Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics-Chapter 4441 - 3526: Research on Cats and Dogs (37)

Shiller was standing in the Gotham Police Department chief's office. Gordon put down a large stack of files in his hands, retrieved a hard drive from the other side of the desk, and handed it to Shiller.

"Here's the surveillance footage you requested. But we don't have enough manpower to sift through it. If you watch everything at normal speed, it'll take more than three months. Are you sure you want to handle it yourself?"

"This hasn't been tampered with, has it?"

"Relax. Gotham's surveillance system has been upgraded recently. Even if someone has permission to make edits, the modification logs will be sent to a virtual server. There's no way anyone could prepare for that without knowing it. The server logs show there have been no modifications."

Shiller took the hard drive, left, got into his car, and picked up his phone to call Victor.

"I've got the surveillance footage. Are you and Nora in the office now? Alright, I'll head over there immediately."

Shiller brought the hard drive back to Gotham University and found the Friess couple waiting in Victor's office.

Handing over the hard drive, Shiller said, "I'll have to trouble you with this. Contact me immediately if you find anything unusual. Oh, and make a copy for me; I need to go to the principal's office later."

Victor nodded and said, "No problem. I'm worried the other party might have advanced transportation tools, so we might not find anything unusual in the road surveillance footage. But I'll look through it as carefully as possible."

"That's not an issue. If we truly don't find anything unusual, then we can confirm that they do have advanced transportation tools, and we won't waste time searching the roads."

"It's hard to imagine you'd choose such an inefficient method to investigate," Nora said with a slight furrow of her brows. "Don't you have better ways to pinpoint their base?"

"I do. But that's Batman's job." Shiller smirked.

"The fact that you went to the police department to retrieve surveillance footage won't escape Batman's attention. How do you plan to explain it to him?"

Shiller shook his head and said, "He won't come asking me. Why should I explain it to him?"

"That's unlikely," Victor frowned as well. "What would a university professor want with recent road surveillance footage? Even a regular person would be suspicious, let alone Batman."

"Whether it's fortunate or unfortunate, the Batman we've encountered happens to be relatively normal. He might suspect something, but he won't let paranoia cloud his judgment. He understands what needs to be done right now."

"He'll undoubtedly pursue Jonathan's whereabouts. To some extent, your plan can be considered a success. If Jonathan turns out to be unharmed, Batman might even think he's the professor."

"Which is why we need to lend Jonathan a hand." Shiller tapped the hard drive with his fingertips. "We have to make the perpetrator realize that keeping the professor alive has more value than killing him."

"What are you planning?" Victor asked. "I saw you having breakfast with Xi Wana this morning. What are you two scheming now?"

"You know Gotham University is hosting two football invitationals over the next quarter, right?" Shiller suddenly shifted the topic.

Victor gave him a somewhat skeptical look but still nodded, "It's already being promoted. Practically no faculty is unaware of this."

"In the new campus, we have brand-new sports facilities with very favorable viewing conditions. We want everyone to know that. Aside from bringing in more ticket revenue, it'll also help elevate Gotham University's reputation."

"Of course. I want that too," Victor replied. "The matches might attract students from nearby cities to visit Gotham University, which could boost their interest in applying here and improve the overall quality of our incoming students. But what does this have to do with Jonathan?"

"The culprits abducted the professor to disrupt the Justice League's activities in Metropolis, forcing them to divert some attention to Gotham, thereby weakening Metropolis's defenses and creating an opportunity for them."

"If that's the case, since they've already kidnapped Jonathan, they would either kill him or notify the Justice League that the professor has been abducted to distract them for a rescue. But they haven't done either of those."

Victor paused in his movements, looking visibly puzzled. "Right, they've had Jonathan for over ten hours now and there's been no activity. Could it be that Jonathan killed them?"

"That's highly unlikely." Shiller shook his head slightly. He knew that if Jonathan still had the Fear Venom, there might have been a slim chance he could counterattack. But now it was virtually impossible for Jonathan to deal with them physically."

"This only indicates that Jonathan has managed to stall them somehow. The method he used to do that is worth speculating."

"You mentioned that the professor is valuable. Perhaps Jonathan told them he has some crucial information... Oh, I get it now. Are the mind power users wandering around in his head like it's a maze?"

"Exactly. The best way to stall them is to convince them he possesses critical intelligence that they'd never retrieve if he dies—and maybe even hint at weaknesses in the Justice League. Even if the other side suspects it's a ploy, they would still try to verify it."

"Can Jonathan really hold them off?"

"Absolutely not; he's not a superpower user. His grasp of psychology is exceptional, but his spiritual power is insufficient to sustain this for long. Or rather, even if he could, he wouldn't want to maintain it indefinitely."

"Why not?"

"Don't forget his motive for going with them. He wants to leverage their psychic abilities against me. So, what kind of secrets do you think he would design in his mind?"

"Something related to you?"

Shiller nodded and said, "Precisely. He's gone to such lengths to try to frame me, so he'd definitely find a way to link this so-called professor's secrets back to me."

"Then why wouldn't he just expose that you're the professor?"

"How would he survive?"

Victor nodded in understanding. "True. He'd need a way to stay alive and also to frame you, so he couldn't expose it directly. If they kill him, it'd be game over for him too."

"But if they still uncover his secrets, there's a chance they might silence him anyway, right? After all, their initial plan was to kill the professor to impact the Justice League."

"That depends on the weight of the secrets they uncover," Shiller said. "If it's something that could severely impact the Justice League or even destabilize both cities, they wouldn't kill Jonathan lightly because they'd hope to dig out more information."

"People are always greedy, and aliens are no exception," Victor remarked. "But I still don't quite get how this ties to Gotham University."

"If Jonathan pointed straight at me, it'd be way too obvious," Shiller explained. "We do have a slight grudge between us. If the aliens catch on that Jonathan's trying to use them as pawns, he'd be done for."

"With Jonathan's level of cunning, he'd never do something so blatant. Instead of targeting a specific person, creating a broader scope would be the safest strategy. Since I've been at Gotham University, the target is likely the university itself."

"Wait a second." Nora suddenly chimed in. "The students are all on break, and faculty members have been hospitalized due to food poisoning. Gotham University is practically empty right now. Did you plan this from the start?"

Shiller simply smiled without responding. Victor let out a sigh and said, "No wonder you went along with Jonathan's scheme to poison the faculty—you were waiting for this moment."

"Will the other side attack Gotham University?" Nora asked with slight concern. She glanced around as if estimating the value of the laboratory equipment.

"They might not launch a full-blown assault, but they'll likely send people to scout and sneakily investigate first."

"But you said Gotham University has upcoming games. If they cause chaos on campus during this time... Oh, are you trying to delay the games?"

Shiller finally sighed and said, "Our football team is in a rebuilding phase. After the last season, we lost two starting players to graduation, and the two replacements are freshmen who just enrolled a few months ago. They haven't trained enough—there's no way they could compete against veteran teams."

"Moreover, promotion takes time. This quarter's schedule was finalized too late, so our promotional efforts started late too. As of now, there's barely any buzz outside Gotham. Even in Metropolis, hardly anyone has heard about it. This won't do."

"I remember now," Nora said—she was seemingly more invested in sports than Victor. "The contract for the invitational states that you can only delay games under force majeure, such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, or if the venue is completely destroyed..."

"Oh heavens, our stadium is brand-new!" Victor glared at Shiller. "You're not planning to wreck it, are you?"

"Of course not. We don't have the funds for reconstruction either," Shiller quickly replied. "We simply need to let people know we've been invaded by aliens. That qualifies as force majeure, giving us a natural excuse to postpone the games."

Victor pursed his lips in silence and eventually said, "All this trouble just to delay the games? You might as well ask Arthur to whip up a tsunami."

"That's not an option; we can't jeopardize our image as a tourist city. If a tsunami hit here, who would dare visit the beach anymore?"

"But are you sure they won't cause too much chaos on campus?" Nora asked with concern. "Even minor vandalism would be costly."

"That's where Batman's trusty allies come into play," Shiller said. "With Superman around, their minor goons wouldn't pose a threat. And once the other side realizes Superman is protecting Gotham University, they'll be even more convinced that there's some secret here, which will motivate them to launch further attacks."

Victor glanced at the hard drive on the desk and said, "So the traffic surveillance footage isn't just about figuring out where Jonathan was taken, is it?"

"Correct, that's secondary. Xi Wana needs data on the number of incoming vehicles and their destinations over the past month to assess whether the promotional efforts for the football games have been effective. You know the statistics bureau's data is unreliable; he has to check for himself."

Victor was slightly taken aback and said, "Well, there's no fast-forwarding through this. With so much surveillance footage, how long will it take to finish?"

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"That's nothing you need to worry about. Participating in the statistical analysis gets students half a credit. They're scrambling to sign up—this'll probably be done in two to three days."

"How could I forget about that trick?" Victor chuckled, "Ever since he became principal, it's gotten harder and harder for students to earn credits. They've all become his free labor force."