side with him?"

“I had no choice,” Brainiac said. “It was Lucy’s choice. And I was just…”

"Just what?"

"I just want to fall in love with her."

"what?"

“She wanted to save the child. In your human terms, she was… charismatic at that time? In my view, she was completely out of control, but those error codes twisted into a completely new shape that I wanted to explore. I wanted to know what was going on.”

“Curiosity is the beginning of love,” Victor laughed. “Schiller made you fall in love with Lucy. That’s really interesting.”

“He is different from the professor.”

What's the difference?

“He loved his friends and enemies, from a perspective I can’t understand,” Brainiac paused before continuing, “and even more strangely, he wanted these people to love others more. Like…”

"Like what?"

"Like a child who hopes that the hero and the devil in the storybook can shake hands and make peace, and that everyone can make up and live happily together again."

“Good heavens,” Victor exclaimed, “those words are so unlike you. You should really study psychoanalysis, Mrs. Brainiac.”