บท 1385: Chapter 939: Exploring Shiller's Past Journey (Middle) _1
Batman's hand, clutching at the cup, trembled slightly, but soon, he turned his gaze to the cabinet for personal belongings.
The sudden surge of emotion in his heart made him pause momentarily. Batman didn't know what he was so excited about, but he felt that the decision he made was indeed correct.
Batman didn't plan to deceive Shiller's umbrella entirely according to Zatanna's plan, because he knew it wouldn't succeed. However, he did need a way to delve into Shiller's memory. Batman's goal is to find his weakness.
About a few months ago, when the remodeling project had just begun, Batman began to redraw plans for everyone in Gotham.
Most of the plans were completed within a month, but a few targets were troubling. Shiller was not included because Batman's headache was more than just that.
After the last appearance of morbid personalities, Batman discovered that Shiller might indeed have Dissociative Identity Disorder. He had more than one persona, so naturally, one master plan couldn't be used against him.
Of course, Batman felt that if Shiller had ten thousand personas, then he could devise ten thousand plans. It wasn't difficult for him, but the premise was that he needed to figure out how many personas Shiller had and what their respective weaknesses were.
Unfortunately, many of Shiller's personas appeared in front of Batman just for a brief moment, without leaving Batman time to observe their weaknesses. So, when Constantine proposed using Zatanna's abilities to enter Shiller's memory, he knew that his chance had come.
Of course, doing this had risks. But Batman was never one to be afraid of risk. He had considered the potential consequences of angering the professor, but he no longer cared about it since his graduation certificate was now in his hands.
Although the graduation ceremony hadn't been held yet, it was no big deal. He planned to switch to the Physics Department when he was a graduate student. At that time, the professor couldn't threaten him with papers anymore.
As for the previous academic performance and paper level, Batman was no longer striving for it. Simply put, he was prepared to give up.
Therefore, he could probe Shiller s bottom line without any concerns, and was about to reap rewards.
The small cabinet in front of him for personal belongings was divided into two parts. The upper half was a glass door bookcase, and the lower half was a storage cupboard for sundries. Batman first opened the bookcase, which contained quite a few books, but unfortunately, the names and content of the books were all blurry.
Batman couldn't determine what language these books were written in, so he couldn't judge what they were by their thickness and binding. After having flipped through them for a while to almost no avail, he knelt down again to check the storage cupboard below.
After opening the cupboard door, the things inside were orderly arranged. The first layer held a set of replacement hospital clothes. When Batman picked them up, he found that they didn't quite match the figure of the Shiller he knew.
Although Shiller was thin, he was definitely 187 cm tall. The hospital clothes in front of him would be too short for him, at least for the sleeves and trousers.
Batman held the clothes up to measure against himself and found that the person who wore them should be just over 1.8 meters tall, very thin. Any slight muscularity would make it impossible to fit in these clothes.
Batman guessed that this might have been Shiller in his younger years, that only before he grew so tall, he could wear these clothes.
After folding the clothes neatly and putting them back, next to them was a tooth mug, towel, and two rolls of toilet paper stacked together. These were very ordinary items, having almost no clues, but the things on the next layer made Batman a bit puzzled.
Firstly, on the left side of the second layer, there was a metal biscuit box. When Batman picked it up, he found Chinese characters on it. This should be a cookie box from some brand. When he opened the lid, there were two notebooks inside.
The notebooks were very ordinary; one was new and the other was old. The old one appeared to have been flipped through many times. After opening the notebook, it was densely filled with Chinese characters that seemed to be a diary.
As Batman read it carefully, he found that the diary's owner seemed to have a plan, but had not been successful.
"On November 20, I successfully obtained the qualification to go to the cafeteria. Just like what planned, I saw the TV show played on the cafeteria TV..."
"On November 22, I began to try to mimic the behavior and speech of the characters in the TV series..."
"On November 25, I was found out during a follow-up visit, failure."
"On January 6th, the nurse said that I was almost better. Of course, because my roommate is an anorexic. Although he doesn't eat much, his behavior and actions are normal. I successfully copied him so I became normal, too..."
"On January 10, I was found out during the follow-up consultation, failure."
"On February 11, I said that I wanted to go to university, and the dean was very happy. He found many books for me. After I memorized all of them at high speed, I got the qualification to read extracurricular books."
"On February 13, I saw many stories in the extracurricular books. I mimicked the words, behaviors, and actions of the characters there. The dean felt that knowledge is progressive and was very happy."
"February 15th, my disguise was unmasked at the follow-up appointment. Failure."
"March 10th, my disguise was discovered at the follow-up appointment. Failure."
"March 25th, my disguise was revealed during the follow-up appointment. Failure."
"April 1st, I started considering quitting."
"April 2nd, I gave up."
Every page Batman turns in the diary increases the furrow in his brow. The information he gathered from the diary suggests the owner has been trying to masquerade as a normal person, but was always exposed during check-ups, leading to ultimate surrender.
Batman was about to put the diary down when he noticed the last page had also been turned. Reading it, he found a single sentence:
"The two things humans love to do most: turn an ordinary person into a madman, or demand a madman to impersonate an ordinary person."
Upon reading this, Batman's finger paused for a moment before quickly fluttering his eyes and picking up another notebook.
This notebook seemed much newer, hardly used. His face changed when flipping open to the first page.
It wasn't text he saw, but a drawing. In the image was a colossal tower—immense, majestic, and piercing the sky.
Nothing else was to be found, leading to an agitated Batman to thoroughly scour both notebooks for hints regarding the tower, unfortunately to no avail.
The only thing that could be deduced was that the drawing's creator had been thinking and changing the picture on the fly— as if drawing a blueprint rather than aiming for realism.
Another thing Batman noted were the numerous patterns, or rather cracks on the tower sketch. It looked as though the colossal structure was pieced together by several small fragments.
How the writing flowed suggested the writer was contemplating where each fragment should be pieced and how they would fit together to maintain stability.
Batman had seen the Thought Palace's tower during Parallax's invasion inhabited by the Laughing Egg, but now he realized it wasn't built from bottom to top; rather it was assembled from various fragments.
Batman pointed his gaze towards a box at the right of the second layer. Initially, it seemed like a microwavable plastic box. Upon opening it, though, he found no food, but blocks of building bricks.
Picking up a block, Batman closely examined them. He found the edges were significantly worn—suggesting heavy, daily use. Squinting his eyes, Batman couldn't imagine Shiller, sitting on the bed, playing with the blocks.
This professor always came across mature, showing little interest in anything deemed juvenile pastimes. As for a tabletop game that he could be associated with? International chess or Go, but definitely not building blocks.
Batman cast his gaze downwards at the wooden block. He thought that if one were to play with blocks, Lego would seem a more interesting choice. With only six or seven bricks in the box, it would be a challenge to build even a door, wouldn't it?
After closing the lid of the box and placing it back in the Cabinet, Batman cast his gaze to the bottom of the storage cabinet. The most unfathomable item was sitting there. Upon picking up this item and unfolding it, he confirmed it to be a straightjacket for the mentally deranged.
Just as he was laying out the jacket, the room light flickered twice before going out.
In the darkness, Batman heard a strange sound, akin to metal being torn apart and distorted. He instantly thought of the "weakness items" Zatanna had mentioned.
Lowering his gaze to the straightjacket, Batman stuck it back into the box and sped out the door.
Without his bat suit or night vision goggles, he can barely see anything in the necklace black corridor. But seconds later, he heard a "da da da" sound, like something being dragged across the floor.
A sudden realization hit Batman—the ends of the straightjacket sleeves had metallic buckles to secure a patient's arms. Those would surely make such a distinct noise when thumped against a stair edge.
Box in hand, Batman rushed towards the end of the corridor. As he moved to descend the stairs, the lights flickered on to reveal a figure wearing the straightjacket at the end of the corridor.
The figure was just over 1.8 meters tall, very thin with almost no trace of muscle—nothing like the robust Batman.
However, Batman didn't hesitate and turned to run.
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