Many of the Joker's killings and criminal acts are to draw Batman's attention, while the Scarecrow often does so for experimentation or to confront Batman. Other villains have their own motives; no one kills purely for the sake of killing.
Bruce still insists on his viewpoint. Bringing about death is never easy; it's an extremely laborious task, whether for humans or animals. If killing and handling certain things were easy, the butcher position would be overcrowded. It's precisely because killing humans demands so much more than can be gained that the world isn't full of maniacs.
The legal trials, the shackles of morality, the struggle within, the stability of personality—there are too many things a killer needs to evade. Even setting these aside, investigating information, making plans, scouting and rehearsing, taking action and dealing with the aftermath, each item is exhausting and troublesome. Even superpower users have to work hard because no superpower has been found so far that can fully encompass the skills needed for these tasks.
And what is gained can scarcely be called much. Eliminating some opponents, gaining some fleeting gratification of revenge, creating some art—everything obtained through killing is very temporary. Whether it's profit or pleasure, it vanishes swiftly, leaving nothing behind. It is the most unprofitable trade in the world.
If revenge is Schiller's sole driving force for doing these things, then his hatred will be a crucial breakthrough. Bruce thought this, feeling somewhat absurd, as someone thought to have successfully avenged had not driven himself towards revenge.
Bruce is very curious about Schiller's mental journey. Perhaps, from Schiller's perspective, he does not see himself as having successfully avenged. Maybe, after weathering many experiences, he feels that killing is not the right answer and thus propelled himself to tread a different path, fundamentally distinct from revenge that only brings death, but towards saving.
Back in the dormitory, Bruce lay in bed restless, tossing and turning, eventually unable to resist opening the communication panel to message Brainiac.
"I have to talk to the Professor. Little Bruce. I swear this is the last time."
Brainiac couldn't be bothered to even send back a message, meeting him only with silence. So, Bruce started to appeal emotionally and reason logically and promised countless conditions, like helping Brainiac perfect the Multiverse communication system, thus gaining another chance to connect with Arrogant.
"Professor, I need to ask you something." Bruce messaged.
"How are you still alive?" Arrogant seemed surprised, "Or are you actually messaging me from the bottom of Lake Michigan?"
Bruce was speechless. He wasn't sure if Arrogant had little confidence in him or too much confidence in his younger self—hasn't even been a few days, how could he die so quickly?
Bruce voiced his doubts. He thought he would wait a long time for an answer, and that Arrogant would launch into a lengthy discourse, but Arrogant simply replied.
"The best way to avenge is to eliminate your foe. Is your nemesis human?"
Bruce pondered. It wouldn't be wrong to say his enemy is human; pinpointed, it's the murderer of his parents, or otherwise the Court of Owls. But truly, the real enemy is the darkness entrenched in Gotham; without clearing this out, it can't be considered true revenge.
However, there are many ways to clear the darkness. Why didn't Schiller have him choose the path of violence?
Bruce asked this doubt, to which Arrogant quickly responded.
"Stopping you from killing because you don't understand killing."
Bruce couldn't accept this. After all, he is Batman—or at least was—possessing both formidable force and intelligence, how could he not understand killing?
"You don't want to be an assassin; you want to be me." Arrogant hit the nail on the head, "But you can't become me because you desire too much."
Bruce replied with a question mark.
Arrogant said: "If you went through everything I experienced, then upon finding out who the killer is, you would start contemplating the system, society, and human nature."
"Isn't that normal?" Bruce said, "If too many tragedies occur in one place, it's hard to see how these aren't related. Haven't you thought about it?"
"No." Arrogant answered neatly, "In college, I wasn't open-minded enough to think so deeply. I just purely wanted to finish off those people."
Bruce stared at the communication panel for a long time, as if he couldn't read. After a while, Arrogant sent another message.
"Precisely because you're too smart, and too capable, you can only be a savior because a savior requires thought, strength, and love. An assassin only needs to be anti-social."
Bruce never expected to receive such an answer. He thought Arrogant would delve into a philosophical analysis, dissect righteousness and evil, morality and law, or merely discuss how the growing environment shapes personality.
Who knew one phrase from Arrogant, "not open-minded," would sum up his entire college life. Turns out, Schiller during college didn't study philosophy; he simply acted on his whims, doing whatever he wanted.
College Schiller's revenge was not a critique of the national system, not a mockery of social phenomena, nor a rebellion against class. He just ignored morality when he could and didn't care about the law due to ability, doing so naturally.
Bruce sighed; he actually should have realized this earlier. If such behavior had any realistic significance, Schiller should at least have attempted to resort to the law or conducted some kind of jigsaw moral interrogation. Schiller didn't; he just came and killed.
Bruce now deeply realizes what it means to say Schiller was never forced. He was not oppressed by society nor cornered by moral shackles to resist vehemently. He saw the straightest line between two points, saw death penalty and going directly to kill yields the same result, so he went.
And the main reason Schiller's thought process was so short at this time was that he simply didn't think that much. This realization of Schiller's correctness made Bruce, who at five pondered the chaos in Gotham through sleepless nights, realize he had been thinking too much, desiring too much, hence unable to be so pure.
If using such methods to avenge, he couldn't kill more than two before plunging again into the anguish of pondering what led these people to become like this, what really lies at the root of the problems, what is society, what is the human race. He would stop because he would feel killing is a dumb method, impossible to solve fundamental problems.
Schiller is different. He isn't here to solve problems; he's here to vent emotions. A person who encounters issues and only vents without solving them isn't normal, yet now, Schiller is controlled by his morbid state, where Bruce could only utter that it's reasonable.