Chapter 1187: The Cries of the Lambs (16)

"Bruce... Wei En!"

】

Shiler staggered to his feet. He had just taken a deep breath when he felt the taste of blood filling his mouth.

Looking down, he saw the blood smeared on the wrinkled chest, cuffs, and trousers of his prison uniform, as well as the bloodstains on the floor where their footsteps had dragged during the struggle.

Shiler reached out a hand, wiped his lips with the base of his palm, gritted his teeth, bared them, and stared at Bruce before him.

Bruce had to admit that when this professor in front of him completely lost his elegant facade, he possessed both the dishevelment of a cornered beast at the end of its rope and a raw, natural ferocity.

In this state, Bruce saw Shiler's essence, as if he had never walked out of that mental hospital and the deranged life in his memories.

Now, Bruce finally understood why Shiler had always been pursuing the life of an ordinary person.

And the fact he had once stated—that autism cannot be cured—was not merely the delusion of a mentally ill person; when they tore off their disguises, it was as if they were still trapped in a frantic and bewildered adolescence.

Watching Shiler's aggressive posture, Bruce suddenly found that he was not panicked.

Perhaps this was because fear always stems from the unknown, and once he understood Shiler, he had the confidence to face him with a calm demeanor.

Bruce turned his body, took a large step back to the side, clearing the direction Shiler was staring at, and raised the hand closest to the door, pointing firmly toward the doorway.

"She did it."

Shiler naturally followed the direction of Bruce's finger and saw Amanda, who looked just as bewildered as he did.

Shiler, of course, would not be so easily distracted, but when he saw Amanda, he discovered that this face had appeared in the memories of the original Shiler, and so he began to instinctively recall matters concerning Amanda.

"You're that stupid girl who only knew how to charge blindly while chasing a killer, and nearly fell into a trap and burned to death in a newsstand?"

"What did you say?!"

Both of them appeared extremely astonished, and Amanda added an extra layer of fury; she still hadn't figured out what was going on.

Why did Bruce Wei En suddenly draw his own blood? Why put the blood in a cup to feed Shiler? Why did Shiler suddenly break free from his restraints using some magical method? Why did the two of them suddenly start fighting? Why did they end up hugging each other while fighting? Why did it seem like they were going to fight again after the hug?

For the first time, Amanda felt a sense of bewilderment, because she had also systematically studied psychology and had achieved excellent grades, so she also kept that saying in mind: never be interested in the mental world of a mentally ill person.

Coupled with her tragic background, which made her hate serial killers intensely, she had never attempted to understand them.

But at this moment, she felt a sense of bewilderment and regret for the first time, because she discovered that there were more mentally ill people around her than she had imagined, and they all seemed to live in another world; Amanda could not understand their behaviors and words at all.

It was as if someone had thrown a super cool party but hadn't invited her. Amanda, like every normal person who often deals with the mentally ill, even began to wonder if the world had gone mad, or if she had.

Shiler's words pulled her back to reality. She walked quickly from behind the table, stared at the disheveled Shiler, and asked in a raised voice: "What did you just say?!"

"!"

"You are Amanda Waller?" Shiler asked again. After seeing the look in Amanda's eyes, he said: "I think you've misunderstood one thing. The object of your hatred and the object of your revenge are not actually the same person. I am not the Shiler you know."

"Of course, I inherited his memories. His evaluation of you was actually quite good: a stupid girl blinded by hatred and reckless in her actions, who nearly died in a trap set by a serial killer. You aren't very suited for this line of work. If he hadn't been in such a rush at the time, he would have suggested you change careers."

Amanda's lips began to tremble continuously. She stared at Shiler with an incredulous gaze. Her reason told her that Shiler was completely raving and talking nonsense, but the serious look on Shiler's face told her that this was the entirety of the evaluation her former teacher had for her.

What could be more devastating than being persuaded to change careers only after having already managed to smash through a brick wall with your own head-butting skills?

Shiler took a deep breath, slowly straightened his body, looked at Amanda with some helplessness, and said: "The so-called clues you found back then about the murder of your family were actually left intentionally by the serial killer."

"He was a very typical mental sadist, whose goal was to watch you beg for answers in vain, and just when you gained a glimmer of hope and thought you were not far from victory, to be burned alive."

"The newsstand where you thought there were important clues was actually the place of execution he had chosen for you. As long as you went inside, you would be locked in and then die in despair."

Amanda looked at Shiler blankly. After a while, she slowly opened her mouth and said: "You mean, you actually appeared there that day to save me?"

But under her surprised gaze, Shiler shook his head again and said: "I'm not that kind-hearted. That was a newsstand; I went there just to buy a newspaper. I dismantled the ignition device because that thing was hanging on the rack, blocking me from checking the magazines on the lower shelf."

Amanda was dumbfounded. After several dozen seconds, she took a deep breath, grabbed her hair with both hands, and screamed: "You think I'll believe you?!"

"You damn cunning liars!"

"You'll stop at nothing to cause pain!"

"! I won't be fooled again!"

"!"

"The me from before was right; you really aren't very suited for this line of work." Shiler looked Amanda up and down and said in a very calm tone: "I guess your grades should be quite good, but you lack a certain inspiration that comes from talent, and you are a bit too emotional."

The extremely furious Amanda seemed to think of something; she immediately took a remote control from the inside pocket of her suit and pressed it toward Shiler.

Shiler had no reaction; he just let his gaze fall on Bruce again and said: "... But her grades are quite good."

Amanda froze in place.

Bruce raised his hands and took two steps back. The next second, he snapped his fingers. The door was opened, a figure walked in, and handed Bruce a remote control.

Bruce gently pressed a button on the remote.

Shiler stiffened for a moment, then with a "bang," he dissipated into a cloud of gray mist.

"Gray Mist, what's going on? What is that thing on my back?" Shiler asked in surprise in his mind: "What just happened? Why couldn't I move?"

"They implanted some strange little bugs in you; they call them nano-neural controllers," Gray Mist answered very obediently.

"Then when you were dealing with the wound on my back, why didn't you just swallow them while you were at it?" Shiler asked.

"Uh, I am a symbiote, so I don't quite understand your human definition of good or bad for certain things. But I could feel that when the Pathological personality was controlling the body and performing the implantation surgery, his excitement was extremely intense, almost breaking the threshold. He seemed to like this kind of thing, so I felt I couldn't destroy them without permission."

Instantly, Gray Mist drifted away without a trace. Bruce performed a roll on the spot, dodging the mist that suddenly appeared behind him. Three batarangs cut through the air with cold light, passing through the mist.

The next second, Bruce raised his arm to block in front of him. A cold flash of light from the tip of his umbrella-sword, and with a "swish," blood splattered.

"If I'm not mistaken," Bruce said while grabbing a stool nearby to block Shiler's umbrella, "the Pathological personality knew that I had long since bribed Dai Weisi, and also knew that I had influenced Dr. Fitzgibbon, who performed your surgery. He knew I was trying to control you."

Shiler stopped his attack. He stood in place, holding the umbrella in one hand and leaning against the wall with the other, looking at Bruce, and said: "What exactly do you want to do?"

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

"The Pathological personality said he is not a social human. He used a set of logic to prove why he is not a social human; for example, he does not participate in the emotional exchanges of normal society, so naturally, he does not need to conform to the norms established for emotional exchange."

"But this is precisely reminding me of an obvious fact—if you don't participate in emotional exchange, you aren't a social human, then why do you want to live in this society?"

"Why don't you find a deep mountain forest and live alone until you die of old age?"

"Admit it, it is you who need this society, not this society that needs you. No matter how much talent and genius you have, human civilization didn't reach today because of one or two geniuses... This is what Marxism told me."

"Since you factually enjoy all the resources brought by a modern society composed of ordinary people, don't think about wiping everything clean when it comes time to take responsibility. You want to enjoy the prosperity but don't want to follow the rules; there is no such good thing in this world."

Shiler slowly lowered his umbrella, and Bruce also lowered the arm holding the stool.

Shiler gently let out a breath. He stared straight at Bruce's face, as if he didn't recognize him.

"This fact makes me understand that all cold and cruel natural-born killers are not as invulnerable as they appear. They have demands of this society, so naturally, they have weaknesses."

Shiler slowly lowered his eyelids. He pursed his lips, as if unwilling, but Bruce still looked at him and said:

"In every process of patriarchal succession, no father is willing to admit that he is old, just as every teacher hopes that students can learn more from them. But when students truly learn everything, they feel panic because their social position might be replaced."

"This is because they are not sure whether the children who have taken over the authority truly love them, or whether they will ruthlessly watch them be abandoned by society because they have lost power."

Bruce saw Shiler's fingertips begin to tremble slightly, so he looked into Shiler's eyes and asked him: "How did my blood taste?"

Shiler paused, then looked up at Bruce with an incredulous gaze. Bruce shrugged slightly and said: "I'm sorry, but regardless, you have already drunk my blood."

"You will never be able to get rid of Batman's entanglement, but this also means that when I try to integrate into the society of ordinary people, you won't be able to leave either, and no one can drive you away, because they can't drive me away."

Bruce stood in place. When the light shone on his face, long shadows spread down from his brow ridge. At this moment, Shiler finally discovered how much he had changed compared to four years ago.

Perhaps in these four years, Bruce had not been standing still the whole time, but just like every Batman, he was accumulating strength for a lethal strike.

"I have thought countless times, how exactly should I save such a complex autistic patient?" Bruce said slowly.

"I considered all the conditions unfavorable to me and tried to overcome them one by one. But because it was very difficult, for a long time, the plan made no progress, which made me feel very desperate."

"But later, I discovered one thing: actually, you have been trying to save yourself all along, only you didn't realize it yourself."

"This includes your constant emphasis on your identity as an ordinary person, doing your best to follow social norms, or rather, Gotham norms, limiting yourself within a range, drifting on the boundary line between civilized society and the wilderness."

"You actively merged with the Joker, and it wasn't to gain more powerful strength; it was just that you didn't want this madman to break the norms you were striving to follow."

"All your restlessness comes from insecurity, from the insecurity of potentially being abandoned by the society of ordinary people."

"And because of the lack of self-awareness of the mentally ill, these instinctive actions of yours were rationalized by you using other reasons, and what made me realize this point was precisely the appearance of Sloth." ===== CHAPTER 1188 =====