The tantalizing sheen of a cocktail always seems extraordinarily vibrant under the soft glow of bar lights. The multi-layered gradient of blue, reminiscent of the ocean beneath a glacier, instills an intense chill through a mere glance.
This contrasts beautifully with the warm nights of Los Angeles. Here, there's no cold rain like in Gotham or the bustle of the Metropolis. Only electronic music with West Coast flair carried in by the sea breeze, blending with classical melodies from the bar, creating a uniquely pleasing rhythm.
A second glass clinks against the bartop. Through the semi-translucent liquid, one can see Lucifer's visage reflected. He lifts the glass, takes a sip.
"Do you know?" Lucifer sets his glass down, looks into Shiller's eyes and says, "Some come to me to escape mortal danger, some for exceptional wealth and success, some in the pursuit of power..."
"You, however, are the first to come looking for a cure for seasickness."
"I told you, it's not normal seasickness…"
"What in the world is abnormal seasickness???" Lucifer inhales deeply, seemingly at his wit's end, then he finally concedes, "All right, I'll play doctor for a moment. What are your symptoms? Tell me."
"Dizziness, nausea, cold sweats, a general feeling of weakness…"
"Isn't that just regular seasickness?!!!"
Before Shiller could retort, Lucifer raises a hand, saying: "My dear Pope, if you're truly so bored, go recruit some devotees for me, preferably those who love their work, because I don't want to hear complaints about their laborious jobs…"
"Do you think I enjoy my job?" Shiller questioned.
Lucifer sighs, takes another sip of his drink and replies: "Indeed, your first request from me was to extend your vacation to 36 days…"
He massages his temple, commenting: "I wonder if God would be at a loss for words if his Pope prayed for a longer holiday…"
"Do you understand that of your last 16 sentences, 8 mentioned your father? I've encountered this phenomenon before. My advice is - you need to see a therapist."
"Aren't you a therapist?"
"I am your Pope, and right now, I am on a vacation."
With a "clang", Lucifer slammed his glass on the table, saying: "I've realized that ever since your memory loss, you've become increasingly insufferable..."
"Then why won't you fire me?"
"I…" Lucifer tightens his grip on the glass, taking several deep breaths before finally speaking: "Why don't you go to the Vatican and serve God as Pope?"
"You know what's peculiar?" Shiller took a sip of his drink, staring into Lucifer's eyes, "It's that most people tend to call out for their mothers when in pain."
With a "snap", the glass shattered. Lucifer pointed towards the door and yelled: "Get the hell out! I don't want to see you!"
"Hold on, let's set my seasickness aside. Let's talk about you. That female singer just now is your friend, right? How did you two meet?"
Lucifer snorted coldly, but still answered: "Her name's Delilah. She was originally a lounge singer and hostess here. I thought her voice was good and she had some songwriting talents, so I introduced her to a record company executive. Her first album was a huge hit and she became a sensation all over the West Coast..."
"If you realized she was troubled, why didn't you use your Mind Reading Technique to figure out what was really going on?" asked Shiller.
"I told you, I do not like using these abilities on my friends."
"I guess you're probably just avoiding trouble. If you saw she was upset, you'd feel obliged to help, otherwise you'd feel guilty. That's why it's easier to turn a blind eye."
I just want to be an ordinary person!" Lucifer slammed his glass against the bartop, asking: "Do ordinary people have mind reading abilities? Can't they maintain friendships? Why can't I do the same?"
"Of course, you can…" Shilling took a sip of his drink, his eyes lowering to the nearly empty glass in his hand. "But if you want to enjoy straightforward relationships like an ordinary person, you must prepare to accept regret, just like they do…"
Just as Lucifer wants to ask what he means, a "bang" is heard from outside the bar followed by screams and chaotic noises.
He drops his glass hurriedly and dashes out to see a figure collapsed in a pool of blood. It's Delilah, who had just left the bar.
Lucifer rushes over, clutching Delilah's blood-soaked body. By now, the female singer was no longer breathing. After all, it's impossible for any ordinary person to survive a close-range shooting.
Lucifer reaches out his hand, stopping the bleeding from Delilah's body, making her body lie flat on the ground
Lucifer took a deep breath, rose to his feet and began searching for the killer. Suddenly, he spotted a suspicious vehicle across the street. He hurried over and found the killer already dead.
Lucifer reached out his hand, clamping it onto the killer's neck. Instantly, the killer's body jerked up gasping for air. Lucifer pulled out his soul from hell and placed it back into his body – the killer was resurrected.
"Why did you kill Delilah?" Lucifer demanded.
"I'm just... I'm just a hired gunman..." The assassin seemed to be scared by the sights of Hell. But soon, he saw an even more terrifying vision. A demonic illusion flickered across Lucifer's face, and then, the assassin returned to Hell once more.
When Lucifer walked back to Delilah's body, Shiller was already crouching there. Lucifer crouched down, too. As Shiller inspected Delilah's body, he asked, "Why didn't you just resurrect her directly?"
Lucifer glanced around before saying, "Delilah is a famous singer. Many people saw her being shot just now. If I resurrect her, it will not only bring trouble to me, but she will certainly be entangled too."
"You could completely erase everyone's memory, you just don't want to." Shiller stood and walked over to pick up the handbag that Delilah had discarded.
After opening it, Shiller found a bag of white powder inside. He opened the bag and took a light sniff. Shiller knew immediately - it was some kind of drug.
At this point in the story, Shiller could pretty much recall the plot from the American TV show Lucifer.
Simply put, the show was about trivial and mundane matters Lucifer encountered in the world, coupled with God's family drama.
The specific romantic plot was similar to Twilight. The female protagonist had the ability to weaken Lucifer and once he saw it, the female drew his attention. After that, it was just the typical cheesy romantic plot that the general public would enjoy seeing.
The only problem was, the Lucifer that Shiller encountered was not like the one in the TV show. The Lucifer in the show didn't have the ability to resurrect people at will. Clearly, this Lucifer Morningstar in front of him was the one from the comics, whose power was second only to God himself.
Shiller did not believe anyone could weaken such an existence. But if Lucifer was still like in the show, where he could be weakened by the female lead, it could only mean one thing - he was lustful and wanted to pick up girls.
Two silhouettes emerged from the police car that soon arrived - a man and a woman walked over to the body. At this point, Lucifer had already returned to the bar, obviously he did not want any ties with the police.
Quickly, Shiller also sat down next to the bar counter, leaning against it, observing the situation outside. The two officers were examining the body. Shiller turned back and glanced at Lucifer again. As expected, he was just interested in the lady.
The female officer was indeed very beautiful, she looked mature and had a gentle and sexy vibe. However, Lucifer didn't look as though he was weakened in any way, he was just cleaning a glass while observing the situation outside.
As for the murder that happened outside the bar, naturally, the first thing to do would be to look for eyewitnesses in the bar. Lucifer and Shiller, who had been around the area with the best view, naturally became the best people to question.
The female police officer was the first to walk through the door. As soon as she saw the two men near the bar, she froze, but then quickly moved towards Shiller and extended her hand, saying: "You must be Professor Rodriguez, aren't you? The famous psychologist?"
"Yes, that's me. Do you know me?"
"Of course, we have pictures of you in our criminology textbooks, but you look younger than you do in the books."
"Yes, I thought they made me look too old in the photos." Shiller shook hands with the female officer and asked, "What's your name? Are you the detective handling this case?"
"My name is Chloe Decker, but you can just call me Chloe. Yes, I am the detective in charge of this murder case. I wanted to ask if you had seen any suspicious people?"
Just as Lucifer was about to speak, Shiller said, "No, it all happened too abruptly. We heard a gunshot and by the time we got to the door, the lady already..."
It was clear that Chloe trusted Shiller more, so she quickly asked, "Do you remember the exact time of the gunshot?"
"There was a clock nearby, I remember it was around 00:03, the error may not exceed two minutes," Shiller answered smoothly.
Then, the male police officer entered. His attitude wasn't as pleasant. He asked, "Did you see any suspicious people in the bar?"
His tone was rather cold, which made Shiller frown. Chloe nudged him and said, "Don't be like that, Dan. This is the famous psychologist, Professor Rodriguez…"
"According to our preliminary investigation, the murderer was likely in that sedan. We found guns and bullets in his car, as well as a significant amount of drugs."
"We found identical drugs in the victim's bag, so there might have been a drug deal between them. A disagreement during the deal might have led to murder…"
Shiller looked at Chloe, who seemed a bit uncomfortable and said, "This is Dan, my colleague..."
"Just colleagues?" Lucifer asked.
Chloe gave him a glance but didn't answer. She pulled Dan aside for a quiet discussion while Shiller leaned on the bar counter and spoke to Lucifer in a whisper:
"Let me guess, you want to share the clue you got from the murderer with this female officer. You are trying to show your specialness to her and get involved in the case in a reasonable manner. You then plan to create a bunch of strange events to make her frightened and curious, and finally, create some crisis to demonstrate your power..."
Lucifer slowly looked away from Shiller. Shiller chuckled and said:
"The last one who did this was named Constantine."
Lucifer hummed and said:
"Guess who was his teacher?"