Chapter 262: No Bat Incident (Part 2) (Patreon)

In DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List

XXX-----XXX-----XXX-----XXX

The rain continued to fall in Gotham, accompanied by the constant rumble of thunder. The cool, damp air seeped in through the window cracks, casting a lightning reflection in the already cold coffee.

Hugo took off his glasses and rubbed his temples. He stood up from his desk, glancing at the materials and the now cold coffee, realizing that he wasn't suited for staying up late and working overtime; he always ended up falling asleep.

At that moment, he heard a familiar voice echoing in the room: "Hugo has woken up in his office again. The coffee he made himself at noon has already gone cold. But it doesn't matter. If he drinks this cup of coffee, he will see a key hidden at the bottom of the cup. What door does this key open?"

Hugo slowly reached for the cup of coffee, then brought it to his lips and drank it. The cold coffee didn't taste good, causing Hugo to furrow his brows. Suddenly, he felt his lips touch a metallic object—it was a key.

A key that would open which door?

Hugo shook his head and searched around his desk. He noticed a locked drawer on the right side, and he inserted the key, giving it a twist to the right. The drawer opened.

The voice chimed in again, "Oh, it seems this is the key to open the office cabinet drawer! Hugo is quite clever!"

"Hugo opened the drawer and found a schedule inside. The schedule stated that he had a ward round at Hospital Room 302 at 9:20..."

"Hugo is a diligent doctor, and he didn't want to miss the ward round. But where is Room 302?"

Hugo opened the drawer and grabbed a piece of paper. It had a line of text written on it: "Go to Room 302 for ward round before 9:20."

Hugo turned around and glanced at the weather outside. The voice sounded again, "Hugo looked out the window and saw that it was a rainy day. He couldn't determine the current time based on the weather outside. It seems he faced another problem—finding a watch..."

Hugo turned his head and looked down at his wrist. The voice continued, "Hugo suddenly remembered that he was wearing a watch on his wrist."

And so, a watch appeared on Hugo's wrist, displaying the time as 9:17. The voice persisted, "Oh no! It's too late! It seems he only has 3 minutes to reach Room 302. Hugo knew he had to act quickly!"

Hugo briskly walked away from his desk and approached the door. He twisted the doorknob but found it wouldn't open. The voice spoke again, "Undoubtedly, this is another door that requires a key. Hugo needs to find the key."

As Hugo started to anxiously search the room, flipping things over, the voice kept whispering in his ear, "This is really strange, isn't it? This isn't a game. Why does every door require a specific key?"

"To be honest, I hate those games where you have to solve puzzles every few steps. It's a complete waste of my time. Why don't we take a more efficient approach, like kicking the door open? What do you think?"

"Don't worry, you're just in a hurry to do your rounds for the sake of the patients. It's late now, and your colleagues have already left. No one will see you..."

Hugo paused his actions and looked at the door. It was just a wooden door, but in Hugo's sight, the wooden panels of the door rapidly aged, becoming unstable. He felt that instead of wasting time looking for a key, it would be better to kick the door open with one powerful kick.

He walked to the door, raised his foot, and prepared to kick it. Just as his foot was about to make contact with the door, the door transformed into a giant red button. Countless warning lights in the room started flashing frantically, accompanied by a piercing alarm.

When Hugo's foot hit the button, triggering its activation, the wallpaper on the walls of the room peeled away, revealing various types of bombs inside. Amidst the intense explosion, Hugo was blown to pieces.

The last image he saw before his death was himself standing outside the door, wearing a malicious smile.

Seeing Hugo return to the first floor, Victor asked, "This should be another special area, right?"

"Correct, I call it the Realm of Self-Control."

"What was that voice that kept misleading Hugo?"

"He is called 'Temptation'."

As the others looked puzzled, Schiller began to explain once again, "We live in society and inevitably need to abide by rules, but following the rules is not an easy task. People often face many temptations."

"He lies, creates illusions, and step by step leads people to break the rules. The temptation Hugo faced was minor. It only created a scenario of his ordinary work routine and enticed him to kick that button step by step..."

"When I went there, he wasn't so gentle with me. Dealing with multiple layers of traps is just a walk in the park for him."

"Then how do we leave from here? Since you said that temptation can set infinite traps and lure us in various ways, how can we break through this floor?"

"Well, there are many methods. Although temptation creates illusions and traps, there are always flaws. It's hard for me to explain the specific methods, but there is still one correct example..."

"Remember the crazy guy who climbed the staircase last time? After he entered this floor, he sat still and started chatting with temptation until he drove it crazy. Temptation cried and ran to the upper floor to complain. That's how he passed."

Schiller turned his head to Jack, who continued to ignore him.

"Alright, but now Hugo seems to have returned to the first floor. What should we do this time?"

Schiller sighed. Although Victor didn't know how to sigh in the Earth realm, he could still hear Schiller's sigh. Schiller continued, "To be honest, he's a bit disappointing... Or maybe the performance of that crazy guy set my expectations too high for challengers."

"Never mind. I'll inform the elevator administrator to teleport Hugo to a higher floor."

The pouring rain gradually weakened, turning into a fine and chilly drizzle. The raindrops fell from the twilight light, resembling golden powder floating from the sky.

When Hugo woke up, he found himself tied to a chair and saw a person with a strange appearance approaching him.

His head was cylindrical, his body square, and his arms and legs were also square. He wore a dark cape on his back.

He pointed a finger forward, and Hugo saw that his hand was in the shape of a capital letter "C," connected to his arm like a wrench. He stretched out his hand and pointed behind Hugo, saying, "Release him! Joker! Or else, I'll make you regret it!"

Hugo strained to look back and saw another person with a similar appearance standing behind him. However, this Joker was wearing a purple suit and had Joker makeup on his face. This Joker also extended his "C" shaped hand and said, "Batman! It's time to make a choice, you..."

Just as they were speaking, with a loud "snap," the entire world went dark, and Hugo was thrown back to a previous floor. Victor stood up from the audience seats and exclaimed, "Wait! What's going on? Why are all the people here made of building blocks? Where are we?"

Victor saw Schiller hurriedly pulling down the curtain, and with a guilty tone, he said, "This is a floor with an unmentionable name. Don't ask any more..."

Victor pondered for a moment, then smirked and said, "...I never thought you could be so childish. Are you hiding in your own room, playing with building block figurines in a role-playing game?"

"No, I'm not. Don't make up stories. And if I were to play, I wouldn't play as them..."

At that moment, Jack woke up, squinted his eyes, and looked up, revealing a gloating smile.

Following his gaze, Victor's vision rose higher and higher, passing through layers of floors, until it stopped at a slightly dim projection room.

In the projection room, there were two sofas, and two figures sat on them—one in white and one in black. The figure in white wore a white lab coat, while the figure in black wore a long black coat. Both figures were Schiller.

Marvel Schiller in the white lab coat let out a sigh and said, "That was close. If we had continued, not only would our dark history have been exposed, but also copyright issues..."

Then, he looked at Schiller beside him and smiled, saying, "But it doesn't matter. After all, it's your dark history."

"That's a stereotype. Why can't adults play with building blocks?" DC Schiller replied.

"But you live in Gotham City, and you have a DC world building block in your mind, and you play with figurines in role-playing games. It does seem a bit strange, doesn't it?"

"Even if this floor doesn't count. Hugo should be close to his breaking point by now," DC Schiller changed the topic.

"According to our previous speculation, when he completely believes in it and reaches a certain level of conviction, he can use his obsession to open a pathway to the deep consciousness," he continued.

"In theory, that's how it should work, but whether our plan can succeed is still uncertain," Marvel Schiller said.

"Excluding the previous floor, so which floor should we choose next?"

"Let's trap him in the 190th floor, where that lunatic was trapped for a long time..."

When Hugo woke up again, he found himself in a vast white space, and in front of him was a dancing apple.

This apple had black thread-like hands and feet, just like in a comic book, and it was performing ballet.

He watched the apple dance like that, while everyone in the audience seats watched him watching the dancing apple. Yawned, Victor asked, "What kind of place is this? Why is there a dancing apple?"

"This place..." Schiller also yawned. Victor couldn't tell how an Earthling yawned, but he heard the sound of Schiller yawning.

"This is the Boredom Plaza. Just as the name suggests, the theme here is boredom. It brings forth the most boring things that you can think of. It seems that Doctor Hugo finds watching an apple dance the most boring thing."

"Then how did the previous expert overcome this floor?"

"In fact, he hasn't overcome this floor yet."

"Can we see his current situation? Can you switch the stage for us? I'm quite curious."

Schiller stood up, and Victor thought he was going to walk over to the stage to switch it. However, he walked over to Jack instead and pointed at him, saying, "This is his current situation."

Jack had one eye closed and slightly opened the other eye, glancing at Schiller, then closed that eye again.

Schiller explained, "He's a lunatic who has gone crazy because Batman isn't in Gotham."

"A crazy lunatic?"

"Yes, according to the double negative theory, we call people like him 'normal'."

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, without ads and support the work.]

XXX-----XXX-----XXX-----XXX

Next Chapter>>Chapter 263: No Bat Incident (Part 3)