Chapter 2060: Knight

Jason, who grew up in the underbelly of Gotham, was never afraid of blood and violence. When he returned as the Arkham Knight, he had long since cast aside all moral burdens.

He was not only unafraid of killing, but he also didn't care about dismemberment; as long as it made criminals pay the price, he dared to use the bloodiest of methods.

But dissecting a living person was entirely different.

Especially when the other party was conscious and capable of feeling pain—cutting open their skin, dismantling their skeleton, and reaching one's hand into their viscera to touch the deepest parts of a person—the impact this had on one was unparalleled.

Jason clearly saw the Joker's smile freeze on his face; he actually revealed an expression of pain just like any ordinary person.

This is more than just bloody, Jason thought.

But the first time, he didn't understand where this impact came from. However, he soon had more opportunities, because he discovered that even though his surgical technique was terrible to the extreme, the finishing work was still done by Schiller for him, and the Joker did not head toward death.

He was still alive, and the lost organs were gradually growing back.

Jason hadn't yet had time to marvel at the appearance of a medical miracle before the second organ removal came. It was still Jason as the primary surgeon and Schiller as the first assistant.

This time, Jason was finally a bit more stable; at least he could focus his gaze on the incision rather than the Joker's face, and when he touched those scalding organs, his hands didn't shake.

Thus, Schiller began his teaching.

Of course, it was proper surgical technique instruction, but it didn't involve too much difficult knowledge; he just pointed out the incision locations and methods roughly.

But the strange feeling in Jason's heart grew thicker and thicker.

Then came the third time, the fourth time, time and time again, each time removing only a small portion of organs, then recording the speed at which they regrew.

The Joker was screaming while laughing.

Jason had no feelings of sympathy, but the strangeness in his heart kept him hovering on the edge of an emotional breakdown.

Then came who knows how many more times; Jason felt that the organs he had cut off could already be pieced together into a complete set of human viscera. Schiller was still giving intermittent guidance, and the Joker's reactions were becoming greater and greater.

Finally, Schiller asked Jason to gouge out the Joker's eyeballs.

"First, make an incision below the supraorbital ridge, and remove a portion of the eyelid first. Usually, we wouldn't do this in an eyeball removal surgery, but obviously, there is no need to consider aesthetics now."

"Then use your hand to press here, and press down with force..."

Schiller's voice lingered by Jason's ear the whole time, and the sharp, blood-stained scalpel hovered over the Joker's eyeball.

A hand pressed down on the back of Jason's hand, making the tip of the blade stick to the pitch-black pupil. Jason knew that as long as he applied a little force, the scalpel would definitely pierce the eyeball.

And the Joker was not anesthetized, and his eyelids had been removed; he had to keep his eyes open to witness all of this.

Jason's hand began to tremble crazily, and a panic swallowed him. At the moment he was about to cut, he finally realized the source of the strange feeling.

Schiller had never once treated the Joker on the operating table as a human being.

Schiller had no reaction to the pain shown by the person on the experimental table. Jason didn't feel any element of deliberate ignoring in that; Schiller simply couldn't feel any of his pain at all.

It was as if that wasn't his own kind, not a living, breathing person, but just a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Breaking through moral bottom lines could allow Jason to face blood and death directly, but Schiller wasn't bloody; he was a bit anti-human.

"Don't worry, Jason." Schiller smiled and looked at Jason across from the sofa, saying: "Eat something; you need to replenish your strength."

Jason shuddered slightly. He didn't know if this was Schiller hinting that he might have to lie on the operating table next and lose a large amount of blood and strength.

He remembered Schiller saying, "Either cut him open, or I cut you open."

Jason ultimately did not gouge out the Joker's eyeball.

He really didn't dare to do it anymore; he found that he couldn't do it, even if it was the Joker, and even if his eyeballs would grow back.

But he really couldn't find any reason to bring such pain to a person in such a posture; he retreated.

Jason was usually not a person who paid much attention to rules, nor was he afraid of others' threats, because he could always do what he said, and he had the ability to make the other party unable to realize their threats.

But now, he had neither.

Jason found that he had placed himself in a lair; what was in front of him wasn't a person at all, but a monster.

"Alright, it seems this isn't to your taste." Schiller stood up, buttoned his suit jacket, and said to Jason: "Come over, let's continue."

Jason found that he could only do as he was told.

Of course, he could choose to attack Schiller with violent means; it wasn't that there was no chance of winning, and he had thought of this method too.

But the biggest reason he didn't dare to act was that he couldn't accept the consequences of failure.

By then, death would truly become a mercy.

The Joker made Jason hate Batman for not coming to save him; Schiller made Jason unsure if he could hold out until Batman came to save him, and made Jason feel that even if Batman came to save him, it would be meaningless.

Jason followed Schiller back to the basement, and he found that the Joker had already been moved to another operating table.

He immediately became nervous and couldn't help but think: who was the empty operating table for?

Who knew that Schiller didn't stand in front of the operating table, but stopped his steps, turned around, and looked back at Jason. That focused gaze made Jason feel like a frog shrouded in the light of a flashlight.

"Jason, I have a request now. I hope you can try your best to do it, okay?" Schiller stepped forward, looked into Jason's eyes, and said.

Jason didn't answer, and Schiller spoke on his own: "I hope you can lie on the operating table and stay as calm as possible."

Despair finally appeared in Jason's eyes, and he felt a hot current gathering in his chest.

"Go on, Jason." Schiller reached out and supported Jason's arm.

But even in this desperate situation, there was still not a shred of indignation to fight to the death surging in his heart; he even lost the courage to die, leaving only an indescribable numbness and desolation.

Jason followed Schiller, walking step by step to the operating table, lying on his side, with his feet flat on the table.

At this moment, his brain was blank.

No fear, no anxiety, no pain; for the first time, Jason truly thought of nothing, completely emptying his brain and handing over all rights of control to someone else.

Schiller picked up the scalpel.

Jason still didn't feel afraid; he couldn't even think about what would happen next, as if he had suddenly become a creature without a brain, with his thoughts and memories all blank.

Schiller's hand pressed on Jason's eyes, allowing him to close his eyelids smoothly. When that touch of coldness dripped onto his eyelids, he heard Schiller say: "Jason, how do you feel?"

"Jason... Jason..."

Schiller's calling couldn't pull back Jason's thoughts; his brain remained blank, and he thought of nothing.

Immediately following that were fingers waving before his eyes, the direct light, a trace of pain coming from his arm, and his knees being tapped until they were sore.

Jason couldn't regain his senses at all; he had fallen into a state of extreme emptiness.

I don't know how much time passed, but Jason felt a pair of powerful hands grab his arms, then support his back, allowing him to sit up from the operating table, and then turn around to sit on the edge of the operating table.

When blood was pumped back to his brain, Jason finally regained consciousness. He turned his head and saw Schiller putting the scalpel back into the box.

"How do you feel?"

Jason felt a sense of relief, but he was still very confused. He felt his thinking become incomparably clear, his mind becoming active again, and certain things that had been entangling his emotions were gone.

The world seemed brand new.

Schiller smiled as he looked at him and said: "Have you heard of breakdown therapy?"

Jason shook his head.

"Placing yourself in the worst situation within a period of time, and then you can regain the courage to face a life full of trouble. Sounds simple, right?"

"But most people don't successfully use this therapy to achieve the expected therapeutic effect, or after practicing it themselves, they find that while a breakdown did indeed occur, their emotions didn't get any relief."

Jason leaned his body toward Schiller's side, but he knew he shouldn't have done that; reason told him the other party was very dangerous, but he just felt everything was under control.

He felt that his current state was too good.

"Many people think the principle of this therapy is to let people who feel anxious understand what the worst situation is like, and then they can know that the negative emotions they are facing now are nothing more than that."

"People think that when they experience rock bottom, they will love the life in front of them more, but the human brain isn't that simple."

"By reason, we can also think of what the worst outcome is, and also understand what consequences we might bear: failing an exam means facing a grimmer life, failing to finish work might mean becoming a homeless person, and not paying back debts will lead to a collapse of credit."

"We don't have the real courage to experience all of this, so we fabricate a virtual breakdown scene to deceive ourselves into thinking we have experienced all of this, and then deceive ourselves again by saying this is actually nothing."

"But this is actually just superficial therapy. I can't say it's completely useless, but for people with more severe conditions, pure psychotherapy that doesn't involve somatic treatment is useless."

"And the true meaning of breakdown therapy is actually that the human brain comes with a restart function; it's just that the password to activate it is relatively complex, and under normal circumstances, it is very difficult to operate."

Jason took a deep breath and even found that it wasn't that hard to speak. He said: "But you succeeded. It's hard for me to describe to you how good I feel right now."

"Not strange." Schiller supported Jason as he got off the operating table and said: "I have no intention of boasting, but among the people you know, I'm afraid only I can do it."

"How did you do it?" Jason touched his upper body full of doubt; at this moment, his senses also seemed to have been washed clean, clear and bright like glass that had just been wiped.

"It's very difficult, Jason, I said that, and for other psychologists, the most difficult part is that you must completely crush a person in order to force the brain to rebuild their spirit."

"Hindered by professional ethics?"

"Always." Schiller nodded and said: "And it requires the patient's own mental state to be extremely unstable, away from all familiar environments, in a completely enclosed space, accepting torture that can be completely called mental abuse, until the spirit is completely exhausted."

Jason remembered the feeling of his brain being blank.

At that time, he couldn't think of anything, couldn't do anything; except for feeling his own existence, there was nothing in his brain. He did indeed feel that he had been exhausted.

"The Joker also counts as having made a great contribution." Schiller said: "That year of torture, the impact of the previous night, plus the various emotional tug-of-wars we had afterward, only then did it barely restart you."

"I have to say, Jason, your toughness and firmness exceeded my imagination. I thought you would reach the ideal effect after the first time you picked up the knife."

Jason just wanted to snort coldly, saying he wasn't that fragile, when he heard Schiller say in a tone carrying a smile.

"It's a good thing you restarted in time. Just now, I was still thinking about how to explain to Batman that your eyeballs were missing."

Jason really wanted to see Batman right now. ===== CHAPTER 2061 =====