Chapter 1433: Research on Manipulation (Part 16)

Split, superimpose, iterate, return.

Thoughts spun in the dark and empty mental space, like fallen leaves lost in a whirlpool. Too many mixed thoughts couldn't be sorted out. Bruce had never felt the fear of his brain being out of his control as deeply as he did today.

But this fear was given to himself. He was trying to observe himself from another angle, or even more than one angle, but thousands of angles that belonged to him but weren't him.

It sounded close to metaphysics, but all this was happening in reality. Bruce discovered that his acceptance of cutting his own thoughts was much higher than he had imagined. Perhaps it was precisely because he had imagined a more magnificent shattering than a few fragments, and had guessed how Schiller's personality had shattered like snowflakes.

What stumped him wasn't the acceptance level, but the feasibility of the operation. He had tried for an unknown amount of time, but he just couldn't make two or more thoughts appear in one brain, let alone make them unite and cooperate, and coordinate with each other.

Trying to extract one of the perspectives again, Bruce found that his thinking began to become slower and slower, as if he saw another version of himself in a dream, but that was of no help to this matter. This state of sleepwalking wasn't suitable for rational thinking.

He was never able to make all perspectives wake up. Often one perspective was thinking logically, while all other perspectives were sleepwalking, or they were repeating the thinking of the first perspective to do meaningless verification. This wasn't the result Bruce wanted.

Human thinking had limitations. People couldn't stand in others' perspectives to look at themselves.

But to some extent, people with dissociative identity disorder could do this. Their other personalities could objectively evaluate another version of themselves. This objectivity was extremely precious, which could allow a person to accurately judge their own situation and position, and look at every thing in this world from a broader perspective. This was the result Bruce wanted.

One personality trait did things subjectively, and another personality trait evaluated objectively, so he would never be trapped by the bias, narrowness, and blind spots of the subjective perspective, and would look at every thing in the world from a broader perspective.

Bruce woke up in pain again. He had tried countless times, but not once had he succeeded. He had of course thought about giving up, but he couldn't give up, because he was currently in the sensory deprivation confinement that Amanda used for public revenge.

In an environment without sensory perception, humans couldn't do anything except think. Bruce didn't go to try repeatedly, and he had no other entertainment to pass the time. He really regretted not building a Mind Palace at the beginning.

Yes, Batman didn't have a Mind Palace, but this wasn't because he didn't have the ability to build one, it was just that he chose another way after weighing the pros and cons.

If Schiller's thinking was compared to a computer, then the tower was an entire computer system, powerful in function, complete in data, and the front-end system used for operation was also very convenient.

If Schiller wanted to access a certain memory file, he would click on a specific folder, which was the database and library in the tower, and then search by time, location, or keyword.

For ordinary people, this method was already extremely incredible, because ordinary people's thinking was relatively chaotic, and most memories were mixed together and couldn't be touched or organized. So once they learned to organize the things in their brains, they would take a big step forward in memory efficiency.

But Batman's way of thinking was even more incredible. He had a computer system, but no front-end, no desktop, no folders, and nothing that appeared. After the computer turned on, it was a blue screen. If he wanted to do something, he could only type code.

There was nothing in his mental space—no buildings, no memories, no self-image. If someone invaded his memory space, they would see nothing, with no traces to follow.

And when Bruce wanted to look up a certain memory, there would be a special thinking process, just like typing code into the system, and then it would accurately lead him to jump to the desired memory fragment, concise, fast, and extremely accurate.

Both methods had pros and cons. The Mind Palace had great benefits for the classification and organization of memory. It could divide the types of memory very finely, and using the image memory method could also make memory fragments last forever without being lost.

But the disadvantage was that searching required time. Even for Schiller, searching for a large amount of memory details in a short time required flipping through them a little bit. If he didn't actively search, then even if something familiar was placed in front of him, he wouldn't be able to remember it at all.

The benefit of the way of thinking Batman adopted was that he could modify the underlying code at will, change the triggering method of memory, and even set a reminder mode. When seeing something, as long as it had appeared in memory, then that memory would immediately jump out to remind him, so he wouldn't miss any details. This was also a component of his excellent detective talent.

But the disadvantage was that this method could only be used by Batman. This relied on his brain with extremely strong computing power. It was already very difficult for ordinary people to imagine a simple operating system, let alone write code.

Simply put, the Mind Palace method adopted by Schiller was like an ordinary home computer, more complex but more stable. Ordinary people could also borrow it. Although the efficiency of clicking with a mouse was low, the logic was easy to understand.

Batman's way of thinking was like a test machine for editing computer systems. One line of code could complete the operation that an ordinary computer system would take half a minute to click, and it also possessed the high freedom of arbitrary editing. But without computer-related knowledge, one would be completely helpless.

And the problem Bruce was facing now was that he had separated personality traits like Schiller, but didn't have a supporting operating environment. The key parts of the system were updated, and the runtime library was wiped out. Bruce wanted to rebuild, but hadn't thought of the supporting operating logic yet.

In the darkness, Bruce only rested for about ten seconds before sinking into his thoughts again to write code.

Batman just had a strong will, which didn't mean he wouldn't feel pain. From anyone's perspective, typing code that couldn't run at all over and over again in an environment where one could only think, and hoping for the miracle of smooth operation from the collision between certain characters, was simply hellish pain, even more painful than the harsh sensory deprivation confinement.

More than two hours later, when Bruce opened his eyes again, he couldn't help but let out a painful groan. He tilted his head slightly, but because of the existence of the straitjacket and neck fixation measures, this movement couldn't be successfully performed. He was still trapped in place.

Another three hours passed, and Bruce began to hate broccoli.

Then another two hours, and Bruce began to try the exhaustive method.

After another hour passed, the top pile of shit in the shit-mountain code fell, but it still couldn't run smoothly.

After another hour or two passed, Bruce suddenly heard a trace of sound, but he couldn't confirm whether this was his hallucination.

Bruce had been writing code too fast before, creating an exceptionally large shit-mountain. The simulation machine he built couldn't accommodate so much shit, so he decided to borrow a little space from the host, which meant that his main vision, the thinking system he used most often, was also invaded by chaotic and disordered redundant code.

This caused Bruce to constantly have the kind of hallucinations that would appear after taking drugs. He wasn't very clear-headed.

This was one of the disadvantages of having too high administrator privileges. When Bruce was determined to toss his thinking system, no security measures could limit him from not touching the parts that should have been running smoothly, which would lead to his main visual thinking, which was still considered normal, also showing symptoms of confusion.

But soon, Bruce discovered that this sound wasn't his hallucination, because as the sound grew louder, he recognized that this should be the footsteps of some extremely strong human.

Bane?

Bruce thought somewhat puzzled. Half of his attention was still on typing code, while the other half of his attention couldn't be as focused as before because the main vision was modified into a mess of code at this time. So within the few seconds the footsteps approached, he didn't deduce why Bane would appear here.

The heavy footsteps stopped in front of his cell door. Bruce leaned his head to the inner side, letting one side of the fixation measures on his neck fully exert its load-bearing effect, and said somewhat blankly, "... Bane?"

"It's me." A low voice came. From the sound of fabric friction, it could be judged that the other party should be squatting at the door.

"How did you get here?" Bruce didn't have the energy to beat around the bush with him and asked very straightforwardly, "You should be in the special confinement cell like me. How did you run out? And why did you run here?"

Bane was silent for a long time, so long that Bruce had cleared 1% of the bottom layer of the shit-mountain code, before he opened his mouth and said, "Your state is a bit wrong. Were you drugged?"

"No, impossible." Bane overturned his own inference and said, "Giving prisoners drugs in sensory deprivation confinement, allowing them to indulge in hallucinations to pass the time, is simply the greatest tolerance. Amanda clearly doesn't have this tolerance, especially for you."

"I didn't take drugs." Bruce frowned and answered. He was very disgusted by this, so he had to explain it clearly first, but because of the existence of hallucinations, he was exceptionally honest, and he added, "I don't accept any drugs with unstable properties entering my body. Food is the same."

"Mental illness episode?" Bane inferred again.

"No."

"No mental illness, or no episode?"

"The latter."

"Mental illness patients usually think they aren't having an episode." Bane said in a very affirmative tone.

Bruce suddenly laughed in a low voice, which plunged Bane into a long silence.

Clearly, Bruce's reaction wasn't within his expectations. It could be said to be the exact opposite, and he wasn't sure if he should take advantage of the other party's lack of sobriety to obtain the information he wanted.

Bane decided to test it again.

"Are you Batman?"

"I am."

Bane was silent again. He sighed gently, seemingly dissatisfied with this state, so he said, "Your mental state is bad. I'll go back to the cell first and come back tomorrow."

"Goodbye, Bane."

Bane dragged his heavy footsteps away, and when he came back the next day, the first sentence Bruce said to him was "Good morning, Bane."

Bane determined that he was sick. ===== CHAPTER 1434 =====