Chapter 1190 Lamb's Cry (Part Eleven) (Patreon)

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Watching Jonathan, who was covered in blood but remained calm, being loaded into the ambulance, Gordon stood at the entrance of the police station and shook his head. When he turned his head to look back, he found that Batman had disappeared without a trace. Gordon sighed and muttered to himself:

"What's going on? What's with the sudden outburst?"

Gordon looked down at his own hands. He had just helped press on Jonathan's wound, leaving his hands covered in blood, with the cuffs and edges of his shirt also stained.

As Gordon turned his head and wanted to go back to the police station's restroom to wash his hands, he found that the soles of his shoes were also covered in blood. With each step forward, he left a bloody footprint.

Gordon felt that he shouldn't trouble the cleaning lady with unnecessary mess, so he planned to wipe the soles of his shoes on the carpet. But as soon as he stepped on the carpet, he found that it was also covered in blood, and the more he stepped on it, the dirtier it became.

Gordon looked around with his hands raised, and noticed that there were two extra newspapers on the umbrella stand next to him. He leaned his elbow on the doorframe and used the other hand to wipe the soles of his shoes with the newspapers.

But as he wiped, he seemed to remember something, stepped back, and shook the blood-stained newspapers open, staring at the dense text and muttering, "Full-width separators..."

Gordon stared at the newspaper for a long time, but he really couldn't understand the difference between full-width and half-width symbols. From the layout, there didn't seem to be anything unusual.

Gordon realized that he was not good at text and graphic reasoning, and he needed to find someone who was an expert in this.

In the dimly lit corridor of Arkham Asylum, Harley was pushing an IV stand with one hand and holding a prescription in the other, looking down at the prescription as she walked. As she turned a corner, she ran into Mrs. Miller.

"Harley, what are you doing here? Come with me quickly, Commissioner Gordon wants to see you," Mrs. Miller said, waving to Harley.

Harley raised an eyebrow and made an impatient expression. She pushed the IV stand to the side, hugged her arms, and said in a sulky tone, "What does that Gordon want now? Doesn't he know I'm already swamped?"

Mrs. Miller hesitated for a moment, then gently patted Harley's back and said, "If you're feeling too tired, I can help you decline."

"What does he want me for?" Harley asked.

"Seems like it's about a case... or finding clues or something. I didn't really understand what he was saying, but it sounds like a dangerous thing. If you don't want to go, I can help you refuse him," Mrs. Miller said, tilting her head to look at Harley.

Harley's eyes lit up, and she quickly caught up with Mrs. Miller's pace, then said, "No, I'm not tired at all. Let's go there right away!"

In the first-floor office, Gordon's brow was furrowed as he looked at the newspapers and magazines spread out in front of him. From his serious expression, it seemed he hadn't made any progress. When Harley came in, he immediately waved to her and said, "Come over here, Harley, help me look at the symbols in these articles. Is there anything wrong with them?"

Harley walked over and knelt down on the floor, looking at the newspapers spread out. Before she could ask, Gordon briefly explained what had just happened at the police station.

Harley's eyes slowly widened, and she raised her voice, "You mean Batman has updated the serial killer club's secret code?? That's impossible!!!"

After saying that, she turned her gaze back to the newspapers on the floor. Like a dragonfly skimming the water, she used her finger to guide her gaze, searching between the pages and content. A few minutes later, Harley stood up and shook her head, saying in a disbelieving tone:

"They really are using a new secret code, full-width separators..."

"What's going on? How does this serial killer club operate? How did Batman get involved?" Gordon asked, very confused.

Harley glanced at him, opened her mouth, but then closed it again, seeming reluctant to speak. She hesitated for a moment, but then said:

"Born psychopaths have a characteristic - they are extra sensitive to information about bloodshed and violence, which can excite them, even if they don't necessarily show it outwardly."

"At first, I noticed the abnormalities in the newspapers because Gotham Daily had reported on the unfortunate news of a street vendor being run over by a truck. The writer had directly placed a graphic photo of the mangled corpse on the front page, and I couldn't help but look at it."

"The moment I saw that photo, my heart started pounding violently, and a indescribable excitement surged up. I was almost eager to flip through the newspaper and read the content."

"The article itself wasn't much to say, just a simple accident report, and the writer's prose was very dry, just stating the basic facts without any detailed descriptions. This completely failed to satisfy my craving."

"After that, I started paying attention to the bloody murder cases reported in various newspapers, and whenever I read the writings of some skilled authors describing the criminals' modus operandi, I felt as if I was there in the scene."

"The more I read these reports, the more I noticed that some writers had good writing skills, but for some reason, their grammar wasn't quite right, and they used some symbols incorrectly."

"At that time, I was taking a grammar course, so I was extra sensitive to this. Well, well, I feel like I have a bit of OCD - when something that's normally perfect has a flaw, it really bothers me and makes me want to bang my head against the wall."

Harley pressed her lips tightly together, pulling the corners of her mouth down into a very unhappy expression, with the muscles around her eyebrows all scrunched up, like she had just swallowed a fly.

Although Gordon wasn't as specialized in serial killers as Angela, he had plenty of experience as a police officer in Gotham, so he nodded and said, "Yes, I know a lot of serial killers have OCD and compulsions."

"Discovering their grammar and symbol errors, I couldn't help but mentally correct the proper grammar and symbols in my mind. I kept doing this, and gradually I realized that these grammar and symbol errors weren't random, but had a pattern."

Harley frowned deeply, staring at the newspapers on the floor and said, "After I discovered this, I started studying what the pattern was in these grammar and symbol errors, and why there would be a pattern."

"Then I made a startling discovery - there was an organization that I didn't understand, using the grammar and symbol errors in the text content across various newspaper and magazine pages to communicate."

Harley shook her head and said, "It's actually not that difficult. The incorrect ways correspond to certain words within the sentences with errors, and by extracting the words with errors from all the sentences, you can form sentences. Then by arranging these sentences based on the number or position of the grammatical errors, you can form an article. It's a simple text puzzle."

"And after I assembled the article, I realized that there was an insane world hidden beneath the calm surface, a world that belonged to the serial killers."

"The serial killers use this method to write their own articles, describing their thought process in committing the crimes, including what kind of theme they have established for their cases and why they have established such a theme."

"Wait a minute!" Gordon exclaimed, looking at Harley with great surprise and said, "What does this mean?"

Harley sighed, she thought for a while about how to explain, but in the end, she decided to use examples to illustrate to the ordinary person Gordon, how this crazy club actually operates.

"For example, a person committed a case of skin peeling, he peeled off the victim's skin and did some kind of processing, he will first come up with a code name for himself, and then determine the theme of this case."

"For example, he might call himself the 'Skin Hunter', and the theme of his crime would be 'What's underneath the human skin?'"

"Of course, a one-sentence description is not enough, he must fully explain why he wants to do this theme."

"Perhaps it's because he was abused as a child, the seemingly kind relative or friend sexually assaulted him, or he might have seen the painful struggle of animals being skinned alive when he went hunting as a child."

"He must fully explain what made him develop an interest in conducting this 'research'."

"Wait, what you're talking about as academic research is actually murder?!" Gordon raised his voice, this kind of thing would be cruel enough even in Gotham.

But Harley didn't show any guilt, she nodded casually and said, "Then they have to write about their crime process, from my observation, when I first discovered the existence of this club, many serial killers were describing the victims' suffering and boasting about their own methods of torturing others."

"But later, a secret scholar with the code name 'Professor' published an article, denouncing this kind of superficial academic research, and wrote several papers that were far superior to others in terms of content, wording, grammar, and innovation, presenting a completely self-consistent logic and exhibiting unparalleled dark charm."

"These papers caused a sensation in the academic world, his profound philosophical thinking, well-reasoned and coherent logic, rigorous and elegant wording, simply elevated a chaotic and mediocre circle to the height of the academic world."

"Since then, the majority of serial killers who publish articles have become more academic and introverted."

"They no longer pursue the torture of victims, no longer focus on describing the pain of others, but instead try to rigorously expound their own thoughts and views, to show everyone their thinking and soul, to express their suffering."

"If everyone in this world had to take a philosophy exam, it would be easy to distinguish who is a fool, a person's view of the world and whether he can express it clearly largely indicates whether he is a smart person."

Harley's manner of speaking was as rigorous as someone much older, her expressive ability shocked Gordon.

"After the academic atmosphere changed in this way, those butchers with confused thinking, low taste, and extremely boring, were rejected by everyone, and all the serial killers began to pursue Professor's style."

"I still don't quite understand, what exactly is this Professor's style?" Gordon asked.

Harley showed some reminiscent expression, her face with a hint of fanaticism, as if she was captivated by her own fantasy, she spoke with a slightly excited tone:

"Compared to focusing on others, this Professor prefers to dissect himself, and this is also the reason why all the serial killers are obsessively infatuated with him, he uses his words to show us how a pathological soul survives in this world, and this is exactly the stimulation we need."

"He made us discover that the pleasure we get from abusing others comes from an incoherent soul, from the long-suppressed pathology, and every person who understands and accepts this theory wants to know how he coexists with another self."

Harley sighed lightly and said, "The recent serial killer frenzy is not an academic discussion at all, but the butchers who have been expelled from the academic world think they have won and are celebrating."

"And those souls who truly feel pain because of their pathology and talent are waiting for a new savior."

Harley's eye contact fell back on the newspaper on the ground, then she turned her head to look into Gordon's eyes and said, "And now they have accepted a new signal, a signal devised by Batman, do you know what that means?"

Gordon remained silent and looked at her, Harley's eyes became a little moist, like a gem soaked in rainwater.

"It means that the theory expounded in Batman's published article has convinced the majority of people."

"He will inherit Professor's mantle, soothe these restless souls, control them, lead them, accept their sacrifices, and tell them the answers."

"And we, too, will listen to him, follow him, love him, respect him, and see him as a savior and a father... become his docile lambs."

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

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 1191 Lamb's Cry (Part Twelve)