Chapter 32: Detective Mode
Bang!
Fist and face collided heavily. The struck face immediately twisted, tears, snot, and blood gushing together like opening floodgates.
The fist then loosened, flexing fingers. The dark red nylon tactical suit had long been soaked in blood.
Hell's Kitchen, in a small casino hidden beneath a dilapidated building, Daredevil was taking down Kingpin's gang members one after another.
Hiss—
A spray of blood splattered onto a light bulb. White smoke rose as the bulb exploded with a pop.
This was the casino's last tungsten filament lamp. After it went out, only the dim yet colorful LED strips remained.
"This is just a small casino. Only regular customers come here. I don't know how I offended you!"
The casino owner was short but fat. Daredevil, having crossed the long corridor, pressed a short stick against his throat.
Behind Daredevil's corridor already lay a floor full of casino members and gang personnel, dead or alive unknown. Now with his own throat pressed by the short staff, the casino owner swallowed with difficulty:
"You want to rob money, or what? I don't have sex trade here, but if you need I can introduce you to one..."
Bang!
Daredevil punched the wall beside the casino owner's head:
"When did you join Kingpin's gang?"
"A-about two weeks ago?"
"Tell me all of Kingpin's locations you know." Daredevil withdrew his short stick, both hands grabbing the collar to lift the casino owner and press him against the wall.
"Just, just that sex trade place..." The casino owner's legs kicked wildly as he hurriedly called out.
"...Give me the address." Daredevil said after several seconds of silence.
The casino owner quickly gave the location, then took a heavy punch to the abdomen, curling up on the ground, watching helplessly as the guy who'd wrecked his casino left.
Ten-plus minutes later, in a Hell's Kitchen hotel, an old man in the midst of vigorous thrusting looked in terror at the dark red figure breaking through the window. The thick smell of blood on him made him go soft as pasta.
Bang!
Dull thuds of fist meeting flesh and screams rose and fell in the hotel's purple-red hazy lighting.
...
Oscorp underground Level 3. The moment Batman and Black Cat entered, they divided tasks.
Black Cat pulled out a small flashlight, observing the destruction traces here bit by bit, very meticulously. Batman came before the damaged workstation.
He raised his arm. The armor covering his outer forearm silently moved aside. A miniature computer Batman had assembled himself popped out.
He needed to check whether Level 3's instruments had been used last night.
"Not destruction caused by Kingpin." Several minutes later, Black Cat came to Batman's side. "What did you find?"
Her words fell. Batman retracted the computer on his forearm back under the armor:
"Last night, these instruments were opened and used... Oscorp is conducting human experiments."
After speaking, both their gazes almost simultaneously fell into that roughly ten-square-meter transparent octagonal cage.
"Without a large server for support, the computer I'm currently equipped with simply can't analyze scene traces."
This suit lacked "detective mode," unable to help Batman collect clues. But he himself was a detective.
Batman actively entered the transparent octagonal cage, using himself to simulate last night's human experiment subject.
"Black Cat, shine your light on that corner." Batman pointed forward-left.
Black Cat carefully avoided floor debris and fragments, shining the flashlight where Batman requested.
"The subject's physique matched an ordinary person. Gender most likely male. No extra limbs or attack weapons. The killer isn't Dr. Otto."
"From all destruction traces, the researchers took no countermeasures..."
Batman simulated in his mind the experiment subject's every move—from breaking free of metal frame restraints to breaking open the transparent octagonal cage, then killing those researchers one by one.
His footsteps followed the mental simulation's movements. Black Cat held the small flashlight following step by step. Finally, they stopped in a corner.
"The experiment subject killed the last person here."
"Based on traces, the last living researcher had crawled some distance and knelt begging for mercy, ultimately still having his throat torn out."
Batman looked at blood traces splattered on the nearby wall.
"I need to investigate surveillance information for the entire building. Hope it hasn't been tampered with." Batman looked at Black Cat. "What are your plans next?"
Black Cat didn't speak now. Instead, her gaze fixed on the sharp metal fracture of the destroyed workstation.
A strand barely noticeable was there, currently swaying gently from the breeze their movements created.
Black Cat was about to reach out when Batman suddenly stopped her:
"Don't move."
After speaking, Batman began simulating the killer's movements in his mind again:
Following researchers into Level 3, removing his shirt, entering the octagonal cage... As the experiment progressed, the subject broke the cage, killed everyone present, and retrieved his removed shirt from beneath the destroyed workstation.
"This strand's material is silk, generally used to make high-end suits. The experiment subject wasn't a vagrant, but some male wearing a silk-material suit."
Batman didn't take the silk strand. Instead, he pulled Black Cat away from Level 3, opening a computer on Level 2.
"I'm hacking into the tower's internal surveillance system. Stand watch for me." Batman told Black Cat.
Black Cat obediently nodded. Though she didn't know whether this cold-as-stone guy with high-tech products who could summon bats was even human.
But from entering Level 3, the professionalism Batman demonstrated had made Black Cat choose to obediently comply.
"Start querying from floor 25 surveillance. Elevator surveillance, stairwell surveillance, underground garage surveillance..."
Batman rapidly queried surveillance information. He discovered all yesterday's surveillance had been completely deleted, not a trace left.
"Wearing a high-end suit, conscious of Oscorp's internal surveillance existence and deleted it, not present during my observation, after leaving most likely entered the tower via underground garage..."
Not many people met these conditions. Among those Batman knew, there were only two:
Harry Osborn and Norman Osborn.
'I need to find time to visit Harry and find an opportunity to hack surveillance footage near his home.'
Batman made a mental note of this, then prepared to do tonight's second task: find Dr. Otto.
Compared to the killer who'd murdered seven researchers, Dr. Otto who'd battled police in Brooklyn's sewers during the day and killed over thirty officers posed comparable danger.
All the tools Batman purchased and assembled during the day were prepared for tonight's tracking of Dr. Otto.
***
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