The monster with Alfred's face had already chased him, but Bruce suddenly calmed down. He slowed down and walked slowly into the dark alley.
Just after he was mentally prepared, the situation in the alley was beyond his expectation, because there was nothing there that he feared most. Instead,... there were two people drinking?
One of them is Jack with green hair, and the other is green-haired...Professor Schiller???
Bruce was full of doubts. At this time, the green-haired Schiller turned to look at Bruce and said, "You didn't expect there to be two corpses lying here and a string of scattered pearl necklaces, right?"
"You see, this is the most basic application of psychology. All the previous rules are instilling in you rules that require you to face all kinds of fears, so when you see an intersection that is exactly the same as the alley where your parents died, you
You will instinctively feel that there will be the content you least want to see..."
"Just like when the first 6 answers are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, someone will definitely fill in 7 for the 7th answer, even though the 7th question is about what you ate this morning...
"
"I ate a waffle this morning. It was not delicious at all. It was too sweet!" Jack complained: "And it was very expensive. It cost 50 cents!"
Bruce was completely confused. He didn't understand what was going on. He wanted to speak, but Schiller said first: "You should be confused about what happened. You should want to ask now, why are we here?
, and what the hell is going on.”
"But this is another common psychological trap. Have you forgotten? You are in a dream, and there is no need for logic in dreams. You think of these questions because we suddenly talk to you in a very logical way.
But in fact, you have ignored more weird things, such as..."
Bruce looked at him, and Schiller smiled at him and said, "Do you like my new hair color?"
Bruce paused suddenly. He discovered that this was indeed the case. Because Schiller was talking to him in a logical way, his thinking also returned to the logical world. But in fact, this scene was still illogical because of reality.
Professor Schiller's hair is not green, and it is absolutely impossible for him to have such clown makeup on his face.
More importantly, the place where these two green-haired people were drinking was on the back of an elephant. The elephant was squeezed into a narrow alley like a cartoon image, with all four legs squeezed together.
But Bruce didn't find it strange at all.
Bruce sighed and said, "What the hell is going on?"
"Look! He did ask after all!" Jack cheered. He raised the wine glass, poured the wine into his mouth, swung it around in his mouth, and then swallowed it.
"I told you a long time ago, even if you explain the principle clearly to him, he is still a boring person. Batman is like this. Even in his dreams, he will wonder if there is any conspiracy behind this? That's how he is.
,hahahahahahahahahahaha!"
"Stop laughing, we still have business to do."
As soon as Schiller finished speaking, he appeared in front of Bruce, then waved his umbrella and knocked Bruce unconscious.
A white halo appeared in front of Bruce's eyes. When he opened his eyes, he found that he was trapped on an operating table, and above his head was the strong light of the operating room.
Two men with green hair and clown makeup were standing in front of him, wearing white coats and holding scalpels.
Bruce closed his eyes again and then opened them again. The green-haired Schiller held the scalpel and said to him: "I know you must be confused now, but it doesn't matter. We can explain everything clearly before the operation."
.”
"Why are you in my dream?" Bruce asked him.
"It's a long story..." Schiller was about to explain when Jack suddenly shouted: "Because you left us and left Gotham! You went on vacation! How could you do this?! You were injured
Hearts from all of us!!”
"Okay, Jack." The green-haired Schiller looked calmer, but Bruce felt a more dangerous temperament from him. The green-haired Schiller said seriously: "You should know, I
I’m a psychologist, and recently, the topic I’m studying is dreams.”
"Dream?"
"Yes, or rather, it is the human consciousness space, and I have passed the stage of studying the consciousness space of ordinary people..."
"A long time ago, I had a conjecture. If the top of the palace of thought is reality, then the bottom below the earth's surface should be the dream kingdom of Sandman. Not long ago, I verified this theory...
"
"I think everyone should be in the same situation as me, but Jack refuted it. He believes that Batman is different from everyone..."
"So, we made a bet."
Bruce raised his head and looked at the green-haired Schiller. Jack chuckled and said, "I bet the bottom of your deep consciousness space is not connected to the kingdom of dreams, but there is a dangerous thing hidden there."
…”
"Actually, I know something about this." The green-haired Schiller continued: "But I feel that the thing Jack said should not appear here, so we thought of a way to verify which of us is right."
"What can I do?" Bruce asked.
"Since you know this is a dream, do you know where you are in reality? In other words, do you know when you started dreaming?"
Bruce thought back for a moment and said, "When I was lying on the bed in Wayne Manor?"
"No, your body is not on the bed in Wayne Manor now, but under the entrance sign to Gotham City."
"In other words, everything that happened after you entered Gotham was just a dream."
"After you entered Gotham, the dream actually happened in your surface consciousness space, including Jack knocking over your Batmobile with a heavy truck, pressing the button, blowing up the chemical plant, and then tying those people to the big city.
On the roof of the building, let them fall down, these are the first-level dreams that occur in the surface consciousness space."
"In order to prevent you from doubting all this and waking up quickly, Jack created a series of accidents that made you very tired and made you sleep directly after returning to Wayne Manor."
"And when you fall asleep and dream again, you enter the second layer of dreams. You see a clown standing in front of your bed, waving a dagger at you, and then the third and fourth layers of dreams follow.
…”
"By analogy, the number of times you fail in Wayne Manor, the number of layers of dreams you fall into."
"During this process, your consciousness gradually descends from the surface consciousness space to the deep consciousness space, and then keeps digging down until here..."
"Here? Where is this?"
"This is the bottom of your deep consciousness, I like to call it...'the edge'.
"Why did you let me come here?"
"In order to find out the dangerous thing that may be hidden in your body." Jack looked into Bruce's eyes, but it seemed that he was not looking at him, but looking into his soul through his eyes.
"Jack speculated that the dangerous and annoying thing may be at the bottom of your deep consciousness, but again, he will not hide on the road. If there is really an incubation room for him, then guess what?
Where will it be?”
Bruce suddenly understood. He looked at Schiller's scalpel and said, "Do you think he is in my body?"
"That's right, only if you reach the bottom of your deep consciousness can we possibly find it out, so now..."
The green-haired Schiller showed a crazy smile, which made Bruce shudder, because once he thought of the professor and the clown becoming one, he felt that there was nothing more terrifying in the world.
But he did not struggle, but thought for a moment and lay back on the operating table.
This surprised both clowns. Bruce said: "...I suddenly have some understanding of your mental state. Maybe, in the real world, you may look very crazy, but maybe, in the dream, you are
Yes……"
"It's really boring." Jack curled his lips, but Schiller didn't feel disappointed. He said, "Do you still expect him to scream and cry for us not to do anything? Even if he doesn't understand, he won't do it.
, that’s what Batman is like, isn’t it?”
"Okay, now let's see if the thing you mentioned exists..."
Then, Schiller stabbed Bruce's forehead with a scalpel and cut open the skin tissue on his face, while Jack peeled off Bruce's skin like a banana.
Epidermis, dermis, fat layer, Schiller is responsible for cutting the gaps, and Jack is responsible for peeling the banana peel. After the skin is the muscle tissue, and then the bones...
The scraps that were taken off were like a jacket that had not been worn for a long time. It was piled crumpled and piled aside. The hands of the two green-haired scary doctors were covered in blood, and only the crazy smiles remained on their faces. Jack kept coming from time to time.
He also let out a few sobs, seeming to feel sad for Batman who had been dismantled into parts.
Those unspeakable scraps were thrown to the ground at will, and the pile was getting higher and higher. After the last layer of tissue was removed, what appeared in Bruce's body was not the internal organs of a normal person, but - another Bruce.
Schiller sighed and said, "Maybe you're going to win, because he does look abnormal."
"Normal? When do you think Batman will be normal? I would be disappointed if there was a heart inside his skin."
"It seems we can only do it again."
The green-haired Schiller and the green-haired Jack looked at each other. They did not see any fatigue or irritability in each other's eyes. Instead, they were filled with excitement, just like two deadly strange doctors that only appeared in horror movies.
It was harmonious at first, but later, the two started to quarrel. The green-haired Schiller wanted to monopolize the double-digit Bruce on the grounds that Jack did not have a medical qualification certificate. Jack thought that it should be divided according to body parts. He wanted to Schiller certainly didn't agree with that part.
No matter what, after slicing the skin and peeling off the epidermal tissue, one Bruce appeared in the body one after another. Those discarded scraps had almost filled the entire room until Jack peeled off the last layer.
After the last layer of skin was peeled off, there lay a squirming black monster. His body and limbs were tubes no thicker than the wrist, and were wrapped in layers of blues. Only his head was different. .
What was there was not Bruce's face, but a gray egg with a bright red lip and a huge grinning face.
The moment the last layer of skin was peeled off, the arthropod-like monster got rid of all the skin still covering his body and was about to jump up.
At this time, a hand pressed down on its neck, and Jack moved his face closer, showing the same crazy smile, and said: "I found you, No. 3."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I wonder if you can see what I have stitched into this whole big incident. The reward for guessing correctly... The clown goes to your house in the middle of the night and knocks under the bed! Hehehehehehe——