After injecting the antidote, Shiller was visibly more alert. He raised his eyebrows forcefully, then blinked hard, saying, "I need to make sure I'm in your safe fortress, right?"
"There's no network here," Arkham Batman said.
"Good. In a moment, you need to take me back to the FBI base and detain me there, then prepare to charge me," Shiller shook his head, seemingly trying to clear the effects of the drug.
"Is this your plan?" Arkham Batman asked, "What's the point?"
"If electronic life is just a ghost on the network, we'll never catch it," Shiller shook his head again, took a deep breath, coughed forcefully a few times, then sniffed and said vaguely, "No, I need more antidote."
"Your heart rate might not hold up," Natasha said, "I mean, we can't enhance you further, otherwise if you go crazy, no one will be able to restrain you."
"Don't worry, just a bit more. I'll finish speaking and then go to sleep."
Natasha had no choice but to step forward and give him a bit more antidote.
Shiller seemed much better, and taking advantage of this rare period of clarity, he spoke rapidly: "We must find a way to force the network ghost out. Previously, when I sniped at Luther, he appeared, which proves he has a reason to protect Luther — maybe to deal with you, or maybe to hold me back."
"And when I saw the text on the body from another cosmos, I realized he was coming for me, so he would never let me die, and being seriously injured enough to affect my mobility was also not an option. So when I was being hunted by you, he would definitely show up to protect me, and you can seize this opportunity to catch his slip."
Arkham Batman was about to say something, but Shiller interrupted him: "I know that's not enough. Whether it's altering the information Lady Gordon sends out, or manipulating the car to explode, or making the car I drive dodge your pursuit, these are not enough. His skill in eradicating evidence is formidable, by the time you look back for it, he would've erased all traces, finding nothing."
"But we can predict his appearance in advance, wait for him at a certain place, monitor his activities, and catch his tail the moment he shows up, not giving him a chance to erase traces."
"I'm very clear that what I've done will face at least 20 serious charges, and as a former law enforcement officer, it's highly likely that I'll be incarcerated in a high-security prison. Gotham doesn't have such a prison, so I'll definitely be sent away. And since the opponent chose to make trouble here, he won't just watch me being sent away."
"There is a risk in prison break, he won't wait until that moment to act, so he'll find a way to clear my charges."
"Refusing to be arrested and such are minor offenses, the most troublesome is the attempted murder of Jason Todd. He needs to erase all evidence in this entire criminal chain. Others are simple for him, nothing more than deleting surveillance videos, but witnesses, he must contact them and manipulate their thoughts, even if it means hiring a killer, he has to at least send an email."
"His time is limited, finding a killer might not be enough, if they're not professionals, there will be mistakes, so I lean more towards directly contacting the witnesses and threatening them. And on my way to find and injure Jason Todd, I intentionally left many witnesses."
In a daze, Shiller recalled what happened during that action.
Knowing the Arkham Knight might be not far from the Wayne building, he first took a taxi to Old Town, dressed in a way that was clearly not poor, holding a laptop that wasn't cheap, and sat in a chaotic bar in Old Town for half a day, only leaving when many people started eyeing him.
Then he took a taxi to circle around near the Wayne building, and right after that, still in the same attire, holding a strange briefcase, he took a taxi back to the Black community in Old Town, looking for a Black transaction, then deliberately revealed a silenced handgun.
Driving a car with duplicate plates back near Brother Eye Headquarters, when drugging the coffee, he could have waited until the delivery driver finished his shift and the store staff left to pry open the door and add things to the milk, but he insisted on knocking out the van driver and meeting with the store staff, even exchanging a few words.
During the infiltration into the headquarters, knowing that the guards were in pairs and knocking one out would very likely alert the other, he still chose to knock one out while both were in the restroom.
Throughout this series of operations, a witness was left at every link in a complete chain of evidence: during the planning phase, there were taxi drivers and people in the bar who saw; during the preparation to infiltrate stage, there were taxi drivers and coffee shop staff to testify; during the infiltration stage, there were building security guards to identify.
That is to say, to have everyone change their story, the behind-the-scenes manipulator would have to send at least five or six emails. And this action can be completely predicted, as long as Arkham Batman and Barbara Gordon do something to these people's emails, there's a high possibility of capturing the moment the email is sent, finding the trace of the electronic life.
"Why are you so sure he won't let you go to jail?" Natasha asked.
"Of course, because the information on the body is for me to see, which proves I'm important in his plan. I've verified it too, whenever he wanted to abandon me, he wouldn't have lit up the headlights, exposing himself during my fight with Batman."
"Are you sure he will send emails to those people?" Arkham Batman asked.
"Yes. From the intern John and the killer he manipulated from another cosmos, he threatens others by catching their weaknesses. Because he's omnipotent on the network, and the network is pervasive in modern society, he has almost everyone's weakness."
Shiller sighed softly and said, "Or there's another rather extreme way, and that is to have the victim Jason Todd change his statement. As long as the victim decides not to pursue, I can naturally be cleared of charges."
Arkham Batman's fingers twitched, and he said, "How is he going to persuade Jason?"
"Everyone has weaknesses, Jason is no exception. He is your weakness, and you are his. So to deal with Jason, you must first deal with yourself, but you're not so easily handled, he has to exploit your weakness, which is Jason."
"Hold on, I'm a bit confused." Natasha covered her forehead and said, "They are each other's weakness, wanting to solve Jason requires first dealing with Batman, wanting to solve Batman requires first dealing with Jason, isn't this equivalent to an infinite loop?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "Normally, that's how it works, but he has other ways. For example, impersonating Jason to lure Batman out, then impersonating Batman to lure Jason out. Do you think he can't do that?"
Natasha was just about to say something when Arkham Batman's communicator rang. He paused for a moment, then opened the public broadcast.
"Batman! Batman! Help me! Zzzp—"
The moment Arkham Knight's voice came from the communicator, Arkham Batman clenched his fist. Natasha clearly saw a trace of gloom and distraction fly across the man's brow.
"You've probably heard this stuff many times in your dreams, right?" Shiller's tone was as indifferent as ever, as if he weren't mentioning Batman's greatest psychological shadow, but merely discussing what to eat later.
This casual attitude clearly angered Arkham Batman. Just as he was about to speak, Shiller said, "I've already clearly told you this is a trap, if you still plan to go, then I have nothing to say."
"Jason might be in danger." Arkham Batman turned his head and stared at Shiller, "You are also responsible because you injured him."
"That's not possible because I didn't injure him." Shiller smirked and said, "Do you think those 'agent violent means' things were meant for you to hear? I want the electronic beings to hear it, and then let them try to use it to trick you even knowing Jason is okay."
Arkham Batman's hand paused. Shiller relaxed his body against the chair and said, "If violence could solve all problems, then anyone could be an agent. Solving issues beyond what violence can deal with is the standard for judging an agent's competence."
"I think he makes sense." Natasha said, turning to Arkham Batman, "This is obviously a trap. But if you indeed want to go, then bring Superman and Wonder Woman along, he probably can't handle those two."
"Did Jason receive the same message?" Arkham Batman asked, frowning.
"Very likely, and he readily believed it." Shiller watched Arkham Batman's brow furrow again sharply and smiled, "Luckily, I was prepared, Doctor Houston's injection should keep him asleep till tomorrow."
Arkham Batman suddenly relaxed. He turned his head to look at Shiller, his facial expression fluctuating, and after pausing for a moment, he turned around and walked out the door.
Natasha followed behind him and closed the door, saying, "He really is a good agent, isn't he?"
"A bit too good." Arkham Batman remarked.
"What do you plan to do next? I might have to go back there later, it's a complete mess over there."
"Let's try what he suggested first." Arkham Batman said hesitantly, "But Barbara must not know, it's too easy to leak information from her side, I must handle it myself. I'm afraid I'll have to connect parts of the magical defense network to the internet."
"I'm a bit curious, did you set up a small magical defense network here?"
"Yes, it was learned from the magical school. And back then we also tried using magic power to connect to the outside internet, and it turned out very successful. Moreover, we confirmed it was a one-way connection, meaning we can access the internet via magic power, but the internet cannot access the magical defense network."
"Isn't this a permanent one-way firewall then?"
"Guess so, but he might still create some information on the internet to confuse us, so it's either don't act or a single strike to hit the bullseye and prevent him from being prepared."
"So you were actually waiting for such an opportunity, right?"
"That's right. I originally planned to use Brother Eye to create such an opportunity, but due to communication difficulties with the outside world, progress was slow, wasn't expecting the agent to strike first."
"You really should give him a raise." Natasha turned around, walking backward as she watched Arkham Batman said, "If I'm not mistaken, he has wounds on his forehead and mouth, did you hit him?"
"He brought it on himself." Arkham Batman said coldly, "It's not more damaging than your thirteen anesthetic bullets."
"That was his own doing too." Natasha snorted.
Then both fell into silence. Arkham Batman stopped walking, opened the communicator, and said to the other side, "The Flash, bring a medical kit over."