Chapter 1391: Chapter 944 - Three Detectives (Part 1)_1

"This is indeed a thought-provoking question." Constantine stroked the area under his nose as he spoke. "Based on the diary you found, he has been trying to imitate ordinary people, but he always fails, so he has changed his approach by constructing a tower, the Thought Palace we previously saw within his soul."

"The diary did not clearly state whether this method was successful, but based on our interaction with Shiller, compared to his almost completely dysfunctional juvenile period, at the very least, he can now live in an ordinary society. This proves that this method might have been successful," he added.

Batman nodded in agreement. "From the conversation you heard, we know that the young Shiller suffers from autism, possibly Asperger's Syndrome, a condition that could bestow individuals with encyclopedic memory and special talent for a specific area."

"If he truly solved his mental problems, it wouldn't be surprising for him to become a top psychologist through learning, it could be something from that sort," Constantine proposed.

"Young Shiller was afflicted with Asperger's Syndrome. His unique abilities made it impossible for him to communicate with others. He started building blocks in the world inside his brain."

"However, one day the members of the mysterious organization burst into the orphanage and killed everyone there. This stimulus led to the collapse of the block tower constructed by Shiller, and he suffered a certain degree of mental shock. He became mute, lost the ability to think, and could only act instinctively."

"The agents of the mysterious organization took him away, perhaps to Germany, perhaps somewhere else, and they experimented on him. We can tentatively identify this experiment as making normal people unlock the brain's restriction on muscles through mental stimulation, thus gaining powerful strength and transforming into an assassin with special abilities," Constantine assumed.

"Shiller spent his adolescence within this mysterious organization, and as they intended, he became a powerful and detached assassin. Therefore, they intended to use Shiller for missions in other countries that we can imagine," Constantine added further.

"However, after they sent Shiller back to this country, he suddenly broke free from their control and killed them all," he continued.

"The commotion Shiller caused was noticed by certain official organizations of this country. They subdued Shiller, took him into custody, and sent him to the so-called Ninth Management Bureau to restore his mental health."

"Given that his block tower had collapsed and he hadn't received any treatment during the golden period of treatment, Shiller couldn't return to the lives of ordinary people by simply disguising his actions. As such, he had no choice but to change his method. He pieced together the collapsed block fragments to form a Tower of Thought."

"With the establishment of the Thought Palace, Shiller's mentality gradually returned to normal. Due to his extraordinary talents and past traumatization, he chose the path of psychology, achieving outstanding results ultimately becoming a professor at Gotham University," Constantine elaborated.

Constantine seemed to agree with this conclusion and nodded saying: "In light of this, Shiller's growth experience could be quite inspiring."

However, Batman spoke in a low voice, "What concerns me most is the mysterious organization that once took Shiller away, the British agents …."

Seeing Batman focusing his gaze on him, Constantine looked him up and down and said, "Why are you looking at me? Not every Briton is an agent."

But it seemed that Constantine suddenly thought of something. "However, I noticed that the second diary you brought out had a picture of a tower with many patterns, yet Shiller's current Tower of Thought is very smooth without any trace. How is this possible?"

Batman took out that diary again, they gathered around to look at the drawing on it, Batman began to speak, "This might just be a blueprint. Those patterns might signify where each piece is placed ..."

Constantine shook his head slightly saying, "Even if they could be pieced together, would it really leave no traces at all? The Thought Tower we see now looks perfect without any sign of being pieced together."

"Perhaps you are unaware, Batman, the human soul is a very fragile thing. You are able to see scars on the souls of mentally ill patients. Even if they have been cured through treatment and medication, these scars will not disappear."

"I would rather view the collapse of Shiller's Tower of Thought as the shattering of his soul. His state of not being able to speak or move on his own was like a shell that had lost its soul."

"And if he managed to reassemble his soul in some way, it's improbable for him not to leave any traces," Constantine stated with certainty. Zatanna concurred, "That's right. I've never seen a person whose soul has completely collapsed, but I have seen many souls that have collapsed in a small spot."

"The collapsed areas might be reassembled later. Some people might even be able to glue all the fragments together to restore their original shapes. However, this doesn't mean there are no traces of gluing. If viewed from the Spirit Realm, their souls are full of holes."

Zatanna directed her gaze to Constantine, Constantine hesitated and shrugged, "Okay, okay. I'm using a blind eye technique. After all, no one would want to walk around with scars," he confessed.

After saying this, a soft glow emanated from his body. Batman squinted to look. He could see that Constantine's body had suddenly become covered with cracks, some spots even appeared as if they'd been scorched.

These scars appeared to have been caused by various things, with differing depths and sizes, but from a distance, there was not a single part of his body that was unscathed.

"This is the price of using magic." Constantine shrugged offhandedly. "I have cut my soul more than once as bait. Wanting to get rid of these scars altogether is not impossible, but it would require an enormous amount of power."

"Even if my reputation was far better than it is now, there wouldn't be any entity willing to lend me so much power at once, not even Lucifer, because it could potentially destabilize the world and lead to very serious consequences,"

As he finished speaking, the scars on Constantine's body gradually disappeared. Looking down at himself, he continued, "Well, I can always disguise myself, which is not bad, right?"

"If the memories we observed in Shiller's Memory Space are true, and his soul has indeed collapsed before, then it would've inevitably left scars." After Constantine enunciated these words, Batman's eyebrows knitted together again, causing him to start doubting what he'd seen.

"Hey, have you guys forgotten why we came here?" Zatanna interrupted, "We're not here to investigate the past of this professor, our target is the Curse Medium."

Finished speaking, she looked down at the toy block in her hand, the expression on her face hesitating slightly. Then she murmured to herself, "This is for his own good. No matter who possesses such a powerful Curse Medium, even a powerful magician, it means an inevitable downfall."

"The stronger the power, the greater the cost." Zatanna shook her head and said, "Those greedy Black Magicians will never understand this. It's not them utilizing the curse, but the curse controlling them."

Then, she firmed up her expression, looking at Batman and Constantine, "One Weakness item can serve as a basis for a scenario, three items provide three scenarios. I think this should be enough. In the past, one was always sufficient for me. After all, forged memories can be incredibly deceptive and it has nothing to do with one's willpower."

Zatanna turned to Batman and asked, "Would you ever question your own memories? Would you ever doubt if something you remember was actually fabricated by someone else?"

Batman remained silent, yet Zatanna continued, "The vast majority of people believe their memories to be reliable. And that's what Psychic wizards take advantage of, creating dreams, fabricating memories to achieve their goals."

Seeing Batman's expression grow more solemn, Constantine cleared his throat and began, "But, now that we're trapped in this Memory Space, we have to find a way out."

"If these three separated Memory Spaces share a common path, then there must be other paths connecting to calmer Memory Spaces." Zatanna began to speculate, "Generally, the way out would be somewhere the person least wants to confront..."

"If the follow-up room isn't the correct answer, then where is?" Batman interrupted, "From the clues we have now, the only deduction we can make is that he suffered several failures in the follow-up room, so he doesn't want to face that place."

Zatanna shook her head, "No, the logical reasoning of the real world may not necessarily apply in the Memory Space. And just because he has suffered failures does not mean he's unwilling to face them. Don't forget, at this time, he's still a psychiatric patient, and his likes and dislikes may not necessarily be logical."

Batman paused, touching his fingers against his wrist, he agreed Zatanna had a point. He studied psychology and knew that the perceptions of the world between a psychiatric patient and a normal person are not the same. An adult would feel dejected after a setback and happy after a success, but it's not the same for a psychiatric patient.

To normal people, repeated failures of a plan could leave a psychological shadow and one might be reluctant to revisit the place associated with the failure. But from the perspective of a mentally ill patient, it might just be a game.

After all, Shiller's diary only mechanically recorded some events without expressing any emotions, so it couldn't be confirmed that the follow-up room is the place he least wants to visit.

"Apart from the follow-up room, any other possibilities?" Constantine began to ponder as well, but Zatanna directly stated, "The clues we currently have in hand are definitely not enough to determine a specific answer, but there is another way."

"Another way?" Batman turned to her, "What is it?"

Zatanna motioned for him to follow her, then walked over to the door. Opening it to find Shiller wasn't inside, she then confidently stepped outside, beckoning, "Follow me."

Both Constantine and Batman still didn't quite understand her method, but still followed her out the door. Zatanna walked to the door of the room adjacent to the utility room, opened it, peeked inside, shook her head, then closed the door.

Next, she walked to the room across the hallway, did the same thing as before - opened the door, peeked inside, shook her head, and closed the door.

Then she walked forward to the midpoint of the corridor, opened the door, closed the door. Just as she was about to resume her march, she cast a glance back and found Constantine and Batman had remained at their spots.

Zatanna stood a few meters away from them, asking in a puzzled tone, "What are you doing? Why aren't you following?"

Batman was also looking at her. After a few moments, he slowly spoke:

"The method you mentioned, wouldn't happen to be the Exhaustion Method, would it?"

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