No Batman Incident (Part 2)

The rain kept falling in Gotham, and the rumble of thunder outside the window never stopped. The damp, cool air seeped in through the window cracks, and the flashes of lightning were reflected in the already cold coffee.

Hugo took off his glasses, rubbed his temples, and straightened up from his desk. He glanced at the documents beside him and the now-cold coffee and thought that he really wasn't suited for working overtime late into the night; he always ended up falling asleep.

Just then, he heard a familiar voice echoing in the room. "Hugo has woken up in his office again. The coffee he made for himself at noon has gone cold, but that's alright. If he drinks this coffee, he'll see a key hidden at the bottom of the cup. Which door does this key open?"

Hugo slowly reached for the cup of coffee, then picked it up and sipped it. The coffee had gone cold and didn't taste good. Hugo frowned, then he felt his lips touch a metal object—a key.

Which doors will a key open?

Hugo shook his head and looked around his desk. He found that there was only one locked drawer in a cabinet on his right. He inserted the key and turned it to the right, and the drawer opened.

The voice rang out again. "Oh, it seems this is the key to open the office cabinet drawer! Hugo is really clever!"

"Hugo opened the drawer and found a schedule inside. The schedule stated that he was to arrive at ward 302 at 9:20 to make rounds..."

"Hugo was a conscientious Doctor, and he didn't want to miss his rounds, but where was room 302?"

Hugo opened the drawer and picked up a piece of paper inside. On it was written, "Go to room 302 for rounds at 9:20."

Hugo glanced back at the weather outside the window, and the voice sounded again, "Hugo looked out the window and saw that it was a cloudy and rainy day. He couldn't tell the time by the sky outside. It seems that his problem now is that he needs to find a watch..."

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

Then a watch appeared on Hugo's wrist, showing 9:17. The voice continued, "Oh no! Too late! It seems he only has 3 minutes to get to room 302. Hugo knew he had to hurry!"

Hugo strode out of his desk and walked to the door. He tried the handle but couldn't open it. The voice said again, "Without a doubt, this is another door that requires a key. Hugo needs to find the key."

Just as Hugo began frantically searching the room for his keys, the voice kept whispering in his ear, "This is actually quite strange, isn't it? This isn't a game, so why does every door require a specific key?"

"Honestly, I hate those games where you have to solve puzzles every few steps. They're a complete waste of my time. How about we take a faster approach, like kicking the door down?"

"Don't worry, you're just in a hurry to make your rounds for the patients' own good. It's late now, all your colleagues have gone home, no one will see you..."

Hugo stopped what he was doing and looked at the door. It was just a wooden door, and in Hugo's eyes, the door panel was rapidly aging and becoming rickety. So he thought that instead of going through the trouble of looking for the key, he might as well just kick the door open.

He walked to the door, raised his foot, and kicked it hard. Just as his foot was about to touch the door, it transformed into a giant red button. Countless police lights began flashing wildly throughout the room, accompanied by sharp, piercing alarms.

When Hugo kicked the button, the wallpaper on the room's walls fell off, revealing all sorts of bombs inside. In the midst of the violent explosion, Hugo was blown to pieces.

The last thing he saw before he died was himself standing outside the door with a wicked smile.

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

"That's right, I call it the Realm of Self-Control."

"What is that voice that has been misleading Hugo?"

His name is 'Temptation'.

Amid the puzzled looks of the others, Schiller began to explain again, "We live in society, so we inevitably need to follow the rules, but following the rules is not an easy thing, and people often face many temptations."

"He would lie, create illusions, and gradually lure people into breaking the rules. Hugo was already much less tempted; the temptation was merely to create a simulated work scenario for him, and then guide him step by step to kick that button..."

"When I went there, he wasn't so gentle with me. He was always full of elaborate schemes, sometimes hundreds of layers deep."

"Then how do we get out of here? Since you said that temptations can endlessly set traps and lure you in with all sorts of methods, how exactly do we get past this floor?"

"Actually, there are many methods. Although temptation can create illusions and traps, there are always flaws. It's difficult for me to go into the specifics, but there is still a good example..."

"It's the same crazy guy who climbed the stairs last time. After he entered this floor, he sat still and kept chatting with Temptation until he went crazy. Temptation cried and ran to the upper floor to complain, so he passed."

Schiller turned his head toward Jack again, but Jack still ignored him.

"Okay, but now it seems Hugo has gone back to the first floor. What do we do this time?"

Schiller sighed. Although Victor didn't know how to sigh on a globe, he still heard Schiller sigh. He heard Schiller continue, "To be honest, he disappointed me a little... or did that madman's performance infinitely raise my expectations for the challengers?"

"Never mind, I'll tell the elevator Administrator to teleport Hugo to a higher floor."

The torrential rain gradually subsided, turning into a fine, chilly drizzle. The dense raindrops fell from the twilight light, like gold dust falling from the sky.

When Hugo woke up, he found himself tied to a chair, and then he saw a strange-looking person walking towards him.

His head was cylindrical, his body was square, and his arms and legs were also square. A black cloak hung on his back.

He pointed ahead with One Hand, Hugo saw that his hand was shaped like a capital "C," connected to his arm like a wrench. He pointed behind Hugo and said, "Let him go! Joker! Or you'll regret it!"

Hugo strained to turn around and found a similar-looking person standing behind him, except this one wore 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 then, with a "snap," the whole world went dark, and Hugo was thrown back to the next level. Victor, in the audience, stood up and said, "Wait! What's going on? Why are all the people here blocky? Where is this?"

Victor saw Schiller frantically pulling the curtain shut, and he said guiltily, "This is a floor whose name I can't reveal, so please don't ask any further questions..."

Victor thought for a moment, then gave a teasing smile and said, "... I didn't expect you to have such a childlike side. You wouldn't be hiding in your room playing Role-playing with Lego minifigure, would you?"

"I didn't, don't talk nonsense. If I'm going to impersonate someone, I won't impersonate them..."

At this moment, Jack woke up, squinted his eyes, looked up, and revealed a gloating smile.

Following his gaze upwards, passing through layers of floors, the view continued to rise, finally stopping in a somewhat dimly lit screening room.

There were two sofas in the screening room, and sitting on them were two figures, one in white and one in black. The white figure was wearing a white lab coat, and the black figure was wearing a long black overcoat. Both figures were Schiller.

Wearing a white lab coat, Marvel Schiller breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank goodness. If it had continued like this, not only would our dark history have been exposed, but there would have been copyright issues too..."

Then he looked at DC Schiller next to him and said with a smile, "But it doesn't matter, it's your dark history anyway."

"That's a stereotype. Why can't adults build with blocks?"

"But it's a bit strange that you live in Gotham City, are assembling some kind of DC Universe block in your head, and are even playing Role-playing with those Lego minifigure, isn't it?"

"Even excluding this floor, Hugo must be pushing himself to his limit by now, right?" DC Schiller changed the subject.

"Based on our previous speculation, once he completely believes in this and reaches a certain level of conviction, he can use his obsession to pry open the channels of his subconscious," he continued.

"Theoretically, that's true, but whether our plan will succeed is still uncertain," Marvel Schiller said.

"If we don't consider the previous floor, then we need to find another floor. Which one do you think is better?"

"Let him go back to the 190th floor that's been keeping that madman trapped for so long..."

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

The apple grew hands and feet made of thin black lines, just like in a comic book, and was dancing ballet.

He just watched the apple dance, and everyone in the audience just watched him and the apple dance. Evans yawned and then asked, "What kind of place is this? How come there's an apple dancing?"

"Here..." Schiller also yawned. Victor couldn't see how a globe could yawn, but he heard Schiller yawn.

"This is Boredom Plaza, just as the name suggests. The theme here is boredom. This place will bring together the most boring things you can think of. It seems that Dr. Hugo thought the most boring thing was watching apples dance."

"So how did that expert you mentioned earlier manage to get past this level?"

"In fact, he hasn't broken through this level yet."

"So, can we see his current situation? Can you switch the stage? I'm quite curious."

Schiller stood up, Victor assumed he was going to walk to the side of the stage to change the stage. Instead, he walked over to Jack, pointed at Jack, and said, "This is his current situation."

Jack closed one eye and slightly opened the other, glanced at Schiller, and then closed the other eye again.

Schiller explained, "A madman who's gone crazy from boredom because Batman isn't in Gotham."

"A madman who's gone mad?"

"That's right. According to the theory that two negatives make a positive, we call this kind of person a 'normal person'."