Chapter 2097: Knight's Terrifying Night (39)_1

Having grown up in the underworld of Gotham, Jason was never afraid of blood and violence. By the time he returned as the Arkham Knight, he had long since discarded any moral burden.

He was not only unafraid to kill, but he also didn't mind dismemberment, as long as it made criminals pay. He was bold enough to use the most bloody means.

However, dissecting a living person was entirely different.

Especially when the person was aware and could feel pain; cutting open their skin, dismantling their bones, delving into the inner depths of their organs, this brought about an unparalleled shock.

Jason clearly saw the Joker's smile freeze on his face, an expression of pain like any other human.

This is more than just bloodshed, Jason thought.

The first time, he didn't understand what the impact came from, but soon he had more opportunities because, even though his surgical techniques were terrible, Shiller handled the aftermath and the Joker did not die.

He was still alive, and his excised organs started to grow back.

Jason barely had time to marvel at the medical miracle before he was about to perform the second organ extraction, with him as the main surgeon and Shiller assisting.

This time Jason was finally more stable, at least he could focus on the incision rather than the Joker's face, and he wouldn't shake when he touched the burning organs.

So, Shiller began his teaching.

Of course, it was proper surgical technique education, but it didn't involve much difficult knowledge, just roughly pointed out the cutting location and technique.

But the weird feeling in Jason's heart grew stronger and stronger.

Then came the third, fourth, and so on. One time after another, they removed only a small part of an organ and then recorded the speed at which it regrew.

The Joker screamed in laughter.

Jason had no sympathy, only the strange feeling kept him teetering on the brink of an emotional breakdown.

After countless more times, Jason felt he had cut out enough organs to piece together a human's internal parts. Shiller continued to instruct intermittently, and the Joker's reactions kept getting stronger.

Finally, Shiller had Jason gouge out the Joker's eyeball.

"First, cut under the brow bone and remove some of the skin around the eye. Normally we wouldn't do this in an eyeball removal surgery, but it's not necessary to consider aesthetics right now."

"Then press down here, hard..."

Shiller's voice kept echoing in Jason's ears, and the sharp, blood-stained scalpel hung over the Joker's eye.

A hand held Jason's, guiding the blade to the pitch-black pupil. Jason knew that with a slight push, the blade would pierce the eyeball.

The Joker wasn't anesthetized, his eyelids had been cut off, and he had to watch everything.

Jason's hand began to shake violently. Panic consumed him, and in the moment he was about to cut, he finally realized the source of his unease.

From the very beginning, Shiller never treated the Joker lying on this operating table as a person.

Shiller had no reaction to the pain exhibited by the specimen on his operation table. Jason could not feel any deliberate ignorance in Shiller's actions. Shiller was simply purely insensitive to it.

As if Shiller did not perceive the Joker as his kin, not as a living being, but merely a lamb ready to be slaughtered.

Breaking through the moral bottom line, Jason had been able to face blood and death head on, but Shiller wasn't just bloody, he was slightly inhumane.

"Don't worry, Jason," Shiller smiled at Jason sitting across the sofa, "Eat something, you need to regain your strength."

Jason slightly flinched. He was not sure if Shiller was hinting that he might be the next one to lose a significant amount of blood and physical strength on the operating table.

He remembered Shiller saying, "Either cut him open, or I'll cut you open."

Eventually, Jason didn't remove the Joker's eyeball.

He could not bring himself to do it. He couldn't do it, even if it was the Joker, even if his eyeball would grow back.

He couldn't find any reason to inflict this sort of pain using such methods. He was afraid.

Jason isn't usually a stickler for rules, and he doesn't fear threats from others, because he can be a man of his word and can keep others from fulfilling their threats.

But now, he had neither.

Jason realized he had walked into a trap. The creature in front of him wasn't human. It was a monster.

"Well, it seems this isn't to your taste." Shiller rose, buttoned his jacket, and said to Jason, "Come on, let's continue."

Jason found that he could only follow.

Of course, he could choose to attack Shiller with violence. There was a chance to win, and he had considered this method.

But the main reason he didn't dare to take action was that he couldn't accept the consequences of failure.

By then, death would become a true blessing.

The Joker made Jason wish that Batman would come to save him, but Shiller made Jason uncertain that he could hold on until Batman did come, and even made Jason feel as though it would all be futile even if Batman did come to save him.

Jason followed Shiller back down to the basement, where he found the Joker had been moved to another operating table.

He immediately tensed up, and couldn't help but wonder, who was the vacant operating table for?

Yet Shiller didn't stop before the operating table. Instead, he halted, turned around, and looked at Jason. His focused gaze made Jason feel like a frog under the beam of a flashlight.

"Jason, I have a request now, and I hope you can do your best to fulfill it, okay?" Shiller stepped forward, looking into Jason's eyes as he spoke.

Jason didn't respond, but Shiller continued speaking on his own accord: "I hope that you can lie down on the surgery table and stay as calm as possible."

Finally, an emotion of despair emerged in Jason's eyes as he felt a surge of warmth concentrating in his chest.

"Go on, Jason." Shiller extended a hand to support Jason's arm.

But even in such a desperate situation, there wasn't a shred of anger or resolve to fight to the death that rose within him. He had even lost the courage to die; leaving him with nothing but inexplicable numbness and melancholy.

Jason followed Shiller and laid down on the operating table, his feet flat on the tabletop.

At this moment, his mind was completely blank.

No fear, no anxiety, no pain. For the first time, Jason truly let his mind go blank, surrendering his control completely.

Shiller picked up the scalpel.

Jason wasn't scared, to the point where he couldn't even conceive what might happen next. It was as if he had suddenly become a brainless creature, his thoughts and memories were all blank.

Shiller's hand pressed on Jason's eyes, helping him to smoothly close his eyelids. When he felt the cool touch on his eyelids, he heard Shiller say, "Jason, how do you feel?"

"Jason... Jason..."

Shiller's calls couldn't bring Jason's thoughts back. His mind remained blank, unable to think about anything.

Then he felt a finger waving in front of his eyes, the direct glare of the light, a hint of pain in his arm, and a throbbing in his kneecap.

Jason was unable to come back to reality, descending into a state of absolute emptiness.

After some time, Jason felt a pair of strong hands grabbing his arm, then supporting his back, helping him sit up from the operating table. He then turned and sat at the edge of the table.

When the blood started flowing back to his brain, Jason finally came back to his senses. He turned his head to see Shiller putting the scalpel back into its box.

"How do you feel?"

Jason felt like a huge burden had been lifted, but he was still very confused. His thoughts became incredibly clear, his mind active once again. The emotions that had plagued him were gone.

The world seemed to be brand new.

Shiller looked at him with a smile and asked, "Have you heard of Collapse Therapy?"

Jason shook his head.

"You put yourself in the worst possible situation for a while, then you can muster the courage to face a life full of troubles again. Sounds simple, right?"

"But most people do not achieve the expected results with this therapy, or after practicing it they find that although they've indeed collapsed, their emotions have not been alleviated."

Jason leaned towards Shiller's side, although he knew he shouldn't have done that. His rationality was telling him that the man was dangerous, but he felt everything was under control.

He felt so wonderful in his current state.

"Many people believe that the principle of this therapy is for anxious people to understand what the worst situation is like, and then they know that the negative emotions they're currently facing are nothing."

"People think that once they've hit rock bottom, they will cherish the life before their eyes even more, but the human brain is not that simple."

"Using rationality, we can think about what the worst outcome would be and understand the consequences we might have to bear. Failing an exam would mean facing a darker life, failing to complete work might mean becoming a vagabond, failing to repay debts could lead to a credit collapse."

"We don't really have the courage to experience all of this, so we fabricate a virtual collapse scenario to deceive ourselves into thinking that we've experienced it all, and then deceive ourselves further by saying that it's not a big deal."

"But this is actually a superficial therapy. I can't say it's completely useless, but for those with severe conditions, pure psychological therapy that does not involve physical treatment is useless."

"The true essence of Collapse Therapy is that the human brain has a built-in restart function. But the password for activating it is rather complex and generally difficult to operate."

Jason took a deep breath, even finding it easier to talk, and said, "But you succeeded. It's hard to describe how good I'm feeling right now."

"Not surprising." Shiller helped Jason down from the surgery table and said, "Not to brag, but of the people you know, I'm probably the only one who could do it."

"How did you do it?" Jason touched his upper body full of curiosity. His senses seemed to have been cleansed, and everything was clear and bright as if it were freshly wiped glass.

"It's difficult, Jason, as I've said. For other psychiatrists, the most difficult part is that you must completely breakdown someone's psyche in order to force the brain to rebuild it."

"Against professional ethics?"

"Always." Shiller nodded and said, "It also requires the patient's mental state to be extremely unstable, far from any familiar environment. In a completely enclosed space, they must endure what can only be described as mental torture until their psyche is completely depleted."

Jason remembered the feeling of his mind going blank.

At that time, he couldn't think, he couldn't do anything. Besides feeling his own existence, there was nothing else in his brain. He indeed felt totally drained.

"Joker deserves a lot of credit too." Shiller said, "The torment of that year, the shock of the previous night, plus the emotional pull from us afterward, barely managed to restart you."

"I must say, Jason, your strength and determination exceed my expectations. I thought that after the first surgery you would have reached the ideal state."

Just as Jason was about to sneer and say that he wasn't that weak, he heard Shiller say with a chuckle.

"It's good that you restarted in time, just now, I was wondering how to explain to Batman that your eyeball was gone."

Right now, Jason really wanted to see Batman.