"How do you feel?" Schiller asked, standing by the table.
"What do you an?" Schiller took a sip of his drink, placed the glass on the table, and made a crisp sound. He looked up at the other Schiller next to the table and said, "That guy wanted to escape again but got played, right?"
"It's quite funny..." Schiller took a few steps back and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. He said, "But what I'm more curious about is why he keeps climbing up, just to go out and play?"
The seated Schiller didn't move, but stood up instead.
The light focused on the glass, and a bubble erged from the bottom of the transparent glass, floating upward. Just as it reached the surface, it froze and turned into a solid pearl.
As he took a step forward, the frozen Joker maintained his posture. Together with the chair, they moved backward, the table slid to the left, and the cabinet slid to the right. The whole room seed to be rewinding the construction process, with everything being removed, leaving behind a vast empty space.
Then, a light bulb above Schiller lit up, and the black floor extended from under his feet. In a trance, he looked down at the railing of the deep well, where the other Schiller, who had been standing next to him, had already reached the lower floors.
"Do you know where I'm going?" Schiller asked.
"Aren't you planning to take the elevator to the 300th floor first?"
"You guessed it right. You know quite well."
"Thanks, we are the sa person after all."
Schiller quickened his pace, walked down and stood shoulder to shoulder with the other himself. They held onto the handrail and descended the spiral staircase together. The other Schiller spoke while walking, "Seriously, when can we switch places? I also want to spend a few days in the DC universe."
"Do you think this is a vacation? Never mind other things, are you sure your ntal stability can handle all these patients here?"
"Are you treating this like dealing with Peter Parker over in the Marvel universe? It's the first ti I've seen soone complain about their job being too easy."
Schiller shrugged and said, "Don't say that. There are plenty of headaches over there too. And don't forget, the whole Asgardian family affair is far from over."
After walking down for a long ti, Schiller turned right, and there was only one corridor in front of him. The corridor had only one room, and after Schiller walked over and knocked on the door, his own voice ca from inside, "Co in."
The two Schillers entered one after another and saw the other self buried in a pile of docunts. The Schiller inside put the stack of docunts aside when he saw soone coming and said to the two of them, "Why are you both here together? Don't tell there's sothing else to handle."
"No, nothing. We just wanted to borrow the elevator for a bit."
Schiller rubbed his forehead helplessly and said, "What's been happening recently? Why does everyone like taking the elevator? It's suffocating to see you two co in."
"Who made you the 'self'? You're simultaneously the steward and gatekeeper of the Chamber of Thought..."
"And the elevator administrator," Schiller said irritably. Then he waved his hand, and the two of them appeared in a sowhat cramped room. A little boy was holding a lump of gray sli, kneading it back and forth.
One of the Schillers walked up, crouched down, and rubbed the boy's head, asking, "Do you know where the one with green hair
went?"
The boy shook his head silently, but the gray sli in his arms made a "gurgling" sound. Schiller took the soft blob of sli and touched what seed to be its head, asking, "Gray Mist, did you see anything?"
The gray sli made two "chirping" sounds. Schiller held it in his hands and moved it away a little, looking sowhat puzzled as he said, "What's wrong? After spending so much ti with the 'Id', you can't even speak anymore?"
The gray sli paused for a mont and said, "Oh, I can speak... He seed to have gone to the lower level, with another person with green hair."
Schiller put Gray Mist back into the boy's arms, then patted his head, stood up, and said to the other himself, "Looks like he's determined to escape, but unfortunately, he didn't succeed."
"Take the elevator or use the staircase?"
"Definitely the staircase. The busy man is already driving us crazy."
Just as they walked out and returned to the rotating Staircase, a figure in a long coat with an umbrella approached them. He looked up and saw two versions of himself walking down. He said, "How did you guys co over? Did you co together?"
"That's for you to answer. How did you bring that guy in? He almost made it into the room?"
The Schiller with green hair sighed and said, "If he had made it in, I could have gone out and had so fun. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He created a Bruce Joker, using my mories and had a fight with , and then escaped..."
One Schiller looked at the other and asked, "Does he always try to escape like this?"
"Yes, don't you know? Oh right, you were born after , so you wouldn't know."
"When I first ca into this world, the 'superego' created . But on my first night out, I turned into that guy..."
"And then he had to create another one, which is the current . But this guy doesn't want to stay in the house, he keeps trying to escape every few days..."
"There have been several tis when he deliberately caught the attention of that guy nad Bruce, until I regained control, and then things got a bit better."
"I don't really understand you DC people," the other Schiller shook his head.
"Are you done talking? Don't block , I still need to go up," the Schiller with green hair said.
"What are you going to do? The person you wanted to deceive is already gone. You don't really want to chase after him, do you?"
The Schiller with green hair beca a little impatient and said, "Do you think you can handle that madman out there all by yourself? 'Superego' wants to go up and communicate with him..."
The two Schillers standing on the upper steps looked at each other, and one of them asked the other, "You can't deceive people here, right?"
"In theory, that's true, but this guy is crazy, and I have no idea what's wrong with him."
At that mont, a voice ca from the rotating Staircase, "I let him go. Stop chattering, the wine is almost finished."
"The wine is almost finished." Schiller shook the bottle, poured the last drop of wine into his cup, and Jack on the other side clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction, saying, "I bought that wine, and the last bit should be saved for ."
"Oh, spare . It's because of that disgusting thing you created that ssed up the floor where I was staying, with a Bruce Wayne in Joker makeup... It's truly disgusting," Schiller said with disgust.
Jack grumbled, "Didn't you create such a concept in order to evoke my fear? You wanted to deceive into entering your Chamber of Thought and then take your place in prison, hm..."
"And besides..." Jack pouted, with a disdainful expression, saying, "You can't even control his Chamber of Thought."
The Schiller across from him showed a wry smile and said, "Why don't you try it then? You want to give it a shot?"
Jack's expression stiffened for a mont and he said, "No, I just went in for a visit..."
After saying that, he looked at his wine glass and laughed, "I built over 330 floors of high-rise buildings in my Chamber of Thought, and each floor is divided into different star ratings, ratings, mbership levels, and grading permissions. I even set thousands of traps on each step of every floor..."
"He claims he's an ordinary person. Hahaha, that's the funniest joke I've heard recently..."
Schiller sighed and said, "Can you imagine how I climbed up to over 190 floors? If it weren't for the Elevator Administrator giving a back door, I would still be struggling to climb the Staircase..."
"Let's not talk about that. Do you know where the other is?" Jack asked him.
"How would I know? I thought it was Evans, but Batman didn't choose him, so it seems he's not the one. The remaining one can't possibly be inside Batman, right?"
Jack's expression suddenly darkened, and he said, "It's better not be. Otherwise, I'll tie the bat here, open up his mind, and drag that damn guy out..."
"I haven't looked into the one who fell into the chemical pool and the one from the circus, but it's probably between these two situations. If you find him, what are you planning to do? Kill him?"
Jack stared into Schiller's eyes and said, "If it weren't for your troubleso situation, I would have killed you a long ti ago."
"No need for that." Schiller concluded, "If you don't kill , I can't do anything either. I still have over 100 floors to climb and over 200,000 steps to take. By the ti I reach the level of conscious awareness, Batman might already be dead."
"But I might not be the most miserable one..." Schiller said with a bit of schadenfreude, "What do you think would happen if so poor soul was born from Batman?"
The corners of Jack's mouth slowly drooped, but Schiller laughed and said, "Why so serious?"
"There's another you, rging with the one you love the most. Why don't you feel happy? After all, it's still you."
Jack said unhappily, "rge with the bat? Don't make laugh. The ones who dress up as bats are the freaks!"
"Alright, I'm going back to climb the Staircase. Good luck to you. Seriously, my house is really big. Aren't you planning to stay for a while?"
Jack rolled his eyes, finished the last sip of his drink, and said nothing.
Schiller leaned back in his chair, turned to the other Schiller who was standing beside him with his arms crossed, and waved his hand, saying, "I think I can work a little longer. What do you think?"
"Superego told you to go back, or else you'll be kicked back down a level."
"Alright, it's troubleso. See you later."
Schiller pushed the chair forward a bit, looked at the completely empty bottle of wine, and said to Jack, "Thank you for the drink, but I have to say, this low-quality wine you bought is really hard to drink."
Jack covered half of his face with one hand, and the other half revealed a slightly crazy smile, saying, "What did you put in the wine?"
"What?"
"Don't play dumb... I feel like every neuron in my brain is boiling. Don't you feel the sa?"
Schiller paused for a mont, then said, "Well, it's not so poison, on the contrary, it's also wine..."
Schiller took out a small bottle and placed it in the center of the table. Both Jack and
Schiller's eyes focused on the small bottle, and then Schiller reached out, pushed the bottle towards Jack, and said, "...and it's the best-tasting wine in the world."
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