Danger Escalates

That night, Miao Mu settled the bill. He was still five thousand dollars short at the end, so Jerry pawned his gold necklace.

Still two thousand short... he wrote an IOU.

Pamola, the shop owner, had not expected Miao Mu to actually pay. She had already prepared herself to lose everything, so she simply waived the remaining two thousand and tore up the IOU.

The next day, the Doll Case task force was formed.

The team leader was Chief Bullock from the Gotham Police Department, along with four officers transferred from Gotham Police Department. The Arkham Police Department office was handled by Chief Myers, who had responded to the call when the body was discovered.

The files transferred from Gotham Police Department filled an entire truck, with box after box carried into the office.

Miao Mu and the others were also reviewing the files. Chief James Gordon, who had originally handled the case, had already investigated most of it.

The Dollmaker, Barton Mathis, forty-three years old, male, a white American and surgical specialist at Upper Westside Charity Hospital.

The first case had been discovered at the charity hospital. The victim's body had been dismembered, and the skin from their face had been peeled off.

"Miao Mu, you have a package!"

An Arkham officer knocked on the door and called out. Miao Mu, who had been flipping through a stack of photographs, looked puzzled when he heard that. A package?

He had not bought anything.

When he went out to take a look, he found a rectangular object wrapped in newspaper. It looked like a book.

Miao Mu cautiously pressed his ear against it, wary that it might be a time bomb. Once he was sure it was safe, he tore away the newspaper.

Inside was a green notebook with a huge question mark on the cover. The moment Miao Mu saw that symbol, he knew who had sent it: Edward Nygma, the Riddler.

He opened the notebook, and sure enough, the first page contained a riddle.

"What is cruel, poetic, and blind? If you deny it, you will find that it is actually full of violence."

Miao Mu read the riddle, thought for a moment, then turned the page. The answer was written on the back: "Justice."

Below that was a signed message: To Edward Nygma's friend, Mr. Miao Mu.

"This guy..." Miao Mu laughed and began reading the notes that followed. They detailed the Doll Case.

When Nygma had been bored, he had analyzed and speculated about the case. Based on his deductions, the Dollmaker had been continuously experimenting with something, creating stitched-together monsters.

And his ultimate goal was a living monster. From the earliest corpses to the body discovered yesterday, it could be inferred that he had succeeded.

That corpse had been a living monster. Though it had decayed from soaking in water, the autopsy had still uncovered some things.

Its internal organs had been severely damaged, its body had suffered extensive trauma, and its spine had been fractured. Before dying, the corpse had endured an extremely brutal battle. There were also signs that something had been implanted in its head.

Miao Mu's expression turned serious as he read this. This page contained a sketch of the seven-foot-two monster, with a height comparison marked against Miao Mu.

"...This is a little troublesome." Miao Mu frowned and pulled a slim cigar from his pocket, placing it between his lips.

Against hulking brutes like this, he needed to prepare some heavier firepower. And there was no telling how many monsters the other side had.

This damned place called Gotham had everything.

"Mumu, meeting time!"

Jerry ran out of the office and called to him. Miao Mu stubbed out his cigar and headed inside.

Bullock, who had just finished a phone call, walked over holding a file. He tossed it onto the table, then tapped the blackboard covered in photographs and shouted:

"Everyone, you've finished the files. Time to talk! Any ideas? Where do we find this deranged bastard?"

"I have a suggestion!"

Miao Mu raised his hand and stood up. "First, we found medical equipment used by the Dollmaker in the sewers, confirming that he is in Arkham District, but we don't know exactly where."

"Second, why don't we change our approach? Instead of looking for him, we look for the monsters—or rather, the raw materials for the monsters. He needs people, and he also needs the drugs required to make them."

Miao Mu picked up an autopsy report from yesterday, along with the reports from the earliest cases.

"He now needs living people to carry out his grand stitching project. So he needs a stable location, ample drugs, enough equipment, and enough human material."

"Then... where do you think we should investigate?"

Bullock stood beside him, holding the file he had just thrown onto the table, and asked.

"The black market! Start with the drugs!"

Miao Mu said without hesitation, "There are only two legitimate hospitals in Arkham District, but there are plenty of private clinics operating under the table. If we check them one by one, we'll find him."

"This guy needs money. His crimes right now are all for the sake of his experiments, meaning he cannot get money through other means. So is it possible that he is still making money through surgery?"

Once Miao Mu finished, everyone in the meeting room began discussing it. Bullock handed him the file in his hand.

"Your idea was right, at least a few days ago. This happened this morning."

Miao Mu took the file and glanced through it. It was about an armored truck robbery. At seven this morning, an armored truck had been robbed on 12th Avenue, Upper West City.

Three guards had been killed, two seriously injured, and seven million dollars in cash had been taken from the armored truck. Surveillance photos from the scene showed three figures. One of them was particularly enormous and had four arms.

Another was a fat dwarf less than three feet tall, while the last was a strange woman in a white nurse's uniform wielding a sledgehammer.

At least, judging by the silhouette, it should have been a woman. Otherwise, the hemispherical bulges on its chest would have been a little too absurd.

The only thing left at the scene was a blown-open sewer cover. The three monsters had escaped through the sewers with the money.

"..."

Miao Mu was speechless too. Judging by this, they had already become full-fledged monsters. Things had gotten difficult.

"The Gotham Police Department has now classified this as its top case, with a deadline of three days to solve it. Chief Gordon has already led a team searching outward from the crime scene."

Bullock sounded rather helpless as he said this. Ever since the Red Hood robbery, the higher-ups had been like men forcibly massaged by a hundred burly guys—they could not handle the slightest stimulation.

Next year's mayoral election would be quite a show as well.

"I still stand by my original view. We should investigate the black market, especially the sources capable of moving large quantities of drugs!"

After thinking it over, Miao Mu continued, "If I were the Dollmaker, now that I had monster underlings like these, my next step would definitely be expanding their numbers and building a monster army to rule Gotham!"

"Hahaha, Miao Mu, are you dreaming?" Bullock laughed outright. It sounded far too fantastical.

A gang of robbers wanting to rule Gotham City? That joke was genuinely hilarious.

"Chief Bullock, let's make a bet! He'll definitely go looking for those drugs. Otherwise, what is he taking the money for?"

Miao Mu said with a serious expression.

Bullock waved a hand. "My assignment is to seal and reinforce the sewer entrances. But if we're betting, what are we betting?"

"One hundred dollars!" Miao Mu ignored everything else and pulled out the last of his living expenses from his pocket.

"I bet that guy will absolutely show up on the black market. I want to know who Gotham's biggest illegal drug dealer is!"

Miao Mu slapped the hundred dollars in his hand onto the table. The people around him looked at him in surprise.

Everyone in Gotham knew that only Sal Maroni in Tricorner had the ability to deal in illegal drugs on that scale.

"You're serious?" Bullock hesitated, as though weighing whether this was something he could do.

"Chief, even if you lose, you won't lose anything, right?"

"Jerry, go to the wastewater treatment plant and find Otis. Have him head to Tricorner, and notify Oswald while you're at it!"

Miao Mu held a Beretta 92F pistol. Bullock had lent it to him, along with the location of the black market in Tricorner.

Warehouse at 461 Riverside Road.

Jerry followed behind him, sounding worried. "Mumu, can you go alone?"

"I'm not going alone, which is why I'm having you find Otis. Those guys will definitely flee into the sewers around Tricorner!"

Miao Mu took out his car keys and found a tawny Dodge sedan. It was Bullock's official vehicle; officers at the chief level all had their own assigned sedans.

When he lifted the trunk lid, Miao Mu's eyes widened.

Inside the trunk were two bulletproof vests and a Remington M870 shotgun, the type used by police for breaching doors.

"Damn, this is what a police car is supposed to be!"

Miao Mu grabbed a bulletproof vest and tossed it to Jerry, then gave him a firm hug. "Brother, give it your all."

Jerry held the vest and watched Miao Mu speed away. Snapping back to his senses, he hurried toward another Arkham police car and raced for the wastewater treatment plant.

Miao Mu floored the accelerator and sped along, a slim cigar clenched between his teeth. He raised a hand to put on his sunglasses and gripped the steering wheel.

[ Ding! Adventure Treasure Hunt has refreshed—please explore on your own ]