Even Arkham Batman couldn't figure out what was going on for a moment, but it was Joker Jack who reacted first. He said, "This is a lucid dream! Some people know they are dreaming while they're dreaming and can give themselves all kinds of superpowers. That's what he's doing!"
"Then we..."
"We're not the masters of the dream, so we can't do it. But if he's willing, he can give us this ability!"
"Shiller!" Arkham Batman shouted, and then he thought of the agent as a practical person and shouted again, "Give us the ability to fly, we can help you distract the pursuers!"
The next second, several of them flew up. Strangely, even with no flying experience, they flew well, weaving through the gaps in the buildings. Turning around, they found that Shiller and the others were also flying. Great, the horror scene had turned into an ace aerial battle.
Flying along the buildings, ahead was not the city, but a beach. Strangely, it was filled with water park slides, forming a jungle that blotted out the sky and spread out like vines, interspersed with pools. Many tourists, as if not seeing the slides had spread to the parking lot, were in swimsuits with float rings, happily walking in.
"What the hell is this?!" Constantine said, "Don't tell me he drowned in a water park as a child!"
"What's important are the slides!" Jack said, "Have you ever seen a movie where there's a cross blade in the slide, and if you slide down, you'll be shredded into pieces..."
Constantine couldn't help but shiver. Arkham Batman also asked, "Why were the previous dreams real scenes, and this dream so chaotic?"
"Because Shiller is very chaotic," Jack could only say, "The nightmares we had before were all based on real events, but his nightmare seems to be just something he imagined in the psychic world. Sometimes the psychic world is chaotic."
Just then, the agent seemed to have shaken off the pursuers again and appeared behind them. Panting, he said, "Now can you tell me why you appeared in my dream?"
Arkham Batman briefly explained the competition to him, and the agent, looking helpless, said, "You mean, I go with you, then you can win, and this nightmare will end?"
"Theoretically, yes."
"Then where do we go?"
This question really stumped everyone. The dreams of others all had a clear direction toward safety.
For example, Doctor Strange took Little Eric to the airport, representing his escape from the camp's life to start a new life abroad; Arkham Batman taking Little Jack out of the slums meant he wouldn't have to live in such a dangerous environment, though he might not want to, it was indeed safer; Little Bruce being taken to the police station by the police also meant he was escaping a murderous environment; and Constantine being taken to find his father also meant the thrilling night was coming to an end.
But for Shiller, where is safe? This world looks completely imagined by him, so where should he go?
"First, tell us why you're having this nightmare," Jack, who knew dreams better than anyone, said, "Why are you being hunted by so many other entities?"
"I have to lure them away," the agent said, "provoking them and leading them around is the best way."
"Why do you need to lure them away?"
"To facilitate Greed's work."
"What does Greed need to do?"
"Erase a memory from the memory bank."
To those who don't understand Shiller's mental structure at all, this sounded like nonsense, but Jack knew a little bit. He thought for a while and said, "How did you escape their pursuit in the real world?"
"I don't know," the agent said, "maybe I went back to my room."
"Back to the room? What room?"
"My own room. Each of us has a room, mine is on the 15th floor, room 1509, Bishop lives across from me."
"So it's room 1509, is there a door number?"
"Yes, it's hanging on the door, with the room number on it."
Jack said to Arkham Batman, "We need to find a room with the number 1509 on the door plate."
A few people bow their heads together and look down. The densely colored water slides are tangled together and are constantly spreading outward, with no shadow of the room visible.
"I remember we flew in the direction where the building was getting more and more desolate, so there must be some flaw in this scene," Arkham Batman said. "There should be one slide that's different."
They immediately dispersed to search, and Constantine heard a scream coming from not far away: "Ahhhh!!!"
He turned his head and saw it was Doctor Strange, surrounded by a few Shillers, their scattered eyes fixed on him, gradually focusing.
Another figure quickly flew over, grabbed Doctor Strange's cloak, and tossed him aside—it was Erik rushing over. Charles shouted to them, "Don't let them focus on you!"
"Why do I still feel my mind being interfered with?" Doctor Strange asked, looking pale.
"I can't completely block his psychic interference," Charles sounded helpless as he said, "His gaze focusing more resembles some kind of magical ritual process, directly disturbing the guilt hidden in people's hearts. I'm also wondering if you have any way to interrupt this process."
As they spoke, a dark shadow flashed behind Erik and stabbed his shoulder. Erik roared in pain, and at the moment the magnetic field burst, he didn't capture anything; he just flashed a circle of electromagnetic arcs like a furious impotent rage.
"What the hell is this thing?!" Erik yelled, "I can't sense any of their magnetic fields! He's horrifyingly fast, probably faster than Quicksilver. No—faster than The Flash from Batman's side!"
"This is a nightmare-induced phantom," Dream Power Doctor Strange explained, "The strength of creatures in the dream depends on the dream master's imagination. In his impression, these people are so terrifying that they are endowed with such terrifying abilities."
"Then why aren't those in our dream vision endowed with these abilities?"
"Because you're no longer afraid of them," Dream Power Doctor Strange spread his hands and said. "Whether it's the car accident that injured me, the ordinary people who once questioned you, or the murderer of your parents and the soldiers from the concentration camps—all of these are no longer our opponents. We all know that if we encounter such a situation again, we can easily escape. These nightmares are nothing more than past shadows, naturally not worthy of a fight."
"But this dream isn't like that. Apparently, even though the current dream master doesn't have a way to deal with these pursuers. This shadow hasn't passed, and based on current imagination, they will have stronger abilities."
Charles covered his forehead and said, "Should we not have planned this? I originally thought that agent and Greed were different. I didn't expect Shillers to be equally crazy."
"Alright, it's no use thinking about these things now. Our primary concern is to find a way out," Dream Power Doctor Strange said, looking around. "The method to escape nightmares is to find a safe spot, the place where the dream master feels safe. And a safe spot will be incongruous with the dream's scene. We just need to look for a place that's different from normal logic."
Meanwhile, Arkham Batman and his companions had already found it. They had found a large spiral loop on the sea surface, which was a common water park amusement facility, only several times larger. The anomaly lay in that all the tourists entering the spiral loop disappeared as soon as they fell into the hole in the center.
Arkham Batman peeked inside, but it was too dark to see. Constantine clasped his hands and said, "I hope there aren't any blades in here."
As they were about to jump inside, those Shillers attacked again. Perhaps they had stayed in this dream too long, as the Shillers' attacks shifted from individual to group. As soon as they appeared, everyone was simultaneously subjected to psychic interference and hunger attacks, huge blade lights slashing toward them.
They quickly dodged, but to avoid attacks, they moved further from the entrance, frantically running toward the entrance only to be blocked, unable to get through.
At this moment, Charles and his group had also flown over. They saw the scene below, and there wasn't a trace of schadenfreude because if the entrance was blocked by them, they couldn't go down either.
"Let's find a way to force them back," Charles said.
The three were all skilled in area attacks, and Charles could also protect teammates from psychic interference. They quickly fought into the center, but just as they were about to jump into the entrance, a dark shadow flashed behind Charles.
Charles, focusing on helping teammates fend off manipulative psychic interference, didn't notice his positioning, turning his back to the Hunter and becoming the closest person to them. Without defense, a blade stabbed into his back.
"Charles!!!!!!" Erik roared.
Dream Power Doctor Strange raised his hand, and the wound on Charles' back healed instantly, though still hurt terribly, leaving him pale and gasping.
He jumped into the hole first, followed by Erik and Dream Power Doctor Strange. Under their interference, Arkham Batman and his companions were able to approach the hole, and they also jumped down one after another.
After coming out of the slide, Arkham Batman found himself in a unique building. The surrounding walls were somewhat old stone walls covered with moss and various vines, only with several small windows at the top. Row upon row of slides extended from one side of the wall, water continuously rushing down, with limited standing space, but fortunately, there was a very winding staircase to climb.
After climbing up, they arrived at an endless stairway corridor, going up for some time then down, with some stairs suspended in mid-air, others stretching across horizontally, simply defying logic. After finally climbing to the top floor, they discovered countless levels of platforms connected by a giant pillar. The first level was an amusement park, the second an aquarium, the third became a bouncy castle. By the time Arkham Batman realized it, he was entirely underwater, the platforms blurred and swayed with the water's ripples.
This dream was truly bizarre, Arkham Batman thought to himself, not knowing where the room 1509 he needed to find was, hoping it wasn't too far. Continuing to navigate through such a bizarre dreamscape, he felt his spirit was being influenced.
After struggling to swim to the higher level, the platforms became smaller, and Arkham Batman was able to see his companions, as well as his competitors. The good news was that everyone had gathered, the bad news was that a few were already dead.