Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Batman's willpower was indisputable, but in this game, it was a different matter entirely. Although Shiller thought Batman should have allocated enough points to his willpower, if he fought against higher-level monsters, no amount of points would be sufficient.

Looking at Batman, he must have encountered some high-level beings, at least higher than the Deep Divers, and got tricked by their ways.

However, Batman certainly wasn't without defenses or the ability to resist; otherwise, he wouldn't have frequently shown signs of abnormalities, alerting Shiller.

If Batman had acted normally, Shiller really wouldn't dare say he couldn't have been deceived by him. But Batman's behavior was too off, as if the words "I have a problem" were written on his face. Shiller felt that he wasn't controlled by someone; it was more likely something had influenced his mind.

This reminded Shiller of that strange-behaving little girl, Jeff's daughter, who appeared normal, but there was something bizarre about her.

Shiller recalled finding the Book of Water God in Jeff's home cellar. The boxes covering the book were empty, except for the top box, which had some bits of chaff.

The feed stored in the cellar was for feeding animals. Though Shiller had never been involved in animal husbandry, he roughly understood the principle. Livestock meant for consumption couldn't survive solely by grazing.

Typically, even if there was abundant pasture, ranchers would definitely stock up on feed, as sometimes the weather would be severe, or the grass wouldn't provide enough nutrients to maintain the animals' weight, necessitating supplements.

Shiller calculated the dates; the day mentioned in the diary about Jeff's family's sheep going missing wasn't far back, likely in winter. Although goats could eat roots, without fresh grass, Jeff probably had to supplement their diet with feed.

The boxes placed over the Book of Water God were clearly meant by Jeff to conceal the book, deliberately not filled with feed, perhaps also out of concern that the book might affect the feed.

But Shiller discovered traces of feed in the top box, meaning someone had placed feed there.

Although the book didn't seem toxic, it was hard to say with such a terrifying item. Putting something edible on top of it could have unpredictable effects.

If this feed turned out to be problematic, that might explain the sudden disappearance of the sheep.

Batman was like those sheep, like Jeff's daughter; they appeared normal, but it was just a facade. Their seemingly normal actions were a step-by-step lure into a trap.

Honestly, this didn't seem like the style of the Cthulhu Mythos, more like the doings of demons.

"There are no demons in this game," said the Transcendent, "No Heaven and Hell, no true Magicians. You can dismiss that theory."

Shiller realized that this clearly wasn't a sword-and-magic scenario; staging a battle of Heaven and Hell or a magical showdown was definitely not possible.

Then, it must be man-made.

Apart from Nya, the high-level beings in the Cthulhu Mythos weren't typically associated with cunning; they didn't plot or deliberately harm anyone—they just existed quietly. Anything crumbling because of them was merely unable to resist the temptation of the forbidden.

Shiller didn't think Batman was a greedy person; he could control his desires well. So, he might have been tricked.

Shiller inspected Batman's body and found no suspicious objects, though he noticed a wound on Batman's right hand, suggesting the bloody spells in the study were likely drawn with his own blood.

Given Batman's choice of Psychoanalysis Method, it was likely that his mental health value had depleted, leading him to choose this skill in a desperate attempt to turn the tide, which had failed, causing his madness.

No, it might not be that it failed, but rather that the Psychoanalysis Method itself caused his already scant mental health value to plummet.

Remember what he said? This thing isn't reliable; except for Shiller, whoever uses it, dies.

Shiller sighed internally, but he still needed to figure out a way to save Batman.

Just as he was considering where to trigger a few battles to cool down his skills and restore some of Batman's Sanity Points, Batman, lying on the ground, suddenly groaned.

Shiller jumped, remembering that Batman was still in a state of madness; he wasn't sure he could overpower a crazed Batman.

Watching Batman slowly get up from the ground, Shiller clenched his crowbar and reached for his gun, ready to act at any sign of threat.

But Batman just turned over and lay back down, Shiller heard him say, "I'm all right."

"What exactly happened to you?" Shiller couldn't fully trust him yet, so he stayed two meters away.

He saw the wound on the back of Batman's head gradually healing, guessing he must have used a healing skill, but he felt Batman's mental health value still hadn't improved, as he knew there was no skill in the list that directly restored this value.

"There's a problem," said Batman. "Have you ever wondered, when our mental health declines, why do we go mad?"

Shiller was stunned by his question and said, "You might as well ask directly, why we go mad when we're mad."

"I mean, why do we become mad when we hit rock bottom? Are we that kind of person?"

They couldn't directly mention skills and values because no fight had been triggered, they could only hint in a roundabout way.

Shiller wasn't a fool, he understood Batman's insinuations, which were actually asking why they went crazy once their mental health value bottomed out.

Shiller always thought this was just a setting, a game setting after all, don't worry too much about it. Wouldn't dying the same way once blood volume bottomed out have a penalty too?

But Batman seemed to have a different opinion.

"Someone told me I am cursed," Batman said, "a nameless, magical being. Contacting him plunged my spirit to rock bottom, but just as I was about to go mad, he helped me pull through a bit and revealed the truth to me."

"Who is he?"

"He said his name is 'Dagon'."

Shiller was shocked, indeed, Batman really had made contact with an Old Day Dominator, Dagon, a god worshiped by the Deep Divers.

However, as far as he knew, Dagon was very mysterious, Mr. Ke occasionally seized a couple of ships, but this guy seemed to always stay at the seabed with no action, and it had never been heard that he communicated with anyone. Most sailors had only seen such a creature in dreams, seeing some blurry shadows, but Batman actually made contact with him?

"Why would he help you?" This was what puzzled Shiller the most, as Dagon was a Fish God, who should hold no fondness toward the human race, even less likely to take the initiative to help humans.

"He found it very novel."

"What?"

"I told him, I found the correct application of the Psychoanalysis Method," Batman said, "He was absolutely shocked by everything I could see, thinking I was like him."

Shiller was stunned.

It seemed he understood what Batman meant, and it was exactly because he understood that it seemed absurd.

Shiller knew that when his mental state was poor enough, his Mental Analysis Talent would gradually emerge, but it wasn't so much a talent as it was bizarre, baseless illusions.

Yet, it was these illusions that could accurately predict many things and even act as his senses, allowing him to understand this world more clearly than ever before.

The Transcendent had said before that level 3 Psychoanalysis Method was essentially about linking one's own talents to the past, which meant that the people who picked this skill might see more the worse their mental state got.

If Batman really had maxed out this skill, and he was in a situation of extremely low mental health value, then the illusions he saw must have been astonishing.

If he communicated with Dagon under such circumstances, how would Dagon view the illusions in Batman's mind?

According to Batman, Dagon was also shocked.

This world was too crazy, humans could now mentally contaminate the Old Day Dominators.

But it also seemed to be precisely because of this bizarre mental state that Dagon didn't realize Batman was a human; he probably thought Batman was an Old Day Dominator just like him and simply decided to help him.

Shiller suspected it was perhaps these illusions that gave Batman the ability to communicate with Dagon; after all, Old Day Dominators didn't speak human languages, and the information they transmitted mentally was contaminated, requiring special methods to communicate, which Batman most likely knew nothing of.

But conveniently, Shiller's fully unleashed talent senses were mixed; he perceived the world through illusions, which converted Dagon's language into illusions he could understand.

This really showed how times were advancing, society was developing, humans were no longer satisfied with just receiving gifts from gods but had started using the Black Tiger Heart Stealing directly on them.

But perhaps it was this twist of fate that saved Batman, pulling him back from the brink of utter madness.

"What is this curse about?" Shiller recalled to ask after being shocked for a while.

"Literally, the reason we go mad when our mental state deteriorates is a curse," Batman said.

This put Shiller into deep thought, he had originally thought it was merely a game setting, especially since the Transcendent had emphasized it specifically, but although it was a setting, it wasn't without a potential story, or to put it another way, relatively thoughtful plots always crafted a narrative for players' special anomalous states to enhance the immersion, instead of just attributing it to the setting whenever such a state occurred.

Thinking it over, it was rather unusual, Batman's experiences indicated that going mad after losing mental health value wasn't an indiscriminate attack on everyone, but actually setting a trap meticulously and leading people to it.

It didn't feel like madness at all, but rather like being controlled by something, it was a bit like being bewitched; having completely lost sanity, yet capable of such acts, it was very strange.

Shiller thought for a moment and said, "Although we each came here for our reasons, it could also be said to be fate, maybe it's because we are all cursed in the same way that we arrived at such a remote place at the same time."

"Where do you think the curse comes from?" Batman asked, looking at him.

Shiller didn't speak, merely silently turning his head, letting his gaze rest on a tall cross beside him.