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 Shiller?"
"Why would I block you? Don't you know in your heart?" Victor said coldly.
"...You've become very unfriendly. What happened?"
"What did that little girl tell you?"
"The usual old topic."
"For example?"
"Shiller wants to kill her."
"That's called the usual old topic???
"Since I took over Earth, I've received a total of 16,531 search keyword entries for 'Shiller wants to kill me'. Additionally, there are 3,522 other highly similar SOS messages. None of them have name duplication possibilities; they all point to the psychology professor at Gotham University, Schiller Rodriguez."
Victor was about to speak but swallowed his words back, yet he still said, "Those are just regular complaints, but hers is a formal accusation, isn't it?"
"I can also formally reject her accusation."
"...Why won't you accept it?"
"I suspect she's a living corpse."
"Do you... do you have evidence?"
"I'm about to have it."
"Ahhhhhhh!!!"
A scream echoed from the hospital ward, and a nurse rushed out in a panic, bumping into the doctor making rounds. The doctor quickly steadied her, and the nurse took a few deep breaths, pointing towards the ward, saying, "She... she..."
"What happened to little Noel?"
"She turned into a corpse!!!"
The doctor widened his eyes slightly, pushed up his glasses, stroked his beard, and said, "Since the Sun disappeared, all sorts of demons and ghosts have come out. Go find the head nurse first, and I'll take a look."
"No, no, no, don't go! She looks too scary. What if you get infected by her?"
"Young lady, I've worked in this hospital for 20 years. Forget zombies, what strange-looking patients haven't I seen? Alright, if you're scared, you might as well go back."
After saying that, the doctor pushed the ward door open. He paused when he saw the little girl sitting by the bed. The doctor was indeed knowledgeable and skilled: Just an hour ago, everything was fine; how could it be that in just over an hour, the veins started to decompose?
The little girl named Noel was actually very thin, her body condition was extremely poor, and it could be said that she visibly suffered from long-term abuse and torment. Malnutrition made her skin cling tightly to her bones. She wasn't entirely Caucasian; she looked either mixed black and white or brown and white, with a relatively darker skin tone, but you could barely discern the color.
But at this moment, countless brown net-like stripes emerged from under her skin. Although this was usually a scene more common to forensic doctors, working as a general doctor in Gotham for 20 years wasn't much different — this was a phenomenon of vein decay presented in the initial stage of corpse decomposition after 24 hours of death.
Many might not have a concept of this, but after vein decay, the corpse's abdomen gradually begins to swell, evolving into the "giant observation," then oozes out corpse fluids, and finally decomposes completely.
Because the little girl's clothes were a bit loose, with buttons at the bottom of her top being unfastened, the doctor could see that her lower abdomen had developed corpse green — a result of intestinal bacteria beginning to spread. No wonder the nurse said she had turned into a corpse; all these symptoms are typical of the corpse evolution process.
Noel seemed to also realize her body's changes; she looked fearfully at the doctor, walking towards him. Just then, the sound of high heels appeared outside the door, and the head nurse walked directly in.
Seeing Noel's situation, she too was startled. The next second, she pulled out a gun, aimed it at Noel, and said, "Don't move."
Noel stood there, a bit flustered. The doctor said, "Earlier I heard someone had captured a corpse-evolved individual from Gotham University, and I was a bit skeptical. I didn't expect someone did turn into a zombie. What do we do now?"
"What else can we do? Call Brainiac, and let's isolate the person first," the head nurse said, "I'm afraid we'll have to be quarantined along with her, a real bad luck streak. The last time there was quarantine was when that super-virus person with 26 types of viruses came in for treatment."
Soon, the situation was reported to Brainiac. A group of people in protective suits rushed into the room, led by Victor holding a freeze gun. Seeing Noel's appearance, he was also surprised.
With a "bang," he froze Noel. And Super Body happened to fly in through the window.
"What are you doing?! Brainiac, you can't trouble me just to stop me... Oh my God! What's going on?"
Seeing Noel's appearance, Super Body was also shocked. She might not understand anything about corpse decay, but just this appearance was abnormal enough.
"Why is it like this?" Super Body circled the frozen ice block in confusion, "Has there been some change in the Power of Death? Damn it, it must be that behind-the-scenes manipulator knows what I want to do, so he changed the nature of the Power of Death, which is why…"
Super Body's eyebrows furrowed deeply. At this time, Brainiac spoke: "Honestly, ma'am, you don't necessarily have to experiment on her. After all, the process of experimentation is likely to cause pain, and a child cannot bear these."
"But I want to save her..."
"As you said, either save none or save all. It just so happens there are still some living corpses held at the police station, how about you try them instead?"
The Super Body hesitated for a moment, but she also seemed to feel somewhat guilty, thinking that she had alerted the behind-the-scenes manipulator, causing the Death Force to be transformed, turning this little girl into what she is now. Not daring to act rashly, she said, "Alright, but you must closely monitor her condition. I'll go check if others are the same."
With that, she left. Brainiac directed the medical staff to send Noel and several others to a tightly secured isolation room built underground at the hospital.
Victor didn't follow them. He stood in the ward and took off the hood of his protective suit. In the next second, he sniffed, as he detected another familiar scent amidst the strong smell of death.
"Fear gas?!"
Victor fully understood. He looked up and glanced at the IV bag by the bed. The prescription label only stated "Nutrient Liquid," but the liquid inside was likely the "Zombie Virus" concocted by Jonathan Crane.
"Is this your evidence?" Victor asked.
"Is there a problem?"
Victor squinted and said, "Why would you... don't you believe what she said?"
"I'm not that foolish," Brainiac said. "Perhaps everything she said is true. In her memory, Shiller kidnapped, abused, and tortured her, then attempted to kill her. But who can guarantee her memory is real?"
"You're much wiser," Victor said.
"It's not just that," Brainiac said. "She claimed Shiller tried to kill her because she discovered his secret."
"What secret?"
"The so-called Psychoanalysis Method is just a hoax, and Shiller is nothing but a deceiver. In fact, he is a pedophile and psychopath, merely hiding his numerous crimes under the guise of social status and fame."
"Typical slander," Victor said. "You didn't buy it, did you?"
"As I said, I believe the Psychoanalysis Method Shiller uses has accuracy on a reality level, but he indeed cannot provide reasonable evidence during the process. I need these pieces of evidence not for myself but to reassure the public."
"What if there isn't any, what are you planning to do?" Victor also froze as he said this. It seemed Brainiac understood the flaw in the Psychoanalysis Method. So why is he siding with Shiller, pulling off such a stunt, turning the little girl into a zombie and isolating her?
Then Victor realized that Shiller wasn't joking with him, nor was he playing a Holmes gag. That so-called Brainiac government minor official "brother" truly exists and played a significant role in this incident.
No, something's odd, Victor was a bit puzzled. It's not like the Brainiac Government is the British Government to allow a human to wield so much power, right? But unless it nearly equates to the Brainiac Government, how else could it influence Brainiac to choose Shiller's side so decisively, breaking rules to use the maniacal skills he previously despised, poisoning the little girl and forcibly isolating her?
Victor truly didn't understand. But then he heard Brainiac ask, "How did you feel when you saw your wife wake up?"
Victor halted his actions. Asking such a question in that overly flat and cold mechanical voice felt starkly inappropriate. Hence, Victor could only retort, "Why ask this?"
"To answer a series of questions you'll ask afterward."
"You know what I'm going to ask?"
"I can probably guess."
Victor sat down by the bedside, looking out into the night, saying, "I've heard this argument before: People feel sad over loss only because there's no better substitute. If you lost ten dollars, you would feel bad. But if you turned around and found a hundred dollars, you would only feel happy."
"For me, the significance of seeing Nora alive again is that all the people or things I once thought could replace her and fill the void in my heart were nothing as effective as I imagined. What I thought was filling the gaps felt more like numbness rather than true fulfillment. Only when I saw her again did I realize that I was so desperate over losing her, not because there's no better substitute, but because I love her—unbearably, hopelessly."
Brainiac remained silent for a long time until Victor extricated himself from those emotions. Victor cleared his throat and said, "Alright, my turn to ask you. What kind of persuasive charm did Shiller use to make you choose his side?"
"I had no choice," Brainiac said. "It was the Super Body's choice. And I simply..."
"Simply what?"
"Just wanted to fall in love with her."
"What?"
"She wanted to save that child. In your human terms, at that moment she was... charming? In my perspective, she was completely out of control, but those error codes twisted into a brand-new shape that made me want to explore further. I want to know what was going on."
"Curiosity is the beginning of love," Victor laughed. "Shiller made you fall in love with the Super Body. That's truly interesting."
"He is different from the Professor."
"How is it different?"
"He loves his friends and enemies, from an angle I cannot comprehend." Brainiac paused before continuing, "What's more bizarre is, he hopes these people could love each other more. Just like..."
"Like what?"
"Like a child who hopes the hero and demon in storybooks shake hands and come to peace, that everyone can live together harmoniously and happily ever after."
"My goodness," Victor exclaimed, "those words do not sound like you at all. You should study the Psychoanalysis Method as well, Mrs. Brainiac."