Chapter 262: No Bat Incident (2)
The rain continued to fall in Gotham, accompanied by the constant rumble of thunder. The cool, damp air seeped in through the window cracks, casting a lightning reflection in the already cold coffee.
Hugo took off his glasses and rubbed his temples. He stood up from his desk, glancing at the materials and the now cold coffee, realizing that he wasn't suited for staying up late and working overtime; he always ended up falling asleep.
At that moment, he heard a familiar voice echoing in the room: "Hugo has woken up in his office again. The coffee he made himself at noon has already gone cold. But it doesn't matter. If he drinks this cup of coffee, he will see a key hidden at the bottom of the cup. What door does this key open?"
Hugo slowly reached for the cup of coffee, then brought it to his lips and drank it. The cold coffee didn't taste good, causing Hugo to furrow his brows. Suddenly, he felt his lips touch a metallic object—it was a key.
A key that would open which door?
Hugo shook his head and searched around his desk. He noticed a locked drawer on the right side, and he inserted the key, giving it a twist to the right. The drawer opened.
The voice chimed in again, "Oh, it seems this is the key to open the office cabinet drawer! Hugo is quite clever!"
"Hugo opened the drawer and found a schedule inside. The schedule stated that he had a ward round at Hospital Room 302 at 9:20..."
"Hugo is a diligent doctor, and he didn't want to miss the ward round. But where is Room 302?"
Hugo opened the drawer and grabbed a piece of paper. It had a line of text written on it: "Go to Room 302 for ward round before 9:20."
Hugo turned around and glanced at the weather outside. The voice sounded again, "Hugo looked out the window and saw that it was a rainy day. He couldn't determine the current time based on the weather outside. It seems he faced another problem—finding a watch..."
Hugo turned his head and looked down at his wrist. The voice continued, "Hugo suddenly remembered that he was wearing a watch on his wrist."
And so, a watch appeared on Hugo's wrist, displaying the time as 9:17. The voice persisted, "Oh no! It's too late! It seems he only has 3 minutes to reach Room 302. Hugo knew he had to act quickly!"
Hugo briskly walked away from his desk and approached the door. He twisted the doorknob but found it wouldn't open. The voice spoke again, "Undoubtedly, this is another door that requires a key. Hugo needs to find the key."
As Hugo started to anxiously search the room, flipping things over, the voice kept whispering in his ear, "This is really strange, isn't it? This isn't a game. Why does every door require a specific key?"
"To be honest, I hate those games where you have to solve puzzles every few steps. It's a complete waste of my time. Why don't we take a more efficient approach, like kicking the door open? What do you think?"
"Don't worry, you're just in a hurry to do your rounds for the sake of the patients. It's late now, and your colleagues have already left. No one will see you..."
Hugo paused his actions and looked at the door. It was just a wooden door, but in Hugo's sight, the wooden panels of the door rapidly aged, becoming unstable. He felt that instead of wasting time looking for a key, it would be better to kick the door open with one powerful kick.
He walked to the door, raised his foot, and prepared to kick it. Just as his foot was about to make contact with the door, the door transformed into a giant red button. Countless warning lights in the room started flashing frantically, accompanied by a piercing alarm.
When Hugo's foot hit the button, triggering its activation, the wallpaper on the walls of the room peeled away, revealing various types of bombs inside. Amidst the intense explosion, Hugo was blown to pieces.
The last image he saw before his death was himself standing outside the door, wearing a malicious smile.
Seeing Hugo return to the first floor, Victor asked, "This should be another special area, right?"
"Correct, I call it the Realm of Self-Control."
"What was that voice that kept misleading Hugo?"
Marvel Schiller in the white lab coat let out a sigh and said, "That was close. If we had continued, not only would our dark history have been exposed, but also copyright issues..."
Then, he looked at Schiller beside him and smiled, saying, "But it doesn't matter. After all, it's your dark history."
"That's a stereotype. Why can't adults play with building blocks?" DC Schiller replied.
"But you live in Gotham City, and you have a DC world building block in your mind, and you play with figurines in role-playing games. It does seem a bit strange, doesn't it?"
"Even if this floor doesn't count. Hugo should be close to his breaking point by now," DC Schiller changed the topic.
"According to our previous speculation, when he completely believes in it and reaches a certain level of conviction, he can use his obsession to open a pathway to the deep consciousness," he continued.
"In theory, that's how it should work, but whether our plan can succeed is still uncertain," Marvel Schiller said.
"Excluding the previous floor, so which floor should we choose next?"
"Let's trap him in the 190th floor, where that lunatic was trapped for a long time..."
When Hugo woke up again, he found himself in a vast white space, and in front of him was a dancing apple.
This apple had black thread-like hands and feet, just like in a comic book, and it was performing ballet.
He watched the apple dance like that, while everyone in the audience seats watched him watching the dancing apple. Yawned, Victor asked, "What kind of place is this? Why is there a dancing apple?"
"This place..." Schiller also yawned. Victor couldn't tell how an Earthling yawned, but he heard the sound of Schiller yawning.
"This is the Boredom Plaza. Just as the name suggests, the theme here is boredom. It brings forth the most boring things that you can think of. It seems that Doctor Hugo finds watching an apple dance the most boring thing."
"Then how did the previous expert overcome this floor?"
"In fact, he hasn't overcome this floor yet."
"Can we see his current situation? Can you switch the stage for us? I'm quite curious."
Schiller stood up, and Victor thought he was going to walk over to the stage to switch it. However, he walked over to Jack instead and pointed at him, saying, "This is his current situation."
Jack had one eye closed and slightly opened the other eye, glancing at Schiller, then closed that eye again.
Schiller explained, "He's a lunatic who has gone crazy because Batman isn't in Gotham."
"A crazy lunatic?"
"Yes, according to the double negative theory, we call people like him 'normal'."
[Read /shanefreak, without ads and support the work.]