Everyone burst into laughter. Brainiac chose to defend himself, saying, "Actually, there was a small path down by the cliff that he didn't see. And I warned him not to use Divine Speed to recklessly crash around here. He never listened to me."
"So you took personal revenge?"
"I told you I pointed out the correct destination…"
Soon the dishes were served. The food here was authentic Gotham local cuisine. Because the East District's route was somewhat overly complex, average tourists couldn't find this place. It retained a strong local flavor. Spicy pepper and mixed fish pie, Wicbrick braised beef shank, Living Hell seafood fried rice, Gotham-style Fujian shrimp noodles…
In short, whether it was White man food, Black man food, or Chinese food, it was all integrated together, and then uniquely improved upon, becoming the flavorful special Gotham cuisine.
Barry and Jason were quite exhausted. The two buried their heads in their meal until they were full. They ordered dessert and coffee, and then began to discuss their investigation results in detail.
"Paul Austin's father used to be in finance."
Everyone was somewhat surprised. Greed leaned forward and then asked, "Wasn't he said to be a drunken gambler?"
"He was. Since Brainiac abolished the financial industry, most financial practitioners have changed careers. But it depends on what kind of financial practitioner. Skilled talents, such as accountants, financial product managers, draughtsmen, software engineers, etc., were basically transferred to factory positions similar to their original jobs.
"There are even some professions with more ambiguous definitions, such as venture capitalists, trust managers, stock traders, etc. As long as they are not those apprentices who know nothing, generally they can continue doing what they used to do, working in factories in the real industry. After all, most are graduates from prestigious schools, and doing some financial work is not an issue.
"But indeed, there is a group of people who don't know anything, or who use leverage and short excessively, or deceive investors. You know, those old tricks in the Diamond Street. And they were very unsatisfied with Brainiac, with a strong resistance mentality. Brainiac didn't dare assign them to important production roles and could only let them do physical work."
"Was Paul's father one of them?"
"Actually, he was relatively okay. Although he was very dissatisfied inside, he concealed it well. His work was fairly neat, so at first, he was assigned an accountant job in a factory."
"And then something went wrong, right?"
"Exactly. He wanted to manipulate the production line to reduce the product output rate and tamper with the accounts."
"Isn't that courting death?" Pamela asked.
"At that time, people didn't understand Brainiac well enough. Or they didn't understand what a true super artificial intelligence was like. They thought there was room to fiddle around."
Arrogant nodded. He could actually understand. Because this year is the Millennium, although America's society is indeed more developed, it is still not yet the Internet era. Even though computers were no longer rare items, they still hadn't reached the level of the true information age of the 2020s.
Most of Diamond Street was still using paper-based offices. The better ones might be able to use computers to look at the stock market; less equipped companies still had to watch the market in the stock hall. For people of this era, how intelligent an artificial intelligence like Brainiac could really be was unimaginable.
They thought Brainiac could only look at surveillance cameras or do some surface-level data comparisons, not knowing that all their operations on all devices were under Brainiac's control.
"And then he was fired?"
"Not only that, he served about three months in prison."
"But you said he gambled. Didn't Brainiac shut down all the casinos?"
"Yes. But he was already a gambler when he was on Diamond Street. He should thank Brainiac for saving him because just before Brainiac arrived, his last investment failed completely. It was estimated that he would be burdened with about 1.5 million US Dollars in debt."
Pamela gasped. In the era before Brainiac, that amount of money was an enormous sum. That's 1.5 million US Dollars in 1999.
"Even so, he still didn't stop gambling, and kept leveraging even more. If not for Brainiac, there would surely be another Aerial Acrobat on Diamond Street."
"No way," Barry said, "People like him wouldn't kill themselves. They would rather empty the people around them, even sell them out, just to fulfill their own desires."
"Alright, I roughly understand what kind of person he was," Greed said, "How does this relate to Paul's abduction case?"
"He's the one who sold Paul out."
"Sold out? Under Brainiac's surveillance, how can there still be human trafficking cases?" Arrogant was somewhat perplexed.
"It's not that blatant kind of transaction. You can understand it as they have an underground secret resistance organization, with devices that can block Brainiac's surveillance. The organizational form is somewhat similar to heresy."
"Oh, I get it, that sacrificial thing, right?"
"Exactly. Paul's father has a very severe alcohol addiction. This was a problem even before Brainiac came."
"I suppose he picked it up during the period of his investment failure?"
"Yes. And the situation was serious, alcohol had fundamentally changed his brain. After the prohibition, his alcohol dependency was constantly triggering."
"I see. The underground organization promised to provide him with alcohol, right?"
"We suspect they already did. After all, they have means to bypass surveillance, and brewing alcohol is not a difficult task."
"This reminds me of the Prohibition era," Pamela said, "A global prohibition was indeed an impressive feat. I dare say, if not for Brainiac, no human could have achieved it."
"Indeed. While nicotine addiction is also harmful, alcohol dependency is classified as a mental disorder for a reason," Greed said. "Alcohol fundamentally changes your brain, prompting people to act irrationally. The damage is permanent and incurable."
"So he sold his own son for alcohol?"
Jason nodded and said, "Yes. When we went to investigate his house, we couldn't see anything amiss. He looked quite sober. Perhaps that's why Paul's situation didn't get the attention it deserved."
"I previously thought that if Paul's father was abusive, why didn't Brainiac revoke his custody? Now it seems, he was likely abusing him in places Brainiac couldn't see."
"That's right, we did gather a lot this trip," Barry said. "We are now initially convinced that there is a passage shielded from Brainiac's view leading to a gathering place without surveillance equipment. That's their base."
"Where could it be?"
Barry shook his head and said, "His house is on the first floor. The passage might be underground. We currently don't have a good excuse to search his house. After all, Paul is the victim, and we don't want to cause panic."
"Did you bring in cameras?"
"Yes, but we didn't go into other rooms, just placed a few in the living room. I don't think the entrance is there."
"Perhaps we can start with the neighbors," Greed said. Then he looked at Pamela and asked, "Isn't Brainiac planning to clear the underground ice layer?"
"Yes, but it's a long-term plan. It shouldn't have reached the East District yet."
"No problem, having the plan is enough. Brainiac, I think you can announce this plan in the morning news or the morning paper, mention it a few more times recently so that people get familiar with it. Have Victor draw up a route map, highlighting a few key areas, one right near Paul's house. Then you can justifiably check the neighbors' houses. Perhaps you can see if Paul's house has an underground passage."
"That's a good plan," Barry said. "As long as we have a legitimate reason, we can search confidently, and they will eventually slip up."
Then Pamela told them about the Mother Box. Barry was taken aback and then said, "Did Brainiac come to Earth looking for the Mother Box?"
"Yes, but now he says that just having this thing won't help him break through the limitations of life forms. They need to study it more."
"Does that mean there won't be a Cyborg in this universe?"
"Not necessarily; Cyborgs in other universes probably didn't form by coincidence. If only a specific individual can harness the Origin Power in the Mother Box, then there might still be one."
"Oh my God. I can't imagine a person merging with a box," Jason shook his head and said, "I don't mean to single out Iron Man, but anyone who has a big bomb embedded in their chest, I'd think they're crazy."
"I feel the same way," Greed said. "But it's cool enough, and you have to understand that some people in this world would risk their lives for style."
"Maybe we can think of a better way to utilize it," Arrogant said. "Even if it is embedded in the chest, there are safer and more reliable methods, unlike other universes with too many unexpected factors mixed in."
Then they talked about today's dinner party. Barry shrank his neck and said, "I just told Harley and the others in the group that maybe we should go a little later today."
"Why?" Arrogant asked.
"Because arriving early might turn you into ingredients," Jason quickly answered. "But I think the person spreading this rumor is probably disgruntled with how picky you were at their feast."
"It's not really a rumor," Barry said. "Harley told me she once saw eight pairs of moose hooves in your fridge. Can you really eat all of that?"
Arrogant didn't know how to respond because it wasn't really a rumor. He did indeed have eight moose in his fridge at one time, but it wasn't just for him alone.
"Brainiac called you the Ouroboros for a good reason," Pamela said. "Being able to dine with yourself and eat eight moose, you're a first."
"I didn't eat them all by myself..." Arrogant's explanation seemed a bit weak.
"Based on weight, even if we all add up, we couldn't weigh as much as eight moose," Jason was still calculating. "So whether we go early or late, we can't avoid becoming ingredients. We might as well not worry about it."
"If Brainiac had a body, I would love to invite him to check out my fridge," Greed said. "I wonder what wire-braised circuit board tastes like."
"We've listed out the menu!" Arrogant emphasized, "It contains no meats that shouldn't be consumed. We have fish, lamb, chicken, and duck meat. See? All regular meats."
"Alright, Professor, can I ask a question?"
"What?"
"How many rib bones does a fish have?"
"Maybe 8... Where do fish get rib bones?"
"How many legs does a sheep have?"
"Four, all on the ground!"
"Hahahahahahaha!"