Hugo Strange

Miao Mu smacked his lips, still wanting more. The pain in his wrist was no longer that bad, but the feeling...

It was like having a wet dream—kind of disappointing. Too short...

He reached out, picked up the Iron Fist Stone Monkey statue, stuffed it into his bag, and slung it over himself. Once he got the house sorted out and settled down...

He could set up a training room. Maybe he would become a grandmaster someday.

As Miao Mu thought about it, he chuckled to himself and walked out with both hands in his pockets.

Lights off, door open, door shut—all in one smooth motion.

The moment he returned to the office, something came up. Someone wanted to see him...

The reception room of the Arkham Police Department.

Miao Mu pushed open the door and saw a big bald man sitting on the sofa. The kind of bald man who looked brilliant at first glance, dressed in a well-fitting black suit. From the back...

If someone painted the number "47" on the back of his head, he would be the famous bald assassin, Agent 47. The kind of cosplay that required no makeup.

"Hello, I'm Miao Mu. And you are?"

Miao Mu walked over, introduced himself first, then asked for the other man's identity. The officer who had come to get him earlier had not explained much. He only knew the man was from Arkham Asylum.

Probably because of those escaped mental patients.

"Hello. I'm Hugo, Hugo Strange, acting director of Arkham Asylum. The previous Director Blanken..."

As Hugo Strange spoke, he shook his head sadly, failing to notice the strange flicker in Miao Mu's eyes.

Damn, Strange?

That number-two president of Batman's fan club?

The obsessive stalker fan?

(A note: obsessive stalker fans were the most extreme, crazed, and perverted kind of fans. The number-one president was Joker.)

That was what Miao Mu thought as his gaze swept over Strange. Who would have guessed that this guy liked cosplaying Batman? He even liked wearing a Batman costume in the laboratory.

And he was built like a tank, skilled at creating monsters, and even had his own clone army. The ones committing crimes were all his clones. As for him? Innocent!

Miao Mu wickedly wondered whether this guy and Spider-Man's newspaper boss both wore the same original, unwashed costumes...

"Officer Miao Mu?"

Strange blinked as he looked at Miao Mu, who was squinting while sizing him up, that strange look still in his eyes.

As a psychology expert, Strange suddenly felt his ass clench. This guy... did he like men?

Combined with the information he had looked into earlier, Strange immediately felt that this deduction was highly plausible.

Of course, if Miao Mu could read minds and knew what this big bald man was thinking, he would have pulled out the Glock 17 at his waist and emptied the magazine into him without hesitation.

Damn it, if anyone dared call the romantic heartthrob of Chicago Community College gay, Miao Mu would definitely blow his dog head apart.

Then he would find a bunch of girls to have a wild outdoor romp on top of his grave, slap him in the face hard, and surf his tombstone.

"It's nothing. I didn't sleep well last night, so I got distracted. Nice to meet you."

Miao Mu quickly laughed it off, reached out to shake Strange's hand, and sat down on the sofa.

Strange looked at the hand Miao Mu had shaken, then calmly rubbed it twice against the sofa before wiping it on his pants.

"It's like this. Could the patients who escaped from Arkham Asylum be returned to us? They only got out during the chaos, after all, and still need further treatment."

"..."

After hearing that, Miao Mu raised a hand to support his chin and considered it patiently. Had Arkham Asylum ever actually cured a patient?

Apparently, supposedly, maybe... it had even driven a female doctor insane. Harley Quinn, the famous Joker's girl.

"Well, that isn't up to me. Our commissioner went to headquarters for a meeting. When he gets back, you can ask him. He should be happy to hand these criminals over to you."

"Commissioner Wei Fei?"

"Yes."

Strange suddenly smiled, removed his glasses, and asked curiously, "I heard you were quite the hero last night. You captured several criminals in one go. Could you tell me what happened?"

It would have been fine if he had not brought it up, but the moment he did, Miao Mu immediately reacted. Could last night's incident have had something to do with him?

This guy was no honest man. He had dared to borrow loan-shark money to research humanoid monsters, then robbed people... to repay the loan shark.

He had robbed the very people who lent him the loan-shark money, used their money to repay his debt, and they still had to thank him for being trustworthy.

"May I ask where you were last night? Here's the thing: during last night's Arkham Asylum breakout, we discovered that someone provided explosives inside Arkham Asylum and blew up the wall."

"Huh?"

Hugo Strange suddenly felt as if he had earned his psychology degree for nothing. He simply could not keep up with Miao Mu's erratic train of thought.

How had the conversation suddenly jumped to this?

I'm a suspect now?

Before he could figure out what had happened or explain and clear things up, Miao Mu had him "invited" into a holding cell.

It was called temporary protection, valid for twenty-four hours.

Standing behind the iron bars, Strange looked somewhat angry. This slum bumpkin was a bitchy idiot!

Meanwhile, the instigator sat cross-legged in the passenger seat of a police car, wearing sunglasses as they headed for Arkham Asylum.

"Officer, we're here!"

Myro Scarelli, in the driver's seat, said as he unbuckled his seat belt. The moment he finished speaking, Miao Mu pushed open the door and got out.

A seat belt? That thing had zero safety value in Gotham.

Miao Mu headed toward Arkham Asylum, and Myro hurried after him.

Miao Mu had approved Jerry's leave, citing excessive psychological pressure and the need for counseling and help from a psychologist.

Jerry had blasted seven people with a shotgun last night, though a carefree guy like him could not possibly have been traumatized.

Pulling the trigger was easier for him than taking one extra bite of beef burrito at a restaurant.

Still, an opportunity for leave could not be missed. For his brother's dream of flying with both girls, Miao Mu would definitely lend a hand.

Though even now, Miao Mu still could not tell which of the Mexican boss's twin daughters was Lillian and which was Muda.

The moment he entered Arkham Asylum, Miao Mu's first impression was that this place... felt even creepier than a prison.

Although he had never been to Blackgate Prison, Miao Mu was sure this place was far worse than Blackgate.

But Arkham Asylum had been plagued by disasters ever since construction began. Right after the project started... the architect went insane and hacked the workers to death with an axe.

If this had happened in China, it would definitely have been considered a feng shui problem. They would have needed to find a master and figure out what was going on.

But Gotham people were stubborn. They built it anyway!

It had originally been a general hospital, meant to treat illnesses and save lives.

But Amadeus Arkham's mother had suffered from mental illness and was eventually euthanized, leaving him heartbroken.

To save people with mental disorders, the place became a psychiatric hospital, taking in lunatics. Later... his wife and child were hacked to death.

He rebuilt Arkham Asylum again, taking in deranged patients with criminal tendencies or criminal records.

The first patient held here was the man who had hacked his wife and child to death, Martin Hawkins, nicknamed "Mad Dog."

Then, on a dark and windy night, this "Mad Dog" died during electroshock therapy because of an accident.

Later, the founder who had named the asylum after himself... also went insane and became one of its patients until his death.

"What an unfortunate place."

With both hands tucked into his police jacket, Miao Mu looked up at the wooden sign hanging in front of the hospital, bearing the name Arkham.

"Hello, Officer Miao Mu. I'm Aaron Cash."