After hearing Shiller's speculations, Batman nodded. Although the evidence was insufficient, the logic was coherent.
"From this, we can infer the backstory of the Pale Knight," Shiller said while thinking. He was clearly combining both the behaviors displayed in the Pale Knight comics and the behavioral logic shown so far to speculate what kind of backstory he would create.
"He might also be here for a particular case," Batman speculated, saying, "Since he is a lawyer, he might also be here to gather some evidence, perhaps related to the Wanderer. He might be here to investigate the patterns of the Wanderer, to facilitate presenting evidence in some future trial."
However, Shiller shook his head.
"No, I guess the backstory he created doesn't entirely revolve around benefits," Shiller recalled the comics related to the Pale Knight and said, "You might not believe this, but he is someone who believes in love."
"What?"
"I said he believes in love."
Shiller deliberately gazed at Batman's face, indeed not missing the gradually cracking expression.
"Do you have any additional information?" Batman couldn't help but ask, admitting to himself that the news Shiller had just thrown was indeed significant, and he was very interested.
"Of course, I do, but what will you give in exchange?"
Batman paused slightly, realizing this was what had been waiting for him. He indeed had more cards to play but couldn't afford to reveal them now, so after thinking, he said, "What do you want in exchange?"
"May I ask you a few questions?"
"No."
Batman's refusal was so abrupt that Shiller was taken aback, his fingers tapping on the table surface, saying, "Would you refuse the other Shillers this abruptly?"
Batman actually took a moment to consider the question, then shook his head and said, "Perhaps not, I mean, there wouldn't be such an opportunity because they wouldn't need to ask me questions, as they would know what they wanted to understand out of thin air, can't you?"
"I understand," Shiller nodded.
Batman didn't know what he had understood; he was just about to ask when Shiller spoke, "You are the type who likes to flirt in the interrogation room, should I talk to you about the horizon at sunset or some other coffee brand?"
Batman choked on his words, not sure if Shiller had done that on purpose.
But the other Shillers gave him the impression of being impenetrably mysterious, like unraveling layer upon layer of human skin, yet still unable to ascertain whether he had a monster's heart.
The Shiller who was presumably an Agent even had an unpredictable facade; his displayed aggressiveness bore no markings of civilized society. He never seemed to dress as a tailored suit gentleman, yet he didn't appear aloof or distant; people often described this temperament as genuine.
However, Batman had encountered too many genuine people; Clark and Diana were among the best, and others in the Justice League, regardless of their outer appearance, always harbored a warm and sincere heart.
So Batman could feel that the genuine emotions Shiller expressed were not entirely pure, but this impurity seemed to be intentional.
If one were to describe the distinction from other Shillers, it would probably be that smart people had anticipated what lay beneath the other Shillers' human skins; some chose to unveil it, others did not, and Batman belonged to the latter.
Now, the Shiller before him had parts human and monster chaotically distributed, not orderly displayed from exterior to interior, as if two different entities were stitched together, and he never hesitated to show this.
One would never know which part they were touching until they actually reached out; a multifaceted heart maybe pumping blood to words sincere enough for humans to understand, while exploring along the piercing white bones may touch vulnerable joints identical to a regular person's.
It was difficult to distinguish what was real and what was fake, like a rainbow endlessly shaken in a bottle, mixing into colors so pallid and ugly; yet through a bit of phantom light left on the bottle's inner wall, one could see the once brilliant truth.
Batman knew well that the gold-hunting impulse was a trap humans could never avoid; the allure of a gold mine sometimes wasn't comparable to a little bit of gold in a sandhill.
Besides the sense of accomplishment that rare items bring, the most precious aspect of that little gold was that it allowed one to attribute the finding to one's relentless effort, rather than a stroke of fortune bestowed by the heavens.
Batman believed that many gold seekers had paid a bloody price trying to find that barely existing sincerity within the soul of this Shiller, full of countless traps.
Suddenly, Batman realized that his thoughts just now weren't judgments based on Shiller's actions but rather seemed to stem purely from his feelings.
Could the master of psychoanalysis be myself???
This leads to the mention of the social effect opposite to the mirror effect—the antagonist effect, described in old terms as reverse psychology.
Specifically, when you want to extract certain information from someone, you start from a contrary approach, making them generate a logic of confrontation with you, thus revealing the truth.
The difference between these two effects lies in the following: the former leverages human empathy focusing on setting the atmosphere, while the latter uses human sympathy focusing on demonstrating logic; the former wields emotion like a knife, the latter uses reason like a sword.
Now, Batman was sure that this Shiller must be an Agent since both these methods were common interrogation techniques.
"Alright, alright, alright," Batman had lived for many years, always being the one doing the interrogating. No daring agent had ever tried to question him—had he finally met his match today?
"Do you not want to give it a try?" Batman continued the conversation, "The PhD I know is quite good at this sort of thing."
"What kind of thing?" Shiller knowingly asked.
"I can't find more accurate words to describe it, but if I must say, it might be a sort of Mind Reading Technique."
"Are you talking about making wild guesses?"
At that moment, Batman heard a loud curse word in his own mind. This reaction was too instinctive, so much so that he barely managed to keep it from coming out of his mouth.
But after he had a chance to think, he couldn't help but reflect on what Shiller had just said. Was he implying that Batman's own psychoanalysis was just wild guessing?!
Before he could respond, Bruce began to howl in his inner world, roughly summed up as, "Oh heavens, oh earth, which angel sister has avenged me?!"
Arrogance had already given up cutting his cigar.
"Do you think that was a wild guess?" Batman asked.
Batman's reason was telling him not to discuss this topic with Shiller, as that would make him one of the Gold Seekers, essentially still searching for a glint of gold among the sand, but he really couldn't control himself.
Because Batman had genuinely studied Shiller's Mental Analysis Talent and, of course, found nothing, which was unacceptable for a genius scientist.
To exaggerate a bit, his mindset at the moment could be summarized as, "Please, heavens, discern loyalty and treachery!" or "What did I just say? What did I just say?!"
"I think some of it is," Shiller replied. "I think any rational person shouldn't take such baseless statements. I know they might sound right, but there are too many correct outcomes in this world, and not every one of them is a good thing."
"Such as?"
"Such as every world war."
Damn, that makes sense, Batman thought. If these words weren't coming from you, I'd almost think I was talking to a normal person.
This conclusion was quite rare because, in Batman's eyes, even Clark wasn't a normal person.
Shiller then leaned forward, looking into Batman's eyes, "You're not the person who would adopt such nonsense, are you?"
Batman's lips twitched as he recalled if there had ever been a time when he acted solely based on Shiller's analysis without solid evidence. After checking his mind, he realized that there probably wasn't.
Then he made the most self-assured head shake of the year.
"That's good," Shiller said. "I think we could get along well, in that case, I might tell you something."
"About the Psychoanalysis Method?"
Shiller gave him a strangely curious look before saying, "About the pale knight. He is someone who believes in love."
"Because he chooses to embrace the fog in the Forest on a rainy day?"
"Because Harley Quinn saved him! They are very close! Batman… Batman?!"
When Batman snapped back to reality, he found Shiller looking at him with disapproving eyes.
He really should kick those nonsensical thoughts out of his head, Batman thought.
He figured the main reason he kept getting distracted was that if Shiller was crazy, then he would naturally seem like a normal person, but if Shiller seemed too normal, he might appear crazy himself.
Batman didn't often encounter such situations because, in all the cosmos combined, there weren't many people more normal than him.
More importantly, among the millions of hypotheses he had made, Shiller should not be the normal person.
Shiller then said somewhat helplessly, "Alright, you might not be particularly interested in discussing marriage, so let's switch gears. The pale knight didn't know what story Greed was fabricating, so his story couldn't have contained anything about medical insurance companies."
"Even though he indeed fabricated a case that required him to come here, it couldn't have coincidentally matched Greed's thoughts. If the Transcendent wanted to connect everyone's stories, he would choose to downplay specific events in the background story of the pale knight."
"The best choice would be to toss the unrelated case he fabricated as far away as possible. And if setting aside specific events, the only thing that can bring him into the main storyline is the love aspect."
"This doesn't seem related to the personal choices of the pale knight, but if he had some way of finding out about this, he wouldn't choose to bring his fabricated case back into the main storyline. Instead, he might set a trap."
"Because he's not only the only Joker who understands love, but he might also be the only one who understands romantic love."