American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Shuen thought Loki's mouth was really sharp; he'd rather just keep giving the cookies to himself.

"Alright."

Shuen spoke up, stepping forward to stand between Loki and Rorschach.

"You talk too much, and it's not funny at all."

He stared into Loki's smiling green eyes.

"oh?"

Loki shrugged, accepting the assessment with a smile, and then tactfully stepped back.

He gestured for him to leave and returned to the shadowy corner, as if everything that had just happened had nothing to do with him.

The sunflower shook its petals.

"If that green-robed peacock keeps nagging at me, this rotten onion will rot completely inside and out."

Its voice was full of disdain, but its two small leaves unconsciously stretched out, as if it had breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiu En squatted down, preparing to say something, such as, "Can we talk properly now?"

However, the man who had just been on the ground suddenly started moving on his own.

Luo Xia struggled to sit up, supporting himself with his arms on the ground.

He raised his head, his gaze passing over Shuen, who was crouching in front of him, and looking at Loki, who was standing in the shadows.

His voice calmed down.

"You? What are you?"

Then, he turned his gaze to Xiu En.

"And what are you?"

He looked at Xiu En's Asian face and the black trench coat he was wearing, which was abnormally dry in the rainy night.

"What is your purpose?"

"Is it the Stone of Obsession? Do you think Adrian Witter knows its whereabouts?"

"What value do I have?"

His self-answered question startled Xiu En for a moment.

"ah?"

Loki let out a light, cheerful sigh from the shadows.

"You're much more interesting than that brute in my script who simply divides the world into black and white."

Shuen looked at Rorschach and said bluntly.

"I don't know what the Stone of Obsession is. He only told me that it's related to the smartest and most stubborn person in the city."

He pointed at Loki.

"And he just said that person's name is Adrian something? Witt, right? And you happen to be investigating him."

Rorschach's gaze shifted to the black diary that had fallen to his feet.

He silently picked it up and turned to the latest page. He was certain it was still in his pocket when he ran away.

"October 12th. The comedian died."

Rorschach began to recite in a tone devoid of any emotion, as if addressing thin air, or perhaps Shun and Loki.

"Someone threw him out of the window. The police were helpless. Nobody cared; a washed-up government lackey, a thug who tried to assault his colleague, deserved to die. That's what they all said."

He paused, then turned the page.

"But I knew something was wrong. There aren't many people who can kill a comedian. He was a jerk, but he was also a battle-hardened warrior. This was a warning, a declaration."

"I visited his enemies, his friends, his mistresses. I found nothing. Everyone was forgetting, or pretending to forget."

"Except for Dan. Dan, that weak! Overweight! The second-generation Night Owl who's stuck in his past glory and refuses to wake up. He always seems to know nothing, yet he always remembers things that should have been forgotten at crucial moments."

"All the heroes who were eliminated by the times and labeled as illegal have inexplicably encountered various accidents in recent years. Some went bankrupt, some went to prison, and some disappeared without a trace."

Rorschach spoke at a steady pace.

"Someone is purging our generation. Eliminating all destabilizing factors that might hinder some grand plan."

"There's only one person I can think of who can pull off this plan."

He looked up at Loki.

"The world's smartest man, Ozymandias, who used his near-limitless wealth and advanced technology to portray himself as the embodiment of peace, suddenly announced his retirement a few years ago and disappeared from the public eye."

"I suspect the comedian discovered his secret and was therefore silenced."

Rorschach closed his diary.

He looked at Xiu En.

"I can take you there; I'll arrange the transportation. Or, you can just tell me what you'll do once you find him."

"That's too much trouble."

Xiu En muttered something to himself, clearly more concerned about the health of the person in front of him at the moment.

He crouched down, stretched out a hand, and gently waved it in front of his bloodshot eyes.

A warm and gentle golden light, like the rising sun, slowly shone from his palm.

The light slowly enveloped Luo Xia's overly tense body.

The sunflower on Xiu En's shoulder bristled, its golden petals opening like a small umbrella to shield the leaking energy.

"What if it's incompatible? Are you doing a good deed or conducting human experiments?!"

"Relax, relax, I'm controlling the dosage."

Xiu En replied nonchalantly.

"See, he's much more comfortable now, isn't he?"

The icy rain no longer felt cold.

The biting cold wind turned into a gentle caress. His old wounds, accumulated from years of fighting, and the deep-seated aches and pains, were washed away by this warm current, and he let out satisfied groans.

The muscles completely relaxed, and the brain, which had been aching from mental overload, found a moment of peace.

What is this?

Another form of mind control?

Or is it a more advanced illusion?

He abandoned these futile speculations.

He simply observed the soft light in Shuen's palm as an objective observer, recording his own reaction.

"Body temperature is rising."

"This feeling is very strange."

He was stunned for a moment after he finished speaking.

"See? You've made him even weirder."

Sunflower complained.

Shu En didn't care about these complex psychological changes. Seeing that Luo Xia no longer looked like he was about to die, he withdrew the light with satisfaction.

"so!"

He looked again at Loki, who had been silently watching the show.

"That Diaz he mentioned, is he the person we're looking for?"

Loki slowly emerged from the shadows, a meaningful smile on his face.

"Adrian Witte, the mythical Ozymandias, who claimed to be the wisest man in the world."

Loki smiled and nodded in confirmation, his gaze sweeping over Rorschach's face, which had regained some color.

"That's right, my dear guest star, he is the final boss of our stage play."

"Are you looking for him?"

Luo Xia also leaned against the wall and slowly stood up; his body was no longer trembling.

"Is it because of that stone of obsession you mentioned?"

"right."

Xiu En nodded, finding it much more comfortable to communicate with Luo Xia in his current state.

"That stone..."

Rorschach paused.

"Are you also supernatural beings, like them?"

"That's one way to understand it."

Loki answered before Shuun could, enjoying this exclusive spoiler. .

"But it's more like the last cough of an old friend before he dies, a lingering obsession, regret, and a tiny bit of humanity. Adrian just happened to pick it up and mistook it for some kind of treasure."

Comedian Edward Black.

Everything connected.

These two monsters and the direction of his investigation overlapped at the point of Adrian Witt.

He no longer inquired about the other party's origins, nor did he investigate what the so-called stone was.

None of this matters.

What matters is his own purpose: to uncover the truth!

"He's hiding in Antarctica."

"I know the coordinates. A research base that's completely isolated from the world, undetectable by any radar. Only I can find a way to sneak in, or do you have a more direct method?"

Looking at the two deities before him, who seemed to have stepped out of a science fiction movie, he already knew the answer in his heart.

"My last eyewitness account indicates that the comedian was investigating Adrian's squid-related genetic modification program before his death."

"Count me in if you're going. I want to see the truth with my own eyes."

"I'm going to expose him."

"I suspect the comedian discovered his secret and was therefore silenced."

He looked at Xiu En.

"Count me in if you're going. I want to see the truth with my own eyes."

In his eyes, a faint but unwavering light of persistence finally rekindled.

As Rorschach's voice faded, he gripped his grappling hook gun, bracing himself for any possible response.

Whether it's mockery, rejection, or obliteration.

Xiu En looked at him like this.

He straightened up, a bright smile mixed with approval on his face, and then spoke.

"It's a pleasure working with you."

He paused, as if thinking of a suitable word, then clapped his hands in satisfaction.

"Now, you are our personal detective."

"A personal detective?"

This is a completely unexpected name.

The sunflower petals on Xiu En's shoulder trembled with laughter.

"Hmph, dedicated garbage sorter, what a fitting title. Hey Xiu En, you're not planning to pay him a salary, are you? He doesn't look like he can afford to pay income tax."

"A perfect improvisational character design."

Loki clapped softly in the shadows and stepped out.

"A lone detective walking in the darkness, willing to ally with gods and demons from another world in pursuit of the truth. What a wonderful beginning to the story, a hundred times more exciting than my dull original script."

The god he spoke of was clearly the seemingly harmless Shuen, while the demon was himself.

Xiu En paid no attention to their complaints. He looked at Luo Xia, who was still in a daze, as if he were giving a pre-job training to his newly hired employee.

"As a detective, your first task is to lead us to that guy named Adrian. You have the coordinates, you know the route, that's good, it saves a lot of trouble."

He pointed to the black diary.

"Consider this your detective's handbook. Remember to write down our story, in detail, and especially emphasize how handsome I am."

Faced with this appointment ceremony and even more outlandish demands.

Rorschach accepted.

They accepted this as the only chance to reach the truth.

"Can."

He replied.

"The reward is to let me witness the whole truth with my own eyes."

"make a deal."

Xiu En readily agreed.

Rorschach's gaze shifted to Loki, the mysterious green-robed man who looked more like a leader or guide.

"How are we going to get to Antarctica? I don't need to prepare transportation for you, right?"

"Ah, traffic problems."

Loki gave him a relieved smile, as if to say, "You finally got to the point."

He raised his hand and made a light sweeping motion in the air.

It was as if he had simply torn off a tiny piece of wallpaper.

The wall in front of them had a crack in the middle.

Behind the gap lies a chaotic scene filled with countless disordered colors and images.

"Please come in, my newly appointed detective."

Loki bowed gracefully and extended his hand towards the door, making an inviting gesture.

"Our Antarctic Express is ready to depart at any time. Friendly reminder: it can be a bit dizzying inside, so it's best not to eat too much."

Rorschach looked at the door leading to the unknown.

He glanced at his soaking wet trench coat and empty pockets, then silently stuffed the diary back into his inner pocket.

"I'm ready."