Chapter 268: Layers of Fear (2)

Chapter 268: Layers of Fear (2)

The cold wind howled over the skies of Gotham City, and faster than the wind was Bruce, desperately running through the dark rainy night.

Chasing after him was a grotesque monster, with long limbs resembling a spider. What was even more disturbing was that this monster had Alfred's face, and in one of its arms, it held a cup of hot milk.

From behind, Alfred's voice came with continuous screams, becoming eerie and mournful: "Master, you need to drink your milk before going to sleep. Have you forgotten?!"

"You're not a good child!!" Alfred's face twisted more and more, waving its several-meter-long limbs and crawling on the ground like a giant arthropod. Its head rotated 180 degrees, and it kept shouting, "A good child must finish their milk before going to sleep!!!"

As Bruce ran forward, he recollected what had happened a few minutes earlier.

After discovering the Earth Device and the note, he was once again attacked by the Joker hiding under the bed, causing him to jolt awake once more.

Undoubtedly, he had acquired more clues. The Earth Device? Bruce wondered. What could a rotating Earth Device represent?

However, that guy under the bed was incredibly difficult to deal with. No matter which angle Bruce tried to grab the Earth Device from, he would be struck by his dagger and wake up again.

Unable to make progress in this regard, Bruce had no choice but to step out of the bedroom once again, exploring the hallway and other rooms. However, just like the traps in the bedroom, Bruce was repeatedly killed by the Joker in the other rooms.

Soon, Bruce came to a halt in the middle of the hallway, turning back to look at the door of his bedroom.

Every time he woke up, he would open the bedroom door from the inside and be killed by the Joker outside before returning to bed and opening the door from the inside again.

But he had never stood in the hallway and opened the door from the outside.

Bruce stood in the dark hallway, gripping the doorknob of the bedroom door, contemplating for a long time. He deduced the rule of this place—he had to face his own fears directly.

When he was in the bedroom, his greatest fear was the story he had heard during his childhood. Perhaps he thought he had long forgotten it, but evidently, it hadn't faded away in his dreams. This fear was etched into his subconsciousness, only now resurfacing as a towering obstacle hindering him from finding the truth.

In the hallway, his greatest fear might be opening the door to his bedroom, for he knew that it not only meant the end of a day of despair but also signaled the beginning of the next hopeless day.

Bruce recalled that, for a long time, he was terrified of returning to his room to sleep. Whenever he pushed open the bedroom door to rest, he felt a strong sense of guilt and remorse, as if there were more important things waiting for him to do.

And now, as he once again gripped the doorknob of the bedroom door, that familiar feeling surged up, just like the fear he had felt when he looked under the bed.

Nevertheless, he pushed the door open directly, and on the other side of the door was the second floor of Wayne Manor.

As he stepped onto the second floor, the door behind him disappeared, but Bruce knew that even more terrifying things would happen next because there were more rooms on the second floor than on the third floor. Moreover, this was where Alfred rested.

While walking down the second-floor corridor, Bruce encountered Alfred holding a tray with a cup of hot milk. Alfred looked at Bruce with concern and asked, "Master, did you have another nightmare? Have a cup of milk."

Bruce didn't move, and suddenly, that cup of milk transformed into a comical bomb and exploded with a loud "bang." Alfred was blown to pieces, and Bruce jolted awake once again from his bed.

The second time, he tried to pick up the glass of milk, but the milk still turned into a bomb, blowing him up and making him start over.

In the eyes of an onlooker, he had an inexplicable fear of the staircase. He would rather jump down from the balcony than take a step into the staircase. He crawled on the floor, went under the bed, and after retrieving an ordinary-looking Earth device, he pondered in the same spot for a long time.

He stood motionless in front of his bedroom door but didn't push it open. Facing the butler who was delivering milk to him, he suddenly revealed a sad and frightened expression. Holding the milk cup, it seemed like he was holding a bomb and then waving his arm, he threw the milk cup away...

Just as the tip of the knife touched Bruce's chest, he suddenly understood the Joker.

The Joker kept laughing uncontrollably, referred to as a madman by others, but perhaps he only saw a funny joke in his own delusions. In his own dream, the choices he made were as normal as they could be.

Every lunatic is a normal person in their own world.

Just as Bruce's hand holding the knife slowly exerted force, about to leave a wound on his chest, he suddenly heard a scream of despair. Immediately after, a monster with Alfred's face appeared behind Bruce, and as its head rotated, it shouted, "Master! Why aren't you in the room?!"

"You came here to escape from drinking milk! Come back with me and drink the milk before sleeping!!"

No matter what, seeing his butler turning into a long-limbed arthropod with a continuously rotating head was quite shocking for Bruce, so his immediate reaction was to evade the attack.

He rolled to the right side and took advantage of the moment when Alfred turned around, fleeing.

There was no staircase on the entire second floor, but in the instant Bruce rushed into the corridor, the window at the end of the corridor opened with a loud "bang," and a cold wind rushed in. Bruce had no choice.

When he jumped out of the window, he thought the weightlessness and dizziness would wake him up again, but it didn't happen. He landed hard on the ground, and intense pain shot through his back and shoulders.

The overly realistic pain made Bruce start to doubt whether he had truly returned to reality. But it was clear that the nonsensical monster was reminding him that this was still a dream.

The rain began to pour heavily, and the howls of the monster behind him grew increasingly desperate. Everything seemed to become more chaotic, as if suddenly transitioning from a puzzle game to a horror game, complete with a relentless chase.

Bruce quickened his pace because he was unsure if there would be another chance to wake up if he were to be caught by that monster.

The roads outside Wayne Manor were very familiar to Bruce because he had walked them countless times. However, now he realized that the surroundings of his own home seemed to have turned into an endless maze.

The monster kept chasing, and Bruce kept running, just like the kind of nightmare where one is being pursued. With the passage of time, his mental and physical strength were constantly being depleted.

What were the rules? Bruce wondered. Confronting fear?

Fear...

Suddenly, he stopped at a familiar intersection, one he had passed several times but overlooked.

It was an intersection he was very familiar with. He knew how many pieces of rubble were piled up there and how many wires there were. Because it was there, with a gunshot, that his life changed.

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