Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

When a normal person suddenly sees a head appear in front of them, they should indeed feel terror. But instinctual fear and cognitive fear elicit completely different reactions.

Instinctual fear comes from the human race's instinct. Before cognition occurs, instinct compels people to feel fear; whereas cognitive fear arises after cognition, making a rational judgment that one is in a dangerous situation, resulting in the feeling of fear.

Instinctual fear typically appears when something beyond common superhuman knowledge appears before humans, such as an obviously distorted monster, or a ghost; whereas cognitive fear typically concerns things within human common knowledge, such as a madman holding a knife stained with blood, or a thug aiming a gun. The former is hypothesized by the brain as dangerous because it defies common sense, while the latter is judged as dangerous by the brain because it poses a threat within the bounds of common sense.

A movable head clearly should belong to the former category, especially when half of the skull has been sliced off, with a long spine dangling beneath. This sort of thing clearly defies common sense, and should trigger instinctual fear immediately upon seeing such an abnormal shape.

However, Tone didn't feel fear upon seeing this shape. It wasn't until he saw Bruce's face and even slightly distinguished it for a fraction of a second, that he had a fear reaction. This proves he wasn't afraid because the head was strange—he was afraid of Bruce Wayne.

Things are getting more and more complicated. Shiller thought: It seems like Tone has experienced this kind of thing before. After all, if Batman has retrieved the nano-equipment with the help of other players, then he might have killed Tone before, so it's normal for Tone to recognize and fear him.

"My time is very precious," Shiller began, "Originally, I had no intention of helping you find the Nutrient Liquid, but since it's been added, I have to work extra. You stay here and persuade him, I'll go help you find the Nutrient Liquid."

"No! Wait!" Batman shouted, "He's injured. If you leave the two of us here, we might both get captured by the sect."

"No, this young friend has successfully deceived the pursuers." Shiller recalled the situation on the rooftop, he said, "He climbed up along the narrow alley's wall, intentionally leaving blood stains on the left eaves but actually entered the right rooftop; when the pursuers saw the blood and entered the left rooftop, he then came out from the right, jumped onto the left following behind the pursuers, attacking them from behind. To prevent anyone from coming back to search, he locked the left rooftop door from the outside, opened the right rooftop door, placed the bodies in the right house, and went down from the right house, entering the front door of the left house, hiding in the left house. So, once the pursuers arrive and find climbing marks in the alley, after checking the rooftop and finding bodies in the right house, they will instinctively assume this is the primary crime scene and search this house; seeing the left rooftop door locked from the outside, they will assume no one can lock it from outside if someone is in, hence dropping their guard, not searching thoroughly. In summary, it's temporarily safe here."

"So you want to return to the Cathedral? It's extremely dangerous there." Batman continued.

"I don't think you can offer any help; even as a weapon, you're not handy. I can go alone. I just infiltrated there, the sect wouldn't assume I'd be bold enough to return so soon, so now is actually the best time."

After speaking, ignoring Batman's calls, Shiller turned and left. But instead of going down the stairs, he went up again, heading to the rooftop through the rooftop door, waiting there for a while.

Though the building wasn't tall, he could overlook several nearby streets. After about five minutes, it was apparent that several groups of Centaurs were heading here, all members of the sect.

"Indeed, they can pinpoint Batman's location." Shiller squinted his eyes, whispering, "No, Batman must have proactively sent them a signal, fearing he'd die at Tone's hands. So Batman indeed is in league with the sect."

However, slightly beyond Shiller's expectations were the two groups of Samurai heading this way. He slightly frowned and said, "Lady Siwa is in league with them too? Then why didn't she give the nano-equipment to Batman herself?"

"Oh, I understand now." Shiller continued to mutter, "To let the rescuers create a fierce Destroyer themselves, thus causing a psyshock to those like Robin or Batman attempting rescue. Looks like this is a trap specifically targeting rescuers."

Then he thought: This is indeed a good trap, because the biggest selling point of the interface introducing the instance is the 'Most Miserable Batman', and the vast majority of players who buy into and join this script at the first moment are those who want to rescue Batman, like Robin, like other Batmans. In other words, the instance attributes screened for those kind-hearted players.

And all the situations I encountered on the way were clearly against righteous and kind-hearted people. Arkham Batman, no matter how fierce, is ultimately the righteous Dark Knight, most of the time he wouldn't stand by and watch people suffer. Despicable is the pass of the despicable, noble is the epitaph of the noble.

Just after Shiller landed, it didn't take long before he encountered an old man with a tail ring from the Kane family; then on his way to the Cathedral, the one who fell from the window should have been a baby; today on the way to find Tone, he encountered a victimized woman again. Basically gathering the images of all disadvantaged and innocent victims, there's absolutely no way any normal Batman and Robin could ignore these victims.

With Batman's wisdom, he could somewhat guess that this was a trap, but even if it was a trap, they would still attempt the rescue. That's Batman for you.

This shows that even if Arkham Batman became president, his influence wouldn't wane. Perhaps he completed every side mission of saving lives, then marched into the Cathedral, and forcibly rescued Batman. If it weren't for the nano-equipped Batman's stab in the back at the end, he would have cleared Gotham in a night once again.

This is the brilliance of the trap: No matter how strong the physical power, it's useless because the real lethal damage comes from a mental attack. When the rescuer spends a massive amount of effort, even fighting to their last breath to save Batman, only to realize that Batman isn't the city's hope but another Destroyer, killing everyone they saved right in front of them, anyone would feel despair.

But no, Shiller still doesn't believe this would be the primary reason for Arkham Batman's failure. His spirit is indomitable; even if Nano Batman suddenly betrays him, it's unlikely to kill him in an instant; even if Nano Batman killed all the innocents, Arkham Batman wouldn't give up easily. This would motivate him even more because Batman doesn't shy away from taking responsibility for bad decisions, and he would clean up the mess himself, possibly elevating Arkham Batman's combat power further.

Even if Nano Batman's combat power is strong, along with teammates like Death Angel Lady Siwa and others, it's not so easy to defeat Arkham Batman in peak condition. So why did he fail?

As Shiller thought about it and waited, he soon saw the fastest group of Centaurs enter the building he was in. Shiller didn't move; he knew this group wouldn't come up to the rooftop because Batman didn't have much time left.

"Even if it's just a head, it doesn't consume much energy, but the problem is a head also doesn't store much energy. Just by what he said along the way, it would be enough to deplete all energy. If they are indeed in cahoots, Batman would surely have the sect members quickly take him back to the Cathedral to replenish energy."

This is Batman's greatest weakness—he's afraid of death.

This isn't an arbitrary conclusion, but a reasonable judgment based on his past actions. Batman fought a decisive battle against the Death Angel, the Death Angel won, and Batman was captured—here lies a major issue, which is Batman is not dead.

Batman can die, and generally, he would die. If there were still ways, he might choose a strategic retreat, but this universe's Batman seems to have no options, yet he's still alive. During the decisive battle, he was righteous, but perhaps at the last moment, some survival instincts prevailed, preventing him from choosing a glorious death.

This is not moral coercion, not saying Batman should be a martyr and anyone not dying is a coward, but as this universe's Batman himself said, he has deep ties with Death Angel, not just meeting during the showdown. He should have known something about Death Angel Paul, should have known he is an obsessive madman, and falling into his hands would not end well.

So even if not for justice, but purely for interest, choosing suicide would be better than clinging to life. Since this Batman didn't choose that, it must be a survival instinct so strong it overwhelmed all reason, leading to the subsequent situation.

"A survival instinct too strong" is just a euphemism; bluntly put, it's fear of death. But really, fear of death isn't a flaw. Everyone fears death; otherwise, how could someone not afraid of life and death be called a hero?

The key is, this universe's Batman has invested too much sunk cost. He's been tortured for over a decade. If he were to die today, over a decade later, early or late death is all the same, so why not die during the decisive night back then to endure less suffering?

So since he's endured over a decade of torment, he absolutely won't allow himself to die. This will make his already strong survival instinct become stronger, even extremely, not allowing himself any risk of death. This obsession will further oppress and destroy reason, leading him to make extremely unwise decisions.

He also isn't a very smart Batman; otherwise, he wouldn't have been defeated by the Death Angel. Shiller merely emphasized the importance of timing, and he believed Shiller wouldn't stay for a moment, would surely rush to the Cathedral without hesitation, and therefore call the sect members over straight away.

Besides wanting to save his own life, perhaps he also wants to set a trap in the Cathedral when Shiller goes there for the nutrient liquid, so he can quickly eliminate this player.

But unfortunately, Shiller isn't as urgent as he appears. He never intended to go to the Cathedral to find any nutrient liquid; his goal is to gather everyone colluding together—so he can catch them all in one go.