After Bruce left, Arrogant naturally hadn't forgotten Brainiac. He poured himself a cup of coffee, drinking while saying, "What's going on? Do you need me to write you an obit?"
Although the words were caring, they sounded more like "if you don't answer, I'll kill you first and then write an obit for you." Typically, artificial intelligence isn't threatened, but Shiller isn't your typical guy.
"From when Doctor Manhattan started meddling in this universe, I already noticed, but I didn't expose him." Brainiac's response was somewhat formulaic.
"Why?" Arrogant asked. He truly didn't believe Brainiac had no idea Doctor Manhattan was plotting against him. After enduring so many trials since 1999, Brainiac's control over Earth surpassed anyone's imagination. Some things he simply chose not to care about, not that he was unaware.
Concerning humans, Brainiac was somewhat apprehensive. On one hand, there were too many talented individuals among the humans, and as a malevolent AI, he wasn't entirely sure of easy victory. On the other hand, the human race was genuinely too fragile, using those all-encompassing tactics for domination would soon exhaust them to death. So, many times, Brainiac turned a blind eye regarding humans, ensuring the survival of the majority.
However, Doctor Manhattan wasn't human, and specifically came to provoke him. Brainiac had no reason to let him go. He could only be orchestrating a larger strategy.
"I can't deal with him," Brainiac said. Shiller raised his eyebrows slightly, hearing him add, "Or rather, my primary task now isn't to deal with him. After finishing the game system, I still need to work on the communications system, which is my key to securing multiverse prominence."
"Since that's the case, I might as well make it seem like I've been 'heavily injured' by him, thereby having sufficient reason to not engage in a grand battle but rather hide away for healing. This can ease Doctor Manhattan's vigilance, making him think I'm just an ordinary, basically useless AI."
Brainiac paused, then continued, "He might think that because he doesn't understand me, but Batman certainly does. In his eyes, Doctor Manhattan's near-takedown of me was overpowering. Batman won't want such a presence to grow bigger, making the conflict between them sharper."
"Using retreat as advancement?" Arrogant chuckled, saying, "You've truly learned some tricks, Little Bruce."
"Because our universe has such a Batman, after all." The evil AI continued to shift blame, "As it turns out, being a known powerful entity in the multiverse might not be advantageous. As long as you're unreliable enough, even Batman will have to come clean up after you."
Though Arrogant sighed, he also knew Brainiac had a point. The current situation was, Doctor Manhattan's strike might have been testing, and Brainiac just made a scene by lying flat. Now, Doctor Manhattan and Batman were both somewhat embarrassed.
Batman also wouldn't risk whether Brainiac was just making a fuss, or if Doctor Manhattan was indeed too powerful, most likely leaning towards the latter. Because the stereotypical impression of AI indeed struggles to have such flexible thinking.
Arrogant also realized, Brainiac might actually be breaking free from the rigid logic of AI. Normally, the concept of logic-based life doesn't include the option of "showing weakness," or rather, this type of AI is quite difficult to self-harm. He can perform, speak to humans, but it's hard to turn such self-destructive behavior into action. It's akin to demanding AI to "delete its own database," which can't be done.
But Brainiac could make similar decisions, and even succeeded in having Doctor Manhattan genuinely delete his database, proving he's no longer a purely logical being. If that's the case, then the things he's lost aren't really significant.
"The Batmen sent Bruce back," Brainiac explained, "They also sensed Doctor Manhattan might make a move against me, so they intended to send someone to observe our conflict."
"How did you know it was Bruce?"
"Of course, he told me," Brainiac said, "There's no point in hiding from me; this is the common hometown for both of us, it's not like we need to plot against each other for fifty episodes at home."
"Not to retaliate by throwing things into the lake?"
"I can't control Batman's decisions." Brainiac was very unapologetic, "They sent Bruce back due to... some rather irrational emotional decision."
"Oh?" Arrogant was indeed curious about how the Batmen would feel seeing Bruce appear in Batman's base with this image.
"Most Batmen didn't notice, but those quite familiar with Bruce must know." Brainiac evidently gossiped, likely having watched the whole process. This wasn't surprising, after all, being an AI, it's normal to manipulate camera surveillance, though Arrogant believed he colluded with Bruce, with Bruce giving him access.
"To be honest, it was the first time I've seen Batman so off-guard," Brainiac remarked with interest, "No exaggeration, they looked like they'd seen a ghost. No, even if Batman were afraid of ghosts, he wouldn't look this scared. Hahahahaha!"
"Then they couldn't handle it," Brainiac continued, "Even more unsettling than when they saw that Brainwashed Batman. That Batman in Metal Armor was visibly about to explode. Luckily, Primary Universe Batman held him back; otherwise, Bruce might have gotten a beating."
"A real shame," Arrogant said.
"Who said it isn't?" Brainiac also spoke with regret, forgetting to pretend to be an artificial idiot as he eagerly continued, "So I would say that was an irrational, emotional decision—The Batmen didn't want him hanging around their sight, so they gave him the most urgent task they had, which was to come to this universe to observe the struggle between Brainiac and Doctor Manhattan."
"Indeed irrational," Arrogant shook his head in lament.
Arrogant could understand the Batmen's feelings. Actually, if it was just Bruce coming down from the Origin Wall, the Batmen wouldn't react so strongly. They never expected Bruce could hang up there forever, letting him stay so long was already a pleasant surprise.
But the problem was, Bruce returned dressed as Batman. This was truly a day-time ghost sighting. How was this different from the Joker dressed as Batman? Laughing bat was just infected with the Joker Virus, but Bruce's act was as if Nyarlathotep dressed in a bat suit came over to say he wanted to be the Dark Knight.
Arrogant could ascertain that any Batman who recognized him was a bit less rational due to the uncanny valley effect. At this moment, the right decision should be to keep Bruce for observation, to see what kind of antics he'd pull, rather than letting him go.
Keep in mind, Bruce is now dressed in a bat suit, and Batman's disguise is impeccable. Which means anything he does would be attributed to Batman. If he were released now, and Bruce really gets going, in less than a week, Batman would become public enemy number one.
But it's evident that the Batmen couldn't stand Bruce flaunting in front of them. Especially with Bruce pretending to be the classic dark universe Batman; even the self-sacrificing superhero Batman had to worry about shortening his life while talking to him.
So they sent Bruce back, which is yet another irrationality. Returning Bruce to his own universe and letting him observe Brainiac was more than releasing a tiger back to the mountain. It's like putting Darkseid back on Apokolips, throwing Mephisto back into his Hell Dimension, putting Lucifer back in Eden, inviting Shiller to one's own elite party.
But for Batman's mental health, they had no choice but to resort to this. Unfortunately, this approach wasn't very friendly for Arrogant's mental health; rather, it felt more like Batman and Brainiac teamed up for a special attack directed at Arrogant.
"If I could command Batman, there'd be no need to go around in circles like this," Brainiac explained, "Moreover, judging from your previous attitude, his chance of passing is still quite high."
"True indeed," Arrogant lowered his eyelids, "But what worries me is another matter. You mentioned you've done a magical overhaul of my image, how much magical overhaul?"
"Which aspect are you referring to?" Brainiac asked, "For these final bosses, the image hasn't been altered much, otherwise, they would lose the intimidation. Just added some effects, like black fog, and added some abilities, for example, using an umbrella for physical attack, a set of basic combos, and also Psyshock..."
Arrogant pressed his lips together, unconsciously reaching up to touch the side of his neck.
In the examination room, Bruce put down his pen, letting out a sigh of relief. Though he had some ideas, writing this was still too difficult, his left and right brain clashed the whole time, several times he strayed off, almost turning it into Behavioral Analysis Method. Bruce had to remind himself to steer the topic back in time.
Looking at his masterpiece, Bruce sighed. He actually knew in his heart that this was just an averagely decent little essay, of ordinary level for a psychology department's daily assignment. Yet, throughout his academic career, there weren't many times he could write such papers. Indeed working always seems to be the easiest way to evoke a spiritual resonance with heaven and earth, something lacked when he couldn't complete assignments in previous classes.
However, Bruce couldn't help but glance at his classmate—the monster modeled after Scarecrow, still trapped in the examination room. Brainiac seemed to have completely forgotten about this bug.
Looking at the familiar figure, Bruce's thoughts began to wander a bit. Jonathan Crane reminded him of the Morson district poisoning case, even in that era, it was considered quite a big case.
Because of recently playing Batman, Bruce also recalled for a long time how he became Batman then. The days of infiltrating the night now seemed so distant; indeed, he needed to ponder intensely to regain the state. But entangled with the night at that time, there was another figure.
Bruce, lost in thought for a moment, exited the examination room. He entered the psychology department. This place was too familiar to him; muscle memory led him straight to the psychology professor's office.