Phantom Kid in the World of American Comics

Chapter 200: The Mystery of the Statue is Solved

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“These statues can neither move their positions nor turn their directions, and even none of the parts on the statues contain a trigger…”

Mathison examined the four statues carefully. 

Eventually, he came to the same conclusion as Barbara. 

“How about it, Kid, have you thought of a way to crack this mechanism?” 

Barbara and Pamela asked expectantly. 

Mathison pondered, if these four statues are really some kind of mechanism, then maybe some conditions need to be met to activate the device that triggers the mechanism. 

He suddenly thought of the riddle left by the Riddler. 

“You’re trying to recover me. When I was lost, you struggled to get me. What am I?” 

“I can be a member of a group, but I can never fit into it. What am I?” 

“The more you cut me, the faster I grow. What am I?” 

“A riddle without a riddle.” 

There are exactly four riddles, which is exactly the same number of statues in front of them. Is it a coincidence? 

Mathison thinks this possibility is very small, assuming that this mechanism is arranged by the Riddler – after all, all the clues to find the nuclear bomb are connected by the riddles left by the Riddler. 

The answers to the first two riddles point to the Clock Tower, which not only had allowed Mathison to rescue Gordon but also allowed him to successfully deduce the location of the third riddle. 

Hush was then captured on Midtown Island, and the Riddler’s final puzzle was learned at the top of Wayne Tower. 

By now, the answer to the so-called “no riddles” has naturally come out. 

“Nothing” is zero, the starting point of all natural numbers, which means the source of all things. 

Converted to the concept of the hiding place of the nuclear bomb, of course, it means that the nuclear bomb was hidden by the Riddler in its origin, near the Wayne Building. 

Thinking about it this way, the statue mechanism can only be the work of the Riddler. 

The mechanism set up by the Riddler is bound to be related to the riddle. If the riddle cannot be found here, it must be related to the riddle that has appeared before. 

Thinking of this, Mathison took out four cards with riddles printed on them. 

The first three of these were obtained from Hush, and the last was found in Wayne Tower, where it was recorded by the Riddler. 

The four cards are identical in size and material. 

Maybe there is some special meaning to that. 

Mathison looked at the card for a while and the statue for a while. 

Barbara and Pamela watched Mathison’s movements, wondering what Kid was trying to do. 

“Um?” 

It didn’t take long for Mathison to notice that each of the statues had one thing in common. 

That is, the parts of the lips are slightly opened, and the opening of the tip is very small. It’s only a small chap, as if a mouth was slightly opened, whispering something.

What’s more amazing is that the gap between the lips of each statue is the same width, which is definitely not something that ordinary craftsmen can carve. 

At first, both Barbara and Mathison thought it was just a show of the craftsmanship of the sculptor. 

But at this time, in Mathison’s extremely subtle observations, these gaps seem to be a little too deep… 

“Could it be…” 

Mathison took out a card and tentatively inserted it into the lips of the lady statue. 

Perfectly tucked in! 

The end of the card just overlaps the upper and lower lips and fits snugly. 

Then, Mathison took out a card again and inserted it into the lips of the statue of the young nun opposite, and it was just right. 

The statue of the nobleman on horseback and the statue of the kneeling poor peasant had of course the same thing. 

Since the statues and cards themselves do not indicate any order, there is no need to consider which statue goes to which card. 

When the four cards returned to their positions, a certain mechanism was immediately triggered, and the slight sound of gears turning came from under his feet. 

“Barbara, is this the way to trigger the mechanism?” 

At this time, the two women were already staring with wide eyes. Pamela asked Barbara next to her in disbelief, “I never thought it would be like this…” 

Barbara didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

Soon, a small stele rose from the diagonal center of the four statues. 

The three excitedly surrounded the latter. 

However, when they saw the inscription on the stone tablet, they couldn’t laugh anymore. 

“The ladies all ignore the men’s displays of love, and the poor peasants pay the nobles their harvest by luck. – Only in this way can you see the final thing.” 

“Damn! It’s Edward Nigma again!” 

Barbara couldn’t help but curse.

She had thought that inserting the card would trigger this inexplicable mechanism of the statue.

Little did she know that it only triggered the mechanism that would trigger the statue mechanism.

“What does this mean?” 

Pamela asked. 

However, the other two were not in the mood to pay attention to her and almost simultaneously entered a state of deep thinking. 

“Ladies, men, and poor peasants, they should be referring to these four statues. What does it mean to ignore the men’s displays of love? What does it mean to pay the nobles their harvest by luck?” 

“Displays of love… displays of love, when one shows love to another, one has to look at each other, which means the orientation of each statue has to change.” 

“It must be the same for paying the harvest.” 

“But the orientation of the statues could not be changed before, can they be turned now?” 

Thinking of this, Mathison and Barbara tacitly walked to the statues of the two “Ladies” and tried to turn them. 

Unexpectedly, the orientation of the statue could now be easily changed without much effort. 

The two worked together to turn the nuns and noble ladies who were originally facing the poor peasants to look at each other, so that no matter which “man” showed love to them, they would be “ignored”. 

The poor peasant is obviously directed towards the nobleman, while the nobleman is directed towards the nun.

Since the image of the noblewoman is that of a young married woman, she cannot be the object of the nobleman’s advances. 

Pamela felt a sour taste in her mouth as she looked at Mathison and Barbara dividing up the work without any communication, as if their hearts were connected.

It turns out that Mathison and Barbara were right. 

After each statue was moved, another sound of gears turning came. 

This time the sound was much louder than before, and even the ground shook slightly. 

“No, this will alarm the guards!” 

Barbara yelled. 

Even Mathison’s eyes glazed over, he knew best the defensive force Talia had set up in the diamond area, and with just the three of them, it would be very difficult to get back in one piece.

Moreover, they even guarded against Poison Ivy’s ability, and randomly arranged various super-strength barriers or plant scavengers underground. It is not safe to count on Pamela as before. 

“We can’t stay here for long. Don’t worry about hiding the nuke down here, along with the whole truck, and setting up so many mechanisms, it means they don’t have the ability to move it remotely in a short time.”

“So we don’t need to worry about losing the whereabouts of the nukes if we leave now.”

At this time, Talia, who had just returned from the Knightsdome Arena and planned to gather the shadow warriors to spy on Black Mask, immediately noticed that something was wrong. 

She immediately sounded the alarm. 

First, the defense force of the Wayne Building rushed out. The statue was located very close to the building. In less than five minutes, hundreds of fully armed soldiers surrounded the latter. 

The helicopter that was always parked at the top of the Wayne Building also flew over. 

Not only that, but men from all over the Diamond District had been notified and were heading this way at full speed.

It was a fierce deployment of forces.

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