Chapter 9: He Isn't Batman Yet

On a morning when Cat Getan City was still covered in smog, Shiler stretched and sat up from the bed. He had just settled down in Marvel and had only been relaxed for a few days when he found that S. H. I. E. L. D. agents had appeared near his psychological clinic again.

Those people were like taffy that couldn't be shaken off. Perhaps it was like this for ordinary people, and even the billionaire Stark in that world was annoyed by them but had no way to deal with them.

But Shiler was different. After being annoyed by young Batman in Cat Getan, he could completely pack up and leave, go to Marvel to hide and relax. And now that he was targeted by agents in Marvel, he could choose to leave again and come to Cat Getan to hide.

S. H. I. E. L. D. agents didn't find out at all how Shiler disappeared. His departure left no traces. There were no train or plane tickets, and no figures were seen at the intersections of various highways, which made Nick Fury more determined that Shiler was definitely not an ordinary person.

And after returning to the DC world, his colleague, the future Scarecrow Tier, didn't find that his fear gas had been stolen, because Shiler wasn't greedy. He only took a small amount of a small test tube.

After all, he wasn't like Scarecrow, who wanted to use fear gas to create terrorist attacks. He just dealt with some small-time gang members. He didn't need any high-tech equipment to spray these fear gases. He just needed a small spray bottle and spray it at the noses of ordinary people. These concentrated fear gases became the best weapons. After all, those gang members couldn't have the reaction speed of Batman.

And when studying this gas, although Shiler didn't have any systematic chemical knowledge, he at least knew how to make the best use of things. Besides using it as a weapon to spray others, Shiler found that this initial version of fear gas didn't seem to be pure. Besides inducing fear, it could also induce some other negative emotions, which was the best news for a psychiatrist. After all, if the patient was always unwilling to confess the emotions in their heart, then the treatment couldn't proceed.

Shiler found that he could completely spray the fear gas, which had been diluted hundreds of times, on his body as perfume. I don't know why, maybe it was the system's credit, this kind of gas had no effect on him, but it could make people close to him infected with a small amount of negative emotions.

That's right, Shiler planned to use this trick to deal with the young and inexperienced Bruce, the young Batman.

The current Batman wasn't the old man who was wise and far-sighted later. Bruce was still too young. Having just finished traveling the world and learning all kinds of skills, Bruce urgently wanted to start his revenge plan. He put on the initial version of the bat suit, took the bat darts, and wanted to go hit criminals. In his eyes, spending hundreds of millions to build equipment was a very simple thing, but he hadn't realized yet that what truly made him Batman wasn't these external things, but the spirit deep in his heart.

Obviously, Batman's growth path still had a long way to go. And Shiler, for his own personal safety and to have a stable life in Cat Getan in the future, had to take on the responsibility of being the spiritual mentor for young Bruce.

It was another ordinary morning. For Bruce, meeting Shiler in the rainy night was just something that happened last night. Shiler called out his real name. Bruce wasn't surprised. He knew that this person must have some abilities that were different from ordinary people.

Perhaps it was superpowers, perhaps it was magic. During his travels around the world, he had seen many such people. He also knew that this world was far from as simple as ordinary people imagined. Many incredible powers were peeping here.

Bruce knocked on the psychologist's door again. A steady and deep "Please come in" came from inside.

For some reason, Bruce actually felt a sense of celebration, because this reply came very quickly. Obviously, the person inside knew who he was and was very happy to let him in.

Batman hated all mystery and nihilism, and so did Bruce. In his view, Shiler's attitude meant that perhaps he would tell Bruce what was going on, instead of continuing to push off and hide, using verbal techniques to go around in circles with him.

Bruce sat opposite Shiler again. Bruce said: "Professor, it seems you are in a good mood today."

"Mr. Wayne, it seems you are in a bad mood today," Shiler said. "I thought you would come to pour me coffee like the first day."

He spread his hands, indicating that the desktop was empty. "You know I didn't brew coffee this morning, waiting for you to come."

Bruce was silent for a while, but still got up to make coffee for Shiler.

Shiler actually just thought it was interesting to be able to drink coffee made by Batman himself, but Bruce felt this was a test, or a kind of mental interference technique, using words to make the other party have to perform the behavior in his command. Well, thinking this way, it was indeed more in line with Shiler's persona, a crazy doctor obsessed with psychological and spiritual research.

Shiler took a sip of hot coffee, which dispelled the cold that had spread all over his body because of the cold weather in Cat Getan. Bruce spoke first:

"Why did you appear there last night?"

"I don't understand what you mean."

"If you wanted to hide, you should have made a mask for yourself last night, instead of choosing to deny it now after I saw your real face."

Shiler put down the coffee cup, making a crisp sound on the desktop. He said: "I don't mean to deny that you saw me last night. I am asking you, why do you have billions of assets, and instead of donating money to do some charity for foundations, you wear a ridiculous tight suit, and when it's raining, run to the streets of Cat Getan City to compare fist and foot skills with some small thugs?"

Facing this question, Bruce was silent.

"This is not a rhetorical question..." Shiler said.

"You don't need to think about how to answer, because I will answer you."

"Because your fundamental purpose is not to help, but to retaliate."

"This is the answer you gave me," Bruce said.

"No, I just saw the answer in your heart," Shiler said.

"I don't think there is mind-reading in this world."

"Of course there is no mind-reading in this world, only psychology," Shiler said. "People always think they hide their hearts well, but in reality, it's not the case."

"Can I learn this ability?" Bruce asked. "This ability to see through people's hearts."

"And then use it to retaliate against criminals?" Shiler asked. "Obviously, you think of all this too simply, Bruce. Perhaps your motivation is revenge, but if you treat it as the driving force supporting everything you do, then it will be like last night."

Shiler made a downward gesture. Bruce explained:

"After going back last night, I added a cape to my bat armor, and I also plan to design a belt..."

"You know those things are not the point. You can add an iron fist with thousands of kilograms of power to your hands, or you can add an engine to your boots that can let you jump to the moon. You can even design a pair of wings for yourself, letting you fly to any planet in the solar system. You can do these things, Bruce. I believe you can do them."

"But these are not enough, far from enough."

"If I had such power, I could eliminate all criminals in the world, right?" Bruce asked.

Shiler sighed. Obviously, Batman, who hadn't met the Joker yet, couldn't imagine how a criminal without any power, who only knew a little acrobatics and fighting skills, and was weak and powerless, could defeat a superhero who was proficient in hundreds of fighting skills and had learned all kinds of abilities in the world.

Shiler felt that no matter how he guided Bruce now, the future Batman, he could only be considered a vice-professor in Batman's life. The one who truly taught Batman everything was precisely his rival, the Joker.

And now, the Joker should still be living a very ordinary life in some circus.

Bruce was still very arrogant now. He asked Shiler for the request to learn psychology because he was like this, having learned all kinds of skills in various places around the world. His humility and arrogance didn't actually conflict.

Shiler said: "Still the same sentence, you can certainly learn psychology. Everything is in the textbook. You can come to listen to my class, go back to memorize books, write homework, write papers, and then take the final exam. I am a professor. I won't stop any student from learning."

"You know what I want to learn is not these..."

"Then what do you think there is?"

"Your kind of... special ability," Bruce gestured. He said: "I have seen many such people around the world. They have special abilities that ordinary people don't have..."

"No, I am different from them. I don't have any ability that exceeds ordinary people."

Bruce pondered for a while. He pursed his lips, obviously not believing it. But Shiler really had nothing to explain to him. Young Batman was obviously too immature, too straightforward, impulsive, and didn't anticipate the consequences.

He had not yet figured out at all what exactly had caused his failure.

He hadn't figured out at all what caused his failure.

Bruce returned empty-handed from Shiler again. Shiler just told him, or even threatened him, to read books well, finish all the courses, and then get a good grade in the final exam.

And Bruce obviously didn't listen to a word.

At night, Shiler went out again. He went to Tier's secret base again and stole quite a lot of fear gas. And this time, no matter how stupid Tier was, he should be able to see that his two rows of test tubes were missing more than half.

Shiler wasn't proficient in any chemical knowledge. He had no way to carry out any improvement and transformation of this special gas. He could only put them into different containers or carry out some simple dilution.

But there was one more thing he could do, which was to use these fear gases to scare Batman.

Soon Shiler appeared in the Mosson block again. He knew Batman would still come here. Bruce was such a person. Where he fell, he must climb up there. He would never change places. This was his pride.

The entire Mosson block wasn't big, with only six small alleys. The building where Bruce fell was the first small alley in the Mosson block, where there was a nightclub controlled by the Shuigou Gang.

The Shuigou Gang was just a small gang in Cat Getan because there was a sewer in Cat Getan on the edge of the Mosson block, and the Shuigou Gang liked to throw some tragic victims into that sewer, and that sewer became more and more smelly, so other gangs began to use the sewer to refer to this gang. The Shuigou Gang was proud of this and quite proud.

The first enemy to defeat Batman was obviously not a famous villain. They were just a group of thugs smoking upstairs in the nightclub. Batman used fighting skills to solve most of them, but inexperienced in actual combat, someone threw a handful of lime into his eyes, and then he fell downstairs in a stagger.

The early Batman had no assistants, and his equipment wasn't mature. It wasn't strange to capsize in the gutter. However, the Shuigou Gang didn't have such good luck a second time. Shiler leaned against the wall at the end of the Mosson block for a while, and heard terrified shouts from the nightclub. Soon the night became quiet, and a small gang that no one would care about disappeared in Cat Getan like this.

Batman walked out. Obviously, his state was much better than last time. He lowered his head, seemingly still calculating how to modify his bat equipment.

Suddenly, he remembered one thing, so he walked forward, turned a corner, and wanted to find the beggar, then give him some dollars, and tell him that the Shuigou Gang had been solved, and he wouldn't be in any danger holding the money.

Indeed, he found the beggar in the old place again. She was still tightly wrapped in a quilt, shivering in the cold, damp air of Cat Getan at night. The umbrella Shiler had given her was also gone.

Batman handed the money to him and said in a low voice: "This block has no gangs anymore. You are safe now."

The beggar tremblingly raised her head, but Batman didn't see a trace of gratitude in her eyes. He found in disbelief that the beggar was staring at his eyes with only hatred.

"Aren't you happy?" Batman asked.

"Of course he isn't," a familiar voice came from above Batman's head. Shiler stood on the balcony above the beggar, looking at Batman from the second floor.

"Because of the existence of the Shuigou Gang, that nightclub has a steady stream of guests every day. Some guests will hold food in their hands. When they only have a little left, they will throw it on the side of the road, so the beggar can pick it up and continue to eat."

"But now there is no Shuigou Gang, and the nightclub can't continue to open. No guests come, which means no food."

"But hundreds of dollars are enough for him..."

"Yeah, you have the best medical system in all of Cat Getan, a private doctor, a family health consultant. You haven't experienced the taste of a cold or fever a few times, let alone know what it's like to be frozen to the point of being unable to stand up," Shiler dragged a long tone, then said:

"But it's a pity, he can't even take the first step."

Batman squatted down. He pulled open the quilt at the beggar's feet and found that her entire lower limbs had been frozen blue and purple. Cat Getan City had been raining for several days, and her legs were soaked in water, swollen beyond recognition.

Batman was proficient in the theory of surgery. He knew that even in the best hospital in Cat Getan, such lower limbs could only be amputated.

He was completely silent, looking at the many dollar bills that the beggar didn't hold in her hand but let them drift on the ground. He felt an unbelievable absurdity, a shame that made him suffocate.

He suddenly felt that many negative emotions swallowed his heart uncontrollably, making him want to roar. Batman felt that he had never been so out of control as tonight. He stood up, staggered back a few steps, and then sat on the ground.

Obviously, a tragic story with an unexpected ending and a little bit of negative emotion induced by fear gas were enough to make Bruce silent for a few days. ===== CHAPTER 10 =====