If the Primary Universe Batman's superpower was corpse control, he could actually use Jeff's body as bait to attract Reed's attention and create an opportunity to escape. Besides being a well-known Detective and Martial Arts Master, Batman is also an Escape Master. With such a powerful skill set to assist, escaping from Reed wouldn't be difficult.
But Shiller and his group obviously couldn't do that since no one in the current situation was willing to be bait. It was clear they weren't on the sa page, making it very hard to convince anyone to contribute to the team effort.
Shiller turned his gaze towards the two cans of gasoline by the wall.
He said, "We don't actually need to completely defeat Reed. We just need to create a space where we can drop people and materials down."
Bruce had also thought of the clever use of gasoline. He said, "Regardless, Reed is a herbaceous plant. We can totally use gasoline to create a fire barrier."
"But we have to act fast," the Pale Knight said. "Even if the gasoline isn't afraid of the water on Reed's leaves, there may not be enough oxygen in the underground cave to start a big fire."
At that mont, Shiller had already moved the two cans of gasoline over, which were actually two small plastic containers with caps that could be twisted open on the angle, not very big, their combined content didn't even add up to 10 liters.
"I need a flashlight," Shiller said. "And a gun."
"You're planning to go down," Greed said with a frown. "I don't agree... don't look at like that. Why don't you consider that if he gets into trouble, who will be able to beat the Hunter?"
The Pale Knight looked towards Night Owl, but he was also not entirely sure because the Hunter, played by the Primary Universe Batman, was clearly the classic powerful Batman. Among their group, the only ones who were confident they could win against Batman head-on were probably Night Owl and Shiller.
Night Owl himself was very combat-capable, with likely high points. Shiller didn't have as many points, but for so reason, he was a strong fighter. Only with both of them teaming up they had a solid chance of surely defeating the Primary Universe Batman. Missing any one of them, the rest were sitting ducks.
"It's better if I go," Greed sighed. "In a necessary situation, I will take so extre asures. Pass the oil drums."
Shiller knew he was referring to his ability to release Wind Blades, but was this guy's skill cooldown not a bit too quick?
Greed picked up one of the oil drums and received the flashlight from Night Owl. When Night Owl tried to hand him the gun, Greed shook his head and said, "Wait for my signal, then throw down the gun."
After that, Greed descended into the hole. Through the not-so-large opening, they could see Reed rush towards him at top speed, but Shiller quickly ran out of their field of vision. It wasn't long before they saw clumps of Reed starting to collapse.
The gasoline was quickly scattered on the ground, and after Greed shouted, Night Owl tossed down the gun. Greed fired a shot into the ground soaked with gasoline, igniting the fuel and creating a wall of fire.
The group jumped down at top speed, Joker and Bruce then threw down the recently acquired shelves, and afterwards, the two of them also jumped down.
Reed was indeed afraid of fire, using its leaves to slap water from the lake, trying to extinguish the flas. But the burning gasoline was hard to deal with, not sothing that could be put out just with so water. Whenever it was extinguished in one place, the fire quickly spread to another.
Even so, Shiller noticed that the fire in the cave burned exceptionally fiercely. He rembered their journey here, first walking a long way, then running back halfway, followed by coming back again. After all this hustle, there was surprisingly no feeling of fatigue.
He suspected that the oxygen content in the underground cave might be higher than normal, but in theory, this was not possible unless soone had tampered with it.
They carried the shelves toward the upstream of the river. Upon reaching the far bank of the river, they put the materials down and began to assemble them.
Shiller boldly approached the lake, at that mont the flashlight beam shone over, dazzling his eyes, and he saw Greed moving towards him.
Greed shook the gun in his hand proudly, "Now it's my turn to have a gun. Want to consider apologizing or sothing?"
"Your gun skills are poor," Shiller said calmly. "If you don't kill with one shot, I'll be the one dead."
"Tch," Greed emitted a grunt, but he knew that Night Owl had given him the gun so easily precisely because this kind of police pistol really wasn't that great – with its short firing range and instability, it required a lot from the user, it wasn't for just anyone.
Greed pointed the flashlight towards the riverbed, where the fish were still swarming. Shiller walked over, grabbed his wrist, and shifted the flashlight's beam downwards, lighting up the riverbank.
There, Shiller saw very obvious signs of artificial excavation.
It goes without saying that the traces beside a naturally ford riverway would be hard to look like they had been scraped by an excavator's bucket. This made Shiller even more convinced that, although the underground cavern was natural, the Dark River was definitely the work of Silterk.
For so odd reason, Shiller thought of so knowledge related to fish farming. He might not have raised fish, but he had seen others set up aquariums, and for fish, the quality, temperature, and oxygen content of the water were all critical standards.
To cultivate so many fish in one go, and ensure they're all lively and jumping around, the data in the cave must be strictly controlled. Shiller thought if they didn't find anything in the lab, they should be able to follow the river upstream to its source and see what they might discover there.
About half an hour later, the bridge was complete. Calling it a bridge was a bit of a stretch—it was more like a ladder created from a pile of shelving units. Though it looked sowhat ugly, Shiller still trusted Bruce's chanical engineering skills.
"I'll go first," Bruce said, "Who's second?"
Just as Night Owl was about to speak, the Pale Knight glared at him and said, "I'll go second, to prevent you from burning the bridge after crossing."
Bruce rolled his eyes but said nothing. He confidently stepped onto the ladder and walked across steadily. The Pale Knight, being more cautious, slightly bent his body to lower his center of gravity and crossed quickly as well.
Shiller followed closely behind, then ca Night Owl. But just when everyone else had crossed, Joker suddenly said, "Oops, I've changed my mind. You guys go ahead, I'm going to check out the cabin again. The snow has stopped for a while, so it should've started to lt, right?"
Shiller caught a fleeting dark glint in Greedy's eyes just as Joker finished speaking. Greed was about to say sothing when Joker kicked the makeshift bridge into the river.
He then left without looking back.
Now no one could catch up to him; they could only stand on the bank and stare. The group continued down the path while thinking over the situation.
Shiller was sure Joker must have discovered sothing.
Otherwise, there was no need for him to add those extra words. He could have just destroyed the bridge and left. Yet, he emphasized that the snow had stopped and that the snow was starting to lt.
What would reveal itself after the snow lted?
Shiller couldn't help but recall the cri process Greedy had described, where he had killed the Detective and dragged his body into the cabin. The Detective's upper body had been cleaved in two by the Wind Blade; there must have been quite a bit of blood. Dragging him would definitely leave traces on the ground.
But previously, the snow had covered all the traces, and once it started lting, the evidence would be exposed.
However, this didn't quite fit either. On one hand, they felt that the external temperature was below minus 20 degrees Celsius when they were in the cabin. Under such weather conditions, even if it stopped snowing, the snow wouldn't lt.
On the other hand, there were signs of wear, like small stones, found atop the Detective's head. What was that about? Could Greedy have flipped the body over and rubbed it on the ground?
Shiller had no answer. They continued deeper into the cave, which beca narrower and lower to the point they had to crouch to move forward. A few minutes later, Night Owl, the biggest among them, couldn't fit through anymore.
Being thin had its advantages. The Pale Knight, the leanest of them all, managed to move quite far ahead. Bruce, Shiller, and Greedy, though not as thin, were still slender enough to get through, but Night Owl had allocated too many Points to his Body Type and was completely unable to pass.
But if Night Owl couldn't get through, how did Primary Universe Batman manage it? Their body types were quite similar; in fact, the Hunter portrayed by Primary Universe Batman was even more robust.
Shiller suspected that Primary Universe Batman might have another way in, considering this whole string of stories could be one of his fabrications, and it would be natural for him to have a back route.
But they could see the exit just over 200 ters ahead, and they didn't plan on changing their path. Night Owl, who couldn't proceed, turned back, but not before taking away the gun he had given to Greedy. However, he left the flashlight behind for the rest.
The path ahead was so cramped that even crouching wasn't possible; they had to crawl. The Pale Knight, slim and agile, reached the exit first and with the greatest speed.
Next ca Bruce, with Greedy Shiller trailing behind. When Shiller reached the end of the passage, he found it was nearly as small as an air duct, barely offering enough space to move. His head could only shift slightly, and it would hit the cave's ceiling with the slightest upward movent.
As Shiller raised his head, he noticed that the ceiling was not smooth. He pushed his body down and stretched an arm upwards, scraping at it with his hand, dislodging so loose stones into his palm.
They were almost exactly like the gravel he had seen on top of the Detective's head.
Shiller imdiately realized that the abrasions on the Detective's scalp might not have been postmortem; he must have been in this cave before his death.
But crawling slowly like they were, it wasn't likely that his head would scrape against the top. There was only one possibility for the scalp to be rubbed like that—crawling fast while violently looking up at the exit, which seed to fit a chase scenario.
Combining what Joker had said with Greedy's expression at that mont, Shiller ford a new theory: indeed, it was Greed who had killed the man, but the body might not have been transported to the cabin above ground, rather through a hidden cave beneath the carpet.
Shiller clearly rembered that when they had started looking for clues, Joker had been squatting, studying the carpet. At that ti, Shiller was preoccupied with pondering the ga rules and imagining the Wandering's abilities, paying no mind to the details of the carpet.
Perhaps Joker had discovered sothing, realizing there were holes in Greedy's story, so he dropped hints about lting snow to signal them.
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