Chapter 994: High Tower Contest (28)_1

"Before we proceed, I must ask you a question, Batman, do you think you're special?" Shiller asked, looking at Batman with a smile.

"Everyone considers themselves as special." Batman responded gravely. "Because, people can only perceive themselves. For each individual, there's only themselves that they can feel and others who appear in their lives playing secondary roles."

"A fascinating perspective." Shiller commented. He continued, "Seems like you're really interested in cognitive sciences, but what I'm referring to are not based on cognition but rather reality."

"Maybe." Batman took a deep breath, the fatigue wiping away his strained thoughts, stimulating more activity in his speech center, making him more talkative than usual.

"The world's wealthiest man is special wherever he goes, including in Gotham." Batman, somewhat dazed, said while looking at the reflection of the utensils on the table. Shiller raised an eyebrow, stating, "I didn't expect the first identity you would bring up would be that of the world's wealthiest man."

"It's because the ideas surfing in my mind about reforming Gotham all revolve around one word - money." Batman exhaled the breath he had been holding back, his tone depicting a sigh.

"Four years ago, you must have never imagined that one day, after a life-and-death battle, you would sit in the room of the final villain, discussing money with your psychology professor, and moreover...you'd be needing money."

Batman covered his eyes with his hand armor and asked, "Why did you claim you're a victim of Batman? What did I do?"

Shiller picked up the cutlery again and began cutting the food on the plate. "If you are truly curious about that, let's first discuss the broccoli problem. How did you and those two idiots break into the High Tower? What were you rummaging for in my room?"

"We each had our reasons." Batman responded honestly. As he looked upwards, as if reminiscing, he added, "Zatanna truly wanted to save the world, it's just that her methods... are a bit unique."

"Why would saving the world involve me?" Shiller asked.

"Zatanna came to us. She claimed that a 'Curse of Evil' hidden within Gotham City is responsible for its current state."

"Constantine believed she made sense, and you also once said that mystic arts are influencing the current state of Gotham."

Batman glanced at Shiller and asked, "So the stronger curse you mentioned, is it the 'Curse of Evil'?"

"I think there's a misunderstanding." Shiller grasped the cause-and-effect relation Batman was referring to, and said, "The curse I possess precisely originates from Constantine. It's the vengeful spirit of the elder brother he once killed in his mother's womb. Constantine once told me his name was Thomas, but I don't particularly like that name. The same goes for you, right?"

Quite unusually, Batman's expression remained unchanged, not showing the solemn expression he was infamous for whenever his parents' names were mentioned. He shifted his hand onto the armrest of the chair and said, "We assumed that the curse in your umbrella was the 'Curse of Evil.'"

"So you aimed to steal my umbrella?" Shiller paused, looked at Batman over his glasses and asked, "Isn't my caution in dealing with matters enough to warn you insatiable intruders?"

Batman's tapping finger stilled as he responded, "There's no need for a stronger warning."

Shiller rolled his eyes, showing an expression of disgust. He said: "I can tolerate Zatanna, because she is just like you when you were 18, exactly the same."

"Those with power are always confident in the abilities they possess, and when circumstances exceed their control they don't reflect on the misuse of their abilities or question their concepts, but rather, they find flaws in others. Isn't it so, Batman?"

Batman coughed lightly, without addressing the matter of four years ago that Shiller seemed to be hinting toward throughout the conversation.

"Consider yourself lucky, Batman. I can only tolerate one fool at a time, and if you were still like your past self, someone would be in danger." Shiller slipped a piece of food into his mouth and delicately arranged the remaining ones on his plate while murmuring,

"But considering that you could so easily break into my room, I believe my own negligence plays a part, or perhaps they intentionally allowed you to enter, as they are also likely curious about my current condition."

Batman's finger paused again, and as he watched Shiller's face, he noticed flashes of madness that appeared less frequently and less drastic than before - as if undergoing a change.

"Merkel mentioned that you've undergone a drastic change over the past four years, does this have to do with the mad persona inside of you?" Batman asked.

"This brings us back to the initial question." Shiller asked without looking up, "Do you know you're special?"

Yet, he didn't wait for Batman's answer, but spoke to himself, "Whether you know it now or not, I'm certain that you didn't know during our first encounter."

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have asked me that question, and I wouldn't have become a victim of Batman."

"Question?" Batman repeated in an interrogative tone. He then remembered that he had asked Shiller a question in their first encounter, thus, he repeated that question: "…What is the meaning of life?"

"Revenge, the meaning of life is revenge, is what I replied back then. But in fact, I should never have given you an answer from the get-go," Shiller put down his utensils and sighed lightly.

"Perhaps, you only asked the question to assess my professional level, but the impact of this query is much greater than you could ever imagine."

"Gotham City is special, anybody who gets stuck in it is likely to go mad. When I first arrived here, I was just an ordinary citizen. But all that changed the day you showed up."

"You must realize that it's not the Joker who chose Batman, but Batman who chose the Joker," Shiller looked at Batman and said: "The madness virus spawned from your attention to me is far-reaching. The moment you started observing me with curiosity, my personality had gotten tainted."

Batman furrowed his eyebrows deeply. He never believed in fatalism, but coming from his professor, he felt like Shiller wouldn't be making groundless claims, because he knew that Shiller didn't believe in destiny either.

"Perhaps you find it hard to understand, but you must keep in mind that you're special. Any attention you give can dramatically alter their fate, and that includes me."

"For some reason, I knew you would come. Before I met you, I tried every possible way to prevent our encounter because I hated being forced into a maelstrom."

"If I am to participate in something, it should be from a more proactive stance. I think you've already noticed this."

Shiller looked at Batman, and Batman nodded in agreement. As strange as that may be, he was sure that the professor disliked uncertainty and preferred to be in control of everything, or rather, he preferred to stir up incidents more than participating in them.

"When you appeared, I was caught off guard, and in that instant, I was infected with that peculiar madness virus. My intentions became twisted, just like every Joker. With a simple psychological hint, I caught your attention."

"To test my professional competence again, you asked that question, and that question is the root cause of my transformation."

"Perhaps you are already aware that the personality fragment infected by the virus back then was Arrogant. It was half of the arrogant characteristic, and I am the other half."

"After he got infected with the madness virus, to ensure I remained sane to function, the Superego locked him up forcefully and assigned me, also a part of Arrogant, to substitute for his job."

"However, this is not as simple as it seems, Batman..." Shiller clenched the dinner knife a bit tighter, looked at Batman with a malicious glare, saying:

"That question you asked back then has turned into a curse, a task that I must accomplish."

"If you haven't found an answer yet, haven't found the meaning of life, then the other half of the traits that got contaminated by the madness virus, and I, won't be able to fully recover."

"It sounds like you are talking nonsense," commented Batman before continuing: "I'm not saying this situation is impossible to occur, but neither of us can explain how this could have happened."

"What is so peculiar about my attention? Why did it create a special virus? And why did that question become a curse?" Batman threw out a series of questions without expecting an explanation from Shiller.

Unusually, he initiated and said: "In every incident we've been through, you always have judgments that others or by-standers are unable to perceive. I once thought you could foresee the future, but then your behavior suggests otherwise."

"If you decide not to inquire into this, there's no need to question too many principles," Shiller starts to speak: "I want to explain this more than you do, but the answer to this question is that it defies explanation."

Batman squinted his eyes but before he spoke, Shiller continued: "Leaving the facts aside, do you know what? Every Joker has his own, Batman-related destiny."

"He is bound to answer some of your questions, make you aware of certain realities, evoke certain emotions in you, and learn something."

"If he is your friend, he will accompany you until you are no longer Batman. If he is your classmate, he will study with you and progress with you. And if he is your teacher..."

Batman heard Shiller let out a deep sigh as if lamenting his unfortunate fate, he said: "I am the Joker, and the Joker is me. We are one and the same, fragments of the same personality, so we share the same destiny."

"If I hadn't been so special, if I didn't possess the Tower of Thought and the calm yet decisive Manager, then a psychology professor turned Joker would explain your question in a much stronger way."

Without waiting for Batman to ask, Shiller said: "...you might not want to know the method he had in mind."

Seeing Shiller's expression, Batman realized that the answer spinning in Shiller's mind was likely to be more shocking than the food on his plate or the corpse behind him.

"Thanks to the calm and decisive Superego, who locked that maniac away. But the cost of that is..." Shiller paused for a bit and then looked straight into Batman's eyes, "I must complete the Joker's mission."

"I must use another, gentler method to guide you in finding the answer to this question - what is the meaning of life?"