Gotham City, on a not particularly bright but still warm morning, Schiller puts down his coffee cup and hears the sound of his colleague Anna's high heels. Shortly thereafter, a blonde American beauty with a black face comes in and says, "Those lazy bastards at the new student orientation took a day off. You go and cover for them for a day."
Schiller says, "I'll go. You buy me the coffee."
"You'll never be able to date me!" Anna roars, but Schiller happily takes the coffee and walks out of the coffee shop, looking at the perpetually cloudy Gotham City sky, beginning his fifth day in this city.
In his past life, Schiller was a psychologist who was stranded in this folksy city after a plane crash. Luckily, he was neither a hero nor a villain but a leisurely and stable university professor, which was also his old profession, teaching psychology.
Schiller is happy to be able to read books all day long. The system in his mind "dings", and shows "Peter Parker has sent you a chat request."
Schiller walks to the reporting office, responding in his mind: "What's up, Peter?"
"Hey! I'm interning at Osborn's company tomorrow! You don't know how valuable this opportunity is for me! And Gwen... I mean, she's going too! It's fantastic! We can discuss the double helix of the genome, those amazing machines..."
Schiller silently thinks to himself, no girl is going to talk to you about these things, little spider, wake up.
Ever since he arrived here, Schiller has been given a "Marvel Chatting System". The first person he unlocked was the talkative Peter Parker, who has been blathering on for four and a half days about his teenage heart's journey of loving Gwen, wanting to pursue her, but not daring to do so.
While encouraging Peter, Schiller reaches the reporting office, where he sits down and starts organizing forms while waiting for the new students to report.
Strangely enough, Schiller has been in Gotham City for a few days and has not seen the Bat-Signal lit up, nor have any of the villains caused trouble. Life seems to be quite peaceful and the people are indeed folksy.
Soon, students start coming in, carrying a pile of materials, and Schiller's job is to register their names and dorm rooms.
"Next!" Schiller shouts without looking up, as there is already a long line of people waiting. A male student sits down, and Schiller asks, "Name?"
"Bruce Wayne."
"Bruce… Male dormitory building 2, room 306," Schiller mutters to himself as he writes it down. Suddenly, his pen stops, and he looks up to ask, "Wayne?"
"Indeed, I'm Wayne," the young man replies.
Schiller repeats, "Male dormitory building 2, room 306. Didn't you hear me clearly? Take your form and go. Everyone else is waiting for you."
Bruce is stunned this time, picking up the form and asking, "Which department are you from, Professor?"
"Psychology. Don't take my class, kid," Schiller says.
Bruce catches his interest, but Schiller is helpless. He just realized that Batman has just entered the university! He wondered why the Bat-Signal wasn't lit up!
How unlucky he is! Batman enters university, and he becomes a teacher!
Schiller has a pretty good understanding of the danger level of the Batman comics series, especially at the moment this 18-year-old Bruce Wayne, a vile playboy!
Bruce doesn't say much. After thanking Schiller, he leaves. Schiller finishes his work registering the new students and is about to go back to his professorial apartment to sleep when he remembers he left his keys in the office. He walks up the office stairs and bumps into a tall and thin professor, saying, "Hi, Jonathan, are you also here to pick up things?"
"Yes. You left your keys in the office again," Jonathan says.
"Oh, you're right. Anna rushed me too much today, and I forgot when I left. I'll come down as soon as I take them. See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow."
In the moment that Schiller and Jonathan missed each other, a chill ran up Schiller's spine. Jonathan
Super Criminal Scarecrow!
Jonathan, who had his back to Schiller, did not see Schiller staring at him intently when he turned around. If he hadn't heard that Batman had just started college today, he wouldn't have thought of it. Memories of Scarecrow flashed through his mind. The Gotham University psychology professor, a doctor of psychology and chemistry, and the future Scarecrow who would use fear gas to massacre - Jonathan Crane!
Schiller took a deep breath and continued up the stairs at the same pace. Jonathan was not yet Scarecrow because Bruce was only 18 and had not graduated from college yet, and so had not become Batman. Jonathan was not yet a world-renowned psychologist - he was only slightly famous in the field of "emotional psychology". Schiller was more famous than him at the moment...
Schiller was now a world-class master of criminal psychology and abnormal psychology, a famous psychological researcher, and Gotham's most famous psychology professor. So, even though Jonathan's attitude had been quite good just now... what was the use of that? Schiller couldn't invent nerve gas! He was a pure arts student, while Jonathan was a chemistry Ph.D.!
It was true that if you were good at mathematics, physics, and chemistry, you could go anywhere in the world without fear... Schiller was well aware that the bloody stage in Gotham City was about to be opened. And now he was just a scholar with no fighting skills, a weak chicken who couldn't even move a chair properly, a pure intellectual. Even the background thugs in comics could kill him with a gun!
And his worries had become a reality. The next morning, Schiller, who was sitting in the psychology clinic at school as usual, drinking freshly brewed coffee and slacking off, heard a crisp knocking at the door.
"Professor Schiller, can I come in?" It was Bruce Wayne outside the door!
Schiller took a deep breath. Were students still coming to this lousy place? I'm just slacking off here, don't you get it, paid vacation?
Bruce walked in and shrugged. As a playboy, his mannerisms were evident. "Can't I come in and chat if I don't have a problem?" he said.
Schiller pushed his glasses up and said, "This is a place for students to receive psychological counseling. If you don't have any problems to consult about, then you can leave."
Schiller swore that his tone was already as dry as an airplane announcement, but Bruce still asked with interest, "Okay, let me ask you a question. What do you think is the meaning of life?"
Schiller took a deep breath and opened the Marvel chat system in his mind. He remembered that he had received a random chat opportunity because he had previously guided Peter Parker's emotional problems. He quickly typed: "This is a child who has lost both parents and has vowed to take revenge on all criminals. Now he's asking me what the meaning of life is, disguised as a playboy. How should I answer him so he won't come to bother me in the future? Online waiting urgently."
Soon, a reply appeared: "As a teacher, I think you should be patient and provide psychological counseling to this unfortunate child from two angles..."
Schiller looked at the name on the dialogue box and realized it was Charles Xavier! Professor X from the X-Men!
No wonder, he was the founder and principal of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. But Schiller noticed that Charles' avatar was clickable, and he clicked on it in his mind. A dialogue box popped up: "The ability to randomly copy one ability from the chat object (low-level) for first-time chat. Copy now?"
Schiller clicked "yes" without knowing what was going on.
"Telepathy (low-level) has been loaded."
Schiller felt his vision blur, and suddenly there were countless noises and countless strange emotions rushing into his mind, making it impossible for him to distinguish. After a while, Schiller realized that he had indeed gained a part of Professor X's ability.
Telepathy is Charles Xavier's signature ability, and with the help of a brainwave amplifier, he can brainwash the entire human race. However, the version of telepathy that Schiller obtained was a severely weakened version -- he could only vaguely sense the other person's emotions and some thoughts that suddenly flashed through his mind, and he couldn't directly read minds.
But it was enough. Schiller focused his attention on Bruce and found that his emotions were very chaotic, and he wasn't as indifferent as he appeared. Based on Batman's life experiences, he must have just returned from traveling around the world, and entering college was probably just a cover for Bruce's identity. The real Batman already hated this boring daily life and every drop of blood in his body was shouting "revenge" and "revenge on those criminals."
In Bruce's eyes, the professor in front of him suddenly seemed to be in deep thought. Schiller had a pair of slightly special gray eyes, and when Bruce was stared at by these eyes, his sharp intuition began to sound the alarm -- he seemed to be spied on, seen through.
Then, Schiller said, "Maybe you've been waiting for someone to give you this answer, a definite answer that will give you something to do after you get it. Don't bother me anymore. So, I'm willing to give you this answer."
"Oh? What is it?" Bruce asked.
"Revenge," Schiller stared into Bruce's eyes and said. Under Bruce's suddenly gloomy face, Schiller repeated once again, "The meaning of life is revenge."
Ignoring Bruce's already gloomy expression like the Gotham sky, Schiller asked, "Are you satisfied, Mr. Wayne?"