Chapter 3731

A normal person should indeed feel terrified when seeing a head suddenly appear in front of them. However, the reactions of instinctive fear and cognitive fear are completely different.

Instinctive fear comes from human instinct. Before cognition takes place, instinct prompts people to feel fear; while cognitive fear is felt only after cognition has taken place, after rational judgment, and one believes they are in a dangerous state.

Instinctive fear usually appears when something beyond common human cognitive sense appears before humans, such as a monster with obviously distorted limbs, or a ghost; while cognitive fear is usually within the scope of human common sense, such as a madman holding a blood-stained knife, or a thug aiming with a gun. The former is assumed to be dangerous by the brain because it exceeds common sense, while the latter is judged to be dangerous by the brain because it is threatening within the scope of common sense.

A moving head should obviously be the former, especially when the skull of this head has been shaved off by half, and a long spine is connected underneath. This kind of thing is obviously far beyond common sense and should induce the instinctive fear that arises immediately upon seeing such an abnormal shape.

However, Tone did not feel fear when seeing this shape. It was only after he saw Bruce's face, and even after distinguishing it for a fraction of a second, that he had a fear reaction. This proves that he was not afraid because the head was strange—he was afraid of Bruce Wayne.

Things are really getting more and more complicated. Schiller thought to himself: It seems this is not the first time Tone has experienced such a thing. But then again, if Batman has already retrieved the nano-gear with the help of other players, then he might have killed Tone before, and it is normal for Tone to recognize and fear him.

"My time is very precious," Schiller said. "Originally, there was no part about helping you find nutrient solution, but since it has already been added, I can only work overtime. You stay here and persuade him, and I will go help you find nutrient solution."

"No! Wait!" Batman shouted. "He is injured. If you leave the two of us here, we might be captured by the cult together."

"That won't happen; this young friend has already successfully deceived the pursuers," Schiller recalled the situation on the rooftop and said. "He climbed up along the narrow alley wall, first deliberately leaving bloodstains on the eaves on the left, but actually entered the rooftop on the right; and after the pursuers saw the bloodstains and entered the rooftop door on the left, he came out from the right, jumped to the left, followed behind the pursuers, and ambushed and killed them from behind. To prevent anyone from coming to search again, he locked the rooftop door on the left from the outside, opened the rooftop door on the right, put the corpses into the house on the right, and came down from the house on the right, entered through the front door of the house on the left, and hid in the house on the left. This way, once the pursuers arrive, find the climbing marks in the alley, and come to the rooftop to check, they will find the corpses in the house on the right and will instinctively think this is the first crime scene, thus searching in this house; and seeing the rooftop door on the left locked from the outside, they will feel that if someone went in, they wouldn't be able to lock the door from the outside, thus relaxing their vigilance and not searching carefully. In summary, it is safe here for the time being."

"Then are you going to return to the cathedral? That place is very dangerous," Batman continued.

"I don't think you can provide any help; even as a weapon, you are not very handy. I can go alone. I just invaded that place, and the cult won't assume I am bold enough to return in a short time, so now is actually the best opportunity."

After finishing, ignoring Batman's calls, Schiller turned and left. But he did not walk down the stairs; instead, he went upstairs again, followed the rooftop door to the roof, and waited here for a while.

Although the floor was not high, it could overlook the nearest few streets. After only about five minutes, one could clearly see several squads of people rushing toward here, all of whom were cult members.

"Sure enough, they can locate Batman's position," Schiller narrowed his eyes and whispered. "No, it should be that Batman took the initiative to send them a signal, because he was worried that he would die if he fell into Tone's hands. Batman is indeed in cahoots with the cult."

However, what slightly exceeded Schiller's expectations was that two squads of warriors were also rushing in this direction. He frowned slightly and said: "Lady Shiva is also in cahoots with them? Then why doesn't she give the nano-gear to Batman herself?"

"Oh, I understand," Schiller continued to talk to himself. "In order to let the rescuer create a brutal destroyer himself, this can cause mental damage to the Robin or Batman who come to rescue. It seems this is a trap specifically aimed at rescuers."

Then he thought to himself: This is indeed a good trap, because the biggest gimmick of the dungeon's introduction interface is "The Most Miserable Batman," and most players who buy this script and participate in the first place want to save Batman, such as Robin, such as other Batmen. In other words, the dungeon's attributes filtered out those kindest players.

And the various situations he encountered on the road were clearly aimed at people of justice and kindness. No matter how brutal the Arkham Batman is, he is ultimately a Dark Knight of justice, and in most cases, he will not watch people suffer and do nothing. Despicability is the passport of the despicable, and nobility is the epitaph of the noble.

When Schiller first landed, it didn't take long before he met the old man wearing the Kane family signet ring; then on his way to the cathedral, the one who fell from the window earlier should have been a baby; today on the way to find Tone, he met the victimized woman again. Basically, it gathered all the images of vulnerable groups and innocent victims, and there is absolutely no normal Batman or Robin who can ignore these victims.

With Batman's wisdom, he could at least think that this is a trap, but even if it is a trap, they will still go to save them. This is Batman.

From this, it can be seen that even if Arkham Batman became president, his power would not be less than it was in the past. He probably completed all the side missions to save people again, and then rushed into the cathedral, forcibly saving Batman. If it weren't for being backstabbed by Batman who finally got the nano-gear, the entire Gotham would have been speed-run by him in one night.

This is the power of this trap: no matter how strong the force is, it is useless, because what truly deals fatal damage is mental attack. When the rescuer spends a lot of effort, even fighting until they have only one last breath to save Batman, and then discovers that Batman is not the hope of the city at all, but another destroyer, killing everyone they saved in front of them, anyone would feel despair.

But no, Schiller still doesn't think this would be the main reason for Arkham Batman's failure. This person's spirit is indestructible; even if Nano-Batman suddenly turns against him, it is unlikely to kill him instantly; even if Nano-Batman killed all the innocent people, Arkham Batman would not give up easily. This would give him more motivation, because Batman will not evade the responsibility of making wrong decisions; he will clean up this mess himself, which might even make Arkham Batman's combat power go a step further.

Even if Nano-Batman's combat power is very strong, plus teammates like Azrael and Lady Shiva, it is not so easy to defeat Arkham Batman in his peak state. Then why did he fail?

Schiller waited while thinking, and soon saw the fastest squad of people enter the building he was in. Schiller did not move; he knew that this group of people would not come up to the roof, because Batman did not have much time left.

"If there is only one head left, it really can't consume much energy, but the problem is that one head can't store much energy either. Just the words he spoke along the way are enough to consume all the energy. If they are indeed in cahoots, Batman will definitely let the cult members hurry to take him back to the cathedral to replenish energy."

This is the biggest weakness of this shameless Batman—he is afraid of death.

This is not an arbitrary conclusion, but a reasonable judgment based on his past actions. Batman and Azrael had a decisive battle, Azrael won, and Batman was captured—there is a major problem here, which is that Batman did not die.

Batman can die, and usually, he would die. If there was still a way, he might choose a strategic retreat, but Batman in this universe obviously had no way out, yet he still didn't die. He was righteous during the decisive battle, but perhaps at the last moment, some survival instinct prevailed, making him not choose to die gloriously.

This is not moral kidnapping, not saying that Batman should be a martyr and those who don't are cowards, but as Batman in this universe said himself, he has a deep connection with Azrael, not just meeting during the decisive battle. Then he should have some understanding of Azrael, Paul, and should know that this person is a paranoid madman, and falling into his hands would definitely not end well.

Then even if not out of justice, but merely out of self-interest, choosing to fight to the death is better than living in disgrace. Since this Batman didn't choose that, it must be that the will to survive was too strong, overriding all reason, which led to the later situation.

"The will to survive is too strong" is just an embellished way of saying it; to put it bluntly, he is afraid of death. But actually, being afraid of death is not a shortcoming; everyone is afraid of death, otherwise, how can those who are not afraid of life and death be called heroes?

The key is that the sunk cost of Batman in this universe is too great. He has already been tortured for more than ten years; if he only died today after more than ten years, then dying early or late is the same, why not just die on the night of the decisive battle back then? That way he could have suffered less torture.

So since he has already suffered more than ten years of torture, he will absolutely not allow himself to die. This will make his already strong will to survive even stronger, even becoming very extreme, absolutely not allowing himself to have any risk of death. This paranoia will further suppress and destroy reason, making him make extremely unwise decisions.

He himself is not a very smart Batman either, otherwise, he wouldn't have been defeated by Azrael. Schiller only slightly emphasized the importance of timing, and he thought Schiller wouldn't stay for even half a moment and would definitely rush to the cathedral immediately, thus calling the cult members over without hesitation.

Besides wanting to save his own life, he might also want to set a trap in the cathedral while Schiller goes to the cathedral to look for nutrient solution, so that he can solve this group of players as soon as possible.

But unfortunately, Schiller is not as urgent as he appears on the surface. He never intended to go to the cathedral to look for any nutrient solution; his goal was to let all the people who were in cahoots gather together—so that he could wipe them all out at once.