Chapter 1740: S: The Apocalypse Incident (43)

Bruce did not choose to leave Cat Getan.

Although he had already learned from Jack that the Dream Realm contained more than just one city, and that heading to other cities to acquire sufficient resources before returning to Cat Getan to compete would be a viable strategy, Bruce did not intend to do so.

The Batman of the main universe seemed to have already chosen this path. Bruce could understand his thinking; after so many years, Batman must have attempted countless ways to turn the situation in Cat Getan around, but had never succeeded. Even a fool would realize that there must be something fundamentally wrong with this city at a higher level.

Batman had exhausted his life's work without discovering the source of this anomaly. The Joker might know, but he wouldn't say, and others were either not familiar enough with Batman or not familiar enough with Cat Getan to be of any use.

Batman was like someone standing before a wall at the end of a dead end, constantly searching for possible cracks. But unfortunately, the source of this anomaly was at a higher level than he imagined. The story of the main universe could not end, so Cat Getan could not be saved.

But now, Batman might have also learned through intelligence that the Cat Getan within the Dream Realm was unaffected by this strange anomaly, which meant the high wall that had always stood in his way had vanished. He finally had the possibility of saving Cat Getan.

Bruce knew how urgent the main universe's Batman must be. If he chose to follow the same path, he would only be trailing behind him. The first person to make Cat Getan better would be the savior; the second would be in vain. Following behind the main universe's Batman offered no advantages.

After Jack left, Bruce didn't rush to find a way to outperform the main universe's Batman. He was now contemplating a very important question—was Jack really that kind-hearted?

Of course, they were friends now, and their relationship wasn't exactly bad, but Jack was, after all, the Joker. The highest priority in the Joker's behavioral pattern was to watch Batman make a fool of himself.

Helping Batman? That only happened in dreams or when Batman was about to die.

Jack's act of reminding him this time did not fit the Joker's behavioral logic. Wouldn't it be more interesting to watch Batman fail his exam and fall into deep trouble?

For such a long time, Bruce's psychology hadn't improved much, but his "Jokerology" had progressed by leaps and bounds. He had basically fully grasped the Joker's behavioral logic.

And once the Joker's behavior didn't fit the logic, it proved that there must be some conspiracy hidden behind it. What could it be?

Bruce began to deduce from the beginning.

When Jack first approached him, he explained the situation of this world, using the words he said earlier: "I built a Cat Getan in the Dream Realm."

Bruce had indeed been misled by him. Because he didn't know what kind of authority Jack had in the Dream Realm, he assumed it might be the authority granted by Constantine, who was responsible for managing the Dream Realm. Based on this, Jack's project couldn't be too large, which was why Bruce thought Cat Getan was the entire map.

But now Jack told him that the map might be even larger than an entire Earth. This proved that Jack's authority in the Dream Realm was astonishingly large, and even with that authority, building such a large map must have taken a very long time.

If this was something he and Schiller had been preparing for a long time, would it only involve a single verbal trap?

That didn't fit the Joker's style of doing things.

The First Law of Jokerology: The multiple-choice questions the Joker sets never have a correct answer.

The Second Law of Jokerology: If the Joker makes the test-taker think a certain answer is correct, it is highly likely that the truth of that answer is the most incorrect among all the options.

Jack first used verbal suggestion to make Bruce think the map only contained Cat Getan, but then, just before Bruce was about to answer incorrectly, he came over to remind him: "The answer you chose is wrong."

So, which answer was Jack suggesting was the correct one?

Bruce went over every conversation he had with Jack in his mind, and then keenly discovered something wrong. Jack finally said that Bruce knew the answer that would allow Schiller to give him a perfect score.

Could this be another verbal trap?

Bruce's detective intuition told him it was. And thinking about it, this sentence was actually guiding Bruce again, implying that he should go find the answer that would allow Schiller to give him a perfect score.

So what was wrong with that?

Bruce frowned, gripping his pen tightly, his brain spinning at high speed.

No, the answer was probably still hidden in Jack's words and actions. What was wrong?

Suddenly, Bruce froze. A flash of inspiration hit him. Sure enough, the Joker's law he had summarized was correct. Jack didn't have a kind heart at all; there was a more sinister trap hidden behind this.

In the manor's drawing room, Schiller placed the newspaper flat on the coffee table, set down his steaming cup of tea, took the orange that Aisha couldn't peel from her hands, and listened as Helen, curled up in a single-seater sofa, asked while gnawing on a pear.

"It's hard to avoid being misled by verbal guidance to misunderstand certain things, right? If one had to stay vigilant at all times, how exhausting would that be?"

"Besides, being able to thrive in the gang system is quite impressive. If you hadn't brought me back, I might have died on the streets by now."

Schiller picked up the newspaper from the coffee table, unfolded it, and flicked the corner of the paper as he said, "I'm not referring to the fact that he failed to see through Jack's verbal trap and chose to stay in Cat Getan."

"Then what is it?" Helen asked with a puzzled expression.

Schiller read the paper while sighing, "As you said, in daily life, no one can be vigilant about every word others say. If someone is determined to set a verbal trap, it's normal to be led into a misunderstanding. Everyone faced a survival crisis when they first arrived here. In such a situation, there's even less energy to carefully distinguish every word. This doesn't even count as a mistake."

"Jack used verbal guidance in his first meeting with Bruce to make him think he had only built the city of Cat Getan. But this wasn't the trap itself; it was the setup for the trap."

"Jack wanted Bruce to think he had made a mistake," Schiller concluded.

"Then why would he want to do that?" Helen pressed.

"This is another psychological trap—over-exaggerating a mistake that anyone in daily life might make, emphasizing that someone must be held responsible for it, thereby inducing a sense of urgency and tension in the other party."

"If I'm not mistaken, Jack would say to Bruce, 'Your psychology professor will surely be very disappointed that you didn't avoid such a simple psychological suggestion'—this is a common technique for suppressing others on a mental level, creating a fictional atmosphere of surrounding disapproval to make the other party fall into self-blame and self-doubt."

Helen seemed interested in these theories. She stopped eating and looked at Schiller intently, asking, "Then what is his purpose in suppressing Bruce? To make Bruce develop self-doubt and thus commit a bigger mistake?"

"You are indeed very smart, Miss Helen." Schiller put down the newspaper, looked into Helen's eyes, and said, "This is to induce the other party into making a 'forced error'."

"The more one feels that those around them are disappointed in them, the more self-blaming and inferior they become, the less they dare to participate in normal social interactions, and the more they have to rely on the person suppressing them. This is a vicious cycle, and its purpose is to manipulate others."

Helen digested what Schiller had said, and then she understood why Schiller said that Jack using verbal guidance to make Bruce misunderstand was just the setup for the trap.

"He used Bruce's tense mental state during his survival crisis to make him commit a small error, and then immediately ran to him to exaggerate the importance of that error. In a situation where Bruce hadn't contacted anyone else since arriving in this world, he created a virtual atmosphere where the whole world was disappointed in him."

Reasoning to this point, Helen had another question. She asked, "If Bruce really feels nervous because of this, what mistake will he make? Or rather, what mistake does Jack want him to make?"

"Of course, a bigger, more irreparable mistake."

Helen thought carefully, but couldn't find the answer, so she could only look at Schiller with an inquisitive gaze.

Schiller picked up his teacup, took a sip, sighed, and said, "Being misled in speech is not a big deal. Even the most professional psychologist in the world cannot say they have never misunderstood others. I am the same."

"Humans are sensory creatures, only able to understand the intentions of others through their language and actions, and understanding itself is the most difficult thing in the world. Misunderstanding is human nature and has never been easy to escape."

"But if Bruce really steps into the true trap, he will commit a bigger mistake—a mistake that will truly add a blow to my reputation in the field of education."

"What is that?"

"Helen, let me ask you: if you committed a small mistake and someone told you that your father and mother would surely be very angry about it, and you still had a chance to make amends, a chance to make them not disappointed in you, what would you do?"

Helen thought for a moment and said, "Of course I would do my best to make amends. After all, I wouldn't want to disappoint them."

As she said this, Helen suddenly froze, and then she said with a sudden realization, "Oh, I understand! My parents love me, so even if I make some mistakes, they will understand and forgive me."

"But if I, fearing their anger and disappointment, desperately try to make amends, I will be driven by fear, and fear often makes people lose their reason and commit bigger mistakes."

"By then, a small mistake that could have been understood might evolve into a truly grave error that makes them sad. And if they express disappointment because of this, I will feel aggrieved instead."

"Because it was precisely because I was afraid of their anger and disappointment that I tried so hard to make amends. Even if I caused a bigger disaster, they should understand that I did it because I loved them. Thus, an irreconcilable contradiction is created."

"Parents want to educate me not to commit such mistakes again, but I use whether they understand and forgive me to measure whether they love me."

"And once it reaches the point of demanding proof of love, the misunderstanding can never be resolved, because what needs to be proven is never whether they love or not, but whether they love enough. But no matter what, it's never enough."

Schiller looked at Helen with a very appreciative gaze. He nodded and said, "The trap Jack created by using Bruce's small mistake and the tense atmosphere he fabricated is that he will make Bruce more desperate to prove his academic level to me."

Helen frowned and said, "Yes, what Jack said to Bruce is equivalent to 'You got such a simple question wrong, your teacher will be very disappointed.' So Bruce will definitely try to find a way to answer the subsequent questions well. But I still don't quite understand, following this line of thought, what big mistake will Bruce commit?"

"Why does he have to answer the questions?"

Schiller picked up the newspaper again and said while browsing, "Why must he answer just because I put out a test paper?"

"Because you are his..."

Helen was choked, and then she lowered her voice and sighed, "That's right. You are just his university professor, and he graduated from university long ago. No graduate would return to university to take an exam organized by a university professor."

But Helen stammered, "But I heard that the relationship between you two is very close. He might regard you as his..."

"Father?"

Helen nodded.

"Then does he have to take an exam that has no meaning just because of that?" Schiller flicked the newspaper and said, "His graduation project was to rebel against patriarchal authority. If he comes back for another round and fails, doesn't that just prove that I went easy on him during the last exam?"

"Then did you go easy on him?"

"Have you ever heard of the Pacific Ocean?"