Chapter 2850: Alien Demons Forbidden Zone (10)

As it turned out, the old saying "Master math and physics, and you'll fear nothing in the world" was truly timeless wisdom.

Shiller captured Jerome's blueprints on camera to show Peter because, of course, he wasn't that careless. If Jerome had tampered with the structure of the staircase, it would have been the perfect opportunity to wipe them all out. At the moment, Peter was the only person Shiller trusted, and he just so happened to have knowledge in this area.

Peter looked carefully, and there wasn't really much to see. The structure of the thing was simple, with hardly any place to tamper with. As long as the connectors weren't a problem, it would be safe for one person to pass through at a time.

Moreover, Peter had added a wind-proofing device to Jerome's original design. The unusual strong winds he had felt when he opened the windows a few times were noted, and even though the wind generally only blew from one direction, Peter had installed guardrails on both sides to prevent someone from being blown away by the wind above.

Seeing the modified blueprints, Jerome knew that Shiller also had expertise in this area. However, he didn't ask further but moved on to the next part of the plan, which was to remove screws from the doors.

The screws Shiller had obtained on the 19th floor were obviously not enough. They still had more than twenty floors to climb, so they'd need to dismantle screws from another three or four floors at least, which Shiller and Cobblepot had to do together.

Shiller primarily targeted the floors he had previously scanned, while Cobblepot was in charge of the 8th floor, which was where the dining room was located.

The good news was that there were many rooms on the 8th floor, and although they weren't all guest rooms, the screws could be removed from other room numbers as well. The bad news was that Shiller was running low on candles, so this time he didn't light any. Bishop, being more of a clerical officer and not much of a fighter, ended up getting hurt.

Jerome bandaged the wound on Shiller's arm. It was a cut on the left forearm, seemingly caused by something sharp. Jerome shook his head and said, "Shouldn't we rest here a while longer? I think we all need to recover."

"You actually want to take action yourself, don't you?" said Bishop. "You really don't care about our lives, or even your own. I saw the marks you left for your brother. You want him to find a way to the roof, right?"

Jerome snorted but didn't retort. Clearly, he had been in contact with young Jerome because they were from a past timeline. Whatever mark Jerome left, young Jerome could see it.

Now, young Jerome also knew about Peter's ability to communicate with them in real time. Once he discovered something, he would definitely inform Jerome.

It wasn't that Shiller underestimated Peter; the Amazing Spiderman from the Prime Universe did have abilities, but his moral standards were a bit too high. At most, he might steal a bit for the greater good. Those more Gotham-style methods couldn't be used by him, but Jerome was capable, so his investigation was bound to make more progress than Peter's.

But Shiller knew the advantage of Spidermen. They shared a scholar-like personality, with great potential to turn into mad scientists. The Spiderman from the Schiller Universe was precisely like that. Their focus sometimes allowed them to see the true nature of things more easily, a pathway entirely different from that of a madman.

Shiller had Peter search for the library within the hotel, as there was one in the Wayne Hotel from his universe, located next to the leisure and entertainment area and not far from the elevator. Although it wasn't particularly dangerous, it could very well conceal some secrets.

In the Cthulhu Mythos, the library is a place where risk and reward coexist, and entering it requires a special ability. An extremely high level of concentration is the key to unlocking forbidden knowledge.

Peter and young Jerome were busy in another hotel. Before long, Jerome sent back good news.

The elevator in his hotel was operational, so he could head to the top floor and then look up from the window in the top-floor corridor.

Of course, he wasn't looking at his own hotel but the one opposite. Usually, the opposite hotel couldn't be looked at directly; one could only catch it with peripheral vision. However, there were exceptions. Previously, Shiller had found that the hotel wouldn't disappear if he didn't look away at night.

But the hotel was more dangerous at night and didn't offer good visibility. Jerome didn't see much; he merely informed Shiller that there was a castle on the rooftop of the hotel.

Everyone found this news absurd, but with so many monsters already in the hotel, a castle on the rooftop didn't seem so outlandish after all.

After almost ensuring all the conditions, the group began constructing between the two buildings. Since nothing in the hotel could be used, there were no safety ropes. They had to assemble the parts indoors and then transport them outside.

In the field of outdoor construction, a few tens of meters is not far. Parts could even be thrown to the opposite side like a javelin. As long as the first path to the other side was successfully built, everything else would be repetitive work.

Building the first path took them about four hours, from dusk till dawn, mainly because someone had to keep an eye on the hotel with their peripheral vision all the time to anchor its existence. Otherwise, if the hotel disappeared, the path would collapse too.

Because the hotel moved a meter closer every other day, even though Jerome had accounted for some redundancy in the design, they still had to spend about 2 to 3 hours each day on adjustments. If they left it unattended for two days, it would collapse.

In summary, it was filled with drawbacks, expensive and troublesome, but all these deficiencies couldn't outweigh the single purpose of the path, which was to free them from relying on the elevators inside the hotel.

It took about a day and a night to get the remaining part done. Jerome was the first to test it by stepping on it and felt that there were no issues. Next was to decide the order in which they would ascend.

The staircase could only bear a limited weight and only one person could pass at a time. Assuming there were no quality issues with the staircase, the only way to reduce their number to just one would be for the first or last person to go up. While someone was on the staircase, they would just need to turn their head away from the hotel, making it disappear, and naturally, the staircase along with anyone on it would fall.

Of course, they could also attempt the climb at midnight, but there really wasn't any need to waste another day, so it was decided that Shiller would go up first and Jerome last.

At least they were the two who, on the surface, did not seem contaminated, and Cobblepot and Jason couldn't be sure they wouldn't do something drastic, so that's what they decided in the end.

Before stepping onto the staircase made of bones, Shiller took a deep breath. He did not have any contemplations like 'great achievements are built on a mountain of bones'; he was just feeling some pain in his arm. The wound on his hand was actually self-inflicted because during the elevator ride, he encountered a Kaleidoscope. In order to prevent being dragged into the mirror, he smeared his blood on the glass to blur it.

Holding onto the handrail, Shiller carefully made his way up the stairs. Several times strong winds blew, but fortunately, there were handrails. The staircase didn't have large walls, so the area exposed to wind wasn't too large, and it remained relatively stable.

Climbing over twenty floors was no easy physical feat. With the added interference of strong wind and the difficulty of the stairs, it took Shiller nearly an hour to make it to the top.

As soon as he reached the rooftop, he was stunned.

Where was this a castle? Wasn't this Wayne Manor???

The building in front of him looked exactly like Wayne Manor, but it wasn't hard to understand why Jerome mistook it for a castle because what surrounded it was not a fence but castle walls, even boasting a pile of cannons.

The Wayne Manor originally had many Gothic spires and windows, but now they were all replaced with tiny loophole windows set into the ornate Gothic facade, creating a discordant appearance.

Shiller had a bad premonition, which peaked when he saw the water-stained footprints of Martha at the entrance of the castle.

Wasn't Martha Wayne inside the room just an illusion??

That could only mean Martha might have visited Wayne Hotel while carrying Little Bruce, but the illusion inside the room couldn't affect the outside. The presence of Martha's footprints here meant Martha had actually been to this place in reality.

But that was an event from 20 years ago. How could the footprints still be there? Did Martha leave her room in the middle of the night and come up to the rooftop pool? What would she be doing at the pool?

Shiller felt they might have stumbled upon some secrets unknown to mankind, but in the Cthulhu Mythos, greater secrets meant greater dangers.

Soon after, Cobblepot made it to the top and was also shocked by the sight of the grand Wayne Manor, or should we say, Wayne Castle.

Then came Gordon, who raised an eyebrow upon seeing the castle. Shiller understood from his expression that Gordon knew a lot.

But Shiller didn't ask further because he knew that sometimes, the more you know, the quicker you die. The knowledge of the old days is a double-edged sword, and so might be the story.

Once Jerome arrived, they split up according to their initial plan.

In such circumstances, splitting up was the most foolish choice, but they had to do it because they needed to leave a group to keep an eye on the hotel. If the hotel disappeared, they would have no way out.

If they left just one person, there would be no resistance, almost a guaranteed sacrifice, so it was best to leave two.

Since Jerome was severely injured and Cobblepot, having devoured the restaurant, was one of the stronger ones among them, it was decided that these two would stay, while Shiller and Gordon would enter the castle to explore.

Shiller wasn't too keen on all four of them entering together as that would make them an easy target, but entering with Gordon, who had been here before, was equally dangerous. If Gordon disrupted Shiller's judgment at a critical moment, it could easily lead to disaster.

However, there were no better options at the time, so Shiller had to take a gamble. He knew Gordon had his own objectives, but he didn't think Gotham's last conscience would fall so easily. If he truly wanted what was best for the city, he would soon realize that sincere cooperation with Shiller was the best way to solve the problem.