In Victoria's darkroom, Chiba sat cross-legged on the table and watched Victoria working not far away.
"Have you ever thought of another way to resolve this matter?"
"What?" Victoria didn't even raise her head, she just lowered her head and immersed herself in the films and a pile of potion boxes in front of her.
"Otherwise, just let it go."
Victoria stood still and raised her head, "Who? The assassin?"
"It is in the dark and we are in the light. It can stop its actions at any time, hibernate for a while and then come out, but we cannot guard Tan Yi forever." Qianye said softly, "Anyway, it seems that it only has a few enemies. , I guess it will be over after the killing."
"It did say that." Victoria retracted her gaze, "During the previous encounter at the Central Hospital, the assassin revealed that its next targets would be Tanglar and Villefort."
"Isn't this good?" Qianye held his neck with one hand, "It seems that these people have done a lot of bad things in their lives. Maybe many people are looking forward to justice from heaven. Besides, there are only so many people dead. The sky cannot fall in a livable land..."
Seeing that Victoria didn't respond, Chiba asked again, "You don't think so?"
"I don't think so." Victoria answered simply.
Chiba's eyes were confused. She leaned back slightly and looked at Victoria as if she was looking at a statue she had never seen before. "...I always thought that you were not the kind of justice messenger who accepts death. Did you do the same? ?”
"Also? Who else is around you?"
"Si Lei? Mo Li?" Qianye blinked, "...Ava?"
Victoria laughed unconvincingly, "Ava is not...don't compare people like Molly to Ava -"
"...Okay, okay." Chiba raised his hand to block it symbolically, "So why?"
"The consequences of this kind of thing cannot only be seen at the moment. If the assassin kills in a livable area this time without any cost, then the negative impact it will bring will be immeasurable." Victoria said as he spoke , while walking to the sink and turning on the faucet to wash her hands, she glanced at Qianye and said, "What, you don't believe it?"
"You tell me, I'm listening."
"Do you remember how the mercury needle crime rate was initially reduced?"
"uh-huh."
"It depends on the chip." Victoria gave the answer directly. "Since Office 004 decided to forcefully insert a chip into every mercury needle to monitor their bullet time, the internal crime rate has dropped directly from 7%. When it reaches below 0.2% - this is the only operation, nothing else.
"In the past, Office 004 had introduced so many punitive measures to combat crime, but they were all useless and unstoppable. On the contrary, after the monitoring chip was introduced, many heavy penalties were cancelled. Except for a few cases with extremely bad effects and extremely cruel methods, Sentencing that exceeds livable areas appears, and the remaining punishment methods are not even trivial - money deductions, fines, confinement... and even imprisonment for more than three months are rare.
"But now the Mercury Needles are the most law-abiding people in the world. Why?"
"Because...'can't escape'?"
"Yes," Victoria's reply was quite forceful, "It has been less than fifty years since Office 004 started using chips, and no mercury needle that violates laws and regulations can escape the eyes of investigators. This is the best deterrent.
"Now an assassin suddenly appears. Through some means - most likely in coordination with senior AHgAs personnel - he murdered three citizens of the Third District in a high-profile manner. This is already a very bad example. If we can't By bringing it to justice, it shows everyone that it's possible to 'crime with impunity.' You open this Pandora's box and you don't know what's going to be released later."
"...It's a bit exaggerated." Chiba smiled. She didn't look into Victoria's eyes, but just stared at a raised piece of floor wood in front of her feet. "There are many undetectable things in the livable land." Unsolved case——"
"The mercury needle is different!" Victoria immediately interrupted her, "The connections, technical means, and even the bargaining chips that a mercury needle can access in various negotiations and transactions are not what an ordinary person can do. Comparable, even imaginary.
"You may have forgotten how you feel as an ordinary person a long time ago, Chiba, all of you mercury needles who grew up in the reserve base have this common problem."
The room fell silent.
Chiba asked no more questions, and she had no reaction to Victoria's accusation just now. She just sat there quietly, lost in thought again.
Victoria ran inside and outside several times, and she developed a total of sixteen black-and-white photos.
In order to facilitate viewing, she took a string and hung all the photos on it with small wooden clips.
She turned off the red light in the darkroom and snapped her fingers, "Qianye!"
"Huh?" Chiba looked up blankly.
"Come and see!"
Chiba jumped off the table and walked to the hanging photo.
The biggest advantages and disadvantages of the Capa II camera are its size. Although it is portable and can be operated with one hand, it is often out of focus when capturing moving scenes. However, in the pictures captured by Stella, , the lack of focus is not a criticism, it is even an integral part of the story.
Victoria studied the details.
Although she was strongly dissatisfied with Stella's behavior tonight, when she faced these photos, she would still think of the sentence that everyone who used the Capa II had heard: If you can take good photos Not good enough because you are not close enough.
Stella’s behavior tonight strictly implemented this principle.
The blurred outlines of the characters showed their amazing speed. Stella took a bird's-eye view of the assassin's one-sided torture of Zoe, and also filmed the struggle between it and Victoria inside the bell tower.
What makes these photos different from any other photography is that the photographer is “present.”
Because the photographer herself is "present", every audience standing in front of this picture will see the most realistic battle along the lines of her former vision... This kind of vividness is unmatched by any long-range capture, and it is also expensive. .
Thinking of Stella's remarks not long ago, Victoria suddenly wanted to laugh - there was some sincerity in Stella's quibbles tonight.
She can tell.
Soon, Victoria came to where Chiba was standing. From just now, Chiba had been standing in front of a photo without moving away - that was the moment Stella caught when she finally fell. The assassin's swooping shot is captured from an elevated angle.
Chiba covered his chin with his right hand and walked aside without saying a word.
"This is..." Victoria suddenly discovered a detail.
Chiba's heart sank. She turned around and saw Victoria pointing her hand at the bottom of the assassin's mask in the photo.
"Qianye... come and see, are these eyes?"
