All the Shillers on the ship were taken aback.
How would it feel to go for a drive in the suburbs and come back to find that your home is gone? It might be hard for others to relate, but the Shillers on the ship suddenly erupted in intense discussion.
Since all the Shillers' memories are stored in the Tower of Thought, they would have to retrieve them from specific shelves in the library when needed. Therefore, often times, some personality memories are not uniformly shared.
Even between the Marvel Shiller and the DC Shiller, who are currently working in shifts, many memories are not shared, not because they intentionally hide from each other, but simply out of laziness to check.
The disappearance of the entire Tower of Thought means that they can't even look back at what just happened. The disappearance of the Tower of Thought also implies the missing of three personalities - self, ego, and superego - that were housed inside the tower, leaving them with nowhere to inquire.
There was an even graver issue - the Tower of Thought served as a passage. Personalities needed to pass through the elevator of the Tower of Thought to surface and control the body. Now the tower and consequently the elevator were gone, meaning that the Shillers could no longer rise to the surface to control the body.
The person who noticed this earlier than them was Victor seated next to Shiller in the real world.
The Ship of the underworld had sent all its passengers back into their own consciousness spaces, hence, Victor anticipated that he would wake up before Shiller, as he saw Shiller apparently discussing something with someone named Morpheus and therefore might return later.
Consequently, Victor stood up and adjusted his trench coat. He told Evans and Cobblepot in the front row, "It's already late; you both have classes tomorrow, go home and sleep. I'll wait for Shiller here; I have something to discuss with him."
Evans glanced at his watch and replied, "It's almost dawn, it's better to just go straight to class now instead of going back to the manor to sleep. I'll wait here for a while so I don't oversleep, get late for class and scolded."
Cobblepot didn't say anything but clearly had no intention of leaving. He would help Victor clean up in the Gotham University lab, given that the lab was in a mess from the explosion and someone had to clear it up.
Seeing that the two of them did not want to leave, Victor didn't insist. Joker Jack woke up, stretched, adjusted his jacket, smacked his lips, changed his position, and fell back to sleep.
Victor dozed off in his chair. As the morning light shined into the Gotham Grand Theater, he woke up. After regaining consciousness, he muttered to himself: "Was I dreaming? Why did it seem like Shiller was calling me in my dream?"
Victor shook his head, having had trouble sleeping since the lab was destroyed. He had slept heavily just now and couldn't clearly remember what he dreamt.
Turning his head, he noticed that Shiller was still asleep. Victor frowned and looked at his watch. If he remembered correctly, Shiller had an early class today. Shiller wasn't the type to miss class because of personal affairs.
At this moment, Jack also woke up. He wobbled over from the front row seats. Victor gave him a wary look, but didn't say anything.
Arriving next to Shiller, Jack rotated his neck and gave a 'hehe' laugh. Then he put his hand behind his ear, leaned close to Shiller and asked: "Oh, let me see, a fool is trapped in the consciousness space...who is it?...Me? No! Don't make me laugh, I'm not that stupid!"
"....What did you say? ...Oh, I see, you're right, I think it's very interesting too!"
"Hahahaha! I'm going to tell my little bat now that his teacher's soul is gone, or maybe dead! Wuuwuuwuu! Does Batman cry? I'm going to find out right now!"
After saying that, Jack ran off in a cloud of dust. Listening to his incoherent speech, Victor was somewhat confused. He didn't know who Jack was talking to, or what he was saying, but he could tell that Shiller's condition didn't seem right.
At this moment, Evans had already stood up and was about to leave. He turned his head and said, "Professor Shearer, let's go together. My first class is also on the third floor...Professor? Professor?"
Victor reached out his hand to stop Evans from leaning over. He first checked Shiller's pulse and then listened to his heartbeat. Both were unusually slow. Only then did Victor realize the severity of the situation.
He immediately took out his phone and called Gordon, saying: "Hurry! Gotham Grand Theater...Shiller has fainted! Prepare an ambulance!"
Gordon on the other end of the phone paused for a second. He raised his voice asking: "What did you say? Who fainted?"
"Shiller! Shiller Rodriguez! The psychology professor at Gotham University is unconscious..."
"Was there another murder?" Gordon immediately became alert and said, "Is he trying to establish an alibi? Or he doesn't want to tell us who the murderer is, so he's pretending to faint? Or there's some other trouble in Gotham he doesn't want to get involved in...my god! I'm coming over right now!"
By the time Gordon reached the Gotham Grand Theater, Victor was waiting outside. Gordon darted into the audience seats seeing which Gordon was quicker.
Upon seeing Shiller genuinely lying there, Gordon stood with his hands on his hips and said to Shiller, "Stop pretending, what could possibly make you do this? Don't you still have unspent annual leave? If you really want some time off, why not spend a month in Brude Haven?"
Shiller didn't respond. Gordon scratched his head, feeling that if Shiller refused to cooperate, he couldn't resort to forceful measures to rouse him, especially with Victor looking on.
Thus, Gordon could only say helplessly, "Alright, I'll call an ambulance, get you a note, and you can enjoy your vacation in the hospital if you want."
With that, he took out his phone, called for an ambulance. The leading doctor, evidently well-acquainted with Gordon, came in. Gordon pointed at Shiller and stated, "First, load him on, then check his vital signs. If there's no issue, give him a prescription for long-term hospitalization and prepare a room…"
The doctor shrugged his shoulders and gestured to the nurses behind him to move forward to help Shiller. But the chief nurse frowned the moment she touched Shiller's skin, turning to the doctor, she said, "Doctor! The patient's body temperature is abnormally low!"
Furrowing his brows, the doctor swiftly approached Shiller to check his pulse and his eyes. His face turned grave as he hurriedly uttered, "Quick! Prepare the emergency equipment! The patient's vital signs are unstable!"
Seeing the doctor's genuine concern, Gordon finally started to worry. He had the officers assist the nurses in lifting Shiller into the ambulance, watching as the medical team inside frantically pulled out various emergency equipment.
"What on earth is going on? How could Shiller suddenly... No, he's not an ordinary man, he can't just lose his vitals like that!"
Victor narrowed his eyes, obviously reminded of the events in the Dreamworld. He took a deep breath and said to Gordon, "You contact Batman, I'll call the one called Constantine. They should know what's happening."
When Batman received Gordon's call, his first thought was, "Has another murder occurred in Gotham? Does Shiller know who the killer is and is playing faint to avoid telling us?"
Gordon relayed the doctor's reactions very seriously and Batman realized the gravity of the situation. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctor had already emerged from the Intensive Care Unit, declaring, "It's a bit strange. The patient's vital signs were at their lowest but remained steady. It's like he has turned vegetative."
"We took a brain wave test. Oddly, his brain waves have disappeared. Logically, he should be brain-dead, but we didn't find any related signs… It's baffling."
Batman walked into the room, he had to admit, seeing Shiller hooked up to a respirator machine, with little to no signs of life made him nervous.
However, before he could make his next move, Constantine barged in. On seeing Shiller's condition, Constantine turned to Batman and asked, "What's been going on in Gotham lately? What kind of trouble would make Shiller do this to himself?....Wait, should I also leave for a while? This could turn into a big problem…"
After saying this, Constantine turned to leave, but Batman grabbed him. Clearly, after the initial shock had faded, Batman had recalled the events that took place in the dream world. He asked Constantine, "Shiller left with the Dream God, and then ended up in this state. Do you have any idea what's going on?"
Constantine looked stumped by Batman's question. After hesitating for a moment, he said: "Do you think the Dream God is out to get Shiller? If he were truly angry, none of us would have been able to leave."
"Maybe you don't realize how powerful the Dream God is. Dreams or reality, it's all a matter of his will. He can spin a dream of our demise and replace reality with it, and we would really die."
"Plus, if he really wanted to hurt Shiller, why would he let him lie here? Surely, you don't think the Dream God is like you and doesn't kill?"
Batman continued to stare at him. Constantine hesitated, then said, "Alright, let's go to the Kingdom of Dreams and ask around. It's best if we go together, the place can be quite dangerous."
"Oh, right, make sure to bring that bomb. It'll be our most powerful weapon. With it, our safety in the Kingdom of Dreams will be better ensured."
At first, Batman had no idea what Constantine meant by 'bomb'. Then he realized that Constantine must have been referring to Clark. Batman didn't wish to involve Clark, but considering Clark was merely a 'bomb', he figured having him tag along wouldn't hurt.
So, Batman called Clark and briefed him about Shiller's condition. Clark rushed over. By the time he arrived at the hospital, Shiller had been moved out of the ICU. Despite still being hooked up to a respirator, he looked slightly less frightful.
Clark, looking sad, asked, "What do you need me to do? I'll definitely save Professor Shiller!"
Just as Constantine was about to say that all he needed to do was to be ready as a bomb, Batman patted Clark on the shoulder and said, "Next, we're going to a potentially dangerous place, and you are our muscle."
Clark nodded solemnly, his face full of determination. When Clark, Constantine, Batman, and Victor gathered together, they began plotting their journey to the Kingdom of Dreams to locate Shiller.
Meanwhile, after the tower, engulfed by cats, had disappeared from the world of consciousness, it landed in a place that was both strange and familiar: the central roundabout in Gotham City.
Shiller looked out of the window. This was indeed the familiar Gotham, with its gloomy, rainy weather, terrible traffic, ceaseless sounds of gunshots and cursing…
The only difference was that all the inhabitants of this place were cats.