Chapter 1774

"A more terrifying, more extreme possibility." Bruce looked at the surveillance screen, sighed, and said, "Perhaps the terrible consequence I stated to Pamela was not a joke."

"What do you mean?" Lex asked him, crossing his arms.

"If nothing went wrong, Talia should have rushed out of the Rodriguez estate half an hour ago in a state of being driven mad with anger, but she didn't."

"Maybe Professor Schiller subdued her."

Bruce just glanced at Lex, who said this, and while typing on the keyboard, said, "If it were Professor Schiller, then his response measures would not include 'subduing.' It's either kill or drive away. And if Talia was really subdued, that proves it wouldn't be the Professor."

"And we still have a worse option." Bruce stopped his movements, turned to look at Lex, and said, "Talia wasn't subdued; she was attracted."

He looked up again, letting the cold light of the surveillance screen shine on his angular features, and said as if sighing, "If Talia doesn't walk out of the Rodriguez estate in another two hours, she will have completely fallen."

Lex, sitting in the office chair to the side, crossed his arms and looked at Bruce with confusion and slight dissatisfaction, saying, "I don't understand. What exactly are you speculating about, and what are you worried about?"

Bruce's movements paused, as if considering the necessity of a detailed explanation, but seemingly thinking that Lex might be his teammate, he explained as thoroughly as possible.

"If Talia didn't come out, it proves that the person currently in this estate might not be Professor Schiller. You know, he has many personalities, and I happen to have seen the most dangerous one among them."

"Who?"

"Manipulation."

Bruce lowered his eyes. Lex saw unparalleled seriousness in his gaze, a level that couldn't be compared to the face he deliberately stiffened and the corners of his mouth he turned down when he was Batman.

"Beneath Schiller's Tower of Thought lies an abyss. There lies his essential pathology—not acquired, not even entirely evil, but the true Schiller during a period of time we have never touched and cannot understand."

"And compared to the personalities above the Tower of Thought, their most dangerous aspect is that their highest need is to satisfy their interests, without concepts of morality, law, or even emotion."

Bruce's Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he said, "They kill or save someone just because the process makes them feel interested."

"So what?"

"So as long as it's interesting enough, Manipulation will manipulate anyone and strike at anyone. This means we will also become his target."

"But why? We simply..."

"Because it's interesting." Bruce took a deep breath and said, "Usually, Professor Schiller also considers the interesting part, but that's just an add-on. He will gain benefits from an interesting thing, and will also add some fun to a thing that can bring benefits."

"But the pathology beneath the abyss will completely disregard benefits, satisfying its needs like an insatiable infant. Whether it will harm itself or others is not within their scope of consideration."

"Next, you might be surprised that his attitude changes so thoroughly." Bruce sighed and said, "It's as if we are his mortal enemies. He will try every possible way to eliminate us, but that's not because we are his enemies; it's just because he thinks doing so is interesting."

"What's interesting about it?"

"What's interesting is that he sits in a cool, air-conditioned room and just moves his mouth, and we have to be chased around by those bewitched by him in 38-degree Celsius weather."

"So, what's interesting about this?"

"You are not the kind of person who would strangle a sparrow with your bare hands at age seven, so you will never understand what's interesting about this." Bruce covered his forehead and said, "Sadists are happy for the pain of others; he just wants to find a suitable leisure activity for himself during the sweltering midsummer leisure time."

"Just like sitting by the bed, staring blankly, watching the fan blades spin, and feeling happy from imagining the machine working hard to provide you with coolness until it exhausts its lifespan and dies."

"Sounds very childish."

"Pathology is childish, regressive. Pursuing pleasure without regard for consequences is the privilege of an infant." Bruce stared at the screen, somewhat distracted, and said, "But do you dare say you've never done this?"

Lex sighed softly. He decided to talk about something more practical, so he said, "So we are like clowns in a circus, exhausting all our efforts to find some fun for him."

"Forget it, it's more like he let the lions out of the circus, and we are just two unlucky guys sitting in the audience."

"But you are his student."

"Therefore, he won't let me off the hook."

Lex slapped his forehead and said, "Then what exactly have you been doing these four years?"

"I've pretty much figured out what kind of person Professor Schiller is, but if you demand that I figure out the person 'Schiller,' then you'd better start burying your head in hard work in the lab from now on." Bruce looked up at the ceiling and said, "... And find a way to let me live another five million years."

When Talia woke up, she saw a dark brown ceiling. The fretwork pattern looked more like a nested labyrinth in her hazy field of vision, and what pulled her consciousness back was Schiller's voice.

"Miss Talia, Miss Talia, are you awake?"

Talia felt her cold sweat soaking through the silk sheets. Why was she lying defenseless in the house of a stranger, or even an enemy? She didn't even feel how the other party walked to her bedside!

In her past life, such a scene of losing vigilance had never appeared, so her thinking was interrupted for a moment. Just at this time, she felt something cold stuffed into her hand.

Talia looked down; it was a glass of ice water. She took a deep breath, gathered her thick black hair behind her head, placed the cup on the bedside table, and said, "Thank you, but I'm not thirsty."

She was truly afraid of this master-apprentice pair of breaking-bad poisoners.

Talia thought Schiller might have drugged her. Although she didn't drink the tea Schiller provided, she understood there were many ways to poison someone. Staying here any longer was not a good idea; otherwise, anything she touched might be poisonous.

"I'm very sorry, I intruded into your room presumptuously, but I knocked on the door outside and you didn't answer. I was worried something happened to you."

Schiller sat down by the bed. He turned his body, looked back at Talia, and said, "I came here to apologize to you, Miss. Just now, Miss Pamela came to me and brought me a piece of news: my student, Bruce Wayne, used a way that violates the law, is extremely immoral, and is even shocking to drug you while you were on a date with him."

Just as Talia was about to open her mouth to say something, Schiller pressed one hand on the sheets, leaned his body forward to look at Talia, and said seriously, "I don't know why you didn't tell me this the first time you came to see me, or perhaps this is an even worse signal: you knew his actions, but you didn't dare to hold him accountable."

Talia maintained the posture of having her mouth open, then closed her mouth and cast her eyes aside. She thought, so why didn't she righteously accuse Bruce to Schiller?

She couldn't say that if she had had time to let her nails scratch Bruce's skin earlier, the one drugged would have been Bruce, right?

Talia guessed this might be another probe from Schiller, so she said, "He might have done this because of some of my previous radical actions, so I..."

"For example?"

A trace of confusion appeared between Talia's brows. She looked at Schiller and said, "For example, what?"

"What radical behavior did you do?"

"Under the circumstances where he never left me his contact information, I dialed his private number several times, half of which were answered by his butler. I went to places he often frequented to find him, but didn't find him. I asked some of his classmates and friends where he went, but they didn't know."

"Simply put, you are harassing him."

Talia nodded without hesitation and said, "So if he..."

"Then he should apply to the police station for a personal restraining order against you, instead of drugging you."

Talia was truly stunned. She stared straight at Schiller, not knowing if she was having auditory hallucinations.

First of all, even if Schiller wasn't the mastermind who looked like he could manipulate the whole world, but just an ordinary Gothamite, the word "call the police" coming out of his mouth was magical enough.

"He seriously violated the law and morality, Miss Talia, and the only reason I can think of for you to be indifferent to this is that his identity and status threatened you, making you afraid to speak out about your encounter."

Schiller sighed softly, as if in pity, and said, "And if even you don't have this courage, I really find it hard to imagine who else would stand up in this situation."

"This is bad news for me, because it means it is very likely that in places I haven't paid attention to, my student has harmed many people in the same way, and they are all afraid to speak out."

Things happened too fast for Talia to understand what was going on, but the main reason was that Talia had never been a victim.

This beautiful and dangerous woman was a villain at any time. She was always only the perpetrator and the abuser. Crazy, evil, ruthless, dark, and terrifying were the comments she often heard.

"I think you might have some misunderstanding about me." Talia said, "I already emphasized to you earlier that I am not a weak little girl."

"He did make you lose consciousness, didn't he?" Schiller also looked at Talia and said, "Are you very sure you wouldn't encounter danger during that time?"

How could Talia be sure? In fact, this was the biggest stumble she had taken in ten years. It could be said that if their own plan hadn't gone wrong, Talia really wasn't sure what she would have encountered.

"I'm very sorry, putting pressure on the victim is not my intention." Schiller stood up from the bedside. His shadow covered Talia, which made her feel like a sparrow in front of a window.

"Regardless, my conscience tells me that I'm afraid I need to take some responsibility for my educational failure. I hope a sumptuous dinner can soothe your trauma, at least in part."

Schiller suddenly bent down slightly again. Talia was so stiff from the rapid closing of the distance between them that she didn't dare to move. When she turned her eyeballs slightly, she saw translucent fangs shining in the afternoon sun.

He must have bitten the necks of many people like this, injecting the venom of words into their brains, sucking, gnawing, devouring...

Schiller said, almost pressed against Talia's ear, "Please be sure to grace us with your presence, Miss Talia. Just consider it giving me a chance to soothe my inner guilt. Precious ingredients are offered as a sacrifice for your mercy."

After Schiller left, Talia sat on the bed for a long time without speaking.

She turned her head to look out the window, using the scenery outside to relax her mood and to concentrate her attention, which had been shattered and scattered since just now.