Chapter 1923: U: Beyond the Great Event (49)

Just two minutes ago, the hospital lost power.

Bat-Bane walked alone in the pitch-black corridor. The long corridor only had faint moonlight at both ends, which dragged his shadow very long.

With a glance from the corner of his eye, he saw a figure standing behind him in the windows of the wards on both sides.

Bat-Bane turned his head slowly, but there was nothing behind him.

He didn't turn back and walk forward, but turned to the side, facing a window on the corridor wall. Sure enough, he saw that figure behind him again—it was Schiller wearing a gorgeous suit.

On the dim glass without lights, the suit wasn't as vivid, reminding one of withered flowers or shed scales. That tall figure sank into the darkness, and moonlight flowed down from one shoulder.

"Why are you following me?" Bat-Bane's Adam's apple moved.

"Why do you see me?" Schiller asked back.

Bat-Bane clenched his fists somewhat angrily. He stared dead at the figure in the glass reflection and said, "Don't act like you've seen through me. You haven't."

"How does fighting fire with fire feel?" Schiller asked.

Bat-Bane's fists clenched again abruptly. He took a deep breath, looked at the reflection in the glass, and said, "That's unjust. That's no different from what those bastards who want to subvert the world do."

"But that makes you feel good."

"I don't feel that way."

"Someone once told you that resorting to violence is wrong." Schiller's voice echoed slowly in the dark corridor, just like echoing on an empty stage. The audience under the stage was only Batman, but it was as if there were millions.

"Because of your kindness to her, you seriously thought about her advice to you. Your reason tells you that what she said makes sense—fighting fire with fire has no end and will only make you fall into the abyss of darkness."

"Just like you." Bat-Bane loosened his fists, his mind constantly recalling the scenes he saw in the hallucination just now.

The back of the prey walking into the bathroom, the huge picture depicting naked bodies, the lively jumping red fish, the beans rolling down, and the blooming flowers...

"But that makes me feel good."

Bat-Bane saw the figure behind him walk closer to him and put his hand on his shoulder again.

"You asked me if I enjoy all of this, and I answered 'Yes.' And when you learned that they were my enemies, that also made you feel good, because I did what you didn't do."

"It's what I chose not to do."

"Do you really have a choice?"

Schiller's figure disappeared. Bat-Bane looked at the empty glass, somewhat dazed. Schiller's voice had completely disappeared in the empty corridor, but it always lingered in his ears.

After a while, he turned his head and said, "No matter what you say, I won't do the things you did. That's wrong, and too cruel."

Schiller didn't respond.

This made Bat-Bane feel a sense of stifling, as if he hadn't performed well in an argument and the other party had already left.

He thought to himself that he could have actually found many reasons to refute Schiller just now, to explain to him that his approach was correct and that his barbaric and cruel method of revenge was wrong, but he didn't say any of it.

He didn't know why this was. Clearly, he was very good at debating, his brain turned fast, and his language logic was also very clear. In the past, almost no one could beat him in words.

But when Schiller's voice rang out, he felt his heart being set on fire. Reason didn't exist; what remained were all chaotic and noisy emotions, making him urgently want to output emotions rather than reason, simply like a madman.

At this moment, Bat-Bane made up his mind: if the evil ghost following him dared to come out next time, he would definitely convince him.

Bat-Bane continued to walk forward until he reached the stairwell. Just as he stepped forward to go down, he saw that figure appear in the glass in the stairwell again.

"Continue walking up, and you will meet Hunting."

Bat-Bane heard Schiller's voice again. He recalled what Schiller had told him in the clinic just now: his evil ghost-like personalities could now move freely, and he had mentioned four names.

Bat-Bane knew that the hallucination was actually what happened when these four personalities were in charge of Schiller's body, and Hunting was clearly the personality trait that had chased the prey all the way to the bathroom stall on the dance floor.

Bat-Bane took a deep breath and closed his eyes to recall some details he saw in the hallucination.

The prey was a woman in a gold dress with short gray curly hair. Her age should be around 50, and her jewelry and decorations were gorgeous and expensive, showing her status as a high-society person.

In the peripheral vision of that hazy field of vision, Bat-Bane saw many high-society people dressed like this woman.

Just like every ball he had attended in Gotham at night, they wore smooth and clean silk and wool, draped in various gems, crowding into the dance floor like sardines. Batman had been close enough to hear their pulse.

And every one of them didn't know what kind of angry flame was burning in Bruce Wayne's heart, or some of them knew, but no one cared.

Bat-Bane woke up from his thinking. The Schiller in the glass looked at him and said, "Don't turn around and run, don't relax your vigilance... I'll wait for you at the next intersection."

The reflection in the glass disappeared.

Walking up the stairwell, Bat-Bane felt the eeriness and coldness of the atmosphere. The moment his two feet landed on the corridor floor, a red shadow pounced toward him.

The pale female ghost wearing red clothes and staring with blood-red eyes stretched out two ghost claws and pounced straight toward Bat-Bane at an extremely fast speed.

Bat-Bane dodged flexibly to the side, and the female ghost let out a scream when she missed.

Bat-Bane was about to turn around to look at the female ghost behind him, but as if thinking of something, his steps paused.

He remembered that in the hallucination scene, only the back of the woman in the gold dress was clearly visible, while all the others were very hazy and blurred, and even their specific positions couldn't be seen, only faint black shadows.

"Don't turn around and run..." Bat-Bane said softly.

He realized something, so he stopped in place, raised his head slightly, straightened his neck, and walked forward, completely ignoring the female ghost rushing behind him.

The female ghost followed, and the eerie cold air made Bat-Bane feel a chill on his back. He glanced from the corner of his eye, and the black-haired female ghost's head was stretching over from one side of his neck.

Bat-Bane could only see her profile, one blood-red big eye turning over and staring straight at him, and a grinning mouth, her eyes full of cruel and cold laughter.

Bat-Bane walked forward without looking sideways.

The female ghost's expression became more and more cracked, fresh blood began to flow from her blood-red pupils, black liquid emerged from her mouth, and her whole face looked even more terrifying.

That pair of eerie ghost claws also rested on Bat-Bane. Although there was no tactile sensation, Bat-Bane saw from the glass reflection that the female ghost's hand was slowly moving upward, as if to strangle his neck.

Bat-Bane curled his lips, didn't even look at her, and continued to walk forward with big strides.

The female ghost let out a sharp howl against his ear. This time, there was finally some real damage. Bat-Bane was shaken until his head was dizzy and his eardrums were buzzing, but he still endured the discomfort and walked straight forward.

The figure of the young Schiller in a black shirt appeared on the window on the other side of the corridor. It was exactly the Schiller Bat-Bane saw in the hallucination appearing in the bathroom mirror.

He was holding a sharp knife with a cold gleam in his hand, which seemed to be the one he used to end the prey in the bathroom, staring at Bat-Bane with a cold face at this moment.

Bat-Bane slowed his pace but continued to move forward.

The female ghost began to let out high-and-low ghost howls. The lights on the ceiling kept shaking and trembling, and the plaster ceiling began to crack and drop debris, as if it would fall at any time.

Bat-Bane's steps were a bit hesitant, as if he were thinking about something. After a while, he seemed to have confirmed his guess, faced the window with Schiller's reflection, and walked forward with firm steps.

The female ghost seemed to have finally collapsed. She let go of Bat-Bane, knelt on the ground, and began to let out extremely mournful cries.

That cry didn't sound like a female ghost, but like a woman feeling incomparable sadness.

Bat-Bane finally paused his steps.

The female ghost cried even harder. Bat-Bane slowly closed his eyes, clenched his fists slightly again, and then walked quickly to the end of the corridor without looking back.

He was already standing in front of the window where Hunting was, and to his right was the stairwell leading to the next floor.

But Bat-Bane didn't turn to the right, but moved two steps to the right and then turned to the left, then walked backward toward the stairwell. During the process, his gaze never left the window where Hunting's reflection was.

He walked up the stairs backward, feeling for the railing.

No, there was still something wrong, Bat-Bane thought.

The two sentences given by the Schiller in the gorgeous suit were hints. "Don't turn around and run" meant never turn your back on Hunting.

In the hallucination, Bat-Bane saw that within Hunting's field of vision, only the woman walking toward the bathroom with her back to him was completely clear, and he could even see the details of the jewelry on her wrists and neck.

But all the people in his peripheral vision were too hazy, and even the boundaries were too blurry to see, only faint black shadows could be seen, which actually wasn't normal.

Although human secondary vision is not as clear as primary vision, in the case of no vision problems, all images within the field of vision cannot be blurred to that extent.

This might mean that Hunting can actually only see the back of the prey, or that he sees the back most clearly.

This also conforms to the rules of hunting. Hunters are not fighters; they won't fight the prey head-on. They either set traps or shoot from a distance, then chase the injured prey. All they can see is the back of the prey.

And that female ghost was either threatened by Schiller or cooperated with him. Her purpose from beginning to end was to seduce Bat-Bane into turning around. Once Bat-Bane turned to face the female ghost, he would leave his back to Hunting standing at the end of the corridor, and he would become the prey.

Thus, no matter how the female ghost made a scene, Bat-Bane firmly refused to look back or turn around. Even if Hunting appeared in person and made a threatening gesture, he pretended not to see it and just walked toward him.

Sure enough, Hunting stood quietly in the mirror. If you looked closely, his gray eyes were unfocused, and his gaze didn't focus at all, as if he hadn't seen Bat-Bane from beginning to end.

But after walking up two steps, Bat-Bane felt something was wrong. If the first sentence "Don't turn around and run" was a hint, then was the second sentence "Don't relax your vigilance" also a hint?

Suddenly, Bat-Bane turned to look at the window on the side of the stairwell platform diagonally above him. If he continued to walk up backward, he would inevitably turn his back to that window the moment he passed the stairwell platform.

Bat-Bane understood everything.

He first walked up the stairs of this half-floor backward, confirmed that there was an absolutely non-reflective white wall behind him, and when he climbed onto the stairwell platform, he rotated his body 90 degrees, facing the window inside the stairwell.

He walked forward two steps, came to the front of the window and the side of the remaining half-floor stairs, moved a few steps to the side, turned around again to stare at the window, and stepped onto the stairs backward.

After arriving at the next floor, he still turned around, keeping himself facing the window at all times.

And this time, the figure of Schiller that appeared on the window of the upper floor was wearing a gorgeous suit. He looked at Bat-Bane with a smile and said: "Smart." ===== CHAPTER 1924 =====