Chapter 789: Chapter 746: Process of Elimination
"Who are you?"
The jukebox in the corner was still playing jazz, and under the bar’s lights, both had a subtle halo. Bo Bo first noticed Cindy, and then saw Su Ming.
But something felt off. Not only did he have two eyes, but even the sense of strength in his gestures was gone.
Bo Bo immediately suspected it was an artificial person or clone, and started considering the reason for the other’s appearance.
Cindy glanced at Bo Bo and shrugged. Su was indeed strange, bringing her to meet a gorilla? And this gorilla could talk?
But she had already seen too many mad things; at times like this, just drinking would do.
She sat at the bar, feeling the wood before her. It seemed to bear traces of fire damage, but repairs were well done, only a faint burnt smell lingered.
It meant that the seat she occupied once belonged to a charred corpse.
Fortunately, she didn’t care about that. Sitting among corpses brought a unique flavor to drinking. She took off her helmet, arranged her short hair, and tapped the bar with slender fingers: "Whiskey, with ice."
Trish, lounging like a slacker behind the bar, stirred: "No ice left, the power cut during renovations, and the ice melted."
"Tch..."
Su Ming simply grabbed Bo Bo. Although his body was weak now, he was still fully limbed, and his fighting techniques remained intact.
A direct capture hand was followed by an elbow lock on the throat, and his other hand began drilling the gorilla’s temple with a fist.
"Can’t even recognize me? You’re a truly incompetent secretary, take this drill!"
Originally intending to touch his weapon, Bo Bo gave up struggling.
This unavoidable, high-level martial art, drilling his head with one hand while secretly tapping Morse code on his shoulder with the other, was unmistakably Deathstroke. He started pawing at the slender arm with furry claws.
"I was wrong, I’m dying, help."
After playing around with Bo Bo for a while to prove his identity, Su Ming released the gorilla, as it was hard to get honest words from him if he had doubts.
Bo Bo bent down to pick up the detective hat that had fallen to the ground: "Deathstroke, did you go to South Korea for cosmetic surgery?"
As he spoke, he gestured around his face, pointing to the area of his right eye.
Su Ming touched his right eye, though he now had two eyes, his vision had decreased several times over, merely an ordinary person’s level.
"A bit of an accident, this right eye is just a dud, looks good, that’s all."
He sat beside Cindy and ordered a drink, since there was only alcohol here. Then he generously called for the Inverted Man to conjure some ice for them.
Cindy pulled the Ice Arrow stuck in the bar, broke off a piece, crushed it, and sprinkled it in their glasses. After taking a sip, she sighed in comfort.
"I’m Cindy Wilson."
Bo Bo grimaced, his gaze shifted between Su Ming and Cindy, his head scratched into a messy tangle of black fur: "You’re both named Wilson, what’s your relationship?"
Cindy laughed and patted the gorilla’s shoulder, her massive strength causing Bo Bo to spin continuously on the bar stool: "I’m from Earth -11 of the Dark Multiverse, I’m Deathstroke."
Su Ming reached out to stabilize the spinning bar stool, stopping Bo Bo: "Let’s not talk about useless things, I just want to know, did you notice any changes last night?"
"What happened outside?" Bo Bo scratched his head, showing a tangled expression: "I intended to leave before dinner yesterday, but when I reached the Teleportation Gate, my hair stood on end, so I came back immediately."
"Good thing you didn’t go to the Main World. The Hall of Justice has disappeared, superheroes have turned into ordinary people, and Earth has been overwritten by something, now it’s too... ordinary."
Su Ming lifted his glass, observing the irregular ice cubes floating within, glittering like starlight under the lights.
Bo Bo also signaled Trish for a beer, but the little bartender was busy filling holes in the bar with magic and couldn’t bother to pay attention to him.
No choice, the gorilla simply climbed onto the bar, walked to the beer tap, and poured himself a beer, turning to look at the two Deathstrokes, humorously shrugging his shoulders.
"Alright, was Earth’s change caused by magic?"
"No, though Circe still possesses one-fifth of Hecate’s power, the Inverted Man has her under control, she can’t do anything." Su Ming shook his head, denying it first: "Even if someone risked being consumed by the Inverted Man to overwrite reality, wizards would only create a world dominated by magic, not this one, where technology reigns and everyone is equal."
"What about Constantine? From my experience, when a major problem arises, it’s always that guy stirring up trouble." Bo Bo touched his chin, casually sitting cross-legged on the bar.
"Not him this time, he’s been affected too. I investigated his situation during a few hours on Earth yesterday. Can you believe he’s now uptight and serious, becoming an online pundit, offering free legal advice and running his own law firm?"
Su Ming rotated his glass, nonchalantly answering.
"Pfft!"
Bo Bo spat, quickly covering his mouth with his paw and pulling out a handkerchief to wipe his clothes: "This world is too crazy, I can hardly imagine."
"And that’s not even seeing his profile picture in a suit taken outside the courthouse." Su Ming added another sentence.
"Cough cough cough...."
Just hearing that, Bo Bo coughed his tongue out, his furry face turning bright red.
Su Ming finished his drink, watching the ice slowly melt: "Zatanna keeps rabbits at the zoo, Witch Child is in elementary school, Night Shadow became a cop, Banshee turned into a celebrity, Magic Realm is completely done for."
"....So it’s either magic or technology, there are quite a few possibilities..."
Hearing this, Bo Bo became more serious, even Hecate and Inverted Man hadn’t wiped out the Magic Realm, yet overnight everything changed.
The situation is rather serious.
"Yes, Apocalypse Star, Creation Star, Sena Gang, Manhattan, Five-dimensional People, Tenth-Dimensional People, all these technological artifacts can achieve similar things, not to mention the Wish Machine and other unknown super tools."
Su Ming was also tired from yesterday’s investigative adventure, the analyzed information is limited.
"So there’s not much hope in chasing methods, better to deduce the suspect’s identity more realistically."
Bo Bo lowered his head, biting his thick lips, slowly turning and saying: "Maybe Laughing Bat can do it, none of us know where that madman’s limit is."
"Yes, there’s also Divine Speed and God, both could alter Earth, I haven’t even had time to mention them." Su Ming nodded, sighed: "But yesterday I checked on Barry’s dynamics, he’s become a fat recluse writer, can’t even talk about running, has difficulty moving, other Speedsters are in similar states."
"Cough cough cough... What kind of nonsense is this?" Bo Bo coughed a few more times, suddenly understanding something: "Are all heroes and villains targeted? The things they were skilled at have become unskilled?"
"Exactly." Su Ming affirmed as he looked at him, his expression peaceful: "So, no matter who changed the world, this person must have a thorough understanding of heroes and villains, he should be an Earthling, and also knowledgeable about the Magic Realm."
"Is that so? You think it might be...." Bo Bo gestured a small bird flapping wings with his hands, but looking at those two black-haired hands, you knew he meant Batman.
Su Ming shook his head, helplessly saying: "According to my investigation yesterday, Wayne Group went bankrupt years ago, Batman is disheartened nursing retirement at home, living off past glories with Ah Fu."
Bo Bo nodded slowly, Batman not being Batman is an enormous change, suspect excluded.
"That means it’s not Jester either."
Cindy interjected, denying another person, mentioning Batman inevitably brings up his ’fan girl.’
Su Ming agreed with her view, Jester is Earth -11’s Joker: "No, although I don’t know Joker’s real name, so haven’t looked into his situation, but just think, if Joker acquired reality-altering abilities, the world definitely wouldn’t be so normal."
After hearing this, Bo Bo showed a wry smile on his furry face, indeed it’s like that.
If it were Joker, he might create a world where pies laughably eat people, or animals speak human tongues performing comedies on the Moon....
Can’t be this normal.
Cindy finished her third drink, she’d been listening to the communication between people and animals, simultaneously analyzing these intelligence.
Warm light shone on her head, though she had little connection to warmth, as a mercenary she was mostly cold.
If Su Ming retained some ordinary human emotions and habits, she was more professional, a professional assassin.
Although the names Gorillas and Su mentioned she didn’t recognize most, she could roughly guess what kind of people they were, after all, just thinking in reverse direction.
She snapped her fingers for another drink, wiping her clean chin:
"After listening for a while, I believe the motivation for this world-changing person is his perceived good.... whether it is erasing the Magic Realm or eliminating superheroes and villains, it’s all about making society ordinary, protecting ordinary people’s survival."
Su Ming nodded, this aligns with his analysis, albeit slightly incomplete.
Bo Bo thought for a bit, using his paw to dab some alcohol and drawing a map on the bar: "The one who did this should be a second or third-tier superhero? He has a simplistic view of good and evil, likes to protect civilians, but doesn’t know about the Origin Wall cracking, nor the Multiverse only having half a year’s lifespan left."
Su Ming shook his head slightly: "Could also be a second or third-tier villain, suddenly pricked by conscience, and unexpectedly gained something to rewrite reality, so he seized the opportunity to wash his hands clean."
Cindy sipped her drink: "But there’s a premise, he knows Batman’s real identity, knows everyone’s secret identities."
And the circles Bo Bo drew were completed, just taking the intersection of the above conditions....
The three fell silent for a while, indeed, smart people pooling their analysis achieves much better results. With more and more diverse insights compiled, the suspect range is greatly narrowed.
Excluding Seven Giants of the Justice League, excluding Destruction Legion, Gotham villains, Justice League adversaries.... those who know Bruce’s real identity aren’t actually that many.
Using elimination to find the one person unchanged in the world upheaval is the culprit. Count the closeness of Clark and Louise, then look at and squeeze together with Diana.
This suspect is still a mischievous shipper from a psychological perspective, someone who holds admiration for heroes would pull such pairings.
