Hugo's Adventures in Wonderland (Part 2)

Hugo was first frightened by Cobblepot, then frozen by Victor, but Hugo still didn't want to give up. He felt that this might be a coincidence with a very small probability. Two geniuses with unique consciousness spaces gathered together and became master and apprentice. Although the possibility was very small, it was not impossible.

Besides these two, the most recent person with a history of treatment is Evans Falcone.

When he saw the surname, Hugo hesitated for a moment, but still decided to invite him over. Hugo felt that if he didn't take any radical measures and just took a look, he probably wouldn't offend the famous Godfather.

Evans' situation was similar to Cobblepot's. He was unaware of Schiller's departure and was quite cooperative with the request for a follow-up appointment. When he arrived at Hugo's clinic, just like the previous times, Hugo had him lie down in a chair, then turned on the machine and applied the patch to his head.

Upon entering Evans's consciousness space, Hugo was stunned again, because there was a grand theater inside Evans's consciousness space.

That's not a big deal, it's just the same situation as Cobblepot's. The problem is that next to this theater, there's an old manor that's only half-built.

There were two buildings, which was fine, but the building next to it was still under construction. As Hugo entered, a figure walked out of the building under construction, looked Hugo up and down, and said, "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

Suddenly, his expression changed, and he said, "Are you Assassin?"

Hugo saw the person opposite him twitch their hand, but then regain their composure. The person said, "No, if he wanted to kill me, he would have come in person..."

At this moment, Hugo also realized that the person existing in Evans's consciousness space seemed different from himself. He asked, "... Dual personality?"

"That's right, you wouldn't happen to be Doctor, would you?"

Hugo sensed a dangerous quality in this man, so he said as calmly as possible, "Yes, I'm giving you hypnotherapy. What's your name?"

The man sized Hugo up and said, "My name is Alberto. Hypnotherapy? I've never heard of this being part of Evans' treatment plan..."

"I'm a new Doctor, and this is my treatment method. You don't need to be nervous; I'm just checking to make sure your current mental state is normal..."

"Okay, then don't keep me from working. My house is only half-built. Why don't you go visit the building across the street?"

Hugo examined the half-built house closely and found it to be surprisingly detailed; even the un-placed bricks and the cement mixed together were clearly visible.

What are you building?

"Build a house, what else?"

Why build houses?

Alberto looked at Hugo as if he were an idiot, and said, "If I don't build a house, where am I supposed to live?"

This question truly stumped Hugo. The logic made perfect sense in reality, but he didn't know how to explain it to the person in front of him. In fact, in the Consciousness World, there was no need to build houses.

Alberto waved him off impatiently and said, "The person you need to examine and treat is in that house over there. Go find him and don't bother me."

Hugo sensed that the dangerous aura emanating from him was growing stronger, and he dared not linger for fear of causing more trouble. So he left the building under construction and went to the theater across the street.

As soon as he entered the theater, he was stunned again, because there were more than a dozen Evans rehearsing the script on stage, and what was even more outrageous was that there were quite a few audience members in the audience.

Even more outrageous, Schiller was also in the audience.

Hugo hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should go in, because he sensed a great danger in the backs of the audience.

He swallowed hard, then stopped in his tracks and silently retreated.

He didn't even dare press the button before ending Evans's journey through his consciousness space. Evans got up from the chair, yawned, and stretched. He felt like he had a strange dream, but couldn't remember what it was about. So he said, "Thank you, Doctor. Is the treatment over?"

"It's over..." Hugo replied, somewhat absentmindedly.

Even after Evans left, he remained frozen in place, for recent events had indeed exceeded his expectations.

He faced a huge challenge at the very beginning of his career in Gotham because his worldview was turned upside down. From any perspective, the possibility of three rare geniuses appearing in succession should be zero.

Hugo couldn't figure out where the problem lay. All his theories were based on the premise that the consciousness space of ordinary people was chaotic, disordered, and impoverished. Therefore, he felt that he, who could manifest a complete image in the consciousness space, was superior to ordinary humans and could therefore control them.

But recently, his situation is like this: he happily moved into his new home, and then took one step and was met with three major setbacks.

As expected of a professional psychology expert, Hugo had a strong ability to self-regulate and quickly emerged from this shadow. He then came to a crucial point: the person who appeared simultaneously in the consciousness spaces of these three people— Schiller Rodriguez.

Hugo now suspects that Schiller may have used a therapy he was unaware of to transform the consciousness spaces of these three people in this way, which is not impossible.

Hugo has spent the last few nights reading all of Schiller's papers and research reports. He has to admit that Schiller's theory of the Mind Palace is unlikely to be made up out of thin air, because it is impossible to make something so detailed and realistic out of thin air.

Previously, due to his arrogance, Hugo had not read these papers carefully, only skimming them. However, after reading them carefully, he discovered that Schiller might have indeed mastered some unknown psychological techniques, and perhaps he was using these techniques to transform his patients.

Hugo suddenly felt a sense of indignation. Both of them were conducting illegal human experiments, but he was discovered, hunted down, and fired, and had to flee to Gotham to escape the disaster, while Schiller remained a world-renowned top psychology master. This was simply unfair.

Schiller did the same thing as him, which was to use his professional knowledge to reform patients. However, he did it more discreetly and was less likely to be discovered. Therefore, he not only did not pay the price for it, but also achieved great success. This made Hugo, who had just been dismissed and expelled, very resentful.

Therefore, Hugo had an idea: to find a way to expose Schiller.

Then, an even more dangerous thought came to Hugo's mind: if he could control Schiller, all of his skills, knowledge, fame, and status would be at his disposal.

But Hugo was also well aware that they were both insiders. Hugo had some understanding of Schiller's research direction, and Schiller probably had the same understanding of Hugo. It was unlikely that he could trick Schiller into coming over like he had tricked these patients. Even if he did, Hugo was not confident that he could hypnotize such a colleague.

Therefore, Hugo felt that he needed a meticulous plan and a partner.

Finally, his gaze fell on the bottom medical record, which bore the name "Jack" without a surname.

None of the weather forecasts in Gotham predicted that it would actually snow in early Gotham. Although it was a very fine snow and not too cold, it was still quite a surprise.

Tiny, glistening snowflakes drifted slowly down from the sky and landed on the roof of Arkham Asylum. The roof of this somewhat old hospital, once covered, looked brand new, thanks to the covering of its mottled tiles.

Because this hospital was built a long time ago, its architectural structure is not that of a modern psychiatric hospital. On the contrary, it retains some special structures of psychiatric hospitals from the previous era, such as basements for treating certain difficult illnesses.

The intense light flickered, and a white halo spread before his eyes. Schiller opened his eyes to find two figures in front of him.

"You're awake..."

Hugo was fiddling with a machine at the table opposite Schiller, while Jack leaned against the railing, idly picking at his fingers.

Hugo looked at Schiller, who was tied to a chair opposite him. At this moment, the professor was fixed to a somewhat old interrogation chair, his hands were cuffed with iron rings, and his feet were also fixed, making him appear completely unable to move.

Schiller lowered his eyes to the two sharp, circular saws fixed to his neck. He said, "So you brought me to the office to hand over my work just to kidnap me?"

Hugo smiled, pressed a button on the wall, and the small circular saws on either side of Schiller's neck began to spin rapidly, then slowly moved towards the center until they were close to Schiller's neck. But Schiller did not react at all, he just looked at Hugo and asked him, "What are you trying to do?"

"It's nothing, I just hope you'll cooperate with me in a hypnosis experiment."

"Oh? This is interesting..."

"I know that in a normal situation you wouldn't talk to me, let alone cooperate with me, but with this chair..."

Hugo pressed the button again, and the circular saw started turning again. He said, "... I'm afraid you have no choice but to cooperate."

Hugo picked up a book from the table beside him, held it up, and said to Schiller, "In one of your papers published here, you elaborated on the theory of the Mind Palace, describing it as a layered structure in the space of Human Consciousness used to store different memories..."

"I don't know if you've actually done it, but we can verify it now..."

How do you plan to verify this?

"You've probably asked this question to many people, haven't you? Because you're certain that no one can verify this fact, no one can enter your mind..."

Hugo gave a somewhat cruel smile and said, "... but I can."

"Now, let's wait and see if you're the biggest liar of the century, or..."

As he spoke, he stuck one patch after another onto his head. Jack remained silent, but if Hugo had looked up at him before closing his eyes, he would have seen the mocking smile on Jack's lips.

In the instant their brainwaves merged, the long, dark fall began. Hugo never imagined that the process of connecting to consciousness could take so long. He didn't know how long he had been falling, but he never reached the bottom.

He felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, with endless, bizarre and fantastical images flashing before his eyes, followed by darkness and ever-deeper darkness.

During this endless fall, Hugo was driven mad by the loneliness and weightlessness. Just seconds before he was about to give up, he finally landed on the ground.

When Hugo regained consciousness, he looked down and saw that the floor beneath his feet was black.

And above them are endless floors.

Aha! You didn't expect this, did you?! An update at this hour!