Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

"I have mastered the knowledge and skills of the whole world, hundreds of fighting techniques, detective work, lock-picking, counter-surveillance..."

"Except for Gotham, you haven't learned Gotham yet," Shiller said.

Bruce was silent, Shiller had already noticed that Bruce is not yet the dark hero Batman of the later period. Indeed, the thoughts of revenge and justice have always been on his mind, and perhaps there is a darker side to him. But he still doesn't understand Gotham, this hell of human nature, at all.

Bruce wanted to utilize all the power he could, such as Professor Shearer.

Batman is a hero with almost no weaknesses, sagacious, meticulous, equal to gods with a mortal body. But first, he has to don that bat suit, become a Dark Knight spreading fear in the night, take Gotham and all its sins under his control, ready to face and fight all the filthiness of human nature. But now? Bruce is not Batman yet, he has weaknesses.

Shearer suddenly felt relieved. If he was really confronting the Dark Knight lurking in the shadows of Gotham, maybe all his tactics wouldn't work, because Batman isn't Superman, he isn't a hero, he is a complete outlaw.

After Bruce left, Shiller stood by the window for a long time. Maybe Batman would arrive soon, Bruce can't wait any longer.

The next day, Shiller went to class as usual, and it was the first lecture for new students. Unfortunately, his attempt to deter Bruce from choosing psychology was unsuccessful. The young Batman had to appear in Shiller's peaceful life, reminding him of the turmoil that was about to take over.

What was strange, though, was that Shiller found that Bruce was limping. His right foot seemed to have been injured, but he still insisted on attending class. As Shiller was lecturing, he was wondering what Bruce had been up to.

He has billions of wealth, a high status in Gotham city, from the old Wayne family, could he have been beaten up by thugs?

After class, Shiller rejected Bruce's obvious hint of "let's talk". He quickly packed up his books and teaching materials and then left with the flow of students. He had to go out again tonight.

If Gotham City is hell, then Gotham City at night is something even Satan would fear. This city of crime has never stopped its waves of evil. Shiller left the safety of the university and really entered Gotham City.

He was tracking Scarecrow Jonathan.

Jonathan is not normal. He started plotting murder when he was eighteen. So even though he is not yet the Scarecrow, he has already begun his experiments with fear gas.

Shiller wasn't there to stop him out of a sense of justice, he wanted to get some fear gas for his own protection.

In this dangerous city, a clandestine laboratory of a chemist is arguably the safest place to commit theft. At least Jonathan and Shiller are alike. They are neither burly mobsters nor know how to fight or use firearms. They can only rely on their brains.

The night of Gotham was raining again, the darkness was as thick as ink, and the rain carried a heavy smell of kerosene. No matter how warm it is here, the cold rain in September still chills people. Wearing a long coat and holding a black umbrella, Shiller crossed a narrow street. He was gradually finding the location where Jonathan hid the poison gas. It was an abandoned church basement in a block. As long as Jonathan wasn't there, Shiller could naturally go in and get the fear gas.

Suddenly, Shiller's heart started to pound. A scene of him being hit by an unknown concealed weapon flashed before his eyes. He turned around in an instant and "bang," opened his umbrella.

Two concealed weapons didn't penetrate his umbrella and fell to the ground. His spider-sense saved Shiller's life.

Gently lowering the umbrella, his expression was not at all mild like that of the daytime. He was almost dead.

Probably anyone who has just been attacked by death would find it difficult to put on a good face. At the end of the narrow alley, Bruce, dressed in bat clothes, saw his precisely guided, ultra-fast flying darts being blocked by the mysterious man in an instant, the reaction was as fast as if it was anticipated in advance.

And as the black umbrella with the rain dripping off was lowered, the exposed face was very familiar to Bruce. It was his university professor, Shiller.

Indeed it was him, but it seemed not to be him. Shiller was completely different from his daytime temperament. At this moment, Shiller was more like the man Bruce saw described in his resume, a madman obsessed with criminal psychology.

Breathing deeply, Shiller said, "You should know what would happen if I hadn't blocked it."

"The dart would have stopped thirty centimeters from you," Batman said.

Bruce's voice was completely different from the daytime, Shiller knew he was using a voice changer.

At this point, Batman is still far from mature. His bat suit is not mature enough, lacks a cape and belt, and his Bat Darts don't seem to work very well. It can be seen that the novice Batman must have taken some detours. After all, if you start straightening things out from Gotham, it's like a novice challenging Hell Difficulty.

Shiller said, "I need to remind you, Mr. Batman, unlike the upscale area where you live, the roofs of the buildings in the Morson District don't have guardrails. If you fall again, you may have a ruptured internal organ."

The shadow on the opposite side was silent. He asked, "How did you find out?"

"You are still too naive, hero, the medicine you used is almost odorless, it's a high-end chemical formulation, not something the poor in the slums can afford, and..." Shiller's gaze fell on Bruce's only exposed chin, he said, "No one here would have such a neat and symmetrically shaven beard."

"Who the hell are you?" Batman asked.

Shiller opened his umbrella again and said, "Go home, young master, not every question you ask will get an answer, I'm not a novice tutor."

After saying that, he left in the rain. Batman stood in the alley for a long time. He limped out, turned into another street and saw a beggar, shivering in the cold rain.

He took out a stack of money and handed it to the beggar. Then he heard the sound of leather shoes stepping in the rain behind him and a sentence that sent chills down his spine, "That's why I said you don't understand Gotham, Bruce."

Batman turned around and saw Shiller standing at the intersection. Shiller walked over, passed the umbrella to the beggar. The beggar took the umbrella and opened it, which could shield her from the cold rain, then she tremblingly returned the stack of dollars to Batman.

"Why?" Batman took the dollars and asked.

"Because this is the territory of the Gutter Gang, if they find out she has all this money, her corpse will end up in the gutter the next day."

"A lot of money?" Batman's voice revealed an air of absurdity, he said, "Thirty-seven dollars?"

"Yes." Shiller looked towards the end of the street, "This is Gotham..."

"Welcome to Gotham."