After Peter asked this question, both of them were stunned.
Bruce had realized earlier that earning the trust of Penguin Man would be crucial in his plan, but it wouldn't be easy.
Bruce knew Oswald Kolbott from his universe, but he was younger and didn't seem like a lunatic, so Bruce didn't understand Penguin Man enough.
If Penguin Man had been a mob boss for many years, or even a mayor, then he must be extremely cunning and difficult to deal with.
Bruice had already gathered some insights about Penguin Man's behavioral logic through their conversations, but the breakthrough was still not significant enough. He could only continue to look for loopholes in their future interactions.
But then Peter suddenly gave him a conclusion. How did he come to this conclusion?
Bruce asked this question, believing Peter would provide him at least a few key points, if not a detailed answer.
But Peter just stammered for a while and only said, "Um... because of penguins."
"Penguins? What about them?"
"I mean, penguins are social animals. He calls himself Penguin Man because he longs for the camaraderie of social animals — um, a reflection of his desire to find security within a group. He lacks a sense of safety."
Bruce's silence was deafening.
"Does that make any sense to you?" Bruce asked.
In fact, Peter had nothing else to say.
From a logical standpoint, there seems nothing wrong with his line of thought, but if a conclusion is based only on conjecture and not solid evidence, how different is it from a wild guess?
Neither of them could answer this question.
Bruce and Peter both have very typical scientific personalities; they value hard facts and demand a complete chain of evidence for a conclusion to be reliable.
The two most important characteristics of science are verifiability and reproducibility. Conducting scientific experiments is purposive: setting up projects based on goals, putting everything into practice after deciding on all the investigation and research steps in the initial stage, recording data at every stage, deriving intermediate conclusions through repeated comparison of data, and then deriving a final conclusion through changes in the various data of these intermediate conclusions.
At this stage, most research in mankind's scientific development has a systematic methodology and process, mainly depending on the number of projects set up to research a certain result, the amount of intermediate conclusions that need to be obtained, and the difficulty in deriving the final conclusion.
Even when Batman makes gear, he must first envision its general use in his mind, draw a design based on theories of physics, engineering, and other disciplines, hand it over to a lathe for machining and assembly, conduct tests for strength and effectiveness, make partial or comprehensive modifications if there are shortcomings, and iterate until he obtains the perfect Bat Equipment.
This process means that every link is verifiable. Why a part appears in a certain part of the equipment, and why it can play a role there, is all clearly marked on the design drawings, backed up by rigorous mechanical and engineering theories.
However, associating Penguin Man's nickname with penguins' social behavior, then associating that with the more warm-hearted aspect of penguins' social behavior, and then bringing in Penguin Man's childhood trauma to analyze his psychological need to be accepted and cared for by a group, it seemed completely like a wild guess.
There's not a shred of solid evidence in any of these steps. Has Penguin Man ever said that he chose his own nickname? Or has he expressed any acceptance or even approbation of it in any way?
What evidence is there that the image of the penguin holds special significance for him due to its social behavior? And what can prove that the combination of the penguin's social behavior and Penguin Man's childhood trauma is the source of his feeling of security from the caring of the group?
This is different from Bruce's expertise in behavioral analysis. Although detective work and behavioral analysis often seem like wild guesses, that is only because their powers of observation are strong enough to notice details that others can't see.
For instance, Bruce can capture all the traces of hair on a person in a very short time: human hair, animal fur, and even traces left by branches and twigs sweeping across a person's tweed coat, can all provide him with a very rigorous chain of evidence for making inferences about the attributes of the person in question.
If there is a short golden hair on a person, several possibilities can be inferred from this observation. It could be her boyfriend's hair, or a dog hair, or even a doll's hair.
Then observe what kind of properties this hair has—for instance, if the root is thick and the middle and tip are thin, with a great disparity between them, which does not conform to the thickness variation of human hair, then conclusions can be eliminated.
Until you select the conclusion with the highest overall probability from all the conclusions, which is the inner layer of fur from a golden retriever.
Considering then that it's not molting season, the likely reason that this underfur hair has stuck to the owner is that he bathed the dog or took it to play by water. This would lead to a choice of a conclusion with the highest overall probability, and so on and so forth.
Bruce is able to present evidence for each step of speculation, clearly explaining why he would think this way, why he chose this conclusion over that one, and what advantages the chosen conclusion has over the unchosen one.
In fact, a good scientist does these things every day, and Peter Parker is no exception. His research work involves obtaining conclusions through experiments, comparing these conclusions, and persevering in the experiment with the most advantageous one for the experimental goal.
Such a process requires them to repeatedly check the rigor of each link, because if there is a mistake in any one link, that can be termed a complete loss.
Thus, they are very resistant to any conjecture without any real or theoretical basis. If you dare to add such baseless conjecture to any step of an experiment, even a perfect experimental plan could collapse.
The reason why Peter, after seeing that series of psychological analyses, felt it was a wild guess, is because it's basically inventing one conclusion out of thin air, then inventing another conclusion, then combining the two to reach a conclusion, and then guiding behavior with this conclusion drawn from thin air.
If this really was a method used in psychiatry, Peter was ready to label him as one who didn't value human life.
Therefore, Peter couldn't answer the question Bruce asked—"Why is that?"
He himself was not very confident, without expecting Batman to believe this seemingly made-up conclusion, how could he convince Batman that this thing is effective?
At this point, Bruce also felt something was wrong, he questioned Peter, "How did you come up with this conclusion?"
He felt it seemed it was not a conclusion made by Peter himself, because his logic, while recounting the whole process, was a bit broken, as if he started speaking the moment a thought popped up in his head. It seemed he did not believe his own conclusion.
"...Would you believe me if I said that God told me?"
"You should have said that earlier. Let's go."
Peter heaved a sigh of relief.
What he didn't know was, compared with some people insisting that such a blind guess - and each time seems to be correct - is some sort of discipline, Bruce still felt super mind reading technique or divine intervention was more likely. It was true before, and it is even more so now, and it's becoming more and more firm.
Peter pushed aside the plastic curtain on top of the makeshift iron door and followed Penguin Man into the room, which appeared to be a former garbage processing plant's security room. In the middle of the room was a small electric lamp.
Peter crossed the room and sat down on a plastic chair arranged in a row. On Bruce's urging, he spoke.
"Actually, I came to warn you. Have you seen a Mexican named Kevin around your place?"
Penguin Man furrowed his brows at Peter's question across the table. Peter moved the ashtray filled with cigarette butts a bit further away, then said: "He stole a gun from a cop in Queens and then ran here, I don't think it's a coincidence, what do you think?"
"Did the police die?"
Peter shook his head and replied: "Not only did he not die, he wasn't even injured. He only grazed a bit of skin. He attacked him from behind, cut off the safety strap of the gun with a special pair of pliers, and then made a speedy getaway."
"Then it's definitely not a coincidence."
Penguin Man snorted and said, "Everybody knows, if you want to get a gun from the Blue Skin Dog, you must kill and leave no survivors, otherwise their pursuit will be faster than hunting dogs." and then, with a perplexed look, hesitatingly asked, "Do you think that Kevin is trying to lure the police here?"
Peter opened his mouth, seemingly hesitating, then said, "The attack scene was a bit odd, I think they might be in cahoots because..."\p>
Penguin Man knew what Peter had left unsaid. At present everyone wanted him dead. His safe house in the slums of Gotham was not secure anymore, ever since two cities were merged. The place was now full of unfamiliar faces.
Penguin Man was not surprised Spider-Man knew he was here because, for a superpower user who could swing across the city, there were no secrets in this city.
However, he hadn't expected Spider-Man to come andwarn him personally. Spider-Man might have just witnessed a murder in Queens. After investigating, he found something strange, but all he needed to do was to continue patrolling there. He didn't need to worry about where this Kevin person had gone and what he was going to do.
Deducing on discovering Kevin's whereabouts that he might be targeted and then rushing over to warn him showed more than just simple approval; he had taken actual action in his attempt to protect him.
In both terms of situation and ability, compared to Spider-Man, Penguin Man indeed was a part of the weak group at present. He needed Spider-Man's protection. If he could make Spider-Man stay...
Just as Penguin Man was thinking about this, there was suddenly a commotion outside the house. Peter was the first to rush out, running quickly through the opening of the small alley and peeking around the corner, where he saw a familiar blue-clad figure of a police officer.
The blue uniform of New York police was a little lighter than that of the Gotham Police Department, so Peter immediately realized that this would probably be a policeman from the Queens District.
As someone who grew up in Queens, he knew too well about the corruption in Queens District Police. Here, the police could be bought by anyone and work for anyone, except for law and justice.
So, he immediately turned around and said to Penguin Man, "They want to come in looking for the lost gun, but that's just an excuse. They must have been bought off. We need to leave now."
Penguin Man didn't have time to think too much and rushed towards the back door. But most of New York Police Department was well-armed. Even the mob wouldn't engage with them. The police marched in, with Peter leading Penguin Man in a frenzied escape.
Seeing the cops turn the corner and point their guns at them, a beat-up Nissan parked at the end of the road came to a stop. A curly-haired man wearing sunglasses of brown ethnicity beckoned them over.
Peter and Penguin Man had no other choice but to get into his car. The driver honked the horn and said, "Hold on tight. You'll soon know what Gonzalez speed is, Mr. Mayor."
"You know me?"
"Of course, I must say, you've done an outstanding job!"