The other three people returned to the carriage. The car's engine roared more violently than ever before, each tremor seemingly pounding on the heart, inexplicably causing suffocation and tension.
Shiller felt the car start and move forward. It was smooth initially, but soon, the intense sensation of weightlessness rendered everyone speechless.
It was unlike the sensation of bungee jumping or riding a roller coaster; it was more akin to leaping off a building in a dream, that feeling of being unanchored, experiencing an endless fall.
"Bang!"
The car suddenly jolted, as if hitting something. But Jack obviously did not intend to stop.
"Bang! Bang bang!"
There were two consecutive jolts. Shiller had to grab the handle next to the car door. He vaguely heard Jack curse, but it quickly fell silent.
Shiller held onto the car door, contemplating the situation outside.
Hai'er's mental intensity was too high, the underlying dream must be terrifyingly chaotic. His myriad negative emotions would transform into monsters, wantonly wreaking havoc here.
Passing through such a place is no easy task. Even though Jack, as Bruce's "Joker," had reached a high intensity, he might still not fully handle it.
Thinking of this, he took two steps toward the car's front and then said, "If we can't make it through, you can drop me off here. I think I can manage."
"BANG!!!"
Another intense collision occurred. This time the impact was much more severe than before, shaking the entire car violently, the metal components of the carriage emitting a teeth-gritting grinding sound.
Immediately, Shiller heard a "glug," then semi-transparent white water seeped into the car through the gaps, quickly reaching their ankles.
It was amniotic fluid.
Shiller had experience doing emergency psychological treatments in the obstetrics department, he knew what liquid was coming in at this moment.
The next second, he confirmed his guess as a huge baby's head approached, pressing a much larger eye than the car door against its gaps, seemingly trying to see if there was anyone inside.
Injustice Superman gasped, but Injustice Batman immediately covered his mouth. Shiller also clung tightly to the car wall, the three of them simultaneously holding their breaths.
The baby seemingly saw nothing and soon floated away with the current. The car jolted slightly, seemingly reaching the shore. The water that had just come in quickly drained away.
No sooner had one wave subsided when another arose. With a "clang," the top of the carriage was dented in one spot, revealing a small gap, just above Shiller's head.
He looked up and saw a pincer, but it was not an obstetric tool. He couldn't quite tell what it was, only that Kryptonian script was faintly inscribed on it.
Another "clang," this hit the side of the wall, instantly bulging it out. The truck made a sharp turn, dodging the next blow, and then it was unknown where it went.
Soon after, Shiller felt the ground beneath the car shaking. A roaring noise came from the front, as if something was emerging from the ground.
He glanced at the already broken gap, only to see a dense shadow looming over. Immediately, the ground behind the car door suddenly burst open, and a sharp, snake-like tail-like thing emerged violently whipping the car door.
Along the seam of the car door, Shiller looked carefully at that thing: entirely silver-white, slender, with two horns extending from the end of its tail, one on each side, not only capable of separating but also rotating.
This looked like some kind of giant creature's tentacle. Shiller knew the shadow seen before should be the main body.
Chased all the way by that tentacle, they barely shook it off, but the entire carriage seemed to be gripped by something again, squeezing them fiercely, forcing the three of them to move toward the center.
Shiller turned his head and saw very distinct fingerprints, left four right one—clearly the hand of a primate.
Immediately after, he smelled an unpleasant smell, described as rubber burnt.
The truck's carriage had almost been destroyed; if anything else came, the three of them wouldn't be able to escape.
But fortunately, only a few minutes later, the car slowly stopped, appearing to have reached a place Jack reckoned safe to stop.
The car door opened, Injustice Batman and Injustice Superman cautiously stayed behind. Shiller stepped down first.
Just as he got down, a strong smell of tar filled the air, immediately followed by the choking dust smell. The sky was filled with black ashes.
Shiller surveyed the area. It seemed to be an underground mine, but this tunnel had been abandoned. A few steps further out revealed a vertical passage.
Though there was a passage, there were no stairs. Shiller immediately realized this might be a Kryptonian mine, because Kryptonians could fly, they didn't need stairs. This straight upward passage served as their thoroughfare.
The rock face was dark brown. Shiller reached out, gently wiped it, leaving a clear mark. The fingertips didn't retain much color; the dust and residue fell away.
A deep rumbling emanated from underground. If one listened carefully, they would feel a slight tremor. The temperature here was also very high, nearly 40 degrees, with extremely slow oxygen circulation; breathing a bit faster induced a suffocating sensation.
Injustice Batman and Injustice Superman also followed. Injustice Superman surveyed the surroundings, but like Injustice Batman, he felt a sense of unfamiliarity.
Although he could vaguely recall some things about Krypton, he never remembered a place like this on his home planet.
"This belongs to the shallow layer of dreams, relatively safe, but still requires caution." Joker looked at Shiller and said, "You should know how to enter a deeper layer of the dream; I don't need to tell you. I'll leave now."
With that, he returned to the truck. Injustice Superman wanted to call out to him, but Injustice Batman tugged at his cape. In an instant, the truck vanished.
"So how do we enter the deep layer of the dream?" Injustice Superman asked Shiller. He seemed very wary, as if not intending to go with Shiller.
"How did I enter your deep layer of the dream?"
Injustice Superman was at a loss; he didn't actually know. He only remembered being agitated, and then everything vanished before his eyes.
"Lose control," Shiller said. "By stimulating mental weaknesses to make the dream's owner lose control, they will fall into deeper chaos, naturally letting you enter the deeper layer of the dream."
"But I advise you not to act rashly. You saw what's in the deepest layer of the dream on the way here, and you might not be a match for those monsters. Getting killed here means real death."
Injustice Superman pressed his lips together and stayed silent.
It wasn't that Shiller wanted to waste words with him, but if they caused any trouble, it might affect his investigative plan, which would be bad.
Injustice Superman thought: When he was in his dream, it did seem like he would wake up on the bed again after losing his temper. So, stimulating the dream's owner to make him chaotic is the way to go deeper into the dream.
But the question is: how different is stimulating Hai'er in Hai'er's dream from courting death?
Then he heard Shiller say, "In the dream, Hai'er may not be Hai'er."
"The shallower the dream, the more logical his identity is, like someone he has encountered before or his ideal self. But the deeper the dream, the more abstract it becomes; he could be a monster, some animal or plant, or even an inorganic tool; anything is possible."
Injustice Batman began to ponder Shiller's words, recalling some of his occasional dreams.
In lighter sleep, he usually dreamed about his past. At that time, he was still himself, only the experiences and identity might be slightly different.
But in deep sleep, the dreams started to become fantastical. He could be a tree, a pile of sand, a building, or simply nonexistent, just a camera-like perspective.
It seemed that Hai'er's dream was the same. In the shallower layers of the dream, his identity in the dream was just a variant of the real world. But if it was a deeper layer, finding him would be much more difficult.
Shiller didn't want to over-explain, nor delay any further. He moved forward along the passage until he reached a wide cylindrical shaft.
A massive metal pipe descended. The pipe emitted intense heat, and peering down the edge, you could vaguely see some flames. Looking up, the shaft and pipe converged at a vanishing point.
Shiller saw a pattern printed on the pipe, below which was a line of Kryptonian script. He didn't recognize the script, but could roughly guess what the pattern was.
"The emblem of the Krypton Supreme Council," Kara's voice echoed in the empty shaft. She hovered in front of the pattern, her gaze somewhat complex.
"I once heard my parents say that long ago, it was the elders of the council who led the Kryptonians to develop the Earth's core energy and built our first spaceship. At that time, everyone was happy, thinking we would soon escape this barren planet and find our Heaven far away."
"The celebration lasted for days and nights. People sang and danced, praising the elders' achievements and dreaming of their bright future."
"But fate played a huge joke on us." Kara smiled slightly but displayed an indescribable sadness.
Clark flew beside her and softly asked, "What?"
"We are incompatible with our star system's star. Such a race should have been eliminated on the path of evolution. But our ancestors refused to accept fate and developed gene screening and editing technology to improve their genes."
"Despite that, early Kryptonians lived with difficulty. They built spaceships to find a suitable sun. However, as you know, we never found a suitable star until Krypton was destroyed."
Clark also fell silent. He knew where the star suitable for Kryptonians was. It seemed, compared to Kryptonians, the human race was fortunate enough.
"After the grand dreams shattered, all that was left was the dregs. The first generation of elders died in depression, the second generation couldn't see the ideal picture, and then came the third, the fourth..."
"Things changed completely. They no longer desired development and expeditions, but desperately plundered the resources of their mother planet, building strong shelters and greenhouses for themselves, leaving most Kryptonians outside to fend for themselves."
"The equipment extracting energy from the Earth's core is dangerous." Kara looked down and stared at the faint firelight, continuing, "Every unstable energy event in the Earth's core sacrifices countless lively lives. And we are powerless. Do you know why?"
Clark looked at Kara. Her profile, illuminated by the faint, extremely weak firelight, was only edged with some light, the rest submerged in shadow, like a long solar eclipse.
He heard Kara's voice echo again in the hollow shaft, each slight vibration reverberating off the rock wall made one's heart tremble:
"Because, our planet has the heart of a star."