"So what exactly is going on here?" Little Bruce asked Shiller as they sat in the study of Wayne Manor, though the walls were also coated with a faint fog, insulating the room into a separate space.
Little Bruce had witnessed everything that had just happened; unlike Dick, he was better at deduction and could quickly figure out those timelines that were too complex for ordinary people to understand.
From the perspective of the youngest Nightwing, who was Dick, he fell asleep, woke up startled, went out the door, and in an instant, arrived at the office, where he then saw themselves sleeping.
All of this was part of a complete timeline. The only spatial switch was the immediate transition from stepping out the door to arriving at the office, which isn't hard to achieve, just teleportation at most.
The sleeping figures outside the office door were still part of Dick's past timeline because it was true that they had been sleeping earlier.
Then, right after that, another office appeared in front of Dick, and outside the windows of this office, a series of events that would happen in the future manifested—the remaining two getting attacked by something in the eyes, panic-strickenly driving the car to the rooftop, and then falling off it.
It was here that a change in the timeline first emerged; the car didn't contain Dick, which implies Dick left according to the original process, and thus, this timeline could be a future one for this Dick.
After seeing this future, Dick took action, which was to return to the office displaying scenes from the past and throw out the fire extinguisher, indicating that he had altered the past and, correspondingly, that a future altered as a result would emerge.
The altered future was then the tale brought forth by Nightwing of the Prime Universe, after Dick threw the fire extinguisher downstairs, causing the past Dick to be hit by it, which interfered with his smooth exit, leading to the appearance of Nightwing from the Prime Universe who had come in search of particular equipment.
All of this seemed to make sense, but the problem arose when the fog cleared—the altered future's Prime Universe Nightwing stayed behind, and so did the unaltered future's Dick, creating a complete paradox.
Assuming the future was altered, the injured Dick should have been sitting in the car, leaving alongside the driving Nightwing of the Arkham Universe; if the future remained unaltered, there should have been a crashed Batmobile at the door.
But the current situation was that Dick and the Prime Universe Nightwing searching for equipment remained, meaning the future where Dick didn't throw the fire extinguisher and thus arrived here successfully, and the future where the fire extinguisher was thrown leading to the Prime Universe Nightwing's arrival, both occurred simultaneously.
However, human time is linear; there can only be one future on a single timeline, it can't accommodate both, so what exactly is going on?
Little Bruce's head started to spin, speculating that either when the fog dissipated several timelines converged, with whoever remained counting as the outcome, or there might have been an intersection of space-time at a certain point, and the person who ran into the regular timeline wouldn't be destroyed just because the future he belonged to didn't happen. However, no matter how he thought about it, there were flaws, and nothing made complete sense.
"Why do you think the fog really has the power to manipulate time and space?"
"...?"
Little Bruce silently stared at Shiller, who took a sip of his tea and said, "Just because these Robins think so, do you too?"
"I think you should have that capability," Little Bruce dryly said, "You do, right?"
"Is it important whether I have it or not?" Shiller said, "Even if I had it, what evidence is there to prove that I have used this power just now?"
Little Bruce immediately figured it all out. He covered his forehead, unwilling to admit he had been played.
Yet, Shiller still showed him another perspective—his own. The fog reappeared and this time they stood on the roadside where the car was parked.
The three Nightwings debated whether to get out of the car or not, then decided since the fog had already invaded, sitting in the car would limit their capabilities, not favorable for combat, so they chose to get out.
The moment they reached to push the car door, all their expressions blanked, and they fell into unconsciousness.
But unlike the previous perspective, this time only Dick woke up; he awoke abruptly and began muttering to the thin fog in front of him.
Seeing his hand on the car door, Little Bruce understood that what should come next was the "getting out of the car" scene.
But Dick didn't get out at all.
He passed out again, meaning Shiller hadn't used any teleportation ability, and Dick hadn't been to any office at all—the things he saw were just illusions.
The next one to awake was the Nightwing of the Prime Universe. He seemed to see something, panicked, rushed to the car door, shouting, "Dick, are you okay?" and "Where did this fire extinguisher come from?"
But he didn't get out of the car either and soon passed out again, until finally, they both, while in an illusion, pushed open the doors of the building, and then both together actually opened the car door and got out.
The last to wake up was the Nightwing of the Arkham Universe, and this time his awakening was genuine, except he saw a shadow standing deep in the fog, pressed the gas pedal down, and chased after it.
In the end, Shiller casually took a fire extinguisher from inside the office building, tossed it out the window, and it landed with a bang in front of the two men.
The two people in front of the gate seemed like they were from different worlds.
Little Bruce covered his eyes and said, "So this dense fog doesn't really have that much power after all, the effect is the same as deploying hallucinogens."
Shiller shook his head, and Little Bruce thought he would expound some profound theory, but Shiller said, "There's no need for hallucinogens, hypnosis can do the job. After all, opening the car door isn't a complex action, give me ten minutes, and I could lead them to do it."
"But why would you do that?" Little Bruce didn't understand.
Shiller then said, "Just to make them believe it's real."
"Usually I wouldn't express any specific imagery in my works, but people come to view them with one of two purposes."
"The first type of person tries to interpret the work, to excavate the author's creative purpose and thoughts from the visual representation, and if they can understand and find it, they get a sense of self-satisfaction like 'I have a high level of aesthetic appreciation, I understand everything the artist means'."
"The second type of person tries to resonate with the work, to read the strong emotions that the artist wants to express from the visual representation, and then their own emotions resonate, allowing them to gain emotional satisfaction akin to 'He felt the same way I did at that time, there really are people in this world who understand me'."
"But anyway, they come with a purpose, and they hope to get something out of the process of appreciating the work."
"If they don't get it, they won't think 'my sense of aesthetics is poor, I don't understand all this,' or 'no one can understand me, not even artists.' They will quickly move on, not treating it as part of the exhibit, and look for those things that can give them an experience."
"So, a good artist, apart from conveying their own ideas and emotions, also has to first satisfy some of the audience's superficial needs, to make them feel like 'I will definitely gain something from this' at the first glance of the work, which is what attracts people to pause."
"If from the start you create something too abstract, just as I said, not showing any specific imagery, then they will only see you as the white walls in an art gallery, swiftly passing by without any experience."
Little Bruce thought of the Robins' initial comments about the dense fog, although they mentioned some phenomena, the general idea was that it was just a very widespread natural phenomenon, not causing any impact, and not worth paying attention to.
But after this experience, they wouldn't think so anymore. Although they still hadn't suffered any actual harm, what left a lasting impression on them was the regularity displayed within the dense fog.
Indeed, he heard Shiller continue to say.
"In the beginning, you have to create a pattern that they can easily understand, but later there's potential for in-depth exploration, such as since they've interpreted some of the witness' experiences as time-space disturbances within the fog, then that's what we'll do."
"Not to hide it from you, I indeed have a way to manipulate space and time, but not powerful enough to do it in every universe, that's only limited to special areas and events. I usually wouldn't use such a troublesome method, which is more efficient and time-saving, a dream or manipulating time and space?"
Little Bruce was at a loss for words, of course, it was the former. They weren't gods of time and space rules, no matter how they did it, it would always be strenuous.
And this illusion wasn't because Little Bruce was overly confident, he had done quite extensive research on the power of Evil Gods, and creating illusions was basically a basic skill for Evil Gods and their followers.
After all, true gods can simply bless people, making them strong and lucky, but Evil Gods usually wouldn't do that. They lure their followers primarily by pie in the sky, and illusions and mental confusion are necessary skills for pie in the sky, any Evil God who can't do this simply can't get by.
It's just that Shiller's way of enticing people was extraordinarily unique, and Little Bruce was taken aback for a moment. Usually, the illusions depicted by Evil Gods contain what the followers want, like a happy family, resurrection from death, or sitting on a pile of money and power.
But Shiller was different; don't even talk about happiness and bliss. After this ordeal, probably nothing was left but fright and fear.
And this fright and fear were not threats, not about making these people feel afraid so they would obey. They were scared, but they didn't know what they were afraid of.
"So what's the point of all this?" Little Bruce asked.
"Don't you find it interesting?" Shiller said with a smile, "Those rules they discovered, the loopholes they thought they could exploit, all the investigation and exploration they conducted, the truth they diligently pursued, in the end, is nothing but a sham directed by you."
"And the most exquisite part of this performance is that they will think all this is the fruit of their wrongdoings, they will believe their initial peeping and curiosity was the original sin."
"They will naturally cast aside those most precious human traits of exploring the outside world, even warn their hopeful peers, telling them their exploration and aspirations are meaningless, because those things are not to be heard, not to be seen, not to be directly looked upon."
Little Bruce felt a chill down his spine, but he still looked at Shiller and said, "Aren't these Robins your descendants? Why do you treat them this way?"
"My target isn't them," Shiller looked at Little Bruce and said, "Their minds are too healthy, and they're always thinking about Batman, not invested enough. If they were the main characters of this play, it would be too dull."
"The most brilliant part is when the protagonist in the painting turns his head to look at you, and in that instant, he realizes that the splendid world he was so certain he possessed is just a tiny corner within a much larger horror, that shock and fear in his eyes."
And on the face of Shiller, as he said these words, Little Bruce saw far too many of these exquisite experiences he must have once possessed.