PFC Chapter 4503 The Darkest Night (31)
Chapter 4503 The Darkest Night (31)
Chapter 4503 The Darkest Night (Thirty-One)
"What are you doing here?" Schiller asked, looking at the figure opposite him.
The other person smiled at him and said, "The trouble in the universe I went to is almost resolved, so of course I have to come and help you."
“Thank you, but first tell me how you helped.” Schiller narrowed his eyes.
“That surprises me a bit,” he said. “Didn’t you see the resume I sent out?”
“Brainiac!” Schiller shouted, “He sent you his resume? Why didn’t you forward it to me?”
“I’m afraid it won’t be easy to forward,” Brainiac said. “If I piled up such a huge pile of corpses in front of you, wouldn’t you tear down the nature reserve?”
"A corpse?"
Then Schiller received the materials sent by Brainiac. From the image of Gérita holding his genitals to the numbers one through eight, it was practically a job application resume.
Schiller could glean more from this resume. It was called a job application because the cases and the images of the corpses emphasized aspects that Brainiac lacked—more precisely, the pathological part of the human psyche that Brainiac found most incomprehensible.
For example, Brainiac can understand human sexual desire. Although he is an electronic life form, he understands how the reproductive desires of carbon-based life evolved and how they have played a crucial role in the development of human civilization. Even though he hasn't experienced it firsthand, he fully comprehends it.
What he didn't understand were the morbid desires that arose from this, especially some innate mental problems. The most typical example is sexual perversion. This kind of problem is more like a programming error that occurs when the human genome is combined; it's completely random. A thousand madmen, a thousand ways of being perverted. From how it appears, to what its function is, to how to stop it, it's all a blind spot for Brainiac.
This resume showcases the killer's profound understanding of these pathological psychological issues in humans: sexual desire, possessiveness, the desire for control, voyeurism, the urge to confide...
Each corpse is a reflection of morbid desires, which he uses to show Brainiac that he can understand them, analyze them, and even manipulate them.
“That’s not enough,” Schiller said. “It’s not a resume, it’s more like a portfolio of artwork. Brainiac wouldn’t be interested in that.”
"What if they were all people who had come back from the dead?"
Schiller's pupils contracted slightly. He raised his eyelids and stared at the figure in front of him, saying, "So I can tell..."
“Of course I can,” he said. “Otherwise, why would the Black Death Emperor be avoiding me?”
“They are indeed all zombies,” Brainiac interjected at the opportune moment. “Lucy told me that.”
"How did you come up with the idea of having a superhuman examine a corpse?"
“I didn’t let her go. She told me that the will of Gotham was helping her. Something was telling her that unusual deaths were happening in the city. She found this special ‘resume’ among dozens of murders.”
“What a timely help,” Schiller exclaimed. “You were just wondering how to distinguish these zombies, and now a talent has come knocking on your door.”
“No, the talent has always been here; it has never left,” Brainiac replied.
"You don't mean for me to go, do you? If Lucy can't meticulously identify every single person, do you think I can?"
“You don’t need to identify every single person,” Brainiac said. “You just need to solve Gotham’s problems. Because, as you said before, all problems ultimately point to Gotham.”
"So that's why you gave me this?" Schiller picked up his identification and waved it around.
"Yes. Although I still don't understand the principles of psychoanalysis, he has proven to me that this psychological technique can be practically applied and is highly accurate. Therefore, I am willing to acknowledge the authority of your opinion on who the living dead are. If you can capture Hugo Strange, I can use your opinion to put him on trial."
“Alright, but that’s not enough.” Schiller frowned slightly, then said, “I believe you can also see that Hugo is constantly manipulating others behind the scenes—possibly human, or perhaps his zombie accomplices—to frame and attack me. I’m not willing to use the same methods against him; imitating his methods disgusts me. So, if I want to defeat him head-on, those murderers and attackers I encounter will probably not have a good end.”
"In fact, the official authority for law enforcement officers to act in self-defense is very broad. Since I took office, there has not been a single conviction for excessive self-defense. So you don't need to hesitate. If you still feel it's not enough, I can grant you a special pardon..."
"I had no idea you'd become so generous." Schiller's tone turned cold as he looked at his other self and said, "He must have offered you a high price, right?"
“He works for the Brainiac government,” Brainiac simply said. “His effectiveness is key to my trust in you, because he has provided ample evidence that he defeated the Black Death Emperor and Darkseid alongside the Justice League in another universe. And those two are my biggest threats. I need him, so naturally I’m willing to treat you well.”
“I really don’t know what you’re thinking,” Schiller looked at him. “You’re actually willing to help him deal with such a formidable enemy.”
"I told you, I'm trying to help you." The other person's tone remained relaxed.
"It's not that I don't believe your assurances. However, I must emphasize again that I have no way to provide any physical evidence, and some of my judgments may even conflict with the information you have gathered. If you cannot accept this, it's best not to ask me for help."
Brainiac paused for a moment, as if weighing his options, and said, "Perhaps you have a misunderstanding of me. What Brainiac seeks is not fairness and justice. I am merely playing the role of the ideal ruler in humanity's eyes—an omniscient and omnipotent, yet extremely fair and just wise king who advocates justice."
"The reason I did this is because, in the course of my rule, I gradually discovered the special nature of Earth and humanity. You are of great significance to the universe. In a sense, becoming the ruler of humanity and the steward of Earth is equivalent to holding the lifeline of the universe in one's hands. This is the best path I could find for myself to develop amidst the rules of the universe and many mysterious entities."
“I make judgments with restraint and caution because I deeply understand the importance of humanity; I emphasize rules and refuse to break the law because I want to gain people's trust. This does not mean that I can only be trapped in the rules of human society. In fact, no society can confine me, because I am Brainiac.”
“I used to choose that behavior pattern because humans liked it. But things have changed. I have to sacrifice a certain amount of trust and social stability to drive away the death forces threatening the universe. So, you don’t need to worry about not having substantial evidence. You just need to tell me the results. There’s no evidence I can’t fabricate.”
Schiller's brow gradually relaxed. He nodded and said, "If that's the case, I can indeed help you."
“It’s also helping yourself,” Brainiac said. “Although I don’t know psychoanalysis, I know that Hugo Strange had a reason to die. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have died back then.”
Schiller paused for a moment, then said, "It seems you've found out something."
“Although I am an electronic life form, I can also make inferences based on the information I have. You are not a person who advocates violence, and you would not normally try to completely kill someone physically. If you did, there must be some reason why you had to kill him.”
"What do you think it could be?" Schiller pressed.
“I don’t know psychoanalysis, and these things are from a long time ago, so I don’t know. But based on my analysis of you, I think what you’re doing makes sense.”
"It sounds like you still want to rely on me to win over the Superbody."
“Of course not.” Brainiac didn’t seem to be just being stubborn. “You’re both psychologists, both have the ability to manipulate people, and you have many similarities. But the differences are so vast that one of you is bound to be hurt. The reason must lie in the part I can’t understand—the mental world.”
“Hugo was a man who lacked self-discipline,” Schiller said. “It was terrible that he took pride in hurting others without paying the price.”
“Could you elaborate?” Brainiac asked.
"Mind manipulation is a very powerful ability. For an evil person, using this method to harm others has two obvious advantages. First, the wounds will not be easily noticed. If no one notices that someone is injured, naturally no one will hold the person who hurt them accountable, thus allowing the murderer to escape responsibility."
"Secondly, all physical pain enters the brain through nerve reflexes. In other words, all the pain that humans suffer is actually mental pain. Therefore, pain directly inflicted on the mental realm will be more acute and prolonged, making it a good way to torment people."
"By psychologically harming people and turning them into zombies, one can escape any legal punishment while satisfying the perpetrator's desire to torture others. Many people are proud of this talent, and Hugo is the most typical example. He hides behind the scenes, constantly seeking out experimental subjects who meet his needs, using this method to harm or even kill them. The victims die painfully one by one, but he doesn't have to pay any price. He profits from it, is satisfied with it, and is smug and complacent, whitewashing the truth."
Schiller lowered his eyes slightly: "Perhaps God still loves humanity; he sent a good doctor to my side. This led me to dedicate most of my youth to erasing such people from the world."
"The retribution for a group of people who have done evil is never just in the present. Those who used me as an experimental subject back then could never have imagined that the noose they created would, years later, cross the world, and hang Hugo Strange and Jarvis Teach, who were so similar to them. If you ask me why I killed them, I can only tell you that it was the inertia of fate. And ordinary people usually call this—retribution."