Chapter 1290: The Bat is Behind (Part 2)_1

"It seems that you are interested in the plans that this genius named Tony Stark has been secretly cooking up." Batman's tone was always calm yet carried a charm that made one want to listen attentively.

"Of course, I am interested."

In the lounge of the Stark Building, while half-leaned on the head of his bed, Shiller, who looked rather absorbed in deep thought, spoke while attempting to think and say, "you may not know, this famous Iron Man is much more powerful than you think."

"Here's a simple example. For you smart folks, human physicality limits your wisdom. But if you and he could leverage infinite energy to fully exert the wisdom stored in your brains, what would that scenario be like?"

"Has he accomplished that?"

"Of course, he has ascended above the cosmos, experiencing the realm of overlooking the entire cosmos, and even all universes. The boundless wisdom is no longer trapped in the form of life, reaching the limit of what wisdom life can achieve..."

"Then he's no longer a human." Batman commented, "A purely wisdom incarnate has no meaning. If wisdom is not resources for humans, it may as well not exist."

"The strength of him is, he has not reincarnated into a God, instead, he chose to continue as a human. Therefore, although the Iron Demon God is strong, he is still within the scope of comprehension. He is not a god. You can understand that he is above humans, but below Gods."

"What I mean to say..." Shiller changed his posture to lie back more relaxedly and explained with a wave of his hand, "He is not omnipotent, there must be things he can't change. There must be."

"And my probing into his plan is not just satisfying my curiosity. I also do not intend to interfere with him. I only know that limited cognition will make him focus more on what he is good at."

"But in reality, this plan he has brewed might contain greater potential than he thinks. If I know what arrangements he has, maybe I can leverage the same plan and profit more, can't I?"

Shiller spread his hands as he rationalized, "Why shouldn't we do this then? Why not pursue the more efficient mode of utilization? Why not make up for shortcomings, combine strengths, and cooperate with each other?"

He shook his head, sighed, and continued, "I admit, my previous actions might have scared them and led them to overcorrect my current treatment. They simply don't want me to participate in any plan that's likely to be burdensome on me. They think it would help control my condition."

"But I think, this is a sheer waste. Those plans they are executing could have accomplished much more. All I need to do is to have a look at them. I don't even need to be involved, or only know a portion of the truth, is more than enough..."

"The more you say, the more justified they are," Batman pointed out bluntly, "We generally call the unrestrained pursuit of maximum profit 'gambler's mentality'."

"In fact, there is no such thing as the ultimate profit. It's all your illusion. We can set a bottom line for a plan's outcome, but we should not pursue the upper limit tirelessly. That is heading towards destruction."

"Perhaps I should be more greedy and shift my focus to the broader cosmos to see if there are other stars willing to illuminate Gotham."

"But this doesn't mean that once I think of this point, I begin to imagine that I must find such a star and conclude that the sun is unnecessary and detonate it. A mentality of sacrificing the minor to reap major benefits will always lead people in that direction."

"Paying too much attention to the final perfect result, constantly wanting to arrive in one step, before the first step was taken and solidified, imagining each step can yield maximum benefits and touching on the final goal based on this, will only lead to ruin."

Batman seldom talked this long in succession. Maybe because when he advised against greed, he said a lot. Thus, he elaborately explained his thoughts. However, for greed is greed itself, his advice fell on deaf years.

"That's because you don't have enough control, not deeply enough. I've never imagined my every step would yield the maximum effect. But I firmly believe each of my steps is within my control."

"If I can calculate the effect that each step can achieve, why can't I look straight to the end?"

"But in this process, you will also suffer greatly." Batman's words surprised Greed, and he pointed it out like a strike to his soul, "Actually, you fear the end; you are extremely afraid of 'the end'."

"But you know a fact, that is, everything in this world will end someday. The sun will extinguish, the planet will shatter, people will die, the universe will be destroyed..."

"Because of fear, you keep speeding up this process. Since you believe that it's better to suffer short-term pain than endure long-term agony, you leap straight to the end, instead of going through it step by step as if you were being killed with a thousand cuts. You must face your most feared thing which is the end."

Greed unusually fell silent. He wasn't as reticent as Arrogant. No matter the situation, he could always come up with a few witty remarks. He wasn't stingy with words.