Chapter 939: Exploring Schiller's Past (Part 2) (Patreon)

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Batman held the cup's handle, his fingers trembling slightly. However, he quickly shifted his gaze towards the cabinet where personal items were kept.

A sudden surge of emotion welled up within him, causing Batman to pause. He didn't exactly know what was making him so excited, but he felt that the decision he had made was indeed correct.

Batman had no intention of blindly following Zatanna's plan to deceive Schiller's Umbrella, as he knew it was bound to fail. However, he did need a way to delve into Schiller's memories. Batman's goal was to uncover Schiller's weaknesses.

Several months ago, when the renovation plan had just begun, Batman had started devising a defensive plan against all of Gotham's inhabitants. Most of these plans had been completed within a month, but there were a few targets that were giving him a headache, Schiller included, as Schiller was no longer just a headache to him.

After the last appearance of Schiller's pathological personality, Batman had realized that Schiller might indeed suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder. He had more than one personality, making it impossible to devise a single universal plan against him.

Of course, Batman thought that if Schiller had a thousand personalities, he could create a thousand plans, which wouldn't be difficult for him. However, the prerequisite was to determine how many personalities Schiller had and what weaknesses each of them possessed.

Unfortunately, many of Schiller's personalities that had appeared before Batman were fleeting, leaving him with little time to observe their weaknesses. So when Constantine proposed the idea of using Zatanna's abilities to enter Schiller's memory space, Batman knew that the opportunity had come.

Of course, there were risks involved in this endeavor, but Batman was never one to shy away from taking risks. He had considered the consequences of angering this Professor, but he no longer cared because he already had his diploma.

Although the graduation ceremony had yet to take place, it didn't matter. He had already decided to switch to the physics department for his postgraduate studies, at which point this Professor couldn't use a thesis to threaten him anymore.

As for his previous academic performance and thesis quality, Batman had no intention of putting any more effort into them. In simple terms, he was ready to play it rough.

So, he could explore Schiller's limits without any reservations, and he was about to make some progress.

The small cabinet in front of him was divided into two parts. The upper half was a bookshelf with a glass door, while the lower half was a storage cabinet for miscellaneous items. Batman started by opening the bookshelf, which contained quite a few books. Unfortunately, the titles and contents of the books were obscure.

Batman couldn't determine the language of these works, so he couldn't judge what kind of books they were based on their thickness and binding. After searching for a while and finding nothing of significance, he knelt down and examined the items in the lower storage cabinet.

After opening the cabinet door, he found everything neatly organized. The first layer contained a set of replacement patient gowns. Batman picked one up and realized that it didn't quite match the physique of the Schiller he knew.

While Schiller was relatively slim, he was also quite tall, standing at 187 centimeters. The patient gown before him wouldn't fit Schiller; at least, the pants and sleeves would be too short.

Batman measured the gown against his own body and concluded that it was designed for someone around 1.8 meters tall, very slim, and without any noticeable muscular definition. He speculated that this might be Schiller from his younger years, when he hadn't grown as tall yet.

He neatly folded the gown and placed it back. Next to it were a toothbrush cup, towels, and two rolls of toilet paper stacked together. These were all very ordinary items, with almost no clues. However, the items on the next layer left Batman feeling puzzled.

Firstly, on the left side of the second layer, there was a metal cookie tin. Batman picked it up and noticed that it had Chinese characters on it, likely the label of a brand of cookies. Upon opening the tin, he found two notebooks inside.

The notebooks were quite ordinary, one new and the other old, with the old one appearing to have been flipped through many times. When Batman opened the old notebook, he discovered that it was filled with densely written Chinese characters, resembling a diary.

Batman concentrated as he read and noticed that the owner of the diary seemed to have a plan that had never succeeded.

"On November 20th, I successfully gained access to the canteen and saw the same television series as in the plan..."

"On November 22nd, I began attempting to mimic the behaviors and speech of characters from the television series..."

"On November 25th, my disguise was discovered during a follow-up appointment, failure."

"On January 6th, the nurse said my illness was almost cured, which was expected because my roommate has anorexia. Despite his eating disorder, his behavior is normal. I successfully imitated him and became normal too..."

"On January 10th, my disguise was discovered during a follow-up appointment, failure."

"On February 11th, I mentioned that I wanted to go to university. The Director was very happy and provided me with many books. After quickly memorizing all of them, I gained permission to read extracurricular books."

"February 13th, I read many stories in extracurricular books and imitated the behaviors of characters, making the Director believe that knowledge leads to progress, and he felt very happy."

"February 15th, my disguise was discovered during a follow-up appointment, failure."

"March 10th, my disguise was discovered during a follow-up appointment, failure."

"March 25th, my disguise was discovered during a follow-up appointment, failure."

"April 1st, started considering giving up."

"April 2nd, gave up."

As Batman continued to flip through the pages of the diary, his brows furrowed deeper. The information he gathered from this diary was that its owner seemed to have been continuously attempting to mimic normal behavior, only to be exposed during follow-up appointments, leading to eventual abandonment.

Batman was about to set the diary aside, but then he felt that the last page of the notebook had also been tampered with. He turned to the last page and found a sentence written there:

"The two things humans like to do the most are turning an ordinary person into a madman and demanding that a madman disguise as an ordinary person."

Upon seeing this sentence, Batman's fingertips paused briefly, but soon he blinked and picked up another notebook.

This notebook was much newer than the previous one, appearing barely used. However, as Batman opened the first page, he was stunned.

There were no words on the page, only a drawing. The drawing depicted a massive high tower, colossal, grand, and soaring into the sky.

As he flipped further, there was nothing else. Batman urgently turned both notebooks from cover to cover, but he couldn't find any clues about this towering structure.

The only thing he could discern was that the person who drew this seemed to be contemplating and revising while drawing, as if creating a blueprint rather than a realistic sketch.

Another detail that caught Batman's attention was that the high tower was covered in many patterns, or perhaps it wouldn't be accurate to call them patterns; they resembled cracks. The entire high tower seemed to be assembled from numerous tiny fragments.

The direction of the author's pen strokes appeared to be carefully considering where each piece should fit and how to join them securely to maintain stability.

During Parallax's arrival and its parasitic possession by the Laughing Egg, Batman had previously seen Schiller's Temple of Thought high tower. However, this time, he understood more about it. The high tower was not something Schiller saw from the ground up; it was constructed from various fragments.

Batman then turned his attention to the box on the right side of the second layer. It appeared to be a plastic container for heating food in the microwave. After taking it out and opening the clasp and lid, he found that it didn't contain food but several wooden blocks.

Batman picked up one of the blocks and observed it closely. These blocks had heavily worn edges, suggesting they were used frequently. Batman furrowed his brow in confusion because he couldn't imagine Schiller sitting on a bed and playing with building blocks.

The Professor always appeared mature and uninterested in any form of entertainment that didn't belong to his age group. If he were to engage in a tabletop game, it might be chess or perhaps Go, but it certainly wouldn't be building blocks.

Batman lowered his gaze to the block in his hand and thought that even if it were building blocks, they would likely be the more interesting LEGO type, not these plain wooden blocks. Moreover, there were only six or seven blocks in this box; it would likely be a struggle to build even a simple structure with them.

As he placed the lid back on the box and returned it to the cabinet, Batman's gaze shifted to the bottommost layer of the storage cabinet. There, he found something he couldn't quite understand. He picked it up and unfolded it, confirming that it was a straitjacket used for restraining psychiatric patients.

In the instant he unfolded the straitjacket, the lights in the room suddenly flickered twice and then went out.

In that moment, Batman heard a strange noise, somewhat like the sound of metal being twisted and deformed, which sent shivers down his spine. He immediately recalled Zatanna's mention of "vulnerable items."

Batman glanced at the straitjacket, swiftly folded it, then took the box containing the diary from the second layer, placed the straitjacket inside, and dashed out of the room.

Now, he wasn't wearing his Batman suit, nor did he have night vision goggles. The entire corridor was pitch black, and he could barely see anything. But seconds later, he heard a "clattering" sound, like something being dragged along the floor.

Batman suddenly realized that at the ends of the straitjacket sleeves, there were two metal fasteners used to secure a patient's arms. When that object struck the edge of the stairs, it produced that sharp sound.

Holding the box, Batman rushed towards the end of the corridor. As he turned to descend the staircase, he saw, accompanied by a flash of light, a figure wearing the straitjacket at the far end of the hallway.

He stood at around 1.8 meters, very slim, with hardly any muscular definition, certainly not as strong as Batman.

But Batman didn't hesitate for a moment; he turned and ran.

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter>>Chapter 940: Unraveling Schiller's Journey (Part 2)