Chương 3170: Chapter 2318: Gotham Music Festival (20)_1

New Yorkers chose to avoid discussing Shiller's past experiences. In their view, Shiller is Shiller now, and their friend, what happened in the past doesn't matter.

Even though Stark and Steve had once seen something in their dreams that seemed related to Shiller's past, they never brought up such topics in front of him. At most, they discussed it privately, all speculating, with no one making any definite conclusions.

Nick did some investigation after learning that Shiller might be from another world, but he focused mainly on when Shiller arrived and under what identity, rather than showing much interest in the universe Shiller had once resided in.

With a tacit understanding, they blurred over the topic, as if guarding a shared secret, because they knew it would definitely be a secret. A person like Shiller's past was destined not to be ordinary and dull, but no matter how magnificent, it was no longer important.

The Gothamites held a similar attitude, but for different reasons.

They knew that Shiller's past must be a big secret, and if it was secret, it must be for a reason.

Shiller had his own plans for it, so even the extremely curious Bruce didn't adopt a forceful stance to make Shiller explain everything.

Because both sides maintained an indifferent and vague attitude, they both were unclear on the details. They had guessed it might have been an accident, but they didn't expect it to be death.

That's when Stark suddenly remembered a scene he had seen inside Shiller's Tower of Thought.

"...A plane?"

Stark let out a word instinctively, which drew everyone's attention to him, and then to Shiller, wondering why only he knew?

Stark then recalled the entire process in his head. They had bought tickets to experience the life of a magical school called Hogwarts in one of the rooms of the Tower of Xir's Thought.

There, they had heard a rumor about a mirror in some room that could show you your deepest desires. Stark had seen his parents in it.

But when Shiller passed by the mirror, Stark saw a blue sky with white clouds and a plane flying through the clouds.

He didn't know why a plane would be Shiller's deepest desire, but when Shiller said he came to this world through death, Stark instinctively thought of that plane.

"An air crash?" Stark asked Shiller tentatively.

Shiller nodded, paused, and then said in the most concise language, "The plane crashed, I died, and after waking up, I found myself here."

He didn't bother explaining his interactions with Lucifer and God because, in reality, that wasn't important, nor was it related to his current statement, at least not as a direct cause.

Bruce immediately caught the key information and turned to Shiller, asking, "Where did it crash?"

"At sea."

Everyone fell silent.

After a moment of hesitation, Natasha spoke, "Do you think that's why you get seasick?... Is there some psychological principle here that I don't understand?"

"Are you saying that this death caused you a psychological trauma?" Steve's speculation was bolder as he said, "It probably depends on the attitude of the plane when it fell. Some crash victims indeed didn't die during the fall but afterward due to improper actions, missing the best chance of survival, often happening when a plane crashes at sea."

"If the plane didn't disintegrate in mid-air but landed in the sea in a relatively stable manner, then most of the passengers should still be alive. If they had carefully listened to the safety instructions explained before takeoff, they might have been able to use the life jackets and breathing masks under the seats to save themselves."

"But if they didn't listen carefully, the majority wouldn't be able to swim to safety in that scenario, so most victims of such crashes die from drowning."

Everyone looked at Shiller again, clearly wanting to know whether he had died because of the plane disintegrating and exploding, or drowning after it fell into the sea.

"I can't be sure," Shiller shook his head and said, "but the last scene I saw before I died was the ocean."

And finally, Peter couldn't help but ask, "How could the plane crash? Air crashes are extremely rare events, and there haven't been many in human history. How could it just so happen...?"

Although everyone made a "better not to ask" expression, in reality, they were all ears. If Shiller's cause of death was an air crash, then this crash certainly wasn't so simple.

They would never imagine that Shiller's past life was that of an ordinary law-abiding citizen. Judging from the various fragments they had pieced together, Shiller, with his morbid personality, must also have had a tumultuous past. Could this plane crash be related to Shiller's history?

Though it might be a bit impolite to say, the first thought that came to people's minds whenever a disaster befell Shiller wasn't who might want to do something to Shiller, but rather what Shiller must have done to others.

Even those present who were biased towards their friend had to admit that every time Shiller suffered significant misfortune, it was mostly his own doing; to put it more bluntly, he had it coming.

"After discussing it, we think it's possible," Shiller said, tugging at the blanket on his body, "This is the only encounter I've ever had with the ocean. If not for that, I can't think of any other reason."

Shiller let out a soft sigh, "It's not that, being a psychologist, I can completely understand the principles of all trauma disorders. Some inexplicable things just inexplicably happen to inexplicable members of the human race. You can think of it as a miracle of evolution."

"Bullshit," Bruce asserted.

"Alright, let's let our patient rest," Stark clearly intended to close the chapter on the matter. He had always been a pragmatist. If Shiller got seasick, then don't go on a boat; if he's queasy about the ocean, then stay away from the sea – wasn't the problem solved that way?

As for whatever disaster might arise from this later, they would deal with it when the time came – meet force with force, stem water with earth. This was also the attitude of the majority of New Yorkers.

Everyone got up, preparing to disperse. Steve escorted Shiller back to his room while the others made their way to their respective rooms.

Bruce's room and those of the Primary Universe Batman and Universe Batman were all on the same floor. As they walked back, they moved through the corridor at the same time. The Primary Universe Batman initiated the conversation, "It seems I underestimated how eventful his past was; he's not even an original resident of this place."

"Of course, he isn't, but you believed that?" Bruce said, glancing back at the Primary Universe Batman as he walked, "Have you not seen the Joker before?"

Batman frowned slightly, and Bruce snorted coldly, strode forward, and said, "When he puts on an act as if he's about to reveal the truth to you, you'll know that it's never the truth. He just wants to pacify you with something that seems like the truth so that you won't ask further questions."

"I guarantee you, it wasn't something important to him; he didn't show a trace of discomfort just now," Bruce said, standing beside his bedroom door, holding the doorknob, and turning back, "The fact he revealed seemingly significant secret about himself was just to give you the satisfaction of obtaining information, so that you'd feel like you've gotten enough today."

"The weak front he put up was just to make you believe it was his psychological trauma, so, out of humanitarian concern, you wouldn't pursue the topic further, or for fear of provoking an incident, you wouldn't continue the conversation."

The two Batmen stood in front of Bruce, one to the left, one to the right, their looks saying, "Why are you so skilled at this?"

"Because I've been duped too damn many times!" Bruce said through gritted teeth, "If you two were my age and dealt with two Jokers in the same period—one chasing you so you had no time to write papers, and another chasing you every day for papers—then you'd know how I figured all this out."

The door slammed shut. The Primary Universe Batman and Universe Batman exchanged glances and both vaguely shook their heads.

The Primary Universe Batman also did not believe that things were so simple, as he had observed many discrepancies.

From the reactions of the otherworldly visitors, whose style was markedly different from theirs, it was clear that Shiller did not suffer from seasickness or motion sickness in their universe. This made Shiller's so-called trauma disorder self-defeating; after all, if the sight of the sea was distressing, it wouldn't be selective to just one universe's oceans.

And from the perspective of Batman the detective, the issues with the sea during that recent journey seemed far more concerning than those with Shiller.

While Batman was very aware of what sort of place Gotham's seas were, the waters they had just been in were still abnormal.

Firstly, the sea was too calm. No wind, no waves, they say, but this was the sea – how could it not rock even a little? Yet the surface was motionless as if frozen. If it hadn't been, how could the ship have remained so stable with Spider Man and Robin yelling, screaming, jumping, and fooling around on board?

One must understand that although these kids appeared ordinary, Spider Man was incredibly strong. The ruckus they caused should have been enough to destabilize a cruise ship. But during their water fight, the cruise ship seemed as though it had been soldered in place.

Then there were the fish. Batman knew the seas around Gotham didn't have many fish, not just because of water pollution; this place simply wasn't a traditional fishing ground.

Although the confluence of cold and warm currents made the seafood here particularly delicious, Gotham had no history of developing a fishing civilization; it was more a hub for cargo transshipment, with dockworkers far outnumbering fishermen. On the contrary, nearby Brude Haven and Port of Mercy were known fishing hubs.

Nevertheless, based on the cruise ship's speed and travel time, they were deep in the sea, far from Gotham's shoreline. The pollution shouldn't have affected these waters, and due to a lack of fishing activity, wild fish shoals should have been present.

When Steve cast his line, Batman watched too. The high-powered fishing lights almost illuminated several meters below the water surface, yet not a single fish was in sight, and the water was as still as death.

This was highly unusual, Batman been aware, but what was even stranger was that Shiller, without any attempt at investigating, attributed everything to himself. Combining this with what Bruce said earlier, Shiller either didn't want to look into it or wanted to investigate on his own.

But why would that be? Batman knew he was missing many important pieces of information. What could they be?

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