Dream Stealing and Truman (Part 2)

Schiller, the globe-headed figure, stretched out his hand and snapped his the Snap. A screen appeared above their heads. He said, "You can see what's happening outside through my consciousness space, like this..."

"This is Hugo Strange, and what you are seeing now is his first day in Gotham..."

The scene shows Hugo Strange's face. In a first-person perspective, a sleeve wearing a white lab coat appears, followed by One Hand shaking hands with Hugo.

"We're watching from your first-person perspective now, right?" Victor asked.

"That's right, I'm being polite with him right now. Now, be careful, I'm about to ditch the topic of psychological theory..."

Everyone was very interested and stared intently at the screen. Hugo, in the first-person perspective, quickly began his long speech, while Schiller continued to discuss with him. After a while, Schiller took a bottle of wine out of his bag in the first-person perspective.

"Wait a minute, isn't it a bit strange to drink alcohol during an academic discussion?" Evans asked. "You're clearly having a serious academic conversation, and you pull out a bottle of alcohol at this moment, doesn't he think it's a bit inappropriate?"

"He won't notice any of this because we're discussing serious academic topics right now. All his energy is focused on refuting my theory. Look at his expression, pay attention to this..."

Schiller produced a pointer from somewhere and pointed at the screen, saying, "See? He glanced down at my hand as I opened the bottle, but while I was doing that, I asked him a question, and his attention was diverted..."

"His curiosity about what I was doing was far less intense than his desire to refute me and prove himself."

In the first-person perspective on the screen, two hands take out two wine glasses and pour wine for Hugo and himself. The group hears Schiller say, "I'm used to having a drink after work. What about you, Dr. Hugo?"

Hugo seemed indifferent. He didn't look like an alcoholic, but he didn't seem to dislike drinking either. When Schiller pushed the glass in front of him, he picked up the glass and took a sip, seemingly to give Schiller face.

As the debate intensified, Hugo began frequently raising his glass during pauses in thought. Schiller his globe-shaped head, pointed to the screen and said, "He started using secondary objects as pauses and transitions in his thinking, just like many people like to twirl their pens, bite their fingers, or play with their erasers in class..."

Before long, it became clear from the screen that Hugo was starting to drift off to sleep. Victor asked, "Is he about to fall asleep?"

"That's right, guess where the first act will begin?"

"Just like us, we wake up in the original scene and have no idea that we are dreaming," Cobblepot said in a low voice.

Schiller shook his head and said, "It's a good start, but a bit mediocre. If a script has a mundane beginning, the subsequent development may not be very exciting."

"So, where do you plan to begin, Professor?"

Schiller snapped his the Snap again, and all the items in the room began to disappear. The floorboards were pulled away section by section, the sofas vanished layer by layer, and the cabinets and tables were all magically folded into the floor and ceiling.

Then, all sorts of things tumbled out from the walls of the space, forming another scene. The group stood in the center of this space, and Evans looked them up and down, saying, "This looks like... a train carriage?"

"That's right. I think a gradual opening would be a good choice. You may have seen it in some movies, where the protagonist takes a train to an unfamiliar city, looks at the scenery outside the window, and imagines his future life. Although this kind of opening is a bit artistic, I like it very much..."

As he spoke, Schiller walked to the door of a compartment, opened it, and inside sat Hugo Strange.

"But I feel like something's missing." Evans stroked his chin and said, "Oh, right, in dramatic writing, the protagonist needs some motivation. Only with motivation can the protagonist be driven to do something..."

"Of course, I made preparations, but let me state first that I did not control his mind. Just like you, he also has the ability to think independently in the consciousness space."

"Now..." Schiller snapped his the Snap, and the narrow corridor and the layers of partitions on the train unfolded like a cardboard box, becoming a flat surface, leaving only Hugo, his chair, and the table in front of him.

The group followed Schiller to Hugo, Cobblepot asked, "Can't he see us?"

"Good question," Schiller said. "That's exactly what I was going to talk about."

"Human consciousness and dreams are divided into many layers, at least in my case. Different layers cannot communicate with each other or interfere with each other."

"Are we on a different floor from him?"

"That's right, the place you are in now is the 'theater' in my Mind Palace, specifically the 68th, 69th and 70th floors."

"What does this mean? What's the difference between the different floors?"

"Of course there are. It's actually quite complicated, because such a Mind Palace wasn't built in a day, but there are patterns to follow. Simply put, the lower the level, the more chaotic it is, and the higher the level, the more orderly it is."

"Hugo is currently on the 68th floor, which is the stage, while you are on the 69th floor, which is the audience area."

"And I, although I am standing next to you now, am actually on the 70th floor of the theater, which is the control room, or the director's office."

"So, I can control everything on stage, like this..." As soon as Schiller finished speaking, he snapped his the Snap again, and a newspaper appeared on Hugo's table.

"The newspaper? What does it say?" Evans wanted to lean closer to take a look, but seemed reluctant to get too close to Hugo. Schiller reminded him, "You can lean closer to see; he can't see you."

"In my Mind Palace, each part has different rules, while in the theater, the higher consciousness can see the lower consciousness, but the lower consciousness cannot see the higher consciousness."

"So you can see him, but he can't see you. At this moment, in his field of vision, he should be sitting on a train, moving into Gotham City as the train moves forward."

"Hasn't he already arrived? And he's even chatting and drinking with you..."

"You have a lot of stupid questions." Jack glared at Evans, who was asking the question. Schiller waved his hand and said, "Don't be like that, Jack. I like people who ask questions."

"Generally speaking, people are unaware that they are dreaming, just like when you first came here. Although everything seemed out of place and strange, you were completely unaware of it."

"A small number of people are able to realize they are dreaming and take the principle of believing something to be true to the extreme, accomplishing many things in their dreams that are impossible in reality. We generally call this kind of dream 'lucid dreaming'."

"But clearly, Hugo, who had just entered a dream, was unaware that he was dreaming. In his mind, he had simply received his job offer, boarded a train to Gotham, and then seen a newspaper on the train..."

"So where is the motivation you mentioned earlier that you wanted to add to him?"

Schiller waved his hand again, and another newspaper appeared in Hugo's hand. The newspaper looked quite old. Victor leaned over to look at it and said, "Is this a report about you?"

"That's right. I'm hinting to him that he noticed me before he came to Gotham and investigated some information about me. This should pique his curiosity and speed up his journey to Arkham Hospital, thus setting the stage for later events..."

"And then..." Schiller snapped his the Snap, the table was pulled away from Hugo, the newspaper flew into the air and disappeared, Hugo stepped directly into the office of the attending physician at Arkham Asylum.

"Why jump directly to him?" Victor asked him. "Won't he find that a little strange?"

"Isn't that how dreams are? One fragment after another, jumping from breakfast to class to lunch break and then to going home after school. You can't possibly listen to an entire math class in your dream, can you?"

"What's next? Is he going to start working?"

"No, his motives aren't strong enough; I need to add fuel to the fire."

Immediately afterwards, Schiller waved his hand, and a person who looked exactly like him appeared beside him, except that the head had become a normal Schiller's head instead of a globe.

"What is this? Is it your clone?"

"He's the next actor to appear..."

As Schiller spoke, another version of himself walked into the office at Arkham Asylum and then warmly shook Hugo's hands, saying, "Thank God, you've finally come."

Afterwards, Schiller began to exchange Hugo, to which Victor commented, "You are behaving exactly like an unscrupulous quack doctor eager to shirk responsibility."

"That's exactly what I want. If I leave him with the impression that I'm incompetent and eager to shirk responsibility, he'll think I'm unworthy of the title, and he'll have a stronger incentive to expose me and overturn my theories."

"I really don't understand," Victor said, arms crossed. "What was your ultimate goal in putting on this whole show? It wasn't just for fun, was it?"

"Having fun is one aspect, after all, it's a long night and I can't sleep, so it's nice to direct and act in my own show. But there is another purpose, you'll see later."

Then, Schiller's character left the stage, and Brand's character entered. Before they could ask any questions, Schiller explained, "This is just a puppet I created. Brand didn't come here. After all, his focus is on pathology, and he's not interested in these things."

Then, Hugo began his grand pronouncement that "the Mind Palace does not exist." During this, Jack laughed heartily, almost bursting into laughter. He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and said, "It's like someone saying in their dream, 'Man doesn't dream.' What a funny joke! Hahahaha! It has replaced the joke that Schiller was an ordinary person in my mind..."

Because Schiller's head was shaped like a globe, no one could see his expression, but Victor still joked, "What did I just see? Was that you rolling your eyes in Texas?"

Then they saw Hugo come out carrying an egg-shaped machine. Cobblepot frowned and asked, "What's that?"

"It should be something he manifested through his own thoughts, just like the chicken wing head and ice gun you just made. He believed he had created this thing, so it actually appeared."

Then they saw Hugo pick up the medical records and start looking through them, then walk to the phone and start making a call.

Suddenly, a piercing ringtone sounded in the space. Cobblepot looked down in confusion and saw a constantly ringing telephone floating in front of him.

"Your phone," Schiller said with a smile.

"What's going on? He called me in my dream, and then he actually called me?"

"I'm the one who got him to get here. Otherwise, there's no point in us just watching. I've always felt that immersive theatrical performances have great potential, and the interaction between actors and the audience is of paramount importance..."

So what do I need to do now?

Victor patted Cobblepot on the shoulder and said, "Answer the phone."

Cobblepot picked up the phone and he could indeed hear Hugo's voice. The two were now facing each other in the office, Hugo on the left side of the desk and Copperfield on the right.

"Hello, is this Mr. Cobblepot? This is Arkham Asylum. My medical records show that you need to come in for a follow-up appointment soon. Are you available tomorrow afternoon?"

Cobblepot froze, but he still agreed to the follow-up appointment. Then he looked at Schiller and asked, "What am I supposed to do next? Do I really want to go for the follow-up appointment?"

"Didn't you see what I just did? I imagined a virtual personality, then materialized it and had it go down to participate in this performance in your place."

Schiller explained to Cobblepot how to manifest another self in the realm of consciousness, emphasizing, "The trick is, it's best not to give it a higher-dimensional perspective, like a Cobblepot who actually receives a follow-up appointment notice, doesn't understand why, and is planning to go..."

"You mean create a virtual memory for him?" Cobblepot asked, frowning.

"That's right. You can give him a reasonable reason, such as that he doesn't know I resigned and thinks the follow-up appointment is just a routine procedure and there's no harm in going. This will help him be more engaged in the upcoming performance..."

When the other Cobblepot was created, the others marveled. But when he walked into the examination room and lay down in the chair, Hugo brought out the machine, and Cobblepot in the audience asked, "What's he going to do?"

"He might be trying to enter your Consciousness World."

"But wasn't he already in the Consciousness World?"

"Do you remember the rules here? Believe it or not, it is real. He thinks this is the real world, and he is a Doctor, so he plans to enter your mind."

"And this is what I meant by my other purpose, which is also the subject I've been focusing on researching recently..."

"What?"

"A dream within a dream".