Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4525 - 3609: Edge of Tomorrow (18)

"Relax, it'll work even better than you imagine," Victor confidently opened the box.

Shiller saw that the machine was a cylindrical device over half a meter in diameter, about one meter tall, with four extending circular brush heads below. Once powered on, the brush heads simultaneously rotated and orbited.

The machine's center constantly sprayed cleaning solution downward, quickly scrubbing the floor clean. But the real challenge lay ahead, where patches of dried and semi-dried blood mixed with solid and liquid materials required strong cleaning power, or they'd become a messy mix.

As Shiller wondered how the brush heads would handle the situation ahead, a hatch opened at the top of the machine, releasing a drone that pre-sprayed cleaning fluid.

This cleaning solution had a blood-dissolving function, rapidly breaking down the dried blood. The four brush heads continuously closed in, the central part absorbed upward, quickly sucking most of the blood into the machine.

"But it's not quite spotless; there's still a thin layer of red residue on the floor," Victor said. "It'll take at least three passes to get it clean, but the advantage is it's fully automatic. We should focus on dealing with the bodies."

Saying this, he bypassed the area cleaned by the machine and headed into the restroom. As expected, he found a body on the sink.

The victim had two cuts on the neck. The first cut seemed to have been misaligned due to struggling, but it severed an artery, so blood splattered everywhere; the second cut was the truly fatal one.

His trachea was entirely clogged with blood, so even if he hadn't died instantly, he couldn't make a sound. Even if he ran to the restroom, he was finished off.

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Victor and Shiller wrapped the body in plastic, placed it on the elevator cart, and wiped the blood on the sink clean. The floor was left to the cleaning machine.

Since this wasn't the primary crime scene, there wasn't much blood sprayed when he ran over here, avoiding hitting the walls, which considerably lightened their workload.

They headed to the classroom—they'd seen activity in the first classroom from the rooftop, which was likely the primary crime scene.

Sure enough, there was blood everywhere here, but only three bodies were lying here, fewer than they'd expected.

The first classroom had a back door leading to the adjacent classroom. Pushing it open revealed two more bodies inside.

That made a total of six. But Shiller closely inspected the bodies and realized something was wrong: Lina was missing, the key witness lead singer.

"If they expected me to come tonight, they'd definitely bring Lina here to confront me."

"If Lina isn't here, then there are only two possibilities: either they held back, sending a few lackeys to test my attitude; or Lina was taken by the killer."

"The killer was not involved in Harley's case and wouldn't know Lina's special status or treat these people differently. The possibility of taking Lina is low."

"Then perhaps they held back. Looks like they're not as stupid as we thought, or maybe some artificial intelligence lent a hand."

Victor also realized this issue. Just as he was about to say something, piercing sirens sounded outside the window.

Victor quickly walked to the window, leaned against the wall, and peeked out—dozens of police cars were rapidly approaching, their lights brightening up the entire community, engulfing the world in red and blue hues.

"Seems there are some smart ones among them, or should I say smart robots?" Shiller said calmly, "They threw out some bait, deliberately informing everyone of their base, enticing us to act, then sending Lina to the police station. With her eyewitness account, the police can't ignore it; they must immediately dispatch forces. Now we've walked right into their trap."

"You don't seem worried at all," Victor said. "Don't tell me you anticipated this."

"No, otherwise I wouldn't have come," Shiller shook his head. "I'm not the type to knowingly walk into a trap just to show off my cleverness. I never want to cause trouble."

"Then you have a plan."

"I've just seen much bigger scenes than this." Shiller also walked to the window, but he didn't use it to hide his figure like Victor; instead, he stood openly in front of the window glass.

"Although the timing isn't great, since you told me about the first time you killed someone, I can talk about mine as well."

"Before deciding to carry out my plan, I seriously pondered a question—does God really exist."

"To find the answer, I conducted a series of tests. The others aren't worth mentioning; the most crucial was the death of a Father."

"You thought that if you could kill the Father, it would prove God doesn't exist?"

"No, of course it's not that simple. Killing the Father wouldn't necessarily mean God doesn't exist; it might also be that he committed some sin, and God wanted him dead."

"So what did you do?"

"I buried his body in the backyard of the church."

"And then?"

"I buried it shallow, only covering it with a thin layer of soil. It was summer, so the smell of the decaying corpse would definitely drift into the church. Meaning, as long as someone entered the church to pray, they would discover the body."

"So did anyone go inside?"

"No one. For a whole six months, until winter when snow covered the entire church. No one went in, and the body was never discovered."

"So it seems there is no God."

"On the contrary, this proved God's existence," Shiller said with a smile.

As Shiller spoke, he picked up something from the ground beside him. Victor saw it was an ice cone, and from the blood stains on it, it appeared to be one of the murder weapons.

Shiller toyed with the ice cone in his hand, smearing some of the blood onto his fingers and leaving several bloody handprints on the handle—clear enough to see the fingerprints.

"What are you doing?" Victor asked in shock. He couldn't understand why Shiller was leaving his fingerprints on the murder weapon—clearly, he wasn't the killer, so wasn't this only adding suspicion onto himself?

Shiller didn't answer but instead tossed the ice cone out the window—it made a less-than-elegant arc, yet dropped precisely through the sewer grate below.

"It's just that... God is on my side."

"Crouch down! Hands up!!"

Shouts erupted nearby as the police charged in one after another, their black gun barrels aimed at the two by the window.

Shiller and Victor were quickly handcuffed and escorted to the police car. Flashing police lights accompanied them to the Gotham Police Department.

Upon seeing the two disembarking, Gordon demonstrated what it means to be "dumbfounded."

When he heard the witness girl say it involved two professors, he had a bad feeling. Now that premonition had come true, his already tense nerves were completely shattered.

Gordon didn't say a word to them, merely waving his hand to have them taken to the interrogation room.

As he set foot into the police station, the sky outside suddenly lit up. Thunder rumbled from the horizon, sounding like the collapse of heaven and earth.

Gordon jerked his head back.

A torrential downpour arrived without warning, sudden and fierce, as if announcing something.

If there truly is a God in this world, Gordon thought, then he must always be on Shiller's side—no matter what trace tonight's murderer left, it would all be washed away by the rain.

Shiller sat down in the interrogation room. Across from him sat two police officers, one familiar-looking, probably an old officer, the other much younger.

After routine questioning, the older officer glanced at the file and said, "About half an hour ago, a student from Gotham University reported to us, claiming to have witnessed a campus murder case involving three people: two professors and a student."

"And he said he heard your conspiracy to commit another murder in a classroom in the old campus area of Gotham University. With less than half an hour left until the act, he urged us to head there immediately for support."

"Because it related to a previous student disappearance case, we dispatched forces to investigate, and that's when we encountered you. Professor Rodriguez, what do you have to say about this?"

Shiller chuckled—not on purpose, but merely because the police's statement was amusing. Rather than explaining the antecedents, it felt more like shirking responsibility, akin to 'it's not that we wanted to investigate you.'

"I was just passing by," Shiller said.

"Passing by crime scenes worldwide?" Gordon's voice came from outside the door.

"Yes, how unfortunate," Shiller said slowly, "We were just trying to revisit the old campus to reminisce about the past when we stumbled upon such a bloody incident. I'm wondering, with your efforts, Officer Gordon, has Gotham's public safety reverted to the past as well?"

Gordon was so furious at Shiller's counter-accusation that his head buzzed.