American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

rainy night.

The alleyway has become a huge sewage pipe for the city.

Rotting garbage.

Greasy puddles.

And an unidentified liquid seeping from the broken pipe.

Xiu En, however, walked as if on flat ground.

The hem of his black trench coat fluttered in the dirty air, yet remained completely untouched by any grime.

"Ugh, this smell is a hundred times stronger than the mature Giant Corpse Flower I cultivated."

The sunflower on Xiu En's shoulder shrank its flower head into a bud, and a strong sense of disgust was transmitted through the mental connection.

"It smelled mostly of rotting organic matter, mixed with the stench of cheap industrial alcohol and human excrement. That tin-can-like man—was this how he planned his daily routes? He looked like a rat wallowing in a cesspool!"

"Unique taste."

Loki followed behind, his steps equally elegant, his magnificent green robes equally spotless.

He even had the leisure to make leisurely comments about his surroundings.

"Look at the graffiti on this wall, the chaotic lines, the desperate colors. It seems that a small-scale impromptu art explosion took place here not long ago."

"It stinks! Hurry up!"

Xiu En wrinkled his nose and urged.

That stubborn scent that belonged to Rorschach was about to reach the apartment building.

They arrived at the apartment building silently within a minute.

This is an old apartment building with rusty fire escape staircases and walls covered in water stains and cracks.

The only entrance and exit is a glass door.

In the corner by the door, several overflowing black garbage bags were piled up, with a few rats scurrying among them, seemingly oblivious to the two strange people who had suddenly appeared.

Xiu En looked around, trying to find a clean place in his mind to put the diary.

His gaze swept over the wet doorstep, over the stained walls, and finally settled on a red fire hydrant located by the sidewalk.

This thing seems to be the only public facility here that has retained its original color.

"Where do you want to put it?"

Sunflower sensed Xiu En's thoughts with an expression of disbelief.

"Do you want him to throw this diary into the incinerator along with it?"

Loki snapped his fingers lightly.

A green halo flashed by.

The corner by the apartment entrance, piled high with garbage, including the garbage bags and the rats having their dinner, vanished without a trace in an instant.

What appears next is a dry and clean cement floor.

The rain seemed to automatically avoid this corner.

The ground was so clean that it even reflected light in the rainy night.

"It was just a small favor."

"A simple stage setup cleaning spell guarantees absolute cleanliness, free of any magical residue. Now, you can place whatever you want on it."

"Fancy and overly complicated."

The sunflower remained silent for a long time before finally giving its evaluation.

Xiu En nodded in satisfaction, thinking the cleaner had done a good job.

He stepped forward and carefully placed the diary in the center of the clean, shiny cement floor.

He thought about it for a moment, and then felt that it was a bit strange to have a bare book sitting there.

So he took out a brand new butter cookie from his trench coat pocket and gently placed it next to his diary.

After doing all this, Xiu En still felt that something was missing.

He didn't want that poor guy to miss out on such delicious food because of prejudice.

He took out another notepad, drew a line on it with his finger, and left a message branded by golden flames.

"It's not poisonous, and it tastes good."

He pressed the note under the cookie, leaving only the four sincere words "Not poisonous, delicious" visible.

……

The sunflower heads were almost touching the ground.

"Perfect."

Xiu En clapped his hands, very satisfied with his masterpiece.

In this way, the diary was returned, the cookies were given away, and the promotional slogan was left behind—a triple win.

"Excellent!"

Loki exclaimed in genuine admiration, his green eyes seeming to foresee the good show to come.

"Well then, my dear guest star, now comes the most important part. Find a good spot and wait for our main character to make his appearance."

As soon as he finished speaking, his and Xiu En's figures blurred and disappeared silently into the shadows opposite the apartment, leaving only that clean corner and the strange gift placed there.

In a dark corner across from the apartment, Shum and Loki waited silently.

The rain fell densely, but when it came within a foot of their bodies, it mysteriously slid to the sides, as if it were blocked by an invisible barrier.

Their clothes remained perfectly dry, a quality that seemed out of place in this damp world, from beginning to end.

The sunflower on Xiu En's shoulder had shrunk the entire flower head tightly, leaving only a tiny gap at the edge of the petals, looking out nervously and excitedly.

Less than five minutes later, at the alley entrance, a short, stocky figure, like a ghost emerging from the shadows of the wall, appeared silently once again.

Rorschach stood pressed against the wall, motionless for a full minute.

Those eyes, hidden under the brim of the hat, scanned the street behind them, every corner, every window, and even every puddle, like a scanner.

After confirming that there were no obvious followers, he started walking quickly towards the apartment door, his body tense, as if ready to launch an attack at any moment.

However, when his gaze swept to the corner by the apartment door, the scene before him completely overturned his entire understanding of this filthy and rotten world.

That corner, which was originally filled with garbage and reeked of swill and rotting flesh, is now clean and tidy.

The cement floor is dry and flat.

There was not a drop of rain, not a speck of dust, not a single mouse.

In the center of this land, which resembled a divine realm, lay a black leather-bound notebook that he knew all too well.

It is his diary.

His most important thing.

Rorschach's mind went blank.

He had absolutely no recollection of when or where he had lost it.

This terrified him even more than encountering two strange people with bizarre words and actions.

This means he may have experienced a memory gap? His vigilance has a fatal flaw.

His gaze lingered beside the diary.

There, there was a round cookie.

There was another piece of paper under the cookie.

Is this a trap?

The thought flashed through Luo Xia's mind immediately.

A trap filled with irony.

He bent down, one hand already inside the trench coat pocket, gripping the grappling hook gun handle.

With his other hand, he grabbed the note and the cookie with such speed that it was almost a blur.

I want to see what this trap is all about.

The moment he picked up the item, he saw the four words on the note that looked as if they were branded by flames.

"It's not poisonous, and it tastes good."

Just then, two figures silently appeared out of thin air in front of him.

One was the black-clad youth with golden eyes that seemed to see through everything.

The other was the green-robed man in a comical costume with a malicious smile on his face.

They stood there, three steps away, as if they had been waiting for him for a long time.

Hi, we meet again.

Xiu En even raised his hand and greeted him in a very familiar manner.

But Rorschach clearly had his own ideas.

Damn it! He'd been tricked.

He was never able to escape from the very beginning.

The other party knew he would return here and had set a trap for him.

Rorschach threw away the cookies and note in his hand, and suddenly fired the grappling hook gun in his other hand, the sharp metal claws grabbing towards Shuen's face!

This was his fastest and most decisive strike!

However, when it was still half a meter away from Shuen's face, it stopped as if it had hit an invisible wall of sighs.

The sharp metal claws rubbed against the air, sparking a string of sparks.

Immediately afterwards, an invisible force clamped down on his wrist.

His strength and fighting skills, which he was so proud of, seemed as ridiculous as a child's scribbles at this moment.

He didn't even see how the other party made their move.

"Hello, I'm Xiu En, a diner passing by."

The man named Xiu En ignored his deadly attack, took a step forward, and introduced himself in a gentle tone.

"I came here to find a stone."

Xiu En wore a curious expression, which matched the amused smile of the green-robed man behind him.

"Something called the Stone of Obsession."

Xiu En asked.

Do you know where it is?

Rorschach, suspended in mid-air by an invisible force, trembled with rage.

He stared at Xiu En, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins and undisguised, insane hatred. If looks could kill, Xiu En's projection would probably have been tortured to death countless times.

He continued to struggle.

But the grappling hook gun eventually fell helplessly to the unreal, clean ground beneath its feet.

"Tsk."

Xiu En frowned in annoyance as he looked at Luo Xia's unyielding attitude.

He just wanted to ask for directions and find a rock, why is it acting like the final battle of Star Wars?

He felt he had been very friendly, even giving away cookies.

He turned to look at Loki, who had been watching the show with an air of elegance the whole time, and gestured with his chin towards Rorschach, who was nearly suffocating.

"He seems to be breaking down."

"Xiu En, he's about to be driven mad by himself."

"Oh dear, that won't do."

Xiu En immediately released Rorschach from his restraints.

He shrugged at Loki.

"It's up to you. Translate it and let him calm down."

"I'd be happy to help."

Loki wore an exaggerated smile, like an opera singer about to go on stage.

He stepped forward, bypassing the somewhat aggrieved-looking Xiu En, and stood in front of Luo Xia, who had collapsed to the ground due to the sudden release of his restraints.

The rain couldn't dampen his magnificent green robe, and his posture seemed out of place in the dirty alley.

He spoke slowly in a chanting voice.

"Calm down? Oh no, my dear Mr. Walter Kovacs, you don't need to calm down."

Rorschach's anger, ignited by hearing his real name, was extinguished by the next sentence.

"What you need is an audience, an audience that can understand the angry, unknown face beneath your mask."

Luo Xia raised his head, and his face, which had been completely covered by his trench coat and hat, was now clearly visible.

It was the face of an ordinary middle-aged man with red hair, but his bloodshot eyes held a fear as if he had seen a ghost.

Loki was very pleased with his reaction.

"Don't be nervous, Walter. Don't you think that a lone hero encountering fate in the rainy night is a classic dramatic opening?"

Let me guess your schedule for tonight.

Loki extended a finger and gently traced it in the air, as if turning the pages of an invisible script.

"First, on a street corner, braving this awful cold rain, eating a cold can of beans pulled from your pocket, while recording the city's new evils in your diary. Hmm, tonight's title will probably be October 12th, The Dog's Corpse..."

"Then, disturbed by these two uninvited guests, you feel a new threat has appeared in the city and prepare to continue your patrol. I've already planned your route for you. First, go see your old friend, Dan Dreberg, the former Night Owl in his comical birdman costume, and see if he's still reminiscing about the past in his dusty basement."

"Go visit the grave of your half-mad former teammate, comedian Edward Blake, place a rain-soaked white rose on his tombstone, and while cursing him as an idiot, unconsciously begin to investigate the truth behind his murder."

These things... these things...

Some of his plans were still just beginning to take shape in his mind!

The monster in front of me is wearing a green theatrical costume!

What exactly is he?!

"In the end, you'll find that all the clues point to the world's smartest man, the idealistic madman who has disappeared from the public eye. Adrian Witte."

Loki paused, a look of pity on his face.

"You'll think this is a huge conspiracy! A conspiracy that could destroy the world! So, you, the lonely watcher, decide to fight the whole world alone! How tragic, how moving, and how foolish."

He withdrew his finger, and the compassionate expression vanished.

"Unfortunately, Walter, you are not the protagonist of this story. At best, you are just a paranoid character who connects the plot threads."

Rorschach is on the ground.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"so?"

Loki finally got back to the point. He turned to the side and respectfully spread his hands toward Shuen, as if introducing a prisoner to a king.

"My dear guest star is getting very impatient."

"We have no interest in the ridiculous conspiracy he talks about, nor in him, the self-proclaimed smartest man in the world."

"We've come here simply to take something from that wisest and most stubborn man. A stone formed from an obsession that transcends life and death."

He lowered his head again and looked at Rorschach.

"And you, Walter Kovacs, it was your neglected diary, your obsessive investigation, that led us to him."

"You are neither a hero nor a detective."

"You're just a guide."