Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Chapter 5906: Chapter 4927: No Batman Here (14)

"You wouldn’t be cheating, would you?" Batman asked.

"How do you think I would cheat?" Brainiac was somewhat speechless, "I’m throwing cyber dice, I can’t manipulate the numbers by injecting metal or anything like that."

"Can’t you just modify the program? That’s probably easier than injecting lead into dice, isn’t it?"

"What’s the point of that? Helping the Outer God defeat you, what benefit do I get? Helping you expel the Outer God, what benefit do I get?" After a pause, Brainiac said, "I’m just a robot who can’t even see illusions. The games between humans and those mystical existences mean nothing to me. It’s just because you all like to play this that I’ve added these elements. After all, if you’re only fighting robots, it gets a bit too mundane."

"That’s true." Batman nodded and said, "I can see you’re trying to avoid mechanical elements as much as possible. But the idea of an evil robot contaminated by an Outer God does sound creative."

"In fact, the Outer Gods don’t even know how to corrupt artificial intelligence." Brainiac said, "To them, code and programs don’t exist. Their form of existence doesn’t support them understanding logic. Nya is considered relatively smart, but even they can’t comprehend my existence."

"I see." Batman said, "Since that’s the case, aren’t you the best choice to establish communication between the Outer God and humans?"

"I don’t see the necessity of communication between you." Brainiac said, "If you just want to roll dice with them, I can roll with you."

"I can’t explain it to you." Batman waved his hand and said, "I need to go complete a quest."

The map marked the location of the quest. It’s not too far from the Cathedral, only about two miles. But this route is still not safe. Batman saw many shadows wandering in the fog. These clearly don’t count towards triggering combat probabilities, so he can only avoid them himself.

Luckily, the streets and alleys of this Old Town are very narrow, with lots of buildings and cover. If he sees a monster, he can just take a few turns and hide. Their search range is very limited, a slight visual obstruction and it’s fine.

Batman made several turns to reach the entrance of Black Tail Alley. He searched his memory but found nothing. Batman had never been here, perhaps it’s a street Brainiac fabricated.

Standing at the street’s entrance, it was pitch black inside. Layers of low houses stretched endlessly. Built on marshland, the ground was all raised wooden planks. A strong stench wafted over; Batman sniffed and realized it was not just a fishy odor, more like the smell of decaying seafood.

Batman walked into the alley. He looked at the first low house, the door was closed. He didn’t rush to touch it but kicked it with his foot, then shook the terminal in his hand: "I want to roll the dice."

"Determine what?"

"Unlock it." Batman said.

A die appeared in the terminal’s holographic projection. Brainiac didn’t even make a throwing animation, just a die rotating there by itself. In the end, the number stopped at "6", luckily. Probably because Batman could unlock the door originally, it only required a "4", determination succeeded, and the door opened.

Batman went in and saw a piece of paper on the table. He picked it up and looked at it; it seemed to be a diary written by a child, mentioning the laughter at night and pointing out that the laughter seemed to come from the deeper alley.

This was clearly a clue, but Batman was more concerned with a treasure chest placed next to it. This treasure chest’s art style didn’t fit in with the fisherman village at all; it seemed like an extra reward from Brainiac’s task.

"How do you open this thing?" Batman asked.

"Use a key or roll the dice." Brainiac said, "Monsters drop keys, and with a key, you can open it directly. If you roll the dice, you only get one shot. If you fail, the treasure chest is gone."

"Can I leave it until I have a key and come back?"

"Sure, the treasure chest won’t refresh."

Batman thought for a moment and then said in his mind: "Charles, help me mark a location. The first door on the left after entering Black Tail Alley has a treasure chest. If you have a key, you can come open it."

"No problem." Charles said, "But no one dropped a key in the first wave of attacks, maybe you can try later."

Batman nodded, holding the clue, he proceeded deeper into the alley. Along the way, he opened a few more doors but only unlocked two, failed to find more treasure chests.

However, Batman found that Brainiac had loaded a deadly amount of searchable items into the game. Every drawer and cabinet could be opened, containing various things. Every item seen could be picked up, stored in a backpack, and taken back to the base to be dismantled.

Unfortunately, there’s a weight limit. Batman only picked up some items that looked valuable, mainly some mysticism materials that could be used for arrays. There really were quite a few of those in this village.

"Will these items refresh?" Batman asked.

"No, once you’ve taken them, other players can’t get them." Brainiac said, "But the map is huge, and there are thousands of alleys like this. The supplies inside are more than sufficient."

"Is the resource refresh area-specific? Like this area has similar resources."

"There is some regional specificity." Brainiac said, "For example, Old Town won’t refresh high-tech materials, but the Commercial Street and Wayne building will. Similarly, magic materials won’t refresh over there."

Batman showed a knowing expression and then said: "Charles, mark it down for me again. The alleys near Gotham Cathedral will refresh damp fish bones, seabird feathers, flint, bat corpses..."

Batman listed everything he found. Charles nodded and said, "Understood, all recorded and sent to the group. I’ve informed others and let them mark it on the map."

"By the way." Charles added, "You were busy doing a task just now, so I didn’t disturb you. A message came from the professor’s side, saying that the low-temperature physics department at Gotham University could possibly get dense ice, but they haven’t found a method to access the high-grade cold storage yet. If anyone gets the right item, they can try."

"He’s already gone to Gotham University for exploration?"

"Yes, they’re there on a mission." Charles paused for a moment before saying, "They need to restore the university’s power system and are investigating what’s wrong with the independent generator..."

"That doesn’t sound easy."

"Indeed, there are no professionals among them. Fortunately, you can find experts, just need to take photos or sketch it for consultation."

"Which team has an electrician?" Shiller asked curiously. Although the Robins know some things about it, restoring an entire area’s power system is not that simple; it requires very professional knowledge.

"Go offline to ask," Charles said, "The game can be left at any time, just remember the faulty parts, go offline and find experts for answers."

Shiller slapped his forehead; he had forgotten about this. This isn’t a closed-off game, you can go offline whenever you want.

"Please go offline in a safe place," Brainiac said, "After going offline, your character’s duplicate will stay in the original place; if killed, you won’t be able to get back online."

Shiller nodded, it seemed quite reasonable. Otherwise, when facing danger, you could just go offline from the original spot; can the monster still break through to hit you? That would be too simple.

Shiller continued to explore Black Tail Alley, picking and choosing to take a large bunch of props. He quickly reached the depths. Though it wasn’t nighttime, he faintly heard some laughter; but it wasn’t the Joker’s laughter, more like a woman’s.

The laughter was somewhat ethereal, horrifically unsettling in the fog-filled narrow alley. But Shiller wasn’t afraid, he stared at the last room, hesitating a bit. Making the wrong choice here would lead directly to battle, he had a feeling he missed some crucial item.

Thoughtfully, Shiller decided not to go in just yet. He felt there might be things in those few unopened rooms, but his luck with dice rolls was truly poor, often failing rolls below 10 points. No wonder Brainiac specifically instructed not to beat the organizers.

"Charles, can you sense any brainwaves inside?" Shiller asked.

"There’s nothing inside," Charles replied, "It’s not being shielded, it seems like there’s nothing refreshed yet. Possibly, only when you push the door open will things appear, likely to prevent psychic ability users from manipulating prematurely."

"That’s not very fair," Shiller said, "Didn’t it say there are no ability restrictions?"

"This is for your own good," Brainiac explained, "If all such monsters were directly spawned on the map, it would be devastating for psychic ability users. You wouldn’t be able to use psychic abilities smoothly; brainwaves passing through this area would be polluted, no amount of spiritual power would suffice."

Shiller understood, if several Outer Gods spawned on the map, psychic ability users would be essentially crippled. For those strong like Charles, it’s manageable, but slightly weaker psychic ability users would face brain explosions upon activating abilities.

"I can help you contact Lilith," Charles said, "She can use prophecy ability to see what will happen after you enter..."

"That’s great," Shiller nodded, "It won’t deplete her much, right?"

"As long as the prophecy isn’t for things too far in the future, it has little cost. I’m asking her... She’s advising you not to go in, there’s an area boss inside. If you go in, the first two dice rolls will fail, and your shoulder blade will be directly pierced."

"What does that monster look like?" Shiller asked.

"Even the appearance glimpsed through prophecy can be harmful, Lilith didn’t dare look too much, and I didn’t ask."

"This is quite troublesome," Shiller sighed softly.

In an instant, his gaze changed, his gray eyes became scattered. He walked back to those unopened doors.

Brainiac reminded, "There’s only one chance to unlock doors, no retries allowed."

"Roll the dice, determine for strength," Shiller said.

"...You want to break down the door?" Brainiac was a bit puzzled but still rolled for him. The initial strength requirement was 16 points, clearly the demand for violently breaking the door was very high.

Of course, the first roll failed. Shiller crashed into the door, didn’t break it, and instead made his arm and shoulder blade ache. But soon Brainiac announced: "Strength attribute increased, comprehensive determination lowered to 12 points."

Boom!

"Strength attribute increased, comprehensive determination lowered to 8 points."

Boom!

"Strength attribute increased... roll success."

With a bang, the door was knocked open. Shiller walked inside; the house was quite large, filled with hanging fish nets, many with spikes and barbs. The beams were littered with various fish corpses. He spotted an unusual net with sharp barbs gleaming coldly.

"Is this for fighting?" Shiller said, "What I’m searching for surely isn’t this thing."