It was a bar in the East District.
Under the dim light and the lingering smoke, a group of drunken men and women were having a good time here.
The sound system in the bar was a bit faulty. The noise of the crowd almost drowned out the music. In a way, this was a good thing because the bar owner's terrible taste in music was hard to compliment.
The smell in the bar was even worse than on the street.
The vomit and other filth on the floor had never been cleaned up. Bottles of fake wine were poured down the throats of the male guests, and then the disgusting smell of alcohol wafted out from every pore on their bodies.
As for the female customers... or rather, the women who "worked" here, the bad perfume mixed with body odor was another disgusting experience.
In such an environment, a man in a long purple suit who didn't fit in with the surroundings sat quietly by the bar.
He had an ancient elegance and refused to blend in with the lowly atmosphere. His eyes were calm and sharp, as if they could tear through all the impurities in front of him.
He ordered a glass of tonic water for himself and watched the bartender pour the drink from the can into the glass. The bartender then pushed the glass in front of him.
The price of the drink had tripled due to the process of pouring the water.
Of course, no one would have any objections to this. Just like those who went to the lobby of a super five-star hotel for breakfast, they paid five times the price and only drank orange juice that could be bought in the supermarket. However, they didn't feel that it was a waste.
This was how society worked. Money was only a weight used to measure people's desires and abilities. As long as the person involved felt that the "cost" was equivalent to the "gain", there was no such thing as "waste".
"Your suit is very interesting. Did your wife make it for you?" When Feng Bujue accepted the drink, he used a very calm gaze to look at the bartender before him and asked 'casually'.
This was a question that Brother Jue knew the answer. From the stitching and sewing technique of the suit, he could tell that it wasn't made by a professional tailor. However, the person who made the suit still made it the best with a passion and care that money couldn't buy.
"Yes … yes … sir." The bartender was stuttering. His expression and tone were different from normal people. It seemed like he had some kind of mental disability.
"She likes green?" Brother Jue asked.
"No … it's … it's because … the boss asked me to wear … this at work," the bartender replied.
Listening to him talk was like suffering, anyone would think so.
"Oh …" Feng Bujue nodded, paused, and said, "So … the 'Guessing Bartender' on the old poster outside the bar is you?"
"No … at least … not anymore …" the bartender replied. "A few years ago, the boss asked … asked me to go on stage … to try out a few performances … but … but the effect wasn't good."
"Ho ~" Brother Jue pretended that he didn't care and maintained the "casual conversation" vibe. "Now I understand what those question marks mean."
The "question marks" he was referring to were the black question marks sewn on the bartender's green suit.
"By the way," Feng Bujue said after a few seconds, "Can you give me a riddle now?"
The bartender's face showed some displeasure. From the beginning until now, he felt that the man before him was purposely making fun of him. "I think … that won't do, sir." He emphasized his tone to show his displeasure.
"Oh, don't be mad, buddy." Seeing the change in the situation, Feng Bujue adjusted his attitude. The next second, his expression changed, and his brows furrowed. "I don't mean to make fun of you. You see … this is my first time at this bar … so I wanted to chat with the bartender to get to know him better. If I've offended you, then I apologize."
As he spoke, he took out a small banknote from his jacket pocket, pressed it under his finger, and slowly pushed it towards the other party.
"Hmm …"
Under the dual effect of words and actions, the bartender's attitude did indeed change … He quickly looked left and right, pretending to wipe the bar with his hand that was holding a rag, and then took the money into his hand.
"… Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
Feng Bujue didn't spend too much money to get the bartender to talk.
Just as he guessed, the bartender in front of him was the "Riddler" — the man with a genius IQ who was probably one of the smartest people in the DC universe.
However, in the current scenario, he was just Edward Nygma, an ordinary bartender. For a few short weekends, he had performed in this East Side bar under the stage name "Riddler Bartender". Due to his stuttering, he almost always left the bar in humiliation and boos.
After Brother Jue took out the second bill, which was slightly bigger, Edward revealed 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 decent income. However, all of that disappeared when a terrible disease struck him.
A few years ago, Edward contracted a rare bacterial meningitis. Fortunately or unfortunately, the disease didn't take his life. However, it affected part of his left brain. Although the sequelae didn't turn him into an "idiot," it caused irreversible damage to his logical thinking, especially when it came to language.
The strange thing was that even though his logical analysis was worse than the average person, his reaction and thinking skills were still top-notch when it came to riddle-related questions.
…..
When Lin Sanjiu walked out of the bar, the night was even darker.
As soon as Brother Jue stepped out onto the street, he felt something — a gaze.
As someone who was well-versed in the field of anti-tracking, Feng Bujue could tell when he was being monitored based on his instinct.
Furthermore … the person who was looking at him was just a ruffian after all. He was very amateurish in his actions. Brother Jue only needed to make a few turns and he was already able to see through the person's intention.
Feng Bujue's mission progress had reached 6/10. He only needed to find out the whereabouts of the four supervillains and he would complete the hidden mission.
He was looking forward to meeting a few violent gangs in the East Side and finding a few supervillains from them. This was, of course, the reason why he had angered the bald man earlier.
Therefore, Brother Jue had no intention of shaking off the stalker. He pretended that he didn't know anything and walked silently into the dark alley.
Ten minutes later, based on his hearing, he could confirm that he was basically surrounded. At this time, he quickened his pace and put on the posture of someone who had just discovered that he was being followed. He rushed all the way into a dead end.
Then, a familiar face appeared. It was the bald man who had been kicked by Brother Jue not long ago. He was leading about a dozen men who didn't look like good guys. They blocked Feng Bujue in an alley.
"Look … who is this?" The bald man walked up to Brother Jue with a smug look on his face. He looked at Brother Jue as if he was looking at a small animal that had been forced into a corner.
"You sure have a bad memory …" Feng Bujue's expression was calm, and the lethality of his words was unimaginable for the man. "… Am I not the one who kicked your balls one hour ago and forced you to kneel on the ground? How could you forget so quickly? Is there something wrong with your brain? "
As soon as these words came out, a few of the gangsters around the bald man were amused, but they couldn't laugh out loud. They could only resist the urge to laugh and turn their faces away, or make that kind of strange "kuchi" sound, and then cover it up with coughs.
The bald man was shaking with anger from Brother Jue. All the blood in his body rushed to his head, and that made the area above his neck turn red with a single brush of blood.
"I'm going to kill you!" The bald man said as he pulled out a switchblade from the back pocket of his pants. "I'm going to kill you! Do you hear me? I'm going to cut you into pieces! "
"Before you do, I still have some questions that I hope you can answer …" Feng Bujue didn't feel threatened at all. He maintained a nonchalant attitude. "Who the hell are you? And … do you belong to any gang or organization? Or are you just randomly gathered together? "
Brother Jue was well versed in the "speak human language when you see a human, speak ghost when you see a ghost." He knew very well that in the field of crime, except for a few heretics, the lower the status, the more they wanted their reputation to be known, and the higher the status, the more they wanted to keep a low profile.
So, when facing these gangsters, he chose to use such words.
"What? You're in the gang too? "The bald man took the bait." Are you trying to scare me with the name of your boss or gang? Hehe … Stop dreaming! "he said loudly." You want my name? Yes … I will carve my name on your corpse — — Mister _ Zsasz! I think the police coroner will like it … Oh, of course, they'll have to sew your body back together again to see my name! "
"Huh?" Hearing this, Feng Bujue's expression changed. He thought to himself, "This guy is Zsasz?" He quickly looked at him from head to toe. "Mm … Looking at the appearance and style, it's a bit similar, but from what I know, Zsasz's body should be full of knife scars. (According to the setting, Zsasz is a cold-blooded serial killer. His specialty is that every time he kills a person, he'll cut himself with a knife. Then, he'll show the densely packed knife scars naked all year round.)
"Sounds like … You're quite experienced in killing people and dismembering people?" Feng Bujue didn't think for too long, but quickly continued to fish for information.
"This has nothing to do with you, kid …" But Zsasz didn't seem to want to say anything more. He waved at his accomplices around him, signaling them to attack together. Then, he walked over with a knife in his hand.
It could be seen that after being "tricked" by Brother Jue, Zsasz had become more cautious.
Unfortunately, it didn't help.
One minute … That was the time Feng Bujue took to defeat all the gangsters, including Zsasz.
Brother Jue didn't even use any skills or equipment … After a few simple moves, the "Zero Time Difference Calculation" collected enough data. Then, Feng Bujue only used the most basic physical skills to defeat these people.
After all, in hand-to-hand combat, when faced with an opponent whose physical fitness was many times stronger than the average person, and who could predict all of the enemy's movements, even if Zsasz called for a hundred more people, it would be useless.
"Okay, the exercise time ends here. Now, let's start the questioning time." After making sure that the dozen people in front of him couldn't stand up in a short period of time, Feng Bujue walked in front of Zsasz and asked the thug who was lying on the ground, "Mr. Zsasz, please answer my question … Have you killed anyone before?"
"Pfft —" Zsasz didn't answer. Instead, he spat a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood at Brother Jue who was looking down at him.
Feng Bujue easily dodged the puddle of blood and walked past Zsasz with light steps. "Ah … It seems that Mr. Zsasz isn't willing to cooperate." He glanced at the other people who were groaning on the ground and continued, "Is there anyone else who can answer my question?"
No one answered him …
"Hmm … I see …" As Brother Jue spoke, he put his hand into his pocket and took out Bell's Daily Knife. "Then, I can only take some measures …" He turned around and walked to Zsasz's side. Then, he suddenly bent down and grabbed Zsasz's right foot.
"Ugh … What do you want to do? Bastard! "Zsasz panted and cursed loudly, but he didn't have the strength to get up or break free from his opponent's grip.
"I once asked a friend who is a doctor for advice on how to cause permanent damage to a person's Achilles tendon," Feng Bujue said in a very relaxed tone. "But I have never had the chance to experiment on a living person, and today seems to be a good opportunity."
As he spoke, he took off Zsasz's shoes.
"Of course, as a strict person, I can't build my threat on this kind of experiment that might not succeed." After pausing for two seconds, Brother Jue continued, "I also know a safe method that will definitely cause a person's ability to walk for life … That is to cut off all of his toes and part of his heel …" He shrugged and looked at Zsasz with a fanatical gaze. "To be safe, I'll do both at the same time."
"Okay! I'll tell you … I'll tell you everything you want to know! "When Zsasz saw this, he seemed to have admitted defeat. He planned to answer Brother Jue's question.
"No, you don't have a chance anymore." He didn't expect Feng Bujue to ignore him. He raised his hand and slashed down at an extremely fast speed …
The sharp blade of the legendary grade weapon slashed across Zsasz's foot quickly. 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 blade was fast, there was a delay in the pain. Just as Zsasz was about to scream in fear, Feng Bujue took a step forward and kicked the bald man's head, knocking him out.
"Hehe … Hahahaha …" Then, Brother Jue let out a strange laugh and glanced at the gangsters on the ground again.
At that moment, those people's faces, without exception, showed the kind of expression that he expected.
…..
Night time, 8: 50 p.m.
Feng Bujue left the Eastern District with the progress of the hidden mission at 710 points.
His luck was not bad. At this time, he was actually able to easily hail a taxi in a place like the Eastern District.
Now, he was going to a place that was completely opposite to the Eastern District — the Gemini Building in the center of Gotham City. (Note: This landmark was mentioned many times in comics such as "Batman: The Return of the Dark Knight," but it appeared less in the comics and derivative works after 9/11.)
During the interrogation of the gangsters, Brother Jue already knew why Zsasz didn't have any knife marks on his body. The truth was very simple. There was actually a knife mark on his body, but only one.
It turned out that in this universe, this supervillain, who was supposed to be a "serial killer," only killed one person. Then, he was caught by Batman. Moreover, at Batman's request, this guy was locked up in the highest security prison and held in solitary confinement.
So, Zsasz, who was "good at both civil and martial arts" and "could easily escape from prison" in the comics, served more than ten years of his sentence here. In the end, he was paroled not long ago because of his "good behavior."
Of course, his "good behavior" was no doubt an act after he confirmed that he couldn't escape from prison. From the moment he got out of prison, he immediately went to the Eastern District and formed a team. He was still Zsasz.
This was also why, in the alley, when Zsasz "admitted defeat," Feng Bujue didn't give him a chance to speak.
Brother Jue knew that this character's IQ wasn't low. He just underestimated his ability as a "traveler from another world," which was why he was controlled by others. If Zsasz had really spoken at that time, that guy would most likely have lied, which would have interfered with Brother Jue's mission.
"Speaking of which, Zsasz and Killer Crocodile have a significant similarity. They are the kind of characters who can't be stopped from becoming evil." Feng Bujue, who was sitting in the back seat of the taxi, was still thinking about the various clues in the script. He whispered to himself as if there was no one around. "Killer Crocodile is due to biological reasons, so it can't be helped. On the other hand, Zsasz is the kind of character who is set to be 'born evil.' He grew up in a comfortable and normal family environment, but he still became a cold-blooded murderer after he grew up. There was no sudden trigger.
"Logically speaking, since he is such a villain, he should be 'permanently disposed of' like Killer Crocodile.
"But why is Killer Crocodile dead, but Zsasz is still alive?
"Because he is just a 'second-rate villain.' After Scar, his character is relatively weak, and he doesn't even have a famous villain nickname. So, it's not a big deal to keep him alive, right?
"Anyway, once he does something, I can deal with him at any time and send him back to prison.
"You … You think so, right?"
When he said the last few sentences, his voice gradually became louder.
His soft muttering gradually turned into a conversational tone.
In the taxi environment, there was only one person who could be Feng Bujue's conversation partner, and that was the driver in the driver's seat.
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