Chapter 769: The Match Seller Schiller (Part 1) (Patreon)

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Because it was still raining outside, Victor took an umbrella before leaving the dormitory building. He also put on a raincoat, pulling up the hood to shield himself from the rain hitting his face.

This was a lesson he learned since coming to Gotham. In Gotham's rainy nights, umbrellas couldn't completely defend against the rain, at least not any umbrella other than Schiller's.

Victor stepped out, intending to see who was lingering near the teachers' dormitory building so late. He thought it might be a student who got drunk at a party, a common occurrence at Gotham University. Ignoring them might lead to freezing in the rainy night of the typhoon.

Circling the dormitory building through a side alley, Victor reached the direction of the dormitory windows, but there was no one there.

Checking the ground, he found no obvious footprints, but near a puddle, there were faint traces of someone walking.

Following this trail to the west, Victor realized he was nearing Gotham University's laboratory building. He frowned, but there was no nervousness on his face, indicating he was well-prepared.

Suddenly, a "bang" came from the second floor of the laboratory building. Victor picked up his umbrella and briskly entered the building, reaching the second floor. There, in the corridor, he saw a stranger frozen into an ice sculpture.

It didn't look like a student; aside from the incorrect age, the attire was different. He wore a blue uniform with a white hood that had a furry rim, resembling Inuit clothing. He also had blue goggles with two black bars on the glasses.

This outfit puzzled Victor. Even in Gotham, it could be categorized as eccentric attire. Victor glanced at the weather outside, sure that it wasn't cold enough to warrant such clothing. What was the person trying to achieve? A preemptive defense against their own freezing device?

However, Victor considered that when someone is frozen by a freezing device, the person inside doesn't feel the cold. The greatest advantage of cryogenic devices is that everything inside remains unchanged, with excellent preservation; the person inside just can't move.

Approaching the frozen person, Victor, with one hand on his hip and the other holding the freeze gun, wore a perplexed expression. He asked, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The person trapped in the ice, clearly Captain Cold, was also helpless. He had never seen this kind of ice-making technique, even though he was known for creating low temperatures himself.

Captain Cold, a villain from Central City, possessed a freeze gun capable of absolute zero, and in some comic universes, he teamed up with Freeze to face Superman.

However, in this universe, whether in terms of technological prowess or societal standing, Captain Cold could be considered a downgrade from Freeze.

Victor Freeze, now Professor Victor, was a prominent figure in the Gotham Gang. Walking the streets of Gotham at night, he was absolutely safe because all the gangs provided protection for him. If anything happened to him, the massive cryogenic facility would be left unguarded.

Since the last almost power outage in the cryogenic laboratory, Victor had installed various protective devices, including freeze ray guns placed in the two corridors.

Not many people visited the laboratory, and the majority were on the whitelist. Even if an occasional student trespassed, getting frozen wouldn't cause harm; they only needed to adjust the freeze gun to another setting to thaw them.

However, the person captured this time was clearly not an accidental student intruder; he seemed to be a suspicious intruder with ulterior motives.

"How did you manage this?" Captain Cold trapped in the ice asked, "This can't be possible. How can this be ice? How can ice not be cold?"

Victor observed him closely and noticed he held a gun emitting white mist. Victor crouched down and carefully observed the gun; from certain components, he deduced that it was also a cooling gun.

"Are you also a Cryogenic Scientist?" Victor looked Captain Cold up and down, and Captain Cold snorted, saying, "Of course. No scientist in this world has my abilities. I can create absolute zero in an instant..."

Victor opened his mouth, touched his chin, and said, "Have you not been keeping up with the journals lately? Haven't you been following recent developments in low-temperature physics?"

"Absolute zero is no longer a challenge for human beings in low-temperature physics. Among the six recent cutting-edge papers, only one is related to that. The hottest topic now is dense ice, which may be the future development direction of new materials..."

"Dense ice?" Captain Cold repeated the term and asked, "What's that? Another type of ice? As long as it's ice..."

Victor covered his forehead, saying, "Are you really a physicist? Do you not read any papers? Do you not pay attention to industry news?"

"Now, ice is divided into narrow and broad categories. Narrow ice is what we commonly refer to as ordinary ice cubes, while broad ice includes dense ice or similar special ice that meets certain material requirements. Currently, low-temperature physics is advancing towards materials science. You..."

Victor hesitated for a moment, then said, "Wearing this outfit, could it be that you can't withstand the low temperatures you create yourself?"

Captain Cold immediately wore a grimace, gritting his teeth. He strained his muscles and shouted, "So, how did you do it? How can ice not be cold?!"

"Do you think ice must always be cold?" Another voice appeared in the corridor. Victor turned around and, at the end of the corridor, saw the figure of Schiller. Then he heard Schiller say:

"In this world, nothing should be forever as it was when it was born. Ice can change, just like people. Ice can change, and people can be educated. I think you lack a certain education."

Schiller's voice became colder, and unconsciously, Victor took a step back. He saw Schiller walk to Captain Cold's ice sculpture, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, then pulled out a pen, asking, "Name?"

"Why should I answer you?" Captain Cold raised his voice.

"I guess you came to pick up your friend, right? The one called Sam?" Schiller said without looking up. "I don't know if he told you, but he has a curse on him now. If I don't lift it, he'll die tomorrow."

"You..." Captain Cold gritted his teeth. "You despicable person! Murder is a crime!"

"Oh, I forgot. You guys don't kill," Schiller glanced at Captain Cold and said, "But sorry, I do."

Captain Cold and Mirror Master belonged to the rogues' gang in Central City. Despite their intimidating name, this gang had strict rules, even stricter than the rules of elementary school students. Apart from not killing, they couldn't even relieve themselves anywhere. They were a group of villains with a remarkably high moral line in the DC universe.

A high moral line had its benefits, but also disadvantages, especially when they were locked up.

"Leonard Snart," Captain Cold reluctantly said.

"Age?... Never mind, definitely not school age." Schiller drew a line in this column and said, "But no relationship. Here, we don't care about age, only skill level. Your education background is..."

"High school graduate," Captain Cold replied.

Victor widened his eyes and said, "You didn't go to college?? Then how did you develop this gun? The liquid storage technology and launching device technology here are very advanced, similar to the one I'm using now. If you haven't been to college, where did you learn these things?"

Captain Cold moved his eyelids, seeming reluctant to answer this question. But seeing Schiller and Victor staring at him, he said, "My parents didn't care about me. I've been to prison, self-taught there."

Victor widened his eyes, reevaluated him, and said, "Self-taught? Is that possible? This..."

Suddenly, he took a deep breath and looked at Schiller, saying, "Is the registration form filled out? I'll take him to the registrar's office to enroll. He'll adapt to the technical college for two days with the first batch of students and then see the qualifications for scientific research..."

Schiller handed him the registration form, smiling, and asked, "Now, who wants to sell matches?"

Victor smiled, holding the registration form, waved in front of Captain Cold, saying, "Now, I can help you thaw out, but you have to register with me..."

"Register? Register for what?" Captain Cold asked.

"Register for university," Schiller answered. "Regardless of your reasons for not attending university, Professor Victor Freeze, the world's most famous Cryogenic Scientist, sees the potential in you to become a low-temperature physicist and is extending an olive branch to you."

Before Captain Cold could say anything, Schiller continued, "I want to warn you in advance, this opportunity is only once. If you miss it, you will likely be forever cut off from the academic world."

"I mean, I do want to learn this technology," Captain Cold replied. "It's truly amazing, freezing people into ice, and they don't feel cold at all. I've never seen such technology before!"

"It seems you don't need to use force," Schiller rolled his eyes and looked at Victor. "Your luck is always better than mine."

Victor chuckled and said, "Of course."

After Victor thawed Captain Cold with the freeze gun, instead of running away, he earnestly looked at the ice on the ground. He said, "How do we deal with this? Will it melt?"

"No, it will directly sublime, but it won't absorb heat. I can't explain the specific principles to you now, but you will learn it in the future."

When Victor and Schiller reached their office, Mirror Master and Captain Cold stared at each other. Schiller stood between them, extended his hand, snapped his fingers, and said, "I don't want to investigate who called whom. Now that you're both enrolled, you're classmates. Go back to sleep, and classes start at 7 am tomorrow..."

Mirror Master and Captain Cold exchanged a glance, and in the corridor on the way to the dormitory, Mirror Master said, "What happened? How did you get captured by him?"

"He mastered a new low-temperature technology that I've never seen before, but that's not the point..." Captain Cold looked around and said, "Sam, you're still young, don't understand many reasons. Do you really think following that Savage can lead to any good results?"

"But he claims to be immortal! He knows many things we don't understand. Maybe he really can rule the world!" Mirror Master retorted.

"You think he knows many things we don't understand just because you understand too little." Captain Cold said very calmly. "Do you remember what I said back then?"

"Even if we want to be villains who rule the world, we have to rely on our own strength. Others, you can never rely on them."

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 770 Selling Matches Schiller (Part 2)