"Human consciousness is an extremely intricate system, where even a small problem can set off a chain of reactions. If one chooses to discard their past self in such a radical manner and rebuild their personality, they are sure to pay a price,"
Bruce sighed, "Every personality transformation is like peeling off a layer of skin, but in reality, it's even more painful and lengthy, sometimes lasting for years. We all go through such a period in our lives, usually during adolescence, our rebellious phase."
"Some people perfectly shed their cocoon and blossom into maturity, while others always carry remnants of their cocoon. These fragments accompany them throughout their lives, eventually becoming part of their character,"
"The success of transformation is affected by various factors: family environment, social relationships, personal temperament, and most people only undergo such major transformations once in their lives."
"But if someone undergoes multiple transformations in this manner, traces of certain transformations will remain in them. As the accumulated fragments grow, so does their desire to rid themselves of these burdens,"
"They then have no choice but to undergo a complete transformation, one that thoroughly washes away the burdens of the past and completely rebuilds their personality,"
"Yes, that's the simplest solution," the look on Arthur's face became elusive. He said, "Once you're no longer yourself and you've assumed a new identity, you no longer have to care about the things you used to care about, they don't care about you either."
"Then you'll come to a new world, you'll have a bigger stage. The prospect of such a future will make you feel incredibly enriched. You eagerly break yourself apart and then put yourself back together as the person you dream of being."
"But is that a good thing?" Bruce looked at Arthur, suggesting, "Would the thing you put back together still be human?"
"Is being human so important?"
"For those who have lost hope, whether they have their kind in this world is no longer important," Bruce pursed his lips, other people perceived a certain sadness in his demeanor, but it was hard to tell where it originated from. After all, he didn't seem to be a man who had lost hope."
"But if someone hasn't lost hope, then taking this path is a mistake, because in order to shed the traces of the past, they break themselves apart and put themselves back together. The thing they create is no longer human."
"They may look human and be able to communicate with humans, but they are not. If they aren't, they just aren't. There's no faking it, and there's no chance to regret it."
Bruce turned his head back to the screen, the image on it froze to Beihan's face. He said, "This Batman wants to take such a path, because the remnants of the past have already affected his mental state. He fears he might go insane."
"It can be imagined that his mental health has worsened, and the pressure he's under grows heavier. He occasionally exhibits some abnormal behaviors in his life, he's terribly afraid he might go mad."
"Such pressure forces him to make this choice, to completely break the self of the past and mold a new identity for himself, this way he would have new targets and things to do. The marks of growth would no longer hinder him."
"So he became Batman." The tone of Lord Superman dropped, "I never knew he had such a past, he never talked to me about it. I thought he was always the way he is now."
"When the pain you're facing becomes unbearable to your current self, you can only shatter it, and let those pieces reunite in a more solid form."
The rhythm of Arthur's voice was controlled, but it brought to Bruce's mind Shiller and that magnificent high tower.
"So most Batmans have done this, so they become Batman, and are no longer Bruce Wayne." Lord Superman frowned deeply, "Was the pain he went through his parents' death? But why every time I suggest there might be a chance of resurrecting them, he just..."
"It's certainly not that simple." Bruce shook his head, "His real agony stems from the overwhelming desire for revenge colliding with justice and the law in his heart."
"To kill a criminal is to become a criminal, personal sentiment, and public justice are like two ends of a scale. Batman completely turns into a vigilante upholding justice and the law amidst this friction and sway."
"And this Batman also wants to walk this path, to forsake Bruce Wayne, who has become unstable due to his mental state and become the true Dark Knight."
"And the sign is, he chooses not to pour his anger and hatred onto those criminals." Bruce speculated. "Because such emotions are something Bruce Wayne would have, Batman is for justice."
"If we have to draw a comparison, if Bruce Wayne is a flesh and blood person, full of rich emotions and naturally expresses his emotions, then Batman is a saint who can fully control his own emotions, not revealing a shred of emotion as long as it doesn't serve a purpose."
Spider Man shivered, he said, "That's too terrifying. How can anyone control their emotions? If you don't get angry when you're angry, don't cry when you're sad, then what's the difference between him and a walking dead?"
Lord Superman let out a deep sigh, the breath he emitted was mixed with white fog, almost seeming like an icy breath.
"I'm not complaining, but I often feel like I'm dealing with a corpse when I'm dealing with Batman." Lord Superman sat down, folded his arms, turned his head to one side and said, "Nothing I say gets any response from him. The muscles on his face are like wood, and no matter how I look at it, I can't see any changes."
"Once, I monitored his breathing frequency and found that the intervals between every inhale and exhale over a week were exactly the same. I was even afraid to use my X-ray vision on him, for fear of sighting a bunch of components and wires."
Resting his elbow on the armrest and covering his eyes with his hand, Lord Superman said, "Sometimes I really don't know who is actually the Superman."
Bruce smiled, pressing his fingertips against his temples, and said, "From what we've seen of Batman on the screen, all of his stress responses indicate that he's beginning to develop an aversion to his identity as Bruce Wayne."
"Because he's emotionally volatile, prone to violence, unstable, and even beginning to lose his sanity, his psychologist might merely tell him that he has certain emotional problems that need adjustment and rest, but he likely feels that he could lose control at any time."
"So, he starts to resonate with Batman, but Bruce Wayne wants to make one last effort to prove that he himself isn't insane."
Spider-Man had a sudden realization and said, "So, is this a cry for help from Bruce Wayne?"
Bruce looked at Spider-Man with some surprise, held his gaze for a moment, then looked away and said, "Yes, many seemingly crazy actions in life can be a final cry for help from someone in distress."
"He's acting very ambiguously." Arthur began, "Because when undertaking a psychological examination, he might face two outcomes. The doctor either tells him that he's truly insane, negating his existence, or someone sees the problem he's facing, but even he doesn't harbor much hope for that."
"Which one of these is Shiller then?"
Everyone's gaze returned to the screen once again.
On the screen, Shiller was guessing the construction of this dream world from within his ward. While Batman deduces principles from the hospital's architecture and other external phenomena, Shiller was deconstructing the dream through psychological theories.
In the current academic psychology world, Freud's psychoanalytic theory is almost viewed as pseudoscience, although if you wanted to study dreams, it's nearly impossible to bypass Freud.
While there are behavioral explanations for dreams as the continuation of conscious mental activity, if you look at the content of dreams and their relation to reality and memory, it's necessary to propose the reflection of subconscious content as mentioned in Freud's dream analysis.
Shiller wrote Freud's name on his paper, intermittently listed some key points of the reflection theory of subconscious content, and then thought about the possibility of body control through the subconscious. He concluded that the content of the dream manipulates bodily movements.
Having figured this out, the rest was easy to guess. By controlling the movements of the competitors through the dream, the murderer was simply trying to make them commit suicide. If the killer was capable, he would have placed a blade in front of him, so he probably just used the props already available on site.
It was easy to relate this to their current situation. Either they were in a high place and a few steps forward would lead them to fall off, or they were on a moving means of transportation. Considering that they fell asleep on the bus, it was definitely the latter.
All the spectators watched in awe as Shiller wrote and drew on his paper, and magically reached a conclusion. The entire process seemed divinely guided, it was truly miraculous.
But Shiller wasn't done. After writing his guess, he wrote the word "Killer Devil" next to it, obviously guessing what state the murderer might be in now.
Even though the killer devil was able to pull everyone into the dream, it's unlikely for him to directly influence the bus, otherwise he would've just used the seats to crush people. He most likely had to come onto the bus to manipulate things on the bus, just like the participants.
Shiller remembered that the bus doors and windows were closed before he fell asleep. For the killer devil to make the participants jump out of the bus, he definitely had to open the windows or doors of the bus.
So, if the killer devil was on the bus, he would inevitably pay attention to the situation of the participants. After all, this was the most important part of his plan. If anyone exhibited anything abnormal, he couldn't possibly ignore it.
Lastly, Shiller circled the word "abnormal" and tapped it lightly with the tip of the pen, seemingly having thought of something.
Soon, evening came, and Shiller, Batman, and Beihan met in the clinic.
At that time, Spider-Man, who was observing them, sat down again, reclined in his chair, and yawned, saying, "While watching this part, I almost fell asleep. I really don't understand what they're talking about."
"What confuses me more is why the psychologist asked him when he felt loss?" Constantine asked.
"Because that's the simplest way to categorize whether or not a person has emotional problems."