Chapter 1410: Investigation and Changing the Performance
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Looking at the female guest on the show, Luke simply asked Alfred, “Which hospital is her daughter in?”
Alfred: “Queens Hospital Center.”
Luke nodded and headed to the hospital.
As a detective, he didn’t draw attention when he moved around New York. Flas.h.i.+ng his badge and asking questions were part of the standard procedure.
If it were a superhero instead, someone might look into their reason for asking questions, and pick out some clues.
Now that Luke was working cases daily, it was very common for him to gather intelligence as a New York detective.
Luke was like a drop in the ocean that was the detectives in New York doing the same thing.
That was also the reason he was reluctant to give up this detective job.
He could openly carry out investigations in New York, the center of the Marvel universe, without attracting anyone’s attention, and obtain a lot of internal intelligence via NYPD. Was there any better ident.i.ty than this?
Looking at the TV presenters and online comments, they had basically forgotten about NYPD.
Most people’s view on the police was: “Officer, come and clean up this mess.”
Once an incident was over and the police started cleaning up, n.o.body really cared how they did it.
NYPD was still mentioned every now and then, not because of their contributions in the attack, but because a hundred or so police officers were listed among the thousand dead.
As one program put it, “NYPD lost more than 100 police officers. We witnessed their sacrifice. What about the superheroes? They left after killing the monsters, and didn’t even stay for a few more minutes to help the victims. So many NYPD police officers were killed, while the rest were still maintaining order and protecting the people.”
There was similar talk on the news and on the Internet.
To put it simply, no one talked about the superheroes killing the test subjects or how many people they had protected. They only talked about what the superheroes didn’t do right while saving lives. In other words, these people were nitpicking.
Selina was very unhappy as she scanned these programs and online comments. “From what they’re saying, it’s like they don’t want superheroes to show up, and want to let several thousand more New Yorkers die?”
As he drove, Luke nodded. “That’s right. Who do you think is behind these comments? The movie villain, of course.”
Selina was stumped. “Are you kidding? Can they control the media?”
Luke chuckled. “Movie villains are mostly rich and powerful bigshots. Is it very hard for them to utilize media resources?”
Selina was unable to respond.
Politicians and capitalists were always the villains, especially in movies.
They were either the big boss or people who were forced or shaped into being villains.
Since they were on the subject, Luke helped clear up Selina’s thoughts. “Forget these people who jumped out. The TV presenters, victims, and online users are just tools guided by someone else. Seeing them brandish their blades at us now might hurt, but the truth is that as long as we can control the hilt, these blades can become our weapons.”
Selina frowned. “But they’re human, right?”
Luke sighed. “Most people don’t even know that they’re tools. Can you expect them to face the world with a clear head?”
Actually, he didn’t want to discuss this topic in-depth with Selina, since it would be useless.
Humans were social creatures.
To live in this world as a person, most people could only become useful to society; hence, they were tools.
It was very hard not to be used when you were part of this system.
Even rich kids who didn’t work a day in their lives were only like that because their parents gave them enough capital to live as useless people.
Most ordinary people who didn’t have rich parents were like fish in the river; they didn’t even know they were in a river.
Only a small number who could think for themselves would jump out of the water to observe their environment from a different perspective rather than go with the flow.
It was unrealistic to expect most people to be this smart, so there was no need to look down on them.
Looking at Selina, who seemed uninterested, Luke didn’t say anything else.
It was better to not have high expectations for the general public than to have high expectations, only to be disappointed.
In a sense, superheroes were just like celebrities.
When fans loved you, they would defend you when you did something bad.
When fans hated you, everything you did was wrong.
The difference was that superheroes didn’t rely on fans to make a living, so Batman had been aloof from the very beginning.
“If you like, you like. If you don’t, scram.”
Selina could be consoled so easily only because she had been with him for too long, which naturally affected the way she viewed things.
He would still have to check up on their other “teammates” separately.
They didn’t have any experience as superheroes. It would be terrible if they really treated these so-called fans as precious.
As he mulled over this, he drove to the hospital.
Luke and Selina questioned a few injured patients in the name of working cases.
These cases were all real, and Luke would certainly investigate them.
As they walked around, they pa.s.sed the ward where the female guest’s daughter was.
After sorting out statements with Selina, they sat outside the room with their phones for a moment, before they got up and left.
When they came out, Luke smiled. There had actually been three surveillance cameras in that one ward. Apart from the obvious one, the other two were hidden.
Would a hospital have multiple surveillance cameras like that? Obviously not.
Secondly, there had been a female and a male nurse outside the ward who had clearly switched professions for the time being.
Luke could smell the gun oil and gunpowder from ten meters away.
I’m not worried that you would do too much, but that you won’t do anything! He chuckled inwardly.
The next day, everything was peaceful.
A temporary female nurse at Queens Hospital Center didn’t know that after she returned home, she came face to face with Batman and confessed everything, including the agency which she belonged to.
There was a minor development after that which no one mentioned.
The female guest’s daughter woke up, and her head injury had completely disappeared. Even the attending doctor was amazed by this outcome.
However, that didn’t make the news.
A day later, that female guest appeared on a TV program again, and thanked the doctors at Queens Hospital Center for saving her daughter’s life.
Her stance was that she still hated Batman and superheroes.
Compared with her bitter tears before, however, her eyes were dry this time and she seemed very half-hearted.
“After all, she isn’t a professional actor.. Hehe!” Luke chuckled as he watched the show.