After the Bishop ca back, he looked at the umbrella that Cobblepot had used as a cane, sighed, and said softly, "He is indeed generous."
Jero noticed sothing was off and ventured, "Has the Professor left?"
Shiller nodded, put away the extinguished white candle, arranged the items in the box, picked up the box, and walked to the door. He looked left and right, then turned back to Cobblepot and said.
"I must emphasize a few points to you. First, I am not a psychologist, so if you and your old friend reunite and start sobbing uncontrollably, I won't be able to console you."
"Second, using magical tools to revive or recreate soone inevitably cos at a cost. Don't think that the person will obediently stand still and chat with you. The sole purpose of the illusions in the room is to kill you."
"Third, since he gave you that umbrella, I won't ask for it back. I can only remind you that this thing is strong, but also very dangerous. Do not carelessly point it at anyone, unless they are your enemy."
"Finally, when we proceed, both of you follow closely behind . Don't look around or touch anything irresponsibly. Rush to room 1905 in one go, and don't stop no matter what you encounter."
Cobblepot and Jero exchanged glances; having known Shiller's capabilities, they had no issues following his lead as a small team leader. Even if they had objections, they knew they couldn't argue, one psychological anatomy class was enough.
Shiller forcefully pushed the door open and bolted toward the elevator, with Cobblepot and Jero quickly following behind. Although Cobblepot had a limp, his speed was not slow; although that leg was painful, it was much stronger than before.
As soon as they entered the darkness of the corridor, sothing followed them up. Shiller realized that it was sothing he had brought out from the 13th floor, but there was no ti to consider that now.
When they reached the elevator, they were out of luck; the elevator was on the 6th floor and would take so ti to arrive. Shiller turned to Cobblepot and said, "Try to use the dining hall to delay its movents a bit."
As soon as the word "delay" was uttered, Cobblepot knew what to do. The doors of the dining hall burst open, and a blast of cold air surged out.
Though it was very dark across and none of them could see the monster, in those few seconds, the corridor turned completely white as if covered with snow, and footstep sounds beca very faint.
With a ding, the elevator arrived. The three rushed in at the highest speed and pressed the door close button. As the elevator doors were closing, Shiller saw many pairs of eyes appearing outside the door.
Now it was ti to see if there were any monsters inside the elevator. Shiller looked around the reflective walls, saw nothing unusual, and the creature known as Kaleidoscope seed to be absent, which was the only piece of good news lately.
Jero pressed the button for the 19th floor, but the elevator would stop at the 16th floor. Shiller turned to Jero, who thought for a mont and said, "The 16th floor has regular guest rooms. It's not clear inside the rooms, but there seems to be a monster near the windows that can't move. With good luck, there should be no issue."
The elevator doors opened at the 16th floor to complete darkness, and no sound was audible. Shiller felt a breeze coming from the window, similar but not quite the sa as the wind outside the building. The elevator doors soon closed.
Just before the doors closed, a scream was heard, and a figure swiftly crossed the corridor and slapped against the wall opposite. Now Shiller could confirm that the wind was exactly like the one outside the hotel.
The elevator finally reached the 19th floor. The silence on the 19th floor was unimaginable. Jero sensed sothing was wrong, and Shiller took the initiative to speak, "The monster that appears at midnight and the one in room 1913 have both been killed by . Now, as long as we don't enter the room voluntarily, it's safe."
Jero raised an eyebrow and said, "You know that the monsters here can't truly be exterminated, right?"
"Of course, I can't exterminate them, but they can exterminate each other," Shiller glanced back at Cobblepot, obviously hinting at the relationship between the two monsters, just like the relationship between the restaurant and Cobblepot. They can devour each other or even perish together.
After swiping his card, Shiller opened the door with a push and strode in, continuing to speak as he walked, "Turn on the lights!"
In the darkness, there was no response. Jero and Cobblepot both stood at the doorway, afraid to enter. Jero knew how dangerous the room was, while Cobblepot was studying an umbrella, his expression showing he was completely enamored with it.
Standing in the center of the room with his arms crossed, Shiller said again, "I'm going to say this one last ti, turn on the lights, otherwise I'll take down all the plaques from the 13th floor and nail them up in front of you, letting them crash into the room one by one until they knock you out and kill you."
With a snap, the lights ca on.
Shiller waved Jero and Cobblepot over.
Both of them walked in, observing the room that was completely unrecognizable. Jero clicked his tongue and said, "Looks like you made quite a commotion."
With that, a large TV cabinet flew up and then violently smashed back down on the floor, making Cobblepot shake in fright. However, Shiller pretended not to see and stood his ground, saying, "We are here to ask for your help. This is a friend of mine, he wants to et soone from his mories."
"Of course, we aren't asking you to do this for nothing. If I'm not mistaken, you're about to devour another monster in this room. We promise not to move the elevator. If you manage to escape, perhaps you could go to other floors."
The room remained silent with no reply. The creature could understand human speech, but apparently did not have the ability to communicate directly, only able to show illusions.
Suddenly, the scenery in the room changed and the three of them were back in the elevator. This ti, a bright light illuminated within it, reflecting off the walls of the elevator as if they were shattered into countless pieces.
"Are you worried about the monster in the elevator? It wasn't there when we ca up, but the mont you step in, it might also appear. I'm curious, can't you fight it?"
The illusion disappeared, and a mirror appeared in front of Shiller. Suddenly, many hands reached out from the mirror, grabbing at Shiller. Cobblepot stepped forward wanting to do sothing, but Shiller stopped him.
Shiller was pulled towards the mirror by the hands. Just as he was pressed against the mirror, both the mirror and the hands vanished. He understood that the room was telling him if he encountered that monster called 'Kaleidoscope', he could very likely be pulled into the mirror, and being a monster himself, there were none who would answer his calls for help.
This indeed was troubleso. Shiller rembered what Jero had ntioned earlier — he had avoided all reflective objects. But since the illusion monster could read mories, it indicated that Jero's solution in his mind wasn't the real answer.
It looked like they had to play the ga of driving the tiger to swallow the wolf once more. Shiller wondered if the monster from the 13th floor could co into conflict with the Kaleidoscope. Before the elevator doors closed, he saw a bunch of eyes, none of which had opened yet.
The room indeed could read mories, and as Shiller thought of this thod, a figure gradually began to appear in the room, and Cobblepot's expression beca excited, it seed that Colin had appeared.
Shiller and Jero did not intend to dampen the spirits there, they simply walked straight into the bedroom. Shiller sat on the bed, only to fall straight to the floor—the bed was an illusion, the real bed had been moved a bit toward the window.
"Are you being childish?" Shiller asked the room, "I've managed to get plenty of toilet water elsewhere, don't force to flush you."
Jero, however, sprawled on the bed in a starfish pose, looking at the ceiling and said, "I always feel that the monster in this room is different from the others, it has emotions that other monsters don't have, you're a psychologist, don't you understand this?"
"I'm not a psychologist, but if you miss it that much, I can bring it back."
"There's no need for that."
"What did you see in this room?" Shiller asked.
Jero's face visibly changed for the worse, he shook his head and said, "Nothing much."
Suddenly a figure appeared by the window, Shiller turned around and saw it was Jero, his pupils dilated, not knowing what he saw, his face filled with sadness and pain.
A piece of glass flew up, heading straight for his chest, Jero seed completely caught off guard, and only at the last mont did he barely dodge to the side, resulting in a huge gash across his abdon from the glass.
"So that's how he got hurt." Shiller said disdainfully, examining him, "You knew it was an illusion."
"Everyone has monts like this, but don't tell you don't," Jero said coldly as he sat up, staring down Shiller, "Monster."
Shiller was almost amused by his accusation—soone who looked like Joker calling him a monster. But Jero started shouting at the room, "Let see what this guy has seen in the room, I can laugh at him with you!"
The room went silent for a while, and Shiller rolled his eyes slightly, saying, "Guess why it's so afraid of ?"
Jero looked surprised, raised an eyebrow and shook his head, saying, "No, impossible, everyone has psychological weaknesses, even Bruce Wayne does, no one can face all their mories without being affected."
Shiller also sat on the edge of the bed and said, "But a person can deceive themselves."
"But it can distinguish between real and false mories."
"mories are real, it's just the order that's different," Shiller said as if speaking to the room, "When I was a child, I was locked in a laboratory, I just grafted the feelings from that ti onto mories of later, when I left there, I did indeed feel like a newborn baby."
"But a pregnancy full of pain and blood is not beautiful for the baby or the mother at all, it's the outside world, full of expectation, that is happier welcoming the arrival of a newborn."
"Those feelings of not being connected to the world are also true, because at that ti I had no connection with the world, existing in an isolated environnt, the only thing that gave so realism was the death of others in the laboratory."
"Because everything external seed perpetually existing to , only death was uniquely final, and at that ti my ntal state was also unstable, and the more unstable I beca, the more my unique talents erged."
"Every person whose death I witnessed, I could establish a special connection with; through the walls, I saw those chaotic colored lines representing all the emotions they experienced in their lives, they had no secrets from , allowing to accurately locate every manipulator behind the scenes later."
"If you don't believe it, try and find it, my earlier mories are all warm monts, and if you have any logic, you would find that impossible."
The bed in the room floated up.
But this ti, it was not slamd down, Shiller looked out the window and seed to see a familiar figure again, the room seed to want to repeat its trick, but Shiller just shook his head, saying, "The person you created doesn't quite resemble them."
The room seed unwilling to believe that, but Shiller caught another point and said, "It seems there's a part of the mory you can't mimic... who invented the Ark Reactor?"
The spectral figure by the window disappeared.
Indeed, Shiller said, "Do you know Mickey's Wonder House?"
The bed fell down with a snap.
Shiller laughed.
"I happen to know it, shall I sing it for you?"
The curtain flying up by the window covered Shiller's mouth, yet he pulled out a white candle from his briefcase and in his mind recalled those roles in the High Tower that were not to be ntioned.
The room reading Shiller's mories whipped up a gust of wind and blew the candle out, but Shiller didn't intend to give up, stood up, and went to pick up the candle.
Suddenly, another figure appeared in the room, another illusion created by the room, but this ti, the figure made Shiller feel especially familiar.
The woman turned her head, Shiller saw a haggard face—it was Martha Wayne.
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