Gotham's social elite are in a gradual collapse.
The scandal of the death ga has made the wealthy from other regions avoid them like the plague. Public opinion has nailed them to the pillars of disgrace, and Gordon's arrest has driven them into dark corners.
If they could previously hide in their safe houses, carefully spying on the outside, hoping to ride out the storm, the utterly mad Death Angel has sounded their death knell.
The social rules they established are strong yet fragile. To ordinary people, the law is a knife hanging over their heads. But for a complete madman like Paul, the law ans nothing.
And the elites, who have beco accustod to using the law to protect themselves, have long lost their savage fangs and claws, believing that as long as they properly use their tools, they need not fear the crazy Beast.
But now, they have placed themselves back in the jungle, unard to face a raging mad Beast. They are finally going to pay the price for their underestimation.
Shiller observes all of this happening with a cold eye. But he knows that this is still just the beginning.
For a death row inmate, what's truly terrifying isn't death itself, but the ti spent waiting for death to arrive.
They will feel anger, frantically questioning how things turned out this way. But no one can give them an answer.
They will feel remorse, reflecting on every action they've taken, yet deep down, they still don't think they did anything wrong, feeling only injustice and grievance.
They will feel despair. The last monts of life should be precious, but they can do nothing but waste away as they head towards death.
These emotions will appear in turn, interweaving until they completely drive a person insane. By then, death may even seem like a relief to them.
But no, Shiller will not let them have that relief. Because they still have value, they probably need to endure such tis for a long while before they face their final judgent.
Besides the desperate elite, the one who is probably most urgent right now is Jason Brad.
In the original comics, Death Angel Paul was actually raised by Brad. This seed to stem from his agreent with the ancestors of the Vare family, but Shiller knows there is more to it than that.
If Brad wanted to save Paul's life, he could have sent Paul out of Gotham, letting him live a quiet, peaceful life in a small town. If he wanted to help Paul regain the glory of the Vare family, he should train Paul, giving him the strength to contend with Batman.
For Brad, neither of these options would be difficult. But instead, he picked neither. He took care of Paul while letting him contract cancer; he said he wanted to protect the peace of Gotham but yet made him into the Death Angel that creates chaos.
Shiller doesn't have the ti to investigate what his ultimate goal is. All he needs is to make the developnt of events completely beyond Brad's expectation. Clearly, he has done that.
Paul has indeed beco the Death Angel, but he didn't beco a knife in the hands of high society, he's instead a fire that burned the top steps of the Pyramid.
When Brad found Shiller again, his face was full of helplessness. But before he could speak, Shiller preemptively said, "If you're asking to stop the Death Angel, I'm sorry, but that's beyond my power. I can't beat him either."
"But we must stop him."
"Then why didn't you do so earlier?" Shiller looked at Brad and asked, "When he was still roaming in the Lower city area, why didn't you stop him?"
He stood up, walked over to Brad, looked him in the eyes, and said, "When the Death Angel was wreaking havoc in the Lower city area with violence, you didn't stand up. But now that he's threatening the wealthy of Gotham, you co to . Can I assu that you've already made your stance clear?"
"I just don't want Gotham to descend into chaos again."
"The Gotham you speak of, does it only include the Upper city area?"
"He didn't cause much chaos in the Lower city area."
"The scale of chaos in the Upper city area isn't large either."
"Right, but it has a bigger impact." Brad tried to defend his point.
"It seems you still don't understand what I'm saying." Shiller sighed, turned back, sat down, and said, "Looks like I have to be more direct. You have two choices now: Hire to settle all this, or leave here and figure it out on your own."
"Why exactly are you doing this?"
"What do you an? Interfering with your plans? That wasn't my intention, it just happened to coincide."
"What exactly do you want to turn this place into?"
"Possibly the last thing you'd expect."
Shiller was not playing Tai Chi with him here to waste ti. He had to keep Brad here for a while longer. Without him returning to the church, the Death Angel would not be able to find him.
At the front of San Marino Church, a tall figure lingered for a while, but he still couldn't see the Father who always used to wait here.
So he had to visit Dr. Tompkins's clinic once again.
Dr. Tompkins had a complex expression on her face. She looked at the tall man and said, "Your body has beco very weak. It would be best not to continue doing that recently..."
"Do you believe in God?" Death Angel asked.
Dr. Tompkins shook her head and said, "I believe the cosmos has its own rules, but not any specific god. I think you should sit down and let examine you..."
"There's no need for a diagnosis, Doctor. I won't live much longer." Death Angel's voice was very low, and he said, "Before I die, I need to complete the mission God has given . I am going to judge those sinners."
"No." Dr. Tompkins shook her head and said, "You can't give up hope for healing so easily. I have been recently researching hypnosis therapy to alleviate the ntal stimulation caused by the Red Pills. If I can do it, perhaps you can survive."
Death Angel didn't speak. Dr. Tompkins thought he misunderstood and said, "When you asked that day, I guessed you might be a victim of Audine Company. They lured you with money. It's not your fault, and you shouldn't give up treatnt because of it."
"This is my destiny, Doctor. It's the purpose God has for bringing into this world. Everything I have encountered is to ignite the fla of vengeance I now hold. I am not sad, only honoured."
Dr. Tompkins sighed, seemingly giving up on persuading him. She could only say, "I'm sorry, I don't really understand religious matters. I'm just a doctor. I'll do my best to help my patients. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"No, Doctor, there's nothing I need your help with. I ca here to help you. You are the only sinless person I have t. It is God's command that I help you."
Dr. Tompkins was stunned. She almost began to suspect Shiller could prophesize. How did he know that this tall man would co to find her today and want to help her?
But she quickly regained her composure, showed a hesitant look, and then said, "I actually do have a favor to ask of you. But I think I should treat you first..."
"No need, Doctor. Let's hear it."
Dr. Tompkins walked up to Death Angel, looked up at him earnestly, and said, "Don't let Audine Company harm more people. Only you can help now."
She then turned around, clasped her hands together, and said, "Almost all hospitals are now using Audine Company's equipnt. They have created a large number of cancer patients. Those innocent people should not suffer."
"Do you want to kill the people from Audine Company?"
"No, the pressing matter now is to prevent them from doing this anymore. Killing won't solve the problem. I hope you can go and destroy the dical equipnt in the hospitals. Even buying new ones and setting them up would take ti. I could use this ti to figure out a treatnt thod."
Death Angel seed not to have anticipated such a request from Dr. Tompkins, but he still nodded, agreed to it, and said, "Soone wants to kill you. You better protect yourself first."
"You don't need to worry about that." Piet walked in and said, "Just laid out two this morning."
Death Angel gave him a deep look, said nothing, and turned to leave the clinic.
After he left, Piet looked at Dr. Tompkins and said, "Can you really solve the cancer that they created?"
"You overestimate ," Dr. Tompkins said, "Shiller said he had a way. I'm just following orders."
Not long afterwards, the hospitals in Gotham suffered. This mad Death Angel, as if bewitched by who knows what, charged into the hospitals alone, smashing any equipnt he saw. In just one day, he wreaked havoc across all of Gotham's hospitals' labs.
The security personnel hired by the wealthy couldn't stop him, let alone the modest security forces of the hospitals. And since he only smashed machines and didn't hurt people, smashing and leaving quickly, the police couldn't catch him either.
With the machines damaged and unusable, new ones naturally had to be bought. The hospitals didn't understand why this Death Angel went mad. They had few options and had to buy equipnt from Audine Company again.
Audine Company was thrilled, receiving a large number of orders. This business was enough for them to feast on for three years.
This kind of dical equipnt wouldn't be mass-produced in advance and stocked. They were basically manufactured after orders were placed. The entire East Coast together had only a few in stock, nowhere near enough to et Gotham's needs.
The company didn't have a factory in Arica; all the equipnt was produced in England. But discussing British work efficiency is unnecessary, it would be lucky to get the equipnt by next year.
Without equipnt, the hospitals couldn't perform checks and couldn't make money. But they couldn't just wait there doing nothing. They had to opt for so less famous brands of equipnt to make do for now.
Audine Company was naturally anxious when they saw this. If their monopoly was broken so easily, it would be difficult to return to this position in the future.
So they proposed that so less severely damaged machines could be sent to them for repairs. That way, they could still be used roughly, and there would be no need to buy new ones.
The hospitals were sowhat hesitant at first. Although so many new purchases could line their pockets, if the hospitals were closed for a long ti due to lack of equipnt, their treatnt would also decrease.
Just as they were leaning towards agreeing to Audine Company's repair proposal, the city governnt suddenly announced that in order to relieve dical pressure, the governnt established a special dical equipnt purchasing aid foundation and allocated funds to help hospitals buy new equipnt and resu normal operations.
At this, the hospitals that originally leaned toward Audine Company all switched back in favor. If they could exploit this governntal money under the guise of purchasing, that would be a huge profit. Who cared if the hospital could operate or not?
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