With a single cut, the imagined blood did not splatter out. Instead, flas suddenly lit up the rainy night. Constantine slowly turned into a pile of ashes, which were then hamred into the soil by the raindrops, disappearing without a trace.
Constantine erged again from the bushes, his face pale, and breathing heavily. The bone he had held in his hand had turned into grayish-white powder. He cursed under his breath but then pulled out a little paper figure from his pocket.
He looked around, trying to find a place to discard this thing, but it seed he felt it wasn’t safe. So, he quickly walked toward a large tree in the garden. On his way, he suddenly noticed a bright reflection under the lightning. Constantine cautiously walked over and found a mirror set on the swing.
He picked up the mirror, glanced at his reflection, and the blood gathered into the shape of the number "1".
"Damn it!"
The birds, startled by Constantine’s curse, landed in Spider-Man’s gaze on the rooftop. The rain washed over his suit, reflecting a dim light. He stared intently at a corner of the garden.
There stood a figure dressed in black, drenched by the rain, resembling a pale and slender ghost. The long, pointed knife in his hand glead coldly with each flash of lightning.
Spider-Man observed for a while, and when his skills had cooled down, he silently crawled along the wall like a spider, slowly reaching the balcony on the first floor, then walked around to the side door and went inside.
The castle was not brightly lit, only a few candles flickered in the howling wind. The draught through the hallways brought noises like ghostly wails, making the castle darker and scarier, even more than the thunderstorm outside, prompting a feeling of wanting to flee.
Spider-Man silently entered. Until he reached the back of Arkham Batman by the spiral staircase, he hadn’t drawn attention. He stood there quietly, watching Arkham Batman until he turned around.
Arkham Batman was genuinely startled, then sighed lightly: "How do you walk without making a sound?"
"Skill," Spider-Man succinctly replied.
Arkham Batman squinted, knowing most Spider-n were chatterboxes. Why was this Spider-Man so silent?
From a distance earlier, he couldn’t see the details of the suit. Now, even though it was still dark, he could see this Spider-Man’s suit was almost entirely red.
"Scarlet Spider-Man," he introduced himself.
Arkham Batman nodded. Even among Batn, there’s lively ones like Lego Batman, so a few quiet Spider-n wasn’t unusual. This Scarlet Spider-Man seed more reliable than most Spider-n, which was quite good.
"Which number are you?" Arkham Batman asked in a low voice.
The other shook his head. Arkham Batman had to say, "Use your wall-crawling ability to go upstairs and find a mirror. Those small mirrors can show your number. If it’s number one, you’d better hide first."
The other nodded again, then silently and quietly walked away. Arkham Batman watched his back with so admiration; people who walked silently were more like ghosts.
Arkham Batman stayed at the bottom of the stairs mainly because there was a cupboard here. His skill, Master of Skill Samples, indicated clues here, but the cupboard was locked, and the clues couldn’t fly out. He could only attempt to unlock it.
The lock had a puzzle, basically addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but needed many operations. Fortunately, Shiller wasn’t in the castle right now, or he would be solving puzzles while being chased, and the lock might never be opened.
Just then, he suddenly heard the sound of a hook. Knowing this sound well, since he often used such equipnt, it seed the hook was lowering slowly now.
Turning around, a flash of lightning revealed the counterpart’s red hair. Arkham Batman sighed; eting Black Widow here was not a good sign.
"What number are you, Batman?"
As soon as Black Widow spoke, Arkham Batman knew she wasn’t the one he was familiar with. He asked, "Are you from the Pri Universe?"
"Yes, The Avengers over there sent to see what’s happening," Black Widow sighed and said, "Did you encounter the masked one?"
"Masked one?"
"Yes, he says he’s Rorschach, dressed like a Western cowboy, wearing a black-and-white mask, but I couldn’t see the exact pattern. He said he was going downstairs, did you see him?"
"No." Arkham Batman counted in his head; his teammates should all be present. Clearly, none were easy to deal with.
Regarding Rorschach, Arkham Batman had heard about him because they’d investigated the OverWatch team. However, their main focus was on Doctor Manhattan, only knowing Rorschach was a masked hero with sowhat extre thods.
Arkham Batman’s idea was probably similar to Captain Arica, embodying the classic Arican dream role, otherwise wouldn’t be dressed as a Western cowboy. But due to Doctor Manhattan in the team, their actions were quite secretive, so Batman couldn’t investigate much and could only speculate.
"Is he easy to talk to?" Arkham Batman asked.
"Can I say?" Black Widow paused for a mont before saying, "He seems ntally unstable, mumbling incomprehensibly. I don’t think I can communicate with him normally."
"Do you know your number?"
Black Widow nodded: "There happens to be a mirror in the room where I was born. I’m number 4."
"Great," Arkham Batman said, "Do you have many survival skills?"
"I have an invisibility skill," Black Widow said, "As long as I stand still in one place for a period of ti, I can block all detection skills, including those of enemies and allies."
Arkham Batman imdiately thought of so tactics. He said, "It’s a pity you’re not number 1, otherwise you could stall for a long ti."
"Just as I thought, does it require us to be killed in order?"
Arkham Batman nodded, saying, "We both are relatively at the back. I now want to find sothing that can swap numbers; I believe there must be such a thing."
"I’ll look for it too," Black Widow said, "No one has gone over to that side of the hall yet; I’ll go check it out."
Arkham Batman briefly described Shiller’s skill, and then said, "Be careful. If completely locked onto by him, your invisibility skill might also be rendered useless."
Black Widow nodded and left. Arkham Batman could tell that her hook should also be a skill, and its cooldown ti isn’t long. Other skills should include Widow Sting, though it’s uncertain if it can harm Shiller.
Arkham Batman reviewed all the potential skills of his teammates. The best scenario now would be him or Black Widow being number 1, as that would allow them to stall for a long ti. Though Spider Man could work too, his wall-crawling skill would turn him into a sitting target, especially if Shiller has long-range skills, he’d definitely get hit. Shiller might not even be unable to get onto the roof. As for Constantine, he’s absolutely unreliable.
Arkham Batman quickened his pace, tackling those addition, subtraction, multiplication, division questions. It took doing about twenty or thirty of them before finally unlocking the lock. Indeed, a clue lit up in the cabinet, Arkham Batman picked it up to see, it was an old photo taken by one of those vintage caras. A noblewoman with tied-up hair stood before a patterned stained glass window, gazing into the distance.
Arkham Batman frowned. This clue could be part of the plot, or it could point to a location; the latter seems more likely, otherwise, they wouldn’t give a window with such a special pattern. This place should be let Spider Man search.
Arkham Batman imdiately picked up the photo. Then he noticed there was sothing placed at the bottom of the cabinet, it looked like a cara. But it seed not to be the cara that took the photo, as it appeared too advanced.
He picked up the cara to examine it. As soon as he brought his eyes close, he saw a skill icon on the cara interface, which read: "Help you glimpse the true face of Devils."
Arkham Batman understood a bit, it should be able to take photos of Devils to get so information. This information might be quite direct, like skills or identity information, and might be helpful to the seal.
Arkham Batman imdiately knew what to do next. Since he’s not number 1, he has to use the ti of Devils pursuing number 1 to gather as many clues as possible. First, take pictures of Devils, and if he encounters Spider Man on the way, give him the photo, let him look for this window to see if there’s any clue.
Arkham Batman took the cara and started to walk outside. But before he could leave the hall, he heard heavy footsteps upstairs, it definitely wasn’t Shiller since those footsteps could only be made by boots.
Arkham Batman turned back holding the cara, a figure wearing a hat was coming down from the spiral staircase. This man wasn’t very muscular, but he was quite tall. He was wearing a brown trench coat, tightly wrapped, with the belt tied tight. He wore a small brown fedora, and a mask filled with ink stains.
Arkham Batman paused with the cara. Just with one glance, he imdiately realized his previous understanding of Rorschach was completely wrong—this guy is a madman, and quite seriously ill.
Indeed, Captain Arica represents a certain period of Arican spirit, but that period was relatively normal, so Captain Arica is sowhat reliable. Yet, the guy standing in front of him, even if he represents a period of Arica, that period might not be very healthy either. Arkham Batman couldn’t even briefly determine whether this guy or Constantine was more unreliable.
Arkham Batman might not be into Spiritual Analysis, but this guy’s abnormality didn’t need Spiritual Analysis for understanding. He kept mumbling all the way down the stairs. When he saw Arkham Batman, he stopped. Despite the mask covering his eyes, the tilted head and lifted hand gestures were sothing Arkham Batman had only seen in Joker. This proves Rorschach’s ntal state wasn’t good.
Considering he was still his teammate, Arkham Batman spoke first: "Do you know your number?"
The other didn’t answer. Arkham Batman didn’t plan on spending more ti on him, so he turned to walk away. But the person behind him chased after, with footsteps getting faster, Arkham Batman worried he might get hit.
He had to turn back again, Rorschach stopped abruptly, and in a slightly hoarse voice, said: "...Are you the Batman who beca President?"
"Yes, I am." Arkham Batman patiently said, "But obviously, the President’s orders don’t count here..."
"I want to talk to you." Rorschach’s tone was urgent and sowhat excited, "I think we could discuss sothing very aningful, like the immigration issue. What do you think of those immigrants?"
A big question mark popped up in Arkham Batman’s head.
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