Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Shiller and Batman reached the third level, which was much larger than the two below, primarily because of the Captain's Room and the Captain's private storage located on this deck.

As soon as they arrived on this level, Batman noticed a series of footprints. The intruders who had entered with them appeared to have headed straight for this level.

They had just emerged from the stairs when they heard a commotion ahead; someone was fighting.

Batman and Shiller simultaneously took the same action – they crouched low, treaded lightly, and rapidly moved to the corner of the corridor to peek out.

A Black man was struggling with a Deep Diver.

Batman pulled his head back and said to Shiller, "This guy is from the Church, one of your peers."

Given that Shiller was wearing night vision goggles, he could see much more clearly; this Black man was dressed similarly to him, clearly coming from the Court, but the patterns on his cloth weren't as dense, surely not a personal guard.

"What do you think?" Batman looked at Shiller and asked.

"I'll think of something," Shiller said. "Going head-to-head isn't a wise choice; he clearly is quite capable."

Shiller wasn't just bluffing. With the night vision goggles, he could clearly see that the man wore a Cross necklace around his neck. The Deep Diver seemed somewhat afraid of it; otherwise, it wouldn't be clashing back and forth with a human who wasn't even 1.8 meters tall.

Furthermore, the Bible that this Black man held was no ordinary Bible; the Deep Diver dared not touch it. As soon as the man stretched out the hand holding the Bible, the ugly fish face of the Deep Diver almost overflowed with revulsion.

This guy had definitely come prepared.

Unfortunately, at this moment, another Deep Diver burst out from behind him, trident in hand, and now he was flanked by enemies.

Shiller rolled forward, grabbed the gun barrel with his hand bearing the old seal until he felt the barrel heating up slightly, then aimed for the head of the Deep Diver behind the man and fired.

Bang!

The bullet hit the creature's head, but it didn't just make a hole—it exploded, showering the Black man's face with brain matter.

The man flinched, but was clearly well-trained. He instantly rolled to the side, looked back, and noticed the trident that the now-dead Deep Diver had dropped.

It seemed he thought the long weapon could be useful, so he immediately reached for it.

Shiller, shocked, shouted urgently, "Don't—!"

"Ah—!!!!!"

The moment the Black man touched the trident, he screamed agonizingly as the skin that came into contact with the trident began to decay rapidly.

Batman inwardly cursed, then charged out, kicking the tail end of the trident away hard, sending the object flying far, and landed another firm kick to the abdomen of the Deep Diver in front of him.

His strength was also formidable; his kick made the Deep Diver stagger, while Shiller, using the hand marked with the old seal, picked up a crowbar and smashed it down on the creature's head.

Bang! Bang bang!

Three blows delivered with three strength tests, two success and one fail, they managed to knock the Deep Diver to the ground.

The Black man seemed shocked. Shiller then turned on the flashlight, not to see him better, but for him to see Shiller's outfit.

"Who are you, some rookie? Has the Court started sending interns on missions now?!"

The man was taken aback by the scolding. He was about to retort when he saw the golden-lined priest robe Shiller wore, and the words died in his throat.

"You... you're from the personal guard?"

Shiller seemed not inclined to waste words with him. He stabbed the crowbar into one Deep Diver's lungs, releasing all the oxygen within, and did the same to the other whose head had been exploded, preventing their revival.

The Black man's expression was complex. He said, "So you really are from the personal guard. Did the Pope himself send you? Does the Great Prophet Gad know about this?"

Shiller immediately caught the essential name in his speech. Gad... wasn't that name familiar? One of the founders of the Church, one of the Three Saints?

Shiller showed an attitude of not wanting to discuss further, quickly finishing off both Deep Divers. He gestured to Batman who dragged the bodies into a nearby storeroom.

Shiller shook the blood off the crowbar and looked at the Black man. "What the Pope wants to do has nothing to do with your master. I'm letting you go as a courtesy to a colleague; you'd better scram as far as you can."

Fire flashed in the man's eyes as he took a deep breath. "The era of arrogant personal guards is long gone! The people of the Great Prophet will be here soon, and then you're finished!"

Shiller didn't even glance at him, heading towards the Captain's Room down the other end of the corridor.

"Wait! You can't go in there!" The Black man quickly followed, hesitant to interfere as he nursed a slash on his shoulder which left one arm hanging limp.

Shiller reached the door to the Captain's Room; it was locked with a distinctive lock shaped like an octopus with tentacles drawn in, practically screaming, "I am a cultist."

Shiller stood in front of the door, turned around, and raised his gun.

The Black man immediately raised his hands, yet still frowned and said, "Why are you so obstinate? The Pope doesn't have much time left, the Great Prophet is the one we should follow, he is the Lighthouse of the returnee, a guiding light for us, he will bring true happiness to this world..."

"If he can't show up in front of me right now, you're as good as dead," Shiller said, undisturbed, "We're both here for the same reason. I'm already being generous by offering to let you go."

"You can't open that door!" the man pressed aggressively. "Only the Great Prophet can handle what's inside! Otherwise, both you and the Pope are going to die ugly!"

Shiller sneered disdainfully, "So you're just his guide dog?"

"You!" the Black man took a deep breath, "Aren't you here looking for the Pope too?"

As he regarded Shiller's gun pointed at him, he stepped back and said bitterly, "Anyway, only the Great Prophet can open this door. Just keep guarding it until our people arrive—they'll take care of you."

After finishing, he ran away.

When Batman came back after handling the body, he looked at the figure's disappearing back. Shiller shook his head and said, "He was just a useless pawn, no need to waste time on him."

Batman did not refute, he merely said, "Indeed, there's no need to interrogate him since I roughly know what's going on."

"Let's hear it."

"This isn't a good place to flirt. Can you open this door?"

Shiller looked down at the obviously unusual lock and asked the Transcendent, "What check do I need to pass to open this lock?"

"Cthulhu Mythos," the Transcendent replied.

This was not surprising to Shiller, if the "Book of Water God Keta Yate" originally appeared on this ship, it would be odd if there were no cultists here, possibly even the captain.

"Do you think I have a high chance of passing the check?"

"It's not about chances, it's simply impossible," the Transcendent said. "Even if you could pass the check, your mental health value couldn't withstand it."

"That bad?"

"Can I tell you that this was originally intended as the final boss's setting?" The Transcendent finally couldn't help but say, "The book you are holding was designed to be the motherfucking final boss!"

"Oh?"

Shiller glanced down at the Book of Water God in his hand. The book had been peaceful since it arrived in his possession, showing no problems, but that might be because it was with him.

But it made sense if this was the final boss. If they hadn't jumped levels and turned on each other senselessly, they surely would have explored the ship. And to be well-prepared, they would certainly have read the book.

Whether from the deck or the lower levels, they would go through a series of battles and explorations, eventually arriving at the door of the Captain's Room.

He had assumed the final boss would be the captain, but it turned out to be the book that had been leading them with clues, which was an interesting twist. The dignity of the "Book of Water God Keta Yate" indeed qualified it to be a final boss.

"Why did you change your mind?" Shiller asked curiously.

"Did you notice something?" The tone of the Transcendent was somewhat gritting.

"What?"

"Wasn't your journey here a bit too smooth?"

"Isn't that because we are cautious and powerful?"

"Bullshit!" the Transcendent shouted. "It's because that maniac Bruce in the village burnt out half the Deep Divers' oxygen with his car racing! They all went back to recharge! Of course, there were no monsters on the way!!"

"Uh..." That was somewhat unexpected for Shiller, but he recalled the charred tire marks he had seen on the streets, which indeed seemed like something Bruce could do.

"A few fewer monsters isn't a big deal, right?" Shiller paused before adding, "That shouldn't affect the boss battle, should it?"

"Not affect my ass!" the Transcendent raised his voice again and said, "The boss is gone, how can there be a boss battle?!"

"Gone? How did it go missing?" Shiller was momentarily puzzled.

After a while, he came to his senses, oh, Nya had obliterated it, right?

He had only asked Nya for spiritual protection, but with Nya's level, not only could it crush the soul of any cultist, but even if Ipo Zettel showed up it wouldn't make a difference.

Probably when Nya was establishing the protection, it incidentally crushed the soul of that cultist, since he had also said he wouldn't let Shiller die that easily.

"Hmm… So since there's nothing behind the door, this lock doesn't serve any purpose anymore, does it?" Shiller tentatively asked.

The Transcendent huffed coldly and said, "The boss is gone, but the treasure chest for completing the level is still inside. Without that book to give you clues, you'd never be able to open this door in your lifetime."

Shiller took a deep breath; this was indeed a bit problematic.

It seemed the Transcendent had designed the process to let this book guide them to find clues to open this lock, then backstab them after opening it, and finally they would defeat the cultist possessed in the book, and then they could take the treasure chest and leave.

There was probably also an epilogue cutscene, outlining what happened to Old Sirteck, the important supporting character's fate was pretty much clear at this point.

Old Sirteck was completely fooled by Jeff, if he had summoned the catastrophe, he surely would have met an unpleasant end.

The Church forged a Pandora's Box, but their greed led them to open the real Pandora's Box, probably getting what they deserved.

The ending would probably freeze at a salvage company discovering a new shipwreck, the book and other items in the captain's room being salvaged, heralding the start of another horror story.

But because Shiller and his group didn't take the usual path, the situation had become somewhat awkward.

The book had no reaction, probably because it had been passive for a while now. Without the evil spirit in the book providing clues, they couldn't open the lock, and naturally, they couldn't get the so-called treasure chest for completing the level.

Shiller sighed and asked, "Do we absolutely have to get the treasure chest to complete the level?"

"Not necessarily," the Transcendent said. "The story will follow new changes based on your different choices, without any predetermined ending, almost infinitely extending, just depending on how far you can go."

Shiller understood; the Transcendent and the God of Stories had probably designed an ending for the story, but they had selected "or" in almost every "yes or no" choice, making the original ending completely unusable.

However, the God of Stories still had skills; as long as the players continued playing, he could keep weaving the story.

Although the original final antagonist had died, hadn't this also introduced a new character?

Shiller decided to first meet the Great Prophet Gad.