Chapter 12: Pride and Prejudice (Part 2)

After Gordon and Batman left the basement of the small church, both of them seemed a bit silent. After all, the place they had just been in had buried dozens of lives in just one month.

Cat Getan is a dark city, but when this kind of darkness is laid out naked in front of people, only those with strong willpower can digest the impact brought by this deep darkness.

Both Batman and Gordon's hearts were now surging with countless emotions. The first case handled by the newly arrived Batman, this seemingly boundless evil and darkness without light, was placed in front of him. He suddenly discovered that, just as Shiler said, he might not have been fully prepared.

Powerful force is just a means to survive here, but to save this city, force alone is far from enough.

Just as he was thinking this, Batman turned a corner and saw Shiler standing on the second floor again, holding an umbrella. Under the balcony was the place where the beggar used to stay.

Batman felt an absurdity again. This damn murderer who killed dozens of innocent lives, why did he dare to stand here? Why are there some people in this world who can be indifferent to fresh lives? Even cruel enough to kill them without hesitation.

Batman's depressed emotions turned into anger. Under Gordon's gaze, he jumped up from the street, jumping directly onto the balcony more than two meters high.

"Your trial is coming, damn murderer," Batman said.

"Did you find the evidence you wanted?" Shiler asked.

"Of course, and this evidence is enough to judge you."

Shiler suddenly laughed. He said in an extremely light tone: "How ridiculous, you are still thinking about judging me. The Cat Getan City Police Department should really give you a Good Citizen Medal. You are really a great police officer."

"If there had been such a great police officer when your parents died, who found the evidence left by the murderers and judged them, that would have been great. Is that what you think?"

"You don't trust the police, don't trust the court, but you still go looking for evidence, trying to use the correctness of the judiciary to judge me. Don't you think what you are doing is very contradictory?"

"You want to prove that I violated the law, Batman. Your actions also violate the law. If I am to be judged, you will be too. You are using criminal behavior to prove that a criminal is a criminal, aren't you?"

Shiler raised his voice and said with cadence: "You think you have the ability to take revenge on criminals in your own way. But in the end, you are still an ordinary person tamed by this orderly society. You are still talking about evidence, demanding judgment with your mouth."

"If you can't cast these aside, can't cast aside these shackles imposed on you by the orderly society, can't erase the concepts about law and judicial procedures in your mind, you will never be able to uphold the justice you want."

"Bruce..." Shiler looked into his eyes and said:

"Law is not justice, you are."

"Cat Getan's law didn't save your parents, just as it didn't save these dozens of missing people. If you still hold any meaningless fantasies about it, you will never become the real Batman."

Shiler could clearly see Batman's arms trembling. His hands holding the bat dart were covered with blue veins, and his whole body was even trembling. Obviously, he had become extremely angry.

These words of Shiler were really too heart-piercing. He revealed a biggest contradiction of young Batman.

Cat Getan's law couldn't save his parents, but Batman, who kept saying he wanted revenge, was still bound by that set of order. In the end, what he followed was still judicial justice.

"You want me to uphold my own justice?" Batman asked. Then he raised a gun and pointed it at Shiler's forehead.

Batman certainly had a gun. In Cat Getan City, without this kind of thermal weapon, you could almost not survive. Let alone upholding justice.

Shiler was still very calm. He said: "You haven't answered my previous question. Did you find the evidence you wanted? What is it?"

"On the side of the crate in the basement of the small church, there was a stain you left. Inside were mud and leaves, which are leaves of the North American red pine that only exist in Cat Getan University."

Shiler said: "What can that represent?"

"Representing that you are the murderer," Batman said.

"Is that so? I appeared on the street of the Mosson block for no reason, and my dress and actions were very suspicious. And you found leaves belonging to Cat Getan University at the crime scene, indicating that the murderer might be someone in Cat Getan University, so I am the murderer. What a rigorous deduction," Shiler said.

Batman looked at his expression without any remorse or guilt, his light tone, his anger really reached the peak. Just as he wanted to pull the trigger, Gordon, who ran over, shouted: "Stop! Put down the gun!"

Batman was interrupted for a moment. Shiler threw a memory card on the ground between them and said:

"Solid evidence? The murderer went to Cat Getan University, and I am a university teacher, which is really very solid."

"Yeah, how much you hoped that when your parents passed away, there could have been someone like you now, giving the murderer a shot cleanly, because the evidence was solid."

"Don't mention my parents..." Batman said with a trembling voice, "You criminal."

"You thought of many similarities," Shiler said.

"But your anger made you ignore more, more differences."

"For example, I have never had any educational background related to chemistry and biology. For example, I have participated in the investigation of countless serial murder cases, and my anti-reconnaissance awareness won't be so bad that I won't even clean up my footprints. More importantly..."

Shiler looked at that memory card and said: "My evidence is much more solid than yours."

Because of Gordon's interruption, Batman's anger dropped slightly. After his reason returned, he felt that even in such cold and wet weather, sweat had soaked through the shirt on his back.

Batman vigilantly picked up the USB flash drive. He inserted the USB flash drive into the microcomputer on his arm, and a projection popped up.

At this time, Gordon also ran into the balcony by a detour. He saw in the video that a person wearing a plaid shirt was sneaking on the air conditioning unit of a house, extending a soft tube into the window. The people who were standing and sitting in the room fell down one after another, and after that person jumped off the air conditioning unit, he walked into the corridor. Before long, he dragged two large boxes, put them on a trolley, pushed them away, and the people in the room had already disappeared.

This was the inspiration Batman gave Shiler. Tier really lacked anti-reconnaissance awareness. Shiler stood in the corridor of the building opposite him, holding a camera to shoot, and he didn't notice it at all.

But it was also true. No one in Cat Getan City would come out to stroll in the middle of the night, especially coming to this kind of slum place. If you were not careful, you would lose your life.

Gordon suddenly shouted: "No wonder!"

"I remember when registering the addresses of missing persons, it was indeed the residents on the lower floors who suffered more. Almost all victims' houses had balconies..." Gordon said.

Then he looked at Batman and Shiler. He said angrily to Batman: "I really misjudged you. Did you just want to shoot? Do you know you almost killed someone just now?!"

Batman looked silently at the projection on his arm. As long as you weren't blind, you could see that the murderer's figure in the video was completely different from Shiler's.

Although Shiler didn't fight or exercise, his figure was still very tall, only a little shorter than Batman, and a little thinner, but at least he was close to 1.9 meters, and his weight wouldn't exceed 60 kilograms.

"Professor Tier is a good person, is that what you think? Because he doesn't check homework, has a good attitude toward you, and will never fail you. But I am different. I am a very troublesome professor, always picking faults in homework, taking exams for no reason, and threatening that all students have the possibility of failing."

"So of course I am the murderer, and he is not. After all, how could such a cowardly, taciturn, thin, and small person be a serial murderer?"

"Don't say any more," Batman said with a trembling voice.

He recalled the scene when facing the beggar that day again. He could still see the stain left by the beggar leaning against the wall from the corner of his eye. That kind of strong guilt and shame surrounded him again.

And Gordon's words were adding fuel to the fire. He said: "I don't care where you are a freak from, causing trouble in the city in a tight suit, but you almost killed a good person. What kind of grudge do you two have? If you have a private grudge, then solve it yourself, don't interfere with the police handling the case."

"Aren't the police in Cat Getan City busy enough? You want to kill in front of me, are you hoping that I will send you to eat prison food immediately?" Gordon said.

Several days of overtime had already made him irritable. He said impatiently: "Tight-suit freak, give me that USB flash drive, I'm going to take it back for the record... This gentleman, please come back with me. You seem to know who the murderer is, we need clues..."

After being silent for a while, Batman silently stretched out his arm and handed the USB flash drive to Gordon.

He found that his debut journey, which he had been full of confidence in this time, was completely adding chaos. The criminal Shiler he thought was actually helping a lot and provided the most critical evidence.

Shiler didn't speak again, and Batman stood in place, while on the street outside, the rain that couldn't be finished began to fall again.

Just when he was about to follow Gordon away, he heard Batman behind him say: "... Sorry, Professor."

Shiler's footsteps paused. He felt a bit incredible. What did Batman just say???

He just apologized???

Shiler turned his head in disbelief. Batman stood in the shadow cast by the building. The only beam of light shone on his mask. He pursed his lips tightly. Shiler felt very absurd.

He is Batman after all.

Because he is Batman.

And Batman is always right.

Batman will not apologize to anyone.

Facing everyone's questioning, he would only say one sentence: "Because I am Batman."

In the Batman comics, Shiler had seen too many dark sides of Batman, such as preparing kryptonite to guard against Superman, such as preparing a set of plans to deal with everyone in the Justice League. He seemed not to trust anyone, not even himself.

It has to be said that the editors of the comics made this character more charming when creating him. It can also leave a deeper impression on readers.

But this also caused a prejudice of Shiler against Batman.

He thought Batman should be like that, like in the comics. Batman would never apologize because he didn't think he was wrong. He thought those measures to guard against companions were very necessary.

This gave Shiler a prejudice: Batman isn't that he won't apologize, but when he truly finds out he is wrong, he will still feel regret and guilt.

Shiler did want to teach young Batman some principles, such as not holding prejudice, not judging people by their appearance, not being blinded by anger, and maintaining independent thinking.

But Shiler suddenly found that he didn't have the qualifications to teach Batman not to hold prejudice, because he himself had an indelible stereotype about this character. He hoped Bruce could become the Batman in the comics in his mind, and the faster this process, the better.

But now it looks like this story isn't a wise and knowledgeable professor and his young and reckless student, but a very classic "Pride and Prejudice."

Batman, with absolute pride in his own deduction, thought Shiler must be the murderer. When he held a prejudice with preconceived notions, plus some evidence that just happened to match the prejudice, he almost shot Shiler.

But Shiler also held a prejudice against Batman, thinking he should be the dark hero who is old, cautious, and suspicious like in the comics.

The two can't be said to be fifty steps laughing at a hundred steps, but they can be said to be half a catty to eight taels.

Now Batman seems to have learned this lesson. He clearly realized that he is not omniscient and omnipotent.

His deduction will also be limited by prejudice, resulting in great fallacies, and his impulsiveness under this pride seems even more fatal.

He saw the scar on Shiler's neck, which was left by his bat dart before. At that time, he assumed Shiler was a criminal and threatened him in the way of treating criminals. Although he didn't shoot today, as Gordon said, that wound was very deep, and it was likely to leave a scar forever.

Batman felt guilty and very scared.

He thought, the fact that the law cannot correctly judge every criminal is not a reason for him to use his pride to judge others at will.

And when he cannot guarantee that he is 100% correct, any impulsive violent behavior may leave an indelible scar on an innocent person, or even a good person.

He was just celebrating that the price paid by the innocent person was not life.

Batman stood in the shadow and thought, he would forever prevent this possibility from happening, so he decided that no matter how heinous the criminals he faces in the future, he would never kill them.

If any innocent person dies unjustly in his hands, he will become a more abominable criminal than the one who killed his parents.

Because the criminal who killed his parents might just be for money or revenge, and the destruction they caused was two lives.

And if Batman kills innocent people indiscriminately, then this city will have no hope.

In the comics, the setting that Batman doesn't kill seems to have existed from the beginning.

Shiler hadn't explored why this was. He felt this setting was very annoying. For example, facing that group of annoying criminals, that group of crazy people who broke out of prison again and again to make trouble, why couldn't Batman kill them? He had thought so countless times when reading comics.

But he didn't expect that in this world, young Batman was precisely because of him, precisely because of Shiler, that he firmed up his idea of not killing criminals.

Because he is Batman, he is the only hope of this city. If he is crushed by the guilt of killing innocent people, then this city will be completely hopeless.

By chance, although Shiler still failed to let young Batman establish his own spiritual pillar, he successfully completed a setting for Batman, which is not killing.

Shiler wouldn't think that in the days to come, he would regret his meddling this time countless times.

When Batman became fully mature, Shiler had roared countless times in his heart: Why can't Batman just move his fingers and choke that group of damn criminals to death, so they don't appear in front of him again and again to break his peaceful life!!

And all of this stems from today's events, all of which he brought upon himself.