Memory Mapping Plate was a fundamental skill of Batman, who clearly remembered every single detail of the path he came from, and he remembered even more clearly that the sewer at the entrance of this safehouse was straight, so where did this almost 180-degree big turn in front of him come from?
Batman certainly felt the invasion of the fog, but his Face guard was simultaneously equipped with thermal imaging, night vision, and the bat's unique sonar imaging, so even though he knew his surroundings were enveloped in an inescapable dense fog, he could still see clearly within the normal range of vision.
What now puzzled Batman was the sewer on his right, which originally should have been straight and led two streets away, but at this moment, took a sharp turn, as if it had been twisted by some force.
And the sewer on his left, which should have had no passageway and ended here, had now become a straight channel that continued to extend outward.
Which way should Batman choose?
Batman chose neither, but instead, he went straight back into the safehouse, glanced at Arkham Batman, who was already asleep, and decided to directly take the ladder to the ground from the safehouse.
He climbed up the ladder.
They were in the lower level of the sewers, and even with a direct-access ladder, it would take a while to reach the sewer entrance. Batman kept looking up at the sewer entrance, which also kept getting larger within his field of vision.
But soon, Batman felt a change in gravity, realizing that he had to exert more force to hang on to the rungs of the sewer ladder. When he looked down, there wasn't the light from the safehouse below him, but a turn in the pathway.
The passage to the ground had also been twisted into an arc, and Batman was now actually climbing inside the letter "C" and had reached the top, parallel to the real ground instead of perpendicular, which is why his arms needed strength to keep his body in place.
But the light from the sewer entrance was still tantalizingly close.
Batman decided to climb down.
After descending five or six rungs, Batman turned around to look down, and beneath his feet, there was no hole, just another bend.
Looking up again, the sewer entrance, which had a faint light, seemed even larger within his view—too large, in fact. Although he was moving back, the entrance kept growing as if he were getting closer.
The ever-enlarging bright spot was like a gaping maw, ready to devour Batman at any moment. With a brief pause, Batman started to retreat further.
Climbing down constantly, Batman felt as if he had descended hundreds of meters and couldn't keep count of the number of times gravity shifted—it was one curve after another.
As he kept moving back, Batman felt his shins hit something. Looking down again, the path below was finally not a bend anymore, and the walls around him converged, becoming narrower and narrower.
Something surged at the end, and Batman had a bad feeling. He climbed faster, hearing a series of sticky rumblings again and again.
The monstrous creature at the end burst out, and when Batman looked back, two long, giant tentacles swung beside him, with slimy flesh scrambling rapidly along the inner wall.
Was he racing a snail inside its shell?!
Batman climbed as swiftly as he could to the top, the two tentacles closing in on him, sliding past his back and arms, the slimy touch almost gluing Batman in place.
But Batman did not linger; he climbed toward the increasingly large snail shell opening as fast as he could, and with a bang, he fell out of the sewer entrance. When he got up, the surroundings were calm as usual.
Looking down, the sewer entrance was just that, a sewer entrance, with no spiral resembling an endless snail shell, no slimy, bloated snail monster. Just a small hole that allowed one to see the light of the safe room below, as if everything that had just appeared was an illusion.
Batman dropped a probe down it.
With a plop followed by a familiar buzz, the monitor only showed it being engulfed by the soft, sticky substance all around, leaving nothing behind.
Batman took a deep breath, closed the sewer entrance, looked around, and found a convenience store nearby.
Clearing out the shelf of salt in the convenience store, Batman returned to the hole with bag after bag of salt, opened the packages, and poured all the salt down it, and screams of agony started coming from the hole.
A viscous, murky water spilled from the hole, with under-melted tentacles bouncing on the ground, eyes swiveling, eventually all staring intently at Batman.
Suddenly, Batman dropped the last bag of salt, staring at the tattered and messy packaging as he broke into a cold sweat.
What was he doing? Why was he doing this?
Batman stood up, rubbing his temples vigorously. Why was his first thought after experiencing some snail-related hallucinations that salt could kill snails?
Had he done this before? How else would he know? Had he ever killed a snail with salt in his childhood? Did that ever happen?
Some memories began to get muddled, on one hand, saying that this was perfectly normal, who hadn't messed with anthills or caught earthworms as a kid? On the other hand, Batman knew clearly he had never done such things as a child, he was not one of those Killer devils who start with torturing animals and end with murder, his childhood was healthy.
His thoughts became somewhat chaotic, Batman took a deep breath and began to gradually remove those meaningless reveries.
He didn't care about the mess on the ground and walked alone towards the target location. On his way over, he remembered there was a hospital nearby, which should have the wheelchair he needed.
As he walked, Batman's path was blocked, a lamppost had bent over in front of him.
It was not broken, but it was as if a cartoon character had suddenly bent over and laid its upper body across to greet him.
Batman ignored the lamppost and continued forward. Another lamppost pressed even lower, as if saying, "Won't you really take a look at me?"
Batman kept ignoring it and still walked towards the road ahead. Two lampposts crossed in front of him, as if saying, "Don't go any further, stop and look at us."
Batman passed under the two lampposts without so much as a glance and then the biggest spectacle so far appeared, as the lampposts on both sides of the road twisted together in a spiral.
The structure of the lampposts was actually quite strange, with their straight bodies and large heads, so when they became entangled, they resembled two distorted people.
The two lampposts twisted at length, and the lamps hung low as if saying to Batman, "After all this, won't you take a look at us?"
Batman didn't look at all and walked past them. He had now arrived at the lawn near the hospital and considering that the local lampposts lacked manners, Batman decided to step directly on the lawn and go through.
When he stepped on the lawn, it was a proper triangle, but as he walked, the corner in the direction of his target began to extend and twist into another spiral.
Batman decisively walked towards the other side, but that side also turned into a spiral. Batman looked back and sure enough, the side behind him was a spiral too.
Batman took a deep breath, extended One Hand, and shot a grappling hook at the nearest tree, pulling himself straight over.
As he neared the tree, he saw that the normally vertical bark patterns were also twisted into dense spirals.
Batman suspected that this world was a giant snail shell.
Ignoring these anomalies, Batman continued towards the hospital's main entrance. He stood at the door and observed that the staircases on both sides of the front desk were spiral. If he went up, who knew if a giant snail would chase after him.
Batman chose to use his grappling hook through a window instead. He caught hold of the nearest balcony and jumped onto it, then immediately leaped to another one at a slant. As long as he found the storage or medical supply room, he would be able to get a wheelchair.
The stripes on the curtains of the hospital rooms, originally blue and white, were also turning into spirals, drawing attention. With each jump, after passing those spirally patterned curtains, Batman felt a bit dizzy.
These spiral patterns seemed to have some magic that continuously attracted his gaze, making the intervals between each jump a little larger, and the time he had mentally calculated not to stay was almost up.
Blurry eye patterns began to appear on reflective surfaces, but due to the abundance of spirals, those eyes, too, started to become whirlpools.
Finally, as the timer hit zero, Batman found himself staggering through a town, turning corner after corner, with not a straight path in sight, only bends everywhere.
The breeze that blew through the streets lifted leaves that drew perfect whirlpool patterns. The ancient, dilapidated houses were all twisted to one side, with tiles spreading out along curved lines.
Lifting his head, Batman saw only the oppressive black sky above and a thin, descending line spiraling down, seemingly leading to the very center of this spiral-arranged town.
When the illusion vanished, Batman realized he was still standing on the balcony. But when he looked down, he saw his own spiral footprints left on the rain-dampened balcony surface; he had been spinning in place.
Batman looked down at his arm because since a short while ago, he found the arm holding the grappling hook getting heavier. And when he seriously lifted his arm, he found that the underside of his upper arm and one side of his ribs were covered in mucus.
It seemed to be the mucus smeared on him by the antenna of a giant snail during a chase earlier. It had partially dried by now, but it was still somewhat wet because of the rain, pulling up strands of silk as he lifted his arm.
Batman tried to peel off these strands of silk and cut them off, but no matter the fabric or cleaner used, the mucus wouldn't come off.
Suddenly there was another jolt. Batman felt pain in his body as it began to dissolve. Below his head, his limbs were slowly turning into pools of thick liquid, spiraling down and eventually hitting the ground, merging with the rainwater.
His field of vision split into two, swaying left and right, twisting in the mucus, and bouncing continuously on the ground.
Batman shook his head and moved back, only to be blocked by the balcony railing and continued to fall backward.
With a whoosh, he fell off the balcony.
Suddenly a vine reached out and grabbed his cape. A redhead appeared on the top floor of the hospital, leaning over the railing, looking down, a puzzled voice reached Batman's ears.
"Batman, weren't you dead?"