Chapter 602

"Alright, no more joking around. Tell me, why on earth did you bring him here? I think that even if you didn't give him to me, he would have had many better places to go. For instance, Selina would probably understand him very well, and Alfred would likely be quite fond of him too," Schiller asked, looking into Bruce's eyes as he lay on the hospital bed.

Bruce gave a signal. Schiller waved a hand at Merkel, who walked over, drew the curtains of the hospital room, then walked out the door, turned around to close it, and waited at the entrance to ensure no one else would pass by.

"Is there any connection between the owls in the Dream of a Thousand Cats and the owls in reality?" Bruce posed a very important question.

Upon hearing this question, Schiller frowned. It seemed as though the owls had disappeared from his life for a long time; that bunch of idiots were either dragged onto the stage to kill each other or trapped underground, drowning in their own filth—there was nothing left to pay attention to.

At this moment, the Bat-Cat let out a somewhat sharp cry. Schiller understood what he was saying; he was asking, "Are there owls in the real world too?"

Bruce briefly explained the matter of the Court of Owls to him. The Bat-Cat shook his head and said, "If, as you say, they are just a group of wealthy merchants controlling this city from the shadows, then they are not the same as the owls in my city..."

"As you saw earlier, the owls in the cat-city of Cat Getan possess terrifying dark energy. To be honest, if it weren't for you, my stage alone might not have been enough to completely eradicate that kind of power."

"If they cannot be wiped out in one fell swoop, they will soon make a comeback." The personality displayed by this Bat-Cat was much more mature than Bruce's; he was not afraid to admit that his own strength was insufficient or that a certain matter was actually difficult.

However, his tone remained steady throughout, without worry or pessimism. After all, for Batman, no matter how bad things got, it couldn't possibly be worse than hiding in the sewers dressed as the Joker.

"Magic owls, wait... the Dark Owl Priests." Bruce seemed to suddenly recall something. He said, "Remember before? I was tracking that ghost mother named Laulena."

Schiller recalled it slightly, and he thought of what Bruce was talking about. At that time, there had also been several murders that looked like serial killings; these three cases were like copying homework from each other, getting worse with each copy.

And behind this overt thread, there was a covert one: the Dark Owl Priests had reached an agreement with a ghost mother named Laulena. The ghost mother used candy to sacrifice the souls of those children, and it was precisely the Dark Owl Priests behind the scenes causing trouble.

When Batman was investigating this matter, he found traces of these dark priests in the history of the Wei En family.

Moreover, according to their speculation at the time, Schiller's umbrella might have been created by the Dark Owl Priests. After all, if they were truly just wealthy merchants, they would have no occult means to create umbrellas specifically designed to deal with Cat Getan's rain.

Gradually recalling these details, Schiller looked at Bruce and asked, "Are you suspecting that the Dark Owl Priests in reality have invaded the dream?"

"That's right, all of this is somewhat strange. If it were merely a simple racial conflict between the cat clan and the bird clan, then that dark energy with no source could not be explained."

"The cat clan, which occupies the entire world, has not cultivated any occult attributes, yet the owls, huddled in a corner, have mastered such powerful energy—it makes no sense at all."

Schiller also pondered and said, "Looking at it this way, the entire city has a problem. Even if Cat Getan exists in the cats' dreams, it shouldn't necessarily correspond one-to-one with each of you."

"Even the matter of Victor's wife being frozen has been replicated. If it really were a dream created by cats, could they truly understand the concept of what it means to freeze one's own wife?"

As his thinking went deeper, Schiller discovered more differences.

It seemed that the cat-city of Cat Getan was like a city in an absurd cartoon. Under that art style, many people would only marvel at the wonder and cuteness of the cat's dream, but once detached from that dream, many things became somewhat bizarre.

The Dream of a Thousand Cats was clearly a dream created by cats, which meant that everything inside should be under the cats' worldview. It is very difficult for humans to understand how cats think, and vice versa; two completely different species cannot share the same worldview.

The city and citizens in human understanding might be vastly different from the city and citizens in the eyes of a cat. A house cat might treat the dish cupboard at home as a city, and a stray cat might think a puddle on a rainy day is a river. If it were truly a dream created by cats, how could a city that conforms so well to the human worldview appear?

Not to mention, in the cats' worldview, there would actually be the unwavering love of Mr. Freeze—this is simply impossible. The mating of felines is entirely due to their biological instincts; there is no talk of love, let alone moving stories of life and death separation.

Even if it were a dream created by Catwoman Selina, it might be more whimsical than a human's. For a cat in Cat Getan to dream of an entire Cat Getan city within a human worldview—this sounds like it has a major flaw.

This matter looks more like a cat cartoon created by someone with a human worldview living in human society.

This kind of plot is very common in many animated films: projecting the human worldview onto animals to express one's thoughts in a more euphemistic and cute way. But in reality, if animals truly had dreams, they would not dream of such plots; all of this is based on the fantasies of human society.

"Actually, I've been thinking..." Schiller casually picked up the Bat-Cat into his arms, scratched the cat's neck, and then said, "Was it a coincidence that the Dream of a Thousand Cats suddenly dragged me into its dream?"

"Morpheus, the Dream King, has no need to lie. If he had intentionally attacked me, he would certainly have laughed at me loudly. But looking at his reaction, it seems that the Dream of a Thousand Cats suddenly making such a move was also beyond his expectations. Then, this is very problematic."

"The Dream King has strong control over dreams and understands the Dream of a Thousand Cats even better. He treated this as a kitten's prank, but we cannot look at it that way."

"Without a doubt, the Dream of a Thousand Cats is very powerful. If something has truly invaded the Dream of a Thousand Cats, then they must be trying to use such a powerful thing to do something..."

"Remember that legend?" Schiller asked and answered himself, "The Earth was originally ruled by cats. The Dream of a Thousand Cats covered reality, and cats have always wanted to rewrite reality back through the Dream of a Thousand Cats."

"Once someone controls the Dream of a Thousand Cats, they might be able to use the content in the dream to cover reality once again."

Bruce revealed a grave expression and said, "So, they first created a cat-city of Cat Getan in the dream, then fully transformed this city, created puppets, and ambushed their people. Once they master the Dream of a Thousand Cats and use this dream to cover reality, then the Cat Getan City in reality will fall into their hands..."

Speaking of this, Bruce couldn't sit still. He said, "Professor, I gave this cat to you, actually hoping that we could act separately. I will investigate the traces of the Dark Owl Priests in the real world, and the Bat-Cat can find their clues from the dream."

"After all, if the Bat-Cat dreams again, he should return to the Dream of a Thousand Cats. After all, he is a cat now. This way, he can travel between the Cat Getan of the real world and the Cat Getan of the dream world."

"However, I don't know much about the dream world, so I can only leave it to you. In case he encounters any unexpected situations in the dream, you can still go and 'sail' to bring him back."

Schiller pondered for a moment. He couldn't care less whether those detestable owls wanted to destroy the world; the key was that they had once sold Schiller an umbrella that was destined to break.

Moreover, he didn't know when the umbrella Schiller had in his hand now would break. If he could get their umbrella-making technology, then he could fix it himself when the umbrella broke in the future.

Schiller rubbed his chin, looked at the Bat-Cat in his arms, thought for a moment, and said, "Fine, although I've never raised a pet, I can give it a try."

"It's just raising a cat, how hard can it be?"

When Schiller finished this sentence, he didn't see that Bruce, who had already stood up to leave, had a complex expression on his face, clearly thinking of a certain gem enthusiast.

An hour later, Schiller stood under the chandelier in the hall of his own manor, looked up at the black cat on the chandelier, and said, "Get down here!"

That black cat turned a deaf ear, swinging the chandelier back and forth as if riding a swing. When the chandelier swung to the high point, he jumped out with a "whoosh," stretched out his sharp claws, and grabbed onto the oil painting hanging on the opposite wall, making a sharp, ear-piercing "screech" sound.

Schiller covered his ears. After the Bat-Cat slashed open the oil painting, he drilled into the narrow space behind the picture frame and then found a key.

Holding the key in his mouth, he returned to the chandelier again. This time, he switched to swinging left and right. After swinging to the apex, he jumped onto the railing of the second floor, then came to the door frame, then opened the door with the key in his mouth, stood at the door, and meowed. He said, "Thirty-five rooms... only this one has the best strategic position. I want it."

"Merkel! Throw him out!" Schiller pointed at the door.

Merkel, who had just walked in carrying luggage, looked at the chandelier with crystals scattered all over the floor, the slashed oil painting, and the surface of the door with deep claw marks. He swallowed and said, "No, Owl, you can't choose that room. That is the guest room designated by Mr. Wei En. He said that it has the best strategic position..."

The Bat-Cat let out another loud cry and then directly started scratching the door panel. When those sharp claws first touched the paint surface, they made an ear-aching sound, followed by the ear-piercing sound of wood shavings being scraped.

With a "swish," Schiller disappeared. The Bat-Cat did a backflip on the spot, dodging the arm that Schiller, who had flashed over, was grabbing at him. Immediately after, he jumped onto the windowsill in three or two steps, followed the windowsill to the balcony, and jumped directly from the balcony of one room to the balcony of another.

Schiller flashed again. This time, he did catch the Bat-Cat, but his posture for holding the cat was wrong. The flexible feline twisted his body hard and darted out of his arms.

Then, the Bat-Cat looked around the room and said, "Since the other me has already chosen that room, the strategic position of this room is actually not bad either. I also like the decoration style very much. Let's make it here."

"Heavenly Arrival"

As soon as he turned his head, he saw Schiller staring at him coldly, saying:

"... This is my room."