"Willpower is actually a very broad concept, it can be simply summarized as, the quality of a person's determination to achieve a certain goal and the ability to mobilize all emotions and thinking to realize this determination." Shiller's voice echoed in the empty theater, although he was narrating some dry concepts, his ups and downs of tone were able to captivate the audience.
"This concept also involves other aspects, such as self-control ability, mental stability, coherence of thought, and concentration, etc..."
"All of the above, Batman lacks none, he has a very fast ability to make decisions, a strong focus on the target, smooth thinking of analyzing the pros and cons of the target, and the perseverance to follow through on the target. But even if all of these can be achieved, it is only within the realm of ordinary people, the true power of willpower is not limited to this."
"It is hard for a person to believe in an entirely unachievable goal and persistently strive towards it. For example, hardly anyone believes that they have four eyes, and no one really thinks their head is square because these are some obvious facts. Even if they have imagined what it would be like if these situations happened, like, you can also try to think about it..."
Very soon, two more eyes appeared on Victor's forehead. He asked, "Is this it?"
"Correct, it is thanks to your rich imagination, but I must tell you, you don't really have four eyes."
With a "bang", the two additional eyes on Victor's forehead disappeared, he was taken aback, Shiller explained to him: "This is the struggle in dreams, you imagine yourself having four eyes, but I tell you that you don't, at some point, your imagination broke, and the corresponding form in the dream also disappeared."
"Because chiefly you know that the you living in the real world only has two eyes, which is the case with the majority of people, they may have dreamed of having four eyes in their dreams, but they would only chuckle when they wake up, thinking they had a preposterous dream."
"But if you truly strongly believe that you have four eyes, then my words just now saying you don't would be ineffective, you will still be in the state of having four eyes."
"Conversely, you can do the same thing to me, like you can say that my head is not a globe....."
Victor took a deep breath, focused, and said to Shiller: "Your head is not a globe, no human being's head can possibly be a globe, you are aware of this..."
But there was no change in Shiller, the globe on his head was still slowly rotating, Victor crossed his arms and asked him: "So, you really do believe that your head is a globe?"
"Correct, to put it plainly, I have hypnotized myself to believe in events that are absolutely impossible, this will give you stronger abilities in dreams."
"In another sense, this is a struggle between positiveness and negativeness, I firmly believe that being hacked by a knife will not hurt, and you firmly believe that hacking someone with a knife will cause harm. When our two sets of beliefs clash, the thing that you believe in is really existent in reality, because in reality hacking someone with a knife will hurt them and make them bleed, while the things that I firmly believe in are almost impossible to happen...."
"You who are in the positive position, it is very easy to believe in something that agrees with your common sense and memory, while for me who is in the negative position, it is very difficult to believe in something that goes against common sense and memory, so, if you produce a knife right now to hack me, it is very easy to attack, but very difficult to defend."
"Just like the situation that Batman is currently facing."
As his voice fell, the play on the stage just started.
The Batman who had once used the Grey Lantern ring definitely knows the rules of the dream, which is "What you firmly believe can become reality" /"What you believe is what you get", but now he is dealing with Shiller's will, he is facing the awkward situation just mentioned by Shiller.
He closed his eyes and whispered: "...I have a Batman dart in my hand right now, it is non-reflective carbon black, equipped with a sharp blade..."
Simultaneously, Shiller's voice also sounded: "...No, you were hastily driven out of your house by a brutal killer without having time to bring weapons, you even just got up from your bed, you should be wearing pajamas instead of the bat suit..."
As he spoke, the Batman dart that Batman was consolidating in his hand disappears, and his exclusive skintight clothing and cloak were slowly turning into silk pajamas, Bruce shut his eyes and solemnly said: "I'm wearing the bat suit, because I am Batman..."
The Bat Armor slowly returned covered his body. At the edge of the silk pajamas and the bat suit, there was an invisible force wrestling. But in the end, perhaps it was Bruce's final words that took effect, the bat suit slowly wrapped his body, only that the black cloak had disappeared.
He looked back at his body and grimaced.
In theory, Batman's willpower is invincible, especially after he said the words "Because I'm Batman", no matter how powerful the attack would avoid him.
But the reason why Batman cannot achieve this now is multi-faceted, first because he is young. This may not feel real when put this way, a comparison can be made. Marvel's Spider-man Peter Parker, who is neighboring, is 17yo this year, he just recently got his drivers license, while the current Batman Bruce Wayne is 19yo, just started sophomore year of college, Bruce is only two years older than Peter.
When comparing the artistic styles of these two characters, it becomes clear that while Batman may appear to be two centuries older than Spider-Man, this fails to obscure the fact that Bruce is still in his adolescent phase. The psychological development of a person inevitably matures with age, and the fledgling Batman, who has just started his career, is far from reaching the level of the iron-willed aged bat.
Another important reason lies in Shiller's previous warning not to waste energy in vain, because Shiller knew that the mental device designed by Bruce to wake up from his dreams was extremely energy-consuming. Insufficient energy would lead to distraction, this is a limitation of the human body, and even Shiller couldn't escape. He too would feel less focused after using Flash repeatedly.
Having just repeatedly activated the emergency wake-up device, Batman was experiencing a state of continued severe headaches. That he could still focus enough to manifest a Batman dart was already quite impressive.
Batman took a deep breath. He could feel that his spirit was already consumed to its limit, and just one step outside the gates of Wayne Manor would trigger four weapons laden with fatal lights to attack him. They blocked all possible escape routes, leaving him no way out.
His unwavering belief that he would not be injured could only be of slight help against one or maybe two of the weapons. But as for many brutal murderers simultaneously attacking, the poorly conditioned Batman simply didn't have the strength to resist.
The reset function after failure also compelled him to perpetually confront direct battle. He couldn't retreat to Wayne Manor to formulate a comprehensive plan. It's well known that direct battles are one of Batman's biggest weaknesses.
After approximately a dozen attempts, Batman had only made a slight progress. Among the four murderers, if he had to find a weak one to exploit, it was the chainsaw holder.
In his severe headache, he barely controlled his body to roll to the right side to dodge the sweeping machete, then quickly moved to the left to avoid the iron claw sharp blade on the wall. At this time, the chainsaw murderer on the left was still activating his chainsaw, the use of which required momentum from the waist and a backward lean, his center of gravity a bit off. Batman took advantage of this and swept a leg. The murderer holding the chainsaw fell to the ground.
Batman didn't quite understand why the murderer chose to use a chainsaw. In his view, a chainsaw was not a good weapon as it took too long to activate and sometimes obstructed the line of sight.
Batman found differences in these murderers. The chainsaw wielder was not skilled in combat. He didn't know how to dodge against Batman's fast leg attack. The Red Monster with iron claws had the weakest stature among them, but he could teleport.
The two men with white faces and hockey masks were both tall and attacked fast with weapons. They had defensive fighting techniques. The white-faced killer had a background music that made Batman feel tense and anxious. Meanwhile, the hockey masked guy was immense and immune to pain and damage.
After a few more forced attempts, Batman's vision began to darken, the space of consciousness slowly began to collapse, and then he fell unconscious.
When he woke up, Bruce felt a splitting headache but still steeled himself to activate the pre-alarm measures, finding that he was indeed back in reality.
Somehow, he started to feel relieved. The human brain's self-defense mechanism makes people fall into a coma after over-strain. If he were to open his eyes now and see those monsters again standing at the door, he was not sure if his willpower could sustain another counterattack.
Bruce took a deep breath. He was about to lie down for a little longer to regain his energy when he heard the frantic ringing of a phone. He forced himself to sit up from bed and almost staggered downstairs to answer it.
Gordon's anxious voice sounded on the other end, saying: "The leader of the Lawrence Family is dead, the Twelve Families are causing disorder, Batman, Gotham needs you."
Bruce responded to him: "I'll be right there."
His hoarse and fatigued voice startled Gordon. He asked, "Are you okay? You sound a bit..."
"I'm fine." After he finished speaking, just about to hang up the phone, he heard Gordon's exclamation: "Oh my God! Why is that lunatic on TV again?"
"Batman, hurry up, the lunatic painted like a joker has taken over the TV station again! God only knows what he's up to!"
Then, over the phone, Batman heard the joker's voice from the TV at Gordon's place: "Batman! I've prepared a big surprise for you! Hahahaha!!!"
At this point, an alarm in his upstairs room went off. He was forced to climb up to the second floor and pick up the wrist guard from his bat suit. Within the clamor, Jason's slightly naive voice came from within: "Batman, are you there? We're trapped. Can you come over?"
"Trapped, what happened?"
Then came Little Sly's voice, he said: "Someone is after us, we're hiding now. We're safe for now, but there's nothing here, can you come as soon as possible?"