Chapter 6257: Chicago Stories (26)

Otherwise, it is said that the best and most efficient way to deal with a person is through social engineering, which is the same for a corpse. Trying to handle a corpse that you don’t want to be discovered through physical means is quite troublesome, but with sociology, especially American sociology, it becomes much easier.

Everything has two sides. The community culture in America is strong, and police and firefighters basically only take care of their own communities. This means that when they are tracing non-community residents, they cannot do their job properly, or else it would be considered negligence.

This also restricts the activity areas of the wealthy. If you don’t stay in your own territory, and insist on going to the immigrant neighborhoods, if you were to die, it would be very difficult to find the killer. At most, they would find a few scapegoats from the gangs and lock them up to close the case.

This creates a reverse enclosure movement, where poorer areas start surrounding rich areas. For their safety and to concentrate police forces, the wealthy will shrink their activity range more and more, eventually leading to chaos everywhere except a few core communities.

Shiller made use of this point. Even if he committed a crime in a wealthy area, as long as he could remove the body, it would disappear without a trace under the influence of social engineering. Whether it’s the rich consuming the poor or vice versa, nothing remains.

However, Bruce was a bit confused and asked, “If at this moment you actually don’t want the body discovered, then what’s the deal with the banquet?”

Bruce briefly explained to Arrogance the events at the banquet. Arrogance hadn’t replied for a long time, and when Bruce sent another message, he found that Arrogance had already hung up. This made Bruce even more puzzled. Why does everything surrounding Brian seem somewhat eerie? What on earth is going on?

Fortunately, he solved a very big issue regarding what actually happened to him at the chapel and the methods Shiller used for committing and covering up the crime. But these are just half of the methods.

Bruce felt a bit frustrated; he should have directly asked Arrogance how he blended into high society. Although he knows it’s related to religion, Shiller can’t possibly become a Father, can he?

Bruce was still not willing to give up. The next day he went to the chapel again, but the door was already locked, completely unable to be opened, even making Bruce question whether the door was open last night and whether the eyes he saw were an illusion.

Bruce hadn’t changed out of that outfit, even though Stark offered to give him a thicker down jacket. However, Bruce realized that last night, when he had hallucinations, he recalled some memories given to him by the morbidity beneath the High Tower. He decided to continue wearing the clothes to reflect further.

This trick actually worked pretty well. Because when he emerged from the school building to greet the sunlight after morning classes, Bruce felt dazed once more. He saw a cross, and there was a phantom cross constantly flickering before him.

In a flash, Bruce saw that the design of the cross statue of Jesus was particularly unique. It was a sunken cross shape with a statue of Jesus embedded within, significantly different from the common depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Bruce came to his senses, finding several students gathered around him. Waving his hand, Bruce said, “I just have a bit… of low blood sugar.”

The students quickly handed him candies and chocolate. After eating some, he felt a bit better. He was actually still somewhat dizzy. He knew that this drug might cause some photosensitive hallucination symptoms, triggered by sudden changes in lighting. If he hadn’t known in advance, he might have treated it as photosensitive epilepsy.

While queuing outside the dining car, Bruce casually asked a local Chicago student about churches. He said, “My parents are believers, and we often go to the church on the town for services. Ever since coming to Chicago, we’ve been quite busy and haven’t visited a church yet. Are there any good churches here? I place importance on the environment, and the statue of Jesus must be carved well…”

“Then you definitely have to go to Saint’s Name Cathedral. The ‘Resurrection Suffering Image’ there is the most famous statue of Jesus on the East Coast, and it’s suspended in mid-air…”

Bruce further inquired from this student about churches. Ultimately, he concluded that Saint’s Name Cathedral was very suspicious because the suspended statue of Jesus was one embedded in a cross shape, much like what he saw.

In the afternoon, Bruce took a leave of absence, citing cooperation with the police investigation. Naturally, the school didn’t object and readily granted the leave. Bruce called Stark and Jennifer, and they drove together to Saint’s Name Cathedral.

This church was far larger than Rockefeller Chapel, exemplifying the stereotypical Catholic church, with huge stained-glass windows and a golden dome. The most striking feature was the statue of Jesus hanging in mid-air.

This statue was positioned directly above the pulpit, beneath the arched dome, exceptionally large and visible immediately upon entry, exquisitely carved. Most importantly, the sunken design was very unique; the cross did not resemble an instrument of torture but rather a picture frame, perfectly highlighting Jesus’ crucifixion pose.

Bruce stood quietly under the cross. For some reason, he felt certain this must be Shiller’s chosen church. There was no concrete reason, just because this uniquely designed cross seemed like something Shiller would opt for. And the reason why Shiller chose this cross likely wasn’t for some profound religious factor; rather, it might be because this cross resembled a coffin, with Jesus not being hung above but lying within.

Today was a weekday, it was still afternoon, and the wind was blowing strongly outside, so there weren’t many people in the church. Bruce didn’t feel like he would coincidentally run into Shiller here, so after a while, he turned to leave, preparing to visit other places. But just as he reached the door, he saw a figure hurriedly rushing into the church. Bruce looked closely—it was Brian!

Bruce reacted swiftly, directly climbing up the pillar next to the door and crouching on the protruding top. There was just enough room for a person, and due to the height, one couldn’t see what was above when looking up.

He had just gone up when Brian rushed in. Just as Bruce was wondering what he was doing, he heard Brian shout the name with full energy: “Shiller!! Shiller!! Come out!!!”

Bruce was stunned. Shiller was called Shiller in his past life too?

He recalled the gossip he’d heard before. If Anatoli knew about Shiller’s origins, then he might indeed name Shiller as Shiller, after all, Shiller was originally Shiller, just sent to another world by God. The name should belong to him.

“Andel! Where are you?! Why aren’t you responding?!” Brian seemed very distressed, almost with a tone of crying.

Bruce thought again, Andel seems to be Shiller’s middle name. People usually don’t call someone by their middle name, but it doesn’t seem like a surname either. So Shiller should be called Andel Shiller?

Bruce had been a bit confused before because Shiller was originally a surname. Although due to immigration, many people liked to use their grandparents’ surnames as their first name to commemorate their hometown, Shiller was not such a case. Now it seemed that Anatoli didn’t want to take Shiller’s name and turned it into a surname, then came up with a new last name.

Bruce knew many people call Shiller “Professor Shearer.” That’s because they regarded Shiller as a surname, which is a famous German surname originating from a small town called Shi Le, also meaning cobbler. Who could have thought it was actually his first name?

While Bruce was thinking, Brian had already started to go mad. Fortunately, he was the type who liked to shout when mad, and Bruce heard him shout: “You told me I was blessed! God is on my side!!! Since he blessed me, I haven’t encountered any trouble or danger, everything went smoothly. But now how come… Has he abandoned me? It can’t be!!!”

The words sounded a bit odd, but Bruce immediately understood what kind of trick Shiller was pulling. It’s just the same old cult play, giving you a blessing ceremony, then saying all the good things you encounter afterward are from God, and the bad ones are probably tests.

But Bruce clearly underestimated Shiller. At this moment, a voice came from the side door of the pulpit of the church: “Think carefully, Brian, when did this all start?”

Brian immediately looked in that direction, and Bruce also glanced in that direction. But as luck would have it, from his angle, another pillar blocked the view directly. However, Bruce could still tell that the voice was identical to the Shiller he knew.

That was a bit strange. If the bodies were different, how could the voice be the same? But then Bruce thought, people often say the voice is the outlet of the soul, and if it’s the same soul, then the voice might be the same.

From a scientific perspective, it’s hard to change a person’s way of speaking. So as long as the vocal cords don’t differ too much, even if the body changes, the voice would sound familiar.

Brian scrambled over, practically crying as he explained: “I haven’t done anything, you know, Andel, I’ve been devotedly worshiping and praying, but somehow…”

Brian suddenly stopped. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and said: “It’s that Bruce, it’s Bruce Wayne!!! Ever since he appeared at the banquet, everything went awry, and he also claimed to be blessed by God… He has stolen God’s blessing from me, it must be!!”

After he finished speaking, Brian shouted: “I want to kill him, I must kill him! He’s a disgraceful thief, and without him, God would surely favor me again…”

Bruce couldn’t help but roll his eyes. How could this involve him at all? He said that just to show off, not thinking it would hit the mark. But he understood that this was one of Shiller’s tactics; when a person believes their luck is stolen by another, they would easily harbor murderous intent toward that person.

“Calm down, Brian,” Shiller’s voice came again, “The police are already watching you, if you commit murder now, it’s all over.”

“Then what should I do? You have to save me! I don’t want to go to court, and I don’t want to be sentenced to death! If any past matters are brought up, I definitely won’t survive! What should I do…”

“The blessing still exists,” Shiller’s voice resembled the flickering candle flame, “just not on you now. If you can find it, there might still be a chance.”

“But, but, didn’t you say…”

“Bruce Wayne is also a suspect, the police will definitely keep an eye on him. But if you change the target…”

Brian seemed to freeze. He suddenly said, “Yes, yes, change the target! I just need to grab someone else’s blessing! God would certainly favor me again! Do you… do you have a good candidate?”

“You can’t choose who you want; you can only choose what you can achieve; the answer is with yourself.”