In the early morning, in the office of Gotham University, Shiller was reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee when Victor arrived. "Have you read the report about the fire on Commercial Street?" he asked Shiller.
"I've just got to that part."
Shiller gave the newspaper a shake, then focused on the headline on the front page of the Gotham Gazette. It used a whole page to report the fire in the commercial center. The accompanying photo was not of the disaster-stricken commercial street, but of a black-clad figure walking away.
The headline in bold letters read: "Batman—The Vigilante Saviour of Gotham, or the Hypocritical Performer?"
Though the title was a question, the answers were suggested in the article. It vividly described a scene in which, according to a reporter who rushed to the scene, Batman merely stood on the rooftop for a glance at the fire scene and then hurriedly left.
According to the reporter's description, Batman, undeterred by the disaster on the commercial street below, showed no hesitation when he left. He seemed merely to show up without any intention of saving anyone.
The convincing image of Batman walking in the opposite direction of the fire, coupled with his account, made Bruce sigh heavily as he put down the newspaper, massaging his temples.
When Aisha summoned her dad at the time, Bruce had just put on his Batman suit. So, he appeared before the two children as Batman, which is how Dick found out that Bruce was Batman.
He also read the report in the newspaper and said somewhat indignantly, "You clearly saved so many people. How could they call you a coward who fled in fear of rescue?? How could they..."
"Okay, Dick, have you got everything ready for school?"
"...Yeah." Dick responded in a nasal tone, seemingly somewhat disheartened, "Batman, can't I really go out with you to uphold justice? I think you need an assistant. If I had been there this time, I could have stayed and carried out the rescue while you went to the other fire scene. That way they wouldn't have misunderstood you..."
"I don't care if they misunderstand me."
Dick looked at Bruce's extremely weary face. If Bruce's youthful face had made it hard for Dick to see him as an elder before, he felt unable now to contradict the older man in his current state.
Bruce's complexion was now beyond terrible; he seemed to have aged several years overnight. After all, the life he had been living these last few days could only be described as inhuman.
During the day, he had to deal with the chaos created by the Joker, take part in those deadly games, fill the personnel shortage in the Gotham Police Department's detective team, and assist Gordon in investigating the serial murders linked to the Twelve Apostles. Simultaneously, he also had to probe into the matters of the Twelve Families and the Big Boss. At night, as soon as he opened his eyes, those four wretched things...
The busyness of day and night were different, but intertwined. The complexity of the day didn't allow him time to analyze the weaknesses of the four killers in his dreams, or plan to counter them.
During the night, due to a lack of planning, he remained in the awkward situation of an encounter battle. All his multiple attempts failed, and there was no progress till now. He still hadn't found a good way to cope with the two strongest killers.
Frequent failure only drained his energy, causing him to faint and return to the real world. Because of the excessive energy consumption, he was dizzy during the day, which hampered his efficiency. Thus, he was stuck in a vicious cycle.
The public sentiment about Batman was escalating. Although it was unclear whether this was intentionally fanned by the Joker, Bruce indeed fell into a kind of spiritual torment, as everything seemed to be spiraling down unceasingly, developing in the opposite direction of what he wished for, as if nothing would get better.
Both physically and mentally, Bruce's condition began to deteriorate, but at the same time, because of the numerous stresses, a particular resilience started to toughen in his brain.
When a person is pushed to the limit, his potential begins to play out at an incredibly fast speed. Batman, who had been operating for one year, had a rather modest growth trajectory. But starting only two days before, that trajectory shot up vertically.
After three days, Bruce visibly lost a considerable amount of weight, but at the same time, his eyes beneath his eyebrows began to carry a different kind of determination.
During the day, he followed the clues to explore the complicated relationship between the Twelve Families, investigated all the murder scenes, deduced the murderer's modus operandi and their purpose. In the evening, he and Gordon would put the cases together. After returning home at night, he started to plan how to counter the four killers.
At night, after falling asleep, Batman started to execute his plan gradually. With repeated failures, Batman's energy started to improve, and he could even attempt dozens of times without feeling any dizziness or fatigue.
After multiple attempts, Batman found the best solutions to tackle these killers.
He realized that while these killers were indeed brutal, they lacked coordination among each other, only focused on their own killings. Even if there were conflicts among them, none of them would back down, giving Batman ample room for maneuver.
Moreover, he found out that it was utterly unwise to use his willpower to resist their attacks or materialize weapons. Shiller's will was always interfering with him, causing the weapons he materialized to be either flawed or disposable, and inefficient.
But Batman never lacked a contingency plan. He started to try and create obstacles in the alley using his willpower. Initially, he attempted to manipulate the wall structure, creating a corner with a blind spot. But quickly, he realized that the energy consumption was too rapid, and he shifted to creating smaller, but more efficiently used obstacles.
First, there were piles of construction waste, which though they couldn't entirely obstruct the view as the wall could, it gave him a chance to hinder the enemy's movements. Then came fragments of broken glass, floating newspapers, and other small traps— like handheld flashlights for dazzling the eyes, horns for making noise to distract attention, and so on.
Batman deeply appreciated the advantages of diverse and localized warfare. Compared to focusing on manifesting a Batman dart or a dagger to injure the enemy, sometimes these small objects' interference provided better tactical opportunities.
After countless trials, Batman finally devised a trap.
He exploited the killer devils' behavioral logic— as soon as Batman appeared, the four would start to ruthlessly chase him until he was dead.
When he stood at the entrance of Wayne Manor, the sequence of the four killers was: the white masked and hockey masked killers were on the outside, the chainsaw killer was third, and the steel claw monster was at the innermost, on top of the wall.
When he stepped out and reached the alley, the four began to move towards him simultaneously. Two tall killers walked out first, then came the chainsaw killer, and finally, the steel claw monster.
Batman placed two large piles of rubbish on either side of the alley entrance, taking up most of the alley. At full speed and with nimble maneuvers, Batman was able to bypass the two tall masked killers. Initially heading for Wayne Manor, the killer devils would then turn around to chase him.
Apart from the steel claw monster which could walk along walls, the other three had to have both feet on the ground. The tall white faced killer and the hockey mask killer, moving at almost the same speed, were obstructed at the point where the two rubbish piles intersected.
By this time, Batman had already reached the middle section of the alley, directly confronting the chainsaw killer.
But Batman did not choose to knock him down with combat skills as he did before, because it was meaningless. Even if Batman could grab the chainsaw, it was not a very effective weapon. Even with that weapon, it was not possible to deal with the other three killer devils.
He placed four oil drums at the end of the alley on the right side. While attracting the attention of the chainsaw killer, he slowed down and moved towards the oil barrels.
In the meanwhile, the steel claw monster at the end of the alley would just be about to attack. Batman rolled beside the oil drums. Although the monster's claws could easily rip through flesh, when Batman concentrated on hardening the oil drums' defense, those claws could only scrape a mark on the barrel.
This is a conclusion Batman came to after numerous failures, holding a deeply rooted belief that the metal surface of oil barrels is sturdy enough to block steel claws. Trusting this is much simpler than trusting his own flesh can block steel claws.
Missing his first attack, the steel claw monster would try to circle around the oil barrels to continue attacking Batman. By then, the chainsaw killer holding the chainsaw would have just arrived. And according to the speed deduced, the white-faced killer and hockey mask killer should be right behind the chainsaw killer.
The chainsaw would produce sparks when rubbing against the metal, so when it cut open the oil drum, it would trigger an explosion, blowing everyone away.
The entire plan hinged on accurately calculating each step and the speed of each killer. When the oil drum exploded, the four killers had to be close enough. The other challenge was Batman had to firmly believe that he was unharmed after being blown away.
During the calculation of speed and maneuvering, Batman made many mistakes. Actually, during the first try, he had completed the entire process in his mind. The challenge was that he had to concentrate on manifesting these props while precisely maneuvering, controlling the killers' speed.
After repeatedly failing dozens of times, Batman noticed that not only did his energy limit increase, but his concentration and control had also qualitatively improved. In the end, he could even make the oil drums float and smash into the chainsaw.
With the continuous growth of willpower, the margin of error also kept increasing. Finally, with the roaring chainsaw, the oil barrel exploded. The four killer devils and Batman were simultaneously blown away.
At this point, he should firmly believe that the killer devils were vanquished, and he was unscathed. After the explosion's smoke dissipated, Batman stood up from the ground.
He was not unscathed. On the contrary, the Bat Armor was torn to shreds by the blast. At the last moment, Batman decided to gamble and concentrated on enhancing the effect of the explosion and the lethality to the four on the opposite side.
The consequence of weakening his defense was that he suffered serious injuries. Still, at the same time that he firmly believed that he would cause maximum damage to his opponents, the four killer devils on the other side were also badly injured.
The least injured among them was the hockey mask killer. His clothes were a bit tattered from the blast, and he was currently getting up from the ground. The white-face killer and the chainsaw killer were almost the same, both severely injured and now lying in the corner. The monster with the steel claw was smoking all over and seemed to have lost control of his direction.
Batman's goal was not to annihilate them, but to leave the alley as soon as possible. He looked up, seeing the high tower in the city center still silently standing in the night. He knew that was his destination.
After leaving the alley, those eerie eyes which previously appeared far away were now much closer. Endless monsters appeared in the streets and alleys of Gotham.
And Batman, who was facing them, discovered that the emotion rising in his heart at this moment was not the original confusion and fatigue, but an indescribable… excitement.