Chapter 1929: U: Beyond the Great Event (55)

"Human consciousness is an extremely precise system. A small problem anywhere could trigger a chain reaction. And if a person chooses to abandon their past self in such a radical way and reshape their personality, it is impossible not to pay a price."

Bruce sighed and said, "Every completion of a personality transformation is like peeling off a layer of skin, but it is actually much more painful and long-lasting than that. Sometimes it can even last for several years. And every one of us has had such a time in our lives, which is the rebellious phase of our youth."

"Some people break out of the cocoon and become butterflies perfectly, shedding their immaturity and gaining maturity, but some people always have fragments of the cocoon left on them. These fragments will accompany them for their entire lives until they merge into their personality and become a part of them."

"Whether the transformation is successful is influenced by many factors: family environment, interpersonal relationships, and one's own personality. And the vast majority of people only experience such a major transformation once in their lives."

"But if someone transforms in this way many times, there will always be a few transformation processes that leave traces on them. The fragments accumulated on them become more and more, and they want to get rid of these burdens more and more."

"Then they have no choice but to undergo a complete transformation, a transformation that completely washes away the burdens of the past and completely reshapes their personality."

"Yes, that is the simplest method," the expression on Yashan's face became somewhat inexplicable. He said, "When you are no longer you, you give yourself a new identity, and you can never care about the things you cared about in the past again. Anyway, they don't care about you either."

"That way, you will arrive in a new world and possess a larger stage. The outlook for such a future will make you feel incomparably fulfilled. You almost break yourself apart with joy and then paste yourself back together into the appearance of your dreams."

"But is that really a good thing?" Bruce looked at Yashan, implying something, and said, "Is the thing you pasted back together really still human?"

"Is being human that important?"

"For those who are already in despair, whether they possess peers in this world is no longer important." Bruce pursed his lips. Others saw a kind of sadness in his expression, but it was hard to say where this emotion came from; after all, he didn't look like a person in despair.

"But if someone is not yet in despair, then taking this path is a mistake, because in order to get rid of the traces of the past, they completely break themselves apart and paste themselves back together. The thing that is shaped is no longer human."

"Perhaps they possess a human appearance, can communicate with humans, and look like humans in every aspect, but they are not. Not being is not being; it cannot be faked, and there is no chance for regret."

Bruce turned his head to look at the screen again. At this moment, the image stopped on Bat-B's face. He said, "This Batman wants to take such a path because the fragments of the past have already affected his spirit. He is worried that he will become a madman."

"It is foreseeable that his psychological examination status is becoming less and less optimistic, his mental pressure is increasing, and he occasionally exhibits some abnormal behaviors in his life. He is extremely worried that he will go crazy."

"Such pressure forces him to have to make this choice: completely break apart his past self and shape a new identity for himself. This way, he has new goals and things to do, and the traces of growth will no longer cause him obstacles."

"So he became Batman," Lord Superman's tone lowered, "I never knew he had such a past, and he never told me about it. I thought he had always been like this."

"When the pain you face makes the self you know now unbearable, you can only break it apart and let it reunite in another, more solid way."

Yashan's tone was modulated, and the state he described reminded Bruce of Schiller, reminded him of that magnificent high tower.

"So most Batmen did this, so they became Batman and are no longer Bruce Wei En," Lord Superman frowned deeply. He said, "Is the pain he experienced the death of his parents? But why, whenever I mention that there might be a chance to resurrect them, he..."

"Of course it's not that simple," Bruce shook his head and said, "His true pain comes from the surging desire for revenge in his heart and the conflict between justice and the law."

"Killing a criminal makes one a criminal. Private feelings and public justice are like the two ends of a balance. Batman, in the process of this friction and swaying, completely became a vigilante executing justice and the law."

"And this Batman also wants to take such a path: abandon Bruce Wei En, who has become unstable due to his mental state, and become the true Dark Knight."

"And the sign is that he chooses not to pour his anger and hatred onto those criminals," Bruce guessed, "Because those emotions are only possessed by Bruce Wei En. Batman is for justice."

"If one had to make an analogy, if Bruce Wei En is an ordinary person with flesh and blood, with abundant emotions, and who also vents emotions naturally, then Batman is a saint who can completely control his emotions and can reveal not a single bit of emotion as long as it is of no benefit to the matter."

Spider-Man shivered and said, "That's too scary. How can a person control their own emotions? If one doesn't get angry when angry, and doesn't cry when sad, then what is the difference between him and a walking corpse?"

Lord Superman sighed deeply, the air he exhaled mixed with white mist, almost approaching a freezing breath.

"I'm not complaining, it's just that I often feel that when facing Batman, I feel like I'm facing a corpse," Lord Superman sat down, hugged his arms, and turned his head to the side, saying, "Any words of mine get no response from him. The muscles on his face are like wood. I look left and right and can't see the slightest change."

"I used to calculate the frequency of his breathing, and then I found that for at least a week, the interval between every inhalation and exhalation of his was the same. I don't even dare to use X-ray vision to look at him; I'm afraid I'll see a pile of parts and wires."

Lord Superman rested his elbows on the armrests and covered his eyes with his hands, saying, "Sometimes I really don't know who the Superman is."

Bruce smiled, pressed his fingertips against his temple on the side, and said, "The various performances of the Batman we see on the screen, all the stress reactions he exhibits, actually indicate that he has begun to feel disgust for the identity of Bruce Wei En."

"Because he is emotionally agitated, prone to violence, unstable, and even beginning to lose his grip on reality. A psychiatrist might just tell him he has certain emotional issues that need adjustment and rest, but he feels he could lose control at any moment."

"So he began to align himself with Batman's direction, but Bruce Wei En still wanted to make one last effort to prove he wasn't insane."

Spider-Man had a flash of insight and said, "So this is Bruce Wei En calling for help?"

Bruce looked at Spider-Man with some surprise. After staring at him for a moment, he withdrew his gaze and said, "Yes. Many of the irrational, crazy behaviors you see in life could be the final cries for help from a madman trapped in a predicament."

"He is acting very contradictorily," Arthur spoke up. "Because if he accepts a psychological evaluation, he faces two outcomes: either the doctor says he is truly insane, completely negating the meaning of his existence, or someone can identify his core issue—yet he himself holds no hope for that."

"Then which one is Schiller?"

Everyone turned their gaze back to the screen.

On the screen, Schiller was in his own ward, speculating on the construction of this dream world. However, while Batman deduced the principles through external phenomena like the hospital's architectural structure, Schiller was deconstructing the dream using psychological theory.

In the current academic field of psychology, psychoanalytic theory is almost regarded as pseudoscience, but if one wants to study dreams, it is almost impossible to bypass Freud.

Although there are behavioral explanations that dreams are a continuation of conscious mental activity, if one is to mention how the content of dreams relates to reality and memory, one must mention the reflection of subconscious content as described in Freud's *The Interpretation of Dreams*.

Schiller wrote Freud's name on a piece of paper, listed some key points of the subconscious reflection theory intermittently, and then thought of the possibility of controlling the body through the subconscious, leading to the conclusion that dreams manipulate physical actions.

Once this point was reached, the rest was easy to guess. Using dreams to control the contestants' physical actions was nothing more than wanting them to commit suicide. If the killer had the ability to put a blade in front of them, he wouldn't need to go to such great lengths; he was likely just borrowing tools already present at the scene.

It was then easy to deduce that their bodies were either in a very high place where walking a few steps forward would lead to a fall, or they were on a high-speed vehicle. Combining this with the fact that they fell asleep on the bus, it was definitely the latter.

Everyone in the viewing gallery watched, dumbfounded, as Schiller wrote and drew on a piece of paper and then conjured a conclusion out of thin air. The whole process was like divine intervention—truly miraculous.

But it wasn't over yet. After Schiller wrote down his speculation, he wrote the word "killer" next to it, clearly guessing what state the killer might be in now.

Although he could pull everyone into a dream, the killer clearly couldn't directly influence the bus; otherwise, he could just use the seats to smash people to death from afar. He likely had to come onto the bus in person, just like the contestants, to manipulate things on the vehicle.

Schiller remembered that the bus doors and windows were closed before he fell asleep. To make the contestants jump off the bus themselves, the killer definitely had to get on board to open the windows or doors.

So, if the killer was on the bus, he would inevitably pay attention to the contestants' condition. After all, this was the most important part of his plan; if someone showed abnormalities, he couldn't just ignore it.

Schiller finally drew a circle around the word "abnormal" and tapped it lightly with his pen, clearly having thought of something.

Soon, time reached the evening, and Schiller, Batman, and Bat-Bane met in the consulting room.

At this moment, Spider-Man in the viewing gallery sat back down, leaned against his chair, yawned, and said, "I almost fell asleep watching this part. I really don't understand what they are talking about."

"What I'm more curious about is why this psychiatrist would ask when he felt a sense of loss," Constantine asked aloud.

"Because that is the simplest way to determine whether someone truly has emotional problems."