Dream Stealing and Truman (Part 1)

Inside the manor room, on the soft sofa, Victor leaned back on the armrest. He turned to Schiller, who was sitting behind the table fiddling with a globe, and asked, "Why did you call us all here?"

Cobblepot was fiddling with a clasp on his pocket, seemingly trying to adjust its length. Sitting opposite him, Evans held a wine glass, swirling the liquid inside. The liquid had a golden sheen and was covered in white foam. Jack was lying on a single sofa, dozing off with his eyes half-closed.

Schiller leaned back in his chair, his hand constantly turning the globe. When he placed it on the table, the model of the Earth on it was still rotating slightly. He looked at Victor and asked, "Didn't you notice anything different here?"

"What's different?" Victor looked up and surveyed the entire room. This was the living room of Schiller Manor, with a row of soft sofas, two armchairs and several cushions, and a coffee table in the middle. On one side of the room was Schiller's table, and behind the table was a row of huge bookshelves, both filled with all sorts of odds and ends.

Victor had been here before and hadn't noticed anything unusual. Just as he was about to ask Schiller more questions, he looked at Schiller again and felt something was wrong. He asked Schiller, "What's wrong with your head?"

At this moment, Schiller's head transformed into a spinning globe, and the others were completely unaware of it. Only Jack, lying opposite him, slightly opened one eye and hissed through his teeth.

"Alright..." Schiller, with the globe-shaped head, stood up from behind the table. This should have been a very strange scene, but Victor didn't feel anything was unusual, as if it was perfectly normal for him to be like this.

"Think carefully, Victor, how did you get in here?"

"Of course I came from school, I..." Victor paused for a moment, then said, "Am I dreaming?... Is this my dream?"

"You've got it backwards. This isn't your dream, it's my dream."

Victor looked surprised. Schiller over and sat down next to Victor, turning his globe-shaped head to look at Victor. Victor wasn't sure if he had actually turned his head, because the globe was actually spinning.

Apart from Jack, the others slowly sat up straight, then looked around the space with surprise, as if they had just woken up.

"Of course, human consciousness cannot be shared, just like dreams cannot be shared. What one person imagines in their mind, another person cannot see, touch, let alone observe up close..."

"But..." Schiller, with his globe-shaped head, turned to Evans again and said, "The reason I can pull other people's thoughts into my consciousness space has to start with you, Evans ..."

Evans stared at the globe-shaped head on Schiller's head, momentarily speechless. The scene would be Shocker in reality, but in this consciousness space, it didn't seem problematic, because there were many other strange things, such as the fact that they were sitting on the ceiling.

The sofa and coffee table they were sitting on were glued to the ceiling, and the Chandelier was not far from Evans. Sometime during the day, the entire space had been turned upside down, but they still didn't notice anything unusual.

For example, when Evans focused his gaze on his nose, he noticed a Joker's red nose on it, but he didn't even realize that there was something new in his field of vision.

Jack pinched the red ball on his nose, making two "squeak" sounds, and then grinned happily.

"You mean we're all in your dream right now, Professor?" Evans scratched his head, looking very puzzled. "But like you said, how can several people's dreams come together?"

"Now that you know the Truth Alberto's birth from him, have you ever wondered how the Court of Owls and the Old Priest created the personality of Alberto?"

"Uh... Alberto didn't tell me about that. He doesn't seem to know his origins either; he just appeared out of nowhere one day..."

"That's why I said it all started with you..."

"Let's organize our thoughts. In the last incident, we learned that the Court of Owls discovered something called 'Fine Wine' in the basement of Gotham Cathedral. After their research failed, they brought in a priest, who made some discoveries and handed them over to the Court of Owls. Then, they created your brother's personality. So, what is the key to this problem?"

Evans wasn't stupid; he was about to answer when Cobblepot interrupted him, saying, "It's that kind of 'Fine Wine'."

"That's right. When I was communicating with the godfather and the priest before, the priest told me that he has an ability that ordinary people don't have in the church. It's a special ability similar to mind reading, which allows him to sense some of the other person's mental characteristics."

"It was precisely because of this ability that he saw my difference, which is why he hired me as your tutor, Evans. Do you understand now?"

"So, that kind of Fine Wine has the ability to grant people the ability to read minds?"

The globe shook its head slightly, but in fact, no one could tell whether it had actually shaken its head or not, because the globe kept spinning.

"That kind of Fine Wine, or rather, what I prefer to call the Dionysus Factor, you can think of it as a liquid Cerebro..."

"Cerebro?" Victor frowned. "I've also studied the theory of brainwaves, and I've heard of theories about Brainwave Control. But you're saying that a special liquid can amplify a person's brainwaves? Isn't that a bit too much..."

"We don't need to decipher its principles, we just need to know its effects. In short, the priest handed over his research findings on Fine Wine to the Court of Owls, Court of Owls used the Fine Wine to create the personality of Alberto..."

"So, where is he now?" Evans looked around, Schiller explained, "His house is in the final stages of construction, which is why you're here."

"In short, after I confirmed this with the priest, I knew that the Dionysus Factor might be related to the human Consciousness World."

"And I happened to have several other liquids related to this. I asked another friend in biology to mix them in a certain proportion to achieve an effect that amplifies brain waves to the extreme. I call it 'Mad Wine'."

"When it was first made, I wasn't sure if it would work, so..." Schiller turned to Jack, Jack shook his head and said, "So, you Riga our drinks while we were drinking together..."

"Then, our two Consciousness World did connect, and an annoying guy came out of your Consciousness World and tried to trick me into your Consciousness World so I could go to jail for him."

"Just now, I invited you all to my manor and offered you drinks, adding a few drops of this Mad Wine to everyone's drinks, so now we're sitting here—"

"Welcome to my consciousness space, everyone."

In an instant, everyone came to their senses. Victor recalled how he arrived at Schiller's estate on a rainy day and took a sip of wine. Cobblepot and Victor also recalled the process from entering the door to taking off their coats and putting away their umbrellas. Schiller explained, "When you first come in, you will have a period of adjustment. You may not be able to distinguish between reality and illusion, and therefore you will not feel anything unusual."

"Just like you wouldn't find it strange to see an upside-down skyscraper in your dream, there is an adjustment period from being awake to entering a dream. Of course, if I were to reveal the Truth, this adjustment would be faster."

"I understand the reasoning..." Victor turned to Schiller and asked, "But why did you turn your head into a globe?"

Schiller reached out and flicked the globe above his head, then said, "Not only me, but you can also transform. Although this is my consciousness space, when our brainwaves merge, you also have a certain degree of autonomy here."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jack's head exploded into a fried chicken wing with a "bang," and a big smiley face appeared on it. Jack's voice came from the split mouth. "This is what I ate tonight. It tasted pretty good, but of course, some parts were undercooked and it was terribly fishy..."

Evans stared wide-eyed at Jack, who was eating fried chicken wings next to him; he could even smell the aroma of the fried food emanating from them.

"What... what should I do?"

Before he could even try it, Victor had a strangely shaped Cold Gun in his hand. They looked at the gun with some curiosity and said, "This is the latest model I had conceived before, but I didn't have time to make it yet. I didn't expect it to materialize so realistically."

"In the realm of consciousness, that is, in dreams, what you can do depends entirely on your imagination, that is, 'what you believe is what you get.' Moreover, the more detailed your imagination, the more detailed it will appear. I think your gun should be completely conceived by now, right?"

"That's right, the design was finalized a week ago. So, it's ready to launch?"

With that, Victor pulled the trigger, and an ice spike was launched, instantly freezing the Joker on the other side into a block of ice.

"As long as you believe it can be launched, it will naturally be launched, just like when a person believes in their dream that they can fly, they really can fly."

"Hey, you've made my head cold! Don't you know that cold fried chicken is the most disgusting food in the world?!" Jack Chicken Wing shouted loudly from the big mouth on his head.

Cobblepot pinched the red ball on his nose, and with a "pop," it transformed into a sharp cone, like the kind often worn at parties.

Evans scratched his head and said, "Can I change my hair color? I've always wanted dark brown hair like the Godfather, but dyeing it is such a hassle."

As he spoke, his hair slowly changed color, from a brilliant gold to a deep brown. Schiller's globe-shaped head shook and said, "I think gold suits you better."

"Is there a mirror?" Evans turned his head back and forth, as if trying to find a mirror to see his current appearance.

"You only need to 'think' about it."

Evans thought for a moment, then drew a square in the air with his finger. The crooked square turned into a mirror and fell down. Evans frantically caught it, then looked at himself and said, "Indeed, blonde hair looks better..."

As he spoke, his hair changed back to its original color.

Victor picked up his glass and asked Schiller, "So what are you going to do by bringing us into your consciousness space?"

"Actually, there's nothing important to do. I just invited you guys to come and have some fun."

"Watching for fun? What's so funny about that?"

"It's precisely because there's nothing fun to watch that we need to create some fun. Not just me, I think Mr. Jack probably thinks the same way, right?"

Jack transformed his head into a toilet brush, fiddling with the bristles with his fingers, and said, "Gotham is so boring without Batman. I'll go crazy if I don't find something to have fun!"

"Okay, so what exactly do you want?"

Schiller shifted his body to the other side, leaning against the armrest of the sofa, and said, "There's a very professional psychology expert, my colleague, sitting in Arkham Asylum right now. I'll be going over to hand over my work to him in a bit..."

"I'll have a theoretical discussion with him, and then invite him for a drink..."

"You want to bring him here too?"

"No, no, no, this is the audience seating area, and he..."

Jack, sitting opposite him, chuckled and continued, "He'd be an actor, a really bad one."