"One last question..." Victor looked into Schiller's eyes and asked, "Since you are now a formal employee in service, why would you let that contaminated personality fill in for you and commit those acts upon Batman?"
Schiller raised his arms and held his shoulders, saying, "Victor, you need to understand, I'm not exactly an amiable person. I've practiced extra patience with this student called Bruce Wayne."
"In these two months, I've been nagging him to submit thesis, complete assignments daily, urging him to attend classes and focus on his studies, but what was the payback? Merely looking at another student caused him to skip an entire month of classes!"
Schiller took out a logbook and slammed it on the hospital bed, saying, "Most importantly, when he was far from earning enough credits to graduate, he missed out on a round of internships that offered the most points! Before that, he had even promised me faithfully that he would not delay graduation!"
Victor lowered his head and sighed after listening, "Alright, I understand your feelings of anger, but things have gone a bit too far. Bruce was severely injured... "
Schiller shook his head, not saying another word. Victor knew that it was not that there were no justifications, but some things could not be said.
What Schiller didn't explain was about the Laughing Bat.
In the previously introduced principles of his personality split, he left out a very crucial point: these personalities were all components of a complete personality split, sharing a common memory.
The memory is stored in a room within the Tower of Thought, accessible by any personality. Although the administrator can prevent a particular personality from accessing specific parts of the memory, Joker Schiller is the other half of Arrogant Schiller's original personality trait.
Present Schiller can access the memory, and so can Joker Schiller.
After Joker Schiller had gone through Schiller's memories, what he found most ludicrous was not the truth that everything was a comic story, but the Laughing Bat.
Undoubtedly, no Joker in this world could stand this fellow.
Joker Schiller was a fusion of Joker and Schiller. Neither the Joker nor Schiller liked the Laughing Bat. When combined, their distaste was not as simple as one plus one equalling two.
Furthermore, Joker Schiller is part of Arrogant. He is just as obstinate and stubborn.
Ever since Joker Schiller first laid eyes on this character, he stopped creating havoc and causing mischief in Schiller's Tower of Thought.
It's not because he suddenly turned over a new leaf and aimed to be an exemplary citizen, but because he knew that in front of the Laughing Bat, Schiller, even Batman, were not his enemies, but his allies.
As long as it could make Laughing Bat eat shit, Joker Schiller was willing to cooperate with anyone.
That's why, in the past few instances, Joker Schiller complied obediently, acting at the behest of the other Schillers, either creating chaos or seeking amusement for him.
The incident this time was actually a reward Schiller gave to Joker Schiller. Or perhaps it wasn't a reward: their core interests were aligned — they wanted the Laughing Bat out of the DC Universe.
What Schiller didn't tell Victor was that Joker Schiller and Joker Jack planned this long ago. The first step of their plan was not to deal with the Laughing Bats already born in other cosmos, but to prevent the birth of the Laughing Bat in their own world.
It's not improbable for the Laughing Bat to appear here. After all, during the previous delve into Bruce's consciousness, Schiller and Joker Jack jointly dug out a Laughing Egg.
This signifies that this universe still carries the seeds of the Laughing, and they found one. There might be another one somewhere else, but they can't possibly search for it around the world.
In this case, the only alternative was another method — to eliminate the Laughing from happening.
The so-called Laughing Bat is in fact the Batman who laughed. However, in the comic's background story, Batman got infected with the Joker virus and hence, burst out laughing.
If it were impossible to prevent the birth of the Laughing, then they may as well make Batman laugh even harder.
Throughout the process among the three Jokers, Joker Schiller always took the lead, because even Joker Jack knew that Schiller had several judgments based outside reality and could indeed break the inevitable tragic situation.
For instance this time, Joker Schiller didn't plan to treat the Laughing, but instead planned to push Batman a bit.
There are many types of laughter in this world, but the Joker, merged with Schiller, understood that being infected with the Laughing virus was the most meaningless, the most unthinking, the kind of laughter that could not provoke philosophical thinking.
Did Batman really laugh?
Yes, he did.
But did he want to laugh?
No, he only changed his expression because he mistakenly took a medication, like a stroke patient.
The Laughing Bat didn't really want to laugh from the heart.
If that's the case, then Joker Schiller would make Batman genuinely laugh, a radiant laughter from the heart.
A counterfeit can never beat the real thing.
A Batman who truly wants to laugh cannot be compared to a fool who fixed a smiling mask on his face.
Therefore, Joker Schiller and Joker Jack devised a whole series of plans, knowing that Bruce would realize one day that Batman's path was not viable, and with a bit of guidance, Bruce would surely turn his attention to the slums.