Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 102 Riddles for Fools

PS: Some readers said that Chapters 99 and 100 were a bit confusing. I made some revisions. If you reread those two chapters, they might be clearer.

"Carmine Falcone?"

The corners of the Godfather's mouth curled up slightly: "I."

The burly woman holding down the Riddler raised an eyebrow. "You?"

The delicate atmosphere lasted for a moment, and the Godfather suddenly couldn't help laughing out loud, as if he was somewhat amused by this funny assumption. Even Sophia's King Kong-like face couldn't help but reveal a little smile.

"Sophia," the Godfather said with a laugh, "take Mr. Nygma out through the side door."

"Yes, Dad."

Sophia punched the Riddler's hat back onto his head. The strange force made his head buzz. While he was dizzy, the Riddler heard the Godfather speak again.

"And, Sophia, be right back."

"Yes, Dad."

Hearing this, the Riddler's mouth showed a fleeting smile, which was then drowned in a panic expression.

The side door creaked open, and the Riddler was driven out into the rain in a panic. He walked in the alley on a rainy night, and he didn't even know where he had thrown the walking stick he carried with him.

He looked so lost and miserable that he didn't look like a highly intelligent criminal at all. Instead, he looked like an ordinary poor guy.

Even so, this poor guy was still blocked in the alley.

A man with a black umbrella, a black round hat on his head, a loose windbreaker on his body, a blurred face, and rough men's gloves on his hands. The man raised his hand, and a .22 pistol with a baby pacifier on it appeared in front of the Riddler.

The Riddler retreated in panic. He neither begged for mercy nor shouted, but just leaned against the wall, his body tense as if he was frightened and he dared not move.

The muzzle flash was reflected in his shrinking and trembling pupils. The baby's pacifier was broken by the bullet, and the hot bullet casing jumped out of the barrel and scattered all over the ground. The Riddler stared at the gun closely, his face filled with fear and panic.

He watched the gunman empty magazine after magazine, and finally threw the curved-handled black umbrella, pistol and pacifier to the ground and walked away.

On the wall of the alley, the Riddler, clinging to the wall, was surrounded by bullet holes. Each bullet grazed his body accurately and shot into the wall. In the connected holes, was the Riddler, whose body was stiff.

He looked at the black umbrella on the ground that looked like a question mark, and muttered to himself while trembling.

"When does a killer stop killing?"

At this moment, the system's screen suddenly turned off.

Ma Zhaodi held the popcorn bucket and pondered blankly the last question asked by the Riddler. The most superficial answer to this question was of course today's date.

April Fools' Day.

On this day, people's actions will be turned upside down, and they will say the truth is false and the white is black. For the Riddler, this should be his favorite day.

What about thinking deeper?

For the Holiday Killer, he usually kills on ordinary holidays, but today he is going to do the opposite - this is his usual tone. If he is really a super criminal like the Riddler or the Joker, then he will definitely abide by his own rules of killing. This is his nature.

So, he didn't kill anyone today.

So, is that the end of it?

"There's another layer." Ma Zhaodi recalled the entire process of reasoning and stuffed another handful of popcorn into his mouth. He realized something.

"The Festival Killer isn't the only one doing the opposite today."

"Paranoid criminals are all similar in a sense, and today's super criminals, besides the Festival Killer, also include the Riddler." "Who is the Festival Killer?"

This is the first question the Riddler asks, but today is April Fools' Day, so the real question he asked should be -

“Who isn’t a festival killer?”

So the Riddler then proposed five hypotheses.

"Catwoman"

Her motivation was insufficient and was rejected by Ma Zhaodi, but the system confirmed his judgment.

Maroni

His interests were contrary to the results, and was also rejected by Ma Zhaodi. The system once again confirmed his judgment.

"Carla Vitti"

Her motive could not cover all cases, and Ma Zhaodi also judged that the Romans could not have killed her son.

The system also denied the possibility that Kara was the festival killer.

With these three precedents, the hypothesis raised by both the Riddler and Alfred - could Gotham City's Bright Knight, Harvey Dent, be the one who committed these crimes?
If the Riddler was smart enough, and if Ma Zhaodi guessed his thoughts correctly, the five people he proposed were exactly the ones he judged were unlikely to be the holiday killers.

What about Father Falcone? What was the reason for rejecting the Romans?
"Too many," Ma Zhaodi thought. "Too many reasons. How could he possibly kill his own son? Why would he kill the Irish gang that worked for him? Why would he risk angering Kara, who represented an outside mafia family, by killing Johnny Vitti?"

"Even the subsequent murder of the Maroni family was not his style. How could a gangster godfather who dared to tell Maroni face to face, 'I'm going to deal with your family,' be someone who only dared to use underhanded tactics?"

"Question: Why do festival killers always use the same weapon?"

"Answer: He bought it wholesale."

However, Batman had investigated everything from wholesale to retail, and he hadn't gotten any clues, so the Riddler's question was, "Why didn't the Festival Killer use other weapons?"

"Answer: He customizes weapons from secret channels that cannot be traced."

The seemingly ordinary .22 pistol thus became an unusable clue.

"Question: Why did the killer shoot Alberto Falcone?"

“Answer: Because he can.”

On the contrary, the Holiday Killer is a very particular person, with a meticulous mind and decisive methods. He deliberately picks out holidays and then deliberately chooses gifts, so the victims must not be chosen at random.

If it was a casual attitude of "I can, so I commit the crime", then the festival killer would not have had to go to the trouble of sneaking onto Falcone's cruise ship - that cruise ship is not something that ordinary people are qualified to board.

Who would go to a water dispenser when there is a glass of water right at hand?
So, the Riddler's question is: "Why didn't the killer choose someone else?"

His answer was: "Because he had ample reasons to kill Alberto."

"The question then becomes, could all of this killing be motivated by personal vendettas?"

If we understand this sentence in reverse, it becomes like this:

"The question then becomes, could all of this killing be at least partially personal?"

So, last question.

"When does a killer stop killing?"

P.S.: There is really not a drop left. My eyes hurt from coding. I will take a break.
(End of this chapter)