Chapter 3473

Fact is, people really do laugh when they're at a loss for words.

The moment Victor walked in, he saw Shiler sitting alone on the sofa, laughing. He instantly felt a chill run down his spine, even immediately starting to consider whether to call the police.

Although nothing seems to have happened yet, something might well happen very soon. Calling the police now would avoid them getting stuck in the morning rush hour.

He walked over and asked, "What's wrong? Shiler?"

"Nothing." Shiler snapped back to himself, shook his head, and said, "Just realized my luck is as rotten as ever."

Victor wore a puzzled expression. Shiler, however, didn't elaborate.

Shiler thought it over carefully. He felt there was only one situation in which Batman would think Bruce Wayne capable of saving himself: that he had already succeeded in saving himself.

In other words, the Batman he's run into now might be one of those exceedingly rare ones in the countless multiverses who truly managed to shake off the shadows of the past on his own and return to being a normal person.

All one can say is his luck has never been good. Basically every Batman he runs into is a rare breed; this time it's a golden shiny.

So what method will Shiler use to deal with this kind of Batman?

The fact is he has no method. A psychologist's tricks basically only work on people with psychological issues. If there's no psychological issue, basically only physical means remain.

But the difficulty of using physical means against Batman is actually about the same as using physical means against Superman. Superman at least has kryptonite as a weakness to exploit, while Batman is essentially untargetable.

The Batman he's run into now and the main-universe Batman are two extremes: one is completely cured, the other has absolutely no need to be cured. Though the directions differ, the difficulty is the same.

Someone who firmly believes the world is mad and someone who firmly believes the world isn't mad are actually equally hard to deal with.

For Shiler, the latter is harder. Even against the main-universe Batman, he can still trade verbal blows for a few rounds, leveraging his academic knowledge.

But facing the latter, he can basically only stare at the ocean and sigh, marveling at the tenacity of human will and the boundless mystery of the psyche.

Shiler's plan to redirect trouble looks like it can't be fully completed, but it mostly just affects the future Doujie's judgment of him, causing the dangers currently lurking in Gotham to misjudge — that should already be achieved.

Sure enough, on the way to breakfast with Victor, Shiler got a call from Gordon.

"... Is that so? He's already disappeared? Sure it wasn't him running off on his own? Alright, I got it."

"Honestly, no thoughts. But it definitely won't be an ordinary person. You checked the surveillance? Hmm... looks like things are even more troublesome than I imagined."

Shiler hung up. Victor looked at him. Shiler pocketed his phone and said, "Jonathan has disappeared from the precinct."

"Not surprising," Victor said, "This guy should've slipped away long ago. Anyway, no evidence can be found, the police have no way to nail him."

"No." Shiler said, "He probably didn't run on his own; it's more likely someone took him."

"Why?"

"If he didn't want to be caught, he never would've let the police take him in the first place. Precisely because no evidence can be found, in less than 10 hours the precinct would have to let him go. Now he's run, even if they can't find evidence for the poisoning case, they'll at least charge him with escape, resisting arrest, and obstruction. Why bother?"

"True." Victor nodded, then said with some puzzlement, "Then who's bored enough to go break him out? Could he have some criminal buddies?"

"He was probably kidnapped." Shiler said.

Victor's movement paused, then he gaped at Shiler and said, "You didn't... do this on purpose?!"

"Originally there was another purpose, but now it looks hard to pull off. So yeah, it is for this." Shiler sighed.

"You knew someone would come kidnap you, so you pushed Jonathan out as a lightning rod. I was wondering why you were so kind, agreeing to his hiring application with Shiva — turns out you were waiting for him right here."

Victor thought a bit more and said, "But even if you didn't do this, no one could kidnap you, right? So you just did it to make Jonathan's luck turn really bad?"

"It's not that simple." Shiler said, "This time our opponent isn't a lunatic, it's an alien."

"Right. Probably only you think aliens are scarier than lunatics." Victor couldn't help but retort, "Especially Gotham lunatics."

"Don't forget you're one of the lunatics too, Mr. Freeze." Shiler rolled his eyes slightly and said, "No time for jokes now, I'm serious. If it were really a Kryptonian like Superman it'd be less trouble, but right now it looks like more than that."

"Not Kryptonian?" Victor raised an eyebrow in slight surprise. He said, "Then what other aliens are there?"

"No signs of a struggle at the scene where Jonathan vanished. That leaves two possibilities: either he left willingly with that person, or the other party didn't need force to subdue him."

"Subduing Jonathan by force isn't that hard either. Just knocking him out shouldn't leave much trace either." Victor raised an objection. He said, "Fear toxin might not work on an alien. Maybe he tried to resist but couldn't take a single hit, so naturally no struggle traces."

"Then you're underestimating Jonathan too much." Shiler shook his head lightly and said, "Subduing him isn't hard, but making him leave zero clues? Even Batman probably couldn't pull that off."

"You really think he's that good?"

"His old trade isn't chemist." Shiler said, "Even without chemical means, he can use psychological techniques to stabilize the other party, thereby buying himself enough time to call for help or leave clues."

"But if nothing at all was found at the scene, it proves: either he deliberately chose not to, or he had no chance to."

"Which do you think it is?"

"I lean toward the former." Shiler had clearly thought it over. He said, "Jonathan left with him voluntarily."

"But you just said leaving now has no upside for Jonathan. Not only did he sit in a cell for half a day, he might face a string of charges afterward."

"That means the upside of leaving with the other party must be greater than the subsequent downsides."

"Could the other party have promised him a huge benefit?"

Shiler shook his head: "I doubt it. Think about it — why do aliens come to Earth?"

"Obviously to invade Earth. Though Earth doesn't seem to have any super rare resources, so they probably just want to rule it as a colony?"

"Then what benefit could he promise Jonathan? Once aliens conquer Earth, make him Planetary Governor? You think Jonathan would be interested?"

"Probably not." Victor shook his head. "Not praising him, but this guy clearly isn't the type to chase fame and fortune, and even less wants to be some ruler. Or rather, he's like Joker — they both loathe that stuff, preferring to pursue art alone."

"Exactly. That kind of benefit definitely can't move Jonathan. In another universe, Jonathan might cooperate with them to deal with Batman, but our universe doesn't have a Batman..."

"Wait." Victor suddenly cut Shiler off. "Why do I feel like he's cooperating with the alien to deal with you?"

"Why would they deal with me?"

"You ask why? You pinned a massive black pot on his head and still won't let him strike back?"

"But the one who poisoned the banquet was him; I didn't force him. If he hadn't pulled that prank, I'd have had no opening."

"He won't reason with you." Victor shook his head. "I feel like that's exactly the kind of thing he'd do."

"Fine, suppose so. Then why would Jonathan think an alien could handle me?"

"You're the one who just said aliens are harder to deal with than lunatics."

"That's just 'harder to deal with.' If it's just a Kryptonian, they might not actually have a way to handle me. Without seeing the other side's true strength, Jonathan wouldn't place a bet."

"I get it. You mean this alien might've shown some unique ability that made Jonathan think he could use him to deal with you, so he chose to go with him."

Shiler nodded, then said, "So what identity do you think Jonathan will use to go with him?"

"What identity?" Victor thought for a moment before catching on. He said, "Oh, you mean that black pot you pinned on him. Do you think he'll admit he's the Professor?"

"What do you think?"

Victor stroked his chin, thought seriously for a moment, then said, "If it were me, I'd admit it. Because the Professor's value is obviously greater than my own. As long as I can hold this card steady, the room for negotiation with the other side will be much larger."

"Exactly. Jonathan is very smart, so he'll definitely own up to it."

"Can't the other side tell he's lying?"

"Same answer. Although Jonathan is a famous chemist, his attainments in psychology are no less. As long as he doesn't want to, almost no one can discover he's lying."

Victor looked thoughtful, then nodded and said, "Indeed. This guy's disguise is excellent, even able to fool Batman."

"But what worries me a bit is, what ability did that alien actually display that made Jonathan think he can handle you?"

"That's precisely what I want to say." Shiler said, "Batman left Superman at the station to guard Jonathan, but when the intruder took Jonathan away, they left no traces of a struggle. What do you think happened?"

Victor clearly couldn't figure it out at first, but quickly locked onto an answer, then felt it was a bit unreliable, so he could only say tentatively, "He's a psychic?"

"Eliminate all possibilities, and whatever remains must be the truth, even if it sounds absurd." Shiler said.

"Absurd enough. Who can defeat Superman in psychic ability? You can't either, right?"

"I'll say it again, I'm not a superpowered individual." Shiler emphasized, "I'm a psychologist, not a psychic."

"Fine, fine, fine." Victor waved his hand perfunctorily, clearly not wanting to dwell on this issue. He said, "If the other party is an extremely powerful psychic, that would make sense."

"No." Shiler denied again. He said, "The other party is indeed a psychic, but I'm afraid not powerful enough."

"What do you mean?"

"We've both seen a truly powerful psychic."

"You don't mean..."

"If it were Professor X, we'd only feel Jonathan never entered the station at all."

(End of Chapter)