Chapter 265

"What happens if a person is in a dream, dreams that they have fallen asleep, and has another dream?"

The few people beside Shiler fell into thought. He continued to explain, "When this situation occurs, the vast majority of people are actually just jumping from one dream to another, like jumping from one point to another on a flat plane."

"But in very rare cases, one can start a vertical descent from a point, break through this plane, and descend into a deeper layer of consciousness."

"Then, in the dream you created for him, Hugo wants to enter someone else's dream—where will he enter?" Victor muttered to himself.

"That is exactly what I want to research."

"Let's look at it from the beginning again. Previously, I used the madness potion to pull all of your consciousnesses into my consciousness space, right?"

"Then, I went and pulled Hugo's consciousness into my consciousness space as well. Although he is not on the same floor as you, you are all currently in my consciousness space."

"And now, a situation has arisen: while you and Hugo are both in my consciousness space, he wants to use his consciousness to connect to yours. He enters your dreams within his dream. So, will he directly open a passage to your deep consciousness?"

"This is a topic I've been focusing on researching recently: how to maintain a stable dream-within-a-dream state and establish a stable passage to the deep consciousness. If this can be done, we can solve many psychological problems at the root level."

"I don't know if I've grasped your entire plan, but as of now, you got Hugo into your dream, then used his identity as a psychologist to let him sneak into others' dreams. You think you can use this method to open a passage to the deep consciousness, is that it?"

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"Exactly. The consciousness world is a very complex concept. Here, everything is possible, and everything is impossible. There might be ten thousand keys corresponding to one door, or there might be one key that can open ten thousand doors."

"So all research related to the consciousness space sounds like a fantasy, but it all truly exists. It's fascinating, isn't it?"

"So boring," Jack said, digging at his ear.

"Yes, it is indeed boring for you, because your surface consciousness and deep consciousness are all mixed together like a ball of paste. You can completely slide from your surface consciousness to your deep consciousness, and then bounce back up with a spring..."

Speaking of this, the group saw a bubble suddenly emerge above the consultation room where Cobblepot and Hugo were. Inside it was another space, an iceberg restaurant standing in the space. Shiler said with some regret, "This should also be surface consciousness... It didn't succeed. Why?"

"The deep consciousness space wouldn't be so concrete and orderly. Surface consciousness space is often relatively stable because you are still a normal person, not a complete lunatic. Those most terrifying memories should be hidden in the deep consciousness space."

"Let's put a few actors in first..." Shiler arranged, saying, "I suspect it might be that Hugo's desire to explore isn't strong enough, and the 'belief' that what he believes is what he gets isn't firm enough..."

Thus, a clone of Cobblepot walked out of the iceberg restaurant first, then invited Hugo in. Then, Victor walked into the restaurant, and Shiler also walked into the restaurant. Everything was like a fast-forwarded movie, and then, in an instant, it stopped on Hugo's finger pressing the button.

"What does this represent?" Victor in the audience asked. "That button, what does it represent?"

Shiler looked at the yellow button and said, "It should be confidence in his own theory, and the desire to manipulate others' spirits..."

The moment he pressed the button, the globe on Shiler's head spun rapidly. He said, "The passage to the deep consciousness space has opened... What is that? Fear?"

"It seems it is indeed fear."

Shiler looked at the image of the giant old woman covered in blood and brandishing a dagger on the screen. He turned his head and saw Cobblepot's figure flicker.

Shiler's figure suddenly became incomparably huge, then he poked his head into the screen and crushed the bubble above the consultation room with a "pop."

Then he withdrew and said, "It seems that was something that ran out of the deep consciousness space. This method is effective, just unstable..."

"Is it my turn next?"

"Correct."

A few minutes later, Shiler crushed the bubble filled with storms once again and said, "The situation is exactly the same. The passage can be opened, it's just unstable."

Yin Wensi raised his hand and said, "Next is me, right?"

"I feel that his consciousness can no longer withstand another consumption. If there's one more time, he might wake up, just like how it is when a person jumps from a high building in a dream."

Shiler continued, "Forget it, let's try one last time."

When they saw Hugo retreat, Shiler concluded, "This might be his brain's self-protection function at work."

"How about it? Do you still want to try?"

"Of course. I think this method is feasible, but the fundamental reason why the passage cannot be stable might not be the method itself, but the problem of your consciousness world."

"Then what do you intend to do?"

Shiler's globe head spun faster and faster. He said, "Jack, cooperate with me. Maybe you'll have some fun to watch in a moment."

As he spoke, regardless of whether Jack agreed or not, he snapped his fingers, and a medical record landed on Hugo's desk. On it was written a name without a surname—"Jack."

The scene changed again. Jack sat on the chair in the consultation room, crying incessantly. He said, "Dr. Hugo... please, you must save me! That terrible Dr. Rodriguez constantly abuses me. He forces me to dye my hair green, put on clown makeup, and then perform for him. He is a devil, you must save me..."

"Don't cry, Jack! Don't cry..." Hugo held Jack's shoulder and said, "I have also discovered that he may be secretly abusing his patients and remodeling their spirits. Listen, Jack..."

"I will call him here on official business, and then you knock him unconscious when he's not prepared. He won't be on guard against you; after all, you are just a poor little thing being abused by him. We can..."

Shiler touched the model of the globe on his head and said, "I don't even know whether to praise your acting as superb or to say... forget it, it must be that your acting is superb."

"What are you talking about?" Jack in the audience also began to wipe away tears. "You terrible psychologist, a devil who imprisons our spirits here and uses us for your terrible experiments!"

"Stop crying, it's almost time for your favorite part."

Jack covered his eyes with his hands while peeking out from between his fingers. On the screen, Shiler walked into the office, Hugo stood opposite him to attract his attention, and then a green-haired figure took a baseball bat and struck Shiler's head hard...

"Hahahaha!!" Jack in the audience burst into a series of loud laughs, laughing until tears streamed down.

"Did you see that? That's Shiler the ordinary person! Hahahaha!"

"Do you know what the funniest part is? It's... hahahaha... the way you fell down is completely wrong! Shiler the ordinary person! You've never been knocked unconscious by anyone, you can't even fake it, hahahaha..."

Victor turned his head to look at the globe on Shiler's shoulder and said, "It seems the eye-roll in Texas was indeed yours."

The scene on the screen changed again. Shiler was sitting in that interrogation chair, and then Hugo turned on the light and said to him, "You're awake..."

And Jack, who was leaning against the wall, revealed a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth the moment before Hugo closed his eyes.

Zooming in on Jack's expression, he was looking up, as if seeing everyone in the high-level audience from the bottom stage, and the smile at the corner of his mouth wasn't mocking Hugo, but more like... self-mockery.

Jack in the audience also did the same action—looked up, looked at the sky, and smiled.

---Author's Note---

Didn't expect that, did you! A crossover of British and American works is just like this! Just stitch it all together!

Many people previously responded that they couldn't understand it. I didn't explain it before because it might have been a spoiler. Now that this part of the plot is finished, I think most of the audience for British and American crossovers should be able to understand it.

If you don't understand, it might be because you've watched fewer British and American dramas. These are all old tropes—mind palaces, consciousness spaces, etc. This is the reason I don't want to explain them in long-winded detail; this isn't some particularly novel setting.

If I really wanted to pad the word count, I could explain concepts for three thousand words out of ten thousand, write four thousand words of film criticism, and have the protagonist play Inception for you in his mind. Believe me, I used to do this all the time on Feilu; I'm a skilled worker at this point.

But my conscience still hurts, so I'm focusing on pushing the plot. If you really, truly didn't understand a single thing, you can leave a question in the comments under this Author's Note, and I'll think about how to revise the previous parts so you can understand... (It's so hard, I don't think there's any part that's hard to understand, is there?)