Everyone present was clever, and once Bruce mentioned it, they all caught on.
The protagonist group should have been fleeing, then encountered by Greed and saved, but Greed didn't save them at all, and even joined the pursuing army.
They were supposed to run around in the village, but because Bruce set up an underground cave, they ended up in the cave somehow, and there was a river inside the cave, giving the Wandering an opportunity to come into contact with water.
In the Cthulhu Mythos setting, to avoid being killed by the blood form of Ipo's avatar, one must hide in the water, so the Wandering is also afraid of water. Greed took advantage of this and trapped the Wandering.
"I think whether the Detective lives or dies doesn't affect the main storyline." Greed said, "Didn't we also roughly piece together the main background story in the end? This proves that whether or not we have the clues he talked about doesn't matter."
"That's because you stumbled upon it..."
"Then we stumbled upon too much." Greed argued with reason, saying: "We didn't just figure out one track, we practically figured out all the set tracks."
"Well, that..."
The Transcendent thought carefully and really found he couldn't refute it.
The Book of Evil Gods and Ghost Ship storyline devised by the Transcendent, the Silterk and hotel storyline designed by Greed, the Deep Diver storyline laid out by the Joker, were pretty much all figured out in the end.
There are two types of puzzle-solving players in this world, one follows the process to find clues 12345 and arrives at a conclusion, the other finds clue 1, digs a hole in the ground, and finds clue 5, then encounters 2, 3, and 4 while wandering around.
This game is like they didn't even find clue 1, but dug a hole on the spot that leads to the other end of Earth, and while circumnavigating the world in 80 days, discovering the New Continent, and proving that the Earth is round, they found clues 12345.
"Don't worry about how you found it, just tell me whether you found it or not."
The Transcendent reviewed the entire game process and then said: "None of the clues you've found were discovered in the normal way."
"Impossible." The agent was the first to deny it, saying, "We started by finding the diary of the little cabin's owner in the drawer, isn't that normal enough?"
"Ah, wait a minute." He suddenly realized something, "The little cabin itself isn't normal, right? And Madeline's diary... Madeline is also not quite normal... about the hotel tragedy, I saw it in an encyclopedia, this is definitely normal."
"Where did you find that encyclopedia?"
"At Old Sirteck's house, although this wasn't part of your set background story, at least it was in the village, so the clue is within range, right?"
"Right? Absolutely wrong!" The Transcendent said irritably: "That book was planted by Greed!"
Everyone turned to look at Greed.
"That's not my fault." Greed immediately said, "I asked him if he could reveal a bit about the Game World setting, and he said no. I said fine, my father is an encyclopedia enthusiast, and his study is filled with encyclopedias of all sorts of astronomical, geographical, social, and historical knowledge."
The others were speechless.
The agent racked his brain trying to find a clue that had been in its original place, thought for a bit, and then said: "The clues inside the Lighthouse should all be correct, right?"
"Yeah." The Transcendent said in a chilly tone: "The Hunting Dogs you fought were correct."
"What about besides that?"
"There's nothing else." The Transcendent said.
"But the dogs didn't provide any clues." The agent rubbed his temples, then said: "The Pope! The Pope should have appeared at the top floor of the Lighthouse, right?"
The Transcendent looked towards Brand.
"I was only involved in the latter half of the game." Brand waved his hand and said, "Before you let me take over the game, I hadn't done anything, don't blame everything on me."
"So, it's still Greed's problem." Bruce said: "The early half of the game had no intervention from Nya, but it had already deviated from the main thread, because Greed killed the protagonist group."
"No way!" Greed turned to the agent and said, "If he hadn't burned the house down, forcing us unable to go to the village, we would still have a chance to get on the main storyline!"
Everyone turned to look at the agent again, and Greed continued: "Even though the protagonist group died, if we had followed the normal routine to explore the village, we could have directly discovered that book, and then we could find clues under the guidance of that book and finally board the Ghost Ship."
"Why didn't you go to the village at that time?" Bruce also asked.
"Because Greed diverted attention." The agent quickly passed the buck, saying, "He led us to focus all our attention on the Monster, and I thought if we just went to the village like that, we might get attacked by the Monster along the way."
"But you didn't have to burn the house down." Bruce pointed out.
"Because I guessed there was a cellar under the house." The agent looked back at Bruce and said, "If it weren't for your setting of the underground cave and the little cabin, we would have been born in the village, and you have the nerve to blame me?"
Everyone turned to look at Bruce.
"But if we were born directly in the village, wouldn't the game process be too short?" Bruce raised his own question.
"If that were the case, we wouldn't have gotten the diary of the little cabin's owner, and we wouldn't know the story of Jeff's family. It might take a long time to investigate their family." Batman spoke: "Actually, it's the same."
Going round in circles became a vicious cycle, but anyway, one point on which everyone agreed without objection was that the story deviated from the main thread so much because of Greed and Bruce.
They both cried foul, with Greed slapping the table and saying: "All because that agent killed me halfway through, if I were still alive..."
"If you were still alive, you'd start the Third World War." The agent unceremoniously exposed him and said, "You're rich, have Monsters, and come from an educated background, summoning an Alien Spaceship for a cosmic war wouldn't surprise me!"
Greed slowly shifted his gaze away.
The agent frowned and said: "You weren't really planning a cosmic war, were you?"
The Transcendent scoffed and said, "Guess what's the deal with that bottle of golden honey wine in the Captain's Room?"
The agent suddenly remembered, in the Cthulhu Mythos setting, the main use of golden honey wine is actually to enable people to live in a vacuum environment, mainly used for humans to travel on Spaceships.
He turned his head and stared at Greed.
"What are you looking at me for?" Greed rolled his eyes and said, "Is it strange that my cultist ancestors were studying heresy and ultimately got abducted by aliens?"
The agent covered his forehead and said, "Well, it's a good thing you died early."
"But that's not a problem," Greed said. "In the end, Joker and Batman still ended up fighting on the far side of the moon. I could find an alien to break it up."
"Why would they fight on the far side of the moon?"
"Because of Nya." Greed pointed to the side and said, "If it wasn't for his sabotage, I wouldn't have resorted to looking for a ghostwriter."
"Because of Bruce." Brand also pointed to the side and said, "If he hadn't paid, I wouldn't have printed it."
"Because of the Detective." Bruce pointed to the side and said, "If he hadn't killed Night Owl, I wouldn't have had to resort to such measures."
"Because of Arrogance." The Detective also pointed to the side and said, "If he hadn't had me fill in for him, I wouldn't have taken the step to kill someone."
"Because of Greed." Arrogance said coldly, "If he hadn't deleted the memory bank, I wouldn't have sought out the Detective."
Everyone looked at Greed.
"This is your goal, isn't it?!" Greed's voice rose as he said, "To pin the blame on me, so I have to explain the truth of what happened back then, but I've told you, I don't remember!"
"There has to be someone who remembers," Arrogance said.
Greed went silent.
"What exactly happened?" Bruce looked curiously at Greed, who replied somewhat irritably, "I've said I don't know! ...Forget it, if you really want to know, then go find Anatoli; he's the only one who's always known everything."
Batman silently noted this name; he knew Shiller had a doctor with profound influence on him, but who exactly this person was and the extent of his influence, he really didn't know well enough.
But that's okay, he could investigate. Even though he had only a name, everything connected to Shiller in this world seemed to be unusual and should not be too difficult to investigate.
"What kind of ending did we end up with? Is it a good one?" Greed turned to the Transcendent to ask.
"Um..." The Transcendent hesitated, "You could say it's a good ending if that's what you want to believe. After all, one is another you, and the other is another you's student. The two of them going to Miskatonic University together could also be considered a good ending, right?"
"So it's actually not?" the Detective pressed, since he had played most of the game and was also very concerned about the ending.
"In the character setup that Matthew altered, Matthew is a cultist, and he survived. Do you think it's a good ending?"
"So it's a bad ending?"
"But Lodoff also survived and seems to be in his right mind."
"That's a good ending then?"
"But Matthew survived too... I also want to know how they managed to reconcile in the end."
Everyone looked at Arrogance and Bruce.
"Didn't you watch the end credits?"
"We did, but the scene shifted to your reconciliation, was anything cut out?" the Detective asked.
At this point, Greed seemed to remember something, he looked at the Detective and said, "I advise you not to ask, why trouble yourself?"
Batman also stood up and said, "Although the process was chaotic, playing the game with you guys was enjoyable. I have to leave for some business, so I'll be heading out."
Bruce also turned to leave, with the Pale Knight following behind him, saying, "Should you come to my place first, or should I go to yours?"
"I'll go to your place. Do you also have a stubborn Batman there? Maybe I can help you persuade him, and I also want to try that drug of yours…"
The others left one after another, leaving the Detective standing there, lost.
The Transcendent was the last to leave. Seeing the Detective still standing there, he threw something at him.
A flash of silver light streaked through the air, and the Detective instinctively caught it. He saw it was a cross necklace, but instead of Jesus, there were several tentacles on the cross. Wasn't this the necklace he found in Old Silterck's safe?
Wait, in the end credits, didn't this necklace appear on Lodoff's neck?
Didn't he give this to Batman???
The Detective suddenly snapped back to reality and called out to Batman, who was about to step through the teleportation portal, "How did you die in the end?"
"Ipo Zettel's avatar descended."
"Descended upon Gad?"
Batman shook his head and said nothing, turning to walk through the teleportation portal.
The Detective looked down at the necklace and noticed the blue gemstone mounted in the center of the cross had now turned to a blood-like red.
Greed's backstory was revealed—Old Silterck was a descendant of cultists.
This meant that the necklace in his hand was not any sort of protective amulet, but a forbidden object for summoning the Evil God. It was through this necklace that Ipo Zettel, who killed Batman, descended.
In the end, Lodoff wore this necklace.
The Detective sighed. He should not have let Arrogance return; Arrogance would always unscrupulously salvage his damaged student.
On a sunny day in California, Shiller was harvesting a new batch of vegetables in his farm's garden. The cabbages had grown quite well, and the lettuces and Chinese cabbages weren't bad either. Tomatoes, requiring a longer growth cycle, hung on the supports with their red and green fruits, looking exceptionally pleasing.
The Robins have come here for a vacation again, and no one would dislike California's sunshine and seawater, nor could anyone reject the chance to refurbish the farm with their own efforts. Shiller's purpose of buying this farm was thoroughly realized.
In order to cultivate their hands-on abilities, Shiller gave them a very limited budget. The kids had a total budget of fifty thousand dollars to transform the farm into what they wanted.
This time, there were exceptionally many participants. Besides Dick, Jason, and Tim, Pamela also came. After being a broker across two universes, she finally had some extra money and no longer needed to work three jobs a day to repay the bank. She thought it was time to give herself a proper vacation, so she came.
Of course, Harley was involved too. She's currently helping Mutants manage the Andromeda Galaxy, using the initial capital grabbed by Magneto to make large investments in the interstellar financial sector, which has already started to show results, adding many quality industries to the Mutants.
Since she isn't responsible for guarding and fighting, it makes no difference where she works. For safety reasons, Professor X didn't let her stay in the Andromeda Galaxy but had her remotely work from Earth.
Barry has entered the internship phase. In addition to completing his internship in his universe, he also wanted to increase his supervised hours with Shiller, so he came along as well.
Then there's Cassandra and Blue Beetle. With the first semester at Mercury just ended, neither of them plans to come back to Earth for work; instead, they intend to stay on Mercury. But before the second semester starts, they have a long break to enjoy.
Diana is very fond of Cassandra but also thinks the girl is too introverted, so she sends Dick and Raven to take her to other universes. Dick believes that California's sunshine will benefit her, so he brought her along.
Blue Beetle purely followed on his own accord, wanting to see what's different in other universes. However, he is destined to be disappointed because this universe's California, aside from having added aerial transportation systems, is essentially the same as his.
Tim finally got a break from his busy work, not because Bruce had a change of heart, but because Thomas and Martha have returned.
Thomas originally asked him to stay because he thought it would teach him some business knowledge, but Tim chose to pack up and run away overnight, saying the Siberian Forest Cats in the company were really too many.
Aisha initially wanted to come too, but Selina couldn't stand her running around every day and not going to school. In the end, she kept Aisha back to finish her elementary school courses. Alfred, who was also intending to come, was persuaded by Shiller to go back.
Raven wanted to come, but since she reconciled with her father and the Earth crisis was resolved, she felt it necessary to visit Azarath, and thus she did not come.
Now all three Robins have graduated from college; they are not kids anymore, but their career paths have just started.
Although Dick has been studying ballet all along, he did not major in art. Instead, he studied economic management. However, his goal is not to manage Wayne Enterprises but to revive the Grayson Troupe.
After Gotham's situation improved, the Graysons, who had been living in Brood Haven, moved back. They contacted many old friends from the circus and theater, formed the Grayson Troupe, and are ready to make their mark in Gotham.
As Dick's biological parents are older now and can't perform difficult stunts as they did in their youth, they have transitioned to background roles, currently engaged in training work for the troupe. Friends of their same age do mostly the same, and the primary performers in the troupe now are the young people of Dick's age, mainly the children and students of the troupe's backstage staff.
Their main purpose of coming to Gotham, in addition to seeking a broader stage, is to recruit talents. After all, the art department of Gotham University is quite famous, and the level of the Cheerleading Squad is unrivaled on the entire East Coast.
Joining the troupe is the destiny of most students in the dance and performance majors. After Gotham Grand Theater reopened, many graduates chose to join a local troupe to perform. However, with not enough troupes, many had to go as far as Metropolis in search of employment.
While in school, Dick recruited some of his classmates to join the Grayson Troupe, and with the funds they saved up in Brood Haven, they rented living and rehearsal spaces. The development of the troupe has been smooth.
The Graysons hope to compile some plays related to the local culture of Gotham. After communicating with Dick, Jason, and Bruce, they decide to turn the story of the Court of Owls into a musical.
This kind of story with a dark fairy tale style might not be popular in other cities, but Gothamites will surely love it. Still, being new in town, it took the troupe over a month to settle down, and the new show is still in the casting phase. But based on the feedback from online and offline promotions, Gothamites are looking forward to it.
Jason is still in graduate school, but because he took on a dual degree in Classical Literature and Psychology, he is preparing to delay graduation for a year to make his grades look better.
Originally, he actually only enrolled in the Classical Literature department, but because he did not want to give up Psychology, he chose to pursue two degrees at the same time. This is indeed very difficult for him. Even with Bruce's support, he still has to work to earn money to support his former buddies, and he spent almost all his spare time at Killer Croc's moving company.
Harley has found her direction. She is set on becoming the most powerful career manager in all the universes. It seems that Mutants are just her first internship placement. Shiller heard from Loki that Thanos had intentions of letting her manage the Dark Quadrant, but Harley's asking price was too high, and the two haven't settled yet.
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On the contrary, it was Tim who, because Bruce had washed his hands of the matter, ended up wasting a lot of time managing Wayne Enterprises. As a result, he didn't pursue his graduate studies, didn't manage to secure an internship, and even got himself covered in Siberian Cat hair.
However, it was also thanks to this that he seemed to have struck a deal with Amanda. Using the influence of Wayne Enterprises on the East Coast, he helped Amanda's Federation Shield with their affairs, and the two of them barely managed to keep Lex's Luther Group out of Gotham.
This made Thomas see Tim's business acumen, considering him a suitable successor. The Drake family had a new daughter in recent years, so Tim was no longer the sole heir to the Drake legacy. It appeared that Thomas wanted Tim to stay part of the Wayne family.
Pamela successfully obtained her PhD in Physics from Victor and is now pursuing her PhD in Natural Sciences with other professors. It's not so much that she has a genuine passion for scientific research, as it is the insurance premium discounts that doctoral students receive from the university, which are much more economical than purchasing commercial insurance outside.
Tuition was originally a big issue. Pamela's student loans had accumulated to a terrifying amount. But in America, there's an unwritten rule: if you have a promising project, investors will offer to continuously pay off your student loans in exchange for priority investment rights in the project.
Pamela has paid off her undergraduate loans, and she's still looking for good investors for her graduate and doctoral loans. With many promising projects in hand, she should soon be able to settle her debts.
Barry is studying at Gotham University Medical School, and recently, invited by Gordon, he interned at the forensics department of the Gotham Police Department. Gordon intends to hire him as a consultant in psychology for the police department because Barry's best course during school was crime psychology.
After such a period of development, Gotham Police Department has become the largest police station on the East Coast, with a complete range of departments and professional consultants on standby, to the point that Metropolis has to borrow people from here.
Most importantly, the trainees taught by Shiller are making their mark here, no matter if they are psychopaths or serial killers. Just come and see what it means when they say "for every crafty trick, there's a craftier one still."
In short, the younger generation is in a transitional phase of stepping into society. Although they have embarked on their career paths, they have yet to shoulder more responsibilities. However, this will also be their last carefree holiday.
Singletons Jason and Tim were doing alright, but Dick, who already had a girlfriend, was working hard, preparing for the greater responsibilities he was about to take on.
In some old garage space covered with dust, the clanging and banging of work could be heard. Jason, dressed in leather overalls and boots, was jacking up an old pickup truck.
There were traces of gasoline on the ground, and some unidentifiable wet stains. As soon as the truck was jacked up, Jason bent over to look underneath, cursing immediately.
Dick bent over to look as well, then shook his head and said, "It's in terrible condition, I suspect the previous owner took it to look for Nemo..."
"Where did you get this piece of junk?" Unable to hold back, Tim asked, "You probably couldn't find such a broken car even if you scoured the entire second-hand car market in Gotham."
"We're not in Gotham, we're in California, and California's full of broken cars," Jason said as he dived under the vehicle, inspecting it while speaking. "Moreover, this is a broken car for just 600 US dollars."
Tim still despised it, saying, "If you didn't specifically want a pickup, you could buy a decent sedan for this price."
"Please, we're on a farm, and the vehicle is meant for work," Jason's voice came from under the car. "A family car for 600 US dollars, although in better condition, wouldn't be able to carry cargo."
"Are you sure you can fix it?" Dick asked, unconvinced. He didn't dive under the car but went to the front to check the engine. As soon as he opened the hood, he exclaimed in surprise.
"What's up?"
"I see a whole Undersea World! I told you he went to look for Nemo!"
Just then, the garage's rolling door opened whooshingly, and the fierce sunlight poured in. Dick could hardly open his eyes as he looked toward the door to see a girl with a ponytail walking in.
"How's it going, guys? When can we move that beautiful big baby over?" she asked.
"It'll be a while, this car's in worse shape than we thought," Dick sighed and said, "I think we'll need about 3-4 days to fix this junker."
"I knew it," Harley wasn't surprised at all, "It's always like this when you bring Jason along. I admit he's good at fixing cars, but he definitely picks the most challenging one within his capability."
Tim was checking the weather forecast on his phone and said, "The good news is there's no rain for the next few days, but the bad news is there might be a hurricane."
Harley ran her fingers through her hair and said, "Then let's put the furniture we scavenged from the second-hand market in the storeroom. I'll go call Pamela."
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