Chapter 455: The Glorious Finale (Part 2)

A normal person who hadn't slept more than two hours that night, awakened again by the violent commotion of a fight between several men and agents, emitted a deep sense of resentment, so profound he needed alcohol to drown it.

Of course, drinking alone wasn't Shiler's style, so he went to find his old drinking buddy, the Joker Jack; weary from insomnia, Shiler inadvertently revealed to Jack what he had seen inside the Metropolis mayor's residence.

Meanwhile, Jack, who had been laid off due to Gotham's traffic accidents and snowstorms, was utterly bored—upon hearing such an intriguing story, he eagerly wanted to get involved.

But there was one very practical problem: how to get Jack to Metropolis.

Of course, in DC there exists a peculiar law called the "Batman-Joker Convergence Law."

Wherever Batman is, the Joker appears; wherever the Joker is, Batman appears; if they are separated, the other will ignore all physical laws and suddenly appear at the other's location, delivering a crushing blow to the other's well-progressed plan.

In short, Batman lives at the head of the Yangtze, the Joker at its tail—the next day, the Yangtze becomes a highway, a national treasure.

But Shiler noticed this seemed to follow the observer effect: when he watched Batman here and dreamed of the Joker, the two could not bypass physical laws to meet.

So the simplest solution was to retrace Shiler's own path: descend from the Joker's dream, travel through the Dream God's realm, then return via Shiler's dream.

Ignoring the Dream God's look of shock and reluctant admiration upon hearing Shiler wanted to bring the Joker into his dream, this route was far faster; to prevent the Joker from lingering too long in the Dream Realm, the Dream God opened the door directly onto their faces—instantly, the Joker was in place.

With the Joker in position, next came assigning the key players; Shiler chose to start with Lex, the easiest target.

Though Lex was highly intelligent, his physical condition was abysmal—Shiler simply invented an excuse to enter his room, knocked him out, then used the scent of Mad Wine to draw him into the dream.

Bruce was more difficult: after last time Constantine was affected, he already understood the mechanism of Mad Wine—if Shiler walked in with a bottle, Bruce would keep his distance.

So Shiler exploited Selina's love of theft, guiding her to the estate's wine cellar, then had her take back to her and Bruce's guest room a bottle of red wine already swapped for Mad Wine.

Bruce didn't drink, but Selina didn't care, and Bruce never demanded she abstain—so the moment Selina uncorked the bottle, Bruce, unguarded, and she both fell victim.

But Shiler did not let Selina enter that dream—he simply assigned her a private room, sending her off to a playground filled with jewels.

Later, to prevent Bruce from waking prematurely, Shiler moved him to another private room and poured a bit of Mad Wine into the glass, letting its scent linger and stabilize the dream.

The hardest case, however, was Clark; before acting, Shiler wasn't even sure Clark could absorb the substance.

Fortunately, Clark had the lowest vigilance—so Shiler simply walked into Clark's room carrying the bottle, still half-full.

Clark didn't drink either, but not because he didn't want to—he grew up in a simple environment, his parents forbade alcohol, and after arriving at university, his poor social skills meant no one invited him to parties, so he'd never tasted it.

Still, he was curious about alcohol, so when he heard Shiler brought a bottle, he eagerly wanted to open and try it.

He drank half the bottle.

Only after downing nearly half the bottle of Mad Wine concentrate did Clark finally show signs of intoxication—he didn't know that if he hadn't passed out then, Shiler would have abandoned the plan; it was simply too expensive.

Fortunately, after finishing every last drop of Mad Wine in the bottle, Clark finally passed out—but this was only the beginning.

After Clark collapsed, Shiler discovered he could not access Clark's dream.

The worst-case scenario had occurred: Kryptonian brainwaves were incompatible with human ones—in short, a Type-C plug wouldn't fit an Android port.

Fortunately, just as adapters exist between two plug types, Shiler could devise a converter; after considerable effort, he built one—only to find the data stored on the other side was overwhelming.

As everyone knows, Superman possesses a superbrain; though he rarely uses it, half his superbrain is dedicated to controlling his superpowers, and the remaining half is far beyond human capacity.

Kryptonians merely resemble humans in appearance—they are entirely different lifeforms; thus, their brain structure differs completely, and even at the same size, their data storage capacity is incomparably greater.

Humans forget because their brains instinctively filter out unimportant information; they cannot recall certain environmental details because their brains process incoming data more efficiently.

But Kryptonians lack this function—their brain capacity is nearly infinite, meaning they remember every single detail of their environment, and none of their memories are ever forgotten.

Worse still, this youthful version of Superman had not yet realized he was Kryptonian, so he used his brain entirely as a human would.

Not even as a genius human like Bruce would—Clark used the method of an ordinary human, except that the memories and details he believed he'd forgotten still existed in his brain.

Since this information was entirely beyond his control and he imposed no limits on its output, the instant Shiler accessed Clark's consciousness, he was drowned in a flood of garbage data.

Shiler had no choice but to restrict Clark's consciousness output—but this created another problem: Clark needed his consciousness to regulate his superpowers; if the incoming consciousness was insufficient yet he still had to simulate normal superpowers, Clark would notice the anomaly.

Kryptonian superpowers differ from Peter's acquired mutations—they are innate, encoded into their genes.

Thus, Shiler could not make Clark believe he was a completely ordinary human; it would feel deeply unnatural to Clark, and since the connection was already unstable, any sense of anomaly would wake him.

The consciousness couldn't be too strong, yet the superpowers had to remain—so the only solution was to weaken the superpowers.

But weakening them required technique: first, Shiler used the known radiation setting to lower Clark's power ceiling, making him believe some unknown radiation had weakened him—though your character is strong now, we didn't guarantee he'd stay that way.

Next, within the accessed consciousness, he increased the proportion of emotional processing—more emotional thinking would reduce his focus on precise control of his abilities—though your character is strong now, we didn't guarantee which part he was strong in.

Finally, in the latter stage, he used kryptonite to restrict Clark's power output, reducing computational load—though your character is strong now, we didn't guarantee no other character could counter him.

In short, the original version's chosen one, Superman Clark, after several major nerfs, had essentially become a version outcast—at least, that's how Shiler saw it at this point.

But Superman was far more complex than this.

Clark's role was supposed to end when he was sent back to the banquet hall—but Shiler hadn't anticipated that his butler, Mr. Merkle, chose precisely this moment to search the estate and accidentally encountered the same bottle that had previously ensnared Constantine.

Originally, Shiler could decide who accessed the dream—but at that moment, the performance was at its peak, and Shiler was next door, painting a wall while watching the spectacle, utterly unaware that a tiny thought had slipped into the room.

The result: Superman, whose role was supposed to be over, suddenly exploded into prominence.

And clearly, Superman was the cure for all flashy nonsense.

All illusions, consciousness isolation, consciousness extraction—even Yemeng's mental defenses—were useless.

The titles "God of Earth" and "Son of the Sun" weren't given lightly—even in Shiler's dream, he could still descend like a god, defying physics and reason.

Normally, even if Superman regained his weakened powers, the consequences wouldn't be this severe—but Clark had undergone extreme psychological trauma, lacked control over his powers, and thus exploded.

156n.

The explosion's aftermath needed no elaboration: Yemeng, coiled atop the Mind Tower, was blasted away, landing utterly dazed, the entire serpent stunned.

The two rooms Shiler had built were gone entirely; so too were over twenty floors within the blast radius.

But this wasn't the worst consequence.

Just before the explosion, realizing the situation was irrecoverable, Shiler ejected all other consciousnesses from the dream, aiming to free up memory space to absorb the impending shock.

The result: only three remained to face the blast—DC Shiler, Joker Shiler, and Joker Jack.

Leaving aside Joker Jack, who had basically run back crying, DC Shiler and Joker Shiler stood at the epicenter of the nuclear explosion.

Though this was Shiler's dream and he had defenses, both were still blown flat.

In the hospital on the 200th floor, the white-coated Shiler watched with glee as the black-suited Shiler lay in bed.

DC Shiler now had a cast on one arm, bandages wrapped around his forehead, lying there with a look of utter despair.

The white-coated Marvel Shiler put away his stethoscope, stood up, and said with barely concealed excitement:

"I've always wanted to visit the DC world for a few days. Believe me, I won't mess anything up."

DC Shiler, lying on the left hospital bed, and Joker Shiler, on the right, exchanged a glance, then both sighed deeply.