Chapter 267: Layers of Fear (Part 1)

It was already late at night, and Bruce, lying in bed, was sleeping more and more deeply, but even in his sleep, his brows were still furrowed tightly.

Suddenly, the door of his bedroom opened a little, and the light poured out. The sound of the door hinge was a little annoying. Bruce frowned even more, his arm moved, and then he turned over.

A layer of shadow-like darkness covered his face. Bruce seemed to be aware of it. The moment he opened his eyes, a flash of lightning flashed outside the window, and a scary clown holding a dagger stood in front of his bed.

The moment the dagger fell, Bruce sat up from the bed. He held his breath tightly, as if his throat was strangled. After a long time, he exhaled with trembling shoulders. He looked into the empty room and confirmed that it was just a nightmare.

The cold sweat on his forehead and back had not yet subsided. Bruce pursed his lips, wiped his face, and sat up from the bed.

He saw that the window of his room was slightly open. The wind from outside the window blew in, causing the lampshade of the table lamp to shake a little. The shadows in the room flickered. Bruce thought that this might be the reason for his nightmare, so he walked over and closed the window.

After the wind in the room was gone, all the light and shadows became quiet. Bruce walked to the bathroom slowly, trying to find a towel to wipe the sweat off his face.

After entering the bathroom, he propped his hands on the sink and looked at himself in the mirror quietly. However, he did not have any hallucinations this time. He just found that his face was a little pale, and the wound on his shoulder broke open and began to bleed.

He gently touched his shoulder with his other hand. The pain was not too severe but very long. It might be that he had used too much force when he sat up just now, causing the tear.

Bruce turned on the faucet helplessly, bent down, and wanted to wash his face.

Just as he lowered his head, closed his eyes, and held up the water, he did not notice that the door of the bathroom slowly opened.

When he stood up again, raised his head, and looked at the mirror, a terrifying black shadow stood behind him. The one who appeared in the mirror at the same time as Bruce was a crazy clown laughing loudly. He raised his dagger and swung it down fiercely.

"Ugh!!"

Bruce groaned in pain and sat up from the bed. He took a deep breath and looked at the surrounding scene in confusion. He was still lying on the bed. The room was still empty and there was nothing.

The window was closed tightly, and there was no wind blowing in. The lampshade was not shaking, and the light and shadow did not change. More importantly, there was no crazy clown.

He sat on the bed a little stiffly, and his throat trembled with his breathing. When he wanted to get off the bed again, he hesitated by the bed, stood up, and reached out to touch the corners of the desk next to him.

The sharp feeling there was transmitted to his brain along his fingertips, giving him a sense of security. Bruce did not go to the bathroom this time, but walked to the door of his room and turned the doorknob. The moment he opened the door, a terrible scene happened.

Outside the door was not the corridor of Wayne Manor, but a black hole with howling wind. Bruce was sucked in almost instantly, and then, after the nauseating feeling of weightlessness and falling, he sat up from the bed again.

Bruce closed his eyes fiercely. He was completely unsure whether this was a dream or not.

Bruce began to think, if this was also a dream, what should he do to wake up?

He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and then began to look around the room. This bedroom was no different from what he remembered. Everything was where it should be. The lights he did not turn off before going to bed covered all the items with a thin halo.

What exactly caused these serial nightmares for him?

Bruce stood up again and walked to the center of the room. He paused for only a moment, then walked to the bathroom again, turned on the faucet, lowered his head, held water, washed his face, and stood up. Sure enough, a crazy laughing clown raised a dagger at him, and then once again, he woke up from his dream.

Now Bruce understood that he was trapped in an endless dream and had to find a way to wake up.

Sitting up from the bed, Bruce began to search, but everything in the room was extremely real, not like what it should be in the dream. The wood grain on the table was clearly visible, and the scratches on the edge of the chair were exactly the same as Bruce remembered.

If he lay down to sleep, a crazy clown would come to the bed with a dagger. If he went into the bathroom to wash his face, another crazy clown would stand behind him with a dagger. If he wanted to open the bedroom door and walk out, he would be sucked into endless darkness.

After all of the above situations happened, Bruce would wake up from the bed again and repeat the same nightmare.

Bruce tried many times and triggered more conditions. For example, if he stood still in the middle of the room, a clown hanging upside down would appear on the chandelier and stab him with a dagger. If he got under the table, a flat clown printed on the wall would appear on the wall behind him and stab him with a dagger. If he opened the closet, a crazy clown would rush out and stab him with a dagger.

It was as if no matter where he was or what he was doing, there were scary clowns everywhere.

Once stabbed by this clown holding a dagger, Bruce would wake up from his dream and find himself in bed again, and then wake up again.

This terrible nightmare kept repeating, as if it would never end.

In this way, in Bruce's bedroom in Wayne Manor, one Bruce after another began to try various actions, some moved their mattresses, some lifted the legs of the desk, and some moved the wardrobe. Whenever they triggered a certain condition, Bruce's figure would disappear, but then more Bruce would appear.

After discovering that this was a cyclic dream, Bruce knew that there was no other way except exhaustive enumeration, because everything in the dream was unreasonable.

After all, if it was in reality, with the security system of Wayne Manor, the clown holding a dagger would never be able to enter his bedroom.

If it is normal reasoning, exhaustive enumeration and carpet search are undoubtedly the last resort methods that will be taken when the thinking is in trouble or there are no other new options, but in this case, these two methods are the most efficient.

Finally, everything changed when Bruce touched the lamp switch in the room.

When he flipped the lamp switch with his hand, turned it off, and plunged the room into darkness, the scary clown did not appear again.

Whether he went into the bathroom to wash his face or lay back on the bed to sleep, the crazy smiling face did not appear in the dark bedroom.

But this does not mean that this endless nightmare is over.

Bruce still couldn't be sure whether he was in a dream. He walked to the window in the dark and opened it. The cold wind and rain blew on his face. This touch was very real, but Bruce did not relax at all. He finally understood what the clown said to him, "The game has begun."

After trying all the actions that might trigger the clown to appear, but the clown did not appear, Bruce knew that "turning off the lights" might be the key to this puzzle.

Then, he walked to the bedroom door and opened it.

Outside the door was the corridor of Wayne Manor.

But Bruce did not relax his vigilance at all. After experiencing countless nightmares, he no longer trusted everything in the so-called "reality".

At this time, Wayne Manor was also dark. Bruce walked along the dark corridor until he reached the edge of the stairs. The moment he stepped down, the next step disappeared, and then he fell down, and then woke up from his dream again.

Get up, turn off the lights, open the door, and walk out. This time, Bruce changed his direction and wanted to go down the stairs on the other side. Then he found that no matter which staircase he took, the moment he lifted his foot and went down, the next step would disappear, and then he would enter the next dream again.

What is the key to this puzzle? Bruce stood in the dark corridor and thought. He did not have any anxiety or impatience, or rather, he gained a brief tranquility from this thinking.

If he could not take the stairs, how would he leave this floor?

Bruce tried to jump directly down from the edge of the patio. In reality, the height of two floors was nothing to him, but in dreams, once he felt falling, he would wake up again, so he found that this method did not work.

If he could not leave this floor, then perhaps he should explore other rooms, but the situation in other rooms was the same as in the bedroom. Many of Bruce's actions would trigger the deadly clown. The figure with a crazy smile would appear behind him, beside him, on his head, and even in front of him at any time, and then swing a dagger at him to wake him up again.

Room after room, puzzle after puzzle, Bruce's figure once again filled the entire third floor of Wayne Manor, and everywhere he moved, stopped, and thought.

After waking up countless times, Bruce did not follow the same process again, but stayed in his bedroom.

Like many times before, he turned off the bedroom light, then half-knelt down, leaned down, put his head into the floor and looked under the bed.

The only place he had not checked on the entire third floor of Wayne Manor was under his bed.

But Bruce knew why he ignored this. His hand on the bed was shaking slightly. He could not forget the horror story he had heard when he was very young.

When you sleep in bed, there will be a shadow like you sleeping under the bed. That is your shadow.

If the child does not sleep well, the shadow will crawl out from under the bed, throw you under the bed, and lie on the bed to replace you.

He will completely replace you, enjoy the care of your parents, play with your friends, wear your clothes, play with your toys, and you can only hide under the bed and cry sadly like a shadow.

The memory of childhood shadow is the most profound, but even without this story, people need great courage to look under the darker bed in the dark.

And there, Bruce found something that shouldn't be in his room, it was a spinning... globe?

There was also a small note next to the globe, with a line of words written in a very sloppy and weird font -

"This is Miss Globe, her dance partner is Jack, and Jack the Clown wants to remind Batman that good children should turn off the lights before going to bed!"

Just as he finished reading this note, a pale hand holding a dagger stretched out from under the bed and stabbed Bruce.