Chapter 264: Inception and The Truman Show (Part 2)

Shiler with a globe head reached out, snapped his fingers, and a screen appeared above the heads of several people. He said, "You can see the situation outside through my conscious space, just like this..."

"This one is Hugo Strange. What you are seeing now is his first day in Cat Getan..."

Hugo Strange's face appeared in the picture. In the first-person perspective, a sleeve wearing a white coat appeared, followed by an arm shaking hands with Hugo.

"We are looking at your first-person perspective now, right?" Victor asked.

"That's right, at this time I am exchanging pleasantries with him. Note, next I am going to introduce the topic of psychological theory..."

Several people felt very interested and stared at the screen intently. Only then did Hugo in the first-person perspective start his long talk, and Shiler kept discussing with him. After a while, Shiler's hand in the first-person perspective took a bottle of wine out of his bag.

"Wait, is it a bit too strange to drink during an academic discussion?" Yin Wensi asked: "You were clearly chatting about very serious academic topics, at this time you took out a bottle of wine, wouldn't he feel it's not quite right?"

"Precisely because we are discussing serious academic topics, he won't notice these, because all his energy is placed on how to refute my theory. Look at his expression, note here..."

Shiler didn't know where he got a pointer, and then pointed to the picture on the screen, "See? He lowered his head and glanced at my hand that was opening the bottle cap, but while I was doing this action, I asked him another question, so his attention was diverted..."

"His curiosity about what I was doing was far less strong than his desire to refute me and prove himself."

In the first-person perspective on the screen, two hands took out two wine glasses, and then poured wine for Hugo and himself respectively. Several people heard Shiler say: "I am used to having a drink after work, how about you? Dr. Hugo?"

Hugo seemed to feel it didn't matter. He didn't look like a person who drank heavily, but he didn't seem to dislike drinking either. When Shiler pushed the wine glass in front of him, seemingly to give Shiler face, he still picked up the cup and took a sip.

And when the debate became more and more intense, Hugo started to pick up the wine glass frequently in the gaps of thinking. Victor asked: "Is he going to enter a dream?"

"That's right, you guess, where will the first act start?"

"Just like us, waking up in the original scene, and then completely unaware that they are dreaming." Cobblepot's voice was a bit low.

Shiler shook his head and said: "This is a good opening, but slightly mediocre. If the cause of a script is too flat, then the subsequent development might not be very exciting."

"Then where do you plan to start, Professor?"

Shiler snapped his fingers again, and all the items in the room retreated. The floor was pulled away section by section, the sofa disappeared layer by layer, and the cabinet and table all folded into the floor and ceiling in a magical way.

Then, all kinds of things turned out from the walls of the space, forming another scene. Several people stood in the center of this space. Yin Wensi sized it up and said: "Here seems to be... a train carriage?"

"That's right, I think a gradual opening is a good choice. You might have also seen it in some movies. The protagonist sits on a train heading to a strange city, he looks at the scenery outside the train window, fantasizing about his future life. This kind of opening is a bit literary, but I like it very much..."

Saying that, Shiler walked to the door between the carriages, and then opened the door. Sitting inside was Hugo Strange.

"But I think something is still missing." Yin Wensi touched his chin and said: "Oh, right, in dramatic creation, the protagonist needs some motivation. With motivation, can the protagonist be pushed to do things..."

"Of course, I also made preparations, but I declare first, I didn't control his spirit, just like you, he also has the ability to think independently in conscious space."

"Now..." Shiler snapped his fingers, and the narrow corridor and the compartment partitions of the train unfolded like a paper box, turning into a flat surface, leaving only the chair Hugo was sitting on, and the table in front of him.

Several people followed Shiler's footsteps and walked to Hugo's front. Cobblepot asked: "Can't he see us?"

"Good question." Shiler said: "I was just about to talk about this point."

"The conscious space of humans is divided into many layers, at least it is like this here. Different floors cannot communicate, nor can they interfere with each other."

"Are we and him on different floors?"

"That's right, the place you are in now is the 'theater' in my Palace of Thought, which are the 68th, 69th, and 70th floors respectively."

"What concept is this? What is the difference between floors?"

"Of course there is, if talking about it, it is actually very complex, because such a Palace of Thought was not built in a day, but there are also laws to follow. Simply put, the lower the floor, the more chaotic, and the higher the floor, the more orderly."

"Hugo is now in the 68th floor, which is the stage, and you are now in the 69th floor, which is the auditorium."

"And I, although I am standing beside you now, actually I am in the 70th floor of the theater, which is the broadcast room, or called the director's office."

"So, I can control everything on the stage, for example, like this..." Just as Shiler finished speaking, he snapped his fingers again, and a newspaper appeared on Hugo's table.

"Newspaper? What is written on it?" Yin Wensi wanted to lean over to take a look, but seemed not to want to get too close to Hugo. Shiler reminded him: "You can completely lean over to take a look, he can't see you."

"In my Palace of Thought, every part has different rules, and in the theater, the consciousness of the upper layers can see the consciousness of the lower layers, but the lower layers cannot see the upper layers."

"So, you can see him, but he cannot see you. At this time, in his field of vision, he should be sitting on the train, entering Cat Getan City with the train's progress..."

"Isn't he already there? And chatting and drinking with you..."

"Your stupid questions are really many." Jack glared at Yin Wensi who was asking questions. Shiler waved his hand and said: "Don't be like this, Jack, I like people who love to ask questions."

"Generally speaking, people don't realize they are dreaming when they dream, just like when you first arrived here, although it was strange everywhere and revealed weirdness everywhere, you didn't realize it at all."

"A small part of people can realize they are dreaming in a dream, and utilize the principle of believing is seeing to the extreme, completing many things that cannot be done in reality in the dream. We generally call this kind of dream 'lucid dream'."

"But obviously, Hugo who just entered the dream cannot realize he is dreaming. In his view, he just received the job notification, got on the train to Cat Getan, and then saw a newspaper on the train..."

"Then where is the motivation you mentioned before that you want to add to him?"

Shiler waved his hand again, and another newspaper appeared in Hugo's hand. That newspaper looked a bit old. Victor leaned over to look and said: "This is a report about you?"

"That's right, I am hinting to him that he had already noticed me before coming to Cat Getan, and investigated some information about me. This should arouse his curiosity about me, and it will also accelerate his speed of coming to Arkham Hospital, and pave the way for subsequent plots..."

"And then..." Shiler snapped his fingers, the table was pulled away from Hugo's front, the newspaper also flew into the air and disappeared, Hugo stepped directly into the attending physician's office of Arkham Mental Hospital,

"Why skip directly?" Victor asked him: "Won't he feel a bit strange?"

"Aren't dreams all like this? One segment after another, jumping from eating breakfast to class to lunch break to school dismissal and going home, you won't listen to a complete math class in a dream, right?"

"What to do next? Is he going to start working?"

"No, his motivation is not enough, I have to add fuel to the fire."

Immediately after, Shiler waved his hand, and a person exactly the same as him appeared beside him, except that the head turned into a normal Shiler's head, not a globe.

"What is this? Your clone?"

"He is the actor who will appear next..."

Following Shiler's words, the other himself walked into the office of Arkham Mental Hospital, and then very enthusiastically held Hugo's hands and said to him: "Thank God, you finally came."

Afterwards, Shiler started to exchange pleasantries with Hugo. Victor commented: "You performed too much like an unscrupulous quack who is eager to pass the buck."

"This is exactly what I want. If I leave him with an image of being very incompetent and eager to pass the buck, then he will feel that I am not living up to my name, and then he will have a stronger motivation to expose me and overthrow my theory."

"I really don't understand." Victor hugged his arms and said: "What is the ultimate purpose of you arranging this play? It wouldn't really be just to watch some fun, right?"

"Watching fun is one aspect, after all, the long night and sleepless, directing and acting a play is also not bad, but there is indeed another purpose, you will know when you look back."

Then, Hugo's character exited the stage, and Brand's character walked in again. Before they could ask, Shiler explained: "This is just a puppet I materialized. Brand didn't come here. After all, his direction is pathology, and he is not interested in these things."

Then. Hugo started to deliver his high-talk about "the Palace of Thought does not exist". In this process, Jack laughed very happily, and in the end, it almost turned into a belly laugh. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and said: "This is like a person saying 'people don't dream' in a dream. This is really a funny joke, ha ha ha ha ha! Replaced the joke that Shiler is an ordinary person in my heart..."

Because Shiler's head is a globe, others couldn't see his expression, but Victor still teased: "What did I just see? Is that eye roll of yours in Texas?"

Then, they saw Hugo walking out holding an egg-shaped machine. Cobblepot frowned and asked: "What is that?"

"It should be something he materialized with his own thinking, just like the chicken wing head and ice gun you just made. He believes he made this thing, so it really appeared."

Then they saw

Then they saw Hugo pick up the medical record to flip through it, then walk to the phone to start making a call.

Suddenly, a harsh ringing sound erupted in the space. Cobblepot looked down in confusion, seeing a phone floating in front of him, ringing incessantly.

"Your call," Shiler said with a smile.

"What is going on? He's calling me in a dream, and it actually reached me here?"

"I'm the one who let him reach here. Otherwise, it wouldn't be very interesting for us to just watch. I've always felt that immersive theater has great potential, and the interaction between actors and the audience is of top priority..."

"So what am I supposed to do now?"

Victor patted Cobblepot on the shoulder and said, "Answer the phone."

Cobblepot picked up the phone, and he truly heard Hugo's voice. At this moment, the two were face-to-face in the office; Hugo was holding a phone on the left side of the desk, and Cobblepot was holding a phone on the right.

"Hello, is this Mr. Cobblepot? This is Arkham Psychiatric Hospital. My records here indicate that you need to come in for a follow-up visit soon. Are you free tomorrow afternoon?"

Cobblepot was stunned, but he still agreed to the follow-up request. Then he looked at Shiler and said, "What do I do next? Do I really go for a follow-up?"

"Didn't you see how I did it just now? Imagine a virtual personality, manifest it, and let it go down to participate in this performance for you."

Shiler introduced to Cobblepot how to manifest another self within the consciousness space. He emphasized, "The trick is, it's best not to give it a higher-dimensional perspective, just like a Cobblepot who truly received a follow-up notice, is clueless, and intends to go..."

"You mean create a set of virtual memories for him?" Cobblepot asked with a frown.

"Exactly. You can arrange a reasonable excuse for him. For example, in his memory, he doesn't know I've resigned, and he thinks the follow-up is just routine, that going is no big deal. This will help him be more immersed in the performance that follows..."

When the other Cobblepot was shaped, the others clicked their tongues in wonder. When he walked into the consultation room and lay on the chair, and Hugo brought out that machine, Cobblepot in the audience asked, "What is he going to do?"

"He probably wants to enter your consciousness world."

"But isn't he already in the consciousness world?"

"Remember the rules here? To believe is to be real. He thinks this is the real world, and he is a psychologist, so he intends to enter your mind."

"And this is what I was talking about, my other goal, and also a topic I've been focusing on researching recently..."

"What?"

"A dream within a dream."