Chapter 1185 The Cry of the Lamb (Six) (Patreon)

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"There have been three more missing person cases in Central City recently. The families of the missing persons have gathered at the entrance of the Central City scenic area, protesting the police's inaction, saying that the lack of police force is not an excuse..."

"The 'Bone Eater Demon' in Coastal City has struck again. A 26-year-old female teacher was found in a suburban cabin, with her ribs removed. The police are conducting a full investigation, but have not yet found any effective clues to identify a suspect..."

"The public is advised not to panic. The police force in Imperial City has been fully deployed to search for the 'Lamppost Killer'. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Pennsylvania criminal investigation team has also been fully involved in this case..."

"The 'Skin Hunter' in the state of California has been convicted. The seven flaying cases he committed are considered the most cruel and insane crimes in the history of California. Next, our journalist will give you a detailed report on the crime scene..."

A click was heard as a hand turned off the radio. Gordon rubbed his forehead and sighed helplessly, "What's going on? The whole world is becoming like Gotham?"

"Boss, the news this past week has been quite strange. Serial killers are being reported in various states. When I turn on the radio, I feel like I've tuned in to a local Gotham station."

A young police officer sitting at the desk, sorting through materials, shook his head and said, "It seems like there have been more serial killers popping up in various regions recently. Some areas don't have enough police force, and they've even called us, asking for our experience."

"Where did these people come from?" the young male officer asked, puzzled. "And why are they committing crimes so intensively at the same time?"

Gordon's brow furrowed as he spoke in a low voice, "This is definitely not a coincidence. In my many years of experience, although there are serial murder cases every year, I've never encountered such a concentrated outbreak of cases before."

The female officer grimaced and said, "Moreover, these serial killers are much more frenzied than before. In the past, they could be considered successful if they committed three or four cases, but this time, several states have serial killers who casually kill seven or eight people, and their methods are extremely cruel, as if they want everyone to know how ruthless they are."

Gordon sighed, and although he didn't continue speaking, he had already made up his mind to go find Batman and ask what was going on.

It was late at night, and Gordon had finished all his work for the day. He picked up his car keys, intending to drive to Wayne Manor to find Bruce, but just as he was about to walk out the door, he caught sight of a dark figure in the room.

"Batman, you always startle me when you come here." Gordon shook his head, turning to look at the Batman standing in the shadows.

What surprised Gordon was that Batman's condition was very poor. He was soaked in rain, his face was pale as if he had lost a lot of blood, and his eye contact even seemed a bit hollow.

"Have you been following the news lately?" Batman's low voice rang out. Without waiting for Gordon's response, he muttered to himself, "Multiple regions have experienced a surge in serial murder cases, with the number of killers and the number of crimes increasing tenfold in just one week."

"Of course I've heard about it." Gordon walked back to his seat and tossed a few documents onto the desk, saying, "I was actually going to come find you to ask if you knew what was going on, but it seems you don't know either."

"It's related to Schiller," Batman said.

Hearing Schiller's name, Gordon's expression hardened, and he sighed with a complex look on his face, "He's only been gone for a week, and I thought it had been a year already."

Gordon then leaned forward, picked up a pen from the desk, and started fiddling with it, saying, "I know Schiller is guilty. Even though murder is commonplace in this city, it only shows that this city is not normal. Criminals must pay the price for their contempt for the law."

"But I don't think Schiller should have been imprisoned for such a long sentence. Batman, you can't imagine what it's like in that kind of prison."

"I know you all have your dissatisfactions," Batman said. "You think Schiller didn't get a fair trial, and as his most valued student, I didn't go to defend him."

Gordon shook his head slightly and said, "No one has the responsibility to fight for another person. I'm just worried that the hatred towards criminals might affect your standard of justice."

Gordon glanced at Batman's poor condition and didn't continue.

"Schiller is the leader of these serial killers. He is the founder of a mysterious club that provides a stage for these serial killers to showcase themselves... He is their shepherd."

As Batman's words fell, Gordon's hand clenched tightly, and he turned to look at Batman, saying, "Are you saying that Schiller is driving these serial killers to commit their crimes?"

"Quite the opposite," Batman said, staring into Gordon's eyes. "It's because Schiller is no longer here that these serial killers have gone berserk."

Gordon was momentarily stunned, but soon Batman spoke again, "Yesterday, Jonathan Crane, another serial killer, came to me and asked if I knew Schiller's whereabouts."

"When I told him that Schiller had been imprisoned, he seemed very excited. He then told me that once the serial killers believe the club's master will no longer appear, they will start competing with each other."

"When the flock loses its shepherd, all the sheep want to become the leader." Batman's expression was very serious, and his tone remained low. He continued, "Just yesterday, I learned about something Schiller has been doing all along."

"What is it?" Gordon asked.

"Schiller has been saving the world."

"What?!" Gordon's eyes widened as he stared at Batman, as if he didn't recognize him. He thought he had misheard, and just as he was about to ask again, Batman explained:

"Last night, after Jonathan left, I started investigating information about this mysterious club..."

As Batman recounted the story, the lights in Wayne Manor gradually lit up, and from the bright windows, one could see Bruce sitting at his desk in the study, deep in thought.

In front of him were stacks of newspapers, some dating back two years. He had spread out each newspaper and read through them, making mental notes of the content after finishing.

After about three hours of comparison and organization, Bruce realized that the newspaper clues provided by Jonathan were likely a ploy to mislead him, as there were no useful leads in these newspapers.

The investigation and inquiry have reached this stage, even if Bruce doesn't want to, he has to start adopting the Exhaustive method.

Bruce searched his mind for the keywords Schiller, newspapers, serial killers, and all the words derived from these, a process that took him about two hours.

It was while searching for the keywords related to newspapers that Bruce suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and he thought of the keyword "thesis."

Coincidentally, Angela had previously printed out a copy of Bruce's psychology graduation thesis when she was reading it at Wayne Manor, so Bruce found the printed copy of his own thesis and started reminiscing about the time he wrote it.

Of course, the predominant memory from the time he was writing the thesis was his constant back-and-forth with Schiller over the most minute flaws in the paper, making revisions.

And the thing that bothered Bruce the most was the use of symbols.

English writing uses half-width symbols, but many separators require a half-width space after them, and improper use of commas, separators, and connectors can change the meaning, but long, complex sentences without separators can also lead to grammatical errors. The use of symbols is an important part of English grammar lessons.

Bruce's grammar was quite good, but anyone who has written a thesis knows that in a state of exhaustion, just remembering to use separators is an accomplishment, accidentally dropping a space here or forgetting a separator there is very normal.

On the symbol issue alone, Schiller and Bruce had at least hundreds of rounds of battles, sometimes the symbols were fixed, but after making large-scale changes to the content, the new content and symbols had to be revised again, sometimes the content was fixed, but due to improper sentence structure, the symbols had to be revised again.

In this process, Bruce fully understood Schiller's habits in using symbols, and if he looked at some articles in newspapers or magazines with Schiller's habits, it was obvious that the use of some symbols was incorrect.

The local daily newspapers and some less formal magazines actually don't have very strict requirements for submissions, and the requirements are completely different from academic theses, so symbol errors are normal, not everyone has a Schiller following them, demanding they use every symbol correctly.

But if you look at these symbol errors and the serial killer club, as well as the possible existence of serial killers, then the symbols may very well be an important clue.

After repeatedly comparing all the newspapers and magazines, Bruce found that many articles had a pattern of symbol errors.

These reports were not only about criminal cases, but also about all kinds of miscellaneous content, such as paid advertisements, gossip news, citizen complaints, popular science on nutrition, etc.

Bruce guessed that the serial killers were using the symbol errors in these articles published in newspapers or magazines to convey some information to other serial killers who knew about this.

And Schiller may have been using the pattern of symbol errors to release different new codes to evade the prying eyes of certain people.

"By deciphering the pattern of symbol errors, I learned the content of their communication, and I discovered a fact that shocked me greatly." Batman's voice in Gordon's office trembled slightly as he continued:

"Schiller is not encouraging these serial killers, but controlling them, even preventing them from killing, he is saving ordinary people."

The listening Gordon slowly widened his eyes and said to Batman in an extremely absurd tone, "Do you know what you're saying? How could a serial killer club prevent them from killing?"

"It does sound absurd, doesn't it?" Batman shook his head slightly.

"But the fact is, Schiller has formulated a series of criteria for judging serial killers, and only serial killers who meet this standard can be considered talented and refined serial killers."

"This standard includes, but is not limited to, each serial murder case should have its own theme, mindless carnage is rejected, and simply accumulating a quantity of thoughts is not enough, only cruelty and bloodshed without a soul is unacceptable."

Batman's mouth turned down at the corners, his lips tightly pursed, and then he spoke, "He has created an academic circle for serial killers and set extremely strict standards for this circle."

"He uses his cruel, merciless but highly self-consistent theories of terror to demand that serial killers seriously and meticulously treat each case, requiring them to prove their academic status with a perfect serial murder case."

"And in order to complete the 'perfect' serial murder case that he speaks of, this group of killers have to spend several years thinking of a perfect theme, several more years finding a perfect victim, then several more years planning the perfect modus operandi, and finally several more years implementing this plan, and then spend the rest of their lives savoring this perfect serial murder case."

"Becoming the perfect serial killer in Schiller's eyes has become their lifelong pursuit, he has established a new society for these innately perverted, amoral and shameless maniacs, molded new rules for them, and made them ashamed of their indiscriminate killing."

Batman slowly closed his eyes, slightly raising his head, his voice slightly trembling, his pale face because the abyss he had originally envisioned was even deeper than he had thought.

"He uses the serial killers' craving for recognition and perception to forge the chains that bind them, guiding their actions."

"He lets the maniacs scream unrestrained in the silent world that ordinary people cannot see, while controlling them, making them love him, chant his name, and sing his praises."

"And his actions have actually saved countless victims who would have died from the unchecked carnage..."

Batman lowered his head again, still seeing the hazy and dreamlike moonlight, and Schiller's low voice, his voice and Schiller's voice gradually overlapping.

"He knows that after he's gone, this uncontrolled group of maniacs will make me understand what he's done.

"And make me understand that he is not in destruction, but in salvation, and has done better and saved more than me, gone further down this road.

"To let me know that he is not a criminal, but a true educator."

"He wants to make me love him, revere him, willingly walk the path he wants to lead me on, and become his tame lamb."

Sigh...

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 1186 The Cry of the Lamb (Seven)