Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Shiller returned to the underground cave and followed the path he'd taken earlier, finding the laboratory of Greed and successfully used the pass to enter the lab.

Upon entering, he first glanced at the glass jar containing Doug's corpse. The solution inside clearly had anti-coagulant properties and preserved blood activity, even capable of reactivating the blood activity in a corpse. Wisps of blood drifted around Doug's body.

Fish swam happily around it, with some of the hungry ones nibbling at the decomposing parts that fell off the body. Shiller didn't notice anything unusual about these fish and didn't find any experimental reports, making it seem like an experimental subject Greed had used on a whim.

Moving deeper into the laboratory, Shiller found some data about the Monster in a preparation room. Most of the information was conjecture about the Monster's weaknesses and means to restrain it.

In a low-temperature storage room, Shiller located two kinds of solutions. One was the blood solvent used for soaking Doug's corpse, which appeared to have anti-coagulant effects and kept the blood fresh. The other was an anesthetic, unlabelled, but judging from its state, it was a high-concentration inhalant.

Shiller picked up these two drugs and then found some painkillers and injectable stimulants.

These drugs didn't have specific names, but their functions were identified once they came into view, such as "an oral pain medication to be taken every 150 pounds, effective immediately."

Now it seemed to have a bit of a game feel to it.

After searching this area, he went to the equipment warehouse next door, where he found batteries for night vision goggles, about seven or eight pieces, boosting the battery life by nearly two days.

Then Shiller found a flashlight and batteries for it, which should last a couple or three days without issues.

Unfortunately, there were no guns in the lab. Shiller's dream of finding a big gun was shattered, and he could only hope that Bruce and the group of survivors would make contact successfully.

Bruce and the Pale Knight arrived in the village.

By now, quite a few Deep Divers were patrolling the village. As Bruce swaggered into the village, the Pale Knight grabbed him, and they hid in a nearby alley.

"What are you doing?!" The Pale Knight hissed, "Didn't you see the Monster ahead?"

"I saw it, but if we follow them from a distance, they won't notice us."

"Aren't you afraid they hunt by smell?" The Pale Knight said with some helplessness, "I'd advise you not to be so reckless. It's difficult for the two of us to face a Deep Diver without firearms, let alone two – we'd have to run."

"Don't worry, I've got it covered," Bruce said. "I just caught a whiff of blood, someone must be injured. If we follow the blood trail, we'll find the survivors."

The Pale Knight detected excitement in his tone but was unsure about Bruce's intentions and had a bad feeling. "You're not planning to kill anyone, right?"

"Remove 'probably' and 'not.'"

"Aren't you Batman?"

"I'm not Batman."

The Pale Knight was taken aback but still cautioned, "It's best not to touch those survivors; they're useful."

"But only if they're defenseless victims, right?" Bruce said, "If they are armed felons, then the situation gets complicated."

"Fine, you can disarm them, but try not to harm them," the Pale Knight persisted, "A punch or two is acceptable, but don't kill them."

Bruce seemed somewhat surprised and looked back at him, "I thought you'd be one of those old-fashioned, inflexible types."

"Did you forget I once was the Joker?"

"The Joker as well... Never mind, forget it. I have my way, follow me."

With that, Bruce stealthily edged along the wall and out of hiding, while the Pale Knight spotted a bloodstain in the middle of the road - unmistakably human, with a splattered area that appeared to be Deep Diver's blood. Next to it were bullet marks, a sign that there had been a nearly even fight between humans and Deep Divers here not long ago.

Bruce quickly approached the Deep Diver from behind. As expected, they didn't rely solely on sight to hunt and immediately sensed something amiss.

As they turned, their eyes met Bruce's blue ones.

"Ah!" Bruce let out a loud yell and turned to run, with the Pale Knight close behind him.

The Deep Diver gave chase instantly, their strange forms not hindering their speed, quickly closing the distance.

At first, the Pale Knight thought Bruce was running blindly, but he soon noticed intermittent human bloodstains on the ground. It seemed Bruce was following the trail left by the survivors.

Knowing now what Bruce intended, the Pale Knight realized it was too late to stop him. If he stopped, he'd be caught by the Deep Diver... he had no choice but to run for his life.

Seeing the blood trail end at a house's door, Bruce didn't hesitate to scale the wall, while the Pale Knight caught a glimpse of the decisive dice roll. He didn't see the exact value, but it was certainly a success.

The Pale Knight wanted to attempt the same, but he wasn't as fast as Bruce, and he was momentarily distracted. By the time he refocused, the Deep Diver was already upon him, and if he failed his check, he'd surely be captured, so he had to circle back to the rear door.

Luckily for him, Bruce drew the hate quite stably; not a single Deep Diver followed him, all chasing Bruce over the wall instead.

The door of the house was smashed open with a bang.

Bruce and the panicking survivors hardly crossed paths before the vicious Deep Diver burst in.

Without hesitation, Bruce squeezed swiftly between two sturdy men, smashed the glass window in the back wall with a lamp beside him, and leaped out.

Only the survivors and Deep Divers were left, staring at each other with wide eyes.

There were six survivors, four men and two women. The men were all fairly robust, except for one with a head injury. The others were in good shape. The women clearly looked like they regularly worked out, though one of them wasn't in great shape, with her shoulder continuously bleeding, while another seemed to be changing her bandages.

Everyone was baffled by this sudden invasion.

But they had no time to consider Bruce, who had brought the monsters here. They quickly grabbed the weapons nearby. One of the women decisively rushed to the fireplace, ignited the torches prepared earlier, and began to wave them and shout, attempting to scare off the Deep Divers.

The Deep Divers seemed not to have expected so many people here and hesitated for a moment. They wanted to chase the instigator from before, but with their body size, they couldn't slip through so many people. If they wanted to catch the blue-eyed one, they had first to defeat the humans in front of them.

Bruce leaped out from behind the window and scaled the backyard wall in record time. Exhaling a breath, he said to the Pale Knight who hadn't yet entered the yard, "You stay here and wait until they finish fighting. Then you can go in and collect the weapons. I'll make another run."

"Wait!" the Pale Knight called after him. "Are you sure they'll both be worse for wear?"

"I figure they will be. If not, I'll come back to finish them off. I'm off."

With that, Bruce ran off again. The Pale Knight stared blankly in the direction Bruce had fled and asked the Transcendent in his mind, "How many points did this guy put into physical fitness?"

"His wisdom is only 5," repeated the Transcendent in the Pale Knight's mind. "He's also low on body type and willpower; it's all invested in physical fitness and agility."

It seemed the Pale Knight now understood what Bruce was up to.

Bruce, already on the street, asked the Transcendent while running, "I don't even need the Spiritual Analysis Skill anymore. Can you give me those three skill points back?"

"No take-backs," the Transcendent replied.

"Alright, just asking. I can manage without them."

Bruce soon spotted another patrol of Deep Divers around the corner and rushed towards them with a "Hey!" The Deep Divers, holding their tridents, chased after him fiercely.

Leading this group of Deep Divers, he dashed down one street, picked up two more around a corner, and continued running. Then, in front of a shop, he found three more who joined the pursuit.

"What exactly are you planning?" the Transcendent inquired in his mind.

"Didn't you say it? My speed far exceeds the Deep Divers."

"And then what? You just plan to keep running?"

"Deep Divers need to breathe, right?"

"Of course, fish need oxygen too."

"There you have it." Bruce spoke while running. "I can't possibly use up all of Earth's oxygen, but they can only rely on the oxygen stored in their lungs. Do you think they could possibly outlast me?"

He stopped listening to the Transcendent and started madly dashing through the village streets, greeting each Deep Diver, and generally managed to pull them into the pursuit.

"Aren't you afraid they'll use mental attacks against you?" the Transcendent asked again.

"Impossible. I found out during dissection that their breathing organs and special vocal cords can't be used at the same time. They can't speak while running."

The Transcendent went silent.

"What if they happen to encircle you?"

"They can't talk while running. How could they communicate to their comrades to encircle me?"

"What if there are other monsters?"

"By saying that, there must be." Bruce flipped over another alley wall, glanced back at the Fish-Men scrambling to follow, and smirked.

But as soon as he reached the main street, he saw a hefty behemoth at the end. The Transcendent's voice rose with schadenfreude.

"Deep Divers have ranks too. Those chasing you are half-bloods transformed from humans, but the one in front of you is pureblood."

The behemoth turned its head, showing its difference from the smaller Fish-Men. Its head was the spitting image of a fish monster, with protruding eyes shining bright yellow and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Its arms and legs were adorned with spikes.

Most importantly, it was much larger than the other Deep Divers, nearly four meters tall with swollen muscles, making even the toughest adult human seem as frail as an infant before it.

When it charged, Bruce found that its speed was not slow—naturally, the more explosive the muscles, the faster the speed. The Big Guy had no disadvantage in speed.

Facing the oncoming monster that was like a Tank, Bruce was unruffled. He looped a small circle on the street and flipped back through a narrow alley.

The alley was too narrow for the Big Guy, but it wasn't slow on the main road either and soon caught up with Bruce.

By this time, though, Bruce had already jumped into a car, ignited the engine, and zoomed off with a press of the accelerator.

With one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a blood-stained cigarette from the passenger side, he lit one and put it in his mouth.

Looking at the misty country road, Bruce exhaled a puff of smoke and grinned.

"Next up is Gotham's Five-Star Good Citizen's showtime."