Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Bruce was stunned as he watched the pale knight fall.

"Did you poison him?!"

"I'm not that evil." Shiller lifted the pale knight onto the couch, then continued, "Half of the capsules contain Gray mist."

"Isn't that evil??"

"It's just a routine medical examination." Shiller completely ignored Bruce, made the pale knight sit on the couch and stuffed a cushion in his arms to prevent him from falling over.

Then, he mentally asked Gray mist, "Did you see the process when the medication took effect? Anything unusual?"

"It seems to be a special medication targeting symptoms of schizophrenia," said Gray mist. "But the efficacy of the treatment is very low, and drug resistance develops too quickly. The person who made it must not understand pharmacology well."

"As expected, can you replicate it?"

"I can, but it will take some time, and I need some special ingredients. Can you find a psychiatric hospital's pharmacy?"

Shiller looked up and asked Bruce the same question. Bruce, momentarily taken aback, then said, "I have full control over Arkham Asylum. There are traces of intrusion in the pharmacy there, and I suspect it was Harley, possibly meddling with the medications there."

"I need to go there later, but before that, I need to talk to an important figure."

"Important figure? Who?"

"The Joker." Shiller stood up from the couch and said, "But this is not a good place to talk. Get a vehicle, we're going to Arkham Asylum."

About twenty minutes later, Bruce propped up the pale knight, placed him in a chair in the treatment room, and put a straitjacket on him. Shiller personally checked the straps, ensuring they were secure, then told Gray mist, "Temporarily negate the effects of the drug, I need to talk to the Joker."

There appeared to be no visible change, but the pale knight's mouth quickly curled into a smile, and when he opened his eyes, madness was visible once again.

He struggled a bit and found himself tightly bound; he immediately became furious, flailing about like a wild beast.

"Listen, Mister Joker, we don't have much time, so let's not waste it on pointless probing," said Shiller quickly from behind the observation window. "This city is performing a farce, and for you, it's the worst possible scenario because Batman has come back to his senses, while you are unqualified to take the stage."

The Joker abruptly turned to look at him. He seemed to have the pale knight's memories, staring intently at Shiller and said, "It wasn't supposed to be like this. My dear Maria was supposed to welcome my arrival."

"Don't mention that damned cur again. Same old words—I don't have much time to argue with you or listen to any insane philosophy. I'm just telling you, I can give you back this body, and after you're free, what do you plan to do in return for me?"

"Do you think you can threaten me with that? Even without you, I'd still come back eventually, and that damned robber who stole everything will just die miserably!"

"I can bring you back, and naturally, I can bring him back too. Isn't that enough for you to calmly discuss with me?"

"No, I'm not going to work for you."

"Then it seems we have nothing to discuss."

The Joker proudly shook his head and said, "There are many foolish politicians like you who want to exploit my madness for their own gain, but it disgusts me. I won't do such a thing."

"Alright, Gray mist, take control of him."

The Joker froze immediately; Shiller then walked out from behind the observation window, a syringe in hand, and drew a tube of blood from the Joker's arm.

"Knock him out." Shiller continued, "Let him sleep for a couple of hours; we'll see if we can concoct a special medication."

The Joker collapsed onto the desk in front of him, and Shiller pushed the door open and said to Bruce, "You were the last person to see Maria, find a way to bring her out."

"What happened?" Bruce still appeared bewildered.

Shiller shook his head without speaking, turned, and walked toward the pharmacy; Bruce followed him and said, "You've got to give me a reason for doing this."

"If you need a reason, then don't do it." Shiller easily gave up and pulled out his phone to call Gordon.

"Hello, Commissioner, how are the negotiations going? Yes, I know you've heard the most astonishing price in your life, but that's just the beginning."

"No, don't concede yet; Batman might contact Nightwing next; he's very interested in the GTO... Opposing it? He just opposes GTO not being under his control. If he has the chance to fully command this team, he won't give up."

"I didn't call to give you advice; I just want to ask if you know who used to control the natural disaster fund?"

"Yes, I know the fund is for cleaning up after Batman, but Batman wouldn't handle it personally; there must be someone managing it... Lady Lusi? Do you have her contact information? Great, thanks very much."

Shiller hung up the phone, pushed open the pharmacy door letting Gray mist in, found a chair to sit down, and typed in a string of numbers.

"Hello, is this Lady Lusi? I am the assistant to the mayor, you can call me Shiller. I have some questions about the natural disaster fund, are you available now?"

"Okay, see you in half an hour."

After hanging up the phone, Shiller looked up and asked, "How is it? Can you replicate the medication?"

"If you are talking about the original medication he is currently taking, yes, I can, but since there isn't enough medicine here and its drug resistance is too strong, I can only make enough medication for one week's use."

"And there will be very severe adverse reactions toward the end of the medication period, possibly even gastric bleeding. Do you want me to prepare it?"

"It sounds like you have an improved version."

"Yes, there's a lot of room for improvement with this medication, but I'm not professional enough. If you could bring in a few pharmaceutical research experts, I could look into their brains and extract the knowledge I need."

After pausing for a moment, Shiller said, "Alright, then first make the original medication, try to minimize the adverse reactions, and ideally make it last for two weeks."

"I'll do my best."

Bruce heard Shiller's conversation with Gray Mist and said, "The key is here. According to Harley's usage traces of such drugs, I can replicate this medication, but its effects are not good enough and it's not suitable for long-term use. If we want to improve it, it requires a lot of funds."

Shiller glanced at him, Bruce still perplexed and wanting to question further, Shiller stood up and said, "Practice makes perfect."

After that, he walked out of the room.

Bruce followed him, and Shiller told him, "The Pale Knight should be awake by now, go and reassure him, tell him I didn't poison him, I just used another method to do a physical examination, and his condition is not very optimistic right now."

"He can no longer stay in Wayne Manor, he must be hospitalized for treatment, and for the time being stay in Arkham Asylum, but don't let anyone know about this, it's best to let people think he is still in Wayne Manor."

"Alright, that sounds quite simple." Bruce said, "But I don't want to stay behind to look after him, I want to go and meet this Rose."

Shiller looked back at him somewhat surprised, and asked, "Have you dealt with her?"

"Before you arrived, in an effort to save the Gotham City Government's economic situation, we also made a lot of efforts, and there's a solid $3 billion in the natural disaster fund, naturally, it was also within our efforts."

"It looks like you didn't succeed."

"Yes, because she is a very difficult woman, greedy and evil."

"More greedy than me? More evil than me?"

Bruce was choked up.

"Compared to you, it really pales in comparison."

"Then stay behind, take good care of the Pale Knight, and inquire about the specific content of the Napier Act, you need to understand these things."

Bruce was very reluctant, just as he was about to chase Shiller to the elevator, he was pushed out, Shiller pressed the elevator close button and said, "If you don't want to work, then don't always bother me, I don't have the time to waste on you."

The elevator doors slowly closed, Bruce pursed his lips, turned around, and headed towards the Pale Knight's hospital room.

The Pale Knight was awake, he looked a bit surprised as Bruce entered, Bruce sat beside his bed and poured him a cup of warm water, then said, "Shiller told me to tell you, he didn't poison you, he just used some incredible abilities to perform a check-up, and communicated with the Joker a bit."

"The Joker? He's back? Did I lose control? Did I hurt anyone?" the Pale Knight sat up and asked.

"If you're hoping that the Joker hurt Shiller, then I can only tell you, your hopes are dashed. Joker didn't even get close to Shiller, he didn't even win the argument."

The Pale Knight lay back down on the bed and said, "It seems my choice was right, he indeed can handle that maniac."

After measuring his surroundings in the hospital room, he fell into reminiscence and slowly added, "The director of Arkham Asylum was bought off by the upper class, he would regularly release the lunatics here, allowing them to wreak havoc on the streets unabated."

"At these times, Batman would intervene to stop their criminal acts, but this has its costs, often a lot of destruction would occur, so the Gotham Nature Fund would step in to help Batman with the aftermath, this is how they profited."

"I didn't meet the director." Bruce said, "Shiller doesn't want your stay here to be leaked out, he wants others to think you are still in Wayne Manor."

"It's always much later that I start to understand what he wants to do, perhaps this is also part of his plan."

"Do you plan to cooperate with him?"

"Of course, his actions have already proved my choice was right, he has revitalized Batman, and didn't let the Joker cause chaos, although the economic situation is still not optimistic, the people have more confidence in me now, all thanks to him."

"You better not think so." Bruce shook his head and said, "What do you think he is helping you for? For justice?"

"Of course not, but whatever he wants, I can give it to him." The Pale Knight said, "The wealthy who have been above this city took everything from everyone here, yet did nothing."

"Shiller has already brought improvements to this city, so what's wrong with letting him take these things?"

"Hope you still keep this optimism when you see the bill." Bruce sighed.