“What the hell is going on here?”
Yuri, having turned intangible, slipped into the room.
He watched as the Pied Piper was handcuffed and roughly escorted away by the FBI.
Throughout the entire process, the Pied Piper didn’t put up any resistance.
He was as docile as a pet dog, his face filled with deep remorse.
An hour ago, the Pied Piper’s parents, the Rathaways, were found dead in their home, killed by gunshots.
The Keystone City Police Department immediately opened an investigation.
Ultimately, surveillance footage showed that only one person had entered the Rathaway mansion the entire day.
That’s right—the Pied Piper.
What’s more, he had been carrying a gun with a caliber that perfectly matched the bullets that killed the Rathaways.
Furthermore, the time of his departure coincided exactly with the time of the Rathaways’ death, making him the only plausible suspect.
Realizing that the killer was highly likely to be the Pied Piper, the Keystone City Police Department dared not delay.
They urgently contacted FBI Special Agent-in-Charge James Jesse.
And so, the FBI breached the door, and the Pied Piper surrendered without a fight.
Barring any surprises, the case was essentially closed.
The Pied Piper had already confessed to the crime.
Besides, he spent his days either holed up in his apartment or out fighting crime, meaning not even his neighbors knew his exact whereabouts.
But a surprise did occur, because Yuri had been keeping a close eye on the Pied Piper for the past few days.
He could absolutely guarantee that at the time of the crime, the Pied Piper had been inside his apartment and hadn’t stepped foot outside, let alone gone to the Rathaway mansion.
This case was clearly the Network’s doing.
They had killed the Pied Piper’s parents and framed him for it.
“But why isn’t he defending himself?”
This was the one thing Yuri couldn’t understand.
The Pied Piper was clearly innocent, so why did he admit guilt?
The remorse on his face didn’t look fake at all.
It was as if the Pied Piper truly believed he had killed his parents.
Bizarre.
Incredibly bizarre.
Lost in thought, Yuri floated over to the Pied Piper and reached his hand toward the man’s head.
Ghostfreak’s hand passed straight through the scalp, penetrating deep into the brain.
“Just as I thought.
Something has affected the Pied Piper’s memories and consciousness.”
Utilizing the Ectonurite’s telepathic talent, Yuri quickly discovered traces of hypnosis in the Pied Piper’s brain.
But the question was, who had hypnotized him?
This hypnotic technique made the Pied Piper’s subjective consciousness believe he had killed his parents, even though he had no detailed memories of the act.
Consequently, Yuri couldn’t break the hypnosis without the Pied Piper’s cooperation.
Could it be…
there’s something wrong with the mirror?”
Almost instantly, Yuri realized who the real culprit was.
“Mirror Master!”
Aside from him, no one could hide inside mirrors, and no one could use mirrors to hypnotize others.
With this realization, Yuri immediately floated back into the room where the Pied Piper had been captured.
He pressed his hand against the mirror, pushing his sensory abilities to the absolute limit.
Sure enough, Yuri sensed a faint consciousness hidden within the reflective surface.
This faint consciousness quickly vanished, but it hadn’t left; instead, it had transferred to the windowpane.
Mirror Master could project his consciousness onto any reflective surface, making him one of the hardest people in the world to locate.
His physical body could also travel from one reflective surface to another, though he had to navigate the correct routes within the Mirror World.
He couldn’t just go anywhere he pleased instantly.
Of course, Mirror Master hadn’t shifted his consciousness to the window because he noticed Ghostfreak’s presence, but rather to ensure that the Pied Piper was indeed taken away by the FBI without any resistance.
Yuri also stood behind the window, watching the despondent Pied Piper being escorted into the transport van.
Inside the pale Mirror World, McCulloch admired his masterpiece through the glass.
As the transport van drove away, it was time for him to return and report back to Blacksmith.
“I know you’re here, Mirror Master.
I have something the Network needs.”
Just then, a grim, distorted voice reached McCulloch’s ears.
The mere sound of it sent shivers down his spine.
He turned his gaze toward the source of the sound, but there was nothing there.
“Trying to play mind games with me?”
McCulloch sneered, constantly shifting between the reflective surfaces in the room—mirrors, windowpanes, water surfaces…
He traversed every single reflective surface, yet he still couldn’t detect anyone’s presence in the room.
“Don’t bother trying to find me.
I’m standing right in front of you; you just can’t see me.”
Yuri spoke as he floated in front of the balcony’s floor-to-ceiling window—the largest reflective surface in the room.
A figure gradually materialized on the floor-to-ceiling window, lifelike and crystal clear, as if on a video call—except the screen was a windowpane.
McCulloch was around the same age as the Pied Piper, wearing a tight orange bodysuit with a dark green cowl that covered most of his head, leaving only his mouth and chin exposed—no telling who he had copied his style from.
His bracers and belt were the same dark green, and in his hand, he held a Mirror Gun—the very tool that allowed him to travel freely through the Mirror World.
Yuri tentatively tried to phase into the floor-to-ceiling window, wanting to see if Ghostfreak’s intangibility could grant him entry into McCulloch’s Mirror World.
The result was a failure.
Yuri passed straight through the window and ended up outside the building.
“Who are you, and what do you want?”
McCulloch asked, maintaining a calm facade while his mind raced with suspicion.
Was the other party an invisible metahuman? Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
Or an ordinary human wearing a stealth suit?
How did he know about the Network?
“My name is Zs’Skayr.
I need to strike a deal with the Network.”
Yuri said in a low voice.
Ghostfreak’s voice was outrageously grating and terrifying; if he ever dubbed horror movies, he would surely make a fortune…
McCulloch sorely wanted to ask if there was something wrong with the guy’s throat.
Speaking like that would surely make any normal person lose their voice sooner or later.
“As long as you don’t harbor ill intent toward the Network, we welcome anyone who wants to do business.
But I’m not the one in charge of that.
You’ve got the wrong guy,” McCulloch replied expressionlessly.
“Is that so?
What if I have this?”
Yuri pulled out the documents he was carrying and made them tangible so McCulloch could see them.
(In case it wasn’t mentioned earlier, Ghostfreak can indeed make items and people he touches intangible.)
The moment McCulloch saw the word “Network” on the files, his pupils contracted.
He knew how much his boss, Blacksmith, valued these files.
Axel had nearly been killed by Blacksmith when he lost them.
“What do you want?”
McCulloch asked again, his tone far more serious this time.
“You don’t represent the Network.
You’re in no position to negotiate with me,” Yuri said bluntly.
“Tell Blacksmith that if she doesn’t want her plans exposed, she is to come alone to a location of my choosing at noon tomorrow.
Otherwise…”
Yuri sneered.
“I will drop these documents right into the D.E.O.’s operations office.
Of course, you can gamble on whether I can pull it off—provided you can afford the stakes.”
At the mention of the D.E.O., McCulloch instantly grew wary.
The only reason the Network hadn’t been targeted by the D.E.O.
over all these years was because Blacksmith had never extended her reach outside Central City, nor had she done anything too reckless.
But if Blacksmith’s current schemes were exposed, there was no way the D.E.O.
would let the Network slide.
“Where is this location of yours?” McCulloch asked.
A sharp glint flashed in Yuri’s eyes.
“The Flash Museum.”