Chapter 4511: The Darkest Night (Forty-Six)

Shiler did not hesitate; he crossed the hall and walked toward the back garden. He believed that before Bruce discovered him, he should leave enough time for observation. He wanted to know how they got along with each other.

Soon, a figure appeared in the Wayne Manor hall. Following behind him was another small figure. It was a very thin little girl. Because her body was too thin, her head appeared exceptionally large, drooping on her shoulders, looking as if it might fall off. She was precisely Novy.

Bruce's attention was completely on this little girl, so he did not notice Shiler standing at the back door. Shiler stood there, quietly watching the two interact. But the more he watched, the deeper his brow furrowed.

Bruce was laboriously explaining to the little girl what the situation actually was right now. He was telling her she was safe. But the little girl completely ignored his explanation and ran to the corner of the room. And Bruce followed after her.

At this time, Shiler actually already recalled that back then he had seen similar traces in Wayne Manor, and from them judged: that little girl Bruce brought back might have died from cardiopulmonary failure caused by a stress state. Now it seemed this judgment was correct.

Some of Bruce's behaviors were indeed not wise enough, but this was more likely due to his lack of understanding of children.

Many people know that pediatrics is also called the "mute specialty." Children are a kind of creature very difficult to communicate with. They don't necessarily speak; even if they speak it's not necessarily true; even if true it's not necessarily useful. So treating children's illnesses is actually similar to treating kittens and puppies. You cannot expect them to communicate effectively with you, then solve problems through communication.

Not to mention children, how many adults still tell little lies when seeing a doctor. Relying on reasoning and questioning cannot solve their problems. That's why doctors tend to use professional instruments for examination. If you really treated according to everything the patient self-reports, that's not a doctor, it's a killer.

Bruce's biggest mistake lay in: he placed too much importance on patient self-report. He felt he could use verbal communication and appeasement to solve the problem, but actually it doesn't work.

However, this kind of mistake is almost inevitable. Because if a person has back pain and leg pain, a doctor can order various imaging tests to judge where the problem is. Then, if a person has a mental problem, how do you do imaging tests?

The fact is, even to this day, a super AI like Brainiac has no way with lunatics either. Many mental problems still can only rely on patient self-report; other examinations are instead auxiliary.

Of course, there are relatively more accurate methods, but Bruce completely doesn't know them. Because this method of bypassing verbal communication and directly judging mental state is called psychoanalysis.

It can be said, if it weren't Bruce, swap in another person of about the same age group, the tragedy would be unavoidable all the same. Because they're too young, haven't been parents, lack experience dealing with children, only think about discovering problems and solving problems. The straight line between two points is shortest; the final result is bringing too much mental pressure to Novy.

The only ones with some hope of turning the situation around would probably be letting older people handle it. And this person had best be good parents, deeply involved in their own children's childhoods, or relevant professionals. Otherwise it still won't work.

Shiler stood behind the door, carefully observing Novy's state. Then he realized that Novy's extreme reaction stemmed not only from Bruce's pressure, but also from fear of the new environment.

Shiler noticed a detail: when Novy ran to the wall corner, she stepped on the carpet by the fireplace. The moment she stepped on it, she revealed an extremely terrified expression, almost falling. Then she scrambled around that place before running to the wall corner.

This was because in the environment she used to live in, there was no such thing as carpet. The ground should be hard, so when she stepped on the carpet she was very terrified. She didn't know what that thing was. Common-sense information like "a floor covered with something can also be soft" that had never appeared in her brain before surged into her brain. These large amounts of information surged in within a short time, while her brain itself already had insufficient blood supply, fundamentally having no energy to digest and absorb them, causing her to be unable to accept them.

Information kept bombarding, but she couldn't accept it, causing the cache to grow more and more, then freezing the mainframe system. This made her even more unable to communicate.

Then it was Bruce sending the little girl upstairs. Because Novy had a fever, Bruce sent her back to rest. But actually this didn't stop the information bombardment; on the contrary it made the speed of strange information appearing become faster.

The bed was soft, the blanket was warm, the fabric was smooth... all these were too unfamiliar to her. This information lingered in her brain, further consuming system memory, capacity almost completely full.

Seeing this, Shiler felt some doubt. Actually even if it's information bombardment or a system crash, it's not to the point of endangering life. On the contrary, freezing the brain into a blank actually helps rest.

It's similar to when you can't sleep lying in bed tossing and turning, thinking about various things. Those things you can figure out instead make you excited, until you encounter a thing you can't figure out no matter how you think, stop at "can't figure it out so won't think," then fall asleep.

The human brain consumes a lot of energy. If the brain temporarily stops activity, it can save quite a bit of energy. It looks like it should be developing in a good direction; how did it suddenly go bad again?

Shiler saw Bruce was talking with Dick on the stairs. Taking advantage of them not paying attention, Shiler came to the second floor from the other side, then came to the room where the little girl was resting.

He only glanced at the door and understood why — Novy had no intention of giving up thinking.

Even though her brain already had severe insufficient blood supply, even though her system was almost frozen, she still didn't give up, didn't think "can't figure it out so won't think." She kept trying to understand the things around her.

She was forcing herself to accept: this soft thing she was lying on is also a bed, in this world there really are blankets that are warm, and medicines that are effective. She kept her brain running, accepting the massive information surging into her brain in a short time, even attempting to analyze.

She was trying to understand what the person who brought her back wanted to do, how she would be in the future, what exactly she should do now. Her brain didn't stop for a moment; therefore she just lay stiffly on the bed, completely without any sleepiness.

Think about it and you know: if she had given up long ago, thinking "whatever happens happens, it's just death anyway," she fundamentally wouldn't have had a stress reaction, would just be like a marionette, letting others manipulate her.

It's precisely because she kept trying to react to the information inputting, but her hardware conditions didn't support it, that she would cry and fuss like this, unable to rest when she should rest.

This might be the Gothamite curse, Shiler thought. They're too good at thinking, regardless of occasion or place. Thinkers are always in pain; they fundamentally cannot let that brilliant brain completely stop running to seek true peace.

They can't be like those numb walking dead, accepting fate's arrangements in ignorance and unawareness. What flows in their spinal cords are knife-like thoughts, ceaselessly dissecting the world, dissecting themselves.

Novy's breathing began to become weak, because her body really had no energy to support her thinking anymore. But she still analyzed those things without stopping for a moment: from them being rescued, to her being brought back to Wayne Manor, to Bruce's words in her ear, this soft bed and warm blanket...

Shiler could bear it no longer. He pushed open the door. But at that very moment, he felt Novy's mental resonance. In his eyes, those colored lines representing emotions and thoughts bloomed like balloon flowers. This made him freeze in place, turn and walk quickly out the door, shouting loudly: "Bruce!!! Bruce Wayne!!!"

No response. Clearly Bruce was standing downstairs, but he couldn't hear Shiler's shouts. Shiler immediately realized something was isolating him from this memory fragment. Could it be the power of death?

No, Jack's judgment shouldn't be wrong. The power of death should have already left the mental realm. Besides, if it were the power of death, it shouldn't just be isolation; it might be more aggressive, the entire memory fragment's style would also change accordingly, becoming darker and more terrifying.

"Hugo Strange." Shiler spoke this name, "It must be his doing."

But that makes sense too. His purpose is to stop himself from breaking the game, so of course he wouldn't let himself interfere with Novy's memory this easily. So even if he saw something, there's no way to reverse it.

In a moment, Novy had already lost her breath. The memory fragment shattered. After a hazy white light, Shiler discovered he had returned to when he had just stepped into the mental realm.

He frowned deeply, because this was abnormal. Jack directly sent him into this memory fragment. After the memory fragment collapsed, he should appear outside, not return to the starting point — this meant he was very likely trapped.

Just as others analyzed, this is Hugo Strange's trap. He used some method to isolate Shiler's mental body from Novy's mental realm, but also trapped him here, endlessly cycling this process.

Shiler stood in the very center of the Wayne Manor hall, watching Bruce lead Novy in; neither of them saw him. Shiler once again very carefully observed Novy's state while thinking about his own situation.

Hugo trapping himself here must have a purpose, nothing more than defeating or killing himself. But just relying on cycling is useless; after all he can't interfere with the memory, and things in the memory can't interfere with him. There must be another killing move.

Walking through the entire process again, Novy died again. The process was very fast; Shiler couldn't interfere. Then the third time, fourth time...

The whole process was like a fast-forwarded movie, while Shiler was just a bystander sitting outside the screen. He completely couldn't interfere, could only watch helplessly.

Right when Novy died once again, Shiler noticed something different — the light began to become dim.

Shiler stood in the very center of Wayne Manor again. He turned his head. The fireplace was still burning, but the flames were much dimmer than the first time, only a few wisps of fire tongues swaying continuously. And the shadows cast on the wall were thick as if substantial. The sky outside the Wayne Manor windows grew blacker and deeper.