Gotham had finally arrived at the most unbearable time of the year. One might wonder, is there ever a day in Gotham that is not unbearable? But most of the absurd and bizarre events that usually happen in this fools' village seem mundane compared to what they face now - capable men who struggled for survival in the cosmic sewer were not defeated by any major disasters, but by summer.
With the progress of Lex's project, there was an increasingly stable dispersion of clouds over Gotham. From two hours a day with two days off in a week, it transformed into at least three or four hours of sunshine a day with guaranteed annual operation.
No matter how well Lex's character suited Gotham, he was still a Metropolis man, raised under the sun, and he truly could not understand how people could live in a city without daylight.
So, after the cloud dispersion system was stable, Lex went full steam ahead, basking Gotham in sunlight for 180 days, creating a delightful vibrance.
This was deadly for the Gothamites. Most of them, having never left the city, had scarcely seen the sun since birth. They primarily relied on the couple of hours of UV exposure in the evening, when the sunlight could hardly be described as intense or even vibrant.
Before summer arrived, the sunlight from noon to four in the afternoon just made Gothamites remark on how much brighter everything had become. But once summer truly arrived, the intensity of ultraviolet rays sharply increased, and the Gothamites, used to cloudy, cool days with sea breeze, were left sweltering.
The perpetual dark clouds over Gotham had kept the city temperature impressively stable for decades, with mild winters and moderate summers arguably the city's only advantages.
Apart from enduring deteriorating air quality and acid rain every other day, from a temperature standpoint, Gotham was a relatively livable city.
This stable climate posed a different issue - air conditioning companies could not survive here. During the coldest of winters, temperatures would only reach single digits below zero, while the hottest summer day would not exceed thirty degrees. It was entirely feasible to rely on fireplaces for heat and fans for cooling.
This resulted in a change during this summer. The most significant health issue in Gotham shifted from gunshot wounds to heatstroke.
In Shiller's office at Gotham University, he was holding the phone, saying to the other end: "…Of course, I am more than willing to do so, Chief Gordon. You can send the items to the university warehouse… Yes, I will emphasize to the students… Alright, goodbye."
The knock on the door came and as Shiller turned his head, he saw Anna standing by the door and asked, "What's up?"
"Did the Chief of Police call you? Is there another murder case?"
Shiller shook his head, put the phone down, and said, "Too many people are suffering from heatstroke recently, and there aren't enough hospital beds. Gordon hopes to utilize the school's underground parking lot to accommodate patients, promising to pay for the service, of course."
Anna frowned, hugging her arms she said, "I can understand his need for a cool place to house these heatstroke patients, but there's really no place to park around here."
"If faculty members have to park farther away, walk over under the sun, there would surely be more cases of heatstroke."
"You should have heard how much compensation he was offering first." Shiller smiled, picked up the half-read newspaper from the windowsill and said, "The police academy he set up has started recruiting, enlisting over thirty students so far. Gordon plans to have these intern detectives install air conditioners for us at Gotham University…"
Anna's face lit up instantly. She pushed back her blond hair and snapped her fingers saying, "I knew he'd be a good Chief when he first took office."
"I haven't even prepared a gift for his promotion yet." Shiller held the newspaper and walked out of the office with Anna into the main office where Victor was standing by the window, having just closed the screen.
He walked quickly to Shiller and Anna and said cheerfully, "Guess what I found?"
"If it's not the truth of the universe, then your excitement is overstated." Shiller sat at his workstation, spread the newspaper on the table, and began to read the news.
Victor extended his hand, which startled Anna. She called out to Shiller, "Quick! Look, Shiller! See what Victor found!"
Shiller straightened his body, took a glance forward and saw an insect lying in Victor's hand; it had nearly transparent wings, a gray-black body, and two round eyes. It was a cicada.
Shiller raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised, because just earlier, he had been thinking about the odd summers he had spent in Gotham. A strange feeling of missing something had emerged. Now, thinking about it, that "something" might well have been the chirping of cicadas.
U.S cicadas are called seventeen-year cicadas because they can live underground for up to seventeen years, but most can't last that long, and they'll emerge after three to five years. Therefore, the chirping of cicadas always erupts periodically, but over such a long period, Shiller hadn't heard them once.
Anna was screaming at the cicada lying in Victor's hand. Continuously pointing at the tiny insect she exclaimed, "Are there cicadas in Gotham now? And they're the non-harmful variants too!"
"You have too much hope for entomology." Shiller picked up his pen and began to mark useful news reports in the newspaper.
Now that he thought about it, there weren't many insects around Gotham, neither were there any wild animals in the suburbs.
It wasn't surprising, after all, with the people ironically known as the "ferocious upright apes" living anxiously in the city, it would be rather far-fetched to expect wild animals to thrive here.
But that's not to say that Gotham lacked animals. Every month, a mutant rat larger than a human would crawl out from the sewer resulting in five to six casualties. The city's aerial force, led by sparrows the size of eagles, were fairly disciplined, while the seagulls by the coast, larger than rooftops, could be best described as a harbor terror gang.
Having regularly dealt with these gigantic mutant monsters, Gothamites had already adapted to the occurrence of a new monster every few days.
After lunch that day, on Shiller's way to the classroom, he saw Victor hurrying through the corridor, his face filled with anxiety.
Shiller stopped Victor and asked, "What's wrong? Professor Fries, where are you headed?"
"One of my students fainted." Victor stopped briefly to explain: "They passed out in the middle of an experiment in the Cryogenic Lab, I'm heading there now."
"Could it be..." Shiller was about to suggest that it could be heatstroke like many other Gothamites, but considering that the student had fainted in Victor's Cryogenic Lab, the possibility seemed unlikely. Not every room in the Cryogenic Lab was cold, but set underground without any ferocious sunlight and surrounded by cold storage, how hot could it get?
Given Victor's anxiety, Shiller did not ask further questions. After parting ways with Victor, Shiller walked into the classroom with his lecture notes.
He looked around and sighed. Seats that were once filled were now less than half occupied; the students that did come, appeared deflated.
Shiller was strict about attendance. Every student attending his introductory psychology course knew they couldn't slack off with his classes. Consequently, no students dared to skip or forge signatures. During Shiller's time teaching at Gotham University, the student attendance rate has remained above 98 percent. Those who were absent would hand in a sick note as per regulations.
Shiller had not received any sick notes yesterday, but he was helpless in the face of such circumstances. He knew the absent students must be ill in their dormitory rooms.
The situation could only be due to one reason - the dormitory rooms of Gotham University didn't have air conditioning.
When the temperature rose to 35 degrees in the summer, every professor's desk would be filled with sick notes.
Other professors may worry if students were faking illnesses due to the weather, but Shiller did not have such concerns. Aside from monitoring attendance, he was also strict about exam scores. Failing the exam for those who missed classes was inevitable.
So, Shiller was sure that the absent students must be genuinely ill. Since that was the case, there was nothing much he could do except slow down the teaching schedule. The new lesson he originally intended to teach had been transformed into a Q&A session.
Shiller had arranged Q&A classes before, but the results weren't promising. Students would rather send him an email after class than ask a question face-to-face in the classroom. This was a side effect of his authority. Aside from those truly devoted to their studies, most students studying for exams, even if they didn't understand certain issues, didn't dare engage in life-threatening conversations with Shiller.
But this time, just few minutes after Shiller finished speaking, a figure descended the auditorium's side steps and walked to the lectern—Oswald Kolbott.
Oswald Kolbott was already a sophomore. After few years of treatment, her mother's condition was relatively stable, but to be on the safe side, Kolbott stayed home for another year. Only when he was certain that his mother could take care of herself, did he enter his dream college.
He chose to major in finance. Being connected was indeed important in finance. Given that Kolbott was a favored associate of Falcone, even the Twelve Families had to respect him. To coordinate with Mayor Roy and his team to improve the city's economic situation, as well as to launder the Mob's money, it made sense for Kolbott to choose a bachelor's degree in finance, as he believed he had a knack for it.
Gotham University's finance major was top tier, filled by a lot of financial talents seeking refuge. People within this circle mainly included scammers or those who duped the scammers.
All these individuals had one thing in common: they were highly skilled, extremely competent, and more experienced in practical operations than professors from any other university.
As the saying goes, "pupils excel their teachers". The finance graduates of Gotham University had a stellar reputation among a certain group of wealthy people.