"I'll go and find someone from the Federation Shield to help," Jenna said, looking at Victor, "But it's best to have Brainiac give an order, otherwise Amanda might think we're meddling."
Victor nodded. He didn't care about that, as long as he could freeze the entire underground. He didn't want anyone committing another crime to annoy him. As for how to get out of this case, Victor didn't worry.
Firstly, the murderer is outdated, or rather, this is the best dense ice equipment he could get. The rest are in the Cryogenic Lab at Gotham University, and it's not a place that just anyone can enter.
The outdated commercial equipment's tag of Victor Fries is very weak because it's been too many years, and the freezing method used is quite ordinary, unlike the genuine dense ice which has a personal style. Just based on these, it's impossible to convict.
But Shiller is not as optimistic as him. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Since he wants to frame the two of us, it can't just be superficial tactics. Keep an eye on your lab."
Victor paused. He was about to say that nothing would happen to his lab but then remembered Chick. The murderer can't break in directly, but that doesn't mean he can't find a way to manipulate the students. If the opponent is really Hugo, controlling one or two students is a piece of cake for him.
"Let's go back to school." Victor seemed completely unperturbed.
This is the only good news, Shiller can tell. This case has completely pissed off Victor.
No matter what, Mr. Freeze has always been part of Gotham's grand stage. Even if a peaceful and happy life dulls his edges, it's hard to change his fundamental personality.
Someone manipulated and killed his student, and he just felt anxious and sad, but someone imitating his crime so clumsily truly ignited his killing intention.
The return journey was silent. When the car pulled up to the lab entrance, the snow was falling heavily. Shiller opened an umbrella, but Victor quickly walked ahead.
Once inside the lab, everything seemed as usual. A few students greeted Victor. He usually responded warmly, but this time he said nothing. Seeing their professor unhappy, no one wanted to push their luck.
Victor walked to the computer and flipped through the entry records, glanced at the students, and then asked, "Where's Megan?"
A male student paused, then said, "She went to the bathroom. What's up, Professor?"
"How long has she been there?" Victor squinted his eyes.
"About ten minutes," another female student said, "But she usually dawdles; her work efficiency is low."
Victor, of course, knew what his students were like, but he didn't let it go and asked, "Which bathroom did she go to?"
"The one outside," a student pointed.
Victor walked in that direction. The students exchanged glances and put down their work to follow him.
Shiller walked behind Victor with the umbrella. The restroom was quiet. But the moment Victor rushed in, a scream came from the partition in the women's restroom.
Victor turned directly and rushed in. As he reached out to push the partition door, Shiller pushed him aside and opened the umbrella.
With a "hiss", some kind of gas sprayed out from the valve, filling the small restroom space. Shiller shouted, "Victor!"
Bam!
A freeze bullet immediately sealed the restroom partition's door. But it was too late. The students screamed in pain, rolling on the ground, clutching their heads.
Victor also inhaled quite a bit, and terrifying hallucinations began appearing in front of him. One moment it was flames engulfing his house, and another, Nora turned into a decaying corpse right in front of him…
Shiller held the umbrella horizontally and smashed it against the window. With a crash, it opened, letting fresh air rush in. Then he pulled Victor and used Gray mist to remove the toxins from his body.
Victor regained consciousness, gagged a couple of times, and leaned on the windowsill, gasping heavily, looking shocked toward the restroom partition. "...How could it be fear gas?!"
There was a female corpse lying in the restroom partition. But earlier, it was this corpse holding a can and spraying fear gas at them. Now the corpse was completely still, but to prevent it from reanimating, Victor didn't immediately lift the lockdown.
It wasn't until Shiller approached that the dense ice shattered. Shiller stepped forward and picked up the spray can, the liquid inside hadn't been completely used up. He poured out a little, and Gray mist cheerfully exclaimed, "Aged, delicious!"
"Ancient version of fear gas," Shiller said to Victor, "I really don't know which corner he dug it out from."
"How do you know?" Victor asked, puzzled.
"Jonathan Crane hasn't left my sight; it shouldn't be him," Brainiac said, "He's examining the corpse."
"Interesting," Shiller said, "Trying to use students to make us fight each other?"
Then he looked at Victor and asked, "Is anything missing from your lab? If so, we'd better take a look at the chemical department."
Victor and the students returned to the Cryogenic Lab to check for missing items. However, Victor only searched symbolically and then came to the door to tell Shiller, "Even if there's something missing, it doesn't matter much here."
"Why?"
"There's nothing here that can be used to attack someone," Victor shook his head and said, "If I left such dangerous items in the lab, it wouldn't be long before none of my students were left. You have no idea how much trouble they can cause."
Shiller actually knew this. Although he hadn't had much contact with cryogenics, the fact that Chick could leave the power on all night and destroy the machine surely meant that as long as Victor didn't want to become the top terrorist, he couldn't possibly leave anything important here. Otherwise, Freeze Gotham 2.0 would have been a reality.
"So where do you store those dangerous items?"
"I make them as I need them; otherwise, I wouldn't have no inventory," Victor glanced around the lab and whispered, "A few weapons and cryogenic devices are stored in the storeroom. Without the permission of Brainiac and me, no one can open it."
Shiller nodded, feeling reassured. Just as he was about to say something else, his phone rang. After answering, he said, "Hello? ...Okay, I'll be right there."
"What's going on?" Victor asked.
"There's been an incident in the psychology department."
They both went to the psychology department's activity classroom. As soon as they entered, Victor was startled by the scene in front of him. A black-haired boy was squatting on the floor, sawing a corpse, with blood and organs everywhere.
Seeing them come in, he stood up, wiped his face, and trembled as he said, "I'm sorry, Professor. I didn't mean to. I might have caused trouble..."
"...How did it get so messy?" Shiller looked around with a frown.
"I need to solve this problem," the student said timidly, "Others still need to practice dancing here, and we only have half an hour left. If I hadn't been in a rush, I wouldn't have called you..."
Victor examined the boy. He had a baby face with a few freckles and a frail figure, looking like the typical bookworm who spends his life in the library. But his hands were holding a blood-stained saw, and his hair and clothes were covered in blood.
This was clearly a psychology student, Victor thought: embarrassingly doing the work of a deranged killer.
"You were too hasty," Shiller said, "You've made the body even harder to clean up."
Then he sighed, gesturing for the student to take a shower while making a phone call.
"Hello? Are you at school? Come over; your junior has caused trouble. Remember to bring a vacuum and a water tank."
"Hello? It's me... It's not about the thesis. Did you take the previous cleaning robot? Yes, bring it to the activity classroom. It's not me; it's your junior."
"Hello? Were you the one adjusting the smart cleaning robot last time? Never mind, call him and both of you come over. Quickly."
"Hello? Send a notice to the others, asking them to come and practice dancing later... No, the dance will still go on as scheduled; it's just that someone's died in our activity classroom. We need to clean... if I could do it alone, would I need you guys here?"
Within a few minutes, the psychology students came in carrying their tools. Victor was dumbfounded by the sight. Everyone was in full protective suits with masks, completely covered from head to toe, each holding tools: water tanks, water guns, brooms, mops, vacuum cleaners, trash bags, large boxes, and small carts, looking every bit like a professional team.
"Oh my God! Who did this!!!" a girl shouted, "How did the activity classroom end up like this?!"
"Who is this dead person?" another person came over, "I don't recognize them, do you?"
"Let me see. My God, how did it get so smashed, who can recognize it? Mifa, come over and take a look..."
"God, it's Merlinda from the chemistry department," said a short boy scratching his head, "How did she end up dead here?"
"Never mind that, let's clean up quickly. Otherwise, how are we supposed to practice dancing?" the girl who spoke earlier clapped her hands, and everyone promptly got to work.
"Nevertheless, I have to say," Victor looked at Shiller, "So what is this? A serial killer training camp?"
"This is called a self-sufficiency training class," Shiller said, "Killing is no big deal for them; cleaning often becomes a bigger obstacle. Brainiac's automatic cleaning robots were too convenient, resulting in their lack of skill in this aspect..."
"And what's this?" Victor watched a cleaning robot rush past him.
"This one bypassed Brainiac, it's a program they wrote themselves," Shiller said.
Victor looked up and saw the student pushing the smart robot grinning with all eight front teeth showing under the mask.
"I really shouldn't have scolded Chick," Victor said with a sorrowful sigh, "If I were a psychology professor, the entire Solar System might be frozen over by now."
"No, no, they're good students," Shiller said, "They hand in their papers every week, and the group meetings are more punctual than ever before. Plus, it's not every day that someone dies."
"Professor! You need to take a look at this!" a student picked up a blood-stained can and then said, "I've never heard of any chemistry department graffiti enthusiasts. What is this thing?"
Shiller walked over, took one look at the can, and knew it was the ancient version of the fear gas canister, used in the bathroom beside the Cryogenic Lab.