In a space filled with white mist, a high tower stood silently, like a rock eroded by sea water over millions of years, resolute, towering, and wordless.
Peering through the crevices of the gate, there was a bustling scene inside the tower, with numerous figures busily moving to and fro.
Following the winding staircase upwards, one would end up at an unremarkable office door. With a creak, the door was pushed open, Greedy Shiller, clad in a white lab coat, leaned against the door and spoke to Arrogant who was sitting behind the office desk:
"If it wasn't for the great importance of our task, I wouldn't be able to stand working with you. When will you lose your perfectionist tendencies? Please, Rome wasn't built in a day!"
The Arrogant, head down and focused on his writing, retorted, "But Rome must still be built one day. You're Greed, not Sloth. For how long do you plan to drag this out?"
"Well, we've already spent so many years on this, surely a few more days won't make a difference? Honestly, I haven't even had a chance to take my annual leave." Greedy Shiller shook his head and said. Seeing Arrogant's urgent gaze at him, Greedy held up his hands and waved them, "Alright, fine. I know you're keen to become a normal person. I'll go see how Sloth is doing."
With that, he turned to leave, but as soon as he spun around, he bumped into a figure clad in trench-coat. He looked up, surprised, saying, "Sloth? You're back already?"
Sloth cracked a glacial smile, glanced at Arrogant who was still engrossed in his writing, then turned back to Greedy: "You should go ask. The one who suggested me to try life in Gotham."
Greedy raised an eyebrow, "I know Gotham is chaotic, but surely it's not bad enough to incite your wrath this quickly?"
"What trouble have you encountered?" Arrogant asked, raising his head. He set down his pen and stood up. But before Sloth could answer, Arrogant continued on his own: "Let me guess, Batman not writing papers, finding trouble for no reason, mob fire causing noise disturbance, Merkel processing fertilizers too frequently, such kinds of bothers… I've grown used to."
Arrogant picked up a coat hanging by the door and put it on. As he was about to leave, Sloth gave way, retreating a step with a smile on his face.
Arrogant looked at him, puzzled. He examined Sloth from head to toe, shook his head and left the room.
As Arrogant's figure disappeared at the end of the corridor, Sloth darted to leave but was caught by Greedy's grip. Watching Sloth's expression, Greedy narrowed his eyes, "The trouble you've met... Could it be something beyond the usual?"
Sloth flashed a fake smile, then said, "Is there anything ordinary in Gotham? You let go now. I need to go into seclusion."
Greedy looked confused, but while he was distracted, Sloth broke free from his grasp and vanished immediately. Greedy shook his head and muttered, "Well, Arrogant has successfully gone through the fusion. He's much stronger now. He should be able to handle any trouble."
Walking toward the elevator, Arrogant felt quite satisfied. He had finally resolved a major issue that had plagued him for a long time. Two fragments have become one. More importantly, the fusion process was smoother than he expected.
Fusing with the Joker was not as simple as it seemed. His soul was practically a synonym for madness. But fortunately, the polluted shard originally belonged to Arrogant and the two shards of Arrogant's soul had a natural attraction to each other, preventing the madness from corrupting the entire fragment.
Indeed, Shiller was still the Joker. But the fusion with Arrogant had refined the Joker's traits, retaining the essence, and discarding the dregs.
Previously, because Shiller was chosen by Batman, he became the Joker. The Joker's character had many features, but the two most important were - one, the Batman Joker Aggregation Law, which simply put, where there was Batman, there was the Joker, and vice-versa.
The second was not so obvious, yet very stable - Immortality. As an important antagonist in the original story, Joker could fake his death or go missing, but he could never really die for good.
Shiller suspected that his immortality may be the reason why he can't be taken away by Death in both Marvel and DC worlds.
If he were merely a transmigrator, even in the DC world, he would not be under the control of Death as he wasn't a part of fate. And if so, there was no reason for Death in the Marvel Universe to avoid him.
After all, Marvel's Goddess of Death has clearly stated that the Realm of Death did not welcome him.
Which meant that the Goddess of Death just wasn't willing to take him. Shiller pondered the reason behind this. The most plausible explanation to him was - the presence of the Joker in his soul. If the Goddess of Death took his soul, where would the Joker go?
If there's a need for the Joker to come back to life someday, will the Joker blow a hole through the Land of Death? Or, out of nowhere, a mud truck with a Bat tag appeared in the Land of Death?
Shiller also suspected that Marvel's Goddess of Death was avoiding him because she was most likely influenced indirectly by the OAA. After all, having a popular character from the DC World die in one's own territory could possibly spark a whole lot of issues.
Shiller decided to merge with the fragment of Joker's soul rather than trying to get rid of the fragment outright. This was because he saw the potential in Joker's immortality, guaranteeing him a way out no matter where he was or what he faced.
However, Shiller was indeed fed up with the absurd Batman Joker Aggregation Law. Until he could shake off this rule, he couldn't go anywhere or get anything done but to keep pace with Batman and mutually torment each other each day.
And so, he chose to fuse one-half of his fragmented self with the other, taking the initiative with arrogance. In doing so, he preserved the Joker's identity while also gaining a certain degree of autonomy to do as he pleased.
Compared with DC and Marvel, Shiller in Marvel often takes the initiative, striving for the interests of the human race, uniting various forces and assigning positive and negative roles, creating a more vibrant Marvel world.
However, DC's Shiller due to the "cohesion law" with Batman, is always tangled in the sea of trouble in Gotham, unable to break away no matter how hard he tries.
No to mention doing anything proactive, the farthest he has made it is to the West Coast, and the whole world hasn't changed much, remaining dull and stagnant. Over these four years, Shiller hasn't even had a promotion, like spinning on the spot.
The only good news was that Batman's condition was slightly better. However, the world doesn't revolve around Batman, and Shiller had much he wanted to do. But because of the troubles brought about by Batman, it was impossible to take the initiative, causing him to lag far behind Greed in progress.
This was something Arrogance couldn't tolerate. So, when he could fuse with a fragment of the Joker's characteristic, he went ahead with it immediately. Joining forces with Greed, he upgraded the Lazy Shard, leading the team to stabilize his mental state as quickly as possible.
The current Arrogance was full of confidence. He had prepared a lot of plans and was rubbing his hands together to expand his territory, connect with various forces, and stir up the cosmic storm.
He arrived at the elevator operator's office and without even knocking, thrust open the door and said, "Straight to the top."
Once he finished speaking, he closed the door with a loud bang and quickly walked towards the elevator. His mind was filled with various complicated plans that kept circling non-stop due to the abundant spiritual energy, that even when the elevator reached the top level and he gradually regained consciousness, he remained deep in thought.
The bright light gradually dispersed from his vision, and Shiller seemed like someone who had just woken up. Although he could see the images, his brain couldn't process the information until he regained consciousness. Only then did the images he had seen seconds ago and the information currently being received surged into his brain together, taking a while for him to react.
Once Shiller's brain had processed all of this, his first reaction... was no reaction at all. He was dumbfounded in place.
He was confused as to why he wasn't in his office at Gotham University or his bedroom at Rodrix Manor, but rather in what seemed like a battlefield wasteland torn apart by some monster???
After realizing the situation, Shiller was instantly on high alert. He wondered if some dangerous figures had invaded Gotham University. Was it because the newly upgraded Lazy couldn't cope and retracted back into the tower?
But on second thought, that wasn't right. Any personality fragment in the Tower considered wouldn't switch personalities in a dangerous situation. That would essentially be being irresponsible to the security of Shiller's persona.
The personality traits of Shiller were like luncheon meat in a can. If the outside shell of the can was destroyed, the contents inside wouldn't last too long. That's why not even the crazy Joker would risk bodily harm to forcefully retract into the tower.
Since Lazy chose to switch now, it was deemed safe. Shiller looked around and all he could see was wasteland - it was hardly safe.
To figure out what was happening, Shiller had to scrutinize his recent memory.
It was initially just a cursory glimpse, he intended to determine the reason for his current setting. However, the first thing he saw was Victor telling him that Bruce had shifted to the Physics department and had submitted a paper within two days.
It had to be admitted, after such a long period of interaction, Batman understands his professor too well.
The Dark Knight knew very well that whenever Shiller was dishing out grievances, he was used to doing it in chronological order. Similar to how he extracted revenge. His decision to exit without so much as glancing behind him was strategic. According to the time sequence, Shiller would definitely encounter him first.
As it turns out, Batman's decision was quite wise. After seeing Victor's comment on Bruce, Shiller was fuming from the heart. Unfortunately, since Batman was not around, any retribution would have to wait.
Going further back in his memory, Shiller saw that he had been constantly harassed by phone calls. Without a doubt, he knew the calls came from Hush, Thomas Elliott.
The instant he saw Elliott's face bound in bandages, a police car pulled up at the intersection. Gordon had cuffed Hush and was pressing him into the police car with the assistance of other officers.
What followed was a hospital murder case. The perpetrator was none other than Black Mask, Rhomann. Rhomann was nowhere to be found. If there were no surprises, he should also have been brought to justice by now.
Shiller continued to flip backward in his memories, only to see a tender face — Harley Quinn.
Shiller, standing in place, took a deep breath and glanced down at his dust-covered outfit. He extended his arm to dust off his trench coat lightly.
Harley, who was peeking around the door, shrieked in surprise at the sight of his gaze.
"Professor??!!"