The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3771 Rapid Pursuit (6)

Chapter 3771 Rapid Pursuit (Sixteen)

Everyone turned to look at Pride, but Pride simply smiled and remained silent. No one pressed him for details, because if Pride remembered something, they could all access it in their memory bank and simply check it after the movie.

"I still don't quite understand, what does he need a laughing head for?" the agent continued. "Even if he wanted to kick his head like a ball, wouldn't the blindfold prick his feet? And isn't it okay to just leave his body there like that?"

"I guess the pathology is probably verifying something."

"what's up?"

"Do you remember the egg we dug out of Bruce's mental world back then, and the one that was later taken to another world by the monsters in the Speed ​​Force?"

"You mean the Laughing Egg?"

“That’s right. Anatoly plotted against The Laughing, and The Laughing will naturally retaliate. He’s left the Eggs of the Laughing in many places, which are essentially his backups. When do you think he’ll activate them?”

“Of course, when the situation deteriorates to a certain extent.” The agent thought for a moment and said, “The Laughing Man couldn’t predict us, but he should be able to predict some of Anatoli’s actions. It’s because he knew he couldn’t completely stop Anatoli’s plans that he prepared in advance and kept many backups for himself. Perhaps he anticipated that one day we would force him into the current situation.”

“That’s right, he’s been laying eggs everywhere just waiting for this day,” Greed said. “Although he’s not dead yet, just having his head left is practically the same as being dead. Once he feels he has no chance of fighting back, he should activate those backups.”

"Wait a minute," Greed suddenly realized something. "Shouldn't there only be one maniacal laugh in the multiverse?"

“I suspect the morbidity stems from a desire to test things out,” said Pride. “Suppose that The Laughter finds itself in poor condition and tries to regain its freedom by activating a backup. The backup is activated, but the original body is still alive. What would happen?”

"Is this really possible?" the agent asked, frowning. "Logically, if the backup is activated, the original body should die, and only one main consciousness should exist. Anyone with a brain would design the program that way, right?"

"It can't be denied that the Maniac Laugh is also Batman. He shouldn't make a mistake in that respect. So I guess the morbidity is trying to exploit a bug."

"what do you mean……"

"In the universe of the Broken Bat, was the brain that was placed in the jar alive or dead?"

"In terms of physical health, he's definitely dead... No, if he were truly dead, the Battle Realm mission wouldn't have determined that he needed to be saved. The Battle Realm's source code is very advanced; it's basically the universe's underlying code. The fact that the Battle Realm determined he was still alive proves that even if only a brain remained, he should still be considered alive."

"That's the problem. If you take the brain of the Maniac Laugh out of the water and put it in a tank, from the perspective of the universe's underlying code, he should still be alive. Since he's alive, he can be brought back to life. However, the resurrection code that the Maniac Laugh wrote himself might very well determine that he's dead and then activate the backup. If you then fish the brain out of the tank, there will be two Maniac Laughs in the universe."

"Good heavens," Arrogance couldn't help but exclaim, "Isn't one enough? Do we have to have another one? Can't I have a few days of peace?"

“No, no, no.” Greed immediately revealed a smile of interest. He said, “If there is only one maniac laugh in the universe, then he is a lump of shit that insists on crawling under other people’s feet and is determined to disgust everyone. But if there are two maniac laughs, they will definitely destroy themselves first rather than disgust others.”

His arrogant expression faltered for a moment, then he said, "That makes some sense."

"The one who laughs wildly is the kind of person who would rather die than admit to being mediocre. He will try every means to prove his uniqueness and his special talent. This mentality means that he will not tolerate another version of himself in the world. Once there is, it will inevitably be a life-or-death struggle between them."

Arrogance nodded slowly. He understood that when the comic book writers created the character of The Laughing Man, although they described him as a combination of Batman and the Joker, the subsequent plot didn't actually show him any Batman or Joker-like personality traits. On the contrary, his personality was neither like Batman nor the Joker, but rather similar to some other classic comic book characters, such as Tomie Kawakami from Junji Ito's works.

Tomie is portrayed as an extremely beautiful and charismatic woman who arouses sadistic desires in everyone. In many stories involving her, she is dismembered, splitting into different versions of herself. Without exception, all of these versions ultimately turn on each other and kill one another.

This could be considered a setting by the comic book author, but its essence lies in reflecting that the personality of a certain type of person is built on a strong desire to 'pursue uniqueness'. Only by being unique can one have meaning in existence.

Ordinary people may find it difficult to comprehend just how extreme and dangerous this desire truly is. Many might think that pursuing uniqueness is perfectly acceptable, and that expressing one's individuality is everyone's right.

But in reality, not everyone has the ability to excel through victory. For example, in a running race, the person who runs the fastest and wins the championship is naturally unique. But isn't the person who comes in last place also unique? Why isn't uniqueness gained through failure also considered unique?

If they could win, these people would naturally want to gain a unique sense of presence through winning. But given their limited abilities, if they can't win, then losing can only make them stand out.

This leads to another well-known personality type: histrionic personality disorder. The core of histrionic personality disorder is a strong desire to be unique, but instead of proving their uniqueness through hard-earned success, they rely on making a fool of themselves, attracting attention, or even more extreme forms of deception, exaggeration, and hysteria, gradually evolving into manipulative suggestions and psychological violence directed at others.

To put it bluntly, since there's no way to win forever, the only recourse is to resort to lies and brainwashing to make others believe they are unique. Any form of psychological manipulation with extreme intentions inevitably involves psychological violence, causing significant harm to those around them. That's the real danger.

These types of people cannot accept their own kind because they are always pursuing 'uniqueness'. If they lose 'uniqueness', how can they be called one of a kind? Two performative personalities coming together will inevitably fight to the death, until even the great principles are obliterated.

Therefore, the best way to punish this type of person is to find someone of the same kind to torment them.

Of course, finding someone like you isn't so easy. Even among people of the same personality type, there are subtle differences, and you might not be able to perfectly emulate them. So, the best way to deal with this type of person is to become a shrewd learner.

Especially if the other person is someone you're very close to and can't get rid of for the time being, learn whatever they're good at; do and say what they usually do. If you can surpass them in some aspects and attract other people's attention, even better. You're guaranteed to disgust them so much that they'll vomit and secretly shed pearly tears in bed at night.

As for the Batman Who Laughs, the best way to deal with him is not to thwart his plot, nor to beat him half to death, nor to turn him back into Batman or the Joker, but to give him an exact replica of himself.

In fact, there is a similar plot in the original comics, where after the Batman Who Laughs is promoted to the Darkest Knight, his original corpse is resurrected by the Black Lantern Ring, and he even stands on Batman's side, fighting alongside him against the Darkest Knight he has become.

The Dark Knight's goal is to create a Laughing version of the multiverse, a universe destined to be insane and twisted. Logically, the Laughing shouldn't have had any reason to stop him, yet he still chose to oppose the Dark Knight. This proves that even if he desperately wanted a mad multiverse, he absolutely could not tolerate a universe created by another version of himself.

Because of the meddling of Anatoly, Schiller, and Bruce, the Dark Knight is unlikely to be born. But that doesn't mean they can't laugh maniacally.

If a dog bites you, you can't bite the dog back, but you can kick it into a latrine. This guy's been disgusting them for so long, like a giant flying cockroach scurrying across the universe; it's time he got his comeuppance.

“Having a head alone is not very useful,” the agent said thoughtfully. “How to preserve the brain, how to make the maniacal laugh start the backup, and how to bring back the original one after it starts up—it’s a real problem.”

“The most crucial step has been completed,” Greed said. “Actually, the hardest part was making Laughter think that we had just suddenly gone mad and started retaliating. That way, although he might run away, he wouldn’t use his last resort to save his life, otherwise catching him wouldn’t be so easy.”

“There’s one more thing,” the agent added. “Not only do we have to keep the Laughing in the dark, but we also have to keep the main universe Batman and Arkham Batman in the dark, so they think we’re just crazy. Otherwise, while the Laughing can’t predict our actions, he can read the minds of the main universe Batman and Arkham Batman. If they figure something out and the Laughing can read their minds, that will be troublesome.”

"Fortunately, they both seem quite used to me going crazy." Arrogance couldn't help but sneer. "I heard that I chased them from the universe of the Broken Bat to this universe, and they weren't even the slightest bit surprised. They also caught up with me at top speed, as if they were certain that I wouldn't kill them."

"The Arkham Batman didn't interact with you much, so it's normal that he didn't notice. But I think the main universe Batman must have realized that you had ulterior motives. Otherwise, why didn't he stop you when he saw you switching targets in the hospital?"

He paused in his arrogant gesture, then said, "That's true. Batman won't abandon anyone; he wants to save everyone. There's no reason for him to be diligently saving the Joker one second and then abandoning me the next after seeing me kill the Maniac Laugh. He probably sensed that I had ulterior motives and didn't intervene rashly without knowing my plan."

“What a great partner,” Greed said. “I wonder how he’ll feel when he sees that you’ve already taken the head of the Laughing One.”

Arrogance glanced at the screen again; the colorful lines surged rapidly, revealing complex and turbulent thoughts. Behind the desk, Batman stared at Schiller's laughing head, which had been slammed onto his desk with a "bang," and was momentarily speechless.