"You're short of money???!!!!!"
A surprised shout echoed through the office at Gotham University. The astonishment it carried was evident several miles away.
Shiller widened his eyes, staring at Bruce seated opposite him, and said, "Say that again. What are you lacking???!!!!"
Bruce spread out his hands on the table and said, "I am currently short of cash."
Taking a deep breath, Shiller said, "Bruce, do you think once you've handed in all your summaries and papers, there's nothing I can do about you? Instead of wasting time here fooling around with me, you'd better go back and explain to your butler why you won't be receiving the outstanding graduate award..."
"I'm serious." Bruce's expression was very serious as he said, "Wayne Enterprises is facing a liquidity crisis, and I urgently need to make money."
"Then just invent something… oh, wait, your inventions aren't exactly sellable, so you could go to the bank and get… never mind, you are so stubborn, going into counterfeit... it's not difficult but it will cause inflation… well, how do you plan to earn money then?" Shiller turned to Bruce and asked.
No matter how, Batman is good-hearted. Even though he may sometimes appear overly obsessed, seemingly crazy, his moral boundaries are definitely higher than others. It would be difficult to get him to cheat or steal.
Especially if he were to directly rob a bank or print money, it might affect the lives of ordinary people. It's normal for Bruce to be reluctant. But if these are not involved, and he wants to make money through legal means, especially making a large amount of money in a short period, that may be a bit problematic.
At this moment, Bruce muttered a name: "Vandal Savage."
Shiller raised an eyebrow, "So, you're after his wealth? Well, he should be quite wealthy…"
In DC Comics, Savage is extremely wealthy. It's said that he's accumulated countless wealth over 50,000 years. Although this setup is quite illogical, he should currently be at a stage where he's stupidly rich, at least according to Captain Cold and Master Mirror.
Shiller gave a small laugh, and then sat down, staring at Bruce: "Your intention is to make some money from Savage. How do you plan to do it?"
"I came here to ask you about how you plan to do it." Bruce looked into Shiller's eyes, "I think you're more skilled in this aspect."
Shiller widened his eyes, revealing a surprised look. He didn't expect Batman to have changed so much, he had finally learned the essence of cheating and deceiving - that is, you may not do or be capable of doing it, but you must know who can.
"Alright, I think finding him, subduing him, or even killing him is not difficult, but it could be a little tricky to drain him dry." Shiller opened his mouth.
"If Captain Cold is right, Savage has played many kings in the world, so he may have a refuse-to-submit-even-in-death attribute. You might be able to capture him, lock him up, and force him to tell the whereabouts of his wealth, but he might prefer death over betrayal."
"To achieve your goal of draining his wealth, there's only one way - to make him willingly hand over his money." After Shiller uttered these words, he paused a bit, and Bruce realized that his professor might have switched tactics.
Sure enough, Shiller revealed a gentle smile. Different from his usual cold smirk, this smile looked very sincere and warm, apart from it being slightly creepy, there was no flaw.
"If we are to use a method that makes people willingly pull out their wallets, we must first figure out their deepest desires. What does Savage want most?"
"World domination." Bruce replied.
"Exactly. But that might just be one of his big goals. For world domination, he will take various measures, such as buying off people in Central City, but it all leads to one outcome."
"He bought off the people of Central City and then came to Gotham himself. This shows he has some plans for Gotham, or he believes that Gotham plays an important role in his larger goal of world domination."
"Before dominating the world, he wants to dominate Gotham first. I could only say, he is a man with a challenging spirit."
"I guess he might have thought that Gotham is quite chaotic, perfect for fishing in troubled waters, and if he can unite this chaotic city, he can use it as a springboard for dominating the East Coast." Bruce could better understand Savage's plans.
After all, only from the perspective of someone who has lived for 50,000 years and hasn't yet dominated the world, would such a strategy not be surprising.
"He has great ambitions for Gotham, and so far, he probably has not encountered much resistance. So he thinks his old tricks will still work. If we want him to change his ways and follow the path we set, we must first make him meet some resistance."
Shiller rose to his feet and walked over to the whiteboard in his office. He drew a symbol on it, then said, "Psychologically speaking, if you want to guide someone to act according to your will, you must do the following."
"First, you must create obstacles for him. You must make him realize that his old behavioral logic does not work with you."
"Then, create an environment where he must rely on you."
"In this environment, he only has you as an option. Yet, because of his behavioral pattern, he is rejected by the only choice available to him. Hence, to gain a sense of security, he has to passively change his behavioral logic and thoughts to accommodate you. After he has chosen you at such a great cost, when he wants to change, the sunk cost becomes his shackles."
"People can be trained in this way. In a closed environment, when there is only one path to take, they are willing to pay the price to change themselves to walk this path. When they are on this path, their worldview will gradually be shaped by it, resulting in them becoming advocates for it. When others try to pull them away from this path, they feel resistance and fear instead."
"This is why many people, even though they clearly know they've been deceived, and understand that the other party is a cheat, still willingly believe in them and continue to pay the price, because their behavioral patterns have already been trained."
Shiller tapped the blackboard and said, "To exploit these theoretical techniques for deception, there are several key points to consider. First, create a closed environment or make the target believe they are in a closed environment."
"Provide a sense of privacy. Make people wrongly estimate the consequences of their behaviors. Simply put, it's about giving before taking. Let them feel that their actions won't require too significant a price to pay or cause too much loss. Compared to what they already have, it's trivial."
"For example, if I now ask you to pour a glass of water and then I will answer a question you've been wanting to know, would you be willing to do so?"
Bruce looked at Shiller and said, "Perhaps in the past I would have been willing. Perhaps before, I had acted in such a manner. But not anymore. If I want to know the answer to a question, I'll find it myself."
"Then why are you coming to see me now? You came to me on your own accord, not at my behest. You need me, I just asked you to pour me a glass of water, which is nothing to you, but can somewhat compensate for the time you've taken up and the inconvenient you've caused."
As Bruce was about to respond, Shiller held up his hand and said, "I put it more bluntly, therefore you realised that this is actually a technique. But with a bit of tweaking, pulling at emotional strings, finding common ground, its core content is easily concealed."
"As long as you take the first step, the taming process begins. You feel that you have lost nothing in this step, but in reality, what you lose is the invaluable power of independant judgement."
"This so-called independent judgement means that when I state I want a drink, your first independent thought should be, 'Am I thirsty?'. Because you're thirsty, you want a drink. The decision to get a drink based on the reality of your thirst is an independent judgement."
"But once you get caught up in whether you should pour me water if I ask, what you're giving up and what I'm giving up, what you're getting and what I'm getting, this reality-based independent judgement power is weakened."
"Once you ignore the facts and only fall into the gain-and-loss judgment of tit-for-tat, things will become uncontrollable."
"So..." Shiller looked at Bruce and said, "If you want Savage to willingly shell out money, the first three steps are the most important."
"You first need to make him feel like he's in an isolated situation, then make him face obstacles and difficulties to realize that his old behavior of throwing money at problems isn't reliable anymore. Finally, blur his reality-based logic and turn his thinking towards the gain-and-loss judgment of a certain number or outcome."
On the way out of the office building, Shiller's phrases echoed in Bruce's ears. He never imagined that deception required such theoretical support.
At the same time, he also felt amazed as it seemed that the rules of human psychology and behavior can be applied to all things related to people, and thus to gain an advantage.
If he hadn't learned these theories and others had, they'd possess knowledge beyond his cognition and apply it in practice, how could he limit them?
For this, there is only one approach: to learn as others do, to learn better than others and fight fire with fire.
With this in mind, Bruce returned to Wayne Manor. He collected his thoughts and focused on Savage.
Having listened to Shiller, he now had a clearer plan in mind. Indeed, mere brute force was insufficient to make him shell out money, but violence could potentially pave the way for a plan.
Just as Shiller stated, he had to create some obstacles for Savage, so he could realize that his previous behavior pattern of throwing money to hire others was not productive. Should Savage end up searching for a new solution, that will surely be music to God's ears.
If Savage was looking for a new solution, Bruce believed that his dear professor would come up with a breathtaking plan to help him rule Gotham, take control over the East Coast, unify North America, conquer the Americas, capture the Pacific, and once again dominate the world.
This plan would be like Shiller himself - excellent in every area, but just a tiny bit expensive.