socalfunplaces Chapter 599 Deduction Time
Chapter 599 Deduction Time
Chapter 599 Deduction Time
"Okay, Jessica, calm down, it's not a big deal."
Jessica Drew took a deep breath, looking somewhat reluctantly at the massive horde of slaughter zombie moose before her, perhaps numbering in the hundreds or thousands. These monsters had broken bodies, covered in symbiotes, and split jaws—not to mention that these creatures, weighing half a ton, could easily overturn a car even without any superpowers.
And she only needs to face hundreds or thousands of such monsters, what difficulty is there?
Then, her gaze was drawn to Spider-Man.
"Is it just my imagination, or—are you really radiant?"
Blue lines appeared on Peter's new suit, followed by white lightning flowing from it. After a deafening sonic boom, Jessica only had time to see a white lightning bolt moving back and forth around her. After Peter returned to his original position and brought the suit back to normal from its extreme speed state, he breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Jessica.
"Yes, I really am shining."
"All right--""
Jessica looked around. In about ten seconds, all the moose that had been slaughtered felled in an instant. The combination of anti-venom and the speed suit allowed Peter to eliminate almost all the enemies in the shortest amount of time, completing the kill.
Jessica was a little confused. If that was the case, why should she do it?
“All the surrounding enemies have been dealt with. These symbiotic moose were specifically waiting for us here, and Cletus isn’t around. In that case, he’s most likely already escaped.” Peter added uncertainly, “Or perhaps his purpose was to make us think he’s gone.”
"It's definitely the former. As a psychopathic killer with artistic aspirations, running away is not his usual style. Since he has decided to take action, he must be planning something big." Jessica said, squatting down to the side to analyze, "And if he just wanted to escape, there would be no need to release such a large group of moose to deliberately attack us, as if he was afraid we wouldn't guess that he had already escaped."
Peter paused for a moment, then realized Jessica was right. Judging from the fact that Cletus had brought such a large herd of moose to ambush his men at his original hideout, the other side was very confident he would be discovered, and claimed they had used this as a basis for their ambush. Killing a few of the ambushers would be good, but since Cletus himself wasn't among that large herd of moose, he certainly didn't expect to kill his pursuers there.
Especially Spider-Man, who is most likely to come after him.
“He anticipated we’d come here, so he prepared this many moose ambushes instead of spreading them out to distract us. But if he really intended to sneak away, he wouldn’t have made such a big commotion.” Peter understood Jessica’s words: “In other words, this is a provocation, right?”
"That's right. So, such a confident psychopathic killer usually has other characteristics, such as high intelligence, education or knowledge analysis, or for example—"
"We will definitely leave clues for those who are investigating."
Peter answered affirmatively, and Jessica laughed. Peter immediately contacted the Avengers' satellite and began analyzing the surrounding environment, checking for any man-made structures or similar structures nearby. If not, they would have to slowly search for Cletus's exact hiding place; the clues would surely be there.
But Jessica didn't think that way. She remained squatting beside the moose carcass, poked it with a twig, and then asked Peter a question: "Do you think these deer were slaughtered and left with such incomplete limbs, or—were they originally zombie deer?"
Peter began to think. Zombie deer is a disease that deer suffer from, its full name being deer chronic wasting disease. It is a disease caused by a virus. Although it is called a virus, it is actually a misfolded RNA protein. Once it enters the body of certain animals, it will replicate incorrectly and then attack the animal's brain.
Specifically, the brain becomes like a sponge, full of holes. Animals with this disease have difficulty eating, gradually become thin, and do not feel any pain when injured. Their cognitive abilities decline significantly, they become fearless of humans, and may even actively attack humans.
When this disease affects deer, it causes "zombie deer," named for the slow-moving, fearless, and excessively salivating deer that are attacked and whose internal organs are exposed even when their bodies are torn apart. However, it is perhaps more famously known as mad cow disease when it affects cattle.
Peter immediately crouched down beside the deer carcass and scanned its brain with his suit: "This is a zombie deer."
"If it was just to ambush us, he wouldn't have needed to create such a troublesome group of zombie deer. That in itself is a clue. Virus, mad cow disease—the infection from the slaughter is similar to mad cow disease! It spreads rapidly through beef. That's right!"
Peter quickly investigated several nearby farms, comparing their sales locations with the major cities that had triggered the infections, and was able to quickly make connections. This was the clue Cletus had given them: he had used beef sold from slaughterhouses to infect others.
"I bet we're not going to be dealing with a herd of zombie deer, but a herd of mad cows."
Peter, having confirmed the locations of several slaughterhouses in the vicinity, stood up, preparing to notify the Airbus team to pick them up with the Kun fighter jets: "But the problem is, we're still not quite sure what kind of clues Cletus left us at the next location, whether they're as obvious as these."
Jessica sensed something was amiss in Peter's words: "What do you mean by that?"
"If the clues he left behind are as relevant as those here, then we don't need to go out and deal with those cows," Peter said, having already contacted Coulson and the others. "We just need to bombard the slaughterhouse."
At this point, Peter added, "That is, assuming the ranchers are still alive."
Jessica didn't hold out much hope, since Cletus's choice of targets was completely random. You can't expect someone who takes pleasure in killing to consider who not to kill when setting puzzles for his pursuers.
Even more likely, the murder scene he staged was itself a clue.