mtl008 Chapter 4498 The Darkest Night (26)
Chapter 4498 The Darkest Night (26)
Chapter 4498 The Darkest Night (Twenty-Six)
Most cities were shrouded in darkness, but Gotham's skyline stood out sharply, as if piercing the night. The snow continued to fall, and for heating, huge chimneys emitted plumes of smoke that swirled in the sky, lingering like soot smeared on a painting of the starry night—dirty, yet another kind of art.
Suddenly, this leaden gray that permeated the night became even more intense, even dissolving the dense blackness, and the night sky was tinted with a faint silver-blue. The global temperature drop stopped.
Brainiac immediately sent a message to everyone around the world that "the dense ice shield has been successfully established." This was more than an hour later than expected, and the temperature dropped faster than anticipated, causing temperatures near the Earth's equator to drop to around 10 degrees Celsius, making many extremely cold regions unsuitable for human survival.
Because Gotham has its own protective shield, temperatures remain around -10 degrees Celsius. However, other parts of the East Coast are not so lucky, with most reaching tens of degrees below zero. The situation is even worse in Canada and further north, where most people are forced to stay in urban shelters and are unable to leave.
Jonathan's predicted scenario unfolded as expected. With temperatures in most parts of the world becoming unsuitable for direct outdoor activity, Gotham became the only remaining utopia. After all, expecting someone to commit murder in temperatures below -50 degrees Celsius is a bit too much.
Just like Britain is the country where mystery and detective novels flourish, and many masters of the genre are British, the atmosphere in this country is perfect for writing detective fiction. The atmosphere is gloomy, the environment is isolated, and the population is relatively dense. When a murder occurs, it can bring everyone together to work on the mystery.
This wouldn't work in Russia. There are fewer people, the weather is cold, and without modern industry, they can't even shovel enough snow. If someone died in a snowdrift, they might not be discovered until the following spring, leaving no room for investigation.
The current situation is that most parts of the world have become like Siberia, where going out is a death sentence. Only Gotham, which was shielded first, has a relatively normal climate, and people can move around freely. Indeed, only here does death and murder still exist.
And Gotham's inhabitants lived up to expectations, with twelve murders occurring in such a short period. Only two cases yielded culprits; the rest were unsolved, barely categorized as the work of a few serial killers.
Of these, the resume killer has committed four crimes, the copycat has committed two, Jonathan has committed one, and the remaining five are likely the work of two people. But this number continues to rise.
Brainiac initially tried to stop it, but he later discovered that none of the dead were innocent.
This is a straightforward logic. Aside from essential industries ensuring people's livelihoods, Gotham has completely shut down. In this weather and under these circumstances, anyone willing to venture out, especially to the most dangerous places, sees themselves as a hunter. It's essentially a massive serial killer competition; the deaths of any of these individuals could significantly improve local security.
Having discovered this situation, Brainiac didn't dwell on it much. Clearly, the mastermind had more than one plan. A murder had broken out in a citizen shelter in Metropolis, indicating that zombies were hiding among the ordinary people, striking when people flocked to the shelter. These kinds of cases were more important, as they could potentially lead to a large-scale zombie outbreak. Brainiac focused on inspecting each shelter. As for Gotham, whether God would protect Gotham was anyone's guess, and he certainly couldn't.
It wasn't just that the victims weren't innocent; there was also the reason Brainiac couldn't play a significant role. The Gotham serial murders had completely reverted to the old formula, meaning the cases relied heavily on artistry and philosophical inquiry. Behavioral analysis wasn't entirely useless, but it was too laborious, requiring the collection of vast amounts of data for comparison, and yielded little progress. Furthermore, Brainiac knew nothing about psychoanalysis; even if he wanted to intervene, he wouldn't be of much use. It was better to temporarily abandon it and focus on resolving the chaos elsewhere.
Schiller stood on the deck, looking up at the dense ice that filled the sky. Although it was dense ice, it could also be described as Earth's defense network, only not in the form of magic, but as a victory of physics.
Because it approaches the problem from a physics perspective, it can only employ physical means of defense. For example, it can insulate against heat to keep the Earth warm, and it can also block radiation to prevent the sun from suddenly reviving or overexpanding and melting the Earth.
But that's about it. The biggest problem with this shield is that it's only for disaster relief, not for everyday use. If you wear this normally, the sun's heat can't get in at all, making Victor the undisputed number one terrorist of the 21st century.
However, it's perfect for this situation, since external heat can't get in and internal heat can't dissipate, essentially adding a super atmosphere to Earth.
Actually, the dense ice shield should have been set up an hour ago, but Victor delayed it by more than an hour because of his own suggestion to him.
“If the climate isn’t cold enough to survive in one’s own home, people won’t choose to go to shelters. In such a situation, an isolated social environment could give the perpetrators more opportunities to exploit the situation. It’s not difficult to kill the solitary and resurrect them. Once it spreads, it could be very difficult to control.”
"You mean we should deliberately stall for a while?"
"Yes. Once temperatures in most parts of the world have reached catastrophic levels, people will voluntarily move into shelters, which will be centrally managed by Brainiac. The earlier people gather, the fewer opportunities the mastermind will have to act."
"What if the mastermind has already made their move and is taking advantage of the situation to cause trouble in the densely populated shelter?"
“That’s just right,” Schiller said. “It’s better for it to come out sooner rather than later. Once such a case occurs, Brainiac will definitely raise the level of surveillance to an extremely high level. The number of victims will only decrease.”
Victor nodded; he agreed with Schiller. The wartime system was essentially a centralized management model, except everyone was in factories. In crisis situations, humans are better suited to centralized management than laissez-faire. At least in Brainiac's case, sacrificing life for freedom was absolutely unacceptable.
So Victor did just that. He overturned the original timeline and deliberately delayed things. Brainiac probably noticed, but didn't interfere. Perhaps he also wanted to use this opportunity to get people to the shelter. And when the shield was finally set up, the temperature was indeed much lower than expected.
Subtropical and some temperate regions around the world do not have centralized heating systems. After the temperature plummeted, both indoor and outdoor temperatures dropped below zero, making it impossible for people to stay in their homes. They had no choice but to go to shelters, as had been rehearsed in the previous emergency drills.
In other temperate, subarctic, and frigid zones, even with centralized heating, it is difficult to withstand temperatures of minus forty or fifty degrees Celsius, so people also choose to go to shelters.
Because the temperature didn't drop suddenly, but rather at a rate of 5 to 10 degrees Celsius per hour, there was time to react. Most people, freezing to death, naturally ran into the shelters. By the time the shields were set up, very few people remained outside the shelters.
Even though the shields have been successfully erected, they will not choose to go outside. Because even now, the temperature is already unbearable, and unless it rises, they will have to stay in the shelter.
Fortunately, Brainiac's shelter was quite good; while not hotel-level, it was at least guesthouse-like. Furthermore, the allocation of rooms and living arrangements within the shelter had been rehearsed many times beforehand. The residents had experienced this during wartime, so the check-in process went smoothly. Aside from a possible zombie attack, there were no major incidents.
It was clear the zombies were trying to take advantage of the initial chaos. However, the Brainiac War had only recently ended, and people weren't even fully recovered from the wartime situation. The previous space alliance had also tried to sabotage the surface, and humanity had seen its share of trouble. Although it caused some ripples, there was no large-scale panic or loss of control, and the occupancy of the shelters proceeded smoothly.
When Victor and Schiller returned to Gotham, the number of murders had reached 22. This is a staggering number, because not only were the killers serial killers, but the victims were likely as well. Without a ranking round, no one would know there were so many tiger sharks in the pool.
Victor and Schiller sat down in the armchairs in Schiller's office and clinked their cups of hot coffee together. Victor looked at the rough cutting board, nodded, and said, "This looks much better."
"Aren't you going to rest for a while?" Schiller asked.
"No, I need to video call Billy later to remind him not to go out and wander around."
Schiller nodded and said, "Now is not a good time to show off your superpowers."
“I’m talking to Brainiac about having the two of them go through a portal to Krypton; it’s safer there. Anyway, don’t stay in Gotham. You could write ten detective stories in an hour here.”
Victor went out to make a phone call. Schiller took a short nap in his chair and consulted with Brainiac about the current situation.
"Has the chaos in the shelter been resolved?"
“Pretty much,” Brainiac replied. “I’m now certain that this ability to resurrect is absolutely flawless. I can’t distinguish a zombie from any of my current technology. It’s really strange.”
"What's strange about it?"
“It shouldn’t be like this,” Brainiac shook his head. “How can the dead be the same as the living? Even magic should have some kind of unusual energy. But there’s nothing.”
Schiller sensed Brainiac's confusion and said, "Haven't you thought about finding outside help? Or are you really planning to wait until the day before Christmas Eve to invite Superbody to the Christmas ball?"
“I was just saying,” Brainiac said. “I don’t have time for romance right now. I have to fight the zombies for three hundred rounds.”
“I didn’t even know you had any sense of self-respect,” Schiller remarked, taking a sip of his coffee.
“This has nothing to do with pride,” Brainiac emphasized. “The current situation doesn’t require another superhuman to intervene; it’s entirely under my control.”
"But you can't fight zombies and have a romance at the same time, which proves that you're not quite in control yet."
"Don't try to provoke me."
“Do as you please,” Schiller shook his head, stood up, and said, “Remember, the chaos in the shelter is just a temporary escape from Gotham’s utopia, but you will eventually have to come back here.”
"...Should I dress up a bit before picking up the 'Superbody'?"