Become a Phantom Thief from the Comic World

Why would a wedding ring appear in a woods where a murder occurred not long ago?

Who abandoned it? Some unlucky fool? Or the deceased? Or someone else? Why is the ring broken?

The above issues cannot yet be determined, but what is certain is that this ring must have been left here recently.

The reason is simple. The ring is not buried very deep. It is just covered by a little bit of soil and branches and leaves. You can definitely find it if you look carefully.

There are a lot of homeless people living near Robinson Park. If this ring had existed a long time ago, it would be impossible for Batman to find it now.

Batman narrowed his eyes slightly and pressed a few times on the arm guard of his left hand.

Then the arm guard opened automatically, and there was a strange container inside. The space didn't look like much, but it could actually fit a lot of things into it.

Put the ring inside, and the open arm guard automatically closed. Then a green light swept over the ring, uploaded the data to the Batcomputer in the Batcave, and automatically built a virtual model of the ring.

The data model cannot help but include the appearance information and manufacturer information of the ring, and even the fingerprints remaining on the ring were scanned.

Meanwhile, Alfred is sitting in front of the Batcomputer, waiting for news from Batman and Robin.

When the ring data was uploaded to the Batcomputer, Alfred instantly became very energetic.

"One penny, investigate who this diamond ring belongs to."

Batman contacted Alfred.

Just like Dick's code name is Robin and Batman's code name is Bruce, Alfred also has his own operational code name - Penny One.

Batman calls Alfred by the penny when he's on a mission.

"Okay, Master Bruce, I am very pleased to see that you are finally interested in the wedding ring, but judging from the status of the Wayne family, are the diamonds on this ring a little too small?"

Alfred skillfully operated the Batcomputer, comparing the fingerprints on the ring with those in the database, while saying humorously.

As for why the Batcomputer’s database contains the fingerprint identity information of all citizens of Gotham...

We don't know, and we dare not ask.

Soon, the comparison results came out. Alfred Hui reported: "We found a sample that matches the fingerprint on the ring, but there is something strange."

"What's weird?"

Robin's communication channel was connected to Batman and Alfred simultaneously, and he could hear Alfred's words in real time, so he asked.

"The owner of the fingerprint sample is named Kurt Langstone. He is a well-known zoologist. I heard that his main research object is bats. He got married a few years ago and wears a wedding ring. It’s normal, and the fingerprints also match, so we can be sure that he is the owner of this ring.”

Alfred said, "The strange thing is that I collected all the surveillance records near Robinson Park. In the past month, this Dr. Langstone has never been there at all!"

"It's interesting. If the ring belongs to Dr. Langstone, and he has never been here, what happened to the ring we found?"

Robin raised his eyebrows and said, "Did Dr. Langstone also be attacked by a bat monster? But why did the bat monster want a diamond ring and throw it away? It can't be to taste the ring to see if it can eat the ring. You bit it off and then threw it away when you found it didn’t taste good?”

"Come here, Robin!"

At this moment, Batman's voice came from far away. He came to the Batmobile at some point, opened the door and got in, shouting without looking back.

Robin reluctantly followed and sat in the passenger seat.

"Now, we're going to find Curt Langstone."

Batman quickly started the Batmobile and said in a deep voice.

Robin nodded to make it clear.

"I know Dr. Langstone. He lost his hearing due to a disease. In order to restore his hearing, he began to study bats in depth because he believed that bats' developed hearing could help him."

On the way, Batman suddenly spoke.

"Kurt has been trying to mix bat DNA with human DNA to create a serum that can cure deafness. A year ago, he came to see me at Wayne Group, hoping that Wayne Group could fund his research. After claiming that he succeeded, There will no longer be deaf people in the world, but I refused and persuaded him to change his research direction, and I have lost contact with him since then."

"Perhaps, he is still insisting on research on serum."

Hearing this, Robin asked with an absurd face: "Don't you think... Kurt Langstone developed the bat serum, but it did not cure his deafness, but turned him into a human being?" A bat monster?”

Chapter 124 Imprisoned Wife

"This is so crazy!"

Robin looked shocked and said, "Even in Gotham, this is a little too incredible."

"A serum that can change DNA and turn humans into bat monsters? I would rather believe that it was born in the chemical laboratory of Lex Group."

"How else to explain that Kurt's ring was left in Robinson Park?"

Batman asked rhetorically.

"Why is the band of the ring broken?"

Hearing these words, Robin's mind was struck by lightning.

It is impossible for a normal person to break off a ring with nothing to do, and the difficulty of breaking a ring may be slightly higher than that of breaking a diamond.

After all, diamonds are very hard, but too brittle.

But if you substitute the scene of Kurt Langstone drinking the serum and turning into a bat monster, you will easily imagine that after turning into a monster, his body increased, and the diamond ring that was originally suitable for wearing suddenly became too small.

It was even split open by the swollen fingers in the end!

Continuing to think about it, maybe Kurt, who has turned into a monster physically, still has human emotions. He still loves his wife, so even if the ring is broken, he still carries it with him until he kills for the first time in the woods. The ring is left behind.

With so many claw marks left by the bat monster on the tree, his true emotions may be regret for being unable to control his bloodthirsty instinct, rather than pure excitement or anger.

hiss--

Robin had to admit that based on this logic, the possibility of Kurt Langstone developing the serum but being turned into a bat monster by side effects was greatly increased.

He is the only suspect.

"Until we meet Langstone, it's all just speculation. The bat monster may or may not be him."

Batman said slowly, with no waves in his tone. No emotion could be heard, only extreme calmness.

Not long after Batman and Robin left, another black shadow quietly approached the woods.

At first glance, this dark figure is actually wearing a bat suit!

Looking at it again, I found that the Bat suit was a bit crude, and the person wearing the Bat suit didn't seem to be as tall as a serious Batman.

"I knew they would come to the crime scene."

The expression on Dean's face was just as I expected. He looked at one of the big trees in the field and thought with a slight regret.

"It's a pity that the micro bug cannot be recovered, so it can only be turned into self-destruct mode."

Micron-level bugs, let alone recycling them, are so dark in the middle of the night that you might not be able to see them even if you look for them with a magnifying glass.

What is this all about? It was just a few hours ago.

After leaving Gotham General Hospital, Dean witnessed Batman and Robin driving the Batmobile to the Upper West Side.

The Batmobile is so fast that if he just follows it, Dean will lose it in less than a minute.

But Dean knows very well that if Batman and Robin want to investigate the Bat Monster, they will definitely come to the crime scene no matter what, and they will go to every crime scene.

So he checked the location of each bat monster attack, and finally found that starting from Gotham General Hospital, the two closest crime locations were located in the harbor and villa area of ​​the Upper West Side. They were characterized by empty terrain and crowded areas. Traffic is low.

The Robinson Park woodland where the first body was found is farther away from Gotham General Hospital.

In order to improve the efficiency of case handling, Batman will most likely give priority to other nearby locations for investigation, so Dean can take advantage of the time difference to arrive at Robinson Park before the two Batmans.

Besides, how could there be a peaceful night in Gotham? On the way to the Upper West Side, there was no telling how many robbers and even murderers he would encounter, and how many of them could tie up Batman.

All in all, Dean did eventually make it to Robinson Park before Batman did.

He actually discovered the existence of the ring, but he did not move it. Instead, he hid the micro bug that the system exchanged in a big tree.

There is only one purpose, and that is to eavesdrop on the details of Batman and Robin's investigation.

Of course, it is possible that if Batman had already found out where the bat monster was at other crime scenes and went directly to the central gate to snipe, instead of coming to Robinson Park.

At that point, Dean could only admit that he was unlucky.

There was no way, he couldn't risk a head-on collision with Batman and go somewhere else to wait and see. Although he had anticipated what excuses he would use to excuse this situation, in the final analysis, it was better to keep it if he could not use it. Need not.

Wait until there is really no other way.

"Kurt Langstone?"

Dean rubbed his chin and thought about it. He had no memory of this name at all.

Fortunately, Dr. Langstone has a reputation in the zoological community, and a large amount of public information can be easily found online.

"An expert in zoology, who has a physical defect, wants to find a way to make up for the defect by studying animal DNA. He asked for funding from a large company but was rejected... Hey, why do you feel that this background setting is not quite right?"

As the saying goes, you don’t know if you don’t check, but you will be shocked if you check. After reading Dr. Langstone’s public information, Dean immediately felt that there was something wrong with this guy’s designation.

Isn't this the usual dark villain setting in superhero works?

"Well...it seems that Kurt Langstone's address is not disclosed online, but the location of his laboratory is."

After thinking about it, Dean turned around and left.

-

After a while, the northeastern part of the Upper West Side became the most humble residential area in the entire Upper West Side.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a slum on the Upper West Side. It is not much different from the East Side, which is also known as the Gotham Slums.

Of course, compared to the slums in the East District, the living environment here is much better.

Batman and Robin came to one of the small houses that looked like a warehouse. There were no lights on and the windows were closed. No sound could be heard, and they were not sure if anyone was there.

"This is Dr. Langstone's residence? I didn't expect that an expert with a good reputation would live in such a place."

Robin looked at the dilapidated small house in front of him with a sigh on his face.

"He originally lived a relatively prosperous life, but his insistent research caused Kurt to spend all his savings. No one was optimistic about his serum and would provide funding, so he had to invest all his money in research."

Batman said so.

He checked the house and found that the only entrance that could accommodate him was the front door.

Batman knocked on the door symbolically, but no one responded.

So he glanced at Robin, who immediately understood and became alert.

I saw Batman standing at the door, raising his shoulders, tensing his muscles, and instantly rushed towards the door.

bump!

The old door was easily knocked open by Batman, revealing the scene inside the room.

It was actually empty, with no furniture at all, except for a huge cage and a woman locked in the cage.

Judging from the appearance of that woman, she is clearly Kurt Langstone’s wife, Francine Langstone!

Chapter 125 The Dynamic Duo and the Bat Weird

In the large iron cage, Francine Langstone looked haggard, with no obvious injuries on her body. She had been sitting on the ground in a daze.

When Batman broke through the door and came in, Francine was frightened by the strong noise.

She quickly got up from the ground, grabbed the two iron bars of the cage and looked towards the door, with a hint of compassion in her fearful expression.

And when she saw Batman and Robin clearly, her face suddenly seemed to be relieved.

"Are you okay, Mrs. Longstone?"

Robin asked with concern, looking at Francine who was locked in the cage.

He stepped forward and skillfully picked the lock of the cage.

"Thank you."

Francine was grateful and stepped out of the cage.

"Where is your husband, Kurt Langstone? Did he lock you up?"

At this time, Batman came over and asked.

"...You guys are here to catch Kurt, right? Yes, he must be very conspicuous in his current state."

Francine asked after a moment of silence.

Her words almost made Kurt's identity clear.