Was King Robin not a person who sought fame and fortune?
Of course not, on the contrary, he was driven by attention, which is also a common problem among many people with anti-social personality disorder. They commit many anti-social acts in order to draw extraordinary attention from others. The attentiveness of others is a type of addictive poison for them, and the character of Joker was created based on this logic.
They yearn for an audience, for a sense of existence, for feedback from society and the human race. Besides positive feedback such as cheers and applause, they prefer the thrill of screams and fear.
King Robin was fully capable of dissecting small animals without letting Thomas and Martha discover; he had a thousand ways to destroy all the evidence before they returned, but he wouldn't do that.
Because for him, the physiological structure of the small animals was not attractive enough. What truly fascinated him was the fear and screaming of Thomas and Martha when they discovered the carcasses. That gave King Robin a strange sense of existence and satisfaction.
They are naturally inclined to watch their own species express intense emotions like fear. Some studies suggest that this may be because they still retain some kind of primal hormone. Warning signs in the face of dangerous Beasts, such as the scent of fear and screaming, stimulate their adrenaline and make them feel excitement.
In primitive societies, this was a necessary condition for confrontational situations, and when it is retained, it easily becomes a source of psychological pleasure for these anti-social individuals.
If there are no sufficiently powerful external foes in modern society to induce fear in people, and thus get excitement from group fear signals, then they will play the role of that strong opponent themselves, to get enough pleasure.
So King Robin repeatedly broke the rules in front of Martha and Thomas, because their screams and fear were the source of his pleasure.
But in fact, if there is no such stimulus, then positive feedback is also acceptable. For instance, being marveled at by others and becoming the focus of everyone's attention could also provide him with a temporary satisfaction.
However, in this illusion made of dense fog, King Robin knew it was an Illusion. He simply wanted to compete with the mastermind behind it, as if to say, "I want to see what kind of Illusions you can come up with to break me."
Before this, King Robin believed that he had no weaknesses, but soon he discovered that this mastermind understood him better than he had imagined.
In this Illusion, everyone was like a part of a machine of Greed, they had an unimaginably high preset for what King Robin could achieve, so much so that no matter how well King Robin did, they always felt it wasn't enough.
What truly made King Robin feel on the brink of collapse was that they had their own logic, rather than just bluntly reciting their lines.
King Robin had tried to argue with Thomas, presenting all sorts of examples to prove that what he had learned and achieved was far beyond common sense, and the other party should be astonished. If he wasn't, it meant that he was a fake.
But then Thomas brought out his own logic. First of all, are you doing better than those around you?
King Robin, of course, thought so. He was not only getting better grades than everyone else, but he was also making the best progress in various hobbies and interests,
Thomas then asked, are you also doing better than others morally?
Although King Robin was reluctant to admit it, just to win over the mastermind, he hadn't done anything illegal in this environment. He was always the good guy and even carried out two acts of valor and was summoned by the mayor.
Thomas then questioned whether his family background was better than others.
This was an established fact. King Robin couldn't lie; at this time, Wayne Enterprises wasn't the richest in the world, only a local prominent family.
So Thomas raised the point that since your family background is worse than others', you should naturally work harder because the early bird catches the worm.
Well, now King Robin knew which direction to work towards. In just a few months, he expanded and strengthened Wayne Enterprises, becoming the world's number one. Now he was not only the richest man's son but also the richest man himself.
Then Thomas came up with a new set of logic—the effort argument. Do you think you've worked hard enough?
King Robin replied, "I have made our family the world's richest in just a few months, isn't that working hard enough?"
Thomas then asked, do you feel you have worked harder than everyone else?
King Robin's answer was, of course, affirmative.
But Thomas then logically pushed further, your starting point was already higher than others', their family background isn't as good as yours, but they can still become the world's second or third. Doesn't that mean they have worked harder than you?
Great, he had re-entered a vicious cycle. When the family background wasn't good, Thomas said that the early bird catching the worm was to be expected. When the family background was good, Thomas said that achieving success from a high starting point was normal.
King Robin felt that he couldn't continue to argue about this, so he stated that he was the first among his peers around the world, an indisputable fact.
Then Thomas said, comparing with peers was mediocre, always picking inferior benchmarks for comparison. Why couldn't you compare across all age groups?
So, King Robin conducted more research and tossed the results in front of Thomas, declaring that not even the entire human race could match him now.
Then Thomas said, have you compared yourself with the great figures in history? If you were placed in those historical situations, could you do better than those great figures? You're just benefiting from the favorable environment of this era.
Enraged, Robin immediately waged a war, dragging the entire human race into the abyss of conflict. He then started again from scratch, established a foundation, and successfully united Earth, proving that he could do better than anyone in history.
But Thomas said, even if you're doing well now, how do you know you won't do better in the future? If you become arrogant now, you'll never surpass yourself.
How was King Robin supposed to compare himself with his future self? He raised this question, and in response, Thomas played his trump card, saying that the carefree you of childhood was more lovable. Now you're too utilitarian, having completely lost your innocence. Your mother and I are both very disappointed.
There was nothing more King Robin could say.
It's not that he really had no way to deal with Thomas and Martha; of course, he could easily kill them, but he viewed this as a contest and a confrontation. He had to defeat them head-on. To act out of anger would be tantamount to admitting defeat.
He certainly knew he was obsessing over trivialities, but he believed that with his strength, even if it was a triviality, he could drill a hole through it, so why not?
He was waiting for the moment when the other party would be so astounded by his great achievements that they could no longer find any faults, or at least, begin to nitpick and cavil, allowing King Robin to rightfully mock the schemer who, being unable to deny his accomplishments, nitpicked like finding a needle in a haystack.
But now, he realized that Thomas and Martha possessed a type of all-encompassing, invulnerable defensive logic. This wasn't some spur-of-the-moment sophistry conjured by a manipulator to win an argument but rather, such people really existed in the world.
They have their own system of thinking, independent of the world, and it's intricately linked together, always twisting everything into negation.
If you stand out in a group, they say it's just luck; if you excel in all groups, they insist there must be other groups out there.
If you compare cyclically, they claim you didn't cycle broadly enough; if you compare contemporaneously, they say you're still not trying hard enough.
If you manage to be the best among the living, they'll compare you to the dead; if you're the best in history, they'll resort to mortgaging the future for comparison.
If you manage to beat them in all these aspects and even silence them with solid evidence, they'll say you've forgotten where you started, claiming that the naive, underdeveloped you who knew nothing was purer and more likable.
Then, if you decide to ignore them and just forge ahead, they'll accuse you of being willfully stubborn and, at the slightest misstep, leap out to say, "Ha, ha, I told you so."
If you decide to listen to them, reflecting on yourself for improvement and returning to your beginnings, they'll accuse you of shirking your responsibilities, turning your back on your abilities, focusing only on your enlightenment with no sense of social responsibility, and they'll say at any subsequent difficulty you encounter, "If only you had remembered how it used to be…"
In short, no matter how well you do or what choices you make in this process, these people will never be satisfied. It seems their very purpose is to annoy every self-aggrandizing genius, making them realize that even if they conquer the cosmos, they cannot conquer these people's scorn.
They stand there silently, like indigestible rocks amidst excrement. Even if someone transformed the cesspit into Heaven, they would still manage to spew filth with the reserve from their bellies.
And super-geniuses like King Robin, who feel they have the world under their control, will at some point face this dismal truth—that in some corner of the world that sings praises of their deeds, in some corner of the world that cowers before their might, these people will never change their opinions.
No matter whether you destroy or create the world, change or transcend yourself, they will always have their own set of theories, and they take great pleasure in negating you. Genuine appreciation and heartfelt praise for others have never existed in their lives.
For the sage who doesn't care about the views of others, these people's existence or lack thereof is meaningless. But was King Robin such a sage? Of course not, his very essence craved attention.
But it wasn't this kind of attention he wanted; it made him feel as if he were smeared with excrement. The young King Robin didn't realize that the moment he first detected the stench, he should have stayed away, rather than trying to blow up the latrine with a bomb.
Unable to bear it any longer, King Robin killed Thomas and Martha, as he had once done in his own universe.
Then, he experienced the most disgusting moment of his life.
"Look, Martha, I told you so. Bruce is just like that. No matter what he achieves, he'll never be good to his parents. He's always been a hypocrite," Thomas said, lying in a pool of blood.
"Yes, Thomas, you're right. We saw it coming, didn't we? No matter how much he tries to hide, he can't fool his own parents. We're the only ones who know his true face. The limitations we imposed were the right thing to do, and now he's indeed done it. He was born bad," Martha agreed.
"It's a pity the world overlooked our foresight, but that's okay. They will soon pay the price for underestimating our opinions. This evil seed will soon bring carnage to the entire world."
"Yes, but that's the price they should pay for their stupidity. We've said it all along…"
Thomas and Martha were dead.
King Robin actually vomited, physically vomited.