"That really is a difficult choice," Schiller said. "On one side is the air pollution cleanup in District X15, which he believes he should be responsible for. On the other is the question of who gets GTO, which could have a major impact on Wayne Enterprises. What is Batman supposed to choose?"
"You... sound like the Joker," Bruce could only say.
"No, I'm far kinder than the Joker," Schiller said. "The Joker wants Batman to feel guilty. I merely want Batman to experience poverty."
"That obviously isn't 'kinder,' is it?" Bruce said.
"But that isn't my fault either," Schiller said. "If the Batman of this universe hadn't spent all day wallowing in grief over Alfred's death, and had instead fought back against those trying to loot him sooner, he wouldn't be this poor."
Bruce had no answer to that either.
"I understand this kind of pain very deeply," he said. "Rebuilding Gotham is like having ten shredders in front of you, each devouring money at a manic speed. All you can do is slightly reduce the power of one of them. You can't make any of them stop."
"Even if you have identical machines producing money, they produce it far more slowly than it gets consumed. So every second, you have to make choices, and every choice is about choosing the lesser of two evils. Either sacrifice money or sacrifice your reputation."
"This prolonged sense of loss can seriously affect people's mental health," Schiller said. "It makes them avoid making choices. It can even make them unwilling to take responsibility for anything anymore."
"I just need a longer vacation to forget all this," Bruce said.
"I never said there was anything wrong with what you did. You don't want to work, and I'm not forcing you to, am I?" Schiller