Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Batman upstairs, noting the time was about right, decided to end the meaningless argument with the Joker. However, in the Joker's eyes, he saw a sly hint of amusement.

Batman's heart sank, but he had been mentally prepared. Compared to Shiller, he was the one who knew the Joker better. The Joker's boldness in facing him meant that he must have had something to rely on.

Typically, this situation would only occur if the Joker had already succeeded in executing his significant mischievous plot; with Gotham in jeopardy, even if Batman wanted to kill the main culprit in front of him, he couldn't afford to waste any more time on him as he needed to rush to save the city.

Although he often encountered such situations, this time the Joker had miscalculated. Batman indeed needed to save the world, but there were plenty of others here unwilling to let the Joker off the hook.

Batman turned his head to Bruce, saying, "Keep an eye on this guy; I'll go downstairs and check."

Without giving the Joker another glance, he headed downstairs. The Joker turned to watch Batman, but the next second, he felt a kick on his rear end. Bruce, who had been holding back, kicked the Joker down the stairs.

Batman stepped over the Joker lying on the ground. Before the Joker could even get up, Bruce lifted him from the floor. Bruce looked up at the pale knight and asked, "Do you faint at the sight of blood?"

The pale knight shook his head and made a welcoming gesture, nodding in an elegant manner as if they were at an elite social gathering.

"Where did you hide that electric shock device you had earlier?" Bruce's voice gradually faded away into the end of the corridor.

Having gone downstairs, Batman quickly deduced from the water stains what Shiller had done. Seeing the footprints spread to the door, Batman guessed he must have gone into the village.

But Batman had a different approach. Since the dock seemed to be the problem area, he decided to head to the docks. Even if there was something there he currently couldn't handle, he needed to know what it was.

Thus, Batman also took his equipment and headed towards the docks. The sky was not yet dark; the heavy snow obscured his vision.

As soon as Batman got close to the docks, he noticed something was amiss. It shouldn't be foggy in snowy weather, yet the area was extremely damp, with thick fog limiting his visibility to about two meters.

Batman hid inside a small house near the docks and peered through the window at the situation outside. He had just found some water stains on the ground, but they clearly weren't human footprints; they resembled more those of a creature with webbed feet.

Batman had seen the Book of the Dead through his arrogance and had a certain understanding of the Cthulhu Mythos. He immediately connected the abundant fish in the underground Dark River to his current clues.

Legend had it that a huge half-human, half-fish monster named Big Gun lived in the depths of the sea, and those who worshipped Big Gun could catch abundant fish.

Batman had previously noticed the unnaturally high number of fish in the Dark River, not usual for a natural river population. It was said these were fishes hauled in by the Silterk family's overseers from the sea.

Were the Silterk family followers of Big Gun?

Greed's backstory never mentioned this, but Batman knew if the Transcendent wanted to weave all background stories together, some details would inevitably be expanded.

Perhaps Old Silterk truly had such experiences, hence his desire to do something, and it's possible that the Joker was employed by him to carry out this entire ordeal.

As Batman pondered, he heard a rustling sound. He quickly crouched down, holding his breath.

He had marginally activated his Listening skill; choosing to activate the skill now, Listening 23>15, skill check successful.

But Batman felt like his brain had been punched; although his firm will kept him from making a sound, the dizzying sensation didn't subside.

He heard a low whisper. He remembered the syllables but could not understand their meaning, feeling he might lack the relevant skill. Maybe he could try to decode it when he met up with Shiller later.

However, right then, the footsteps became closer.

Could these monsters locate a person by their breathing? Batman felt troubled; his current capabilities might not be sufficient to handle these creatures. The Joker really excelled at causing big messes.

Suddenly, he crouched in a cabin, and the window revealed a pair of swollen, bulging, cloudy eyeballs. The eyes rotated and then fixed onto the corner where Batman was hiding.

Batman was looking upward when he saw those eyes. His brain buzzed, feeling as if his brain matter was blending into oblivion, nearly incapable of resistance.

With a swish, a slimy, filthy trident came through the window, striking directly into Batman's shoulder blade; he couldn't dodge in time, and bright red blood streamed down his arm.

The moment he smelled the blood, he knew trouble was imminent; indeed, the next second the door was smashed open, and a terrifying shadow rushed in.

Batman had learned his lesson; he didn't look up, but focused on the shadow of his opponent which allowed him to decipher that it was a hunchbacked creature with a fish-like head and spiny back.

The sticky, damp, rotten smell filled his nostrils, and Batman felt his mental health value continuing to drop. He kneeled on the ground, clutching his wound, which was abnormally painful. What troubled him even more was the moist breath seeping through his wound into his bloodstream, making his life value plummet.

Having no other choice, Batman dashed towards the door, Dexterity 25<50, check failed.

Looking at the check value of 50, Batman knew that his chances of escape were slim, but the monster in front of him didn't seem intent on killing him, so Batman had to quietly observe and wait.

His path was blocked by a trident, and after some grumbling, the monster seemed to assume Batman was powerless. It pulled out a long chain and nailed it through Batman's shoulder, dragging him outside.

Batman pretended to faint, but he could still secretly open his eyes and watch the situation on the ground. He noticed that the dock was teeming with these monsters, and they seemed to be capturing humans.

He needed to figure out where these things were coming from, otherwise the disaster would surely spread uncontrollably.

Shiller walked for over an hour until it was almost dark, finally arriving in the village which, unsurprisingly, was as quiet as if it had been deserted.

Shiller believed that if they had headed straight for the village from the start, they might have found some survivors, but now it was probably too late.

Greed had landed, and at the time, Doug and Madeline were being pursued by the Wandering, so where were they before they fled to the caves?

If they were in the village, the best tactic would have been to run out of the village or head to the dock to look for a boat, but their choice to enter the underground caves indicated that escape through the village wasn't possible.

It was more likely that the Wandering could move freely in the village, which could only happen in blood, meaning the village must have been covered in it.

Following a small path into the village, Shiller climbed over half of a low stone wall and arrived at someone's backyard, which was cluttered with debris and had a decrepit doghouse where Shiller found the terribly mutilated corpse of a dog.

Pushing open the back door of the house, despite the time that had passed, the strong smell of blood had not dissipated, and the entire family was dead.

From the crime scene, it could be inferred that the family had killed each other, the youngest daughter having likely been possessed. She had butchered her mother, who was cooking at the time, with a kitchen knife. The father, trying to stop her, was too late as the Wandering had already moved into the mother and killed him too.

It seemed one family member had escaped, the footprints indicating it was a child, and indeed, Shiller soon found the body of a small boy not far from the front yard.

The street was filled with tragically dead bodies.

A monster that could move through blood was not something ordinary people could fight against—the more they tried to kill the monster, the more blood was spilled, and the easier it became for possession to occur.

From the signs on the streets, Shiller could tell that a group had organized some resistance, which he suspected included Madeline.

After all, Madeline was an expert in this field, and the detective was known to be highly capable, but their resistance ultimately failed, forcing them to flee.

However, Shiller thought there must be others in the resistance group since the Wandering had followed them. Perhaps there were other survivors left.

But dealing with this group could be difficult since he was an outsider and a church official, and it would be bad if they mistook him as someone out to silence them.

Shiller pushed the door to another house and found a few corpses with no anomalies.

Shiller continued to check house after house; the village was not very big, and even using the Exhaustion Method, some clues should be traceable.

Eventually, Shiller found recent activity traces in a shop on the southeast side of the village. Someone had scavenged supplies from the shop about an hour ago, indicating real survivors.

Unfortunately, heavy snow had covered nearly all tracks, and Shiller couldn't make much out of where they came from and where they went.

Shiller speculated that these people were probably not hiding on the ground but in the complex underground caves, emerging from some entrances to get supplies from the shop.

He dared not chase them recklessly; the locals knew the cave environment much better than he, and he would be walking into a trap by going down there.

With so many houses here, he couldn't believe these people had taken all the supplies. If he could find a weapon, particularly a gun with high firepower, they wouldn't pose a threat anymore.

Shiller figured there should be a gun shop in the village because the more remote the village, the more likely the use of guns, and since there were hunters as a profession, there should at least be a hunting store. If not guns, then a high-powered compound bow would do.

Shiller also grabbed some food from the shop and returned to the street to search for the weapon shop.

Meanwhile, Batman had been thrown into a dimly lit room, where he discovered there were still living people, all injured and trembling in the corners, some already babbling in madness.

But Batman had no time to worry about them now, as his own wounds worsened. Though the injuries weren't severe, his condition was worse than previous injuries, even more dangerous than when a kitchen knife pierced his heart.

Crucially, his pride in his clear thinking began to blur. The phrase he had memorized spun in his brain, slicing his thoughts into fragmented pieces.

Batman finally understood Joker's sinister intent.

No physical injury could defeat Batman, but this kind of attack targeting his mind could muddle his thoughts. Once his mental clarity was compromised, he was only a step away from death.