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Chapter 277: A Sharp Turn in the Plot (2)

Gotham, on a morning that was still neither sunny nor warm, Bruce, deeply asleep, was awakened by Alfred.

He squinted his eyes in pain, feeling a throbbing headache. Alfred stood by the door and said to him, "Master, I'm sorry to disturb you so early, but there's a call for you, and it seems urgent..."

"...Whose call is it?"

"It's Professor Schiller calling."

"Tell him I'll call back immediately." Bruce's voice was hoarse to the extreme. Clearly, the overly complex and thrilling dream had drained all his energy.

He sat on the edge of the bed, trying to recall the details of the dream. Along with the headache, he felt a sense of relief.

Bruce had never experienced this feeling before. He thought it was just a fleeting illusion, but as he sat by the bed for a while, the headache persisted, as did the peculiar sensation.

If he had to compare it to something, it was like a child being born carrying a sandbag. He didn't think there was anything wrong with carrying the sandbag, as he had grown accustomed to its weight. But one day, the sandbag suddenly disappeared, and the subsequent lightness made him feel incredibly uneasy.

Bruce's current feeling was one of heaviness in his head and lightness in his body, accompanied by a long-forgotten sense of relaxation. But the headache remained.

The terrifying memories from the dream made him extremely uncomfortable. However, in the end, he sluggishly bent down and splashed cold water on his face, but there was no appearance of a terrifying clown behind him.

The cold water helped Bruce regain some clarity. He walked out of the bathroom and downstairs, where Alfred handed him a cup of hot milk. Bruce took the milk and said, "Thank you."

As he drank the milk, he walked over to the phone and dialed Schiller's number. Once the call connected, Schiller's voice came through the receiver, and Bruce asked, "What's going on, Professor? Is something wrong?"

"To celebrate your resounding victory in last night's dream, I have prepared a gift for you. Come to my office and collect it after your classes today."

"A gift?" Bruce's somewhat sluggish brain suddenly started racing. He had a strong sense of foreboding, as if he had heard the madman with clown makeup promising him a big surprise.

"Do you think I'm the kind of crazy person who wants to prepare surprises for you? Of course not, I'm just an ordinary person, and I don't have the time to prepare any explosive schemes. This is a genuine gift. Come and see it for yourself..."

Bruce closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with his hand. He was about to reject Schiller's kind gesture when the phone call abruptly ended.

Alfred noticed Bruce's tense expression and asked with concern, "Master, what's wrong? Does your professor have something important?"

"Well..." Bruce found it difficult to explain, but he didn't want to lie to Alfred, so he said, "Because my grades have improved, my professor prepared a gift for me, but..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he noticed Alfred's eyebrows raise and form a curved shape, and his eyes narrowed, clearly indicating his happiness. Alfred cheerfully said, "Really? That's wonderful! When the master was around, he used to worry a lot about your future grades. He often said that he was mischievous and had poor grades when he was young, and he worried that his son would follow suit..."

"If I could receive praise from the professor, that would be great. Did Professor Schiller also prepare a gift for you?"

Alfred turned around, placed the tray down, and said, "It would be impolite not to prepare a gift in return. Let me see if there's something suitable for a professor... Let me think... I remember there's a collector's edition of 'Ham Lett.' That should be good..."

Saying that, Alfred briskly walked up the staircase. Bruce hadn't seen Alfred this happy in a long time, and his suspicions were held back. Bruce could only accept the situation and leave Wayne Manor, driving to Gotham University.

There was nothing noteworthy about the morning classes, but this surprisingly leisurely campus time made Bruce feel somewhat relaxed. Usually, he never experienced such emotions, and killing time always made him feel guilty. However, today, he actually absorbed most of the theoretical definitions Schiller lectured on.

When class was over, Bruce initially planned to follow Schiller directly to his office, but Evans approached him to discuss club matters.

Due to the freezing of Gotham, Gotham University had been closed for a while, and the club activities had made little progress. Now that Bruce, the biggest benefactor of the club, had returned to school, his psychology club peers flocked to him, and Bruce could only attend to them one by one.

After dealing with those matters, Bruce finally had the opportunity to make his way to Schiller's office. Upon arriving, he noticed that Schiller was alone in the office, and there was no need to knock on the door. Schiller greeted him with a smile, "Please come in."

This warmth caused Bruce to break out in a cold sweat. He had a feeling that his bad premonition was about to come true.

When Bruce approached Schiller's desk, Schiller clapped his hands and said, "Your performance was absolutely brilliant, it amazed me..."

"Professor, what gift are you talking about?"

Bruce's stiffness was already evident on his face. He glanced around the entire room, like a bomb disposal expert about to face a bomb. Schiller reassured him, saying, "Don't be nervous, there's no bomb."

"Then..."

Bruce was about to speak when Schiller stood up from his chair, bent down, and from the side of the desk blocked by the cabinet, he brought out... a little girl.

Bruce widened his eyes, and Schiller held the little girl's armpits with both hands, much like holding a pet dog, and showed her to Bruce, saying, "This is the gift. How about it? Do you like her?"

Bruce opened his eyes wide. It had been a long time since he had made such an expressive face, so his facial muscles appeared very rigid.

It was no wonder he was so shocked, because the little girl Schiller was holding resembled him at least eighty percent.

She was a girl around three or four years old, with black hair and blue eyes. It couldn't be said that she looked completely different from Bruce, but rather that they were identical.

"You should still remember the battle from yesterday, right?"

Bruce nodded stiffly, his gaze unable to move away from the little girl's face.

"The monster that hatched from the Egg of Mad Laughter was erased by you, utilizing your own willpower combined with the willpower of the Gray Lantern Ring. But have you forgotten about another presence?"

"Who..."

"Parallax, the one that entered your body and assisted in defeating that monster at the very last moment."

"When you erased the monster inside the eggshell, it wanted to take you down with it. It shook your entire conscious space. Parallax suffers harm within your conscious space. In order to avoid the damage caused by the collapsing dream, it got inside the eggshell that hatched the monster..."

"Then, it floated into my mental realm through the turbulent currents of the dream. At that time, the dream space had already completely collapsed, so I brought everyone back to reality. However... the process of returning turned out to be a bit different from what I expected."

"What do you mean?" Bruce suddenly had a glimmer of understanding.

"When I created the Gray Lantern Ring, it was indeed meant to enable you to harness your willpower to defeat that monster. But what surprised me was that when it returned to my possession, it exhibited some different abilities..."

"Such as?"

"For instance, it can materialize my will into reality."

Before Bruce could inquire further, Schiller explained, "In order to bring back others who were engaged in dream space combat to reality, I uttered the phrase 'return to reality.' However, at that moment, I was wearing the Gray Lantern Ring at maximum power. As a result, certain things that shouldn't exist in reality were also materialized..."

Schiller and Bruce's gaze fell upon the little girl, and Schiller said, "...that would be the Yellow Lantern's construct, Parallax."

"Theoretically speaking, constructs of the Lantern Beasts have no tangible form. They must possess a person to be able to act."

"However, I don't know if it was due to the lantern ring's power surpassing expectations or the creature's strong desire for physicality, but after I spoke that sentence with the lantern ring, not only did the consciousness of several others who returned to the real world manifest, but it..."

Bruce reached out, covering his eyes, and took a deep breath before saying, "But why does she look so much like me?"

"I surmise that it may be because, in order to evade the collapse of the dream, she found refuge within the eggshell that birthed the monster..."

"You see, you and that embryo are two sides of the same coin, meaning you are each other. That eggshell became the foundation for Parallax's physical form in the real world, hence..."

Bruce extended his hand and said, "Alright, let's assume we step back, but why is she a little girl?"

"You may find it hard to believe, but this construct of the Lantern Beast seems to identify itself as female..."

The muscles on Bruce's face began to twitch, but Schiller shrugged and said, "You don't have to delve too deeply into the mechanics of it because the situation is already irreparable. Do you have a way to return her? I certainly don't."

Schiller placed the little girl on his office desk, having her stand with her feet on the surface. He then held her hand and guided her a couple of steps forward, bringing her closer to Bruce. Schiller said, "I can see that you're resistant to this idea, but the problem at hand is that if you allow her to roam freely in the streets, within ten minutes, the news of you abandoning your own illegitimate daughter will hit the headlines..."

Bruce stared at the little girl's face, and he had to admit that Schiller was right. Apart from the difference in gender, the little girl bore an uncanny resemblance to him. If someone were to claim she was his illegitimate daughter, Bruce wouldn't have any grounds for defense because their resemblance was truly striking.

"From an ethical standpoint, she is indeed your daughter because she hatched from your dream. It could be said that you gave birth to her. The blood relationship between the two of you is even closer than that of a father and daughter. Not only do you share the same physical body, but you also have similar souls..."

"Isn't her soul that of Parallax?"

"It's difficult to explain..." Schiller pushed his glasses and said, "Parallax, the Yellow Lantern entity, is an ancient creature representing fear. Previously, it was true that Parallax inhabited it. However, when it yearned for an embodiment and fulfilled that dream, its life form underwent some changes."

"At least for now, its soul and body are in complete harmony. It's not that Parallax's soul entered a human body, but rather the two entities have formed a new life."

"Once the barrier between dreams and reality is shattered, anything can happen. Some illogical aspects of dreams, when manifested in reality, must adhere to certain rules of reality. You could understand it as a form of 'transcoding.' During this transcoding process, the Parallax entity truly transformed into a human... at least in appearance."

"In appearance..." Bruce's words were cut short as he saw the little girl in front of him grin, revealing a smile. However, this smile was truly terrifying because within her open mouth were two rows of sharp teeth.

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