Chapter 1439: Research on Manipulation (Five)_1

"The title of the 'Bandaged Murder Demon' satisfied Elliot, but not completely, because the title he actually wanted was—Batman."

"I don't know what misconceptions he has about the identity of Batman, but since he values this title so much, I don't mind giving it to him."

"But I couldn't just go to him and say, 'you be Batman, I will go to prison', his not so bright mind could distinguish that it would definitely be a trap."

With red eyes, Bruce leaned back further, spread his arms to show a completely relaxed posture, and said, "So, I designed a series of more complicated traps. Firstly, through the content of the articles published by the Serial Killers Club, I let him know that there is a killer in Gotham who is very skilled at skinning, known as 'Madame No Name'."

"She has collected thousands of different human skins, each one flawless, which attracts Elliot wonderfully, because he despises his damaged appearance."

"Coincidentally, Madame No Name just happens to share a lab with another killer, 'Puppet Master', who is good at plastic surgery in the newly built New Arkham Mental Hospital. When Elliot barges in, they should be conducting research on subcutaneous tissue activity."

"I had prepared my tissue samples for Madame No Name and the Puppet Master, they made a face for Elliot, perfectly identical to Bruce Wayne's. More like me than I am."

"Of course, his prosthetic problem also needed to be solved, but compared to getting a new face, this was much simpler. Elliot wouldn't miss the Puppet Master's warehouse, and there just happened to be a perfect mechanical leg that perfectly suits his condition, no one would notice anything unusual about his leg."

"When he walked out of there, he was Bruce Wayne. But he wasn't going to let it end there. He had one last thing to do. That was to kill the little girl from the farmer's family, who had luckily escaped from him. She was the only survivor, and if Elliot wanted to begin his new life as Batman, he had to eliminate this risk."

"I put on the bat suit, pretending to be chasing him all the way, and met him at the home of the surviving little girl, Bellika. Only he got to Bellika and took her hostage first."

"To save this innocent little girl, I cut my own face open with a Batman dart, told him all the passwords that Batman had, then got knocked down by him and waited until agents from the Federal Investigation Bureau arrived to take me onto the helicopter."

"From then on, the lives of Elliot and Bruce switched. Elliot would become Wayne, the richest man in the world, the hero of Gotham, Batman. And Bruce would replace him as the Bandaged Murder Demon, paying the price for the numerous crimes he committed."

"Unsurprisingly, although Thomas Elliot had killed many people, he was still not up to the standard for solitary confinement in this prison. Amanda had thrown the Bandaged Murder Demon into a shared cell. I now had three cellmates."

"Luckily, this was a quite standard prison setup: among the four of us, one was very dominant, and one was especially weak."

"I selected Jimmy as my target, intensified the conflict between him and Big Dog, added some psychological suggestions to him, stood on Big Dog's side at the last moment, making him feel isolated and desperate, and therefore risk it all."

"The whole process was not difficult, but as I said, killing Big Dog wasn't difficult either. If I acted, I would have been much more decisive than Jimmy."

"So, what's the point of all this? Just to follow the formality and not personally kill?"

"But we know the shackles of morality no longer exist, at least they don't exist in one aspect of Bruce Wayne's personality."

"If so, why would we want use this complicated, thankless, overly intricate method to manipulate others?"

"I think we have the wrong way," said grey-eyed Bruce. "There must be a better way, simple and quick like instinct. Our goal is to find that way, discover its key, and then make it our own instinct."

The discussion fell quiet in the Psychic Battlefield. All the Bruces understood that this wasn't something that could be solved by theorizing."

So, the two extra figures slowly faded away. When Bruce opened his eyes, his pupils were covered with red bloodshot veins. Only the very center of his damaged, blood-filled eye retained a bit of blue. If not looked at carefully, it was just a pair of vicious and cold red eyes."

In the dim prison corridor, the jailer was still pacing endlessly, hitting the bars with his baton, making an annoying noise."

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Red bloodshot veins covered the edges of his blue eyes. These eyes were much murkier than those clear, ocean-like blue eyes. When Elliot woke, he saw a group of unhappy faces."

"Bruce, what is going on?! You're now the eldest disciple! Luther and Pamela are your junior brother and sister, can't you set a good example for them? You don't hand in your papers, you sleep during team meetings, if you don't want to study then just say it directly!"