amaotonovel Chapter 2462: Battle for the Cloak (8)
Chapter 2462: Battle for the Cloak (8)
Chapter 2462: Battle for the Cloak (XVIII)
"So what's going on?" Little Bruce asked Schiller. At this moment, they were in the study of Wayne Manor, but there was a faint mist on the walls, isolating this place into an independent space.
Little Bruce saw everything that just happened. Unlike Dick, he was better at reasoning and could quickly figure out timelines that were too complicated for ordinary people.
From the perspective of the youngest Nightwing, Dick, he fell asleep, woke up, went out, and arrived at the office in an instant, and then saw them sleeping in the office.
All of this is a complete timeline. The only space switch in the middle is that you go out and immediately arrive at the office, but this is not difficult to do. At most, it is just teleportation.
The ones seen sleeping outside the office door are still Dick's past timeline, because they did fall asleep before.
Then, another office appeared in front of Dick. Outside the window of the office, a series of future events appeared. That is, the remaining two people were attacked by eyes, drove the car to the roof in panic, and then fell down.
The timeline changed for the first time here. There was no Dick in the car, which meant that Dick left according to the original process. This timeline might be the subsequent timeline of Dick.
After seeing this future, Dick took action, which was to return to the office that showed the past scene and throw the fire extinguisher out. This meant that he changed the past, and also meant that the changed future would be produced accordingly.
And this changed future is the story brought about by the appearance of Nightwing from the main universe. That is, Dick threw a fire extinguisher down, causing Dick in the past to be hit, resulting in him being unable to go out smoothly, and the one who went out was the Nightwing from the main universe who wanted to search for fixed equipment.
It all seems to make sense, but the problem is that when the fog cleared, Nightwing from the main universe of the changed future stayed, and Dick from the unchanged future also stayed, which is a complete paradox.
Assuming the future was changed, the injured Dick should be sitting in the car and leaving with Nightwing from the Arkham Universe. Assuming the future was not changed, there should be a crashed Batmobile at the door.
But the current situation is that Dick stayed with the main universe Nightwing who came to find equipment, which means that the future in which Dick did not throw the fire extinguisher and led to his successful arrival here, and the future in which he threw the fire extinguisher and led to the main universe Nightwing coming here, happened at the same time.
But human time is linear, and there can only be one future on the same timeline. It is impossible to have both. So what is going on?
Little Bruce's brain started to smoke a little. He speculated that either when the fog cleared, the several timelines would merge together and whoever was left would be the one to take charge, or maybe time and space intersected at a certain point in time, and the person who ran to the normal timeline would not be destroyed just because the future he was in did not happen. But no matter how he thought about it, there were flaws and it didn't make sense at all.
"Why do you think the fog really has the ability to manipulate time and space?"
"...?"
Little Bruce stared at Schiller in silence. Schiller picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea and said, "Just because these Robins think so, do you think so too?"
"I think you should have this ability." Little Bruce said dryly: "...You have it, right?"
"Does it matter whether I have it or not?" Schiller said, "Even if I do have it, is there any evidence that I used this ability just now?"
Little Bruce immediately understood everything. He covered his forehead with his hands, unwilling to admit that he had been fooled.
But Schiller still showed him another perspective, which was his perspective. The thick fog appeared again, and this time they were standing on the side of the road where the car was.
The three Nightwings discussed in the car whether or not to get out. Then they thought that since the thick fog had already invaded, staying in the car would limit their performance and would not be conducive to fighting the enemy, so they decided to get out.
The moment they reached out to push the car door, their expressions became dazed and then they fell into a coma.
But unlike the previous perspective, this time only Dick was awake, and he suddenly woke up, then began to talk to himself in the thin mist in front of him.
Seeing his hand on the car door, little Bruce knew that this should be the next plot "Getting off the car".
As a result, Dick never got out of the car.
He fell into coma again, which means that Schiller never used his ability to teleport, and Dick had never been to any office. Everything he saw was just an illusion.
The next person to wake up was Nightwing from the main universe. He seemed to have seen something and rushed towards the car door in panic, shouting "Dick, are you okay?" and "Where did this fire extinguisher come from?"
But he didn't get out of the car and soon fell into coma again. Until finally, the two of them pushed open the door of the building in a hallucination, and then they both pushed open the car door and got out at the same time.
The last one to wake up was Nightwing from the Arkham Universe. This time he really woke up, but he saw a shadow standing in the depths of the fog, so he stepped on the accelerator and chased after it.
Finally, Schiller picked up a fire extinguisher from the office building, threw it out of the window, and it hit the two men with a bang.
The two people in front of the gate seemed like they were from another world.
Little Bruce covered his eyes and said, "It turns out that this thick fog is not that powerful. The effect of releasing hallucinogenic drugs is the same."
Schiller shook his head. Little Bruce thought he could come up with some profound ideas, but Schiller said, "You don't need hallucinogens. Hypnosis can do it. After all, opening a car door is not a complicated action. Give me ten minutes and I can guide them to do it."
"But why are you doing this?" Little Bruce was confused.
Schiller said: "It is to make them believe it."
“I usually don’t express any specific imagery in my work, but people come to see it for two reasons.”
"The first type of people try to interpret the work, digging out the author's creative purpose and ideas from the author's visual expression. If they can understand and dig out the ideas, they can get self-satisfaction from it, similar to 'my aesthetic level is very high, I understand everything about the author'."
"The second type of people try to resonate with the work, reading the strong emotions that the author wants to express from the author's visual performance, and then resonating with their own emotions, and they can get emotional satisfaction from it, such as 'his feelings at that time were the same as mine, and there are indeed people in this world who understand me'."
“But no matter what, they come here with a purpose, and they also hope to gain something from appreciating the works.”
"If they can't get it, they won't think, 'My aesthetic level is low and I can't understand it all', or 'No one can understand me, not even the artist'. They will just pass by it and not see it as an exhibit, but look for something that can make them experience it."
“So a good artist, in addition to conveying his or her own ideas and emotions, must first satisfy certain superficial needs of the audience, so that when they first see the work, they will have a feeling of ‘I will definitely gain something from it’, and only in this way can people stop and look.”
"If you make everything too abstract from the beginning, as I said, without showing any concrete imagery, then they will just see you as a white wall in an art gallery, and walk past you without any experience."
Little Bruce thought of the Robins' initial comments on the thick fog. Although they also mentioned some phenomena, the general meaning was that it was just a very widespread natural phenomenon that would not cause any impact and there was no need to pay attention to it.
But I believe that after this time, they will not think so. Although they still did not suffer any substantial harm, what impressed them was the regularity displayed in the thick fog.
Sure enough, he heard Schiller continue.
"In the early stages, you need to create a pattern that is easy for them to understand at first, but later they can explore it in depth. For example, since they understand the performance seen by some witnesses as the disorder of time and space in the thick fog, then we will do this."
"To be honest, I do have a way to manipulate space and time, but I'm not strong enough to do it in every universe. It's limited to special areas and special events. I usually don't use such a troublesome method. Which one saves time and effort, a dream or manipulating time and space?"
Little Bruce was speechless. Of course it was the former. They were not gods who knew the rules of time and space. No matter what method they used, it would always be difficult to achieve this.
And this illusion is not because Bruce is overconfident. He has done quite in-depth research on the power of evil gods. Illusion creation can basically be said to be the basic skill of evil gods and their believers.
After all, the righteous gods can bless you generously, making you strong and lucky, but the evil gods usually don't do that. They deceive their believers mainly by making big promises, and hallucinations and mental disorders are necessary skills to make big promises. Any evil god who doesn't know this will not be able to survive.
It's just that Schiller's way of painting a rosy picture was too unique, and little Bruce couldn't react for a while. The evil gods usually presented things that believers wanted in the hallucinations, such as a happy family, resurrection from the dead, and wealth and power.
As for Schiller, let alone happiness and contentment. After this trip, he probably had nothing left except shock and fear.
This kind of shock and fear is not a threat. It is not about making these people feel scared and obey. They are afraid, but they don’t know what they are afraid of.
"So what's the point of this?" asked Bruce Jr.
"Don't you find it interesting?" Schiller said with a smile, "The rules they discovered, the loopholes they thought they could exploit, all the investigations and explorations they conducted, and the truths they worked so hard to find were actually just illusions directed by you."
"And the most subtle thing about this performance is that they will think that all this is the result of their own actions, and that their initial prying and curiosity are original sins."
"They will naturally discard these most precious qualities of human beings in exploring the outside world, and even warn their hopeful peers that their exploration and pursuit are meaningless because those things cannot be heard, seen, or looked at directly."
Little Bruce felt a chill on his back, but he still looked at Schiller and said, "Aren't these Robins your descendants? Why do you treat them like this?"
"My target is not them." Schiller looked at little Bruce and said, "They are too mentally healthy and always thinking about Batman. They are not engaged enough. If they are the protagonists of this play, it will be too boring."
“The most wonderful thing is the moment when the protagonist in the painting turns his head to look at you, and the look of shock and fear in his eyes when he realizes that the brilliant world he once believed he had is actually just a small corner of a much larger horror.”
And little Bruce saw too many such wonderful experiences on Schiller's face when he said this.
Update will resume at noon tomorrow
(End of this chapter)