Chapter 2453: The Battle for the Cape (18)

"So what's going on?" Little Bruce looked at Schiller and asked. At this time, they were in the study of Wayne Manor, but there was also a faint fog attached to the walls, isolating this place into an independent space.

Little Bruce saw everything that happened just now. He was different from Dick; he was better at reasoning and could quickly figure out those timelines that were too complicated for ordinary people.

From the perspective of the youngest Nightwing, that is, Dick, he fell asleep, woke up, went out, and arrived at that office in an instant. Then he saw them sleeping in the office.

This was a complete timeline. The only spatial switch in the middle was that he came to the office immediately after going out, but this wasn't hard to do; at most, it was teleportation.

The sleeping them seen outside the office door was still the past timeline of this Dick, because they had indeed fallen asleep before.

Then immediately after, another office appeared in front of Dick. Outside the window of the office, a series of things that would happen in the future appeared, that is, the remaining two people encountered the attack of the eyes, drove the car onto the roof in a panic, and then fell down.

Here, a change in the timeline appeared for the first time. Dick wasn't in the car, which meant Dick still left according to the original process. Then this timeline could be the subsequent timeline of this Dick.

After seeing this future, Dick made a move, which was to return to the office showing the past scene and throw the fire extinguisher out, which meant he changed the past and also meant that a future changed accordingly would be produced.

And this changed future was the story brought by the main universe Nightwing after he appeared, that is, Dick threw a fire extinguisher down, causing the past Dick to be hit, causing him to fail to go out smoothly, causing the one who went out to become the main universe Nightwing who wanted to search for fixing equipment.

All this looked very reasonable, but the problem was that when the thick fog dissipated, the main universe Nightwing of the changed future stayed, and the Dick of the unchanged future also stayed. This was completely a paradox.

Assuming the future was changed, the injured Dick should be sitting in the car and leaving with the Arkham universe Nightwing who drove away. Assuming the future wasn't changed, there should be a crashed Batmobile at the door.

But now the situation was that Dick and the main universe Nightwing who came to find equipment stayed together, which meant the future where Dick didn't throw the fire extinguisher and thus came here smoothly, and the future where he threw the fire extinguisher and thus the main universe Nightwing came here, happened at the same time.

But human time is linear. There can only be one future on the same timeline. It's impossible to have both. So what's going on?

Little Bruce's brain started to smoke a bit. He speculated that either the timelines would merge when the thick fog dissipated, and whoever stayed would count, or space-time might have intersected at a certain point, and people who ran to the normal timeline wouldn't be destroyed because the future they were in didn't happen. But no matter how he thought about it, there were flaws, and it didn't make sense at all.

"Why do you think the thick fog really has the ability to manipulate time and space?"

"……?"

Little Bruce stared at Schiller silently. Schiller picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea and said: "Just because these Robins think so, do you think so too?"

"I think you should have such ability." Little Bruce said dryly: "... You have it, right?"

"Does having it or not matter?" Schiller said: "Even if I have it, what evidence is there that I used this ability just now?"

Little Bruce immediately figured out all the key points. He covered his forehead, unwilling to admit that he had been played.

But Schiller still played another perspective for him, which was his perspective. The thick fog appeared again. This time they were standing on the side of the road where the car was.

The three Nightwings were discussing whether to get out of the car. Then they felt that since the thick fog had already invaded, sitting in the car would avoid limiting their performance and wouldn't be conducive to fighting the enemy, so they decided to get out of the car.

The moment they reached out to push the car door, their expressions all became blank, and then they fell into a coma.

But unlike the previous perspective, this time only Dick woke up. He woke up suddenly and then started talking to himself at the thin fog in front of him.

Seeing his hand pressed on the car door, Little Bruce knew this should be the next plot "getting out of the car".

As a result, Dick didn't get out of the car at all.

He fell into a coma again, which meant Schiller didn't use teleportation at all, and Dick didn't go to any office at all. Everything he saw was just an illusion.

The next one to wake up was the main universe Nightwing. He seemed to have seen something, rushed toward the car door in a panic, shouting "Dick, are you okay?" and "Where did this fire extinguisher come from?"

But he didn't get out of the car either, and soon fell into a coma again. Until the end, the two of them pushed open the door of the office building in the illusion, and the two of them pushed open the car door and got out of the car together.

The last one to wake up was the Arkham universe Nightwing. This time he woke up for real, but he saw the shadow standing in the depths of the thick fog, stepped on the accelerator, and chased after it.

Finally, Schiller found a fire extinguisher from the office building, threw it down from the window, and with a bang, it smashed in front of the two people.

The two people in front of the gate felt like a lifetime had passed.

Little Bruce covered his eyes and said: "So this thick fog doesn't have such powerful ability at all. The effect of releasing hallucinogenic drugs is the same."

Schiller shook his head. Little Bruce thought he could say some high-level theory, but Schiller said: "No need for hallucinogenic drugs. Hypnosis can also do it. After all, pushing open the car door isn't a complex action. Give me ten minutes, and I can guide them to do it."

"But why do you want to do this?" Little Bruce didn't understand.

Schiller said: "Just to make them believe it's true."

"Usually, I won't express any specific imagery in my works, but people come to appreciate works for no more than two purposes."

"The first type of person tries to interpret the work, digging into the author's creative purpose and creative ideas from the author's visual expression. If he can understand it and dig it out, he can gain self-satisfaction similar to 'My aesthetic level is very high, I understand everything of the author'."

"The second type of person tries to resonate with the work, reading the strong emotions the author wants to express from the author's visual expression, and then resonating with his own emotions, he can gain emotional satisfaction similar to 'His feelings at that time were the same as mine, sure enough, there is someone in this world who understands me'."

"But no matter what, they come with a purpose, and they also hope to gain something in the process of appreciating the work."

"If they can't gain it, they won't think in reverse 'It's my aesthetic level that is low, I can't understand all this', or 'No one can understand me, not even the artist'. They will pass by in a hurry, not treat this as an exhibit, and go looking for those that can give them an experience."

"So a good artist, in addition to conveying his own concepts and emotions, must also satisfy the audience's shallow needs first, letting them have a feeling of 'I will definitely be able to gain something from this' when they first see the work, so that people can be attracted to stop."

"If you make everything too abstract at the beginning, just as I said, without showing any specific imagery, they will only treat you like a white wall in an art gallery, pass by in a hurry, and not have any realization."

Little Bruce associated this with the Robins' initial evaluation of this thick fog. Although they also said some phenomena, the general meaning was that it was just a natural phenomenon that appeared very widely, wouldn't cause any impact, and there was no need to pay attention to it.

But I believe that after this time, they wouldn't think so. Although they still didn't suffer any substantial harm, what impressed them was the regularity displayed in the thick fog.

Sure enough, he heard Schiller continue.

"In the initial stage, you have to create a pattern that is easy for them to understand at first, but has the possibility of deep exploration later. For example, since they understood some of the expressions seen by eyewitnesses as space-time chaos in the thick fog, then we will do so."

"To tell you the truth, I do have a way to manipulate space and time, but I'm not powerful enough to do so in every universe. That is limited to special areas and special events. I usually don't adopt such a troublesome method. Which is more time-saving and labor-saving, a dream or manipulating time and space?"

Little Bruce was speechless. Of course, it was the former. They weren't gods of time and space rules. No matter what method they used, wanting to do this was always strenuous.

And this kind of illusion wasn't Little Bruce being too confident. He had quite deep research on the power of evil gods. Manufacturing illusions could basically be said to be the basic skill of evil gods and evil god believers.

After all, righteous gods can generously bestow blessings, making you physically strong and lucky, but evil gods usually don't do this. They mainly rely on drawing big cakes to fool believers, and illusions and mental disorders are necessary skills for drawing big cakes. Which evil god wouldn't be able to survive if he couldn't do this?

It's just that Schiller's way of drawing big cakes was too unique, making Little Bruce unable to react for a while. Other evil gods generally present things that believers want in illusions, such as a happy family, resurrection from the dead, and sitting on money and power.

Schiller is good, let alone happiness and happiness. After this toss, I guess there is nothing left except shock and fear.

And this kind of shock and fear is not a threat, not to say that it makes this group of people feel afraid and therefore obey. They are afraid, but they don't know what they are afraid of.

"So what is the meaning of this?" Little Bruce asked.

"Don't you find it interesting?" Schiller said with a smile: "The rules they discovered, the loopholes they thought they could use, all the reconnaissance and exploration they carried out, and the truth they painstakingly sought, are actually just the illusions you directed."

"And the most exquisite part of this performance is that they will think that all this is the evil consequence they ate themselves, and will think that their initial prying and curiosity are original sins."

"They will naturally discard these most precious qualities of humans exploring the outside world, and even warn their hopeful peers that their exploration and pursuit are meaningless, because those things cannot be heard, cannot be seen, and cannot be stared at directly."

Little Bruce felt cold on his back, but he still looked at Schiller and said: "Aren't these Robins your juniors? Why do you treat them like this?"

"My goal is not them." Schiller looked at Little Bruce and said: "Their psychology is too healthy, and they are always thinking about Batman, not invested enough. If the protagonist of this play is them, it would be too boring."

"The most wonderful part is the look of shock and fear in the eyes of the protagonist in the painting when he turns his head to look at you, realizing that the glorious world he was once so sure he possessed is actually just a small corner in a larger terror."

And on Schiller's face who was saying this, Little Bruce saw too many such wonderful experiences he must have once possessed. ===== CHAPTER 2454 =====