"Edward, are you okay?" Shiller walked up and shook hands with a slender young man, then said, "How have you been feeling lately?"
"Uh... not bad," Edward nodded continuously. From his behavior, he was still somewhat abnormal, but his language logic was much better than before. He said, "Mrs. Miller gave me a leather notebook. She said I could write down my riddles and then publish them. That way, the whole world can see the riddles I've written. She said they could all guess them, but I think they can't."
"You can give it a try," Shiller said, "but if the whole world is guessing, they will definitely guess most of them. Correspondingly, those left unguessed must be the best riddles."
"That's not it," Edward retorted, "A riddle has to be guessed to be a good riddle. If so many people in the world can't guess a riddle, it means there's something wrong with it. There are many smart people in the world. If they can't understand me, who else can?"
Shiller looked at Edward with some surprise, not because of his argument, but because he could articulate such a long and logical statement. It showed that his condition was starting to improve.
The two of them entered the ward together. Edward said, "I'm glad you came to see me, Professor. Have you seen Cobblepot recently?"
"No, he's busy with factory matters," Shiller said, "I'm not sure if he's gone to Krypton. Maybe I can ask him to send you a postcard."
"Did he go to an outer planet? Can't I go?" Edward scratched his face and said, "I want to go too, but maybe Brainiac wouldn't allow it. It must be interesting there. I can come up with a hundred riddles about the cosmos."
"You can go," Shiller said, "I was just about to tell you, you can't stay in the hospital any longer. But where to go, it's up to you."
"Why can't I stay in the hospital anymore?"
"Do you like staying here?"
"Of course. Mrs. Miller is very nice to me, and Doctor Brand too. The doctor also gives me riddles to solve. But the ones he gives are too strange. There's too much theological knowledge in them, and I can't guess them. But they're interesting."
Shiller gently patted Edward's back and then said, "There might be danger in the hospital. So you need to temporarily leave here. Besides the hospital, is there anywhere else you'd like to go?"
"Can I go and find Cobblepot?"
"Of course. I can ask him for you. But if he's on an outer planet, would you go to find him?"
"Hmm." Edward nodded.
Shiller picked up his phone and said, "Brainiac, check where Cobblepot is. If he's not on Krypton, temporarily transfer him there and let Edward go find him."
"Why?" Brainiac asked.
"It would be safer," Shiller explained patiently, "I have a good idea of what the behind-the-scenes manipulator wants to do. Leaving the patient here is not wise, especially Edward."
"What I asked was why only Edward."
"Because he's special enough," Shiller said, "His genius wisdom attracts a certain type of person, which could put him in danger."
"Alright, I understand. I'll arrange it right away."
After quietly closing the ward door, Shiller turned his head and saw Mrs. Miller. Mrs. Miller was as always, her hair impeccably combed, holding a watering can in her hand.
"Oh, Dr. Rodriguez! Long time no see, how are you?" Mrs. Miller smiled.
"I'm doing well, how about you?"
"I was supposed to be retired, but I've been rehired. You clumsy doctors always manage to cause all sorts of troubles, even Brainiac gets a headache from you guys and eventually had to invite me back."
"Yes, you are the most indispensable one here," Shiller stepped aside to let her through, then said, "Is Doctor Brand in his office?"
"Yes, you can go find him."
Shiller went upstairs to Brand's office. Brand was still in his office studying pathology. Seeing Shiller come in, he raised his eyebrows and then said, "You came later than I expected."
"You should be grateful; it's because I didn't consider you the prime suspect," Shiller sat opposite him, pointed upwards, and then said, "What's going on?"
"You still don't know? Didn't you check your memory bank?"
"I did, I know who the culprit is, but I don't know the principle," Shiller said, "Did he manipulate the sun or the Earth?"
"Preliminary estimates suggest it's the Sun," Brand looked at Shiller and said, "that means along with the approaching darkness is extreme cold. Are you prepared?"
"That's something to ask Brainiac. What I want to know is how he did it. The Sun should be protected by the Justice League, right."
"I don't know either, but I can guess," Brand twirled the pen in his hand and said, "He chose the location of the channel that releases the Power of Death on the Sun and accelerated the Sun's decay, transitioning our star rapidly into the Black Dwarf stage. No light, no heat, like a corpse."
"Rapid transition? But it didn't go through the Red Giant Star and White Dwarf phases."
"It's just decay, not acceleration," Doctor Brand shook his head and said, "Death is inevitably the outcome, but the process doesn't necessarily follow scientific laws. One could only say it's fortunate it didn't follow scientific laws, otherwise, the expansion phase of the Red Giant Star would have directly swallowed the Earth."
"That would have been simpler." Shiller lowered his eyes, lost in thought, and said, "Was there no warning when he made a move?"
"Generally speaking, yes," Brand said, "The Justice League might have thought he would target the Earth, but little did they expect him to go straight for the Sun. However, if the rate of decay is fast enough, what good does being prepared do?"
"It seems he learned enough lessons from that previous cosmos." Shiller shook his head and said.
"Exactly. He must have realized that the core of the White Light power resides in the Earth Core. Making trouble on Earth is easily counteracted. It's better to directly take control of the lifeblood of human civilization—the Sun."
"I mean, it seems that Superman from that cosmos caused him a great deal of trouble. That's the main reason he targeted the Sun. Otherwise, igniting a gas planet would work too."
Brand nodded and said, "Indeed. However, the Energy he can use is limited. The fact that he's going to such lengths to target the Sun proves that his arrangements on Earth are not extensive."
"This indicates he believes he's grabbed hold of the lifeline," Shiller tapped his finger on the table, "But what could it be?"
"He's suffered significant losses at Batman's hands too." Brand reminded.
"Hints of Gotham's situation are already emerging. Three murders in one night aren't few." Shiller sighed lightly and said, "Enjoy your rare moments of leisure because there's a tough battle ahead."
"Rodriguez walked out of the Arkham Mental Hospital's door. The snow came down harder, landing on his shoulders and feet. The dim light through the window cast a silhouette of him like a projection on an opera stage. I stood beside the car, watching him, seemingly lost in his thoughts. This gave me a bad feeling because I realized he might be thinking about something related to me. I admit I hadn't contributed much that night and instead required his comfort. If he encountered any trouble, I should do my best to help him, as he did for me. But then he made me question my ears. 'Freeze Gotham, Fries.' My jaw almost dropped. Yet his expression was so earnest that I couldn't doubt whether he should return to the hospital for a mental check."
Shiller opened the car door and got in, with Victor immediately following into the driver's seat, then said, "I must be hearing things, right?"
"You're not," Shiller said, "If you think you are, I can repeat it for you. Freeze Gotham, Mr. Freeze."
"Give me a reasonable reason," Victor said, "Of course, I know this night's experiences have been quite tumultuous for me. Since the dark ages, I haven't stayed up such a night like this very often. But this isn't enough to break me. Like you said, I still have Nora. It's still too early to destroy the world."
"On the contrary, you're saving the world," Shiller said, "Dense ice can isolate external and internal heat exchange, right?"
"It has to be a single, complete piece of ice, without pores or cracks, but that's usually the case," Victor said, "I'm confident in this area."
"The Sun has gone out." Shiller's words brought about a sudden brake, his head almost bumped.
Victor turned to look at Shiller, who said, "Latest news, someone has caused the Sun to decay, directly entering the Black Dwarf phase. You should know better than me what kind of disaster this will lead to."
Victor looked as if he might faint, leaning his head back with eyes closed, and said through gritted teeth, "Who did it?"
"Black Death Emperor. I know you don't know him, but that's not important. What's important is that he has arrangements in Gotham too. We can't deal with the extreme cold disaster brought by the Sun's extinction while also handling his endless schemes. So, while it's not too cold, freeze Gotham."
Victor restarted the car, driving forward and complaining, "This reminds me of that joke about whether beer is room temperature or frozen. The inside of a freezer is actually warmer than the outside."
"No doubt, soon Gotham will be the same," Shiller turned to Victor and said, "In fact, if possible, I'd hope you could freeze the Earth, but that's obviously unrealistic, too much pressure for you. So let's focus on Gotham first."
"Insufficient raw material reserves," Victor explained, "Clearly none of my preparedness scenarios included needing to freeze the entire Earth."
"So if you had enough raw materials, you could do it."
"Of course, and it might even be easier than freezing a single city because there's nothing on the outer layer of near-Earth orbit, and Earth's gravity can be used to stabilize the Protective shield. But for Gotham, I'd have to figure out how to dig three feet into the ground."
"Back then, I didn't agree to clear out the dense ice underground," Shiller said, "Figured it would come in handy someday, and here we are."
Victor sped up the car and soon arrived at the Cryogenic Lab at Gotham University. Even freezing an entire city was no small pressure for him. He shouted to Brainiac, "Mrs. Brainiac! Get me a few trucks ready! And gather everyone from the Physics Department. This is a massive project!"
Shiller frowned slightly and then said, "Weren't we able to freeze Gotham just by throwing something before?"
"That was destructive work," Victor explained while busy, "We worked hard to build the city to its current state, so we must break as little as possible. Both above and below ground. This requires very precise calculations and implementation..."
"Alright," Shiller nodded, "The stage is yours now, Mr. Fries. It's my turn to be your assistant."
"No," Victor flatly rejected, "I don't want everyone in the world to see what I'm thinking while freezing Gotham..."
"It's necessary," Shiller said, "My chapters can help you shed the image of a mad scientist, turning you into a compassionate hero..."
Victor stopped what he was doing, rested his hands on the table, and then said, "Alright, assistant. Now go turn on the lighting power in the storage room, please."
"Okay, mad scientist."