下載應用程式
74.86% Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics / Chapter 3211: Chapter 2356: Gotham Music Festival (58)_1

章節 3211: Chapter 2356: Gotham Music Festival (58)_1

Before the cruise ship Dakotazo resumed its journey, several figures leaped aboard. Leading them, Constantine shook off the water from his hair, while Silverback Detective Bobo hopped onto the shoulders of the Master of the Dark Night. Zatanna was checking the supplies in her pocket, making sure nothing was left behind with Black Orchid at her side.

The appearance of this group surprised Oliver greatly. Although his dealings with the Magic realm were sparse, he had heard about the major event of the vampire invasion of London and had sought advice from the Master of the Dark Night while interacting with the local indigenous wizards in Mexico.

"Jim, what are you doing here?" Oliver walked over and shook hands with Jim. Jim smiled, patted his arm, and said, "So you're back already. I thought I'd have to wait a bit longer. How have you been recently?"

"Not bad. Are you guys here to help Shiller out?" Oliver immediately realized something.

"Of course, but to be precise, it's him helping us out." A trace of worry showed on the face of the Master of the Dark Night.

Oliver put an arm around his shoulder, leading him towards the gathering crowd on the deck, and said, "I've heard that the Magic realm hasn't been doing well. Has there been any improvement recently?"

"There might be some improvement after this." The Master of the Dark Night shook his head and began to recount the recent state of the Magic realm.

Previously, Shiller had orchestrated a plan to harvest a wave of souls from the mystic world's infamous Black Box Constantine, which resulted in many mid-and-upper-tier demons losing their shirts, as they had placed considerable bets on Constantine.

The influence of the vampire invasion of London had persisted, with mages dying or getting injured. The Magic realm's talent pool had withered, and with Gotham Magic Academy having only just been founded and most students not having studied for more than two years, they were hardly of any significant use.

This had led to a situation in Shiller's cosmos where the Magic realm was facing a lack of continuity. Demons, having lost a great deal of their capital, were much more cautious about lending power. The number of magicians had plummeted, and so had those borrowing power. Without power, people were reluctant to spend, and as a result, the economy of the mystic world was in recession, compounding a deflationary spiral.

But the DC Universe actually needed magic, as aside from angels and demons, there were many other Magical creatures whose attitudes towards the human race were mixed. Magicians were the main force in countering such creatures' invasions. The Earth Magical Defense Network that Strange proposed needed to be built. If everyone continued to pinch pennies like this, nothing would get done.

If this went on, the development of the Magic realm in this universe could fall far behind others. Should any major event arise on the Magic Side, there could be a collapse at a single touch, which was something no one wanted to see.

To break this cycle, economic principles had to be applied. Normally, when the economy is down, governments should offer various incentives to alleviate pressure on businesses and stabilize production. For consumers, increased investment in consumer welfare is needed to stimulate spending, and naturally, Shiller did just that.

Since the backbone of mid-and-upper-tier demons that lent power were out of money, they had to find a way to promote their development. They needed funds to lend in the first place.

It may sound absurd, but having developed for so many years, the vast majority of demons still made money through arbitrage, and even the generals under the Demon Kings relied on this method, with no thought of innovation for tens of thousands of years.

The general process involved giving a human a bit of power and then harvesting their soul after death. For demons, the soul of magicians was slightly more valuable than the power itself, and that difference was their profit.

For the Demon Kings, it was simply a matter of tempting more precious souls with more power to make a greater profit.

Of course, if possible, they would love to perpetrate carnage, stealing souls for themselves on the sly, but unfortunately, Heaven was watching over them, and the Fate Family wouldn't allow them to act recklessly, so it wasn't unreasonable that Hell had been at a primitive economic level for a long time.

Realizing the need to rejuvenate the Magic realm, Shiller went to confer with the other three members of the Unscrupulous Quartet, and they came up with a plan. They found Azazel and Beelzebub, who now had the loudest say in Hell. The goat and the fly studied it and found it actually feasible.

The previous transactions between demons and magicians were a bit like slash-and-burn agriculture. Basically, demons lured humans into touching magic through loopholes, lent them power, and once humans squandered that power, they became fodder for the demons upon death.

This transaction seemed fair, but in reality, humans were creatures with little self-control, falling for temptations every time, much like one should never test human nature.

So humans didn't have much say in this matter, but to gain great power, they usually made no-limit compromises with demons.

In the past, whether or not you sacrificed anything else, you yourself would certainly not escape; demons did not accept purely material objects for contractual conditions because most demons were not so powerful. Other than souls with a mark, they had no guarantee of being able to reclaim other objects.

But after a wave of their 'cash crops' were harvested, demons had to lower their proud heads and find ways to raise some capital for turnover, giving humans a great deal of bargaining room, with the key point being that the price to be paid could be changed to something other than themselves.

Ordinary objects wouldn't tempt demons, who actually preferred human souls, and in their eyes, not all souls were equal. The highest quality was the soul of sinners.

Sin adds a lot of weight to a soul. The heavier the soul, the richer its flavor and the greater the power it could provide. This was why many demons, knowing the odds were slim, still placed their bets on Constantine.

But to add an extra layer of sin to a soul wasn't so simple. In a world where God exists, if you're a devout Believer diligently following the doctrine, you can actually wash away many sins.

Even if you aren't a Believer, don't believe in anything, haven't done many bad things, or the bad things you've done aren't severe enough to reach the sin threshold, they won't be marked. Even after committing evil deeds, genuine repentance means the additional sin won't be added.

Some evildoers, though they committed misdeeds towards the outside world, treated their families and friends well, thereby reducing their sins. Even those who committed evil deeds in secret but performed superficial acts of kindness to cover them up, had their sins lessened.

Therefore, it was very difficult to accumulate a soul weight of over 21 grams; there weren't many such wicked people among the human race, and often, meticulous investigation was required to find even one or two.

Moreover, the souls of these sinners would suffer losses if they were to arrive in Hell via ordinary means, and only through a ritual execution and sacrifice could the loss be minimized.

"We just drew an array on the seabed," Constantine began to explain to Oliver, "After all, the souls of the sinners on this ship are quite heavy. The execution ritual is a bit like express packaging, which has to be tight and secure to avoid damage. However, the magic array that collects the souls resembles the transport plane and truck en route; if it's substandard and too bumpy, it too can cause losses."

"So, you've transported all their souls to Hell?" Oliver asked.

"Yes, as the first batch of trade materials. A total of 99 sinners' souls, with an average weight of 25 grams. That's a major gift that even the Demon Lord would take notice of..."

"Wait, 99? But there are more than 99 people on this ship."

"Yes, there are only 99 truly perfect sinners' souls. Some that slightly fall below this standard are considered bonus items, and there are others completely deficient, not meeting the 21-gram mark--they will be sent back shortly."

Oliver slapped his forehead.

As strange as it sounded, if you did a good deed, even if it was for your own benefit, it would cleanse your own soul, resulting in a soul that wasn't heavy enough, and thus scorned by demons who favored sin, essentially becoming a flawed product.

At that moment, Amanda walked over to the scales. She was a bit curious about the weight of her own soul. Maybe it was around 25 grams too, considering she hadn't killed a few people.

The goat demon appraising her from her seat slowly shook its head as if it wasn't too optimistic about her chances. Amanda stepped on the scales, and it read exactly 21 grams.

"Stop dawdling, ma'am. From the state of your soul, you don't belong here. Maybe you should take a left turn and ask those angels if they'll take you," the goat demon said disdainfully.

"That's impossible," Amanda said in disbelief, "I'm the head of the agents. I've had my subordinates kill quite a number of people, done all sorts of theft of secrets and intrusion into privacy, even breaking and entering."

Seeing that he couldn't convince her, the goat demon reluctantly flipped through his parchment roll and fetched a pair of glasses to wear before speaking, "Last June you captured two killers. One indiscriminately killed 15 people, and the other tortured a family of four, right?"

After recalling for a moment, Amanda replied, "Yes, the Michigan Ripper. The other should be called the Garden Goblin or the Family Killer, I forget; he wasn't very famous."

"That reduced your soul weight by at least 0.2 grams. And this summer, you presided over the trial and execution of a killer who would trap children in cars and burn them to death."

"The Wood Piler, I remember him, that damned bastard. He didn't confess until the very end!" Amanda said through gritted teeth.

The goat demon's face seemed to improve and he even cracked a smile, adding, "I remember his soul seemed to have gone our way. Great-grandmother quite liked the taste of that one."

"Ma'am, it's an honor to meet such an upright enforcer of justice. How about you step down and go have some tea over there, and after our boss is done talking, I'll take you to meet Great-grandmother in the depths of the fiery abyss?"

Amanda looked somewhat perplexed at the goat demon's enthusiastic smile but still found herself pushed off the scales by the souls that followed.

At that moment, the black man wearing an eyepatch approached her and called out, "Ms. Waller, come with me; your family has been waiting for you over there for a while."

Amanda was startled, but when she turned her head, she saw her mother's slightly aged but unchanged face, and then she heard a familiar scream.

"Amanda! Amanda!! My little Mandy!"

She felt herself being forcibly embraced as her mother held her face and exclaimed, "Oh my God, it really is you."

Before Amanda could speak, her father came over, wrapped his arms around them both, and said, "You wouldn't believe how grateful we are that you weren't there that day. We were thinking about it until our last second; thank goodness you weren't there!"

Amanda could no longer hold back, and tears flooded down her cheeks.


next chapter

章節 3212: Chapter 2357: Gotham Music Festival (59)_1

"So you deliberately gathered the souls of these sinners on this boat to hand over to Shiller for execution, while drawing the sacrificial array underneath the hull to offer these souls to the demons,"

Oliver said thoughtfully, but he still felt somewhat bewildered. After all, the numerous threads coming together were indeed difficult to sort out.

Shiller laughed, leaning back against the railing of the deck, with his hands resting on top of it. "You might not believe me," he said, "but Arrogant is a lot better tempered than I am. He can ignore being seasick for once or simply choose not to go out to sea, but I couldn't."

"I might choose not to go, but you can't stop me from going. Prohibiting my passage comes with a toll."

Oliver did not understand the logic at all. To him, this new personality trait of Shiller seemed even more insane, lacking in the most basic logic.

"You can divide this issue into three parts," Shiller continued. "First, regarding the ocean, most of it is being investigated by the professors you're familiar with, and the clues ended at the Dakotazo."

"After extensive investigation and speculation, I believe the ship came for me, but I did not board it willingly because I knew they'd be unable to resist inviting me someday. Sure enough, I received an invitation. Batman's monitoring devices installed over the sea had detected the ship on its way to the East Coast."

"At the same time, Gotham's social structure was at a point that required change; the order of the mob was in jeopardy, and it was time for these once dominant mob bosses to bow out."

"We had already planned to arrange a disaster to cut off their way out. 'All Things Green' came at just the right time, destroying their last hope, and sure enough, they were forced onto the boat."

"Then there's the magic realm. Although the initial disaster killed many mages, as they say, 'the taller ones stand up in a calamity.' Most of the casualties were grand mages, and many of the unscrupulous apprentices rolled away with their inheritance, spreading around the world within a year and causing numerous incidents."

"Members from the Forgotten Bar, led by the Master of the Dark Night, have been roaming the world in recent years dealing with similar cases and bringing the criminals to justice. After some time, most of the issues had been resolved," Shiller explained.

"Certain too-sly exiles from the mystic world heard from the esteemed experts of All Souls College that the notorious Dakotazo, causing a stir in ordinary society, was not a ghost ship, but rather connected to the mysterious Atlantis."

"Investigations revealed that Atlantis was once a splendid terrestrial kingdom and even after sinking to the ocean floor, it remained as idyllic as an underwater utopia. This ship was traversing above the Kingdom of Atlantis, and boarding it offered a chance to reach Atlantis."

"By this time, most of the exiles of the magic realm were cornered, and upon hearing this rumor, the vast majority hurriedly made their way to the East Coast, ready to take a gamble."

"The last part involves the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Their involvement in Mexico is an indisputable fact, but agents alone were not sufficient; the Penitent Cartel was our actual target," he clarified.

"To draw this largest transnational drug trafficking group into the fray, Cobblepot had his people offer a high bounty for drugs – high price, high volume. Naturally, some would take risky chances, and the Penitent Cartel would not pass up the fat piece of flesh at their lips."

"But the best poppy-growing region of Guazhou had already been taken down by you guys. They were desperate to ship out large quantities of drugs, and underhanded work would clearly not be fast enough. Inevitable conflicts with your side would arise, and coupled with the FBI's divide and conquer strategy, your downfall was bound to happen."

"But defeat was only temporary. Choosing to retreat would naturally lead someone else to follow. The Penitent Cartel, wanting to have it both ways, drove you out so that on one hand they could transport drugs in large quantities, and on the other hand, they planned to kidnap or kill you as leverage against the FBI. These were their main targets for the near future, absolutely crucial to their operations. So whether it's those transporting drugs this way or those following right behind you, they would certainly be the best of their bunch."

"Just like that, we've assembled three groups of criminals: the long-established but unrepentant mob bosses rooted in Gotham, the leftover magical menaces causing trouble around the world, and the most ruthless killers from the largest Mexican-American drug trafficking organization – over 200 people, all brought onto the ship."

"Wait a second," Oliver interjected. "There are only a little over 200 people on this ship. Are you saying they're all brought here by you?"

Shiller nodded with a smile.

"They haven't disappointed us," Shiller continued. "Amongst these 200+ individuals, we indeed gathered the souls of 99 sinners, as you mentioned. I'm responsible for the executions, the Dark Night Squad for the collection, and the demons for receiving the goods."

"But what I don't understand is how this benefits us?"

"Firstly, obviously, if we just kill off these 200 people, there might be some wrongfully accused. But if we go one by one, we'll surely miss a lot of those who deserve death. Disposing of harmful trash and maintaining a healthy social environment is everyone's responsibility."

"However, as the saying goes, trash is misplaced resources. Simply eliminating them wouldn't compensate for the harm they've inflicted upon the world. Instead, it's better to utilize them one last time to initiate a better method of dealing with demons in our long-term trades," Shiller argued.

With a snap of his fingers, Shiller proclaimed, "From now on, the method of trading power with demons in our cosmos will no longer involve offering one's own soul or organs. Instead, we'll offer the souls of sinners to them in exchange for power."

"This means that a new profession will be born in this cosmos – the Sin Hunters. They'll sign contracts with demons, gaining the Demonic Eye that sees through the weight of the soul, embark on hunting the embodiments of evil, execute the sinners, offer up their souls, and obtain power."

"As can be foreseen, they will be the most powerful magic powers in our cosmos in the future. Besides, since modern laws fail to hold the innate crazies accountable for their misdeeds due to their cunning, let the demons judge the weight of their sins directly at the soul level. There may be omissions, but there will be no false judgments."

"This wave nearly wiped out all of the good hands of the Penitent Cartel, significantly easing the pressure on Mexico, but once we are without external enemies, the fangs of certain individuals will inevitably be bared, and Mexico's situation will continue to deteriorate until those oppressed can no longer survive, sparking a true revolution of blood and fire."

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation also suffered heavy losses, but that's also a good thing. Let them stop worrying about superprisons and special case investigations. A transcendent organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. should have appeared here long ago. I believe that after Amanda and Nick have a talk, they'll know what to do when they come back."

"So what's the deal with Atlanna?" Arthur asked. "What do you know about the Queen?"

Shiller shook his head and said, "I hardly know anything. The only reason I could deduce that the killer was Atlanna is because I have some understandings beyond the facts. However, deducing backwards from this conclusion, it must be that someone, while Atlanna was asleep, transferred his power to me."

"There aren't many people who know the secret of Atlantis and have the ability to steal this power, and the Queen of Atlantis, Atlanna, is the prime suspect."

"As for the specific details of the trade I once had with Atlanna, it's actually not important. The Queen must have been thinking of killing two birds with one stone—using this power to weaken Atlanna while also weakening me, inciting a struggle between the two of us, to the benefit of Atlantis."

"So what did you just do?" Arthur asked again. "Atlanna seemed to be in a lot of pain, and his power suddenly weakened significantly."

"That's the key part of the plan." Shiller withdrew his arm and walked to the very front of the deck, looking down at the seawater.

The others did not understand what Shiller was doing. They followed him and looked towards the depths of the ocean, just like he did, and then they noticed that beneath the ship appeared one dark whirlpool after another.

A certain Dark Power was leaking from the Array below the ship, purposefully flowing in a specific direction, like the most agile swarm of fish in the sea, ceaselessly heading towards the deepest parts of the mysterious ocean.

At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, Hal and the other two floating in the water also noticed this abnormality. More and more water above their heads began to turn dark, reaching a point where not even the light from Batman's flashlight could penetrate.

"What is that?" Hal asked.

"I don't know, but it makes me very uncomfortable," Clark said, taking a deep breath. "There is a heavy concentration of Dark Power inside; they seem to be converging on a certain point."

"Let's go have a look," Batman said.

He realized what this power was. Although he had limited knowledge of the mystic world, he is Batman after all. His investigations had shown that the Dark Source pointed to in countless myths and legends could all refer to the same name.

"Barbatos..." Batman solemnly uttered the name.

Hal, leading the other two, moved toward where the darkness was converging, and then they saw that the golden light seeping through the cracked ground was being continuously entangled and devoured by the Dark Power, with Atlanna's screams emerging from underneath.

"What is that?" Clark, with keen eyes, noticed a pattern in the place where the golden light was densest. It looked very complicated and was made up of many Runes, with elements of goat hooves and feet in the middle.

"Is that a Curse?" Hal, who had some understanding of the topic, yet still puzzled, said, "It looks like some kind of demon's Curse, wait, those Dark Powers seem to be converging into this Curse."

"Atlanna has been ambushed," Batman saw through everything, saying, "Atlanna has been hit with a Curse, and this Curse will attract Dark Power to continuously converge here, which is very likely to consume him."

"But why would Atlanna be cursed? Wasn't he always asleep?"

"For that, we would have to ask Shiller."

"What's going on here?" Oliver leaned over the edge of the ship and asked, "What is this power? Where is it going?"

"Of course, it's to give Atlanna a big surprise," Shiller said, propping his head up with One Hand. "Though we provided these 99 sinners' souls for a trade test, it's still normal; trade can be exchanged for things."

"What did you exchange for?" Oliver had a bad premonition.

"A curse, one written by a Demon King. Of course, it is not any potent death-inducing Curse. To kill Atlanna, there's no need for two Demon Kings to make a move. It's a beacon."

"A beacon? Leading to what?"

"Barbatos' Dark Power." Shiller's smile grew cold as he finally bared his fangs, "Barbatos should have noticed something was wrong by now."


Load failed, please RETRY

禮物

禮品 -- 收到的禮物

    每周推薦票狀態

    批量訂閱

    目錄

    顯示選項

    背景

    EoMt的

    大小

    章評

    寫檢討 閱讀狀態: C3211
    無法發佈。請再試一次
    • 翻譯品質
    • 更新的穩定性
    • 故事發展
    • 人物形象設計
    • 世界背景

    總分 0.0

    評論發佈成功! 閱讀更多評論
    用推薦票投票
    Rank NO.1 推薦票榜
    Stone 38 推薦票
    舉報不當內容
    錯誤提示

    舉報暴力內容

    段落註釋

    登錄

    tip 段落評論

    段落註釋功能現已上線!將滑鼠移到任何段落上,然後按下圖示以添加您的評論。

    此外,您可以隨時在「設置」 中將其關閉/ 打開。

    明白了