Chapter 947

Zatanna tilted her head and looked at Batman, saying, "That's right, the entrance sign is very conspicuous. If we check every room, won't we be able to find it?"

Batman recalled the architectural map he had seen in his mind and said, "Setting aside whether there are any other secrets in this building, or how to deal with the mental patient Schiller who is constantly hunting us, do you know how many floors and rooms this building has?"

"How many?" Zatanna asked.

"If that map is correct, this building should have 9 floors, with at least 10 wards per floor. Adding in those functional rooms, utility rooms, and tool rooms, we have to check at least 100 wards to have a chance of finding the room that leads out."

"That's not that many," Zatanna shrugged and said, "It's not like it's a skyscraper with hundreds or thousands of rooms. Besides, the room structure here is very simple; just push the door open and take a look, no need to go inside. Checking 100 rooms shouldn't take more than a few hours, right?"

"Then we might need to consider the one who is constantly hunting us..."

Batman had just said this when he suddenly stopped, because all three of them heard the "tap-tap-tap" sound starting at the stairwell. After a momentary pause, the three of them began to rush forward in perfect unison.

"Seriously, can't we try to defeat him?" Constantine said while running, "I feel that with the three of us working together, it shouldn't be that difficult, right?"

"Indeed, we have a possibility of success," Batman also said while running, "but you must consider the consequences of failure."

"I don't know where the group of Schillers in the Mind Palace went, but they could return at any time. Once we are held up and found by Schiller's main force, what do you think the consequences will be?"

Constantine was about to speak, but Zatanna said, "We can't outrun him! Prepare to enter the fire circle!"

After she finished speaking, she waved her hand, and a circus fire circle appeared in front of them again. The three jumped in one after another. After the fire circle disappeared, they appeared in another empty room. Zatanna panted heavily and said, "My teleportation distance is getting shorter and shorter. This is really too draining. At most three more times, and I might not be able to cast teleportation magic anymore..."

At this moment, Batman spoke up: "I think your method has some merit. There is no time left for us to slowly search for clues."

"Exhaustive enumeration is not unusable..." Batman walked to the table next to the hospital bed in this room, took out the notebook from the biscuit box, flipped to a blank page, and began to draw the map of the building on it.

"Previously, the map I saw depicted the architectural structure of the ward area. Simply put, this building is C-shaped, with stair exits at both ends, and wards in the middle."

"Because the building is quite old, the structure of almost every floor should be similar. However, a reminder note was specifically posted next to the map, stating that the shower area is on the 3rd floor and the cafeteria is on the 1st floor, which should be for the convenience of staff who just arrived here to find their way."

"When I arrived in this space, I happened to be born in the ward where Schiller was. There was no exit there, which means Schiller does not resist returning to the ward. Since he does not resist returning to his own ward, the probability of him resisting returning to someone else's ward will also be relatively small."

After speaking, Batman put an 'X' on the architectural structure he had just drawn and continued, "If the probability of a ward is relatively small, then the probability of other functional rooms will be relatively large."

"First of all, the follow-up consultation room is not the correct exit, which means other treatment rooms with similar functions are likely not the target either."

"How can you be sure that the follow-up consultation room you found is not the correct exit, and therefore none of the others are?" Constantine asked, looking at the pattern on the notebook.

"We are not trying to deduce the correct location all at once, but to arrange an order based on probability and start checking from the most prioritized locations. This is the correct way to use the exhaustive enumeration method."

Without waiting for the other two to say anything, Batman began to speak on his own:

"According to the clues we have on hand, Schiller's medical records state that every time he had an episode, he would be taken to the observation room for observation. This is a room explicitly mentioned in relation to Schiller, other than the follow-up consultation room. Therefore, I think its possibility is the greatest and should be placed first."

"Secondly, besides the observation room and the follow-up consultation room, other living-type rooms, such as the cafeteria, shower area, activity area, reading room, study room, etc., should be placed second."

"The follow-up consultation room has been excluded as the correct answer. Treatment rooms, preparation rooms, etc., which have similar functions, are ranked third."

"And the wards, which are the most numerous and have the lowest probability, are ranked fourth."

"We should start checking in this order so that we can find the exit room we want as quickly as possible."

Zatanna glanced at Batman, then withdrew her gaze and said, "Bruce, you really have changed a lot."

"Alright, now is not the time for romance." Constantine looked at the map Batman had drawn and said, "Let's try it according to this line of thinking. I always feel that the situation is getting more and more wrong."

He was right. Since the weak point item in this memory space—the straitjacket—was taken away, the entire space had become increasingly eerie. Previously, there were a few rooms with lights on on every floor, but now it had become pitch black.

Just then, the three heard that "tap-tap" sound appear again. Zatanna widened her eyes and said, "This is impossible. My teleportation distance is at least 4 floors. How could he have caught up so quickly?"

"I told you, the situation is getting more and more wrong." Constantine's hand glowed faintly, and he said, "Either he has increased his speed, or he has acquired tracking capabilities. While he hasn't come over yet, let's go."

After speaking, the three rushed out of the room again. But as soon as they went out, they discovered that in the pitch-black corridor, countless things like tentacles were extending from the thick darkness. They were the restraint straps of the straitjacket, but at this moment, they were like devil's hands reaching out from a bottomless abyss.

Constantine waved his hand, and a magic shield appeared, just in time to block two restraint straps that were attacking. Zatanna took two steps back and was about to use the fire circle to teleport again, but Batman stopped her and said to Constantine, "Don't get entangled in the fight, shake him off first!"

Constantine fired a few more streams of light, causing Schiller's offensive to stall for a moment. The three began to run for their lives in the corridor again until the "tap-tap" sound of metal hitting the ground disappeared, and their footsteps slowed down.

"Judging from the signs next to the map, the observation room should be on the top floor. Since Schiller is currently downstairs, let's go up and take a look first." After speaking, Batman walked toward the stairwell. The group arrived at the top floor, the ninth floor, and found the so-called observation room at the end of the corridor.

It was a pitch-black room. Of course, all the rooms were very dark now, but what made this room different was that it had no windows, only a small observation exit on the door.

The floor, walls, and ceiling of the entire room were all plastic. The light was a circular safety light embedded in the ceiling. In the entire room, there was only one chair, fixed to the floor in the center of the room, with metal rings on it for securing the straitjacket buckles.

In the darkness, Batman seemed to see Schiller, wearing a straitjacket, fixed to this chair, his head tilted back, staring directly at the light on the ceiling.

At this moment, Batman suddenly felt a sentiment he had never had before, as if he were seeing his own future on some timeline.

A person born mad is pathetic. The world in their eyes is different from that of ordinary people. In the process of domesticating themselves to be able to integrate into ordinary human society, they must break their own bones, peel off their own skin, drain their own blood, and rebuild everything from scratch.

Compared to this, those born into ordinary human society, who have a peaceful life and are never mad, are undoubtedly very lucky.

Therefore, the behavior of ordinary people letting themselves slide toward the abyss of madness is like trampling on something others dream of but cannot obtain.

At this moment, Batman suddenly understood why, sometimes, Schiller was always full of hostility toward him.

If those memories were true, then perhaps the two of them lived up to that saying: a madman trying hard to become an ordinary person, while an ordinary person letting himself become a madman.

Batman saw Schiller sitting on the chair, looking up at the light, as if he were looking at the moon.

Perhaps at that time, he had never thought that one day, he would meet a bat that, instead of looking at the beautiful moon, would insist on flying toward the abyss.

Suddenly, as if struck by a flash of inspiration, Batman found the answer he came here to find—what exactly is Schiller most afraid of?

"I don't know the academic name for this curse, but in the circle, they call it the 'Curse of Ultimate Evil'."

"The 'Curse of Ultimate Evil'?" Constantine squinted and said, "Whoever gave it that name has a lot of nerve. What kind of curse could be called the Curse of Ultimate Evil?"

Zatanna nodded and said, "At first, when I heard the name, I also thought they were exaggerating. Curses are just a small part of the occult world; no matter how powerful, how bad could it really be?"

"But later, some elders I know told me that the so-called Curse of Ultimate Evil refers to the fact that it is a universal curse..."

"The specific manifestation of this curse isn't the common kind that prevents spellcasting, causes the body to rot, or leads to immediate death. The Curse of Ultimate Evil can affect a specific group, causing everything they experience to develop in a bad direction—inescapable and irreversible."

Constantine fell silent. Zatanna looked at his expression and said, "You feel it, don't you?"

"Gotham is indeed an unsalvageable city. In the days I've spent here, I've realized that this is the universe's trash can and sewer. All evil, chaos, and madness eventually flow here."

"As for the curse..." Constantine looked at the liquor in his glass and said, "The people here don't care, and they aren't afraid. In fact, if you tried to exorcise the curse for them, they would think you were crazy."