Batman was stumped by this question.
Even if they were only discussing the video in front of them, it would be hard to say if the monster was the most evil one among them. It's quite possible that he was just playing the game rather than being the mastermind.
The monster's evilness ranked third or fourth would depend on whether Bruce was off-camera. To surpass the previous two creatures, the conclusion was that when Joker waved at the camera at the end, it wasn't an apology, it was more like "Buddy, you still need practice."
"That lawyer..." Batman suddenly remembered, there seemed to be only one ally left in the camp of justice—the Pale Knight.
Shiller shook his head, repeating the same sentiment—that a Joker who had turned just wasn't Batman. The Pale Knight's underlying nature was still that of the Joker, and his sense of justice was likely a bit more unconventional than what Batman had imagined.
After watching the video, Shiller had pretty much mapped out everything that had happened in the game so far in his mind.
Greed was the earliest to arrive. After landing, he should have headed straight for his underground lab but instead encountered the detective, the kitchen corpse, and Madeline in the underground cavern, starting a pursuit.
The detective fled to a narrow cave, grazing against the ceiling's sandy debris while being chased, but ultimately could not escape and was killed by Greed with a wind blade.
Madeline must have been caught as well, but Greed didn't kill her. Instead, it might be because Greed had encountered Bruce, who, as a psychiatrist, could hypnotize Madeline, and they struck a deal.
Through the underground caves, Greed transported the detective to the cabin and moved the unconscious Madeline to the upstairs room, where Bruce performed hypnosis on her. The goal was for Madeline to feign insanity when she woke, bolstering their theory about the monster, thereby directing everyone's attention onto the monster and guiding their vision.
While Greed was pursuing the detective and Madeline in the cavern, Joker arrived at the docks a little later and made his way to the Lighthouse featured in the intro, taking some time to capture Hoff's family.
Bruce stayed in the cabin to set up, while Greed returned to the lab to check then continued through the cavern, entering the Lighthouse through an exit overhead, where he encountered Joker. They cooperated to film and store the video.
It was during this time that Greed and Joker shared information on their skills: Greed let Joker use the dice to kill off the justice side after the game officially began, and he himself crafted a plan to lure everyone to the lab.
Afterwards, Greed possibly met Night Owl either on his way back to the cabin or simply in the underground caves. In order to achieve his goal of deceiving everyone, he also cooperated with Night Owl to bring the other players to the lab entrance at the right moment.
The process of cooperation between Greed, Bruce, Joker, and Night Owl might just be as described.
Greed wanted to win, Bruce probably just wanted to enjoy the show, Joker wanted to torment the just, and Night Owl wanted to please Bruce—these could be their motives.
Shiller told Batman his hypothesis but added, "These people all have hidden agendas; each has their own plan and wouldn't possibly cooperate sincerely."
Batman nodded and said, "That's right, otherwise he would have caught everyone by now."
Greed's plan was probably never perfect to begin with, Shiller thought, because he was missing a critical piece of information, which was that the Heath Ugly in the game knew Arrogant and had been tricked by him, ending up thrown into the lake by his front door.
Shiller's mind was narrow, and so was Joker's. Joker definitely recognized Greed the moment he saw him, but he pretended not to and even specifically cooperated with him, just to betray him at the crucial moment and avenge the previous grudge.
As for Bruce, it goes without saying—he definitely wouldn't sincerely cooperate with Greed, not with any Shiller, and he was fundamentally incompatible with Shiller. Whenever they met, it was always mutual torment, with almost no second possibility.
Night Owl, as an evil Batman, seemed inconspicuous throughout the game, which precisely indicated that he was also scheming something and was definitely not just helping Greed.
A group of lunatics like this could form a new Crime Syndicate; expecting them to cooperate sincerely was less likely than Batman turning into a fool.
Batman also realized that while the game appeared to be about luck and rolling dice, it was still a game of information—whoever knew more about their opponents had the advantage.
And right in front of him was an Agent.
"What do you think about the others?" Batman asked.
Shiller knew the main show was coming. He cleared his throat and said, "What we need to figure out now is not who stands with the photographer, but who will stand on the side of the Siltex Medical Insurance Company. After all, your goal is to topple that company, isn't it?"
Batman nodded, signaling him to continue.
Shiller arranged his thoughts. He figured that this pharmaceutical company was made up by Greed. The others wouldn't know about it when creating their backstories, so naturally aligning with the insurance company's goals would be post-facto, after the game had started.
Take Joker, for example. Why would he help Greed? It was because he knew that Batman would definitely stand against the Siltex Medical Insurance Company, a clear villain, and as a superhero of justice, Batman would be determined to overthrow it.
To antagonize Batman, Joker would naturally assist Greed, and Bruce likely thought the same way.
However, in reality, their backgrounds might not have anything to do with this medical company; although they might be children from wealthy families, they couldn't be linked to the names made up by Greed.
This meant that as long as the conflict between them and Batman could be resolved, they might also change sides.
Note—not to help Batman but to stop helping Greed.
It was too difficult to get them to actively help the Primary Universe Batman, but as long as they no longer had a reason to help Silter Medical Company and withdrew in time, hence no longer assisting Greed, that was essentially the same as weakening the opponent's power.
As long as these individuals maintained a neutral stance, then facing Greed, Batman would have an absolute advantage.
Because his persona was that of a local, a hero, and a very capable Hunter, just give him a chance, and he could physically eliminate Greed. I could make mistakes many times, but you could only afford to make one.
And in order to restore their neutrality, naturally one had to start from their background stories.
Everyone had to come up with a motive for being here, and the lines they used to introduce themselves at the beginning were basically fabrications, but there had to be some reason.
For instance, Shiller was here out of duty. As clergy of the Church, he had to come where there were monster activities, and of course, his ultimate goal was to eliminate the monster. Unable to eliminate the monster, he could still deal with everyone who knew of the monster's existence.
The other players must have such goals too.
Disgusting the opponent might be important, but only the victor could disgust the loser thoroughly, so if they focused on achieving their own goals, naturally they would no longer try to bother Batman.
As for the motives of the other individuals, Shiller had his own conjectures, but speaking about them was somewhat inconvenient at the moment. He directly took out his kitchen knife from his coat, gestured with it at his side, and then looked towards Batman.
Although Batman knew Shiller wanted to trigger a fight to remove the role-playing restrictions, he always felt Shiller had ill intentions.
Eventually, Shiller still chose to give Batman's arm a slash, which also allowed him to see if Batman really had first-aid skills.
But Batman was a tough character; he didn't rely on skills and instead used the bandages he had previously scavenged in the Lighthouse to simply dress his arm, seemingly not taking this minor wound seriously at all.
But this still successfully triggered the battle, allowing Shiller to better articulate his own deductions.
"What do you think the Joker is like?" asked Shiller.
Here it comes, Batman thought, sure enough, no matter which Shiller, they would know the Mind Reading Technique. This game was worth playing.
"He's a madman," said Batman. "A rational and wise madman."
Normally, Shiller would shake his head at this point and then share his own deeper insights.
But this Shiller that Batman had encountered was not ordinary.
He nodded and said, "Yes, that's exactly what the Joker is. He is crazy, but also rational. Or rather, his seemingly insane actions all have a set of logic behind them."
"It's the same in this game; he appears to act on a whim, helping Greed when encountered, but then disengages at the last moment—even possibly catching onto your abnormality without exposing it."
"These seemingly contradictory actions must all have their reasons; helping Greed because he knew that he could encounter heroes like you in this game, and he enjoys tormenting heroes, so of course he would first help Greed gain an advantage."
"He chose to disengage at the end because he knows how devastating it is for a perfect plan to go awry at the last moment; he wanted to humiliate Greed through this."
"He manipulated the dice with his skill to torment you, but in the end, he chose to let you go because he wanted to watch you fail, not die. All of this makes sense."
"Ordinary people can only see his capriciousness and infer from it that he's a madman with a malfunctioning brain, but once they see the inner logic, they would realize that every step he takes is to satisfy his evil desires, and he truly succeeds."
"Therefore, it can be inferred that the background story he created for himself is also of this style; in his story, he satisfied his evil desires through seemingly insane actions."
"What does he want to see the most? Perhaps death, blood, and more acts of cruelty, but these are just means to an end. His true goal is always to make people abandon hope in the goodness of human nature."
"Just like he helped Greed to support the strong, to foster injustice, watching many innocent victims like Madeline struggling and sinking in self-interest and greed until they fell into utter despair."
"Just like how he used his skill to trick you, it was not to see how much physical pain you were in, but rather to watch the inner pain of being deemed worthless and abandoned by your teammates, because this could make you deny the existence of goodness in human nature."
"Just like how he later spared you, it was also to show you that evil does not suppress good; no matter how hard you work, you will ultimately fail due to the inherent malice in the players' human nature."
"All these are surely to make you stop believing in human nature, to let you feel that these selfish, greedy, and vicious people aren't worth saving, and to make you deny everything you've done in the past and give up on everything you would do in the future. That's the Joker."
"Oh—"
The one who uttered this sound was not the Primary Universe Batman but Bruce, who saw their conversation through the camera linked to the night vision goggle at Shiller's side.
"Arrogant" said in his heart, "What are you 'oh'-ing about?"
"I think what he said makes a lot of sense."
Arrogant began to cut his ninth cigar.