70. Gotham: Aria will do her best to mess with you
78.
The body that stopped in front of Bruce Wayne was pale and powerless, and was wrapped in a cold breath brought out from the cold storage.
The troublemaker tried his best to preserve the original appearance of the claw when it fell to the ground: the deceased had suffered multiple injuries to his body after falling from a high-rise building, including a collapsed skull and damaged cervical vertebrae - the equipment he was wearing was not enough to withstand such injuries, and this result was expected.
No other fatal injuries were detected on the deceased—she had deliberately avoided fighting for some reason. Perhaps there happened to be something in Wayne Tower that she considered important, which made the farmer change her usual reckless fighting style and restrain herself a little.
The shadowless light worked diligently overhead. Bruce Wayne walked around the corpse and stopped in front of the disassembled armor.
The metal material of the armor reflected Wayne's thoughtful face, and the steel-blue eyes that were always full of smiles in front of the camera were now slightly frosted.
He knew, of course, which animal the armor was modeled after—young Bruce Wayne had tried to follow the legend back when the nursery rhyme was still used to scare other children into going to bed early.
Rather than believing his parents were simply unlucky, happened upon the wrongdoers, and died in an accidental gunfire, he preferred to see the whole thing as a vast conspiracy—as if with enough effort and intelligence, he could break through the veil and uncover the truth. At the end, like in some detective novels, the protagonist comforts the deceased and achieves spiritual redemption.
However, little Bruce found nothing - it was dark and shadowy. He mustered up the courage to walk closer and found that it was really just a shadow.
But even as the shadow condensed and turned into a childhood monster standing before him, Bruce Wayne still felt that everything was under control.
He calmly judged the age of the armor based on its pattern and collected residual organic matter - these substances could provide a preliminary assessment of where the Claw had been, helping to further speculate on its whereabouts.
He extracted some metamorphic rock powder resembling marble—a common sight in Gotham, with many wealthy individuals favoring it for their home decor. He even extracted skin scrapings belonging to Mayor Lewis from a corpse's fingernail—recalling the attack Aria had mentioned earlier, the gears spun several times before finding a matching pair.
But the timing is wrong, and the state is wrong. While the human body is constantly producing waste, it also has a certain self-purification ability. These things are easily taken away during daily contact or cleaning, and under normal circumstances they will not be retained for such a long time.
If the farmer were here, he'd probably conclude, "This guy never washes his hands." However, he's more inclined to believe that claws are more like tools in court, and most likely exist in only two states.
"Safekeeping" and "borrowing." No one cares about tools, and most likely the claws have a very weak sense of self.
Bruce Wayne's gaze continued downward, landing on the blade on his arm. The front of the blade, perhaps sharpened for combat, looked as bright as new, but the back was still stained with rust. The farmer's blood had congealed on it, and from the location of the bloodstains, it looked as if the entire blade had passed through her palm, plunging quite deep into it.
He frowned slightly and took a blood sample.
Aria's hair had been obtained before, and the test results did not match any genes in the database - this situation was normal in his detective career. If a person and his family's genes had not been entered into the CODIS database due to a crime, nor had they been entered into the medical or military database, they were completely ordinary people.
Trying to trace the genes of an ordinary person is like searching for a drop of water that has already merged into the ocean, which is extremely difficult. This is why Batman did not invest too much energy in genetic tracing, but instead focused on tracing through social engineering methods.
Although the results are still minimal.
For those who have no past, the only thing they can do seems to be to piece it all together: hair, blood, gifts given, words, piling all the collected fragments together, and perhaps one day they will be able to see the whole picture.
Bruce Wayne unconsciously clenched his right hand. Although the wound left by the glass shards had been cleaned long ago, he still felt as if the farmer's blood was still there, and it was hot and difficult to dissipate.
Maybe that's part of the superpower? We'll see.
"Beep--" The humming of the machine diverted his attention. Batman looked at the body of the clawed creature. Although all vital signs showed that he was dead, the "corpse" was still recovering at a slow but visible speed. The superficial wounds had healed into scars.
Things were more complicated than he thought.
…
This unequal deal was unilaterally signed by the farmer without the consent of the Court of Owls.
She stood in front of a slightly aging commercial building. Judging by its age, it could barely be considered a part of Zuzu City's history. However, with the changes in commerce, this building, once a symbol of prosperity and past glory, had lost its former glory. The revolving door at the entrance creaked repeatedly, and even a few of the overhead lights seemed to be broken.
Getting in here was easier than entering Wayne Tower; Aria could simply pretend to be a customer and get through without any problems. However, her last bungee jump had been a bit too much, and as she stepped into the rickety elevator, she wondered if it would suddenly fall down, too.
…Fortunately, no. The elevator, though worn and shabby, still climbed steadily and faithfully.
Based on experience, the Court of Owls' base would still be in a hidden compartment on the thirteenth floor. They seemed to have their own special way of regarding numbers, and they didn't mind bad luck. Aria felt that working here, turning on the TV every day would only make her see the words, "The elves are very unhappy today. They'll do everything in their power to cause trouble for you." Just thinking about it made her despair.
Finally reaching the fourteenth floor, Aria passed by the half-dying shop and went straight into the bathroom - this was the most convenient place to operate. She could just take out a ladder and put it on the ground to reach the mezzanine smoothly.
…
The layout of the Court of Owls was actually quite uncreative. When Aria first saw it, she was still curious about it, but when she looked around and saw more than a dozen almost identical layouts, that excitement disappeared.
She even started dividing the courtroom into functional areas, which was quite amusing. Those areas filled with solemn, dreary group photos were the corporate culture gallery. Those wearing owl masks were most likely management, since their attire was different from that of the Claws. The body language in the portraits was quite intimate, suggesting they knew each other.
The kettlebells and sandbags casually thrown in the corner are most likely used by the Owl Court as employee welfare promotions such as "We have a gym"; the bed board is so hard that even players like Farmer, who don't care about beds at all, think it is not suitable for sleeping. It is most likely used by Claws, which means that the company has to work night shifts from time to time.
Their conference room was decorated magnificently and in a very stylish manner, with a brass owl statue overlooking the entire venue - perhaps the top management's calculations and arguments would be more interesting under the owl's gaze.
In summary - a company that makes money but has very poor employee benefits, with the upper management being full of people with connections, and if you ask people around you whether they should join the company, everyone will advise you to run away.
But this seemed to have nothing to do with her. The individual farmer swept away all the decorations that blocked her way to place the wine barrels as if they were debris, and stuffed the things that could be melted into iron and copper ingots into her bag. She was incredibly strong, and moving a statue as tall as a person was like playing, and she easily cleared out a space.
Deciding on the brewery's location wasn't easy; a list of buildings was needed. Following Alan Wayne's lead, Aria found a construction foundation funded in his name—his funds significantly aided Gotham's initial development and, to a certain extent, shaped the city's architectural style. Whether this was intentional to facilitate the court's efforts remains to be seen. After eliminating the buildings likely to be demolished as part of Wayne's urban development plans, the remaining sites were relatively stable for the next year.
Although it was a bit troublesome, the farmer still smiled happily when he saw the full buckets in the house.
Even though it's still work, the nature of the work is quite different from that of Claws! At least this job is completely for me, and it's quite fulfilling.
The Court of Owls probably hadn't expected anyone to clean out their nests during the day. Perhaps they hadn't even prepared an emergency plan, or perhaps they had abandoned these scattered nests long ago. Aria hadn't encountered a single new claw during her entire cleanup. There was a hidden explosive hidden in the debris, but the farmer had yanked it out like a pest before it exploded and stuffed it into his bag with lightning speed.
There was a dull thud, but it didn't damage her bucket at all.
Humming a hop song, the farmer felt it would be more reassuring to eradicate the Court of Owls as soon as possible. Who knows when they will come back here to destroy the relationship between her and Xiao Tong!
After thinking for a while, Aria decided to try her luck in the sewers. After all, in the entire Zuzu City, there seemed to be no place more chaotic and disorderly, and more likely to breed darkness, than here.
She picked up some unwanted wood from the green belt in Zuzu City and made a few notice boards to place in the sewers.
There were three notice boards in a group. On the left, it was written "The people outside the reach of the garbage group are all connected to the government", and on the right, it was written "This crappy court is a disaster for the people of Zuzu City and has angered the farmers and the people of the city", and finally in the middle, it was written "Conscientious Enterprise".
Aria put her hands on her hips in satisfaction. This will definitely make them very angry!
Did you see that? Come and beat her up if you don't agree!
…
The atmosphere in the courtroom today was very strange.
Lincoln March was wearing a mask—his own, a mask whose edges had been polished smooth by years of wear, but somehow, when his wife's fan came at him, the rounded edge still left a mark on his jaw.
Lincoln lowered his head, his mind racing—if it was just the old nest that was taken away by the farmer, then the fan must have gone somewhere else. If it wasn't this, then it must be something else.
He hadn't seen his wife so angry in a long time. As she got older, she was very careful about controlling her emotions. This time, she was so angry that her chest felt like it was about to explode. And this was all because of him...
It couldn't be that his plot had been exposed. If that happened, the lady would have killed him and wouldn't have let anyone stand here and talk. Lincoln lowered his head even lower. "Please explain."
Three notice boards were thrown in front of him, followed by his wife's question, tinged with anger: "Is this how you bring people closer?"
After seeing the content of the sign, Lincoln March wanted to laugh, but fortunately he held it back.
——The handwriting is quite neat.
My previous couplet was "This shitty court doesn't pay any social insurances or housing funds; the leaders of this rubbish company are all relatives." After discussing it with Bai Qi, she changed it to "This rubbish company's claws are all relatives, and this shitty court is a disaster for Gotham, and Batman and I are all angry about it." I felt the second one was more interesting, so I changed it based on that.
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