Chapter 1273: The Bat Behind (Part 3)

"It seems you are very interested in the plans that this genius named Tony Stark is preparing behind the scenes." Batman's tone was always calm, but it carried a magic that made people want to listen quietly.

"Of course I'm very interested."

In the lounge of Stark Tower, Shiler leaned against the head of the bed. From his expression, one could tell his thoughts were complex, his brain running at full speed. He thought while saying, "Perhaps you don't know, this famous Iron Man is much more powerful than what you see."

"I'll give you a simple and easy-to-understand example. For you smart people, the human body limits your wisdom. And if he and you could borrow infinite energy to fully exert the wisdom contained in your brains, what kind of scene do you think that would be?"

"Did he do it?"

"Of course, he has ascended above the universe, experienced the realm of overlooking the entire universe, and even overlooking all universes. Infinite wisdom is no longer confined to life forms, reaching the limit of wisdom that life can reach..."

"Then he is no longer human," Batman evaluated. "A pure incarnation of wisdom has no meaning. If wisdom is not used for humans, then it is no different from not existing."

"And his strength lies in the fact that he didn't incarnate into a god, but chose to continue being a person. So although the Iron Demon God is very strong, it is still within the scope of understanding. He is not a god; you can understand it as above humans, below gods."

"What I mean is..." Shiler changed his posture, leaning back more, more relaxed. He waved his hand and said, "He is actually not omniscient and omnipotent. Even if he were, there are things he cannot change... There must be."

"And my prying into his plans is not just to satisfy my curiosity. I don't intend to interfere with him either. It's just that I know limited cognition will make him focus more on a certain aspect he is good at."

"But in fact, the plan he came up with might have greater potential than he imagines. And if I know what arrangements he has made, perhaps I can use the same plan to get greater benefits, right?"

Greed spread his hands and explained, "Why don't we do this? Why not pursue a more efficient way of utilization? Why not fix leaks, fill gaps, leverage strengths, avoid weaknesses, and cooperate with each other?"

After speaking, he shook his head and sighed again, saying, "I admit, my previous behavior might have scared them, making them go a bit overboard with my current treatment. They completely don't want me to participate in any plan that might make me worry, thinking that this can control my condition."

"But I think this is actually a complete waste. Those plans they are currently carrying out could have achieved greater results if they just let me take a look. I don't even need to participate, or just knowing part of the truth is enough..."

"The more you are like this, the more I feel they are right," Batman pointed out, hitting the nail on the head. "We generally call the behavior of unrestrained pursuit of maximum benefit 'gambler's psychology'."

"In fact, there is no maximum benefit at all; it's all your fantasy. We can set a bottom line for the effect of a plan, but we shouldn't desperately pursue the upper limit. This is heading toward destruction."

"Perhaps I should be greedier and set my sights on the vast universe to see if there are any other stars willing to shine on Cat Getan."

"But this doesn't mean that when I think of this, I fantasize that I can definitely find such a star, then feel that the sun has no reason to exist, and go blow up the sun. And the psychology of betting big on small always leads people to do this."

"Being overly focused on the final perfect result and constantly wanting to reach the goal in one step—before the first step taken has landed on solid ground, imagining that every step can achieve maximum benefit and using this as a basis to touch the final goal—the result will only be a crushing defeat."

Batman rarely speaks such a long string of words, but perhaps because Greed also said a lot when persuading him, he rarely explained his thoughts specifically. But Greed is Greed, and his main feature is being impervious to reason.

"That's because you don't control enough, don't control deeply enough. I have never imagined that every step of mine can achieve the maximum effect, but I firmly believe that every step of mine is under my control."

"I can calculate the benefits achieved at every step, so why can't I look directly at the end point?"

"But in this process, you will also be very painful." Batman's words exceeded Greed's expectations. He pointed out again as if he had a flash of inspiration: "Actually, you are fearing the end point. You are very afraid of 'ending'."

"But you know a fact, that is, everything in this world has a day of ending. The sun will go out, planets will shatter, people will die, the universe will be destroyed..."

"Because of fear, you constantly accelerate this process, because you feel that long-term pain is worse than short-term pain. Jumping directly to the end point means you don't have to be like being sliced by a thousand cuts, knowing that the end point is what you fear most, yet still having to walk toward it step by step."

Greed was rarely silent. He actually wasn't as taciturn as Arrogance. No matter the situation, he could always come up with a few witty remarks. He was definitely not a man of few words.

"You are feeling shocked." Batman, like a true mind reader, hit the nail on the head again. He continued, "You are shocked at why I understand Greed so well. You certainly know this wouldn't be told to me by Arrogance, because you haven't told him."

"But it was precisely the words you said to me earlier that made me look into a cage that had been forgotten. So, I remembered why I sealed my greed away in the first place, because I also felt painful because of it."

"Current life is unsatisfactory, but once I think that this unsatisfactory life has a day of ending, and everything around has a day of ending, my greed will produce endless pessimism. What Greed wants is eternal 'having', not sooner-or-later 'nothing'."

Suddenly, Batman paused, and then said a sentence that made Greed's heart tremble.

"But now, I have remembered this cage and can open it without any burden, releasing a part of greed that can be controlled to better do what I want to do."

"Your persuasion had some effect, but more importantly, I have confirmed that there is indeed a group of people who want my universe to head toward the end point they have planned, and that end point is not what I want."

"So, I should be more proactive..." Batman's voice was very light, not like he was talking, but like he was muttering.

But Greed looked at him quite anxiously and asked, "Since you already know that greed will bring terrible pessimism, then why can you release it, and why do you think you can control it?"

"Because I found something that truly never ends." Batman's tone suddenly had a trace of lightness. This was very rare, and Greed felt his heart jump into his throat.

At this moment, Greed felt a sense of vigilance. He felt that Batman had been guiding his thoughts. Greed certainly knew the gap between this mature Batman and that little bat was like a mountain and an abyss.

In a sense, Batman is also a master of psychology. He might not be proficient in theoretical knowledge, but he is definitely good at practice.

He can always persuade the person he wants to persuade at the right time and in the right place with extremely clever methods. This is already the culmination of the application of psychology.

Just as Jason from the main universe said, the meaning of the application of psychology is to persuade others, or to understand why others can persuade themselves.

But even knowing this, Greed still felt curious. He thought, if Batman gave an absurd answer, he just wouldn't believe it. He certainly had such right-and-wrong judgment.

"What is the thing you said that never ends?"

"Knowledge."

Greed was stunned for a moment.

Batman stood up from the theater seat with his hands on the armrests, walked to the front, and like a teacher, began to pace in the center of the room.

He didn't look cold at all, and even had an elegance and steadiness full of knowledge, making people involuntarily look forward to his explanation of the answer.

"Stars will go out one day, the universe will be destroyed one day, and people will die. We all know this day will come."

"But I think, as a psychiatrist, you must have heard a theory: the day a human truly dies is the day the world forgets him."

"We deduce in reverse: all the traces a human leaves in the world while alive are what he himself is."

"After the body ends, the social value he realized and the changes he made to this world have a lasting influence."

"Of course, these changes also have a day of ending, but the knowledge we can read from these changes, dig out, and pass on will not end, and there will never be a day of exhaustion."

"We can always obtain information from the operation of the universe and search for truth. From what a change produced by a person actually represents, to how a group of people embarked on a path because of their behavior, this knowledge is infinite."

"The exploration of the truth of the laws of operation of all things has no end point. Even those gods who can restart the universe at will have not mastered the truth; they have mastered power, not knowledge."

Greed really felt a bit fascinated. He seemed to see a path spreading out before his eyes, and it was also the first time he didn't see a hazy end point when a path appeared before his eyes.

He knew that the God of the DC world possessed infinite power, and he also knew that the OAA of the Marvel world could control everything. So, do these existences know where their power comes from?

From the reader's perspective, their power comes from the editor, so where does the editor's inspiration come from? Social humanities? Artistic creativity? Then where do these things come from? Human history? Brain evolution? Then where does this process come from? Star rotation? Life birth?

If you infer endlessly forward, you can only get one answer: no one has mastered the truth now. Even if they have mastered a part, it is not the whole. No formula can explain the whole world.

"You might feel that on this path of psychology, there isn't much left worth exploring. Your theory and application have reached the pinnacle, enough to answer the problems of you and the people around you."

Batman spoke again, stating an obvious fact, but he suddenly changed the subject, looked at Greed, and said: "But you only need to make a small change now. Not only can you establish a sense of security that never ends, but you can also solve the problems you are currently facing."

Greed looked at him blankly.

Batman stretched out his hands and spread them, then continued: "If you can produce research results that make Iron Man feel moved, he will naturally be willing to exchange the content of his plan, right?"

"You mean..."

"How is your math level?"

"Uh... I can count."

"Arithmetic?"

"If the unit is money, yes."

"Then now, you have an extremely precious opportunity." Batman walked up the steps in big strides, came to Greed again, and said:

"The door to another track is opening to you. Even with the wisdom of me and Iron Man, we haven't mastered one ten-thousandth of the truth. The magnificent world of science has infinite knowledge waiting for you to explore."

Greed stared straight at him and swallowed his saliva. He felt he was making a dangerous decision, but he still felt infinite greed for that path with no end point.

He is Greed, he just can't refuse, and doesn't want to refuse. The degree of danger is simply not within his consideration.

"So, can you..."

"I certainly can."

Batman narrowed his eyes. The lightness in his tone was not a hallucination. He said in such a tone: "After soul synchronization, we can decide whether to share the knowledge in our brains with each other. I have already obtained the permission... Let's start."

Greed opened his mouth, just about to shirk, when Batman snapped his fingers. With a "clatter," countless shadows descended from the sky of the theater.

In an instant, the entire theater was submerged by infinite books and papers, and Batman's voice sounded again:

"We can start from basic mathematics..."

A hand stretched out from the mountain-like pile of books. Greed climbed out of the pile of books with some difficulty and asked with difficulty: "... This is basic mathematics???"

"...'s table of contents," Batman continued.

Greed was stunned. He grabbed the book closest to him and opened the first page.

Soon, Arrogance, who was resting in his room, slowly raised the corners of his mouth, because he heard a familiar wail echoing in the Thinking Tower.

"What is this????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Trying to unilaterally fool the old bat is thinking too much. ===== CHAPTER 1274 =====