Chapter 623 Morbid Crisis (Completed) _2

"To place oneself in a completely safe situation, using overwhelming power to hunt down a prey, that's not murder; it's a carnage."

"The most appealing aspect of sentient beings is that their unyielding will allows them to resist, even in desperate situations. What makes murdering them intriguing is that their resistance might cause me to bleed, hurt or even die."

"I might have to pay the same price as they do at any time. It's like gambling. The most intense pleasure only comes when the outcome is unknown until it's revealed."

"If I knew I was going to win, then this game would be the most boring one in the world, so dull that it's sickening."

"So..." Shiller lowered his head, untied his tie and removed his suit jacket, revealing a shirt entirely stained dark red. He carelessly tossed his jacket to one side and said, "I've given up all power beyond that of a normal person. What you see here..."

Shiller waved his hand towards the bodies and said, "They are my trophies. I won every gamble here."

"You're insane." Batman had no other words for him. Even when facing the Joker, he could still reiterate words related to public safety and justice, but he was speechless in front of a man like Shiller. He was mad, utterly mad.

"No, like I said, I don't represent madness. Genuine madness doesn't need any pleasure to stimulate it. It represents complete chaos." Shiller shook his head and said, "But I... I represent morbidity, the morbidity of pursuing sensations and pleasures..."

"Do you know how I got these wounds?" Shiller pointed to his shoulder; there was a profound injury there. From Batman's perspective, he could even see the bone beneath the wound.

Shiller tilted his head to the side to reveal the full view of the wound. Actually, there were three scratches, with the middle one being the deepest, deep enough to see the bone. He said, "Perhaps you've figured it out. The theme of these serial murders is the owl."

"The people sitting in front of you call themselves 'owls,' but they don't have the courage to become real owls, so I offered them some help."

"Superhuman vision and hearing, their favorite prey, and the ability to rotate their heads significantly. While I was doing all this, they screamed in pain and grief. But if they don't want to be owls, why would they give themselves such a name?"

"Of course, these deceitful birds also have other weapons - their bred talons. This injury..." Shiller turned his head to look at his shoulder. He even reached into the wound to touch his bone. He said, "It's left by their sharp claws."

"I paid a high price to kill them, just like any ordinary person would by setting traps, evading and resorting to all sorts of tricks. Yet, the ultimate winner was still me."

Shiller took two steps forward, placing a hand on the back of the first chair. He said, "Since you've come here, I suppose you're willing to hear the whole story. So, let's start with the banker here..."

"You killed him, disguised yourself as a janitor, infiltrated the bank, and then dropped his body from the rooftop." Batman conveyed the whole story in a very simple language and continued, "The same goes for the rest of them: you disguised yourself as an employee, broke in, killed them, and then dumped their bodies from the top of the building."

"It seems you're a good detective." Shiller's voice grew colder. "The life-and-death game I played with them is reduced to a mere jest in your mouth. All detectives are like this. You omit the most beautiful parts and emphasize those meaningless laws and morals."

"You've missed too many details that you haven't figured out how you ended up here. Perhaps, would you like me to tell you the story?" Shiller appeared very patient, which sent chills down Batman's spine.

"Before everything, I came to this asylum earlier than any of you."

"Whenever I visit a place, I like to check out the asylum to see if it's the same as or better than the one where I stayed."

"But apparently, Anderson Asylum is even worse because it's not an asylum anymore. It has been transformed into an experimental base. What you didn't notice is that the letter you saw had already been tampered with."

"I entered Isabel's ward, discovered the secret of this place, heard the conversation of the person in charge, from whom, I learned, they are all owls,"

"The bank president, the heads of Parlo and Snow Mountain companies, and the woman in charge of this lab, they are all members of the Owl Parliament, raising funds for the experiments here through various projects,"

"I wanted to lure you here, so I killed the first person, the bank president, and by using the same time, place, and method as in the case in Dream Cat City, to let you know that this case has something to do with the Owl. Once you knew this, you were bound to come here."

"When I was doing the first round of cases, I left a lot of clues in the methods to make you notice the relationship between the Bank president and the Parlo's CEO, then let you investigate the transactions between the bank, Parlo Company and Snow Mountain Company."

"From this transaction, you will investigate that the Parlo company wants to remodel the mental hospital in the western suburbs, so you will definitely come here to investigate."

"Then, during my investigation, you arranged two power outages, intentionally guiding my line of sight to make me investigate you to here," Batman said, looking into Shiller's eyes.

He had to admit, the arrangement of this chain of intertwined clues was like an exquisite piece of art.

"Batman, if I told you the truth earlier, would you still have come here?" Shiller asked.

Batman was silent. Clearly, he was not satisfied with the answer his heart had given, but Shiller seemed very satisfied. He said, "Each layer of clues gives you some of the truth, all of the truths make up a complete puzzle, in this process, you felt an unparalleled pleasure, this is your illness, Batman."

"If you were truly normal, you would have stopped as soon as you realized that I was deliberately guiding your sight, but you didn't."

Batman took a step forward, looking into Shiller's eyes, "I will arrest you for the serial killings you've committed," he said.

"I quite agree." Shiller nodded, backed two steps, and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

He pressed a button that shattered the entire floor-to-ceiling window. Glass shards, like glistening crystals, fell like a torrential downpour in the moonlight.

Shiller backed off another step, stood in the night sky of Metropolis. The night wind was rustling his hair and clothes. Batman took a step forward and said, "No, you can't... it's the tenth floor."

"You better worry about yourself first." Shiller's gaze passed Batman, looking behind him. Batman hesitated for a moment, then turned his head, and saw a massive black creature.

A commotion burst from behind the black creature. Batman heard what seemed to be loud Russian curses, followed by the sound of dense gunfire. Instinctively, Batman rolled aside.

Under the light of a heavy machine gun, the black creature was shattered, and bullets, like fallen meteors, hit Shiller directly.

Batman saw tiny sparks of fire, twinkling on Shiller's blood-soaked body, gradually becoming one with the lights of the Metropolis.

Just like that, Shiller, his head tilted up, was staring into nothingness, much like the corpses tied to the chairs. Then, embracing something with outstretched arms, he fell out of the window.

Both Constantine and Kira rushed to the window, only Angela was rooted to the spot, she stared blankly at the falling figure, a few seconds later, she screamed:

"Shiller...Shiller!!!!"