Chapter 2324

After talking so much, Schiller wasn't as sleepy anymore. He knew that even if he went back now, he would probably suffer from insomnia until dawn anyway. Since it was all a mess, putting in a little more effort wasn't impossible.

"Serial killers always feel they are clear-headed when committing crimes. To a certain extent, this is true. They can handle crime scenes more calmly and rationally than ordinary killers, almost to the point of leaving no trace. If this is considered crazy, then there are few clear-headed people left in this world."

"But human behavior is just like that. They follow certain patterns, and these patterns must reflect their personality. People cannot live as others; their actions are their own, and naturally, they fully reflect themselves."

"Clues can be erased, traces can be covered up, but the basis for every clear-headed decision they make is their thoughts, which also stem from their personality. This must have traces to follow."

"The way he poses a corpse might superficially reflect what he wants to express, but what it actually expresses is more than that, because his choices also reflect his personality."

"There are many factors that influence choices. Besides personality, there is his state at that moment, his thoughts at that instant, and also his recent worries."

Bruce's expression was very serious. He was truly evaluating whether this was the case, because he knew Schiller would not lie about professional matters.

I certainly wouldn't lie. Schiller saw what Bruce was thinking and added in his heart: The professional parts are all true, just like a ship is indeed made of steel, but the parts connecting every component have been replaced, and you still insist on trying to start it—if you don't capsize, who will?

"That's why I can see more," Schiller said. "And the reason I said the theme of this murder is not a sacrifice is because the killer clearly added more worry to it than his purpose when committing the crime."

"He is thinking about a problem, which is the tragedy I mentioned that must happen. Just like the view held by Hegel, neither of them is wrong; they just walked down two different paths due to their respective ethical and moral requirements."

"Then how do you view this aesthetic theory?" Bruce asked.

Schiller's real answer was that it depends on how much you pay, but since no one was paying him now, there was only one answer—bullshit, kid!

"I think it has unique significance in psychological theory," Schiller said, pretending to think. "But personally, ethical and moral tragedies should be viewed from a more macroscopic level. Hegel focuses too much on emphasizing individual personality."

"But in fact, the princess and the king only represent two completely different ethical strata. They are just representatives of groups under ethical requirements, rather than their complete individual selves, so I prefer to explore the conflict of social ethical requirements as a whole."

"But aren't you a psychologist?" Gordon asked. "What you just said sounds like a matter of sociology."

Because it really is a matter of sociology, Schiller said in his heart. If I talk about psychology, what if Arrogance comes back and the testimonies don't match? As long as I drag it out far enough, you guys will definitely forget by later.

"Social science is like this. You need to draw inferences about other cases from one instance, and then integrate them, in order to understand all problems both macroscopically and meticulously, don't you think?"

"It seems this has become your lecture hall again," Gordon said.

If you show again that "this expert traveled through the night at 11 PM just to show off his knowledge," this place will definitely be your funeral parlor, Schiller thought, staring at Gordon with ill intent.

Bruce, however, seemed to have realized something. He thought it seemed to be true; social science as a whole is a very vast category. Psychology is a very young discipline, but other disciplines are not like that; they are always interconnected yet independent of each other.

Bruce had been studying psychology in isolation, especially psychoanalysis, but in reality, this category is just a drop in the bucket among the major disciplines of social science, and often it is not recognized by mainstream academia.

Looking at problems from a more macroscopic perspective does have its benefits. Disciplines like sociology are relatively more rigorous, with processes of investigation, experimentation, and analysis. This should enable him to better understand how people exist within society, which is also an unavoidable problem in the study of psychology.

"So we must stop them." Batman pointed below and said, "Take me down. I need to see how this filtration system works to understand what that mysterious force is."

Having figured this out, Bruce sighed in his heart and began flipping through a list of famous sociologists in his mind.

"So the killer is Amanda and her accomplices, right?" Gordon picked up his notebook to record and said, "We will try to hunt her down. Regardless, she went a bit too far; this thing ruined my date."

Watching Gordon look like he was about to close the case, Schiller decided not to argue with him. Anyway, Batman next to him didn't know what he had realized, and his goal of causing trouble had been achieved.

But just then, a policewoman ran into the door in a hurry and said, "Commissioner, a murder occurred at the gift shop at 102 Douglas Avenue! A headless woman's corpse was hung upside down from the rafters, and there is blood everywhere on the ground."

Gordon immediately frowned, not because of the scene his subordinate described, but because he remembered something and said, "Didn't you tell me this morning that a decapitation case also happened at the docks?"

"Yes, Commissioner, the body was also hung up, but it cannot be determined for the time being that this is a serial murder case."

"This can't be determined yet? When do you plan to determine it?"

The policewoman clearly showed a troubled expression. She said, "These two victims have nothing in common. Judging from the time of death of the corpses, I'm afraid the killer couldn't have rushed from the docks to Douglas Avenue within two hours. Cat Getan at 7 AM, you know."

Gordon also showed some confused expressions and said, "Is the time of death very precise?"

"Yes, because both bodies lost a lot of blood. The coroner said it's easy to judge, but it's precisely because of this doubt that we came to you. We all know that you have quite a bit of research on serial murder cases."

"Indeed, I have quite a bit of research," Gordon looked back at Schiller and Bruce and said, "Let's go."

Schiller and Gordon walked down the steps together. He just wanted to lift his leg and walk toward his car when he saw Gordon had already opened the police car door for him in advance.

Schiller looked down at the time; it was already midnight. Looking from where he was standing, the traffic jam on the adjacent street hadn't improved in the slightest. Thinking about having to spend another two hours in the car and it being 2 AM by the time he got home, Schiller felt it was better to carry on causing trouble to the end. He had already lost his sleep, so couldn't he get some fun out of it?

Schiller resolutely got into the police car.

"Actually, I think what you said earlier makes a lot of sense," Gordon, who was driving, suddenly said. "Barbara and I really lack some communication."

Schiller wanted to say that for someone who would cancel a date with a girlfriend he hadn't seen in a long time because of a murder case, what he lacks with his girlfriend is probably more than just communication.

This person is indeed quite strange, Schiller thought. Cases that can be reported to Gordon, Gordon basically doesn't have the ability to catch the killer; cases that can't be reported to Gordon, Gordon doesn't need to handle them.

So what Gordon does is receive notifications, go to the crime scene, call for help, and close the case. But even so, he has delayed his own love life, hasn't gotten married, and hasn't had children. Is he a sloth?

And this city, it's midnight, and the streets are full of cars. Even if only a small fraction of them are people who just got off work, so many people work from 7 AM to midnight every day. For decades, this crappy city has still been like this. Are they a group of sloths?

And Batman, just looking at his expression, you can tell how good he is at thinking—every moment, every minute, every second, extremely clear-headed, good at self-reflection, sharp thinking, super memory. But even so, he gets all flustered just doing graduate studies. King of Sloths?

Screech—

The sleepy Schiller was jolted awake, rubbing his head that had just hit the front seat. Gordon in the driver's seat had already rushed out.

Under the reflection of countless car lights, flashlights, and emergency lighting equipment, Schiller only saw a blurry figure jump across the rooftops, followed by several figures swinging past.

Bruce also got out of the car. He looked at the figure in front and said, "Deathstroke? How did he provoke so many Spider-Men?"

At this time, Gordon had already started calling the bureau and was spitting while communicating the situation. After a while, he sat back in the car and said, "Now I know why it's so jammed today. That group of red-and-blue guys has been chasing this yellow-and-black guy all day. Many car owners were just watching them and got into car accidents. The loop road is almost completely blocked."

"Why is Spider-Man chasing Deathstroke?" Bruce asked.

"I don't know, but my colleague in charge of the city's appearance said that people everywhere in the city have seen someone wearing a red-and-blue uniform littering everywhere, smoking and throwing cigarette butts, drinking and throwing wine bottles, causing three fires, and almost triggering an explosion at a chemical plant."

"How is that possible?" Bruce said. "Those Spider-Men have only been here for three days. The soot in the cracks of Cat Getan has almost been cleaned out by them. How could they litter cigarette butts?"

"Oh, I see," Bruce suddenly realized and said, "No wonder Deathstroke is called the strongest mercenary. He really found the fatal weakness of the Spider-Men. It must be that he painted his armor red and blue, disguising himself as Spider-Man to destroy the city's appearance."

"But what harm can this cause them?" Gordon said, somewhat puzzled. "To be honest, although smoking and littering cigarette butts are not encouraged, underestimating this city by trying to trigger a major disaster with those few extra cigarette butts is a bit too much. There are plenty of criminals lined up."

"But Spider-Man absolutely cannot accept Spider-Man becoming a destroyer of the city's appearance. They must be furious," Bruce said. "However, Deathstroke hasn't been caught by this group of super-powered youths after a whole day. His strength is indeed a bit beyond my imagination."

"But he's not that kind of dangerous element," Gordon gave his judgment. "He doesn't act without money. In Cat Getan, he could even be rated as a civilized model."

"Who's to say he isn't?"

Taking advantage of their chatting, Schiller closed his eyes, wanting to take a nap. But just as he was about to enter dreamland, his Dou Realm communication system suddenly rang. He clicked to check and found it was a message from Bat-Bane.

Clicking to open it, it was a 57-page PDF, accompanied by two 4GB compressed files. The first sentence of the directory document was, "Although the renovation of Arkham Asylum has not been fully completed..."

Schiller thought, very good, Cartographer Sloth.