After Shiller uttered that sentence, Joker left without looking back. He knew that this man was not someone who could be easily swayed by words. So he would wait and see how Shiller managed to be an ordinary person, and he didn't mind adding a little bit of obstacle to Shiller's path in the process.
After Joker left, Shiller finally had time to carefully inspect the bank. Then he found that the guy indeed had some tricks up his sleeve. Shiller had been halfway through processing a deposit, but the deposit receipt was already signed. After the teller hid and ran upstairs, Shiller had no time to check where the previous deposit receipt in his hand had gone.
The receipt should have been left on the counter, but when Shiller couldn't find it there after looking around, he knew for sure it had been taken. It took him quite a while to find it under the rubble near the entrance. His signature was on it, and on the back, there was a smiley face drawn.
Without a doubt, when the police came to clean up the mess, they would find it. Once that receipt got into Gordon's hands, Shiller would become the number one suspect in this bank robbery.
Shiller wasn't afraid of being suspected by Gordon. To be suspected was one thing, but it wasn't him who had done the robbery. The money didn't end up in his hands, so being suspected would be a loss, wouldn't it?
Shiller gently pressed his temple with his hand. He really was influenced by Greed. Now all he could think about was money, money, money.
Alright, he could understand why Joker had easily turned away and left because money was indeed a big problem. Shiller faced a situation similar to the one Bruce had. In the realm of ordinary people, he had no friends and lacked sufficient social connections, which always tied his hands when trying to get things done.
Of course, he could resort to illegal methods like he did in the slums to create job opportunities for himself and use a lack of morals to compensate for the lack of interpersonal relationships. But times had changed, crime was not easy anymore, and if he did decide to commit one, it required careful planning. He needed to solve basic needs like food, clothing, shelter, and transportation first.
He still needed to check out the house, Shiller thought. He actually had some savings, an amount typical for his social class. Moreover, he usually ate at the faculty cafeteria, where the reimbursement rate was high. He had no morbid needs coming up, and he didn't need to buy new clothes or jewelry. He could still afford to fuel his car, so housing was the biggest issue.
Shiller got into his car and drove towards his destination, thinking along the way that although he couldn't go to Harley to buy a house, he could still ask her to sell his manor for him.
The car slowly entered the South District. The agent was right; the location of the house was good, sitting on the edge of a villa complex. It was quiet, with a large lawn next door and an artificial lake, and a small forest to the right. Everywhere he looked was filled with greenery.
Of course, that was during the day. Now at night, the moonlight's reflection was even paler, and the forest loomed with ghostly shadows, as if countless spirits were drifting through. The bushes on the lawn swayed in the breeze, as if something lurked beneath each clump.
Shiller observed carefully and found there was nothing unusual besides these natural phenomena that could induce fear. The ghost stories were indeed false.
But to prevent any accidents, he still used the energy within the Gray mist to activate his Spirit Vision, and took out his umbrella.
After obtaining a new canopy for his umbrella, Shiller had tested it. At first, he didn't find anything. It was indestructible due to the presence of the formula, and no chemical substances could corrode it.
The discovery of the anomaly began one rainy day when Shiller handed the umbrella to Merkel after using it. Merkel put it up to dry without thinking, and later, no matter how Shiller called him, there was no response.
It was only when Shiller went downstairs that he found Merkel crouching beside the umbrella, mumbling incoherently, not very lucid. It took a lot of effort for Shiller to wake him up. After conducting a thorough check, Shiller found that Merkel had been hypnotized.
It was hard to believe, but the umbrella had a hypnosis function. It was autonomous, requiring no one to use it. It only needed to be there, and if someone saw the canopy, they would be hypnotized.
With further testing, Shiller discovered that if he actively used the umbrella, any living being could be hypnotized, even plants. According to Pamela, who helped with the experiments, it wasn't actually hypnosis but a transformation.
The waves emitted by all things were transformed by the formula on the umbrella canopy into anti-life waves, thus falling under the control of the Anti-Life Equation.
However, this ability was not completely controllable. Shiller guessed if he had been a little later, Merkel might have been transformed into an anti-life being and would have been utterly uncontrollable.
Fortunately, if Shiller didn't use it actively, it generally wouldn't have any effect, but he still needed to be careful. When the umbrella was stored independently, someone might accidentally fall under its influence.
Now, Shiller avoided opening the umbrella as much as possible, carrying the closed umbrella like one would carry a knife as he got out of the car.
Standing on the nighttime street, Shiller looked over the exterior of the house. It was a very typical American city villa, two stories, with a grayish-white exterior and a blue roof. The first and second floors were separated by an extended porch, the top of which was the same color as the roof, with two small and one large arches separated by four columns, with the main entrance underneath the largest arch.
Shiller walked towards the front door, which was actually a brownish-red color. He lightly touched the door, and the Gray mist told him it was made of high-quality walnut.
Lacking the complicated and gorgeous decorations of the manor's entrance, it was simple but unique. Shiller walked to the window on the side and took a peek, but unfortunately, the curtains were drawn, so he couldn't see the interior layout clearly.
He knew the real estate agent probably wanted him to see what the haunting was about, but Shiller was really there to look at the house. As long as the house satisfied him, he didn't particularly mind having an extra roommate who wouldn't dirty anything, anyway, he had already gotten used to Merkel's presence.
Shiller walked over and knocked on the door. The abrupt knocking echoed especially loud in the empty room. After a while, Shiller heard a thump, like something had suddenly fallen to the ground.
The sound wasn't very loud, it seemed to come from the second floor. Shiller took a few steps back, looking up at the second-floor window, but the curtains were drawn, so he couldn't see anything.
Ordinary people would be scared off at this point, but logically speaking, Gotham's ordinary folk would certainly give it a try, and the real estate agents and the previous few who came to look at the house probably hadn't come without a gun. This level of intimidation wasn't enough to break their psychological defenses.
Shiller simply opened the door lock with gray mist, turned the doorknob, and walked in.
There was a living room right inside the entrance, decorated in a style common in Europe and America. A lot of the wealthy who landed on the East Coast were Irish, so many of the wealthy districts liked to use Irish style decor.
The walls were olive green, the lower half with a beige dado. The floor was covered with a patterned decorative floor intertwining chestnut red and beige. To the left was a small fireplace, then olive green sofas and armchairs with a small circular table in between, on which sat a vase filled with hydrangeas.
The entire wall facing the entrance was covered with paintings, mostly Caravaggio-style portraits. Heading left, there was a walnut wood wall cabinet, and beyond that was the dining room.
The dining room was generally chestnut red, with only the chairs' upholstery in dark olive green. The table runner was also green, and in the center, there were hydrangeas interweaved with white and blue.
Although red with green is often said to clash, in reality, chestnut red and olive green is a very classic British pairing, commonly used in interior decor. Similar combinations include red and gold, red and blue.
Although the decor was quite retro, it was clear that this was a new house, and all the furniture was brand new. More importantly, it was matched with modern furniture that suited contemporary use. Shiller was even a bit touched by the sight of the 70-inch television hanging in the living room.
Shiller quite liked watching TV, but his previous manor had no place for it. There was indeed space above the fireplace, but he wasn't sure if modern electronic devices could withstand the high temperatures of a fireplace. The living room's side wall could also be used to hang a TV, but then those famous paintings would have to be taken down. The blackened walls, as if gouged out, looked unappealing.
Trying to fit modern electronic devices into such an old manor was difficult for both the manor and the devices, often ending up with a loss of both practicality and aesthetics.
However, a new house had none of these concerns. It was obvious that space for a television was considered during the building of this house, and given that it catered to the wealthy, there was plenty of room allocated for a TV.
Thanks to Wayne Enterprises and Lex Group, plasma TVs appeared ahead of their time, and LED screens were also taking shape. Even though the millennium hadn't arrived yet, large televisions of 60 or 70 inches were already starting to become popular amongst the wealthy.
Shiller even took up the remote control with interest to bet whether the start-up logo would be a bat or Earth, the former being Wayne Enterprises' symbol and the latter being Luther Group's symbol.
When the TV was turned on, it was indeed an Earth symbol. Lex Group did better in consumer electronics; Lex Luthor knew how to make money.
The quality of the TV was quite good, at least Shiller couldn't tell any difference with his naked eye from the TVs he had seen in his previous life at the research institute. He couldn't tell if there was any difference with the one backstage, because he was busy back then and didn't have time to watch TV.
He had only planned to check the quality of the TV, but the midnight radio was just broadcasting a variety show. The show's crew had invited several skilled carpenters to go to various farms to use their craftsmanship to help farmers solve all sorts of problems.
That episode, they were working together to help the farmer improve the environment of an old livestock shed. Some were examining wooden posts chewed by bugs, some had already taken out some cool cutting machines, ready to show off their skills, and others were carefully listening to the farmer's grievances, ready to discover more problems.
Shiller was soon captivated, he did want to know how to replace the rotten wooden posts without tearing down the entire roof. Were they planning to put up a support structure, or were they planning to abandon the troublesome wooden structure for reinforced concrete?
Just as he was watching the lead expert analyze the entire house's load-bearing structure backstage, the screen suddenly flickered, the TV made a sizzling noise, and then went black.
Shiller stood up, looked around, walked to the side of the TV, and gave it a pat. Just as he leaned in to check for any abnormalities on the screen, a ghostly image suddenly flitted across the screen.
Shiller was slightly taken aback. He tapped the screen with his finger and said, "Are you in the TV? Are you actually Sadako?"
But Shiller really didn't have time to worry about all that. He said to the gray mist, "Hurry up and figure out how to fix the TV, I need to continue watching."