Chapter 2303: Gotham Music Festival (51)

"Shiler is a patient with a mental disorder, but he has used a special method to almost cure himself," Bruce said. "He has divided himself into a normal state and a pathological state. The vast majority of the normal state looks no different from an ordinary person."

Bat-B recalled a little. He hadn't encountered the normal Shiler much, but he could indeed feel that sometimes Shiler seemed more energetic, radiating a kind of vitality rather than the oppressive feeling that brings fear. This seemed to be the dividing line between his normal and pathological states.

"But his pathological state still exists, and because of the nature of the disease, it is difficult to be cured."

"Schizophrenia?"

"Autism."

Bruce continued to explain: "The high-functioning performance brought by autism gives him an unparalleled talent. It seems he can use a special vision to judge and analyze people's psychology."

Bat-B frowned and said, "That doesn't sound like a formal treatment process."

"It wasn't one to begin with, just a madman's hallucination, but the special talent makes the accuracy of his hallucinations reflecting his mental state as high as 80%."

"Incredible," Bat-B evaluated.

"I think so too," Bruce nodded and then continued: "After Shiler possesses a normal state, under normal circumstances, the pathological state will not appear. Even if it does, it won't stay for a long time; it just comes out occasionally to get some air. This is completely within a controllable range."

"But there is only one exception, and that is when Shiler's state is very bad. To be precise, if he feels severe pain, then what controls his body must be the pathological state."

"Why?"

"There is no why. It's just like the vast majority of people whose minds are very chaotic when they are in pain. Physiological pain just makes people lose their reason. No matter how strong human willpower is, there is a limit."

"So Shiler is out of control because of pain?"

"I said, he gets seasick."

Bat-B's facial features all scrunched together. He really couldn't understand. Seasickness is indeed very uncomfortable, that's true, but this should also be within the range that willpower can control, right?

Then he heard Bruce say: "Shiler's seasickness is not what we think, caused by the swaying of the ship leading to problems with the body's balance and coordination organs, which then makes one feel dizzy and nauseous."

"Shiler has a symbiote in his body. You can understand it as a parasitic organism that can completely change physiological properties. That can allow Shiler to turn into a mist—he doesn't even have balance organs anymore, so how could he get seasick?"

"Then what is going on with Shiler's seasickness?"

"He was also investigating this problem before, and then he discovered that he isn't seasick, but 'sea-sick'—as long as he approaches the ocean's range, various symptoms of discomfort will appear."

"To go a step further, these symptoms of discomfort clearly didn't happen to his body; it's more like it directly affected his soul. Otherwise, it's impossible to explain why the symbiote cannot be immune to this pain."

"In short, pain will make Shiler's mental state worse, and then it will be like a mental patient having an episode; the pathological state gains the initiative to control the body. And the reason why the pathological state is called pathological is because they are all sick."

Bat-B suddenly remembered one thing. He said: "Pain will make Shiler gradually lose his reason and have an episode. Then wasn't the inhalable aerosol he had before filled with tranquilizers? Where is his medicine?"

"If a mental patient who has already had an episode would obediently take medicine, then why would every mental hospital need to hire nurses?"

Bat-B was speechless. What Bruce said really made sense. Shiler did bring medicine, but he himself was a madman. If a madman would take medicine voluntarily, he wouldn't be a madman.

"Then what is going on with him becoming stronger and stronger?"

"The more painful it is, the more unstable the mental state becomes, and the greater the control permission of the pathological personality trait over the body. It can even rely on mental excitement to lift muscle restrictions, possessing extremely strong explosive power and immense strength."

Bat-B recalled that the first node of Shiler's strength increase was after being shot. After Shiler took a bullet, his speed had a clear improvement. This also completely matches what Bruce said: the stronger the pain, the more pathological, and various attributes will also improve.

Although the improved speed and strength really didn't look like something a human could possess, it also really didn't show any extra abilities like magic or superpowers. It was just a human with extremely fast speed and immense strength.

Bat-B considered himself to have dealt with many strongmen and handled top-tier killers who had maxed out both agility and strength, but no one had ever been as difficult to deal with as Shiler. He felt that something was still missing.

"Is that all?" Bat-B questioned.

"Of course not," Bruce denied and said: "Remember I said that Shiler has a special vision in the state of having hallucinations? I suspect that might be the key."

Bat-B recalled the hallucinations he had seen before. That showed the first-person perspective during the hunt, but it was only the first half of the process. The hunt chased that woman into the restroom, and then the screen jumped to the ending. That woman turned into a lively red fish.

What happened in the middle wasn't shown at all. Bat-B had originally speculated that it might just be a simple ambush and subjugation, but if it were really that simple, why not play it to the end? It couldn't be that Shiler preferred fast-paced editing, right?

The hidden part might be the key. Bat-B and Bruce reached a consensus on this. They both wanted to know what the hunt from Shiler's perspective was really like.

Bruce's eyes rolled, and he said: "What do you think I would see if I went from the Dream World to Shiler's mental world now?"

"You want to enter a madman's brain? Are you crazy too?"

"I'm mainly eager to learn," Bruce explained. "As long as I tell the Professor that I just want to personally experience the charm of psychoanalysis, he might just let me go over and take a look."

Bat-B covered his forehead and said: "Sometimes I really doubt whether you are Bruce Wayne. Are we really the same person? Such a risky, crazy idea would never appear in my mind."

Bang! Bang-bang!

Gunshots came from overhead. The few people in the room immediately put down what they were holding and looked up. The experienced Christopher said: "Not a miss. Listening to the sound, it should have hit something."

Bat-B and Bruce looked at each other and said in unison: "Shiler."

"Shiler was hit?" Bat-B frowned, and then he immediately remembered what Bruce had said before and said: "If the worse Shiler's state is, the more powerful he becomes, then no matter which part was hit by three bullets, it can completely be called a serious injury. To what extent will he be strengthened?"

"Seeing is believing." Bruce directly took a small spray bottle out of his pocket and dragged Bat-B out of the room, coming to another sealed staff dormitory.

"What is this?" Bat-B asked.

"An auxiliary prop to be used next." Bruce pointed to the lower bunk of the bed and said: "Lie down here, I'll go to the top. Let's go see what the world in Shiler's eyes is like."

Bat-B didn't intend to lie down; he intended to sit and watch what Bruce was doing. But Bruce nimbly climbed to the upper bunk and sprayed the spray bottle into the air. Bat-B instantly smelled a rich aroma of alcohol.

When he woke up again, he found himself standing on a grassland. Bruce stood in the distance, waved at him, and said: "This is the Dream World. The Dream God who originally managed this has left temporarily. Now the Professor possesses a portion of the authority, so as long as we come here, he should be able to discover us."

Sure enough, the two waited for a while and saw Shiler holding an umbrella walking toward them.

Shiler didn't seem surprised by the arrival of the two. He pointed to the other side and said: "Follow me. Don't count on going up to watch. Now all the pathological states have come to the Tower. The entire Tower has become their carnival party. It's too noisy."

"Are you okay?" Bat-B asked. He had always found it somewhat difficult to understand Shiler's descriptions of himself. After all, cutting himself into so many pieces was still a bit too abstract. It was difficult for normal people to understand the relationship between various personality traits.

"I won't die for the time being." Shiler's answer was radical yet conservative, and then he added: "However, many people are going to die."

Bat-B swallowed. This statement didn't sound like a metaphor at all. And if the person who understood him best was himself, then it was hard to imagine what would happen next.

They indeed didn't come to the Tower, but just saw a screen in an open space in the Dream World.

At this time, one-quarter of the field of view at the edge of the screen was blood red, another quarter inward was blurry water ripples, and half of the area in the center of the screen was actually clear—far larger than the area of clear vision in the hunt process in the hallucinations Bat-B had seen before.

But the scene within it made both Bat-B and Bruce somewhat difficult to understand. The vision presented in the clear part wasn't a single layer, but like several sheets of paper stacked together, and one could see what was drawn on the paper behind through the first sheet.

All the color blocks and lines on the paper were very clear. When stacked together, it looked chaotic at first glance, but the layers were divided clearly and explicitly. As long as one focused their attention, they could accurately judge which layer a certain color block or line was on.

But what was most difficult to understand were the color blocks and lines. This was too different from the real world. Bat-B looked for a long time before discovering that there were countless blue color blocks on the front-most layer that were expanding, shrinking, and rippling, suspected to be a certain wall in the second-floor corridor.

Making this judgment was only because the circular shape missing from this color block was exactly the same as the observation window on the door of the second-floor room.

The rectangular block on the second layer seemed to be a cabinet, but the cabinet should be placed in the lower right corner of the wall. However, this cabinet was a purple block bumping around in a boundless rectangular area, and it contained a small coating inside, which had a bunch of messy lines, looking like clothes.

All the above color blocks had countless patterns, expanding, shrinking, and rippling within a limited range, making one dizzy.

But actually, all of this was still okay. The most terrifying thing was that behind the wardrobe layer, there was a pile of completely irregular things that looked like they were casually smeared with watercolors, constantly wriggling. The patterns contained within were also ten times more complex than the walls and wardrobes.

When Shiler's field of view moved, all these things moved along with it. And when this color block was moved to the center of the field of view, it began to become brighter and brighter, the light gradually passing through all the layers in front of it.

Until the light passed through the front-most wall layer and reached the peak of brightness, all the patterns and colors within this mass of color were released, rushing violently into the field of view.

Bat-B felt a distinct dizziness from this sudden, large-scale conversion of patterns and colors. When he came to his senses and focused his spirit to look again, the light extinguished with a 'swish'.

Bat-B was at a loss.

Shiler's voice came from his ear.

"She's dead."

Bat-B felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. ===== CHAPTER 2304 =====