Chapter 1204: The Lamb's Scream (16)_2

But under her stunned gaze, Shiller shook his head and spoke, "I'm not that kind-hearted. That's a newsstand and I went there to buy a newspaper. I dismantled the detonator because it was hanging in the way of me seeing the magazines on the lower shelf."

Amanda was dumbstruck. After a few seconds, she gasped, grabbing her hair and screamed, "Do you think I'm going to believe you?!! You damned cunning liars!! You will do anything to cause pain!!! I won't be fooled again!!!"

"The old me was right; you are not suitable for this line of work," Shiller scanned Amanda up and down, speaking in a calmly, "I guess, your grades must be good, but are lacking in some natural-born inspiration and zest, and a bit too emotional."

Amanda, extremely angry, seemed to have thought of something. She quickly took out a remote control from her suit pocket and pressed it towards Shiller.

Shiller had no reaction, he just returned his gaze to Bruce and said, "…but her grades are not bad."

Amanda was dumbfounded.

Bruce raised his hands, took two steps back, snapped his fingers, and the door opened. A figure walked in and handed Bruce a remote control.

Bruce lightly pressed a button on the remote control.

Shiller froze for a moment, and with a "bang", he dissipated into a cloud of gray mist.

"Gray mist, what's going on? What is on my back?" Shiller asked in surprise inside his mind, "What just happened? Why can't I move?"

"They implanted some weird little bugs in you, they call it a nano neural controller," Gray mist replied obediently.

"So why didn't you swallow them up when you were dealing with the wound on my back?" Shiller asked.

"Well, I'm a symbiont, so I don't quite understand your human notion of good or bad when it comes to certain things, but I could feel the morbid joy when he was performing the implant surgery. He seemed to really like this thing, so I thought I couldn't just destroy it myself."

In an instant, the gray mist dissipated completely. Bruce rolled on the spot, avoiding the mist that suddenly appeared behind him. Three Batman darts cut through the air with a chilling glow, piercing the mist.

The next second, Bruce raised his arm in front of him, the umbrella knife's tip flashed, "swish", blood splattered.

"If I'm not mistaken," Bruce calmly said while using a chair to guard against Shiller's umbrella, "Morbid knows that I had already bought Davis, and I influenced Dr. FitzGibbon who performed the surgery on you through him. He knows I'm trying to control you."

Shiller stopped his attack, standing there, holding an umbrella in one hand and leaning against the wall with the other, he looked at Bruce and asked, "What are you trying to do?"

"When I calmed down and thought carefully about every word he said to me, I realized he had already given me the answer. The way to deal with you born killers is hidden in his self-consistent logic."

"Morbid said he's not a social being, he used a set of logic to prove why he is not a social being. For example, he does not participate in normal societal emotional exchanges and naturally does not have to comply with rules set for emotional exchanges."

"But this is precisely a reminder to me of an obvious fact—if one does not participate in emotional exchanges, then one is not a member of society. So why would you want to live in society?"

"Why not find a secluded place in the mountains and live in solitude until death?"

"Admit it, it's you who need this society, not society that needs you. Even with all your talent and abilities, human civilization didn't reach today because of one or two geniuses…. this is what Marxism taught me."

"Since you enjoy all the resources brought by a modern society composed of ordinary people, don't try to shirk all responsibilities when it's time to bear them. You want to enjoy the prosperity but don't want to follow the rules. There's no such good thing in this world."

Shiller slowly lowered his umbrella, and Bruce also lowered his chair-guarding arm.

Shiller let out a small sigh, staring straight at Bruce's face as if he did not know him.

"This fact reminded me that all cold and cruel born killers are not as invulnerable as they seem. They seek something from society, and naturally they have weaknesses."

Shiller gently lowered his eyelids, his lips tightening as if he didn't want to admit it. But Bruce still looked at him and said:

"In every transition of paternal authority, no father willingly admits he's old. Just like every teacher hopes students can learn more from them. But when students truly learn everything, they feel terrified that their place in society could be replaced."

"This is because they are unsure if the children who take over their power truly love them, or if they will coldly abandon them when they lose power and are rejected by society."

Bruce saw Shiller's fingertips started to tremble slightly. He looked into his eyes and asked him, "How does my blood taste?"

Shiller paused, then looked up at Bruce with disbelief. Bruce lightly shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, but no matter what, you've tasted my blood."

"You can never get rid of Batman's entanglement, which also means, when I try to integrate into an ordinary society, you can't leave either. Moreover, no one can drive you away because they can't drive me away."

Bruce stood there, light falling on his face, long shadows creeping down from his brows. In this moment, Shiller realized how much he had changed in the past four years.

Maybe Bruce wasn't spinning his wheels these four years, like all Batmen, he was just gathering strength, preparing for a fatal blow.

"I've pondered countless times how exactly I should save such a complex patient with severe loneliness," Bruce began slowly.

"I considered all the conditions unfavorable to me and thought of ways to overcome each one. But because it was very difficult, the plan was virtually stagnant for a long time, making me feel very desperate."

"But later, I realized something. In fact, you have been trying to save yourself all along, you just didn't realize it."

"It includes your constant emphasis on the identity of ordinary people, making your best efforts to comply with social norms, or Gotham norms, limiting yourself within a scope, hovering on the border between civilized society and wilderness."

"You voluntarily merged with the Joker, not to gain more powerful power, but you didn't want this madman to break the norms you tried so hard to abide by."

"All your restlessness comes from anxiety, from the insecurity of possibly being discarded by an ordinary society."

"And due to the unawareness of mental patients, these actions derived from your instinct are rationalized by you with other reasons. The one who made me realize this, was Sloth's appearance."