Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Shiller felt like someone was watching him as he drove away from the reservoir. He thought it might be Batman, but he couldn't see any signs of being followed in the rearview mirror of his car.

Shiller pretended not to notice anything and calmly drove into the downtown area. After circling the city center, he entered a coffee shop next to the building that used to be the site of the city government building.

Although the building had been stripped of its décor, its location was still prime. It wasn't long before a new renovation team arrived on the scene. Watching the busy renovation workers carrying items, it looked as though some company had bought the place to turn it into an office building.

Shiller was just waiting for his prey to take the bait, and looking out of the window was merely a way to pass the time. But soon, he noticed a familiar sign on the side of a truck being unloaded.

Two circles on the outside, four arrows pointing towards the center with a Latin word for "order" inscribed in the middle. Wasn't this the sign of Audine Medical Equipment Manufacturing Company?

Shiller put down his coffee cup and watched intently as the renovation workers bustled back and forth outside the window. He thought to himself that Audine Company had some strength. Now that the Lower city area was in such chaos, it was tough to find renovation workers, not to mention movers, truck drivers, and cleaners. But there were quite a few people here, obviously operating at full staff.

Audine taking over the former city government building couldn't be a coincidence. As Shiller was pondering, he saw a figure walk into the coffee shop and stand in front of the counter to order.

Shiller glanced casually and quickly diverted his attention back to the construction site across from him. He realized that the workers currently moving things didn't quite look like locals from Gotham City.

Nothing seemed unusual about their behavior—they were just moving things, and one can't really do anything fancy with that sort of work. However, Shiller felt puzzled because many of the Caucasians were very red.

Physically very red—typical rednecks, with exposed skin all red. Sometimes when they lifted an arm, there were varying shades of sunburn under the sleeves.

Gotham couldn't possibly have rednecks like that because the sunlight here is barely enough to affect vampires, let alone have a high UV intensity. Working outside all day would at most make someone sweat; sunburn was out of the question.

But judging from the skin condition of some workers outside, they seemed to have just arrived from a city with very strong UV radiation.

Shiller first thought of Metropolis, but quickly dismissed the possibility. Metropolis has a similar income level to Gotham and is a large enough city that there's no lack of work. Local movers in Metropolis could just work locally; there was no need to travel all the way to Gotham for a job.

So, the most likely place was Brude Haven. This coastal town is nowhere as developed as Gotham; the pay might be only half of Gotham's, but it's close enough to Gotham, and every household has relatives there. The majority of the workers in Gotham are from Brude Haven.

This Audine Company actually went to Brude Haven to recruit people, which was a somewhat inventive approach. However, this could also be related to them not being on the capture list. Those bosses who were being pursued frantically didn't have the capacity to look for outsiders.

In fact, compared to the fragile upper society, Shiller much preferred dealing with secret Behind-the-scenes Manipulators, like the Hydra.

One plan after another popped up in Shiller's mind, and he didn't notice a figure approaching him until the person sat down opposite him. Only then did he look up.

A black-haired man with a streak of red and white hair at his forehead was sitting across from him with a cup of coffee in hand.

What was his name again? Shiller recalled for a moment—Jason Brad? Who cares.

Shiller stood up and said with a smile, "I just finished my coffee; I wish you a pleasant afternoon, sir."

As he was about to leave after finishing his words, the man hurriedly spoke up to stop him. He said, "I'm Father Jason Brad from San Marino Church. Could I talk to you?"

At that moment, Shiller saw a Bentley round the opposite building and stop at the back door. Someone entered the elevator from the building's back door. He didn't care what Brad was saying to him and quickly walked out.

Brad could only follow helplessly behind him.

Shiller walked around the side of the building, but just then, a truck transporting furniture passed him from the side, blocking his view. By the time he got to the back door, the Bentley had already left, and the door was closed.

Normally nothing could stop Shiller; he could simply turn into Gray mist and seep through. But he had Brad following him. Shiller did not want to reveal his extraordinary abilities in front of this Demon.

So, he had to stop by the back door and, turning around, said to Brad, "Father, what is it?"

"Uh, I just..."

Brad hadn't finished speaking when Shiller saw two more people coming out from the side door. He quickly pressed himself against the wall, stood under the porch of the back door, and peered out to see the situation outside the side door.

The two people who came down were wearing uniforms from the Audine Company, looking a bit like scientists. They got into a bit of a scuffle with the movers, apparently because someone had damaged something during the move.

After eavesdropping for a while, Shiller confirmed two things: first, the medical equipment produced by Audine Company definitely had problems; second, they seemed confident that these issues would not be discovered.

Because these scientists directly told the decorators to take the damaged equipment to the scrap yard, without avoiding people, but also not willing to expressly state what was wrong with the equipment. They didn't even want the insurance compensation.

Shiller thought for a moment, then called Catwoman saying, "Watch a small blue panel van with the license ending in 033 for me. See where it ends up and what cargo it unloads. If possible, help me buy whatever it is, I'll pay you back later."

After hanging up, he immediately called Rose and said, "Those pharmaceutical researchers you found me before, are they still in the lab? Get them to try to apply for a job at Audine Company."

"What? No positions open? Don't rush, there will be soon."

Shiller put down his phone, just about to head out, when he was stopped by Brad. Shiller sighed and said, "I know you're about to share some important historical information with me, but history itself is not important. We need to focus on the present. I have some very important things to do right now, could you kindly let me go first?"

Brad was clearly taken aback. He tried to speak again, but Shiller interrupted him, saying, "If you can't provide me with any information that interests me within three seconds, we will part ways here."

Brad said helplessly, "I know the inside story of this so-called Audine Company. My house is right next to it, let's go in and talk in detail."

Shiller nodded in satisfaction.

Brad brought him to the end of Bourbon Street. With a snap of his fingers, a street appeared at the end. He didn't care about Shiller's reaction, just wanted to quickly bring him in to prevent him from changing his mind.

Shiller followed Brad down that street, walking into the pharmacy opposite. From its exterior, it looked unassuming, but the interior was an entirely different world.

Very typical Scottish decor, dark oak flooring paired with red carpets, two soft armchairs placed in front of the warm fireplace, a wooden coffee table with whiskey on top, and nearby a side table with two books.

Brad went ahead and sat down on one of the armchairs. Shiller looked around at the decor and then said, "This is too fitting for Arrogant. Or shall I call him out to talk to you?"

Brad looked puzzled, obviously not understanding what Shiller was saying. Shiller sighed, sat down, and said, "This decor feels like it's telling me you're someone who plans to start with ten hours of nonsense as a preamble, mix the truth among hundreds of thousands of words of irrelevant historical data split into 24 parts, then ask me to write 20 papers to express my thoughts."

Brad choked on the whiskey he had just swallowed, coughing violently. He managed to catch his breath and then said, "I think you have some misunderstanding about me. I'm a Protestant, not a Catholic Father living in the Victorian period."

"Meaning you've done such things before."

Brad looked a bit embarrassed, but Shiller waved his hand and said, "If you really want to do that, I can also find you someone who can chat even more than you can. But I believe you also don't want to waste time, right?"

Brad looked deeply at Shiller and said, "Certainly, our time is precious, let's not continue with the nonsense."

"You said you know the inside story of Audine Company, can you talk about it?" Shiller wasn't really ready to face Brad just yet because he had no idea what the Demon was afraid of. But since it was Brad who initiated the contact, it would be better to get some information, and if not, then so be it. Right now, he was more interested in Audine.

"The name of the company comes from the Latin word for 'order', and its headquarters are in London. These are all easily discovered facts. But little is known by the public about the predecessor of this company. It was actually founded at the end of the 16th century; originally it was a factory that produced agricultural machinery."

"In the early 17th century, the founder of the factory joined a church known as the Order Sect and renamed his family's business 'Audine'. As the times evolved, the company grew stronger and eventually became a leader in the medical equipment manufacturing industry."

"However, the family that once established the factory couldn't have done it alone. The Order Sect contributed a lot, and to this day, there is still an intricate connection between the two."

Shiller leaned back in the armchair, crossing one leg over the other, pondering what Brad had said. He, of course, knew that there was an inextricable link between Audine and the Order Sect. It seemed that Brad hadn't revealed any new information, but in reality, Shiller had understood his implication.

Brad was saying that there was no such thing as Audine; the company was entirely a puppet of the Order Sect. Whatever the Order Sect wanted them to do, they would do.

This was quite interesting. The Order Sect was clearly much more restrained than Hydra and did not act under its own name, seeming to have no desire to make a name for itself as a Terrorist Organization, preferring to stir up trouble covertly.

This might also be influenced by their place of origin. Germany, the birthplace of Hydra, was a defeated country in World War II, but England was one of the victors. A terrorist organization that emerged here could entirely have the capacity to whitewash itself and go public; it seems the Order Sect had done a good job.

Shiller had roughly figured out a plan in his mind. He finally looked at Brad a bit more seriously and said, "I think I've gotten a rough idea of the questions I wanted to know. Do you have anything you want to ask me?"

Brad hesitated slightly and then said, "Who exactly are you? What is that capsule you concocted?"