Chapter 1927

"Um, alright, I can let you see the contestants' perspectives, but you won't be able to hear their inner thoughts completely, and I have no way to show you the perspective of Schiller's personality, because that is not a complete consciousness world."

Bruce gave a dissatisfied hum, and Lord Superman immediately understood that Bruce was hinting that they should play good cop, bad cop. Sure enough, he heard Bruce say.

"You can pull the souls of so many people into this space to play a game, yet you can't see our inner thoughts or the consciousness space of our personality traits?"

Owen shook his head and didn't speak. Lord Superman immediately spoke up and said, "But you must let us see clearly what exactly is going on here, otherwise we will definitely give you a bad review."

"Don't be so mean, guys." Owen sighed and said, "I will show you as much as possible what happened within their perspectives, but there are some things I cannot understand either. If you have any special insights, feel free to speak your mind."

After he finished speaking, the scene on the screen began to rewind, but what was rewinding was not the scene inside the dream world, but the scene inside the bus during this round that the others had never seen.

When the bus left the arena with these people, several contestants were sitting in their seats without speaking due to drowsiness. At this moment, looking toward the driver's seat, one could see a purple-skinned figure.

The bus driver's seat, which had been empty, was now occupied by a short goblin. He possessed dark purple skin, pointed ears, and a wide, gaping mouth.

At this moment, that mouth was constantly chanting some kind of spell. Before long, a mass of purple mist drifted from the driver's seat toward the back, but the several contestants sitting in their seats seemed not to hear it. However, the moment the purple mist touched them, their eyelids seemed as if they had been forcibly glued together and closed.

Clearly, this was the truth of how the contestants entered the dream. The murderer of the 4th round had arrived at the driver's seat early and used his special ability to drag everyone into the dream.

At the same time, some images flashed on the screen. Those were the scenes of all the contestants standing up for the first time in the psychiatric hospital in the dream. Schiller stood up from the chair in the consultation room, Batman and Natasha stood up from the hospital beds, and Bat-B stood up from the chair.

At this time, the perspective cut back to inside the bus, and the bodies of the group in the bus also slowly stood up.

The front-facing perspective could see that not a single person opened their eyes; they were still in their sleep, only their bodies were being manipulated by their subconscious, rising from their seats just as the murderer wanted.

In this way, the onlookers all understood the murderer's plan. After all, they had previously heard Schiller's descriptions of the subconscious and Batman's deductions about the hospital corridor, and the perspective inside the bus that Owen showed them proved that the contestants' deductions were all correct.

"They are very smart." Arthur tapped his temple with a finger and said, "This is a rather abstract connection. Having professional level and deductive ability alone is not enough; it requires some slightly eerie associations."

"People might associate an apple with an apple tree, or apple juice, or apple pie, but if someone associates an apple with a cassette tape, then too many association processes that are difficult for ordinary people to understand have been skipped in between, thereby manifesting a spirituality similar to the communion between heaven and man."

Arthur revealed a silent smile and said, "It is also a sense of humor that is worthy of appreciation."

"Especially when everyone makes that surprised expression of 'Are you receiving a calling from God?'" Bruce added.

The two looked at each other and smiled, clearly having a deep understanding of this.

"Perhaps this is what we call the thin line between a genius and a madman." Constantine exhaled a puff of smoke and said, "When you are not understood by ordinary people, you are a madman, but if your inexplicable ramblings are useful to them, you are a genius."

The image on the screen continued to play. This time it did not show the scene inside the bus again, but focused on the dream space, and this time it showed the first-person perspective of Bat-B, which everyone was most concerned about.

The camera shook slightly, not as violently as in some pseudo-first-person films that shake to imitate a person's footsteps; overall, it was still quite steady.

Bat-B did not wake up in the consultation room like Schiller. When he woke up, he found himself sitting on a chair. Within his field of vision was a hospital bed, and the information card above the bed still had his photo hanging on it.

Bat-B blinked, and everyone heard him say softly, "What's going on? Did I have a dream?"

Then he chuckled and said, "This time it's finally not that hole."

"Wait a minute." Lord Superman called for a pause and asked, "What hole? A cave?"

"It sounds like he often has a dream about a certain cave." Constantine raised an eyebrow and said, "Quite rare. I thought it would be that case of the Wei En couple."

Lord Superman immediately frowned. He realized that this Batman's experiences were very likely different from the Batman he knew.

Clark had once heard Bruce mention some things about his parents, mostly regarding subsequent investigations and prosecution matters, but he had never heard him mention the murderer. Clark had seen the murderer's photo when he was flipping through old newspapers himself.

Bruce was lost in thought, and at this time Lord Superman looked at him. Bruce sighed softly and said, "I'm not sure, but when I was young, our family went for a picnic in the countryside. It was a valley in the suburbs of Gotham. When I was running in the woods, I saw a very deep hole in the ground."

"That should have been a crack left behind after crustal movement. I stopped my footsteps in time, but if I hadn't stopped, I might have fallen in."

"At that time, I was a bit curious, so I shouted into the hole. As a result, a huge swarm of bats flew out from inside, which gave me a fright."

Bruce shrugged and said, "I suspect that among so many Batmen in so many universes, there must be some unlucky guy who fell in. Perhaps it was this unlucky guy."

The group nodded. Spider-Man spoke up and said, "If I had fallen into a cave full of bats when I was a kid, I would have had nightmares for several days too. Of course, I would also have been scolded by my aunt for several days; my cousin's old clothes were always in short supply."

Bat-B on the screen blinked, seemingly adapting to the scene in front of him. He stood up, walked to the head of the bed, and looked at the patient name tag that recorded the information. On it was written the name Bruce Wei En, and it also stated that he suffered from schizophrenia and delusions.

The people in the screening room heard a chuckle, clearly emitted by Bat-B, but Bruce suddenly shouted, "Stop."

The image stopped again, and the others turned to look at him, not understanding why he suddenly called for a stop. Bruce explained, "He has produced some kind of dangerous association, and his mental self-protection mechanism has been activated."

"How can you tell that?" Lord Superman and Spider-Man were confused again.

"He has now completely recovered his sobriety and is also clear that there is no one else in this ward besides him. Deliberately making a sound is a human instinct for self-comfort and entertainment during infancy. When we do this, it means we need to divert our attention."

"Some people hum when they feel uneasy, nervous, or afraid. This makes people feel like they have returned to the warm and safe environment of infancy, providing comfort to one's spirit."

"And if the sound he chooses to make is laughter, it means he is telling himself, 'Hey, don't be nervous, relax, there's nothing to be afraid of.'"

Bruce revealed a smile and said, "Substituting this into this scene, Batman is saying to himself, 'Hey, don't be nervous, relax, this is an illusion created by the murderer, not that you have really contracted some mental illness and are hospitalized.'"

"What does this explain?" Lord Superman continued to ask.

"It explains that he once suspected that he had contracted a mental illness and needed to be hospitalized. He must have imagined such a scene."

"But don't all madmen realize that they are not mad?"

"That's why Schiller said he wasn't sick." Bruce shrugged lightly and said, "It is perfectly normal for a person to feel that they have contracted some kind of mental illness because their mental state is not good, and perhaps they need to be hospitalized. Ordinary people have all thought this way."

"And it is even more normal for him to feel fear about this. Who would consider an insane asylum a good place? Whether it's because the condition has worsened to the point of having to stay there or being locked in, in horror stories, it's the kind of story used for the finale."

Lord Superman nodded, feeling that what Bruce said made sense, but he had never heard the Batman of his universe complain about being under too much mental pressure or anything. Was it abnormal that this wasn't the case?

Soon a nurse came to knock on the door. Bat-B followed the medical staff to the consultation room for a routine psychological examination, and then the scene where he debated with the doctor occurred.

"He is not only trying to convince the doctor, but also trying to convince himself. He is establishing an anchor point for himself." Constantine suddenly spoke up, "If this matter didn't matter to him, he wouldn't argue at all. If he hoped that he was a mental patient, he definitely wouldn't resist."

"Sounds like you have deep personal experience."

Constantine sighed and said, "Why would you think that a psychiatric hospital built by ordinary people could trap me? And why would I stay there for a year while they were abusing me?"

Constantine extended his hands and looked at the ceiling, saying, "Do you know how much I hope that I am indeed a mental patient? The angels, demons, and evil spirits I see are all fake, all hallucinations produced by my broken brain. Good God, I haven't even dreamed of this in my wildest dreams!"

"If you don't like them, why do you deal with them?" Lord Superman asked with a frown.

"Why don't you understand?" Constantine said very helplessly, "The evil people in this world are not all educated through acquired experience. A curse flows through my blood, and I am destined to walk such a path."

"Believe it or not, even if you burn my brain right now, I will still be resurrected, and then you will continue to burn my brain or burn my whole body, and then I will appear in front of you the next day as usual, being an eyesore."

"I hid in Limbo just to avoid this situation. Your justice cannot save me, and the justice of anyone in this world cannot save me. What you should learn most is to let people like me rot alone."

Lord Superman's complexion became very ugly.

Bruce said nonchalantly, "Do you believe it? There is a Constantine in one universe who was completely saved."

Constantine sat up straight as if he were a corpse coming back to life.