Chapter 1968 U: Beyond Major Events (57)_1

Constantine held up One Hand, stopping Bruce's explanation mid-track, he said, "I can somewhat understand the rest, all about watching how they walk, the traces left on the clothing and shoes, but how did you deduce poverty during childhood?"

"Their posture." Bruce glanced at the three men standing around him, his expression seemed to say can't you guys see it?

"Quit beating around the bush." Spider Man shook his head somewhat helplessly, "I really don't know why you all talk in code. If you have any theories, then spit it out. What's so difficult about speaking straight?"

Bruce sighed lightly and then said, "Haven't any of you noticed her slightly hunched back?"

"Are you saying all poor people are hunchbacks?" Spider Man said in disbelief, "But I'm from an average household and I'm not hunchbacked, nor are many of my classmates."

"Have you had orthodontic treatment?"

Unsure why Bruce sidetracked the conversation, Spider Man still instinctively answered, "I underwent orthodontic treatment as a child. My uncle took me. My lower teeth were slightly misaligned."

"The woman's back isn't a posture issue," Bruce pointed at the screen and said, "Her bite is off. She has a clear case of deep overbite."

"Huh?" Lord Superman looked at Bruce, "You haven't seen her face straight on, how do you know her teeth are irregular?"

"An overbite means the upper teeth cover more than two-thirds of the lower teeth, resulting in a slight retraction of the jaw, leading to a similar issue as mouth-breathing with obstructed airways."

"If not corrected during childhood, maintaining such a bite forces the body to extend the neck forward in order to maximise airway openness. In order to bear the weight of the forward-leaning head, the spinal cord retracts the shoulder bone to balance the centre of gravity, which causes a hunched back."

"It's not as obvious as crooked teeth. Only families with good conditions, or families that have related knowledge would think to correct the children's teeth."

"By her having this problem, it indicates that her family conditions during her childhood were definitely not up to the mark, else her dentist would have advised her parents about this issue and treated it in a timely manner."

Lord Superman opened his mouth, then said, "When I was young, I definitely had to see the dentist regularly, but there weren't any problems with my teeth."

"Ok." Spider Man waved his hand as to give up, "There's a big guy in our class who frequently goes to see the dentist, sometimes he even has to ask for leave because of it, but a majority of our class can't afford the cost of regular dentist check-ups, some people even have severely crooked teeth but can't afford treatment."

"It's not rocket science," Bruce emphasized, "All of this is underpinned by very strict logic."

"Did you ever consider that your psychology professor might be like this?" Constantine chuckled, and said "Geniuses will never understand fools, and you can't possibly be a polymath."

"I am." Bruce stated.

"So what we're seeing right now is Batman's past?" Spider Man widened his spider-like eyes on his uniform, trying to figure out the current situation, he said, "If he can attend this kind of banquet, he must be quite wealthy, right?"

"He's the world's wealthiest man."

"Whoa!"

"But this might not be Batman." Bruce shook his head, "This isn't how Batman would behave when observing people."

The woman kept walking until she turned around, her silhouette blurred and became indistinguishable from the others, all that could be seen was her talking to another person at the edge of the dance floor.

Forget about lip-readings, even the gender of the other person was unclear until she once again turned her back toward the restroom, her figure then became clear again.

"It seems she's the prey," Bruce inexplicably blurted out.

The view followed the woman to the restroom until the woman entered a cubicle, and the owner of this view followed her in.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" The Civilized Paragon Spider Man immediately yelled out in protest. Before he could voice his opinion, the following second the view abruptly accelerated, a hand yanked open the cubicle door, and the figure of the woman who was fixing her clothes stiffened.

The view slowly lowered, a blood-red knife being pulled from a body, the woman fell forward, but was caught before she hit the wall.

The theatre became eerily silent.

The murder happened suddenly, but Lord Superman sharply turned to look at Bruce and said, "You knew this was going to happen all along?"

"Only partly." Seeing the stares from everyone, Bruce nodded and said, "Yes, that's Shiller."

Bruce signalled Owen to rewind, Owen rewound the image back to a moment when they were in the corridor, just as they stepped into the restroom the ceiling lights flashed, reflecting Shiller's youthful face in the mirror.

"He's a murderer?" Lord Superman furrowed his brow.

Bruce lightly shook his head.

The view once again became blurry, when it reappeared, a huge painting flashed by, only Constantine named it, "The Education of Cupid."

Even before he could explain the painting's implications, Owen paused the feed and said, "I have to warn you, the following images significantly exceed the age-rating you can handle. I'm sorry, but I had to censor some parts."

Just as Lord Superman was about to ask what was going on, the horrifying scene made him choke down his words.

If one were to describe the scene, it would be that it was censored, but not completely censored.

The live red fish on the ground only covered the parts that were relatively important to the living.

About a dozen seconds later, Spider Man turned around and started to vomit violently, Lord Superman's lips also shivered slightly.

Not to say that they hadn't seen dead bodies before, but this thing, temporarily referred to as a corpse, had an extremely eerie vitality that hovered between life and death.

Because it was jumping.

Just like a real fish, it was jumping. The skin and blood vessels on its arms were fused with its torso, and the gaps between its legs were also stuck together, making the whole person look like a fish that had just leaped ashore, constantly bouncing.

This scene was not disgusting but eerie, or as Owen called it, psychological contamination.

Even Constantine felt a bit uneasy, and he often saw people who were no longer recognizable after being tormented by demons.

But the difference between the two was that demons merely tormented them without intending to create anything. Those who were targeted by them were miserable, but most of them were just screaming in agony, the visual and atmospheric statuses corresponded, all being tragic.

But the scene they were witnessing now was different. They were watching this scene in the first person perspective, and in the eyes of the master of this view, this scene was not horrifying, bizarre, or tragic, but vibrant, energetic, and even artistic. It was an atmosphere filled with beauty.

This contradictory and discordant feeling invoked enormous fear, which left people silent and confused as to why they were afraid.

The moment the siren sounded from afar to their immediate surroundings, all present saw God and breathed a sigh of relief.

This included Bruce, but excluded Arthur, who obviously was one of the appreciators of this artwork. He even imitated the bouncing of the fish with his palm and chuckled softly.

Then the perspective began to pull away. They first saw the top of Shiller's head, then the tops of many more police officers' heads rolling in like stir-fried beans. They all held guns with both hands and formed petal after petal with their arms.

When all the petals gathered around the blood-red stamen, Shiller slowly fell towards the fresh blood on the ground, lying sprawled out in the middle of everyone with his eyes closed.

The artwork was complete.

That was everyone's consensus at that moment. Some of them involuntarily voiced their thoughts before exchanging shocked looks.

Lord Superman looked at Bruce with a somewhat hesitant gaze, Constantine licked his lips and looked at Bruce in almost the same manner, Spider Man considered for a moment before looking at Bruce with a complex gaze, and then Arthur stared at Bruce with interested eyes.

Their gazes meant many things, but only one message was universally conveyed— "Are you okay?"

"Thank you, I'm fine." Bruce nodded to them and said, "Did I mention before? I graduated as an outstanding graduate."

Apart from Arthur, the other three reacted as if they had heard a horror story, or perhaps this was actually a horror story.

Could a cheerful and outgoing boy be an outstanding graduate from a serial killer?

Suddenly, Lord Superman's gaze became alert, and Spider Man seemed to regard him as a class enemy.

Bruce waved his hand and said, "I'm joking. Most of the time during my academic career, this professor was troubled by my grades. We had mutual understanding for only a short time, with the majority spent on mutual torment."

Just as the others breathed a sigh of relief, they quickly found something amiss again. Could someone who tormented such a mentally ill person be a psycho themselves?

At this time, the picture on the screen had already switched back to the dream. Now everyone understood why Beihan had hurriedly gotten up and rushed to the restroom.

The last scene was really strange. Just seeing Shiller's face across from him gave chills down one's spine.

And after Beihan washed his face and looked up to see Shiller in the mirror, it was even more like a jump-scare.

Spider Man yelled out loud. Lord Superman's eyes flashed a hint of red, only Bruce chuckled. He knew that the real good show was just beginning.

And Lord Superman kind of understood why Beihan hadn't immediately punched the mirror.

Although theoretically, these Shiller personalities that seemed like spirits did not have much lethality, but what if you shattered the mirror and he escaped?

This was a terrifying hypothesis that was scarier than any ghost story. For safety's sake, it would be better if he stayed inside the mirror.

"Pay attention to the light," Bruce reminded.

Everyone instantly noticed that the screen was flickering non-stop, Owen immediately waved his hand and said, "It wasn't me, it came like this."

Then people discovered that the only light source in the entire screen, which was the ceiling light in the bathroom, was flickering as if malfunctioning.

But if observed carefully, the flickering was not random nor set in rhythm, but it followed the intonation of Shiller's speech in the mirror.

Each time his voice rose, the light brightened, while each time his voice fell, the light dimmed. And Shiller's voice in the mirror rose and fell, making the light constantly flicker to his voice.

But Beihan, to some extent backlit in front of the mirror, couldn't see the flickering light, but he could see his faint reflection in the mirror dimming and brightening, and his shadow on the wall swaying.

As if he was not a real person, but a lonely ghost that could disappear at any moment.