Chapter 1197 Lamb's Cry (18) (Patreon)

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"Bruce Wayne, what are you up to?!" Amanda shouted as she chased after Bruce in the hallway.

Bruce pursed his lips, stopped in his tracks, and turned to face Amanda, saying, "Ms. Waller, Professor Rodriguez said you have no talent and are very emotional, and there's a reason for it."

"You don't seem to realize that I'm in a bad mood right now and I'm not sure what's going on, and you're still using such impolite language to question me."

"How could I..."

A series of clicking sounds of guns being cocked rang out, and Amanda suddenly realized that the security personnel behind her had their guns pointed at the black hole, and Bruce, standing in the darkness, was looking at her with a cold gaze and said:

"Your memory isn't good either. I've already said that people like you, who go after Criminals out of hatred, are a minority, and the majority are those who work for money."

"Bruce Wayne! You bastard!! You've stolen my achievements!!" Amanda screamed.

Bruce shook his head and said, "Don't think too highly of yourself, you don't have any achievements to steal. The current situation in this Prison is no better than a wasteland."

Seeing Amanda's shocked expression, Bruce Wayne said, "What are you so surprised about? Where did you get the confidence that your personal charm would be more able to make them loyal than my money?"

Faced with the increasingly close gun barrels, Amanda slowly raised her hands, and the angry expression on her face froze.

Bruce took one last look at her and turned to walk away. Amanda gritted her teeth and said, "I'm surprised that you and Schiller Rodriguez are cut from the same cloth. You're truly his star pupil!"

After saying that, she reached out and pushed the gun barrels in front of her aside, quickly catching up to Bruce and telling him, "I warn you, don't do anything reckless. If your actions to reform the Prison let these Criminals escape, a lot of people will die!"

"You actually still worry about civilian deaths? If I'm guessing correctly, in the process of capturing them, you must have relied on the help of some mysterious organization, and they don't care about civilian deaths at all."

As Bruce pushed open the office door, he said, "Admit it, you're not doing this for ordinary people, it's just for your own hatred, and you haven't put yourself on the side of ordinary people."

"Aren't you the same, a big businessman?"

"I used to think that I must be on the side of ordinary people." Bruce said as he took paper and a pen from the nearby document cabinet. "Now I realize that being on the side of ordinary people doesn't mean going around in their not-so-superior intelligence and frustrating memory. That has no meaning."

"It's actually just an escape, a lack of self-confidence, feeling that you don't have the willpower to always maintain an ordinary heart despite being extraordinary. So you forcibly pull your level down to that of ordinary people, hoping to maintain your original heart."

Bruce started writing and drawing on the paper. He wrote a line of words, then looked up and asked Amanda, "How many inmates are there in the Prison now?"

"Uh... there are 15 left." Amanda instinctively answered.

"What happened to the one who disappeared?" Bruce asked.

"He died, a mistake by the transport personnel." Amanda turned her head to the side and replied.

"It was your mistake." Bruce wrote down this number without looking up. As Amanda was about to argue, Bruce spoke up, "Attributing your own incompetence to the opponent being too strong and your teammates too weak. We usually call this kind of person a loser."

Amanda stood there with her mouth agape, and after a while, she indignantly said, "Schiller is in jail, he wouldn't have thought there'd be another one here!"

Bruce gave a helpless expression and looked at Amanda, saying, "Are you really going after Schiller and targeting him because you have a grudge against Criminals, or is it because you're too focused on Schiller that you feel you have a grudge against Criminals?"

Amanda was stunned, her teeth lightly touching each other. Bruce shook his head and said, "You don't have to feel stupid about this, because I've been researching this problem for a long time too."

"So... have you found any answers?" Amanda asked a little stutteringly.

As Bruce wrote, he said, "Some problems don't need to be researched that clearly."

Amanda was on the verge of a breakdown, grabbing her own hair in frustration, but Bruce's actions made her even more distraught. Bruce quickly walked to the door and shouted at Davis:

"Davis, help me call Officer Angela Dodge on the phone. I need a more intelligent, rational and talented lady to assist me in dealing with these Criminals."

Amanda stood in place like a weathered stone statue, but Bruce still called out while leaning on the doorframe, "It would be even better if we could contact Miss Talia al Ghul, beauty is also an important criterion."

"Bruce Wayne!!!!"

About half an hour later, as Angela walked into the office, she saw Amanda crouched by the door crying, and a puzzled expression crossed her face.

The female police officer pushed open the door while looking back, and it was not until she walked into the room that she turned to Bruce and asked, "What happened to her? Is she alright?"

Bruce was constantly looking through a thick stack of materials and replied without looking up, "She has no relationship with me."

"Then why was she crouching and crying outside your office door?" Angela obviously did not believe Bruce's explanation, after all, his reputation in this area was not good.

"You should ask Schiller about that," Bruce insisted.

Angela looked surprised, but then she showed a slightly anxious expression and said to Bruce, "Is Schiller alright? Where is he? You called me here to this prison, so I assume you've already dealt with them?"

"Schiller is fine, but I asked you to come here to discuss the remaining inmates in this prison, as well as the possibility of housing future inmates," Bruce said, putting down the documents and looking at Angela.

"I do need a prison to house the Born Psychopaths, but not to detain or punish them. Those are just superficial measures that cannot deal with the root problem," Bruce explained.

Angela thought about it for a moment, but she seemed to have misunderstood. The female police officer frowned and said, "First of all, frontline police officers and lawyers have more radical views on the death penalty."

"Personally, I think the death penalty is necessary, but if you're going to mete out vigilante justice on these serial killers here, don't expect me to be of any help. I'll just pretend I didn't see anything."

"On the contrary, I don't intend to kill them," Bruce sighed. "Killing them is the most passive way to deal with them. Killing one after another can only solve the immediate problem."

"If we kill them all, we'll never be able to establish a mechanism to screen them out before they act for the first time, and it will be very difficult to perfectly prevent them from escaping before the death penalty is carried out."

"These people are not ordinary people. If we go through the court trial, it's easy for them to be acquitted, but if we carry out private executions, the cost of monitoring and arresting a serial killer will be very high. We also have to block all their escape routes throughout the process without any mistakes, otherwise it will lead to a series of accidents. It's not that it can't be done, it's just not worth it."

Angela walked to the other side of the desk, leaning on the desktop and looking at the materials, "If you want to build an effective system, you must first come up with a definite effective plan. If you want to target a group, you have to deal with one individual first. Without a successful case, it's all just talk."

"I just created a successful case," Bruce said, looking up at her. "That's why I invited you here, to try to implement and promote this method."

Angela's eyes widened, and then Bruce added, "It's unwise to confront this group of serial killers head-on. They often have abilities beyond the ordinary, and they are good at disguise. If we make mistakes, it's likely to cause a big mess."

Angela nodded, seeming to accept this view. Bruce continued, "Previously, I found that although this group does not follow the rules of society, they still live within society. They have something they seek in society, which is why they remain here."

Angela straightened up, stroking her chin, and said, "But from what I've observed, most serial killers are quite indifferent. Threatening them with family members or friends doesn't have much effect."

"Indeed, they may not have many emotional needs, but as long as they are human, they must have some desires. If there is a part of society that can satisfy their desires, we need to target those desires," Bruce said, twirling a pen in his hand.

"Schiller used the serial killer club to gather these serial killers, who actually crave recognition and a sense of existence. The club perfectly satisfies these desires, so it can influence their actions."

"What we need to do is to find out what each serial killer desires and use their desires to manipulate them."

"But this manipulation is not about harming or forcing them, because violence is always superficial."

"For example, if a person's desire is to be an ordinary person, and I use violence to force him to reveal the part of his ability that is not ordinary, it may make him feel uncomfortable, but in the end, it will only lead to more fierce retaliation. I've tried countless times."

"So what are you planning to do?" Angela asked with some confusion.

"The key is to give them hope," Bruce said, using the back of the pen to tap his chin. "Give them hope to successfully realize their desires. This hope is like an iron chain that guides the actions of every lamb, making them docile when they should be docile, and ferocious when they should be ferocious."

"The theory sounds reasonable," Angela frowned tightly. "Actually, in my understanding, many cruel criminals are not as impregnable as we think. It's just that the education we've received has made us all adhere to a principle - not to try to understand the mentally ill."

"Therein lies the problem. Now we need to understand them, empathize with them, and then find out what they desire, so that we can use those desires to control their actions."

Bruce lowered his head to look at the materials spread out on the desk, then said, "When you put aside rejection and hatred, you'll find that these criminals have amazing bright spots."

Bruce looked out the window at the hazy morning light in Colorado, which outlined the half-long hair falling by his temples in shimmering gold.

"Their existence makes you realize that God or fate has deliberately created these lambs, but has hidden their preciousness and fragility under thick wool."

"And throughout history, the ones who dare to stroke them, who know they are guilty but still believe in them, who have enmity but still love them, who are never understood but understand them, who are betrayed but still forgive them, are the good ones, pleasing to God, and are called... the eternal Lord Jesus."

Is that the end?

No, it's just the beginning!

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 1198 Lamb's Cry (19)