The only explanation Shiller could think of was that Greed had deliberately used Madeline to distract their attention. After all, the statement Madeline shouted and the subsequent series of actions were very misleading. They had shifted their focus to the characteristics of the Wandering, which might have been the effect that Greed desired.
However, that kind of madness seemed artificial, and although Shiller was now an agent, he also understood the basic principles of psychology. Madeline looked very much like she had been hypnotized.
In reality, Greed could achieve such a thing, but in the game, it certainly wasn't possible. So who had hypnotized Madeline?
A thought crossed Shiller's mind, and he suddenly lifted his gaze and looked back at the depths of the cave.
Their team happened to have a psychiatrist, and that was Bruce Wayne. Although his Psychoanalysis Method was not very good, with the support of drugs, hypnosis was still well within his capabilities.
Could it be that Bruce was in cahoots with Greed? Shiller wondered. There was no consensus on when Bruce had arrived, and if he and Greed had come one after the other and reached some agreement, it wasn't impossible that Bruce had helped Greed hypnotize Madeline to confuse their vision.
Other Batmen wouldn't do such evil things, but Bruce was a different story. In the game, where none were real people, his moral bottom line could drop even lower.
Thinking time always passed quickly, and Shiller had already arrived at the lake where Reed was, but he was on this side of the river, while the entrance to the Lighthouse was on the other.
At that moment, he saw a dark figure jump down from the cave entrance and drag down a pile of metal.
Reed seemed to have finally calmed down, no longer as mad as before, but still, some leaves stretched tentatively towards the figure, which apparently came prepared, splashing petrol and lighting it to create a barrier around itself.
The bridge was quickly made and extended over. Shiller saw across the Batman signaling to him.
He had indeed anticipated that Shiller would come.
But if he knew that the bridge below had disappeared, he might also know that Joker had broken away from the team, or maybe they had agreed on it all along.
Shiller didn't think Batman would harm him, so he crossed the bridge and quickly reached the other side. Batman didn't say anything and went up through the cave entrance, with Shiller following behind him.
Returning to the Lighthouse, they didn't stop on the first floor but kept ascending the stairs.
On the way up, they saw the corpses of the Hoff family on the upper floors. Shiller asked, "Do you know what happened to them?"
"That is a story that belongs to me," said Batman.
Shiller realized he was implying that the Hoff family was actually part of the backstory he had fabricated. No wonder this family first appeared in the diary.
If he remembered correctly, the story of this family began with a lost goat.
They had first read the story about the goat in the diary before, on Greed's cue, discovering the goat footprints of the Wandering. It further confirmed that the footprint was fake, likely planted by Greed to frame Batman.
Because if everyone discovered that the diary was his, they would all think that the backstory was his creation, related to the Wandering, and his identity would look very bad.
"Hoff was a sailor when he was young and lived with his wife and two sons and a daughter after they got married," Batman said, his voice echoing in the Lighthouse. "However, after a shipwreck, he contracted a strange illness and, from then on, no one was willing to hire him. Their family income came entirely from breeding goats and ptarmigans."
"Not long ago, one of their goats went missing, supposedly lost while they were out grazing. The little girl saw the direction in which it disappeared, but they didn't find it when they went to look."
"Shortly after, they found the goat's carcass in that area. Because the family was not wealthy, they didn't want to waste the goat, so they dragged it home to eat."
"After that, the Hoffs began to act strangely. The usually gentle older son started showing violent tendencies, the younger son, also a sailor, refused to leave the house, and the six-year-old girl had a fever and was talking nonsense."
"Then, strange things started happening in the village, and everyone blamed the Hoffs. They said the missing goat was a demon, and the Hoffs had eaten the demon's meat, which is why they had gone mad."
"They could no longer stay in the village, so Hoff found me, hoping I could help them leave."
"Can you do that?" Shiller asked.
"Yes, I can. I'm not entirely local, and I have some friends outside. I considered taking them out of the village, but the weather forecast said there was a big snowstorm coming, clearly not a good time."
Shiller suspected that the big snowstorm might also be set up by Batman, but the story didn't reveal what Batman wanted to do with this backstory.
"I met the Guardian of the Lighthouse when I first came to the village, and we got on well. The Lighthouse was big enough to accommodate quite a few people, and villagers rarely came here."
"Because the big snow could make leaving the village treacherous, I persuaded Hoff to come to stay in the Lighthouse for a few days to lay low. It wasn't too late to set out after resting up."
"So they came here?" Shiller asked.
He mentally sorted through the timeline and felt that if the Hoff family had actually lived in the lighthouse for some time before killing each other, the condition of the bodies would match up.
Batman, who was walking in front, nodded and said, "Yes, they settled down in the lighthouse, and Hoff's younger daughter's illness started to improve."
Shiller's interest was piqued, and he asked, "How could there have been an improvement? Wasn't it said that it was because she ate the 'demon goat'..."
"I am convinced that's just a superstitious belief." Batman emphasized the word "superstitious" and then said, "The other family members were in bad shape, possibly because of their dire financial straits, and Hoff's older son had just gotten married, exacerbating their economic woes."
"The younger daughter simply had a common cold, but due to lack of money for treatment, it dragged on and naturally became more severe."
Shiller pondered the truthfulness of what Batman had just said. Although he didn't believe Batman was the type to fabricate a story about a family's death for his own benefit, Shiller felt there was more to it.
"What happened next? How did they end up..."
Batman shook his head and said, "I don't know. I discovered their bodies after you did, and I'm not clear on why they would turn on each other."
Shiller felt that Batman probably wasn't lying about this; the Hoff family was important to him, and it would make no sense to concoct such a story only to kill them all in one night.
But this style of intra-family violence reminded Shiller of someone.
As everyone knows, so far, the only completely reliable information is what appears in the introductory credits, and the intro credits indeed mentioned that this village was called "the lighthouse covered in heavy snow."
In other words, everyone could learn from the intro that there should be a lighthouse in this village. Could someone be fabricating a story involving this lighthouse?
It was actually very simple—the lighthouse was on the pier, and one only had to say they arrived by boat, which likely meant landing directly at the pier and being able to quickly reach the lighthouse.
As for the method of operation, it reminded Shiller of a very famous case and also a very classic one in psychology.
A killer burst into a family's home and quickly gained control over everyone inside.
Then the killer announced that he would punish the person who had done the most wrong in the family by subjecting them to electric shock.
He had the family members accuse one another, listing the bad deeds of others. After one round, the person who was accused the most, and deemed the worst and most malicious, would be relegated to the lowest rank and receive electric shocks.
To avoid being shocked themselves, everyone began desperately accusing others, pointing out their faults in order to escape punishment.
In the end, when the killer released everyone, they had completely forgotten that the killer was the root cause of everything. Instead, they harbored resentment towards their family members for reporting on them and subjecting them to the electric shock, starting the spree of mutual destruction.
This could be said to be one of the most evil and perverse family crimes in human history. The case wasn't particularly bloody, and in fact, there was very little physical harm done during the crime compared to the violent bloodiness of some home invasions and assaults.
However, the damage and destruction it caused to the human spirit are unparalleled, making it a famous case in the fields of criminal investigation and forensic psychology to this day.
The killer made use of extensive psychological knowledge, but the most decisive factor was just one—electric shock was different from other forms of punishment.
Many people have heard of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and here it must be emphasized that the electroshock treatment used in treating mental illnesses is scientific and not a form of abuse or torture. There is a thorough physical examination before the electric shock, and anesthesia is performed, so there is no substantial physical harm or almost no pain.
The effects of this treatment are also quite significant and are commonly used in well-known psychiatric departments.
On the contrary, another therapy called aversion therapy uses electric shock.
This method is used in the field of correcting bad behavior, which involves using electric current to elicit disgust and discomfort in the patient when they feel pleasure from their bad behavior. This creates a conditioned reflex that has applications in correcting sexual deviances, drug rehabilitation, alcoholism, obesity, anxiety disorders, and more.
Theoretically, this practice is inhumane, but there is already substantial human trial data to show its effectiveness.
It could even be said to be the most efficient method for drug rehabilitation that we have so far, although the therapy only handles the addiction, and any subsequent psychological issues are not included in the aftercare.
However, using this method in everyday life—administering aversion therapy without the presence of pleasure—can almost make humans develop a disgust for anything.
This killer used this method to instill mutual disgust among family members, achieving the goal of getting them to destroy each other.
And this style of probing human nature and toying with human hearts as a means to torment Batman was all too similar to Joker's trademark.