Closing the room door, Shiller sighed. The coordinates sent by Little Bruce were too vague, equivalent to a region within a 5 kilometer × 5 kilometer range. If he hadn't guessed based on the last four digits, 1905, that this might be a hotel room number, he might search until tomorrow morning without finding the specific location.
Shiller turned his head to survey the living room and noticed no problems. The decor of the Wayne Hotel leaned towards opulent Victorian style. The room was carpeted in dark green, the walls were a very deep, blood-like red, while the upper half was decorated in rich black, mostly using bright gold colors, creating an atmosphere that was gloomy yet lavish.
To the left of the sofa was an electric fireplace, with its dancing flames casting the raindrops on the window into scattered pearls. Shiller casually picked up the remote and turned on the TV, which was broadcasting a midnight drama series. The TV's glow fully illuminated the room.
Pushing open the door to the bedroom revealed nothing out of the ordinary—still in deep tones, but the floor had switched to a patterned design, and the plush bed was covered with silk sheets, and the comforter was wine-red.
There was a bottle of red wine on the nightstand. Shiller picked it up to find a label on the back indicating that it was complimentary. He took a closer look at the origin and the vintage and found that it was just an ordinary Bordeaux red wine, worth around 200 US dollars.
After setting the wine back down, Shiller checked the bed sheets and duvet cover. There was nothing underneath the comforter or the sheets. The bed was a heavy solid wood model, so there was no underside to the bed. The nightstand drawer held only the central air conditioning remote and batteries, along with a travel guide to the hotel and nothing else.
Then Shiller walked into the main bedroom's bathroom. The manager had said that the toilet was broken, but still, there was nothing unusual in the bathroom. Shiller first checked the bathtub, the showerhead could release water normally, but the faucet used to fill the tub made a piercing sound when turned, though the water coming out was fine.
The bathtub's drain seemed to be okay, but the speed was a bit slow. Shiller suspected it might be clogged, but a closer inspection revealed nothing.
Next was the problematic toilet. After pressing the flush button, Shiller moved as far away as possible because, sure enough, it began to draw water down but then suddenly started spurting water. Although it was only tap water from the tank, it still splashed over the surrounding floor and even wet the bathroom doorway carpet.
Shiller clicked his tongue and shook his head, taking cleaning supplies from the bathroom cabinet, wiping the floor, and then closing the bathroom door. He didn't plan on using it again before the repair technician arrived.
He returned and sat down on the sofa, pulling out his phone—then, the anomaly occurred, his phone had no signal.
Shiller, holding his phone, moved closer to the balcony. He kept his eyes fixed on the phone screen, but suddenly, in his peripheral vision, he noticed that the view outside the window had changed.
The vast Dark City had vanished, and a building from the far distance was rapidly approaching until it was less than 20 meters away from the window. It was another hotel, room 1905 facing room 1905, and there was a silhouette standing in front of the window.
Shiller immediately turned to look outside, only to find the familiar scene of Gotham as if the instant before had been an illusion. When Shiller looked at his phone again, the signal was full again.
Shiller tried to make a random phone call and found no problems; the internet and everything else were normal. Even when he walked back inside with his phone, the signal was still there, and there was auto-connected WiFi available to browse the web.
But Shiller did not choose to go online. Instead, he immediately opened Battleworld's communication channel and sent a message to one of the icons, "Have you arrived?"
"I'll be there soon, PhD. Please wait a moment," came the reply.
A figure hurried through the hotel's revolving door, running as fast as possible to the front desk, catching his breath before flashing a smile at the red-haired lady and saying, "Hello, I'm looking for someone."
"Who are you looking for?" the lady at the front desk asked without lifting her head.
"Uh, a gentleman in room 1905. He should have checked in about 20 minutes ago, by the name of Naog Sokhup."
"Let me check for you... Uh, which room did you say?"
"1905."
"No one has booked room 1905 yet. Maybe your friend got the room number wrong?"
The young man was taken aback. He took off his hat to reveal none other than the face of Peter Parker. He sent a message through Battleworld's system, "Dr. Sokhup, they say room 1905 isn't booked. Could you have gotten the room number wrong?"
Shiller's eyes widened slightly, and he asked Peter to confirm it again, but according to Peter's response, the front desk insisted that room 1905 had not been booked and they had no recollection of the name Sokhup.
Shiller looked out the window again, with no change in the scenery, so he approached the window with his phone in hand.
Staring at the phone screen, the signal blinked for an instant, and in the corner of his eye, he spotted the other Wayne Hotel rapidly approaching again. This time Shiller lingered a little longer; he watched the nearly adjoining window, where both people were looking down at their phones in a similar manner.
But suddenly, the silhouette in that window disappeared, Shiller's phone signal was restored, and the view outside returned to normal.
Shiller seemed to understand something, so he sent Peter a message: "Book room 1905, and come over quickly."
Peter nodded unknowingly and had no choice but to say to the front desk, "Hello, I would like to book room 1905."
"No can do, you can't book that room." The front desk lifted their eyelids wearily and said, "The toilet's broken, who's gonna fix it on a day like this? If it sprays you all over, we can't do anything about it."
"That's fine, I need to book room 1905 right now." Peter took out his driver's license and said, "I can pay extra, please, ma'am."
One Hand took the driver's license, looked it over, and the woman sitting at the desk sighed before saying, "Alright, another one who doesn't believe in curses. I hope you can last a bit longer. Here's your room key, go on in, and don't come out unless necessary."
Peter nodded and walked towards the elevator. As the elevator doors opened, a man in a suit stepped out and hurried towards the front desk, saying, "I'm in 1906, I want to extend my stay for three days, hurry up and check me in."
"This hotel is quite popular." Peter murmured to himself. He looked up to admire the luxurious décor of the elevator and said, "It's good that the mysterious Black Sun provided a sufficient budget, otherwise I couldn't afford a hotel like this."
Peter sighed softly to himself, knowing from Bruce, who had merged with Earth, that Battleworld had reopened. He had been planning to use the last dozen days to prepare well, to achieve a good result in Battleworld, which was certainly better than being forced to read books by the Black Sun.
But just yesterday, his great, mysterious, omniscient master had given him cosmic coordinates for a business trip, and on the way there even reminded him that he was supposed to stay in a hotel. But why he had to come here and stay in a hotel, and what he was supposed to do after staying in the hotel, he hadn't been told at all.
However, fortunately, he wasn't alone on this business trip. The Black Sun had told him another historical researcher would be joining him, they just needed to meet in the hotel. They were given each other's Battleworld IDs, added as friends, and could contact each other at any time.
Clenching the room key, Peter got into the elevator, which soon opened. He walked out and saw the sign for the 19th floor. Looking left and right, he chose to go left and walked down the hallway to the end, where he saw the doorplate for 1905.
He knocked on the door and said, "PhD, are you there? PhD?"
No one answered. Peter used the communication system to check again, but Doctor Sophocles insisted he was in the room, although he hadn't heard any knocking. Peter, feeling somewhat helpless, called out, "I'm going to open the door, okay?"
He used his room key to open the door, and inside, there was nothing. Peter first closed the room door and then proceeded inward.
Peter walked into the living room and found the lights were off. After turning on the lights, he still saw no one, so he reluctantly knocked on the bedroom door. After pushing open the door, the room was still empty, so Peter had no choice but to head to the bathroom.
As soon as he opened the bathroom door, just as expected, there was no one inside, but Peter noticed with the help of the light's reflection that there was a puddle of water on the floor, indicating the toilet indeed was broken.
Peter really didn't know what was going on, but he felt that sending messages one by one was too inefficient, so he decided to start a voice call directly.
"Hey, PhD, can you hear me talking? Are you sure you're in room 1905? I can't see you at all."
"I'm sure I'm here, Peter. Start a video call, and I'll show you the door number."
Peter started the video call, and he saw the other person walking out from a living room just like his, opening a door just like his, and as the camera panned up, there was a sign with the fancy number "1905."
Peter was shocked. He too stepped out and stared at the sign on the door. He knew that Battleworld's video calls could perfectly present the other person's perspective, meaning that both his and the other side's room were 1905. Could this hotel have two room 1905s?
"Peter, tell me everything that happened to you from the moment you walked into the hotel up to now, in great detail. Down to every expression on every person's face and every word that was said, you should be able to remember, right?"
"Of course, I can," Peter began to recount all his experiences, but before he got very far, he was interrupted by the other side.
"Are you saying that when you came in, the red-haired lady at the front desk was sitting down?"
"Yes, and she seemed impatient. I think she was tired, probably from working the night shift." Peter sighed and continued, "She hardly looked me in the eye, seemed like she really didn't care much for me."
Then Peter kept talking but was interrupted after a few sentences as he heard the other side ask, "You're saying that when the elevator doors opened, a man in a suit came out, claiming he was a guest in room 1906 and requested to stay for three more days?"
"That's right. He seemed very rushed, probably because there weren't many rooms left," Peter said.
Peter continued his story, but after a few sentences was again interrupted. "You turned left after exiting the elevator?"
"Yes, to the left."
On the other end of the communication, Shiller was recalling the route the manager had taken him, which was exactly the opposite of Peter's. He remembered very clearly that he had turned to the right at that time.