"After a busy night, we had three large boxes of sandwiches, stacks of pizza reaching over a meter high, a huge pot of hot soup, and many instant containers filled with fresh noodles and salads..."
"These things were all steaming hot and smelled really good, and they tasted good too. So, when we delivered these things to the disaster site, the mob members were very happy."
"There were very few times when we weren't called punks by them. My God, I couldn't believe it, a mob boss even praised us and said we were geniuses. They had braced themselves to eat fast food..."
"If that's the case, why did a conflict occur?" Shiller asked, puzzled.
Tire sighed and said, "It wasn't us who had the conflict with the mob, but the saved residents of the old street."
"When their houses were about to collapse, many people felt the shaking and ran out in advance, or jumped straight down from the upper floors. These people were all lightly injured, there were no issues with their mobility or speech."
"When the mob members rushed to the disaster area, they were still looking for their belongings in the ruins. At that time, the wind was high and the rain was heavy. Most of these people had run out from their sleep and didn't have much to protect from the rain, some of the scrapes were still bleeding."
"The mob members persuaded them to take shelter from the rain in the tents set up by Wayne Enterprises and to bandage their wounds along the way. But they insisted on rummaging through the ruins to salvage their property."
Tire said helplessly, "Originally, they should have moved over as soon as the second phase project was completed. But because they were busy packing those things, they missed the timing. Otherwise, the dangerous buildings would have been vacated."
"They were willing to clean up there themselves, and the mob members couldn't be bothered to manage them. But later, Wayne Enterprises' engineering vehicles were to come in and clean up the debris, and they wouldn't let them, saying the vehicles would crush their belongings..."
"For God's sake! Who would want their junk? But they just stay there and refuse to leave. Of course, the mob won't pamper them. The mob members shot and wounded a ringleader."
"Normally, in Gotham, if a lot of mob members pull out their guns, everyone should be running away looking for shelter."
"But I don't know what happened, those people were like they went crazy, they even dared to attack the mob. In fact, there weren't many mobsters living in the old street. Most of them were peripheral members of the mob, such as cooks, merchants, and madams, who never dared to mess with the mob."
"But last night, in the storm, they were like they went crazy, especially the leader who was shot by the mob. I know him, my mother likes to call him the 'Lung Ghost' because he always coughs a lot when he's fueling up..."
"The mob members had a hard time driving them away, and after dawn, they wanted to sit down and get something to eat. But that group of people came back, this time they wanted to steal the food the kids brought."
"The mob wanted to shoot them all, but the people from Wayne Enterprises wouldn't let them. After all, they were already residents of the second phase, and Wayne Enterprises wanted to ensure their safety, which was understandable."
"The mob members were holding guns protecting us, but that 'Lung Ghost', who was supposed to be half dead after being shot, somehow got past the mob members and rushed towards me..."
"At that time, I was distributing soup to people eating with a spoon, and he just rushed up. I was really frightened and swung the spoon at his head. But unexpectedly, he was like he didn't feel any pain, he reached out to grab me..."
"I... I've never experienced anything like this..." Tire revealed an expression of lingering fear, he said: "From my childhood till now, I've only done the jobs my mother arranged for me, I've never seen anyone coming at me with such a ferocious look, as if they were going to eat me..."
"I was a bit scared and didn't know how to dodge, it was Jason who pushed me away. But Jason's arm was extended, and the 'Lung Ghost' grabbed his arm..."
"The six-fingered girl next to him tried to pull Jason back, and Jason shook his arm hard. Even though he shook off the 'Lung Ghost's' hand, his nails had penetrated Jason's flesh, and when he shook off the hand, there were three deep cuts..."
Tire said very regretfully: "It's all my fault, I should have sent him to the hospital earlier! But Jason said it was a small wound, and it would be fine after bandaging. At that time, we were really busy and short-handed, so I thought he was right and didn't insist on sending him to the hospital..."
"But after the busy morning, Jason's face was so pale it was frightening. A female doctor from the Wayne Medical Team checked his wound and said there was a possibility of infection. She applied some medicine and re-bandaged it, and gave him two fever-reducing pills..."
"We thought everything was alright, but when we got back, Jason said he was a bit tired and went to sleep. But he didn't come out for a long time. We found the building's manager to open the door, and then we found out that he had fallen into a deep sleep and was running a high fever."
Cobblepot sighed and continued: "At that time, we found out that he had a fever, we fed him two more fever-reducing pills, initially his temperature did drop a bit, but later it didn't work."
"I gave Bruce Wayne a call, but he was also very busy. It turns out some residents rescued last night suddenly went mad and attacked him: he was investigating what happened with the doctors."
Shiller squinted his eyes to look at Jason's arm. The three wounds had stopped bleeding, but they were very swollen and his entire forearm had also swelled up.
Jason's face was very pale but his lips were very red, which looked like they were congested due to the high body temperature. Shiller used the back of his hand to feel the temperature on the side of his neck and found it terrifyingly high.
"You guys go out. I need to check his wounds." Shiller turned his head to the two and said. After Cobblepot and Tire left, Shiller grabbed Jason's wrist and asked Gray Mist, "Can you give him a physical examination? This doesn't look like an ordinary wound."
Gray Mist was silent for a moment, then said: "There is something strange. I'm restructuring his cells and cooling his body down, but I don't know why, the area around his wound has been undergoing changes."
"Mutation? What does that mean?"
"I can heal almost all wounds by changing the structure of human tissues. After all, the essence of a wound is the destruction of the human tissue. As long as you can repair it again, the wound will surely heal."
"My symbiotic factor can change into human cells, replenishing lost or necrotic cells. Theoretically, this slight injury should heal instantly, but while I was replenishing and repairing, it kept getting worse..."
"What's the reason?" Shiller asked.
The Gray mist conveyed a series of puzzled emotions and said, "...It's hard to tell. I can only feel that there's some mysterious factor attacking the wound. I'm trying to peel them off... Alright, I can't peel them off completely."
Shiller heard the Gray mist sigh and say, "He's not my host. I don't have strong control over his body. If we resort to some forced measures, he might lose his arm."
"Then let him lose an arm." Shiller said very firmly. "There is a potion for regrowing limbs. He'll be able to grow it back eventually."
The Gray mist seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said, "I have trapped this factor in his arm wound. Physical amputation will remove it. I've blocked his pain nerves, so he won't feel a thing."
Shiller paused for a moment, then asked, ".....Isn't there a more gentle treatment method?"
The Gray mist considered for a moment and then said, "You can try letting the one living in the umbrella eat this factor. It seems he'll eat anything."
"So, you're not eating it because you're picky?" Shiller asked as he turned to grab the umbrella. The Gray mist grumbled, "Not at all. I can only consume things that can be converted into symbiotic factors. If not, I can only regurgitate it as it is."
"So, is it because you cannot convert this mysterious factor?"
The Gray mist mulled it over and then said, "It's not accurate to call it a factor. It doesn't truly exist, so I cannot consume it. It's more like a...hm...an elusive curse. That's why I suggested you use that pitch-black guy to test. They're both curses, so it might work right?"
Shiller brought the umbrella closer to Jason's arm. Soon, a black mist wrapped around Jason's arm.
After the Spirit of Curse remained on Jason's arm for a while, it went back into Shiller's umbrella shaft.
When the Spirit of Curse left, Jason's arm did not change, but the next second, the Gray mist began to repair it. Instantly, the wound healed.
The Gray mist bragged a bit: "See, I told you it works. This thing was definitely a curse. Otherwise, he wouldn't have enjoyed it so much!"
Shiller gripped the umbrella handle and received the emotions of the Spirit of Curse. He found that the emotions of the Spirit of Curse seemed to have become clearer. It was indeed feeling satisfaction and exuberance.
"Turns out you like to eat curses?" Shiller asked with some surprise, "I thought you would prefer to eat things like souls..."
However, at this moment, the Spirit of Curse expressed a thought, roughly equivalent to "Souls don't taste good, this curse tastes great".
Shiller was surprised again because before this, the Spirit of Curse lacked the ability to answer his questions.
This Spirit of Curse, who was a twin to Constantine, had innate magical abilities, just like Constantine. But then it was killed by Constantine and became a lingering Curse Spirit, then Shiller's Umbrella Spirit.
But unlike the Gray mist, it did not exhibit the strong growth abilities. Shiller had tried to communicate with him over the time it had stayed in the umbrella, but all attempts ended in failure.
The Spirit of Curse could only convey very simple emotions, one at a time, unable to express yes or no. But this time, Shiller clearly felt his attitude towards two things, indicative of early logical cognition.
Now, Shiller felt like it wasn't that the child was dumb, but that he didn't raise him properly. He indeed did not know that the Spirit of Curse wanted to eat curses, and it needed curses from the world it was born in. Previously, it was starved to the point of being unable to think.
Shiller shifted his attention back to Jason. The wound on his arm had disappeared, and his complexion had improved a lot. Shiller reached out to check his temperature and found that his fever had subsided.
Just when Shiller was retracting his hand, Jason suddenly sprang up from the bed, as if he had been awakened by a nightmare. Panting heavily, he looked around. When he saw Shiller, he sighed in relief.
Shiller looked at Jason and asked, "Do you remember what happened?"
"I... I..." Jason closed his eyes tightly. His voice was still a bit weak, but then, his eyes suddenly widened, "The residents... The rescued residents... They are about to go mad!! Stop them quickly!!!"