Chapter 2282: Gotham Music Festival (Part 30)

At this very moment, Bruce was using every curse word he knew in his heart to berate the organizers of this event.

As the world's greatest detective, it was impossible for him not to realize that this was a trap set for Schiller.

Schiller was seasick, so they held a game on the sea that Schiller had to participate in. Oliver was the bait; regardless of Oliver himself or the cause he was pursuing, they were the reasons Schiller had to board the ship.

And Bruce wasn't cursing the organizers in his heart because they used despicable means to lure Schiller into the trap, but because these geniuses didn't even bother to investigate the target before making the plan!

Bruce really wanted to crack their skulls open to see how many tons of seawater were sloshing around in their brains. Watching the staff checking the invitees boarding the cruise ship, Bruce roared in his heart: Do you have any idea whose prison this is?!

Bruce had an urge to jump ship.

Because his keen observation told him that the personality trait currently dominating Schiller's body wasn't manipulation; it was more like the madman Bruce saw the first time he encountered the pathology.

Bruce looked at the seawater beside him with some hesitation, then looked up at the Gotham pier not far away. The boat wasn't too far from land yet; if he jumped now, he should be able to swim to the pier quickly.

But even if the boat had traveled far, the wisest choice now was to jump and swim immediately; even swimming across half the Atlantic would be safer than stepping onto that ship.

But Bruce hesitated. Besides those of them participating in the game, there were some tourists who had bought tickets to board the ship. They were just innocent ordinary people who wanted to board out of curiosity.

Thinking of this, Bruce cursed the organizers ten thousand more times in his heart.

As soon as he looked up, Bruce saw Schiller, who was already standing on the cruise ship's deck, looking back at him. His face was pale, and his eyes were unfocused.

But he was smiling.

Bruce's cold sweat almost instantly soaked his back. Very well, now this was his prison.

Bruce instantly took a step to the side, letting a staff member block his figure. Only after confirming that Schiller had turned and walked toward the cabin did he rejoin the inspection line.

Things were going badly. Bruce took a deep breath. Since his graduation, this was the first time he had felt such unparalleled pressure from Schiller again.

Bruce didn't understand why the madness Schiller had shown before still wasn't his limit. When his curiosity shifted from "what kind of person is Schiller" to "is Schiller even human," he knew that to survive, he should stop.

Bruce restrained his curiosity for the first time and began to concentrate all his energy on thinking of a countermeasure.

This matter was destined not to end well. No matter who set this trap, they had geniusly stepped on all of Schiller's triggers: affecting Oliver, interfering with Mexico, inflicting pain on Schiller, and attempting to manipulate him.

They had also geniusly amplified all of Schiller's madness, making Schiller's patient beyond control, threatening the revolutionary cause, making pain bring extreme excitement, and turning manipulation into a lame game.

And now, Bruce had only one goal: to survive, and to let more ordinary people survive.

The interior of the *Great West Continent* was indeed as prosperous as rumored, but what was even more astonishing was the extremely unique decorative style here.

The first floor of the cabin was a huge circular plaza. The ring-shaped walls divided the entire floor into ten ring-shaped spaces, with countless arches connecting these spaces, and each ring-shaped space contained different gambling games.

Above the gambling games, their serial numbers were marked with mysterious ancient characters. On the outermost ring, there was a building like an Athenian temple, which was the window for exchanging chips.

Tourists exchanged their wealth for chips here and then walked along the rings. Once they completed a round of games and won, they could proceed through the arch corresponding to the game's serial number to the next ring. At the very center of the ten concentric circles hung the thrilling grand prize amount.

A platform slowly rose from the final concentric circle. The old man with the trident imprinted on his forehead appeared before everyone. He raised his arms and shouted, "The *Great West Continent* welcomes you! On this night, revel to your heart's content!"

The crowd erupted in intense cheers, but in contrast, there was dead silence on the second floor.

The second floor was also a circular architectural space, but the difference was that the patterns on the floor floated up before everyone's eyes, turning into one round table after another, some large and some small.

Marine life patterns appeared on the edges of the round tables, and people discovered that these corresponded to each mask.

The old man appeared on the second floor again and demanded that everyone stand at the corresponding position according to the image on their mask.

Schiller quickly found the octopus tentacle pattern, and then he discovered that all the patterns on this table were octopuses, only the number of tentacles below was different.

He looked at the table next to him and found it was the same: some were starfish with different numbers of tentacles, some were sharks with different numbers of teeth.

Thus, they could be simply called Octopus 1, Starfish 1, or Shark 1. Schiller's octopus had 7 tentacles, which was also the highest number of tentacles at the octopus table, so his number was Octopus 7.

Schiller saw the woman who had come to talk to him earlier. The pattern on her table was a marlin, only the number of marlin eyes was different. Judging from the position, the woman's number was Marlin 3.

And Schiller, of course, also recognized Bruce, who had been staring at him. The pattern on Bruce's table was an orca. According to the number of white spots on the orca's body, Bruce was Orca 1.

And the pattern on Christopher's table was a sea turtle. According to the number of patterns on the turtle shell, he was Sea Turtle 4.

Schiller lowered his head to observe the specific appearance of the pattern, while taking a puff from the inhaler in his hand. Octopus 6 next to him said with some surprise, "They let you bring this up? Didn't they say you couldn't bring other things?"

His volume was very loud, causing everyone to focus their attention on Schiller. Schiller took a deep breath, coughed a few times, and said, "If they didn't let me bring it, I would die here very soon."

Schiller was very weak, without any trace of acting—dizziness, pain, difficulty breathing, rapid heartbeat. He looked like he was having trouble even speaking, supporting the table with one hand and pressing the inhaler's mouthpiece to his lips with the other, as if he would faint if he didn't take a puff.

Everyone silently withdrew their gaze. The vast majority of people felt there was no need to pay too much attention to this consumptive ghost. Even if a conflict might arise later, such a person was not the biggest threat.

Conversely, they mostly cast their gazes toward the Orca and Sea Turtle tables. From the physiques of these people, it could be seen that most of them were very strong.

Then people began to guess that the animal grouping might be based on strength. It seemed the Sea Turtle table had the largest physiques and the most fat people. The Orca table was generally taller and stronger, looking like trained fighters. The Marlin table was not strong but well-proportioned, while the Octopus table was generally thinner.

But the Octopus table was not the thinnest. Besides the octopus, there were jellyfish, coral, and krill. The people at these tables were generally women, the elderly, and children, and they weren't in good physical condition, mostly hunched and shrinking.

Some people frowned significantly when they saw there were even children, showing dissatisfaction, but no one spoke out.

At this time, the organizers announced the entry of the challengers. A group of people, also wearing formal wear and masks, walked out from the left and right sides of the venue and walked to the tables with corresponding patterns.

The Octopus table originally only had 4 people, and the 3 who arrived later made it 7. Other tables were in the same situation. When everyone arrived, people found that the Marlin, Whale, Coral, and Krill tables had the most people, generally a dozen or so, while others had fewer, less than 10.

The Octopus table was actually the one with the fewest people, only 7 in total. And Schiller discovered that, except for him, the others should know each other in pairs.

"Gentlemen, you must have discovered that all challengers and the challenged are in the same group, with odd and even numbers facing each other..."

Just as the old man said this, voices of questioning came from below, because many tables, like Schiller's, had an odd number of people, making it impossible to face each other in pairs. They wanted to know where the people who challenged them or were challenged by them had gone.

"For some reasons, some challengers and the challenged have advanced early. Their opponents have a bye. Those without corresponding opponents can watch the gambling at the table or go to rest first."

No one moved.

Clearly, these people intended to watch the gambling here to accumulate experience for their subsequent duels.

Bruce didn't have a bye. His opponent was Orca 3, who was standing diagonally opposite him at this moment. Through the name on the invitation, Bruce knew that was his former college classmate, now a fugitive wanted by the FBI, Roman Sionis.

Sionis had once accused Schiller together with Elliot, but was later wanted and imprisoned, first held in Arkham Asylum, and later entered the Florence Supermax Prison. By now, his sentence should not have been served.

Bruce didn't know why Sionis wanted to challenge him, but Sionis appearing here already explained a lot of problems.

Just when everyone thought the organizers were about to announce the start of the game, the old man on the stage suddenly changed the subject. He said, "To thank some generous guests for their sponsorship of this game, this game has specially set up a VIP viewing area. Guests who have purchased VIP tickets will watch the entire game."

After speaking, he pointed, and the stone wall in the center of the ring-shaped wall slowly opened, revealing the VIPs sitting inside. But they were also wearing masks, and their true identities could not be seen.

The number of VIPs was not large, but they filled two rows, looking like more than 20 people. They also wore marine life masks, but their masks were all prehistoric creatures that were now extinct, such as Dunkleosteus, Mosasaurus, Leviathan whale, Megalodon, etc.

A not-so-small protest erupted in the venue. Clearly, some people didn't want their grudge matches to be watched by others.

The old man immediately said, "Considering that the rules of this game have been changed, those who do not want to participate can choose to withdraw. Does anyone want to withdraw?"

Among them, several people from the Coral and Krill groups immediately raised their hands, and they were all raising their hands in pairs, clearly having reached an agreement to decide not to resolve their grudges here.

Staff members immediately walked up and took them away. Just a few seconds after they left the room, the wall near the sea opened, the bodies were thrown into the sea, blood dyed the sea surface red, and the white waves turned up by the cruise ship were dyed an eerie pink.

Silence.

A few seconds later, screams and riots erupted together, but the doors of the game venue slammed shut, and the old man extended three fingers.

"You still have three seconds to return to your positions. After three seconds, contestants who do not appear in their seats will be considered to have automatically forfeited."

All the people who had rushed out in a panic screamed and crawled back to their positions, angrily pushing away everyone blocking their path, and appeared in the positions they should be in.

Schiller still stood in place with an expressionless face. His unfocused eyes made people feel that he couldn't see anything and wasn't thinking about anything.

Only a very small number of people with extremely keen observation could see that every time his eyes swept over a woman's figure, he was trying hard to focus, but failed every time. ===== CHAPTER 2283 =====