Nobody can stop me from drawing cards in Gotham!

Chapter 141 Cult Members: Where Did This Blame Come From?

The trio of Langdon, Clark, and Louise set off again, at the familiar time of night.

Louise insisted on driving herself, so Clark and Langdon had to wait for her at the parking lot exit, creating a strange, surreal feeling reminiscent of two children standing at a kindergarten gate waiting for their parents to pick them up.

"Langdon." Taking advantage of Louise's absence and the fact that no one else was around, Clark quickly seized the opportunity to ask Langdon, who didn't need to wear a social anxiety mask, "So, that Metropolitan enthusiast—"

"Yes, it is indeed me." Langdon nodded.

Having received the answer he had guessed, Clark was still not relieved. Instead, he asked with some concern, "Langdon, although I know you should be prepared, isn't this a bit dangerous?"

"All the people you recruited were attacked, and then reported and arrested—what if some of them trace it back to you?"

To this, Langdon's blue eyes revealed a sly glint that hadn't been seen in a long time: "You've got two things wrong, Clark."

"First, when I launched the sneak attack, I used the fully formed poison mist form. Even if they investigate, they can only find out that a black and white monster attacked them."

"Second, Q&A time." Langdon held up one finger. "If you were the villain of Metropolis, and you were hired by a group of cult members to steal the trophy..."

"But now, you're being rehired by an unidentified dark web user who's willing to pay you. The user asks you to stop competing for the trophy, so you stop."

"And now, you've only just stopped fighting, and you've been attacked by a strange monster—who do you think did it?"

Clark's eyes widened instantly: "Those...those cult members—"

After all, no normal person would think that someone would pay to hire the villain and then go to the trouble of launching an attack.

The logical line of reasoning is that the cult members, seeing all their employees had fled, were caught off guard and unable to identify the person who had opposed them. In their anger, they turned their attention to these villains who had taken the money and run.

This makes perfect sense.jpg

Clark fell silent: "————"

Langdon's move was indeed outrageous. He achieved his goal while successfully shifting the blame to cult members. Is this the hidden strength of the chairman who can run the Parrels Group?

"Beep beep!" A horn interrupted Clark's brainstorming session; it was Louise, who had already driven the car out.

The car window rolled down, and Louise raised an eyebrow at the two people outside, gesturing for them to get in.

"According to information from Lexcorp, the device was developed by Eddie Reiner, a former employee who has since been dismissed."

In the moving car, Louise explained the situation, but her expression showed a moment of complexity when she mentioned the name "Eddie Reiner".

Clark noticed this: "You seem to know this Reiner?"

“Yes, Kent,” Louise sighed. “Eddie Reiner was a top scientist in optics and lasers who worked for Luther and later became my informant in investigating LexCorp’s secret development of nuclear weapons.”

"Nuclear weapons? — Wait, isn't this the report that won you the Escalius Prize?" Clark suddenly remembered something.

"That's right, that report was written with Eddie's help," Louise said. "But because of that, Luther's plan was exposed."

"Enraged, Luther launched a thorough investigation of the company's employees, eventually finding Eddie as the one who leaked the information and firing him."

"I'm sorry to him."

A moment of silence fell over the car.

The silence was eventually broken by Louise herself: "So when I learned that the out-of-control device was actually Eddie's doing, I actually thought it made perfect sense."

"That laser device at the dinner party earlier was probably Eddie's doing as well."

"—I can totally understand why he wanted to kill me—after all, I was the one who caused him to lose his respectable job."

"Louise—" Clark instinctively wanted to say something.

But he ultimately didn't say it.

Because he saw in the rearview mirror that although Louise's tone was a little sad, her expression was still very firm and her eyes were very calm.

"So I have to take responsibility for this, and for his attempted murder—even if he wanted to kill me," Louise said earnestly. "Eddie was a good guy, at least before he got fired."

"I have to stop him before he does something truly irreversible."

Seeing Louise like this, Clark suddenly felt a strange sense of relief.

Yes, that's exactly how Louise is. As a top reporter for the Daily Planet, she's always clear-headed, confident, and determined. She knows what she's doing and what kind of path she's on.

She doesn't need anyone's comfort; she can pull herself out of a temporary low mood on her own.

—This is the Louise Lane he knew!

Meanwhile, Langdon, also known as Jaeger, secretly breathed a sigh of relief, unbeknownst to everyone else.

He was actually a little worried about Louise's mood, and after all, she was driving. It wouldn't be good if she got distracted and caused a car accident.

Fortunately, Louise recovered quickly and there shouldn't be any problems.

So Jaeger then turned his attention back to what Louise had just said, namely the Eddie Reiner she had mentioned.

"As Louise just said, Eddie Reiner is an optics PhD working at LexCorp, specializing in lasers, and he's very capable," the toxic mist thought. "However, Langdon, there seems to be more to the story about him acting as Louise's informant."

"Hidden story?" Jaeger frowned.

"That's right, I just found Eddie Reiner's Pingo account. Using my backend access, I discovered that Mr. Reiner has many tweets that he has set to be private and only visible to himself."

"And the content of the tweets—" Poison Mist's tone suddenly became subtle, "seems to all express an obsession with Louise Lane."

Jaeger: "...

So it turns out this guy had a crush on Louise, which is why he became her informant at Lexcorp.

I thought there was some earth-shattering conspiracy going on.

However, this guy probably didn't expect that Luther would thoroughly investigate the group because of this, and even single him out and fire him.

Eddie Reiner, who lost his job and whose status plummeted, probably developed a deep hatred for Louise because of this, and began to want to kill her.

This black-and-white, binary way of thinking is actually quite typical of villains.

However, as Louise said, Eddie Reiner hasn't really done anything irreversible yet.

The urge to kill Louise was likely a result of a combination of factors, including his inability to accept the sudden loss of his job, the fact that his unrequited love had become the root of his career problems, and the $2 million bounty on his head.

This is what caused Eddie Reiner to temporarily go astray.

In other words, if a way can be found to bring him out of this extreme emotional state, Eddie Reiner might still be saved.

Metropolis already has plenty of villains; a city is never short of villains.

But a city may lack an excellent PhD in optics, an expert in the field of lasers.

So, people can, or at least should, try to see if they can stop Eddie Reiner's madness and pull this optics PhD back from the wrong path.

Moreover————

If the other party's current situation is partly due to unemployment, Parrels Industries might as well take advantage of the situation and bail them out.

After all, he has a PhD in optics from Lextar Industries, making him a highly educated individual with experience working for a major company.

He's probably unemployed now because leaving the company has a bad reputation—leaking company secrets.

Even if it involves nuclear weapons that could threaten the lives of all humanity.

However, Jaeger wasn't too worried about that.

First, unlike Lex Industries, Parrel Industries is a legitimate industry and would certainly not engage in the private development of nuclear weapons.

Secondly, Jaeger already knew that Eddie Reiner might be at risk in this regard, so he could take preventative measures in advance.

They could have released some of the poisonous fog to monitor the situation at all times, lest Eddie Reiner inexplicably develop a crush on someone and then start leaking information.

Although after this incident, he probably wouldn't want to be unemployed again.

In short, with everyone in the car having their own thoughts, the car eventually slowly drove to Eddie Reiner's current location, a laboratory in the suburbs of a metropolis.