Greed has already seen it, Primary Universe Batman is deliberately retaliating. Just when they're busiest, he brings in a loafer to disgust them. But now, he's too busy to deal with it, can't even manage to send the agent away, and can only watch him idling around for a day.
Fortunately, the agent is only drinking coffee and eating donuts, not causing trouble. This sounds like good news, but the actual troublemaker is someone else, like Arrogance.
The consultation rooms of Greed and Arrogance are connected, separated only by a wall. There are superheroes lined up outside. Superheroes walking out of Greed's room either hold prescriptions or medicine, and their faces always look fine. Yet, those coming out from Arrogance's room went in with smiles and came out looking as if they've lost a loved one. Don't ask, asking means they've received a straightforward scolding.
Here's the truth: psychiatrists are not responsible for judging right from wrong. They only find ways to guide you to express your thoughts, analyze the problems in your psychology, and teach you how to fight the emotions that affect your mental health. Greed generally does this: he methodically brings out the patient's psychological weaknesses, analyzes their emotional issues, and judges whether it affects their health. If the impact is significant, solutions are needed; if it's already causing pathological reactions, then medicine is necessary.
Normally, his explanations are straightforward and he can use professional knowledge to make superheroes aware of the importance of mental health, urging them to actively seek treatment, even to regularly take medication.
But Arrogance is different. He's not a doctor at all — the mutual harm with Gothamites doesn't count as experience — he almost has no applied psychology experience, purely theoretical, and doesn't follow the treatment principles of psychiatrists.
So his process is roughly like this: he first glances at you, then directly points out your weakness. If you have an overreaction, he uses sharper language to dissect your heart completely until you have nothing to say.
After observing in front of the doors of both people for a while, the agent discovered: Arrogance is not doing psychological therapy at all; he prefers to call it a unique interrogation method.
Of course, those "interrogated" weren't completely innocent either. Because if you don't argue with Arrogance, he won't say much. Even if you don't talk psychological issues with him, just talk about the books on the shelf or the ornaments on the table, even if he sees something, he won't say much. Those easily hurt are usually the stubborn ones.
Surprisingly, things are smoother on the morbid side. When they're not going crazy, they're quite normal. However, most of them aren't interested in psychological therapy, some even glance at you and let you leave, leaving people somewhat baffled.
As for the other helpers invited, each has their own methods as well. In reality, they didn't last even three days, roughly only a day and a half, psychological data was nearly collected. Then, after research and analysis, they've truly assembled a team.
On Batman's side, those with the healthiest psychological profiles include Big Adventure Batman, Lord Batman, Beihan, and Batmonster Vehicle.
The first three are easier to understand: the universes they live in are relatively brighter, without too much of the messy stuff. Although they've gone through the loss of parents, they accepted this fact, became Batman, and it wasn't due to psychological shadows.
The last one is quite unique: don't be fooled by Batmonster Vehicle looking like a comedic character, he's actually the Earth President. In the world of Batmonster Vehicle, he's already accomplished ruling the world and given everyone a happy life. But because those unruly citizens felt they'd lost their freedom, they united to chase Batmonster Vehicle, forcing him to upload his consciousness onto the Batmobile.
Batmonster Vehicle's life is already very complete, he's achieved what he wanted, and has no regrets to make up for, so even being a vehicle, he doesn't care. Otherwise, with Batman's technical methods, creating a mechanical body for himself would be simple and easy.
After several rounds of selection, it's finally decided that Batmonster Vehicle and Big Adventure Batman would enter. Because neither of them has significant psychological weaknesses. Greed repeatedly probed but couldn't find anything they're truly fearful of. People like them are naturally the nemesis of Power of Nightmare.
As for Superman's side, since there were few left, Big Adventure Superman had already sacrificed in a prior battle, it was impossible to find suitable candidates, so they gave up on sending Superman in.
Then there's Green Lantern. Finally, it's decided only Bruce Universe's Prince Jade Hal would enter: on one hand, he just completed the fusion of power of darkness and green lantern energy, with very high strength; on the other hand, he has no regrets — his father is alive and well, there hasn't been any betrayal by Sinestro or homeland's destruction. On the contrary, shortly after debuting, he gained a high position within the Green Lantern Corps, until today, enjoys great power easily. His biggest nightmare might just be Pamela's assaulting plants and Bruce's biting phone.
Then there's Barry, he's almost the same. His parents are alive and well, and up until today, his biggest difficulty is end-of-term exams. Letting him enter nightmares, the worst might be doing more test papers, even if they're made by Shiller, they're much better than other people's nightmares.
There are quite a few tall figures to choose from on the Marvel side. Both Stark and Strange have rather fulfilling lives. However, Strange has to build a solar system shield, so only Stark can go.
Then there's Helen. This kid never seems to suffer, the biggest setback in her life was choking on a neutron star—back when she was a child, and since growing up, she's never faced such challenges. Moreover, her combat skill level is sufficient.
Another rather unique one is Squirrel Girl. She's a humorous character, of course, never troubled by anything, and humorous characters always manage to turn a serious matter into something comical, making her very suitable for entering nightmares.
And so, the group assembled a team, preparing to first explore the Power of Nightmare. They were fully equipped, carrying with them some weapons and gear from the Marvel side that were not used before.
Actually, everyone felt quite apprehensive about their exploration. After all, the Scarlet Witch and Magneto had both fallen victim before. Even if these people don't have psychological shadows and possess strong willpower, should any mishap occur, they might not make it back.
After the team left, everyone anxiously awaited news. They had prepared for several days, but the actual combat time was only around three hours, and the command center on Earth received news of their withdrawal from the range of the Power of Nightmare.
Upon returning to the base, Big Adventure Batman shook his head and said, "No, it's not what we imagined. He is not entirely crafting nightmares based on real experiences; on the contrary, he deliberately makes the stories darker, even twisting facts, creating experiences that don't exist at all, making us believe them to destroy our spirit."
Others didn't look well either. Stark sighed and said, "Actually, he just exploited our worries. For instance, I had always been worried that the Shiller I knew would be swallowed by his other personality traits, and this worry became a reality in the nightmare, almost scaring me to death."
"Same here," Big Adventure Batman sighed, "When Jason just returned, I was a bit worried he would become self-destructive. Although this didn't happen in reality, in the nightmare, my worries became reality: he not only fell into crime but also killed Dick. I was completely immersed in such a nightmare, unable to break free."
What others described was pretty similar to their experiences. After thinking for a moment, Wanda said, "Indeed, the dream I experienced wasn't real at all. JARVIS and my son couldn't just disappear into thin air, yet he could craft such a nightmare. I initially thought it was the psychological shadow left after hearing other Scarlets tell their stories and my desperate yearning for a happy family that caused such a mental loophole. But now it seems he simply exploited my anxiety."
Everyone fell silent. Many had encountered misfortune, but most didn't discuss any psychological shadows; at best, they were regrets. But anxiety, that is unavoidable for anyone—even if you bring Lucifer here, he would probably have a few days of nightmares too.
But they all knew, being called the Power of Nightmare, this actually made more sense. Most people don't have nightmares because of some extraordinary psychological shadow, but often it's a case of "day thoughts inspire night dreams": worry about something all day, and you'll dream of it going wrong at night. This is a natural psychological and spiritual pattern that isn't changeable by human forces.
Everyone turned their gaze to Greed. After thinking for a moment, Greed said, "Actually, I think we were going in the wrong direction. No one is perfect; everyone has had worries, including me. We can't find someone who's never worried about anything, so why don't we do the opposite instead?"
"Do the opposite?"
"Exactly, since there's no perfect order, how about using complete unorder of madness. Think about the nightmares crafted by the Incubus before: while Batman and Constantine's nightmares were more logical, they were more immersed, completely unaware they were dreaming; meanwhile, the agent's nightmare was so chaotic, completely indistinguishable what the dream was about, yet he could clearly know he was dreaming. This is also one of the unconscious patterns—the more chaotic the dream, the more loopholes, making it easier to be detected as a dream. Think carefully, have any of you had such experiences?"
Everyone started recalling and then talked over each other: "It seems to be true. Once, I dreamt of a three-story tall elephant breaking into my bedroom. At first, I was scared, but then suddenly realized that an elephant can't be that big. Then I thought, am I dreaming?"
"Exactly, it happened to me too. Earlier I dreamt that my aunt drove to pick me up from school, but she was driving a BMW. I was shocked, but I immediately realized I must be dreaming because even if my aunt became rich, she would never waste money on a brand-name car, let alone drive it to pick me up from school in a high-profile manner; she would worry I'd be isolated."
With their accounts, many remembered that sometimes they would have a lucid dream, being aware they were dreaming but intentionally not waking up, either letting the dream continue or doing things in the dream they wouldn't dare do in reality.
Not many can actively realize they are dreaming, but quite a few realize passively. This is mostly because some dreams were just too illogical, contradicting the reality rules recognized in their unconscious, leading them to catch on and realize they were dreaming, thus waking up.