Chapter 4124: Chapter 3233: The Detective Will Die (47)

Bruce had nothing to say and could only refocus on the clash between Greed and the Night Owl. In fact, he really did need more intel on the Night Owl, but the things Greed had just mentioned were no surprise to Bruce. What he wanted was something more precise and to the point—in other words, a wild guess in the style of Arrogance.

But sadly, the thing that differentiated Greed from Arrogance the most was that he never engaged in a losing trade.

Having said that, Greed didn't give the Night Owl any time to digest before he immediately turned his spearhead towards Bruce.

It startled Bruce.

Standing on Shiller's side and listening to his incisive takedowns was amusing when it involved others, but it was not so wonderful when it was oneself being dissected.

Even if Greed didn't seem to plan on using Spiritual Analysis, just behavioral analysis was lethal enough. No one wished to have the logic behind their actions dissected and laid bare on the dining table. In the games among the intelligent, to be understood was to be defeated.

Bruce grasped the situation.

If Greed could analyze the Night Owl, he could naturally analyze Bruce as well. He was warning Bruce, if you still intend to use the Night Owl, you'd better be prepared to pay a hefty hush fee; otherwise, after my dissection, your good guy persona won't stand a chance.

No wonder he didn't start with Spiritual Analysis. Greed's incisive insight came with a price. No money, no true capabilities.

"So what's your story, Dr. Wayne?"

Bruce's brain was working at high speed. He was considering what kind of sincerity he could show to Greed to make him let himself off the hook while not sparing the Night Owl.

In terms of the game, what Greed wanted most now should be his back story. But Bruce found it hard to lay all his cards on the table since he was relatively familiar with such games. His back story had significant implications for this world, which was an advantage for him.

However, the risks of not telling the truth were also great—not to mention what if Greed exposed the lies? Just another "On the Philosophy of Bruce" and his relationship with the Night Owl might suffer.

"Fine, if I'm the last piece of the puzzle, I'm willing to share," Bruce mused, then said, "I am indeed a psychiatrist. I came here to study cases influenced by anomalies, but there's another reason which I think you all know—my teacher was invited to treat the shipowner's wife."

"Did you make that up?" asked the Pale Knight with a frown.

According to the information currently available, the shipowner was Old Silterk, and Greed was Little Silterke, which would mean the sick person would be Greed's mother.

But they hadn't colluded when making up their stories, so how did they happen to converge?

Bruce shook his head and said, "No, in my back story, my teacher just followed a peculiar illness case here, and I came along to help treat people. The bit about helping people, that must have been concocted by the Transcendent, to connect our stories."

The Pale Knight nodded, seemingly accepting this explanation, but still said, "I don't believe you're that passive. You must have your own plans, right?"

"Uh..." Bruce hesitated, displaying a somewhat indecisive expression before stating, "My research direction differs from my teacher's, to be exact, it's completely opposite."

"Inspiration comes from life?" Greed couldn't help but interject.

Bruce glared at him but nonetheless said, "The main disagreement is about how the anomaly affects the human soul. In short, although we both believe that anomalies themselves influence the human mind, our views on causality are reversed."

"What do you mean?"

"My teacher believes that the Earth's magnetic field has abnormalities that led to the appearance of anomalies, which then affected the human psyche."

"And what is your view?"

"The human psyche had issues that influenced the Earth's magnetic field, leading to the anomalies."

Everyone else fell silent, clearly mulling over this issue. The Pale Knight was the first to speak: "Do you think the appearance of anomalies is subjective?"

"To be precise, it's that problems in the human psyche have summoned certain things here," Bruce explained. "You could consider it as the influence of the collective unconscious materializing in this world."

"I'm glad you're aware of the collective unconscious," Greed said. "Your teacher would be proud of you, as would Jung."

"I don't understand," the Pale Knight said. "Your views are completely opposite, how can you be teacher and student?"

"Perhaps it's fate," Bruce replied.

Greed couldn't hold back any longer. He turned to Bruce and said, "Inspiration comes from life, true, but there's really no need for you to force it out of your life. Shit is still shit after cooking, and it might even smell worse."

"I'm happy with it," Bruce said defiantly.

"But don't think you can divert the topic like that," Greed made it clear he wasn't buying it and asked, "So, who is your teacher?"

"The detective from the beginning," Bruce responded. "No one stipulated he couldn't have another profession, nor that he couldn't have students."

Greed then realized and said, "So you helped me before the game started because you wanted me to help you kill Doug, to physically eliminate another school of thought?"

Bruce nodded.

Greed was at a loss for words but, after thinking for a moment, he still asked, "Is your purpose here to kill your teacher?"

"Not entirely," Bruce answered pensively. "While physical annihilation is indeed simple, I also want to prove that I am correct. I came here to investigate the spiritual state of the villagers in this village, to see if some of their minds began to manifest problems before the monster appeared."

"Did you find out anything?"

"Do you see that I have time to investigate?"

Greed suddenly remembered the house number 1913 and tentatively asked, "Have you looked into the origin of the anomalous phenomenon? I mean, does it involve this in your setting?"

"I can't say that I haven't," Bruce replied cautiously. "I believe each of us has a view on this; it's just that some have voiced it, and others haven't. I've merely mentioned in my part of the theory that the original anomalies might have been summoned."

Greed knew that he was certainly concealing something, but the information he had given was already plentiful.

Now, the background stories of most people had been connected; the only ones that still made no sense were probably only Joker's and Shiller's.

"I'm more interested in that thing." The pale knight looked at the jar containing the corpse and said, "You say that's a Wandering? How did you do it? And why use it to feed the fish?"

"It's just some business plan," Greed said.

"It can't be that simple," Bruce also said. "You killed him, but you had to move his body to the cabin, which couldn't have been just to give us a scare."

"I moved the body to the cabin to trap the Wandering," Greed admitted openly. "Scaring you was just incidental."

"But the house was burned down," the pale knight felt something was amiss and said, "While the house was ablaze, we all stood outside the door. How did you manage to move it to the laboratory before the body was burned?"

"Of course, through that hole under the carpet."

"Who helped you move it?"

"Guess?"

Shiller, who was with Prime Universe Batman, had also thought of this issue, but differently, he had deduced the answer.

If Prime Universe Batman already knew that Greed would not set himself up as a purely negative character, then might he not just let Greed's plan proceed but even secretly help him?

Greed had killed Doug and tossed the body into the cabin. The Wandering happened to attach itself to the body, and Shiller set the house ablaze.

Logically, the body should have been burned because they watched the house burn to the ground, everyone was under others' watchful eyes; it was impossible for anyone to suddenly disappear and help Greed to move the body.

Since Shiller was the one who burned the house, he was confident that it was an impromptu act, and Greed should not have been prepared for someone to wait under the hole in the carpet to intercept.

Under these circumstances, there weren't many who could have rescued the body intact; to be precise, there was only one, the Batman with the ability to control the dead.

Batman had investigated Greed's plan in advance and knew he wasn't a straightforward villain. Therefore, at this critical juncture, it was likely he would help him. Using his ability to control the dead, he manipulated Doug's body to jump through the hole before the flames could char it. This would ensure the integrity of the body and, crucially, the Wandering.

"Do you know why he uses monsters to feed the fish?" Shiller asked Batman.

"It has to do with a project their company is working on," Batman replied. "I'm not entirely clear on the details, but they do seem genuinely intent on producing a vaccine."

"I thought it was a scam?" Shiller looked at Batman.

"I did say it was a scam in that letter, but that was just to clue you in. Moreover, this thing being useful doesn't preclude it from being a scam."

Shiller immediately understood; this was very much in Greed's style. Greed was very good at creating something useful but using it to swindle money—you shouldn't worry about whether it's expensive; just consider if it's of any use.

"So the fish really can be used to make a vaccine? What's the principle behind it?"

Batman shook his head, and Shiller was unsure whether he truly didn't know or simply didn't want to say.

"I really don't know the precise principle and plan, but that doesn't stop me from helping him," Batman said, his tone very firm, exuding a sense of composure.

"No matter which Shiller it is, you're not my enemy, nor an enemy of the world," Batman said with conviction, causing Shiller to feel as though he was being flirted with.

"Why would you say that?" Shiller inevitably asked.

"Because you always want something concrete, whether it be money, emotions, papers, academic achievements, and so on."

"I'm not as optimistic as you," Shiller pointed out. "There are also many things I like that are abstract, such as a sense of control."

"Is that how you categorize it? But I consider even that to be something concrete. All of you have clear goals, and the things you want are concrete. No matter how hard these things may be to acquire, they are unlikely to pose much danger."

"It sounds like you have a contrary example."

"Yes, knowing what you want and then going after it—that doesn't make a person dangerous, even if his name happens to be Darkseid. I just see him as an enemy, not some kind of hazard."

"Then what do you consider dangerous?"

"Some people feel an endless emptiness but don't know what they want, or they think what they're pursuing now is what they desire when it really isn't, like the Joker."

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