Bruce fell into deep thought.
This was not the first time he had gotten a viewpoint from Shiller that he had never heard before, an approach that was quite peculiar yet seemed to make a lot of sense, but this time the perspective was particularly strange.
From the standpoint of a normal human being, laziness is improper, but Shiller was now telling him that if a person has no laziness, they might become more terrifying.
In fact, in his heart, Bruce knew, he had all the symptoms mentioned by Shiller, and though he was somewhat improved now, it still showed.
The most typical example was when he had felt multiple times since he was a child that when he achieved something, a voice in his heart would tell him that there was nothing worth celebrating, just some insignificant accomplishment.
And at the same time, another voice told him that he was an unparalleled genius unlike everyone else, his achievements surpassed all others, he was destined to be a great man.
When he was very young, Bruce was confused by this. He even doubted whether he was a bit schizophrenic.
Why was there always some force suppressing his excitement and another pushing for excessive self-affirmation?
Until adulthood, Bruce did not find a clear answer.
Today, he hardly ever feels happy about any of his achievements, but simultaneously he genuinely considers himself an unparalleled genius.
Although it indeed was the case, upon reflection, where did these two mysterious forces causing these outcomes come from?
Bruce placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and looked at Shiller saying, "You're saying, it's because I do not indulge in laziness?"
"The human brain is more inert than you think," Shiller stared at Bruce unwaveringly and said, "I think you must have read about the theory that humans can be domesticated."
"It's the same with the brain. When you keep training a part of your thinking it becomes stronger, more responsive, and more executive."
Bruce nodded, this wasn't a complicated knowledge, even people without psychology education heard about it.
For instance, the training of the left and right brain. Most of the human organs become stronger when used within reasonable scope. Even nearsightedness, which is caused by using one's eyes excessively leading to deformation of the vitreous body, is a result of strengthening through exercise.
"If you only have experiences of continuously accomplishing tasks and obtaining success, your brain will only deal with similar emotions. This can lead to two results. One is what I've mentioned before: prolonged depression, irritability and violence, and excessive arrogance and narcissism."
"Another situation is, when faced with sudden failure, your brain, unable to process negative emotions, will lead to imbalance and excessive pessimism, resulting in mental disorder."
"This is why, to many people, some depression patients who originally had smooth sailing suddenly became depressed when bumped into small troubles."
"Or say, why business success stories who were hit by shocks had higher probability of getting mental disorders than average men. It's because their brains are not good at managing negative emotions when failed, which leads to very deep and heavy emotions, creating imbalance, consequently turning into a chronic illness over time."
After musing for a few minutes, Bruce raised his head and said to Shiller, "Then how did you achieve this characteristic of laziness?"
"I've spent several years cobbling together various negative personality traits to mold this thing I call laziness. But in actuality, it's a hodgepodge, an amalgamation of disparate parts."
Shiller touched his forehead, recalling and speaking, "At that time, my attitude towards psychological therapy wasn't much better than yours, most of the time I just tried to muddle through."
"Then, my attitude towards the homework left by the psychologist was similar to your attitude towards my paper, rushing to finish it the night before the due date, as long as I had something to hand in the next day."
Bruce looked at Shiller's face, now he understood why Shiller could always tell who had hastily finished their paper the night before.
So he tore the students' papers into pieces just because he himself had been caught in the rain, right?
"But later on, I realized that the doctor was right. Some parts of my brain had completely rusted due to lack of stimulation. I had to think of ways to get them moving."
"So, I started earnestly constructing this trait of laziness, but actually, it was very hard." Shiller shook his head and said, "It's entirely counterintuitive. I had no feeling of this weird obstruction, yet I had to imagine that it existed and let it cause failures, which was extremely difficult."
"Up until I came to Gotham, this trait was still an amalgamation of odds and ends."
"However, due to the fact that this city was indeed full of dangers and I ruined some things, the rate of failure was much higher than before, which actually helped me to form this trait."
After he finished speaking, Shiller began to count on his fingers, "Catwoman stole the diamond bottle containing the symbiont, Green Lantern wreaked havoc in the mental hospital, costing me an office, Hal destroyed the central roundabout, causing me to get stuck in traffic, the Court of Owls messed up my car on the way to my vacation, my holiday was ruined by seasickness and getting stranded on a deserted island, your helicopter engine blew up my tower, Bat Cat and Pikachu blew up my house..."
Bruce covered his forehead, feeling that the twinge of sympathy he had just felt must have been an illusion. He hadn't noticed that Shiller's life these past four years, was as exciting as his own.
"Anyway, under my deliberate indulgence, although those who caused these incidents experienced some minor accidents, their failures truly were failures, and I didn't intentionally try to salvage anything."
"During this phase, the characteristic of sloth gradually evolved from the Stitched Monster, becoming an independent feature with the ability to act independently, and the next turning point happened recently."
"Arrogant, which was originally divided into two parts, is gradually becoming one. Greed, the strongest, has also gained greater power. However, this process is the biggest failure for both of them. They suffered a major blow."
Upon hearing Shiller's words, Bruce frowned and thought thoroughly. The original Shiller was also a natural-born killer, so he had characteristics of other natural-born killers.
The most effective way to break through their defences was not to debate with them and persuade them, but to utterly ignore and disregard them.
The things Arrogant did and plans he made were completely disregarded by his friends. For him, that was indeed a major blow.
"Their failures and resulting negative emotions can reshape the personal traits of Sloth. But at the same time, they have gained stronger powers and can enhance the intensity of personality trait fragments. In this way, true Sloth was born."
"The reason why I say I'm an ordinary and mediocre person, is because, from then on, I possess all the traits an ordinary person should have." Shiller also leaned forward, staring into Bruce's eyes as he spoke.
"For me now, thoughts and emotions are like a puzzle. I can no longer control that precise machine, block what I want to block, and keep what I want to keep."
"When I do something, I sometimes experience inexplicable resistance which makes me want to give up. After giving up, I'd regret not achieving results and think back on how much better it would have been if I hadn't given up."
"Simultaneously, I've lost most of the foresight that precise calculations and rational judgments bring. Simply put, I've lost the ability to beat around the bush hundreds of times with a single matter. Like ordinary people, I'm just taking it one step at a time."
"What's the point in that?" Bruce asked, puzzled. "Why did you go to all this trouble just to turn yourself into a weakling?"
Shiller shook his head helplessly. "Did you listen to what I just said at all? Do you think ordinary people suffer more than you, so they're all weaklings? Isn't it possible that ordinary people are actually happier than you?"
Facing Bruce was like dealing with a block of decayed wood. Shiller had to take a deep breath, stand up, lean on the table with both hands, and look at Bruce. "Let me ask you, why do you strive to become stronger?"
"To save the world?" Bruce answered, somewhat uncertain.
"So what do you get out of saving the world?"
"I'm not looking to gain anything." Bruce's tone became slightly more assertive.
"No, you want to gain happiness." Shiller looked down at him. "Then why can't I give up my ability to save the world, and directly exchange it for happiness?"
Bruce pressed his lips together in clear disagreement and raised a question,"If you become an ordinary person, how do you plan to deal with the serial killers that keep coming after you?"
"Like I said, don't think of ordinary people as fools. As long as they don't have mental diseases and their abilities don't exceed certain thresholds, they're considered ordinary people. Are you saying there are no detectives among ordinary people?"
"Are you sure that a detective can take down two serial killers in three nights? Or perhaps there are more than two." Bruce looked Shiller up and down as he spoke.
"I wish your imagination was as rich when writing papers as it is now," Shiller rolled his eyes and responded.
After that, he stood up and walked to the phone on the cabinet. Picking up the receiver, he began to dial. Shiller started talking to the person on the other end of the line, "Chief Gordon, recently, I learned that a serial killer is targeting me. I hope to receive police protection... Oh, really? Alright, I'll go to the Gotham Police Department to discuss this in-depth later."
When Shiller hung up the phone, the morning light just shot into the room. The newspaper boy ran past the door, threw a fresh newspaper into the room through the newspaper delivery hole on the cabinet.
Shiller casually picked up the just-delivered newspaper, unfolded it while walking back to Bruce's side. Bruce pointed at his left hand and said, "You've got ink on your hand. Are you sure you don't want to wear a finger cover?"
Shiller closed the newspaper with a "snap" and glanced at Bruce over the top of his glasses.
"A dirty hand can be washed... just a fun fact."