Chapter 3376: Miracle Doctor (Part 31)

The flames burned the firewood in the fireplace, emitting faint, subtle sounds. The light shone on the walnut floor, reflecting a red deeper than blood. The firelight and shadows intertwined and danced, flickering as if a lively song and dance drama were being performed on the floor ahead.

Some noisy sounds came from behind the wall, but they only made the room seem even quieter. The black-haired man in black robes lay on the recliner by the fireplace, resting with his eyes half-closed.

Another figure was using a dropper to drip potion onto several silver coins lined up on the table. Upon contact with the liquid, the surfaces of the silver coins began to change color, emitting sparse blue smoke and making a faint hissing sound.

Gloved fingers pushed a few of the silver coins aside. He leaned down, his gray pupils scanning the row of coins in front of him. After a long while, he straightened up, tilted his head, picked up two of them, wiped them clean with a towel nearby, and set them aside. The rest were collected into a brass tray.

Removing the monocle from his eye socket, he walked over to the recliner on the other side of the fireplace and sat down. The black-haired man was startled; he opened his eyes slightly, his blue eyes reflecting the flickering firelight, and looked toward the other side.

"How is it? Doctor?" the black-haired man asked.

"I think the concentration needs to be adjusted again." A silver coin was handed over.

Fingers stroked the corrosion marks on the silver coin, and he said, "It seems we should add more Moon Frost powder to neutralize the corrosiveness and ensure the medicinal effect can be maximized."

"Should we make another batch to test?"

"I think we can. If nothing goes wrong, this will be the last batch. Additionally, although I thought there might be another you among the other group of players, the fact that they are making such a big commotion might have some impact on our plan, Dr. Shiler."

"We should be glad." Leaning on the recliner, Shiler crossed his fingers over his abdomen and gazed at the fireplace flames, saying, "We encountered the one who is relatively easier to deal with under these conditions."

"Is that so? This is already considered easy to deal with?" Another figure walked to the table, placed a flask on the flask rack, and began processing materials on the side.

"Yes." Shiler nodded and said, "Greed's state looks very stable; this might be because he performed well in the previous game. This time he just casually found a dungeon to relax in, so he wouldn't want to make any big waves."

"Mr. Wood Man probably wouldn't think so."

"Wood must have done something." Shiler's fingers tapped lightly on the back of his hand, and he said in a somewhat sleepy voice, "I guess it should have something to do with money."

"In that case, is he just unlucky?"

"I think so, but he is also lucky. Because Greed only wants money; now that he has taken all of Wood's savings, he probably won't care about him too much anymore."

"Do you think there is any profit to be squeezed out of that raven?"

"Of course, and he has probably already squeezed it. When I went out, I saw that bird; his expression when looking at Greed was no better than when he looked at me. This proves he has already suffered a loss."

"I guess they should be developing better than us. You said there is a professional doctor in his team."

"Very professional." Shiler replied, "The best neurosurgeon in the world, and possibly the best surgeon as well."

"I'm starting to want to meet him."

"You have already met him." Shiler said, "Stephen Strange, whose other identity is the Sorcerer Supreme."

"So it's him. An extreme human supremacist."

"It sounds like you don't think highly of him."

"I didn't know he was also such an excellent surgeon. This will significantly improve my evaluation of him."

"Do you want to be his teammate?"

"I often become friends with mages."

"Because you can use them to understand and guard against magic. But the magic of another universe is completely different from ours. The key is not the mages, but the demon gods behind them."

"Analogous to angels and demons?"

"Harder to deal with than angels and demons. More like intelligent energy bodies wandering in the universe; some of the powerful ones can possess their own dimensions and are called Dimension Lords. They are invincible within their own dimensions."

"Then how do you enter their dimensions?"

"They are the dimension itself; if they don't agree, no one can get in. And they are usually also part of the laws of the universe. As long as the universe exists, they cannot be completely killed."

Batman frowned and said, "And the mages there make deals with such existences. What leverage do they have?"

"Earth is special to the demon gods. And through the efforts of many generations of Sorcerers Supreme, they have the means to protect Earth. The demon gods must sign contracts with them to allow their agents to operate on Earth."

"Sounds very dangerous."

"Actually, it's not safe either. The mages of that universe spend most of their energy protecting Earth."

"That is indeed admirable."

"Yes, most other universes are indeed like that. But don't admire the universe where Greed is."

"Why?"

"Because their way of contracting has become too modernized."

Batman looked back at Shiler and said, "Modernized?"

"Not contracts, but agreements. Not equivalent exchange, but membership clubs, trusts, and futures."

Batman's hand movements paused, and he said, "It does sound modernized enough; have humans become more advantageous because of this?"

"Perhaps. But those demon gods aren't stupid either; they want the winner to take all, so naturally, they are more in favor of this method."

"But they could also choose not to choose humans."

"No." Shiler shook his head and said, "The previous Sorcerer Supreme was too strong; if they chose to help aliens and invade Earth, they would get nothing."

"I see." Batman nodded and said, "That conversation was too short; I didn't learn enough, I didn't expect there to be such origins."

"Changes in form can indeed solve some problems, but in the end, it still comes down to fists." Shiler slowly closed his eyes and said, "But if the demon gods of their universe have no way to leave their home universe, the mages there won't be able to provide you with any help."

"I never pin my hopes on magic." Batman also leaned down and began to arrange the silver coins according to the degree of corrosion; his focused gaze made those blue eyes look even deeper.

Shiler's consciousness had just entered the dream when he suddenly woke up. He sighed lightly, sat up from the recliner, and said, "No, the dream world is still refusing my entry. It seems we can only rely on potions."

"I think our previous actions were a bit reckless." Batman stopped his work, thinking and reflecting, "Using your ability to reverse-compile the memories in the dream was a good idea, but this young lady is just too alert."

"I was assuming the controller of the dream was just a seven or eight-year-old girl with an incomplete mind, wanting to gamble that her control over memories wasn't that strong. Since there was no absolute certainty, it's normal to lose the gamble."

Batman continued to look down, focused on his work. Shiler began to recall the series of plans they had adopted since arriving here.

It can only be said that compared to Pride, the series of actions taken by Greed were conservative; he was truly enjoying the fun of the game.

On the first day after entering the game, Shiler and Batman both entered the dream. But unlike Greed and Strange who chose to temporarily ignore the dream and focus on reality, Pride's team launched a detailed discussion about the dream.

The plot of entering the dream once was too short, so they chose to enter the dream again, and like Greed and the others, lost some insignificant parts. But neither Batman nor Pride cared. In their view, exchanging nails or teeth for clues was perfectly normal.

The game originally did not allow repeated entry into dreams to forcibly push the plot. After having a dream once, one would not be sleepy for a long time, no matter how one lay down, one couldn't fall asleep.

But Batman and Pride were not mortals. After a discussion, they formulated a plan, which was for Pride to hypnotize Batman to actively explore the dream.

In psychology, there is a therapy called sleep therapy. Some psychologists can control a patient's sleep with the patient's cooperation, including controlling sleep duration, depth of sleep, and even part of the dream content. Shiler adopted this method.

They bypassed the game's restrictions and used another method to enter the dream, forcibly pushing the dream plot on the little girl's side, wanting to figure out what was going on.

As expected, the little girl had her nails and teeth pulled out, and just when she was about to have her tongue cut off, Shiler woke Batman up from the outside to prevent these injuries from reflecting on him.

In order to continue pushing the dream exploration, before the next dream entry, Shiler gave Batman a psychological suggestion, making him no longer possess the little girl to observe the first-person perspective, but instead possess the group of villains who attacked the little girl, observing the little girl in the third person.

The little girl was really nothing special; she was just a very ordinary seven or eight-year-old girl. Apart from the very intense hatred in her eyes, nothing else could be seen.

They cut off her tongue, drove long nails into her body, and finally tied her to a wooden frame, roasting her on the surface of the fire, burning her to death alive, just like the little girl in Silent Hill.

Batman believed this was a cult ritual. However, Shiler observed that the little girl seemed very weak and showed signs of excessive blood loss. He guessed that the cultists had extracted her blood and then sacrificed her in a special way.

They watched the whole process in the third person and naturally did not suffer any harm. But this successfully created a bug; after the plot animation finished playing, a new round of the exact same animation began.

It was at this moment that Shiler proposed a bold plan.

Because when entering a dream, the default mode is first-person. Without intervention, Batman would play the little girl.

Batman could see everything the little girl experienced and turn it into his own memory, then recount it to Shiler after leaving the dream.

And if the dream is an infinite loop, then one could reverse-influence the little girl's memory by compiling Batman's memory.

For example, if Shiler changed the memory left by everything Batman experienced in the dream to the little girl always living with her family and only unfortunately dying in an accident, then Batman would enter the dream with such a memory.

Then when he saw the little girl's tragic encounter, he would question it and start constantly recalling the memories he possessed in his mind, similar to "I remember I clearly didn't encounter these, I have always lived with my family, this is just a nightmare."

Perhaps some people have had such experiences, experiencing some bad encounters when they were young, such as witnessing some tragic situations, being injured in accidents, or suffering misfortune and leaving psychological trauma.

After growing up, they know such a thing happened, but they don't remember any details at all. Besides the brain deliberately forgetting certain traumatic memories, it is also because the adults around them are deliberately covering it up.

As long as you ask, they will definitely say no. A child's mental development is not complete, their judgment is lacking, and they are easily misled by others' words and distort their own memories. When people around them say it enough, they naturally believe it.

Shiler was gambling that Batman's willpower was far stronger than a seven or eight-year-old girl's. As long as he used his memory to repeatedly emphasize that this past did not exist, then the little girl might also be influenced by him and waver about her traumatic memories.

And once she wavered, feeling that her past encounter was just an unremarkable nightmare one night, then the whole thing would be fundamentally resolved.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3377 =====