After the loud "bang", Benjamin fell to the ground. Shiller, watching Benjamin slowly collapse, looked up in surprise at Lex.
Shiller was genuinely shocked; Lex's behavior was beyond his expectations.
Although he knew from the start that Lex wasn't being controlled, he had no idea why Lex would attack Benjamin. Benjamin identified him as the murderer, but he didn't identify Lex as one, so why did Lex hit him?
Shiller replayed the whole incident in his mind.
Lionel invited him to the parlor to threaten him with a certain handle, and then he used an umbrella handle to strike Lionel, knocking him down, and left.
Later, Selina came to the parlor to set up surveillance and bumped into Lionel, who had just managed to get up. They clashed, then Selina picked up a vase and hit Lionel. After knocking him back down, she left.
Perhaps Benjamin wanted to discuss something with Lionel, so he came to the parlor. But Lionel, whose defenses were broken, started shouting furiously at Benjamin, disclosing to him the fact that Shiller had killed someone two years ago. Benjamin fought with him and then knocked him out.
Benjamin was an agent; his control over his force was supposed to be reliable. As a representative of a certain official power, it was impossible for him to kill Luther outright. That is to say, until then, Lionel was just unconscious, not dead.
But now, the Lionel lying on the ground was unquestionably dead. This means that the first, second, and third persons who met Lionel did not kill him. The real murderer was the fourth person.
Shiller looked at Lex and asked, "Did you kill Lionel?"
"No." Lex shook his head. He said, "He committed suicide, or rather, he died from an accident."
As he spoke, time went back to when Benjamin had left the room.
Although Benjamin didn't kill Luther, knocking him out here also violated the agent's rules. So, he left the room quickly without noticing the slight noise coming from the parlor's attached washroom.
A few dozen seconds after he left, the washroom door opened and Lex came out.
He walked over, looked at Lionel lying on the floor, took a small transparent bag with a small pill from his pocket.
Lex stuffed the pill into the unconscious Lionel's mouth, then fetched a glass of water from the washroom and splashed it on Lionel's face.
After a while, Lionel finally woke up. Seeing Lex's face, he was choked for a moment, coughed violently a few times, and struggled to get up from the ground.
"You...you..."
"Are you wondering why I'm here and why I'm not in my room?" Lex started.
Lionel, weak, wasn't a young man anymore. It was impossible for him to stay fully conscious after being repeatedly hit on the head. He fell back to the ground shortly after getting up. His eyes were wide, staring at the smiling Lex, "How could you... Didn't you take your medicine???"
Hearing his words, Lex let out an expression of utter boredom. He smoothed his hair slightly, then said, "I haven't taken any medicine since two years ago, and you haven't noticed at all."
"How can I put it? Father, you are so stupid it scares me."
Lex looked down at Lionel lying on the ground. "You murdered my mother in front of me, then forced me to take sedatives that made me incapable of thinking or speaking as soon as I showed any signs of genius."
"Whenever you needed my wisdom, you would reduce my dosages, and then you'd get answers from me. Because of this, the Luther Group's business flourished since every vital decision was made by me."
Lex took a deep breath. "When you needed me to make decisions, you would lessen the dosage to allow me to have the feelings of a normal person. At that time, I even felt very happy..."
"Because you're my father, and you needed me. At least in that moment, you loved me."
"I figured that's how normal people were. I gave you correct advice, then you would smile at me, tell me that I did a good job and that I was your beloved son."
Lex's eyes shone under the dim light. He looked down at Lionel's bloodshot eyes and continued,
"Until two years ago, a man saved me from that state..."
"He saved me, but more importantly, his actions taught me an ordinary sense: you, are not normal."
Lionel was coughing heavily, his face abnormally flushed, seemingly feeling his blood rushing too quickly, his heartbeat speeding up.
"By abnormal, I don't just mean your continual abuse of me, but... you really are an imbecile, an imbecile that gives everyone a headache."
Endless fury blazed in Lionel's eyes, but at this point, he was struggling to speak. Lex walked over, squatted down beside his head, and said:
"The most ironic part is, to match your stupidity, a group of people who couldn't possibly be any smarter had to use this most straightforward method to kill you."
"Do you feel your heart still beating? Does it seem to be beating a little too fast? That's right, that's proof that you're alive, even though you're about to die soon."
Lex stood up, his shadow cast on Lionel's face, causing his entire face to be engulfed in the shadow, making any expression he made obscure.
Lex turned to leave, but before he did, he looked back and said:
"Oh, right, I forgot. The man who saved me was Professor Rodriguez, the one you hate the most."
"And now, I'm going to ask him if he'd like to become my godfather, and you…"
"You're not only far from a genius, but you don't even deserve to be the father of a genius. Goodbye, Luther."
Watching Lex's departing figure, Lionel clutched his chest, gasping heavily. After some coughs echoed the dying man, he reared back forcefully. After a momentary expression of pain crossed his face, his eyes gradually lost focus, and his breathing slowly stopped.
"He died of a heart attack. I did use some drugs on him, but they were of the most common kind. Seeing my father collapse, using some first-aid medication was the least I could do, right?" said Lex.
Shiller looked down at Benjamin, who was also laying there. Walking over to him, he turned and said to Lex, "While I don't know why you were so eager to attack him, I have to tell you that the method you used will hardly make him stay unconscious for long."
"By now, he should be waking up… oh, it appears that he really is waking up."
At Shiller's words, Benjamin twitched a little. He twisted his neck, his hand went to his nape, and then he tried strenuously to lift himself off the ground.
Without rushing, Shiller turned his umbrella upside down, the cane pointing downwards, the point upwards. He gripped the middle section of the umbrella with both hands and jabbed it downward hard.
With a "bang", Benjamin was again lying on the ground.
Bruce, on the side, swallowed hard. With no outsiders present, he dropped the act. Standing straight, he straightened his clothes and walked over to Benjamin, began frisking him with practiced ease.
Coming up empty after patting down Benjamin and his jacket pockets, Bruce stood up, looked at Shiller and asked, "What in the world is going on? What did you do here two years ago?"
"Would you believe me if I told you I lost my memory?" Shiller responded rather arrogantly.
After recalling his own experience in Shiller's Thought Palace, Bruce slowly shook his head.
"I can very seriously tell you that I have indeed lost my memory. I remember the things I've done in the past, but I have absolutely no memory of this incident."
Shiller stroked the handle of his umbrella and asked Bruce, "Do you want to judge me?"
Bruce walked forward a couple steps, stopping right in front of Shiller. He looked into Shiller's eyes and said, "I want to investigate the truth about this. It matters to the future situation on the East Coast, and it also matters to Gotham."
He turned to look at Benjamin lying on the ground and said, "He told me he once dispatched an agent to Gotham to investigate the Philby List and Soviet agents."
"Do you want to find that Soviet agent?" asked Shiller narrowing his eyes and looking at Bruce. He asked bluntly, "What are you planning to do if you find him? Hand him over to the CIA?"
"I don't care if the Federation allows espionage or not. I just know that Gotham does not. I won't let such a dangerous person with so many uncertainties operate unrestricted in this city," Bruce responded, sounding very much like Batman.
"Bruce, you should know that whether I have genuinely lost my memory or not, you won't get the answers you want from me." Shiller's attitude was very cold. He said, "My past concerns only me and is none of your business."
Clearly, Bruce wasn't about to give up; the two of them stood in the middle of the room, tension filling the air again. Compared to the standoff between Shiller and Benjamin, this storm was bigger and more dangerous.
Just then, the sound of a gun being cocked, "click-clack," broke the silence. Bruce rolled over; a bullet hit the spot where he had just been standing.
The dark barrel of the gun fell, revealing Lex Luther's face behind it.