amaotonovel Chapter 4509 The Darkest Night (37)
Chapter 4509 The Darkest Night (37)
Chapter 4509 The Darkest Night (Thirty-Seven)
“I’ll ask, you answer,” Victor said bluntly. “Otherwise, I’ll just delete the whole part about psychoanalysis and only publish what I wrote myself.”
“I’m surprised you still want to stay,” Schiller said bluntly. “Do you really think you can force a mind reader to answer questions?”
"Did you sense my anxiety?"
Schiller hesitated, seemingly unsure, so Victor continued, "Let me put it another way. If you don't answer, I'll embellish all the parts of your writing about psychoanalysis, and sing its praises in the commentary. Then, when it's published, I'll specifically thank you by name for the inspiration. That way, you can say goodbye to your ordinary life forever."
Schiller squeezed his eyes shut for a moment: "I'm starting to wonder if I've made a bad choice in my friends."
"You've entered Hugo's spiritual world, haven't you?"
"Then you're overestimating Hugo. He wouldn't dare let me in. He just set up one of those illusion machines that the Mad Hatter used to use."
What kind of illusion did he make you experience?
"It's incredibly boring. It's basically just a matter of switching places between him and me. He's now a famous professor in Gotham, while I'm a criminal, a prisoner, and a homeless person..."
With a "bang," the trigger of the freeze gun was pulled again. The table next to him froze solid. As the ice melted, Victor said expressionlessly, "This time he'd better die a quick and easy death, or he'll never die again."
"I'm not exactly a morally upright person. So this doesn't hurt me at all. I've lived the same life in different illusions, and incidentally, I've also taken care of Hugo."
"By the way?"
“I don’t remember if I’ve told you this before. When I was young, someone got some leverage over me and I became a law enforcement officer doing dirty work. Normally, there’s not much room for advancement in this line of work; you either die on a mission or get silenced. But I usually don’t play by the rules.”
"You turned the tables?"
"No. I've reached the point where I can't be killed without a plane crash. The plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean. It's always the same."
"It doesn't sound much better."
Schiller wanted to shake his head, but the ice wouldn't allow him to, so he simply said, "You haven't been in the law enforcement system, so you don't understand it. In this system, retiring after achieving your goal isn't the best outcome; forcing them to activate the highest kill-or-be-killed measures is the real reward. There's no doubt that the cost of causing a plane crash is terrifying. When they resort to such methods, they must have been driven to the brink."
"In this situation, killing Hugo was just a side effect. I didn't even use him as a bargaining chip; I just sent someone to take care of him while preparing for a certain mission."
Victor sighed, clearly not wanting to comment on his views on the law enforcement system. He then asked, "What does Hugo think about this?"
“His attitude has always puzzled me,” Schiller said frankly. “I don’t know why he thought his predicament could trap me. In fact, his predicament didn’t completely trap him either. Even while he was in Arkham Asylum, he did his share of dirty tricks, otherwise he wouldn’t have offended so many serial killers. The main reason he couldn’t get out of there was that he was busy dealing with his perverted fetishes, not that I was targeting him.”
“Of course it’s because he’s good at shirking responsibility,” Victor said. “Even when he’s up to something, if anything goes wrong, he’ll blame you, thinking that you’re always watching him and causing him trouble. He’ll go back and forth with his imagination.”
“Probably,” Schiller said. “That would explain why he was so angry.”
Is he angry?
"Yes. After the illusion ended, he was both incredulous and furious. It seems he realized that I had never deliberately targeted him. Those so-called confrontations were just hallucinations he imagined while he was in the asylum."
"Because he's figured out what would happen if you really targeted him. Do you think he'd be scared of that?"
"He must have been scared, otherwise he wouldn't have dropped his trump card so quickly."
"That's exactly what I'm asking. What's your secret weapon that makes you give a 'somewhat good' assessment?"
“Of course I know you won’t tell anyone. I also believe your skills are capable of blocking Brainiac. If this only concerned myself, I wouldn’t need to hide it from you. But…”
"Were other people involved?"
"Hugo doesn't seem like the kind of person who has the good virtue of not dragging others down with him, does he?"
“Tell me about it,” Victor said.
"That little girl was a corpse. I mean, she was a zombie, but she almost died from being thrown again after being resurrected."
"Hugo's dried goods?"
"The second death was."
"So the question arises from the first death. Who killed her?"
"Bruce Wayne."
Victor paused, "How could he..."
“It wasn’t murder.” Schiller paused for a moment before continuing, “A group of children were rescued, and their conditions were all very bad. Even those who were rescued didn’t survive into the new era. Except for a few exceptionally gifted ones, they all died. The problem is, Bruce took that little girl back to Wayne Manor. She died at Bruce’s house.”
“God,” Victor said, wiping his face. “Didn’t he realize it? Or did he think there was hope?”
“Both are true. But things are clearly not as simple as he thinks,” Schiller sighed. “Because their bodies are not fully developed, children’s resistance in all aspects is much lower than that of adults. Their health is so poor that it could be life-threatening even for adults. Doctors are not God.”
“But Batman thinks he is,” Victor said with a sigh.
"At least that was the case at that time. Even now, he believes that some of his actions killed the child. But in reality, at this point, the psychological and emotional impact is relatively limited. What determines whether they survive is actually their genes. Some people are born with better resilience, which can be shown in childhood. Others are not."
“Even though I know that’s how it is, I would feel guilty too. However, this doesn’t qualify as murder, so even if it were Brainiac, Bruce can’t be blamed. What are you worried about?”
"If he had thrown down a corpse, even if I recognized it, I wouldn't have given it a second glance. In fact, when she first fell, I also thought she was dead. But that's where Hugo's brilliance lies—the little girl wasn't killed by the fall. She was still breathing."
"But you also said she's a zombie. She's already dead, but she's been resurrected by some unknown force."
“That’s right, but at least she can breathe, move, and talk.”
Victor suddenly realized something and abruptly raised his voice, "You're not expecting this little girl to stand in front of Bruce and tell him he's right, are you?... How could you be so naive?!"
"Of course I didn't expect her to do it voluntarily. But who she stands in front of and what she says is not something she can control—she's not a real child, you understand."
“You’re absolutely insane!” Victor stood up, walked to the ice block, looked Schiller in the eye, and said, “Do you know that the first thing she’ll do when she wakes up is frame you? She could say you’re trying to kill her.”
"She has no evidence."
“She doesn’t need evidence!” Victor raised his voice. “She is the victim. Whoever she says is the murderer is, and she’s a child. Brainiac has always been very strict on child protection.”
“But he said he would listen to me.”
Victor forcefully swept his hair back from his forehead, then raised his head and let out a long sigh: "What unrealistic expectations do you have of this evil artificial intelligence?"
“Victor, you still don’t understand. Whether Brainiac chooses her or me depends on who is more valuable to us.”
"Do you think you're more valuable? But like I said, you can't produce any evidence. Even those so-called 'zombies' you took from Gotham University haven't turned into zombies or shown any abnormalities so far. They're all protesting their innocence. If this situation continues, and you have no evidence to prove they are zombies, then it's only a matter of time before your conclusions are refuted."
“I didn’t realize you were such a pessimistic person, Victor.”
Victor felt like his head was about to explode. He said, "I didn't know you were such an optimistic person, Schiller. That little girl will definitely use this to attack you. She will try every means to persuade Brainiac. And the thing about her logic being more logical than yours is that psychoanalysis is unprovable and naturally contradicts electronic life like Brainiac."
"Is now not the time for you to extol psychoanalysis in your novels?"
"You actually have the nerve to joke around?" Victor was getting a little exasperated.
“That’s because the value I’m talking about isn’t in that,” Schiller said with a smile. “I said, ‘I have an older brother who works for the government,’ a nobody clerk—but he’s practically the equivalent of the entire Brainiac government.”
“I can roughly guess what she told you.” The figure leaning against the window glanced at the screen beside him. Brainiac’s green avatar was flashing. “There’s no evidence to prove my accusation is correct. Arresting someone without evidence will only cause panic. It’s time to rethink our strategy.”
“Logically, that makes sense,” Brainiac said. “I did grant him official status and unlimited self-defense rights. However, such a large-scale, high-profile arrest without convincing evidence could affect social stability. I will keep my promise and not hold him accountable. But whether to continue letting him continue like this is indeed worth considering.”
“That’s your problem, Brooks. Your brain is made of circuit boards, and your thinking is determined by 0s and 1s. That’s why you prefer to talk about logic.”
“I believe that logic is beneficial for maintaining social stability. Nobody likes a world where things are distributed based on who makes the most noise. So if you’re thinking that if I don’t treat Schiller the way you want, you’ll do something illegal or disorderly, I won’t agree to such an unreasonable request. I’ll just add you to my list of enemies to be dealt with. You’re right, that’s the only way I think.”
"No, no, no, you've misunderstood. I have no intention of doing anything illegal or disorderly, nor do I intend to force you to change your decision by threatening you. I completely understand that this is how you do things, and you won't make exceptions for anyone. I don't even want to break the cooperation terms we agreed on before, and I can still work for you."
"Your attitude gives me a bad feeling."
“You’re overthinking it,” he said with a smile. “I always keep my promises and treat people kindly. It’s just what I should do.”