Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

This speculation emerged in Shiller's mind, and he immediately could not contain it.

But then he thought about it again, the Wandering traits and those mentioned in the Book of Water God regarding the Old Day Dominator, Ipo Zettel, were too similar; it was more likely that the Wandering was the blood incarnate of Ipo.

Suppose the Church was now divided into two factions, one that used door plaques to create bizarre events for personal gain and another that added real heretical sacrifices to controllable bizarre incidents—who would the Great Prophet be with? And which faction would he belong to?

Shiller dared not delve deep into this question.

Firstly, the Great Prophet was one of those who initially went to investigate the hotel; it was very likely he had many door plaques from the hotel, crucial items to maintain his position and that of the Church.

Supposing it was his idea to bring the Church to its current state, there was no way he genuinely hoped for the return of the Old Days, as he was an egoist.

He had gone to great lengths to develop the Church to its current state for the sole purpose of enjoying the pleasures brought by money, power, and resources—to have the Human race fall into madness would mean all his efforts were in vain, right?

That was precisely the point Shiller dared not think about deeply. Supposing the Great Prophet was actually opposed to the Adventist faction, what about him?

Without surprises, he was one of the Pope's persons, and from the Black man's attitude earlier, the Great Prophet and the Pope were at odds.

So, is he actually with the Adventist faction?

Turns out he himself was a Cultist.

But don't say, truly don't say, theorizing from this thought process, it actually makes sense.

The Great Prophet again intended to use door plaques here to create strange events to draw social attention, then stepping in to rescue and boost the Church's prestige.

But the Pope is a Cultist, the one mixing sand in the rice; he chose this opportunity, used some methods to ensure the door could not be successfully opened, turning the Monster into the summoned blood incarnate of Ipo.

On second thought, knowing that the Great Prophet might personally come, the Pope switched the originally controllable Monster for a doppelganger of the Old Day Dominator.

And when the Great Prophet's people thought everything was ready after collecting the door plaques, what they faced wasn't the Monster from behind the doors but the fearsome doppelganger of the Old Day Dominator—and the outcome goes without saying.

Thus Faralines was just a trap, essentially a product of internal strife within the Church.

So, what role was he playing exactly?

Shiller thought rather helplessly; he was the last among the players to enter the scene, also the one with the simplest background story set by all players; but ultimately, the truth of the story still involved him.

Suppose he truly was a Cultist, then he would be the one the Pope sent to ensure the door plaques did not work and summoned the Wandering; after all this time, the Behind-the-scenes Manipulator was himself.

Suppose he had already betrayed the Pope and didn't plan to help him, in order to oppose the Pope he would have to assist the Great Prophet, but looking at the current situation, the Great Prophet wasn't any good either, and aligning now would certainly be too late.

However, fortunately, through the chaos caused by this group of players, neither of the unfortunate parties achieved their goals.

The Wandering was captured by Greed, definitely unable to assassinate the Great Prophet now, and since Shiller had taken the door plaque, the Great Prophet's hopes of retrieving it were gone.

That's why they say stupidity is strong; their random antics successfully dragged both Behind-the-scenes Manipulators into a messy battle, and what followed was using their rich experience in messed up battles to defeat them.

Shiller thought about it and decided to first address the issue in the Captain's Room.

He opened his mouth and said, "If every door has a Monster, then the Great Prophet coming to nail the plaques was definitely not about clashing head-on with Monsters. Besides, under such circumstances, one should enter a hotel room, not the Captain's Room; there must be another way to enter the Captain's Room."

Shiller went through all the clues again in his mind; he felt that the Spell in the "Bible" missing some letters could also be useful.

As he pondered, he also inspected the door plaque in his hand and suddenly discovered that while Room 1913's door plaque was normal, the outer ring of the Captain's Room plaque was not one piece with the interior wooden plaque, and the outer decorative ring could be removed.

Shiller inspected it carefully, after removing the outer ring, the wooden part inside also had screw holes and was precisely smaller than the original door plaque, fitting perfectly into the smaller screw holes.

Moreover, there was nothing on the back of the door plaque, as if it was just waiting for someone to engrave something.

Shiller looked up at Batman and said, "Is there a numerical clue among the missing letters?"

"A numerical clue? Do you mean some letter codes might point to a number?"

Shiller nodded.

Batman meticulously went through the "Bible" again and wrote down all the missing letters but deliberately scrambled the order to prevent writing the actual Spell.

Batman looked and looked, his frown deepening, seemingly unaccustomed to his current slowed thought process.

"Why don't you use a Skill?" The Transcendent said in Shiller's mind, "Your class can use the Password Decryption skill, and you still have two Skill Points."

Shiller hesitated for a moment, feeling that letting Batman think by himself didn't seem right; even if he figured it out, this was clearly not a skill his current identity could master, and he might not be able to articulate it.