Nobody can stop me from drawing cards in Gotham!

Chapter 7?! Magic?!

"Did you notice?"

After finally finding the circulating video resource, Jaeger immediately dragged the progress bar to the end and showed it to Bruce next to him.

—In the video, after kicking someone off the building, the fake Batman raised his hand and threw something at them. The video stopped recording the moment the screen shattered.

"The items he used to damage the cameras." Unlike Jaeger, who needed to slow down the playback to 0.5x speed, Bruce grasped the key point in one take. "Is this what you meant earlier, the mutually corroborating truth?"

“That’s right.” Jaeger turned off the video. “He just picked up a rock from the rooftop and smashed the surveillance camera. If he were just an ordinary criminal, this choice would be understandable.”

"But for Batman, the better option is the batarang, isn't it? This also proves that the counterfeit only imitates the real Batman in appearance, but cannot replicate his level of technology and equipment."

"The GCPD has recovered several batarangs left at crime scenes before, so they know what real batarangs look like," Bruce agreed. "That's why counterfeiters didn't choose to replicate batarangs; it's too much trouble and too easy to expose their deception."

"Alright, as you can see, this is my guess," Jaeger said. "A guy impersonating Batman is committing a series of crimes in Gotham City, and as Batman's partner, you've come to investigate on his behalf..."

The more Jaeger thought about it, the more convinced he became that his guess was correct.

Furthermore, they mentioned the level of technology earlier. Could an ordinary person possess the high-tech capabilities that Batman's counterfeits cannot easily replicate? But if Batman is backed by Bruce Wayne, the richest man in Gotham City and owner of Wayne Industries, then it makes perfect sense!

Bruce, who had managed to keep his identity thanks to Jaeger's strange line of thinking, went along with it: "...You're right, I was indeed working for Batman. I came to the scene to stop the imposter and investigate his identity."

"That makes things easier," Jaeger laughed. "My goal is to investigate the truth of this case. Since our objectives are similar, I think we can definitely cooperate in the investigation, can't we?"

He hadn't forgotten the event card "Bloody Bat" that was triggered. According to the game mechanics, event cards triggered within a card-folding cycle are often closely related to the card-folding of the main card in that round.

Therefore, if Jaeger wants to reliably cancel [Slaughter] within the card cancellation period, he must investigate this case.

Besides, now that they've reached a consensus, and since he and Bruce Wayne have no conflict, they can cooperate to advance the progress; there's strength in numbers.

"I prefer to work alone." Bruce's first reaction to collaboration was, as usual, to refuse.

"Hmm? But aren't you and Batman...?"

"...We will cooperate when necessary," Bruce said, changing his tune without any expression.

Who knows if, if he doesn't admit to his collaboration with Batman, Jaeger's mind might suddenly take a turn back to his secret identity.

"So you agreed?" Jaeger was delighted. Bruce was a smart man, and also an incredibly wealthy tycoon who could keep everyone in the dark. With a teammate like that, he would succeed at anything.

"Not so easy, Winchester," Bruce scoffed. "What help can you offer me? I'll assume for now that your so-called cooperation isn't a one-sided request for my assistance."

"Of course, first of all, I'm currently just a detective for now," Jaeger said.

The future world's greatest detective declined to comment: "And then?"

"But I'm a little special." Jaeger pondered how to explain to Bruce, "You can think of it this way: I have some rather unique abilities."

"For example, your phone gets stolen without you even noticing?" Bruce asked.

...He had to admit that Alfred's usual satirical British humor had a considerable influence on him, to the point that the sentence almost came out off the cuff.

Jaeger: "..."

Jaeger: "No, of course not."

As he spoke, Jaeger's gaze swept across the card table in front of him, which displayed the four active skill cards from the [Mystic Detective] deck, excluding [Danger Sense].

If you had to choose one skill card that you could master the fastest, have the most direct effect, and that best demonstrates the unique qualities of a "mystical detective"...

Jaeger's gaze fell on one of the cards.

Meanwhile, Bruce on the other side keenly sensed that something was wrong.

Although there was a brief silence in the car after Jaeger said "No, of course not," even the sound of rain outside the window, the noise from the scene in the distance, and even the hum of the air conditioner units in the nearby residential buildings disappeared.

It was too quiet, so quiet it was... eerie.

It was at this moment that Bruce suddenly realized something—when did so much...mist appear in the car?

Yes, fog.

Light gray fog accumulated inside the car, increasing more and more, from nearly transparent to almost solidifying.

The silence was suddenly broken the next second.

"call--"

A turbulent current, seemingly appearing from nowhere, surged through the car, whipping up the clothes of the two people inside and causing the fog to swirl around them, until the light gray fog began to condense and slowly solidify into a gigantic entity…

In the end, Bruce watched helplessly as the eerie mist transformed into a real "creature".

It was a crow.

But it was definitely not a normal crow.

It was enormous, its entire body covered in flowing gray mist, and its two hollow eye sockets burning with ghostly blue soul flames stared straight at Bruce, who was gradually frowning, like some kind of bizarre hellish creature.

"What is this?" Bruce's tone remained calm, but his assessment of Jaeger Winchester had completely changed.

Although he has always maintained a firm scientific stance, he would not try to hypnotize himself into believing that what he was seeing was an illusion at such a moment.

Moreover, in his many years of travel, Bruce had encountered similar things before—things that defied logic, went against natural science, and belonged to a completely different world, or to use a simpler term…

magic.

Is Jaeger Winchester a member of the wizarding world? Bruce thought with a grim face.

As for Bruce's question, Jaeger canceled the summons, watching the messenger dissipate into mist as it had appeared, and answered:

"You can call it—the messenger."