"Alright, I can let you see from the contestants' perspectives. However, I cannot fully reveal their inner thoughts, and I have no way to show you Shiller's perspective because it is not a complete world of consciousness."
Bruce Wayne grunted a bit dissatisfied. Lord Superman immediately understood. Bruce was hinting that they should play good cop, bad cop, and sure enough, he heard Bruce say,
"You can pull so many souls into this space for a game, but you can't see our inner thoughts or consciousness spaces for our personality traits?"
Owen shook his head silently. Lord Superman immediately retorted, "But you must let us clearly understand what's going on, or we will definitely give you a bad review."
"Don't be so harsh, guys." Owen sighed, "I will show you as much as possible from their perspectives. However, there are some things that I can't comprehend either. If you have any special opinions, feel free to share."
Having said that, the scene on the screen started to rewind. But what they were rewinding was not the scenes in the dreamworld, but what the others had never seen - the view inside the bus during this round.
After the bus left the arena, the participants sat silently in their seats due to fatigue. However, when they looked at the driver's seat, they could see a figure with purple skin.
The previously empty driver's seat was now occupied by a short goblin with dark purple skin, sharp ears, and a big mouth that was opened wide.
At that moment, his mouth was uttering some kind of incantation. Shortly after, a purple mist floated from the driver's seat towards the back, but the seated contestants seemed oblivious. However, the moment the purple mist touched them, their eyelids were seemingly forcibly glued shut.
Apparently, this is the real reason the contestants entered the dream. The killer devil of Round 4 was already in the driver's seat, using his special ability to pull everyone into the dreamworld.
Meanwhile, images flashed across the screen, showing all the contestants standing up for the first time in the mental hospital in their dreams. Shiller stood up from the chair in his office, Batman and Natasha stood up from the bed, and Beihan stood up from a chair.
Then the perspective switched back to the physical bodies on the bus, where they started to stand up slowly.
From a head-on angle, it can be seen that none of them opened their eyes. They were still in their dreams, only their bodies, manipulated by their subconscious, stood up from their seats as the killer devil intended.
Observing this, everyone understood the Killer Devil's plan. After all, they had just heard Shiller's description of the subconscious and Batman's deductions about the hospital corridor. The perspective of the bus interior that Owen showed them confirmed that the contestants' reasoning was correct.
"They are very clever." Arthur pointed at his own temple and said, "This is a considerably abstract connection. Just professional caliber and reasoning ability aren't enough. He needs some thrilling associations."
"People may associate an apple with an apple tree, apple juice, apple pie, but if someone associates an apple with a cassette tape, that person would have to jump through a lot of associations most people wouldn't understand, which would manifest something like a sense of spirituality similar to heaven-human induction."
Arthur revealed a silent smile. He said, "It's also a kind of humor that's quite amusing."
"Especially when everyone gives you a surprised look as if you've been enlightened by God." Bruce added.
The two exchanged glances and laughed. They clearly had firsthand experience.
"Maybe that's what we mean when we say geniuses and lunatics are separated by a thin line." Constantine blew out a puff of smoke and said, "When you're not understood by ordinary people, you're a lunatic. But if your inexplicable whispers are useful to them, then you're a genius."
The scene on the screen continued to play. This time, it no longer shows the interior of the bus but focuses on the dreamworld. Specifically, it now shows what everyone cares about the most: Beihan's first-person perspective.
The camera was slightly unstable, not like some pseudo first-person films that jostle the camera a lot to imitate a person's pace. Overall, it was quite steady.
Beihan didn't wake up in the clinic like Shiller. He woke up sitting in a chair. In his field of view was a hospital bed with his photo hanging on the info board above it.
Beihan blinked his eyes. Everyone heard him whisper, "What's going on? Am I dreaming?"
Then he chuckled softly and said, "This time, finally it's not that hole."
"Wait a moment." Lord Superman yelled for a pause. He asked, "What hole? A cave?"
"It seems that he often dreams about a certain cave." Constantine raised an eyebrow, "That's pretty rare. I thought it would be about the case of Mr. and Mrs. Wayne."
Lord Superman immediately frowned, realizing that this Batman's experience might not be the same as the Batman he knew.
Clark had heard Bruce talk about his parents before, mostly about follow-up investigations and lawsuits. But he never mentioned the killer. Clark only saw the killer's photo when he was flipping through old newspapers.
Bruce seemed deep in thought. At this moment, Lord Superman looked at him. Bruce let out a sigh and said, "I'm not sure, but when I was little, our family went on a picnic in a valley on the outskirts of Gotham. While I was running in the woods, I stumbled upon a very deep cave."
"That must have been a crack left from a seismic shift, and I managed to stop myself just in time, but if I hadn't stopped, I might have fallen in."
"I was somewhat curious at the time, so I yelled into the hole, and a swarm of bats flew out, which startled me."
Bruce shrugged and said, "I guess among all the Batmen across the cosmos, some unfortunate soul must have fallen in there, and probably that unfortunate soul was me."
Everyone nodded, and Spider Man chimed in, "If I had fallen into a bat-filled hole as a child, I would've had nightmares for days. Of course, my aunt would've scolded me for days; my cousin's old clothes were in high demand."
The Batman on the screen blinked as if getting used to the scene in front of him. He stood up, walked to the head of the bed, and looked at the patient's name tag. It read Bruce Wayne along with diagnoses of schizophrenia and delusional disorder.
The audience in the projection room heard a light laugh, clearly from Batman himself, but Bruce suddenly called, "Stop."
The image froze again, and everyone turned to him, wondering why he had abruptly stopped it. Bruce explained, "He is connecting some dangerous ideas, and his mental self-protection mechanism has been activated."
"How can you tell?" both Lord Superman and Spider Man were utterly puzzled.
"He's completely awake now and is aware he's alone in the room. The act of making noises deliberately is a human instinct for self-comfort and amusement that dates back to infancy. When we do this, it means we are diverting our attention."
"Some people hum songs when they feel anxious, nervous, and scared. It can take us back to infancy, when we are in a warm, safe environment, soothing our minds."
"And if he chooses to laugh, it shows he's telling himself, hey, loosen up, there's nothing to be scared of."
Bruce responded with a tiny smile, "if we put this into context, Batman is telling himself: hey, loosen up, these are illusions created by the killer devil, not you suffering from some mental illness in the hospital."
"What does it mean?" Lord Superman asked again.
"It implies that he once suspected himself of suffering from a mental disease and needing hospitalization. He must have imagined such a scenario."
"But aren't lunatics unaware that they've gone mad?"
"That's why Shiller said he's not ill." Bruce shrugged, "It is normal for a person to worry about their mental health, assuming that they might be suffering from some form of mental illness that might warrant hospitalization. Anybody would have had such thoughts."
"The dread he expressed is even more typical. Who would think of an insane asylum as a place? Whether it's forced admission due to worsening conditions or being sent in, it would make quite the climax in any horror story."
Lord Superman agreed, deeming Bruce's reasoning valid. But he had never heard Batman from his universe complain of mental stress or anything like that. Was that abnormal?
Suddenly, a nurse came by, knocking on the door. Batman followed the medical staff to the consultation room for a routine psychological check. This led to his argument with the doctor.
"He isn't only trying to convince the doctor; he is trying to convince himself. He is setting up a mental anchor for himself." Constantine suddenly spoke up: "If it doesn't matter to him, he wouldn't argue, and if he wanted to be a lunatic, he assuredly wouldn't resist."
"Sounds like you speak from experience."
Constantine sighed, "Why would you think the mental institutions built by normal people could hold me? Despite the way they treated me, why would I stay there for a year?"
Constantine spread his hands, looking at the ceiling, "Do you know how much I wish I was just mentally ill? That all the angels, demons, and evil spirits I see are nothing more than illusions, products of my broken brain. Gosh, such a thought even beats my wildest dreams!"
"If you don't like them, why would you interact with these entities?" Lord Superman asked, frowning.
"You just don't get it," Constantine said helplessly. "Not all the evil in this world is formed by upbringing. I was born with a curse in my veins, and that curse destined my path."
"Believe it or not, even if you burned my brain now, I would still come back to life. Then you burn my brain again, or even my entire body, and I would still appear the next day as usual, obstructing your sight."
"That's why I hid in the spirit prison, to avoid situations like this. Your sense of justice can't save me. No one's sense of justice in this world can. You all should learn to let someone like me rot on our own."
Lord Superman looked visibly upset.
Bruce casually mentioned, "You know what? There's a universe where Constantine has been completely saved."
Constantine sat up straight as though jolted to life.