The Plot Takes a Sharp Turn (Part 2)

In Gotham, on a morning that was neither sunny nor warm, Bruce, who was fast asleep, was woken up by Alfred.

He squinted painfully, feeling dizzy and lightheaded. Alfred stood by the door and said to him, "Young master, I'm sorry to bother you so early, but there's a phone call for you, and it seems urgent..."

"... Whose call was that?"

"It was Professor Schiller calling."

"Tell him I'll call him back right away." Bruce's voice was extremely hoarse; clearly, this overly complicated and thrilling dream had exhausted all his energy.

He sat on the edge of the bed, trying to recall the dream he had just had. Along with the headache came a feeling of relief.

Bruce had never experienced this feeling before. He thought it was just a temporary illusion, but he sat by the bed for a long time, and the headache and the feeling persisted.

If I had to use an analogy, it would be like a child who is born with sandbags. He doesn't see anything wrong with the sandbags and is used to carrying them. But one day, the sandbags suddenly disappear, and the feeling of ease makes him feel very uncomfortable.

Bruce felt lightheaded and unsteady, with a long-lost sense of relaxation, but his head still ached.

He had to get up from the bedside and walk to the bathroom, but just as he was about to lower his head, he suddenly froze.

The lingering terrifying memories from his dream made him feel terrible, but in the end, he drowsily bent down and washed his face with cold water, and there was no terrifying Joker behind him.

The cold water sobered Bruce up a bit. He left the bathroom and went downstairs. Alfred handed him a glass of hot milk, which Bruce took and said, "Thank you."

He drank his milk as he walked to the phone and dialed Schiller's number. Schiller's voice came through the line: "What's wrong, Professor? Is there something you need?" Bruce asked.

"To celebrate your great victory in your dream last night, I have prepared a gift for you. Come to my office to pick it up after class today."

"A gift?" Bruce's somewhat sluggish brain suddenly started working at lightning speed. He had a very bad feeling, just like when he heard that madman in Joker makeup say that he was going to prepare a big surprise for him.

"You think I'm some crazy person trying to surprise you? Of course not. I'm just an ordinary person. I don't have the time to prepare any kind of bombing. This is a real gift. Come and see for yourself..."

Bruce closed his eyes and covered his forehead with his hand. He was about to refuse Schiller's offer when the call ended.

Seeing Bruce's somewhat stiff expression, Alfred asked with concern, "Young Master, what's wrong? Has your professor said something important?"

"Hmm..." Bruce found it difficult to explain, but he didn't want to lie to Alfred, so he said, "Because my grades have improved, my professor prepared a gift for me, but..."

He had barely finished speaking when he saw Alfred's eyebrows rise and curve into a smile, his eyes narrowing in obvious delight. Alfred said in a light tone, "Really? That's wonderful! When the Master was alive, he was very worried about your future grades. He often said that he was naughty and didn't do well in school when he was young, and he worried that his son would follow in his footsteps..."

"It would be wonderful if you could receive praise from the professor. Professor Schiller even prepared a gift for you?"

Alfred turned around, put down the tray, and said, "It would be very impolite not to prepare a return gift. I'll go see what would be suitable for a professor. Let me think... I remember a collector's edition of Hamlet, that should be nice..."

As he spoke, Alfred quickly walked up the stairs. Bruce hadn't seen Alfred so happy in a long time. All his suspicions were swallowed back down, and Bruce could only resign himself to leaving the manor and driving to Gotham University.

The morning classes were uneventful, but Bruce actually felt a sense of relaxation during this rather leisurely campus time. He never felt this way before; wasting time always made him feel guilty. But today, he actually listened to most of the theoretical definitions Schiller was explaining.

When class ended, Bruce originally intended to go directly to Schiller's office with him, but Evans approached him again to discuss club matters.

Previously, Gotham was frozen and Gotham University was closed for a long time, so the club's work had not made much progress. Now that Bruce, the club's biggest financial backer, has returned to school, the students in the psychology club have all come over, and Bruce can only deal with them one by one.

After finishing these matters, Bruce finally had time to go to Schiller's office. When he arrived, he found that Schiller was alone. Without him even knocking, Schiller greeted him with a smile and said, "Come in."

This enthusiasm sent a chill down Bruce's spine; he felt his bad premonition was about to come true.

When Bruce walked to Schiller's desk, Schiller clapped his hands and said, "Your performance was absolutely brilliant, it truly impressed me..."

"Professor, what is the gift you mentioned?"

Bruce's stiffness was written all over his face. He scanned every corner of the room with his eyes, like a bomb disposal expert about to face a bomb. Schiller reassured him, "Don't be nervous, there's no bomb."

"That..."

Before Bruce could speak, Schiller stood up from his chair, bent down, and pulled out a... little girl from the side of the desk that was hidden by the cabinet.

Bruce's eyes widened as Schiller cradled the little girl under his arms, like he was holding a pet dog, and showed her to Bruce, saying, "This is the gift. What do you think? Do you like it?"

Bruce opened his eyes wide. He hadn't made such a big expression in a long time, so his entire facial muscles looked very stiff.

It's no wonder he was so shocked, because the little girl Schiller was holding looked at least eight-tenths like him.

She was a little girl, about three or four years old, with black hair and blue eyes. She looked exactly like Bruce, though not completely different.

"You should still remember the battle yesterday, right?"

Bruce nodded stiffly, his gaze never leaving the little girl's face.

"The monster that hatched from the Laughing Egg was erased by you using your own will and the will of the Grey Lantern ring combined, but have you forgotten about another existence?"

"Who..."

"Parallax is the Yellow Lantern Beast that entered your body and helped you outsmart that monster at the last moment."

"When you wiped the monster out of that eggshell, it tried to take you down with it, thus shaking your entire consciousness space. The Parallax can be damaged within your consciousness space, and to avoid the damage caused by the dream collapse, it burrowed into the eggshell from which the monster hatched..."

"Then, it drifted into my Mind Palace along with the turbulent currents of the dream. At that time, the dream space had completely collapsed, so I brought everyone back to reality. However... the process of returning was a bit beyond my expectations."

"What do you mean?" Bruce suddenly realized something.

"When I created the Gray Lantern Ring, it was indeed only meant for you to stack your willpower to defeat that monster. But what I didn't expect was that when it returned to my hand, it developed some different functions..."

"For example?"

"For example, turning my will into reality."

Before Bruce could press further, Schiller explained, "In order to bring the others who entered the dream space back to reality, I said 'return to reality,' but at the time, I was wearing the Grey Lantern ring at maximum power, so some things that shouldn't have been in reality were also materialized in reality..."

Schiller and Bruce's gazes fell on the little girl. Schiller said, "... That's the Yellow Entity, Parallax."

"Theoretically speaking, the Entity has no physical form; it must possess a human body to move."

"But I don't know if the power of the Lantern Ring exceeded expectations, or if its own desire for a physical form was too strong. In any case, after I said those words while wearing the Lantern Ring, not only the consciousnesses of the other people returned to the real world, but also its consciousness..."

Bruce covered his eyes with his hands, took a deep breath, and said, "But why does he look so much like me?"

"I suspect this is because it crawled into the eggshell from which the monster hatched in order to avoid the damage from the collapse of the dream..."

"You need to understand, you and that embryo are two sides of the same coin. That is to say, you are him, and he is you. That eggshell became the basis for the Parallax's body in the real world, so..."

Bruce held out One Hand and said, "Okay, let's put it another way, but why little girl?"

"You might not believe it, but this Entity seems to think it's female..."

Bruce's facial muscles were starting to twitch, but Schiller shrugged and said, "You don't need to delve too deeply into the reasons, because things are already beyond repair. Do you have a way to put her back in? I certainly don't."

Schiller placed the little girl on his desk, letting her feet rest on the surface. Then, supporting her by the hands, Schiller guided her forward a couple of steps, closer to Bruce. Schiller said, "I can see the refusal written all over your body. But the problem is, if you let her run around in the streets, within ten minutes, the news of you abandoning your illegitimate daughter will be out in the headlines..."

Bruce stared at the little girl's face and had to admit that Schiller was right, because apart from the difference in gender, the little girl looked almost exactly like him. If someone said that she was his illegitimate daughter, Bruce would have no room for argument, because they really looked too alike.

"From an ethical standpoint, she is indeed your daughter, because she was born from your dream, or you could say you gave birth to her. Your blood relationship is even closer than that of father and daughter. She not only shares the same body as you, but also a similar soul..."

"Isn't her soul Parallax?"

"That's hard to explain..." Schiller pushed up his glasses and said, "The Yellow Lantern Beast is an ancient creature that represents fear. That was certainly true before, but after it craved a physical form and achieved that dream, its life form changed."

"At least for now, its soul and body are completely in harmony. It's not that the Parallax's soul entered a human body, but rather that the two have formed a new life."

"Once the barrier between dreams and reality is broken, anything can happen. When illogical things in dreams are materialized in reality, they must conform to certain rules of reality. You can understand it as a kind of 'transcoding'. Parallax really became a human in the process of being transcoded... or at least looked like a human."

"Looks like..."

Before Bruce could finish speaking, he saw the little girl in front of him grin, revealing a smile. However, the smile was truly terrifying, because her open mouth revealed two rows of sharp teeth.