Chapter 3156: The Detective Shall Die (18)

"Do you believe him?" Shiler closed the door and looked at Greed, who was walking in front of him.

Greed shook his head and said, "He doesn't look like a good person, but are we any better?"

The blood on Shiler's body was almost dry, but the bloody smell hadn't diminished in the slightest. Fortunately, the priest's clothing was black, so it wasn't very noticeable.

"Are we going to the third floor?" Shiler asked.

"There must be something on the third floor." Greed stood at the top of the stairs, looking up, and said, "What's your status?"

"I'm fine," Shiler shook his head. He was indeed fine; apart from his mental health and health points still being somewhat low, his HP hadn't dropped much, and his stamina was still decent. Fighting another round wouldn't be impossible.

Moreover, his Soul Soothing skill had finished cooling down, so his mental health could be restored instantly. Even if there were something with mental attacks, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

Greed walked up the stairs, saying, "Don't you feel like it's getting more and more dangerous here?"

Shiler understood the implication. Since Pride had left, the game's difficulty had jumped a level from the beginner tutorial. Whether it was that eerie underground river, the rapidly growing reeds in the underground cave, the five mad dogs in the lobby, or even the man named Jeff, everything was extremely dangerous.

If they dared to fish in that dark river, they would lose at least one or two men; when the reeds attacked, if they were even a second too slow, it would be far more than just a severely injured Batman that could solve the problem.

Those five dogs were even more outrageous. Shiler could say that among all the teammates still standing, it was uncertain if any of them could have come out unscathed.

The man named Jeff looked cowardly, but he clearly wasn't as simple as he appeared. His leg had indeed been bitten by a dog, but if he had faced five dogs simultaneously and only been bitten once, and still managed to run to the second floor, it proved he definitely had some skills.

As for the third floor... Shiler looked at the clearly dimly lit corridor and felt that things were taking a dangerous turn.

The structure of the third floor was different from the second; it wasn't a circular atrium surrounded by rooms, but rather a straight passage extending from one side of the atrium, with a window at the end.

After arriving, they heard no movement. Greed and Shiler walked forward one after the other. Just as they stepped into the passage, they heard a "clatter."

It sounded like something metallic had fallen to the ground.

Greed vaguely saw something fall beneath the window ahead.

Shiler activated Spirit Vision and scanned the area, but saw nothing. Greed was as brave as ever; he strode over, but stopped when he reached out to pick up the object on the ground.

"What is it?" Shiler also walked over quickly and asked.

Greed stood up with the object. Without turning around, he passed it over his shoulder to Shiler behind him.

Shiler felt a touch of coldness on his fingertips. By the faint light from the window, he saw it was a doorplate that read "1913."

Greed turned around and exchanged a look with Shiler, but neither said anything. Shiler turned to look at the nearby door, but didn't see any place on the door where a plate could be nailed.

It was as if the doorplate had fallen out of thin air.

Greed took the doorplate back. Shiler leaned against the window, feeling Greed's impatience. This guy wasn't a detective, so expecting him to solve riddles was unrealistic.

Sure enough, Greed picked up the shotgun from the side and kicked open the door on the left. There was nothing inside. Greed lowered the muzzle, and the reflection from the metal barrel illuminated a bear trap on the floor.

The bear trap was sprung open; it was clearly placed there intentionally. If the light had been poor, rushing in blindly would have inevitably resulted in a broken leg.

Shiler went to the second room, also raising his gun and kicking the door. There was nothing in the second room either, but this wasn't good news.

If the game's director was still the Beyonder, there couldn't be no combat. The eerie silence now proved that the game's arranger might have a different style.

Sure enough, a *thump-thump-thump* knocking sound came from behind Greed.

Greed turned around and looked at the door making the sound. He cautiously advanced with the shotgun, but when he reached the door, he kicked it open without hesitation.

It turned out to be a storage room.

However, unlike the small storage room downstairs filled with vegetables, this place was much better stocked. Greed immediately saw two first-aid kits on the shelf, and his eyes lit up.

He gave Shiler a look. Shiler gripped his knife and came behind him. Just as Greed was about to step forward, Shiler coughed.

Greed looked back at him, then followed his gaze to the floor, only then seeing a very, very thin fishing line not far in front of his feet, almost invisible to the naked eye.

Shiler followed the fishing line to the side and found a hole in the wall beneath the shelf on the right.

Another trap? Who set so many traps here?

Greed stepped over the fishing line and grabbed the two first-aid kits. Shiler, by the door, appeared somewhat helpless. Mystifying tactics could deal with most people, but that "most" didn't include Greed; apart from the benefits at hand, his eyes were empty.

Greed threw the two first-aid kits out of the door first, found an empty canvas bag under the shelf, and then began to pick and choose among the shelves as if he were shopping at a supermarket.

This storage room had about a dozen rows of shelves. Shiler didn't go deep inside, but Greed wasn't afraid at all; he even threw the gun to Shiler so he could free up his hands to take things.

He checked the goods on the shelves one by one, even comparing their production dates, tossing one and picking another. Before long, the canvas bag was almost full.

Suddenly, a "rolling" sound came from behind. Greed, who was holding a canned bottle, turned his head and saw a soda can roll past behind him.

Greed ignored it and continued looking at the text on the can. After a while, the sound came again. Greed didn't even turn his head, squatting under the shelf to reach for a bag of flour inside.

He felt something drip onto his arm, but he still struggled to drag the flour out, then started checking its production date again.

In a daze, he felt a gust of wind blow past, but he remembered that the windows in this room were all closed; he turned his head and saw that the window at the end of the shelf he was standing by was open.

A black crow was perched on the windowsill.

Greed looked at the crow, and the crow looked at Greed. Suddenly, the crow rushed over from the windowsill like an arrow from a bow.

Greed felt a gust of wind graze his ear. With a *caw* of miserable pain, a bright kitchen knife struck the crow's head dead center. Greed turned back to see Shiler.

Shiler walked over to examine the crow. He flipped the fallen crow over and saw the dense tumors on its abdomen, knowing it must be a monster mutated by the strangeness.

He remembered what was in Madeline's notes: unless absolutely necessary, monsters usually wouldn't possess animals that were too weak, such as insects or small birds. Although crows were raptors, they weren't particularly powerful.

However, animals within the range of the strange event were likely to be affected by the monsters. Even if not possessed, they would have great malice toward humans, just like the monsters, and would attack humans by any means necessary.

But when Shiler blinked, the tumors were gone. It was just an ordinary crow, and blood flowed onto his hands.

In that brief moment of distraction, Greed disappeared.

The bag he had been carrying fell to the ground, and the items inside rolled out. Shiler reached out to grab the bag's handle, but when he flipped it over, he saw Greed's head inside.

Another blink, and the head vanished. Shiler reached out to take the canned bottle inside, then saw the smiling spokesperson on the can wink at him, and the head suddenly rolled down.

Shiler stood where he was, holding the can, turned his head, and saw Greed's back walking out of the room through the gaps in the shelves, then suddenly heard a scream from the next room.

He turned the can in his hand and began to examine the ingredient list and production date.

He heard rapid breathing in his ear, the direction very hard to determine. Shiler looked up at the window again; the light shone on his face, and his shadow fell behind him.

He turned 180 degrees, completely facing away from the window, where Greed should have been, but now there was nothing.

Shiler activated Spirit Vision.

In an instant, he saw the handle of the flying canvas bag loop around Greed's neck, pulling Greed into mid-air right in front of him, leaving him struggling and gasping for air as if he were being hanged.

Shiler turned back.

He threw away the tin can and picked up the crow; the crow was normal, and there were no tumors on its belly, but Schiller still held the crow's corpse in one hand and raised the kitchen knife with the other.

*Squelch! * With one strike, fresh blood flowed down from his palm. He turned his head and found Greed looking at him with surprise. There was no crow in his hand at all; the tip of the knife had struck his own palm, and fresh blood was dripping onto the floor.

Shiler withdrew the knife, looked at his bleeding palm, and then looked at Greed, saying, "The rule of the illusion is that you must pay a price. You'd better not be so stingy."

"You encountered an illusion?" Greed asked.

Shiler nodded and looked at the crow's corpse still on the floor by his feet, not sure if it was because he had touched the animal's corpse or killed the animal.

Suddenly, Greed also froze. Shiler felt he might have fallen into an illusion too. Two seconds later, he returned to normal, his expression complex as he said, "Do you know what I saw?"

"What?"

"In my hallucination, there was a monster on your body."

Shiler wasn't surprised. He said, "The Prowler? What did it look like?"

Greed shook his head and said, "The point is, if the hallucinations allow us to see the monsters on each other, whether it's real or not, we have a reason to attack one another."

"The Hunter isn't that stupid," Shiler said.

"But the Hunter is severely injured," Greed picked up the bag and said, "Whether it's the Painter, the Lawyer, or the Doctor, they all have sufficient reasons to take his life. The monster is just an excuse for them to act."

Shiler understood what he meant. In the entire team, only the main-universe Batman was a good person in the true sense; the others, whether it was Bruce, Owlman, or the two Jokers, were not to be trusted.

There is also the Prowler, who doesn't know whose body it is possessing; the chance to kill the Prime Universe Batman is right before our eyes.

"I'm more inclined to believe that the hallucination will make the Hunter, who is already in a state of helplessness, do something irrational," Greed said as he and Shiler walked out. "After all, he hasn't seen this trick before; maybe he's unprepared?"

Shiler shook his head, however. Batman wasn't that fragile, and more importantly, everyone had their own secrets. ===== CHAPTER 3157 =====