The bar in the East End.
Under the dim light and smoke, a group of drunken men and women were having fun.
There might be a problem with the sound system here, as the noisy voices almost drowned out the music. In a sense, this was a good thing, because the bar owner’s terrible taste in music was hard to compliment.
And the smell here was even worse than the one on the street …
The vomit and other filth on the floor had never been cleaned. Bottles of fake wine went down the male guests ‘throats, and then the disgusting smell of alcohol came out of every pore of their bodies.
As for the female customers … Or rather, the women who “worked” here, their low-quality perfume was mixed with body odor, which was another disgusting experience.
In such an environment, a man in a long purple suit sat quietly at the bar counter.
He carried an ancient elegance and refused to blend in with the lowly atmosphere around him. His eyes were calm and sharp, as if they could tear apart all the visible and invisible murkiness that blocked his way.
He ordered a glass of quinine water for himself and watched as the bartender poured the ordinary drink from the can into the glass and pushed it in front of him.
The process of pouring the water had tripled the price of the drink.
Of course, no one had any objections. Just like those who went to the lobby of a super five-star hotel for breakfast, they could only drink orange juice that could be bought in the supermarket at five times the price, but they didn’t think it was worth it.
This society had always operated in this way. Money was only a weight used to measure people’s desires and abilities. As long as the person involved felt that the “cost” and “gain” were of equal value, there was no such thing as “waste.”
“Your clothes are very interesting. Did your wife make them for you?” When Feng bujue accepted the drink, he used a very calm gaze to look at the bartender before him and ‘casually’ asked.
This was actually a question that he already knew the answer to. Brother Jue could tell from the stitching and the way the suit was sewn that it was not made by a professional tailor, but the person who made the suit still made it to the best with a passion and care that could not be bought with money.
“Yes … Yes, sir.” The bartender stuttered a little. His expression and tone were also different from ordinary people, as if he had some kind of mental disorder.
“She likes green?” Brother Jue continued to ask.
“No… It’s … It’s because … B-B-boss asked me to wear … This when I work.” The bartender replied.
Listening to him speak was simply suffering, anyone would think so.
“Oh …” Feng bujue nodded and paused before continuing,”so … The ‘riddle-guessing bartender’ on the old poster outside the bar is you?”
“No… At least now … Not now …” The bartender replied.”A few years ago, the boss asked … Asked me to go on stage … And tried to perform a few times … But … But the results were not good.”
“HO …” Brother Jue acted like he did not care, maintaining the ‘casual conversation’ attitude.”…Now I understand what those question marks mean.”
The ‘question marks’ he was referring to were the black question marks sewn on the man’s Green suit.
“Oh, that’s right.” After a few seconds, Feng bujue asked,”can you give me a riddle now?”
The bartender’s face showed some displeasure. From the beginning until now, he felt that the man in front of him was deliberately teasing him.”I want to … No, sir.” He emphasized his tone to show his displeasure.
“Oh, don’t be angry, buddy.” Feng bujue saw the change in the situation, so he adjusted his attitude. In a second, his expression changed, and his brows relaxed.”I’m not trying to make fun of you. Look … This is my first time at this bar … So I want to chat with the bartender to get to know him better. If I have offended you, I apologize.”
As he spoke, he took out a small note from his shirt pocket, pressed it under his finger, and slowly pushed it toward the man.
“Mm …”
With the double effect of his words and actions, the bartender’s attitude really changed … He quickly looked left and right, pretended to wipe the bar with the rag, and then took the money into his own hand.
…”Alright, what do you want to talk about?”
Feng bujue did not have to spend too much money to open up the conversation.
Just as he had guessed, the bartender in front of him was Riddler, the Riddler who had the intelligence of a genius and might be one of the smartest people in the DC Universe.
However, in this scenario, he was Edward nigmar, an ordinary bartender. During those few short weekends, he had performed a few times in this East End bar under the stage name of “riddle bartender.” However, because of his stuttering, he almost always left the performance in humiliation and boos.
After brother Jue handed over the second note, Edward Said more … According to him, he used to be a smart man, so smart that it made people jealous. He used to have a decent job and a high income … But all of that was gone when a terrible disease came.
A few years ago, Edward suddenly contracted a rare bacterial meningitis. He didn’t know if it was lucky or unlucky, but the disease didn’t take his life, but it affected part of the function of his left brain. Although the aftereffects were not enough to turn him into an “idiot,” it had caused irreversible damage to his logical thinking, especially the functions related to language.
It was strange … Although his logical analysis ability had become worse than that of ordinary people, his reaction and thinking ability were still at the top level when it came to riddles.
…………
When they walked out of the bar, the night had darkened.
When he arrived on the street, brother Jue felt the gaze of something.
As someone who was highly skilled in the field of anti-tracking, Feng bujue could almost tell when he was being monitored with his instinct.
Moreover … The person who was looking at him was only a hooligan, after all. His actions were very amateurish. Brother Jue only had to turn around a few times to know the man’s purpose.
At that moment, Feng bujue’s mission progress was 6/10. After finding out the whereabouts of the four supervillains, he would be able to complete the hidden mission.
He was looking forward to running into a few violent gangs in East Borough and finding a few people who were supposed to be supervillains … That was naturally why he had angered the baldie before.
Therefore, brother Jue had no intention of shaking off the stalker. He pretended that he did not know anything and silently walked into the dark alley.
After more than ten minutes, he could confirm with his hearing … That he was basically surrounded. At this time, he quickened his pace, put on a posture of “just realizing that he was being followed” and rushed all the way into a dead end.
Then, a familiar face appeared. It was the baldie who had been kicked down by brother Jue not long ago. He led about ten other people who did not look like good people to block Feng bujue in an alley.
“Look … Who’s this?” Baldy walked up with a smug look. He felt that his brother’s eyes were like those of a small animal that had been forced into a desperate situation.
“Your memory is quite bad …” Feng bujue’s expression was calm, and the lethality of his words was beyond the man’s reach.”…Wasn’t I the one who kicked your balls and made you kneel on the ground more than an hour ago? You forgot about it so quickly, do you have a mental problem?”
As soon as he said this, a few punks around Baldhead were amused, but they didn’t laugh out loud. They could only hold back their laughter and turn their faces away, or let out a strange “Kuh!” Sound, and then cough to cover it up.
The baldie was so angry at brother Jue that he was shaking. All the blood in his body rushed to his head, and the top of his neck was already red.
“I’m going to kill you!” The baldie said as he pulled out a Switchblade from the back pocket of his trousers,”I’ll kill you! Did you hear that? I’ll cut you into eight pieces!”
“Before you do it, I still have some questions that I hope you can answer …” Feng bujue did not feel threatened at all. He maintained his nonchalant attitude and continued,”…Who the hell are you? And … Do you guys belong to any gang or organization? Or are they just randomly gathered together?”
Brother Jue was familiar with the ‘we’ll just talk’ mode of communication. He knew very well … In the field of crime, other than a few heretics, the lower one’s status was, the more they wanted their reputation to be known, and the higher one’s status was, the more they wanted to keep a low profile.
Therefore, he chose to use this kind of wording when facing these thugs.
“What’s wrong? You’re also from the Dao?” The baldie took the bait.”Are you trying to scare me with the name of your boss or gang? Hehe … Stop dreaming!” He shouted,”you want my name? Yes … I will engrave my name on your corpse, Mister mist_zasz! I think the coroner will like it … Oh, of course, they have to sew your body back together to see my name!”
“ha?” hearing that, feng bujue’s expression did change. he thought to himself, this is zaz? he quickly sized up the other party from head to toe.”well … the appearance and style are indeed a bit similar, but from what i know, zas ‘body should be full of knife marks (zas is set to be a cold serial killer, and his characteristic is that he cuts himself with a knife every time he kills someone, and then shows the dense knife marks on his upper body all year round.) and not tattoos …”
“it sounds like … you’re quite experienced in killing and dismembering people?” feng bujue did not think for long and continued to fish for more information.
“that’s none of your business, kid …” but zaz didn’t seem to want to say anything more. he waved to his companions around him, signaling them to attack him together. then, he himself walked over with his knife.
it was obvious that after being ‘tricked’ by brother jue once, zaz had become much more cautious.
unfortunately, this was of no use.
one minute … that was the time that feng bujue used to take down all the punks, including zaz.
Brother Jue did not even use his skills or equipment … After a few simple moves, he had collected enough data with zero time difference calculation. Then, Feng bujue used the most basic physical skills to beat them down.
In the end, in a hand-to-hand battle, when facing an opponent whose physical fitness was several times higher than ordinary people and who could predict the enemy’s every move, even if ZAZ called another 100 people, it would be useless.
“Okay, that’s all for the exercise time. Now, let’s enter the Q & A time.” After making sure that the dozen or so people before him would not be able to stand up in a short period of time, Feng bujue walked to Zaas and asked the thug who was lying on the ground,”Mr. Zaas, please answer my question … Have you killed anyone before?”
ZAZ did not answer. Instead, he spat at brother Jue, who was looking down at him.
Feng bujue easily dodged the blood and walked past ZAZ with light steps.””Ah … It seems that Mr. ZAZ is not willing to cooperate.” He glanced at the other people who were groaning on the ground and said,”can anyone answer me?”
No one responded to him …
“Hmm … Is that so …” Brother Jue said as he reached into his pocket and took out [Bell’s daily knife].”Then, I have to take some measures …” He turned around to walk to Zass and suddenly bent down to grab Zass ‘right foot.
“Uh … What do you want to do? Bastard!” Zas gasped for breath and cursed loudly, but he had no strength to get up or break free from the other party’s grip.
“I once asked a friend who was a doctor about how to cause permanent damage to a human’s Achilles tendon …” Feng bujue continued in a very relaxed tone,”…But I have never had the chance to experiment on a living person, so today seems to be a good opportunity.”
As he spoke, he took off Zachary’s shoes.
“Of course, as a cautious person, I can’t use my threats on an experiment that might not succeed.” After two seconds of silence, brother Jue continued,”I know of another safe method that will definitely hinder a person’s ability to walk for Life … And that is to cut off all of his toes and part of his heel …” He shrugged and looked at Zaas with a fanatical gaze.”To be on the safe side, I’ll do both.”
“Alright! I’ll tell you … I’ll tell you everything you want to know!” Seeing this, ZAZ seemed to have admitted defeat and decided to answer brother Jue’s question.
“No, you have no chance.” He did not expect Feng bujue to ignore him and raise his hand and slash down at an extremely fast speed …
The legendary-grade weapon’s sharp blade quickly cut through zas’s foot, and his Achilles tendon was instantly cut open. His five toes and a large piece of flesh from his heel were also separated from his foot in the blink of an eye …
Because the knife was so fast, the pain was delayed. Just as ZAZ was about to scream in fear, Feng bujue took a step forward and delivered a kick to the bald man’s head, knocking him out.
“Hehe … Hahahaha …” Then, brother Jue laughed weirdly and scanned the gangsters on the ground again.
At this moment … The faces of those people, without exception, showed the kind of expression he had expected.
…………
Evening, 8:50 pm.
Feng bujue left the East District with the hidden quest progress of 7/10.
His luck was pretty good. At this time, he actually managed to easily attract a taxi in the east side.
Now, he was going to a place that was completely different from the east side to look at the Twin Towers in downtown Gotham. This landmark was mentioned many times in “Batman’s return of The Dark Knight” and other comics, but it rarely appeared in comics and derivative works after 9/11.
From the interrogation of the gangsters, brother Jue had found out why there were no knife marks on ZAZ’s body … The truth was simple. There was a knife mark on his body, but there was only one.
It turned out that in this universe, this supervillain, who should have become a “serial killer,” had only killed one person, and then he was caught by Batman … And, at Batman’s request, this guy was put in the highest security prison and locked up in isolation.
As a result, Zaas, who was “skilled in both literature and martial arts” and “easily able to escape from prison” in the comic, came here … And served more than ten years of imprisonment. In the end, he was only released on parole not long ago due to “good performance.”
Of course, his “good” performance was only an act after he confirmed that he couldn’t escape. From the fact that he immediately went to the east side and formed a team after he was released from prison, he was still the same ZAZ.
This was also why, when ZAZ ‘admitted defeat’ in the alley, Feng bujue did not give him a chance to speak.
Brother Jue knew … That this character was not stupid. He had underestimated the power of a traveler from another world, which was why he was controlled by the other party. If he had allowed ZAZ to speak, he would most likely have lied, and that would have interfered with brother Jue’s mission.
“Speaking of which … ZAZ and crocodile killer have a significant common point. They both belong to the type of characters that ‘can’t be stopped from turning dark’.” Feng bujue, who was sitting in the back seat of the taxi, was still thinking about the clues in the scenario. He mumbled to himself as if no one was around,”crocodile killer is due to physiological reasons. And ZAZ is the kind of character who was set to be ‘naturally evil’… He clearly grew up in a comfortable and normal family environment, but when he grew up, he still became a cold-blooded murderer, and there was no sudden trigger. ”
“By right, since he’s such a villain … He should be dealt with permanently, just like crocodile killer.
“but … why is it that killer crocodile is dead, but zaz is still alive?
“because he’s just a ‘b-list villain’, his character is pale after he gets rid of his scar, and he doesn’t even have a famous villain nickname … so there’s no big deal keeping him?
“in any case, if he makes any moves, i can take care of him at any time and send him back to prison …
“you … that’s what you think, right?”
his voice gradually became higher as he spoke the last few sentences.
the soft muttering gradually turned into a conversing tone.
in the car rental environment, there was only one person that feng bujue could talk to, and that was the driver.
