Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"It's really a tough choice," Shiller said. "On one hand, there's the air pollution problem in X15 district that he feels it's his responsibility to address, on the other hand, there's the issue of GTO ownership that could have a significant impact on Wayne Enterprises. What choice will Batman make?"

"You... sound like Joker," Bruce could only say that.

"No, I'm much kinder than Joker," Shiller said. "Joker wants to make Batman feel guilty, whereas I simply want to make Batman feel poverty."

"That's obviously not 'kinder'," Bruce said.

"But it's not my fault," Shiller said. "If the Batman of this cosmos didn't wallow in sadness over Alfred's death all day and fought back against those who want to take advantage of the situation, he wouldn't be so poor now."

Bruce was also at a loss for words.

"I deeply understand this kind of pain," he began. "Transforming Gotham is like having ten shredders in front of you, each devouring money at a crazy rate, and all you can do is slightly reduce the power of one of them, but you can't stop any of them completely."

"Even if you have the same machine that produces money, the production speed is nowhere near the consumption, so you make choices every second, each choice is a lesser of two evils, either sacrificing money or sacrificing reputation."

"This long-term sense of loss can seriously affect one's mental health," Shiller said. "It can make people avoid making choices and even make them not want to take responsibility for anything."

"I just need a much longer vacation to forget all this," Bruce said.

"I'm not saying what you did was bad, and I didn't force you to work, did I?" Shiller looked out the car window and said, "I just hope to replace Batman's pain of losing his relatives with this agony."

"Fight poison with poison?"

"More like focusing on the present," Shiller continued. "Past pain can never compare to the present pain. You feel heartache when you lose ten dollars on the road, but if you come home to a ten thousand dollar loan to pay back, you won't care about the ten dollars."

"Because even if you have those ten dollars, you can't pay back the ten thousand, just like even if Alfred were still alive, Batman would still have to face such choices."

"All of this was planned by you," Bruce stared at Shiller's profile and said, "Encouraging James to throw out the GTO, and preaching effective pollution control plans to reporters, just to drive Batman into a corner."

Shiller nodded slightly, and from his demeanor, Bruce saw an unruffled cruelty as if manipulating everyone was like playing with blocks.

"But you're wrong about one thing," Shiller said. "This is far from being a dead-end."

The convoy stopped at the gate of Wayne Manor, the bright high beam of the trucks drawing the attention of both the Pale Knight and Batman.

Batman stepped forward first, worrying about safety since so many vehicles arriving at dawn could hardly be problem-free.

But when he saw the moving company logos on the trucks, he was puzzled.

The Pale Knight followed out, not worried about an assassination attempt on Batman, but something worse; he feared Shiller had arrived.

His premonition was accurate. Seeing Shiller and Bruce step out of the car, he knew it was going to be an incredibly long night, and if possible, it would be better if someone came to assassinate Batman now so they could discuss things tomorrow.

But unfortunately, no one could escape Shiller.

Shiller walked up, ignoring the metal gate altogether, reached his hand directly through the grill to shake hands with Batman, saying, "Let's go in and talk, shall we?"

"Go where?"

"Your manor."

"Who are you? Why do you want to enter my manor? And what are all these things?"

"It's a bit complicated, right? That's why I said we should talk inside."

Batman didn't know if he should regard this man in front of him as if he were mentally ill, which would be slightly disrespectful, but he probably wasn't wrong to do so.

The Pale Knight stepped up and said, "Shiller, why are you here at this time? And what's in the trucks?"

Shiller glanced at his watch and said, "There are about two hours until dawn. If you don't let me in, the people passing by on their morning run will notice these trucks, believe me, that's not what you want."

"...Why? What have you put inside?"

"Don't worry, there's no contraband, just some furniture. Can I go in now?"

Batman looked at the trucks with apprehension, indeed worried there might be dangerous items inside, but it seemed this guy knew the Pale Knight, and if the Pale Knight had wanted to stage a bombing, he wouldn't have waited until now.

"Alright, it seems you're not in the mood to talk," Batman said.

Shiller, shockingly impatient, directly said to the convoy's boss, "Unload the stuff."

"Unload where?"

"Just outside the manor's gate."

The movers started offloading things onto the ground.

"Wait!" Batman stopped them and said, "You can't put things on my private land."

"Then put it a bit further away," Shiller said. "That grassland next to us isn't part of the manor, is it? It's fine to put it there."

Batman watched as indeed just furniture was being unloaded from the trucks. He was more puzzled than ever, so he could only look at the Pale Knight and say, "What have you done now?"

"Trust me, this wasn't my doing," the Pale Knight was the first to defend himself, then he silently added, "But it's obviously aimed at you."

"Wait a minute, what is that?" Batman suddenly noticed something unusual, pointing to something in the hands of two movers, he said, "Isn't that the municipal bulletin board? The one installed on the right side of City Hall's lobby... How did it end up here?"

The Pale Knight also sensed the anomaly but he could only suggest to Batman, "Maybe you should just let them in first?"

Batman pursed his lips. The Pale Knight had never expected to see a mix of confusion and indignation on this man's face as if saying, "Who are they that I should just let them in?"

"Mr. Wayne, I must remind you that at dawn tomorrow, all City Hall employees will head to the streets in front of the building to protest. They'll then discover that from the inside out, the entire building has been stripped bare. The reporters covering the protest will be in the same boat."

"They will surely investigate who gutted the building and where its contents ended up. If you don't take action now, such as having them bring the items back in and settling the moving fees, reporters will promptly snap pictures of City Hall's belongings showing up at the gates of Wayne Manor."

Both Batman and the Pale Knight widened their eyes.

Before Batman could say anything, the Pale Knight quickly pushed open the gate, shouting outside, "Don't take it over there! Come here! Hurry up, bring it inside!!"

Half an hour later, Batman, with a face blacker than the bottom of a pot, paid the movers and the renovation company.

"I need an explanation," Batman said to Shiller, who was leisurely sipping tea on the sofa.

"And I am hoping you can help me find a reliable second-hand goods trading company," Shiller responded.

Bruce realized that Arrogant responds to everyone on a need-to-answer basis, while Greed is practically on a need-not-answer basis, avoiding answers whenever possible. Not only does he not answer, but he also starts by setting conditions, giving off a feeling of a futile conversation.

Batman was clearly helpless.

He recalled all that had befallen him that day.

His arch-nemesis, the Joker, had suddenly come to him proposing to work from home together, he called his adopted son but the latter seemed utterly incapable of understanding his plight.

He saw favorable policies on TV he wanted to implement, but the omnipotent CEO from before brought even more explosive news. His stubborn friend, after accepting Joker's plan, was now planning to sell off the security squad meant for crime reduction.

And he himself, due to a lack of money, couldn't solve both issues at once.

At 4:00 AM, a fleet of mover's trucks arrived without warning and offloaded all the soft furnishings of City Hall into his manor's yard, even crowning the fountain at the entrance with a chair. He had to pay for all of this, and the other party also demanded he find a reliable second-hand dealer.

For a moment, Batman wondered if he was hallucinating due to the mental trauma of Alfred's death, and perhaps the explanation shouldn't come from the person in front, but from his psychiatrist.

"What the hell is going on?" The Pale Knight clearly didn't regard this as an illusion and pointed the finger at Shiller, saying, "I told you to pack things, but I just wanted to pack my own things."

"You're the mayor, the whole city is yours. If possible, I would be very pleased to pack up all of Gotham and ship it to China."

"Don't change the subject. Tell me what's really happening!"

"I dismantled nearly everything inside City Hall, that's all there is to it."

"Of course, I know, I've seen it all. After all, those 60-plus toilets are now set up on the lawn outside. I just want to know why you did that."

"Like I said, I want him to help me find a reliable second-hand trading company."

"You mean to sell all these items?"

"Yes, they are all quality goods. Even at second-hand prices, they will make a pretty penny. Money is what you need the most right now, isn't it?"

"I..." The Pale Knight was speechless.

"Alright, if you can't understand, let me put it another way. I need a unique auction hosted by you to sell these dismantled items from City Hall, with the collected funds aimed to solve the pollution problem in District X15."

Even Bruce was taken aback; Shiller was indeed very good at overturning his previous statement or, should I say, "quickly producing another advantage in his previous plan."

"You are poor," Shiller said, looking into the Pale Knight's eyes. "Since you are already in poverty, why not let others know just how broke you are?"

The Pale Knight paused before saying, "You mean to say…"

"If you claim to be poor and need to cut public servants' benefits, there will be dissatisfaction. But if you are so poor that you have to sell everything inside City Hall to raise funds for pollution, who would dare to fault you for cutting benefits?"

"Is this a political show?" Bruce asked.

"You can think of it that way, but I prefer to call it a simple and effective strategy to plead poverty."

"But the stuff inside City Hall isn't mine," The Pale Knight maintained his clarity, saying, "It was neither bought nor mounted by me, nor do I have the right to take it away."

"But during your tenure, you get to enjoy the benefits they bring," Shiller pointed out incisively, "Now your rejection of these benefits represents your stance of standing with the poor. Sometimes, all they need is a stance."

"Isn't this a bit too exaggerated?" The Pale Knight hesitated, saying, "It's too dramatic. The theatrics are too obvious."

"It is very obvious," Shiller nodded, adding, "Poor people aren't fools. They know that no matter how poor you get, you wouldn't strip City Hall down to its bare walls. The only possibility for your actions is a performance."

"So…"

"So I want you to find a reliable second-hand dealer to appraise all these items, and then we'll sell them to the poor at one-third the second-hand market price."

While the Pale Knight was still pondering, Bruce snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "You are a genius!"