Three-stream detection simulator

Doubts flooded Hercule.

But after the child finished saying this, he lay back down without any explanation for his words. The Riddler tapped the name tag under the glass cage: "Look here. This says test number X-001, but I don't know what it means."

Hercule said unexpectedly: "The letter The function is to become the main body of the Void Wind to control all parasitized hosts.”

Riddler: "...How do you know?!"

"Because it was written in the archives just now."

"Have you read them all??"

Hercule told the truth: "Actually, there aren't many."

The Riddler was speechless for a while, and his confidence broke into eight petals.

It took him a long time to squeeze out the words: "We shouldn't stay here. No matter what the identity of X-001 is, it may be a trap left by Pioneer Technology. Unless you know Argos, the CEO of Apocalypse Company, and also work with him. He has a good relationship - to be honest, I don't think a normal person would name himself a hundred-eyed giant."

He's right.

The three people left the underground floor and walked carefully to the ground again. The rest of the way did not encounter any obstacles, so much so that when he walked out of the gate of Pioneer Technology and saw the fish-belly-white sky above his head, Hercule felt in a trance - they had crossed hundreds of kilometers in the upside-down world, starting from Brother Tan Border came to New York City.

"It's too simple." The Riddler was still muttering, "Where are the guards? Where are the bullets? Why didn't you see any of the obstacles?"

"—Because they ran away."

There was a mechanical sound transmitted through metal from above the head. Iron Man was wearing armor and hanging in the air. He glanced at the three people one by one with suspicion, and finally looked at Hercule. "Pepper said you hinted that you asked me to investigate the buyer of the Ark reactor. I'll check it again and again. It seems that only my company’s electricity consumption is wrong. The war has begun, right?”

The war was over in just half a night.

Pioneer Technology cut off its tail to survive, running away like a whirlwind and leaving no chance for investigation.

The guard guarding the "door" on the third underground floor died. He died quietly. He just lay there as if asleep.

SHIELD rushed over to take over all the experimental subjects, investigate their identities, and then find a way to deal with the follow-up. The most important one, X-001, lost consciousness after saying those words. After examination, several government researchers concluded that he could not be considered a living creature at all because he did not even have the most basic neurological reflexes and metabolic abilities. , not to mention advanced self-awareness.

"You can only say that it is a human-shaped weapon, but you cannot generalize it to a person."

Silas Stone, a scientist at the S.T.A.R. Laboratory who specializes in studying superhumans and aliens, explained to the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,

"The purpose of its birth and existence is very clear, which is to become a brain wave transmitter that can simulate the consciousness of the Void Wind. As for the extra functions-I mean the parts that make it a real person-I I don’t know if Pioneer Technology doesn’t have the ability to do it, or if it has the ability but doesn’t think it’s necessary to do it.

All in all, when the termination command is issued, it is like a computer that has no configuration but is incompatible with all software on the market and is no longer useful. "

"What if I want to keep it?" Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, asked, "What do I need to prepare?"

Silas Stone: "It doesn't use anything. It's just a machine in a dormant state. It doesn't need to eat, drink, or consume energy. If you have to keep it, it's like taking care of a set of tables and chairs. Remember to clean them regularly. ”

Beyond that, the existence of the ‘door’ was revealed.

Nick Fury came here specially for this purpose.

He didn't want anyone to shut down the Ark reactor, so he went to the Upside Down World in protective clothing and walked around. After he came back, he said:

"The air on the other side contains too many harmful components to the human body. I need a more detailed analysis report and risk assessment. No one is allowed to approach or pass through that door until the results are available."

After handing over his subordinates, he took off his protective clothing and walked up to Hercule: "First time meeting, detective, I am the director of the Homeland Strategic Defense Attack and Logistics Support Agency - SHIELD for short. You, the Riddler and Robin, you three had better go to the hospital for a physical examination immediately."

Hercule: "Before this, you have nothing to say to me?"

His energy seemed to have dissipated after leaving the Pioneer Technology Building, revealing a drowsy exhaustion. Even when he was talking to the director of SHIELD, Hercule did not raise his chest or head. He just sat on the stone pier next to the door wrapped in his coat, as if he could place a basin in front of him at any time.

The time for absolute rationality is almost up.

Hercule could feel the heaviness gradually overflowing from the depths of his soul. This feeling was similar to when a person suddenly relaxed after being extremely excited, and then unfortunately he suffered from back pain, leg pain, neck pain, and headache everywhere. Aged humans are like rotten wood, they may fall apart and fall apart if touched lightly...

As the head of the secret service, Fury dealt with all kinds of tough men and even tougher women every day. It had been a long time since he had seen a type like Hercule who would appear physically and mentally exhausted after strenuous exercise. He was quite considerate: "I can wait until you wake up to talk."

"That's great!" Hercule was waiting for this sentence and immediately said, "Please give me six hours of rest. You are worse than a bullet stuck in the barrel of a gun that cannot be fired." Be kind."

People should be kind to themselves. He fell on the iron door behind him and fell asleep at the speed of light.

Fury's complaint came belatedly: "...You can use metaphors that you don't know how to use."

He then directed the agent behind him: "Take him to the hospital, undergo a full physical examination, and set an alarm for six hours later."

The agent had some questions: "Are you really not letting him sleep until he wakes up naturally?"

Fury put his hands on his hips in a tough guy posture: "No, people like him are very sensitive to time, and six hours must have a special meaning."

You have a point, but I still suspect that this is revenge for the curse of that sentence jamming the bullet in the gun chamber.

The agent groaned as he carried Hercule into the ambulance, and thoughtfully placed a pink alarm clock turned to maximum volume next to the pillow.

**

The state of absolute rationality disappeared halfway through sleep, and then Hercule understood the meaning of the phrase 'after the skill effect ends, the excess perceptual factors accumulated during the period will be fed back to the brain during sleep'.

There were too many things experienced in these 12 hours. Kidnappers, the upside-down world, pioneering technology, and the message from the man-made bionic mutant X-001. All Hercule's complex thoughts eventually turned into a series of nightmares.

Cold, pain, fear, anger, guilt.

The knife that the Riddler stabbed down.

Robin screams in pain when he is injured.

The temperature in the upside-down world is extremely low, wounds are numb from the cold, the world is dark, and huge monsters are chasing behind them.

The car ran over the body and fled toward the Statue of Liberty.

The Riddler gets sucked into the black fog and increases his speed.

Can't stop...run away...all companions can be used and abandoned. Only by running faster than others can you be the only survivor...

——Wait a minute, wait a minute, Hercule, what are you talking about?

The Riddler is still alive and Robin is unharmed.

So who died. Is it me?

Yeah, I'm afraid so... The android pressed against the glass door, and he caught up with you.

The mouth shape was: 'Long time no see, detective'.

In his sleep, Hercule trembled all over, and X-001's cold hands held his ankle. Everything around him was in such chaos, why was he still in the upside-down world? It's obviously only one step away from the door...

Then, in an instant, a pink alarm clock replaced X-001's head, making a deafening ringing sound, accompanied by the voice of a screaming chicken: "Get up! Get up! It's time! Get up!"

"..."

Hercule woke up in a cold sweat, picked up a pillow and held down the demonic thing, then opened his eyes and looked around.

He was lying in a bright and clean ward with his left hand wrapped in a bandage. There were only beds, pillows and alarm clocks around him. There were two chairs side by side across the room, each with a trash can on it. The trash can is empty, and the lid is polished. There are two fruit baskets placed on the two lids. There are different fruits in the fruit baskets, and they all appear in pairs.

Hercule was both comfortable and shocked.

The only thing alone at the end of his vision was Batman.

The black-clad superhero walked to the pure white hospital bed. Now the layout of the room was unified: "The room was organized by SHIELD agents. They are worried that you will fall into temporary madness like the Riddler when you wake up."

Hercule: "How does SHIELD know about my... habits?"

"This is about what you said to the cadres at Stark Industries Headquarters." Batman said, "Ms. Pepper Potts asked me to convey her gratitude - that night when you spent the night at the headquarters, you sorted the steel according to your unique sorting habits. A precious collection belonging to Xia Xia and Ms. Potts was placed in a mysterious location.

Iron Man did not ask Ms. Potts's consent to sell the collection, but no one, including the artificial intelligence, could find its whereabouts, and in the end the transaction had to be abandoned. "

"..."

Batman then got back to the point: "It doesn't look like you slept well."

"It's really not that good," Hercule lifted up a few strands of hair that were wet with sweat from his forehead and shrugged, "I went through too much last night. Why are you here? I thought bats were nocturnal creatures. ”

"I have my own ideas. Fury contacted me."

"So that's it." Hercule's heart that was racing because of the nightmare calmed down slightly. He wanted to get up and go to the bathroom to wash up, but found that a tube had been inserted into his right hand at some point. "Allow me to ask another question. This What is it?"

"The antidote. You, Robin and the Riddler all have it. The air in the Upside Down World is harmful to the human body. The person with the most serious illness currently is the Riddler. He is extremely mentally unstable and is dying, but every doctor and nurse who enters the ward All must answer the riddle, otherwise he will not cooperate with the treatment. Your condition is relatively stable, and the best thing is Robin, who is almost unaffected."

In fact, this is not common sense at all. Children have weak immunity and are more likely to get sick, followed by Hercule who seems to have something wrong with him everywhere.

What is the actual result? Robin was bouncing around and nothing happened. Hercule's emotions fluctuated significantly in his dream, but all physical indicators remained within normal limits. Only the Riddler, who exercised regularly and was the strongest, was seriously injured and on the verge of death.

This led Fury to believe that monsters in the Upside Down World would preferentially target biological individuals that appeared to be more threatening.

Hercule went to the bathroom to wash his face. When he came out, he asked, "What time is it now?"

"At one o'clock in the afternoon on July 19th." Batman answered with his arms crossed. "We still have plenty of time. You should explain what happened to me, Robin's guardian."

Are you now Robin's guardian again?

Hercule rubbed his head, sat on the hospital bed, and started describing from the beginning: "Yesterday you went to find the fake Marshall, that is, Fordham. He was hired by the real Marshall to become a scapegoat. But in fact, he led With a double salary, someone hired him to lurk into the Stark Group to gain access to the Ark reactor blueprints.

Employer is Pioneer Technology. Pioneer Technology is nominally a subsidiary of Stark Group. In fact, Iron Man does not control it, but only provides financial and technical support. Pioneer Technology abandoned the Ark reactor on the third floor underground and modified and upgraded the previous generation version purchased from the Stark Group. Unfortunately, the energy conversion efficiency is still not as good as the latest model made by Iron Man. "

"Pioneer Technology found out that I was in contact with Iron Man, and thought I knew they were using the Upside Down World to conduct human experiments. These people were so solemn and vigilant towards me that the slightest sign of trouble would be like facing a formidable enemy..."

Hercule shook his head, not knowing how to describe the enemy's overly cautious and outsmarting behavior. "Then they made two reactions at the same time. One was to try to silence me, and the other was to immediately clear the building." Important facilities and headquarters will be moved.”

"At the fire prevention lecture in Aria's apartment, they tried the first test using retrograde bullets. Not only was it unsuccessful, it also reminded me of the real culprit in the New York serial arson case along the lines of entropy reversal weapons.

I think this further heightened their fear of me, so that night everyone couldn't wait for confirmation and began a second silence. They ordered Fordham to attract you away, and at the same time they tried to use long-range infrasonic weapons to mind me. interference.

Thinking about it now, it was indeed a good time. SHIELD took Iron Man away, and you were not there. I lacked effective means of self-protection at the time, so this was the most likely chance of success. "

"However, the robbers encountered an accident again during the operation. The escaped Riddler joined the team by chance. We opened the door to the upside-down world and followed the clues to the Pioneer Technology headquarters."

Batman pointed out: "You deliberately blurred your words at key points. Why was there an accident when the robbers took action? How did the Riddler find you? How did you identify the direction and find another exit in the upside-down world?"

The robbers failed because they were just a bunch of idiots. The Riddler came to visit him because he was attracted by the medal of 'Batman's Approval'. He was able to find the exit in the upside-down world because Hercule recalled the path pointed out by New York the last time he used the Celestial Sensation - and later thought about it, the Statue of Liberty was not pointing to the Stark Group, but should be located next to it. Pioneer technology.

But these are not easy to explain clearly.

They involve questions that Hercule himself did not understand.

"Your accusation is too serious. How dare I hide the truth from Robin's guardian?"

He smiled, and Batman looked dissatisfied. They both glared at each other, and Hercule said, "The main thing is that I don't know how to explain it. Have you heard of the four taboos related to me?" ?”

The more people know about this thing, the more magical it sounds, almost like some kind of truth.

No meeting allowed.

Not communicable.

Do not try to understand.

Do not kill directly.

But what if we understand it in another way? What would happen if content that seemed beyond common sense were interpreted in the correct framework?

Going back 1500 years, Augustine compiled "City of God", theology and politics began to be compatible, and the City of God fell on the earth. Another thousand years passed before Darwin wrote The Origin of Species and evolution by natural selection replaced Eve and Adam. Fifty years ago, James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis, imagining that the earth is like a living, breathing creature. Plato had a similar view as early as 400 BC.

To put it more simply, human beings' different understanding of rules constitutes two sides like alchemy and chemistry.

Batman: "We should try to convert these four taboos into more straightforward terms. No meeting, obviously, as long as seeing you will leak clues, pushing it to a third party will reduce the risk of exposure. Shania, Marshall, Pioneer Technology, Tianqi Company, all of them follow this rule, the ones in front are the employees, and the ones behind are the employers.

Not being able to communicate, the same principle applies, and is just as dangerous as meeting each other.

The last two are relatively complicated because we still lack intelligence. "

"So we can try to ask questions." Hercule said, raising two fingers. "First, what is there in me that is contrary to ordinary people, which means it is incomprehensible? Second, what power is protecting me, causing me to be incomprehensible?" Killing? Unfortunately, that’s my question too, Batman. I hope you’ll understand.”

"..." Batman was noncommittal and just said, "Robin likes you very much, detective. He told me that you protected him in the Upside Down World, but he couldn't tell me clearly how you did it. "

It was a good thing not to mention this topic, because when Hercule mentioned it, he was reminded of the nightmare just now.

In the dream, he considered abandoning his companions to survive in a state of absolute rationality. In reality, a similar situation could really happen - he made the Riddler think Robin was important to him, thus turning the child into a natural weight to increase the persuasiveness of the lie.

But in reality? Hercule even considered sacrificing one of Robin's hands to gain the Riddler's trust.

When he was about to leave the upside-down world, if he hadn't discovered that the Void Wind would not take the initiative to enter the building, and that his coat seemed to be able to hold a shield, coupled with the influence of human supremacy, Hercule would never have taken the risk to save people.

And when he passed through Pioneer Technology's laboratory, he didn't waver at all... Saving people or not saving people was no longer a moral multiple-choice question, but became a choice of interests.

Even so, Robin still thinks Hercule is a good guy.

Hercule felt... guilty about this.

Batman noticed, and was quietly surprised. In fact, in Robin's narration, an observer such as Batman can easily detect the detective's trick:

The Riddler doesn't know Hercule and thinks he and Robin have known each other for a long time.

The Riddler is unsure of Robin's importance.

As soon as the detective came up, he exchanged a condition that he was not allowed to harm Robin in any way. The Riddler naturally increased the priority of Robin as a threat and was convinced of the conclusion reached in this way...

Hercule did take advantage of Robin, but judging from the results, he controlled it to a very good extent. Robin's current guardian couldn't fault it, and there was no need for him to feel guilty about it.

It seems like he shouldn't be such an emotional person.

Did turning the world upside down have a certain impact on Hercule's spirit? Based on the Riddler's symptoms, is he seeing visions with even worse consequences?

Recalling Hercule's struggles and nightmares when he was lying in bed and about to wake up, and comparing it to Robin, who was energetic and seemed to have slept in the Upside Down World, Batman believed that the detective's protection of Robin was indeed quite valuable. .

This favor can either be repaid by Batman or repaid by Robin himself when he grows up.

Thinking of this, the Dark Knight's attitude became less rigid. He took the initiative to change the subject: "Are you going to continue to rest, or are you going to go to the police station with me?"

Hercule: "...?"

"Why is this so?" He knew that his emotions were revealed, so he simply made a joke, "I think even if I am ashamed of Robin, I should not go to jail. Mr. Guardian, please allow me to keep it private."

Batman's face was expressionless. He had long discovered that when he became the target of Hercule's ridicule, the best expression was to have no expression: "Okay, you can stay here and sleep again, waiting for this S.H.I.E.L.D. agent." The pink alarm clock wakes you up and it's all over."

Hercule: "We still have unsolved problems?"

Without waiting for Batman to answer, he continued: "——The real Marshall is at the NYPD, and Shania Fordham's package is also at the NYPD. I thought you had them."

Batman refused to respond to the topic with a 'turn around'.

In the end, Hercule got into the Batmobile: the latest model developed by Wayne Technology, with double doors, four rows of seats, and can accommodate up to six normal-sized humans.

Robin got used to the passenger seat and Hercule sat in the second row.

On the way, Hercule clicked on the system panel. His side mission was completed, but he never had time to look at it.

[Side mission: An ordinary kidnapping case

Task status: Completed

Mission description: Three fools brought it upon themselves, and a smart man was misled by his cleverness. You have easily foiled the enemy's plot, and I'm afraid they will never dare to try to attack you again unless they are determined.

Mission reward: New York area reputation +300

Reputation in New York area lv.1 (200/400): You have a slight reputation among specific niche groups]

Hercule discovered a problem.

He is by no means "little famous" among villains. To some people, his name rings a bell. But there seems to be a difference between villains and villains. For example, the Riddler didn't know Hercule before, but you want to say that he is an unsuccessful criminal? Not really.

The game system seems to deliberately ignore a group of people when calculating reputation. They revolve around Apocalypse Company and the plot of the game, and are inextricably linked to the character of 'Hercule Hugo'.

Previously, the system did not count the New York serial arson case as a side mission. But if there is a connection between these two clues, that is, the New York serial arson case is not a branch line because Pioneer Technology (related to Apocalypse Company) is the murderer, and the latter is not included when the system calculates reputation... then Where is the kidnapper?

Could it be that the kidnappers were not sent by Pioneer Technology? Why did their behavior trigger the side mission?

Hercule turned the page, followed by other rewards:

[Earn a medal: A superhero who is not targeted by villains is not a good detective (can be upgraded) (the real thing can be hidden)

Current level: lv.1 (0/5)

Wearing effect:

[Small] Improves your charisma in the eyes of criminals: they hate you, but also admire you.

[Slightly] Improve your reputation among the superhero community: at critical moments, you can also be a collaborator.

[Slightly] Improve your reputation among the victim group: Be prepared to answer the phone, there will always be commissions. 】

A rare reward without negative effects. I wonder if it’s because of the low level.

Hercule chose to wear it. Just then, Robin in the front row asked, "I seem to have missed the plot - when did you two know that the real Marshall was in the police station?"