Chapter 268: No Batman Event (Part 3)

After that apple had danced who knows how many dances, Hugo finally couldn't take it anymore. This was completely an unreasonable consciousness space!

Standing from a God's-eye view and with Shiler's explanation, this compositional relationship was not complex. To put it bluntly, this was actually the concretization of Shiler's thinking.

For example, the "Inverted Tower" represents Shiler's perspective-taking process, the "Room of Self-Control" represents his choices when facing temptation, that building-block theater whose name cannot be spoken represents his way of entertaining himself, and the Square of Boredom... anyway, it represents boredom.

These thoughts and emotions are things everyone has. If these were substituted into an ordinary person, it might also be like this. For example, the process of learning knowledge is concretized into a library, the process of reflecting on oneself is concretized into a meditation room, and so on.

But this is only from a high-dimensional God's-eye view. If a transmigrator were suddenly thrown into these rooms, he would definitely be baffled, not knowing what was going on.

Hugo possessed very sufficient professional knowledge, and he also knew that this should be the concretization of Shiler's thinking, but he completely couldn't understand what these things represented.

From his perspective, he was first teleported to a hospital full of crazy doctors, then subjected to various tortures, and finally scared awake.

After waking up, he arrived at an office, where a voice inexplicably guided him to detonate a bomb, and then he was scared awake again.

Then he found himself kidnapped by a green-haired, C-shaped-handed building-block person, and this time he was shut down before he could be scared awake.

Then he was teleported to a void space, watching an apple dance more than six hundred dances.

If this story were written into some literary work, there would definitely be quite a few readers commenting that this kind of stream-of-consciousness composition is still a bit too early for carbon-based life forms.

If the first scene could still be understood as the concretization of Shiler's obsessions in work and problems in communicating with patients, the second scene could barely be understood as setbacks encountered at work and fantasies while slacking off, and the third scene could barely be explained as some childhood fantasies...

But Hugo really couldn't imagine, what does an apple dancing more than six hundred dances represent?

What on earth does it represent?

What else could this represent?!

What the hell, what on earth, can it possibly, represent, what the hell???

Hugo gave up, or rather, he was already desperate.

But this is also normal. Anyone who watches an apple with hands and feet perform all the ballet and opera repertoires that all classical music and dance music in the world can perform should also have similar emotions. It can't be said to be surging with emotion, but it can be said to be a thorough realization.

But before he became desperate, there was one last thing he could do. Hugo hadn't forgotten. He still had a machine button that could influence people's emotions and bring out the things people feared most in their hearts.

Finally, Hugo hadn't forgotten his line: "Let me see, what is it that you fear most?"

The moment he pressed the button, the whole world quieted down. Everyone in the audience turned their heads to look at their surroundings, and then found that nothing had happened.

"Did your experiment fail? It looks like the passage to the deep consciousness hasn't opened."

"No... perhaps it has already opened, it's just..." Shiler stood up again, then led everyone to the entrance of the theater. He opened the door—outside were the clouds of the high altitude.

Irresistible strong winds poured in, but Victor still took a look from the side. He found that the door had turned into the shape of an airplane cabin window, and there was a clearly visible airplane wing outside the window.

"Are you most afraid of flying?"

Shiler shook his head, and then the others saw the clouds becoming thinner and thinner. The plane was gradually descending, the city below was gradually enlarging, the plane flew lower and lower, and finally landed steadily.

"And then?" Yin Wensi asked, somewhat confused.

"What I fear is not flying, but that the plane I'm on lands steadily."

"If one day, I feel a bump, then wake up from a dream and find that I am sitting in an airplane seat, and all this was just a dream I had during the flight..."

Shiler shook his head and said, "... that would be too terrible."

None of the others understood what he meant, only Jack said, "What a surprising and wonderful dream. But next, you have to stand up from the chair, get your luggage, greet the flight attendants, and then walk off the plane. Where are you going next? I don't know, but it must be to do some ordinary and boring things..."

"A person who fears ordinary life but disguises himself as an ordinary person..." Jack smacked his lips and said, "Well, it's a bit funny..."

"But it's far less funny than a person who fears bats but has to disguise himself as a bat, hahahahahaha!"

Just at this moment, a rabbit hole appeared in front of them. Shiler said to Jack, "Stop laughing, get to work, don't forget the deal between the two of us."

"You don't expect me to jump into this rabbit hole, do you?" Jack also looked at Shiler and said. The two stared at each other, and finally, Shiler snapped his fingers.

In an instant, the clothes Jack was wearing turned into a blue and white Lolita dress. The Joker looked at the clothes he was wearing and then continued to stare at Shiler. Shiler also stared at him and said, "Is this outfit not suitable enough for a rabbit hole? Which version of 'Alice in Wonderland' are you looking at?"

Yin Wensi covered his eyes, seemingly feeling that Jack's outfit was very eye-stinging. He said, "No matter which of you is crazy, if you don't let him leave quickly, I'm going to go crazy!"

"Why isn't the one jumping into the rabbit hole a rabbit?" Kebote asked. Victor replied to him, "This is what I emphasized to you before, the importance of reading. I have a gold-bound version of 'Alice in Wonderland' there, I'll give it to you later."

Jack and Shiler were still in a stalemate. Finally, Shiler said, "I'll tell you a joke, and then you jump in, how about that?"

"What joke are you planning to tell?"

"The rabbit jumped into the rabbit hole first, then Alice also jumped into the rabbit hole. The bat jumped into the bat hole first, then who also jumped into the bat hole?"

"Hahahahaha! It's Jack! Jack also jumped into the bat hole! It's me! Of course it's me!! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!"

Jack laughed wildly, then ran toward the rabbit hole and dived in with a diving posture.

"I don't understand what you guys are going crazy about. Is that rabbit hole the passage to your deep consciousness space?"

"That's right..." Shiler said, watching Jack disappear into the rabbit hole.

"Then why did you let him jump in?"

"Where is this?" Shiler asked a question. Before Victor could answer, he answered it himself: "This is my consciousness space, but in essence, everything that happens here is equivalent to a dream."

"If we compare one layer of my dream to the surface, then the 330 layers above are equivalent to the buildings on the ground, and those below the surface belong to the basement."

"Not only are there many layers of buildings above ground, but there are also many layers in the basement. A certain level-breaking expert is not only good at breaking through levels upward, but also very good at breaking through levels downward."

"Breaking through levels downward, why break through levels downward?"

"What do you think is at the very top of my Palace of Mind?"

"Hmm... if we go by this theory, the very top should be the real world, right? As long as you climb to the very top, you can control your body and move in the real world?"

"That's right. Then what do you think is at the very bottom of the basement?"

Victor narrowed his eyes, and the other two also started thinking because of this question. Kebote asked, "Is there really a very bottom?"

"Of course there is. As long as you dig deep enough, one day you will be able to dig to the bottom."

"So Jack went to help you dig the basement?"

"He's not only going to help me dig the basement, but after digging to the bottom, he also has to help me... splash shit there."

The consciousness space gradually dissipated, and the dream began to scatter. After the consciousness of the few returned to their bodies, Victor shook his head, feeling a bit sleepy. He turned his head and saw Shiler sitting behind the table, holding a globe. The globe was still spinning continuously when it was placed on the table.

"Initial Evolution"

This scene was somewhat familiar. Victor even specifically looked around but didn't find anything unusual. Shiler saw his movement and said to him, "This is one of the aftereffects of a lucid dream. After waking up, you will doubt whether you are still dreaming. However, I can tell you that this is indeed the real world."

Yin Wensi and Kebote both stood up from the sofa and moved their somewhat stiff bodies. Only Jack, who was lying on the single sofa, was still asleep.

"What you said to us in the dream is true? Jack went to your deep consciousness to dig down? What will he dig up? What do you mean by that? That is... to..." Victor paused, but still didn't say that somewhat indecent word.

"When you want to make a fish surface, besides using bait to lure it, there is another way..."

"What is that?"

"Pour shit into its home."

Kebote showed a sudden realization expression. Clearly, he thought of some situations from the past, and then this expression turned into disgust and a little bit of sympathy.

The other two were a bit confused, but didn't ask further.

After the few left, the sky turned dark again. Shiler sat on the sofa as usual, reading a book while listening to music.

Not long after, he felt a wave of sleepiness coming over him. Shiler took out the refreshing potion he had prepared and poured it into his mouth, but this sleepiness began to grow deeper and deeper, until his eyelids couldn't even open.

In the dark, a voice said to him: Sleep, sleep, hurry up and sleep...

And Shiler's response was, won't sleep, won't sleep, just won't sleep.

Sleep... hurry up and sleep...

No, not sleepy, won't sleep...

"You're sleepy! Hurry up and sleep!"

"I'm not sleepy at all! At least I can hold on for another 20 hours!"

"But I can't hold on anymore!!!" the voice roared.

In an instant, Shiler's vision went black. When he had consciousness again, a man in a robe, pale-faced and thin, appeared in front of him, staring at him with eyes full of anger.

Shiler seemed to have expected this. He stood up from the sofa and asked, "Excuse me, are you 'Sandman' Morpheus?"

"That's right, I am Morpheus, you..."

Shiler interrupted him, opened his arms, and said, "Morpheus, I'm here to negotiate terms."

--- Side Note ---

There's a super-duper-awesome party in Gotham today, the coolest people here are all here, we did a ton of super cool things, but guess who we didn't invite to this party???

That! Would! Be! You! Bat! Man! ===== CHAPTER 269 =====