Chapter 3167

Just as Schiller was about to throw his second punch, his wrist was grabbed by Bruce, and Bruce's other hand countered with a punch of his own, but Schiller dodged it.

Schiller broke free from Bruce's restraint, and just as he was about to brandish his knife, Owlman raised the pistol in his hand, aiming it at Schiller's head.

"If you move again, I'm going to shoot," Owlman said.

"I advise you not to do that," the Pale Knight suddenly spoke up. "I have a way to make your bullets unable to hit him. Do you want to try?"

Schiller narrowed his eyes slightly; he knew the Pale Knight was also preparing to show his hand. He likely possessed a protective talent skill, though it was hard to say for sure before he actually used it. Perhaps his goal was the same as Schiller's: to probe what Owlman's skill was.

From the Pale Knight's demeanor, it was clear he held Owlman, this evil Batman, in great contempt. After all, he was a righteous Joker, and his corresponding nemesis should be an evil Batman; it was likely the Pale Knight had long wanted to make a move against Owlman.

Although Owlman was an evil Batman, he was still a Batman, and he could certainly understand why the Pale Knight said that. It was just that the initiative in this probing game did not lie with him, but with Schiller, who held the knife.

If Schiller made a move on Bruce and Owlman fired, but the Pale Knight used his talent skill to protect Schiller, then Bruce would be the only one out of luck.

The knife that had just slashed Greed's carotid artery was still fresh in his mind. Although Owlman didn't know that all the Schillers were the same person, even if he viewed them as counterparts from different universes, Schiller's strikes were ruthless enough. Even the Joker, known for chaos and madness, wouldn't necessarily slash someone the moment they met.

"Don't be too greedy," Greed spoke up again. "Isn't the information you've obtained enough?"

"It is truly an honor to have Greed tell me not to be too greedy." Schiller was not in a hurry at all. As long as he didn't make a move, the rounds wouldn't increase, time would remain paused, and nothing would be delayed. He had plenty of time to spar with them here.

Schiller knew Greed could certainly see what he wanted; it was just that this guy was too greedy and unwilling to give it up. If it really came down to it, he would truly have no choice but to stab Bruce twice.

"Fine, let's talk about Batman," Greed finally relented. He said, "I don't know what you saw in that final letter, but I can only tell you that there is a reason we are targeting him."

"You admit it?" Schiller smiled and said, "Then let's start by talking about what is going on here."

Greed pursed his lips and said, "The time each person arrived here is different. The first corpse you saw was killed by me, and the primary crime scene was indeed not in that room."

Schiller recalled the corpse he saw the moment he opened his eyes—the detective whose upper body had been sliced open. At the time, Schiller had discovered that the incision on the upper body was so smooth it was impossible for an ordinary person to achieve; if it had been sliced open by a wind blade, then it would be perfectly normal.

However, Schiller did not ask Greed why he killed him; he only asked, "Who was that person?"

"His name was Dogert," Greed said, stating a name, then continued, "I killed him in a forest on the way from the village to the cabin, and then the heavy snow buried all the bloodstains and footprints."

"Is he the detective from the opening introduction?" the Pale Knight asked.

"To be honest, I don't know."

"You don't know, yet you dared to kill him?!" The Pale Knight's brow was tightly furrowed. He said, "What if he was a key plot character?"

Greed's expression remained as usual, without the slightest embarrassment at being accused. He said, "If he were truly a very key character, he wouldn't have been killed by me. Since he is dead, it means he wasn't that important."

"That is pure sophistry," the Pale Knight said.

"Fine, then let me change to another reason," Greed continued. "I don't need to say much; you all know that, in fact, only we are the so-called key plot characters, aren't we?"

Schiller understood his implication: all the people who died were merely NPCs in the game. This didn't mean they lacked human rights, but rather that these characters controlled by the system were far less useful than players like them who could manipulate the system to change the story.

But Schiller felt this wouldn't be Greed's true intention. Greed's worldview was actually very strange; he believed everything in this world had utility, and killing and destruction were a form of extreme waste, which he hated doing.

At the same time, he wasn't the type to kill at will just because this was a fictional instance, because he felt such instances were no different from the pocket universes of Marvel. All the living beings inside were real, and he should strive for their infinite right to develop. Even if there were degrees of closeness, he wouldn't kill the innocent without necessity.

Schiller felt Greed had two motives for killing Dogert: the first was that he had been forced into a dead end by Dogert and had to counterattack in self-defense; the other was that, in Greed's view, this Dogert had to die, otherwise he would fall into an extremely disadvantageous situation.

This made Schiller think: how were the overlaps and contradictions in the stories handled when these people were inventing stories without knowing what the others had invented? Did the Beyonder fill them in himself?

Schiller didn't think the Beyonder had such ability. However, the Battleworld shareholders were deep and mysterious, and one very important character among them was the God of Stories, Loki. Currently, 80% of the original instances in Battleworld were written by him, and perhaps only he could round out several stories that might contradict and conflict with each other.

Since there were conflicts, trade-offs were inevitable. The Beyonder had indeed never guaranteed that the background stories could be 100% realized.

Could it be that Greed learned from this so-called Dogert that something was affecting the people in the background story he had invented, or was it simply that Dogert's existence was interfering with certain things in his background story?

Assuming this Dogert, who was sliced open by Greed, was the detective who was dying in the opening introduction, then what exactly did he know that made Greed willing to kill him?

This made Schiller very interested.

Looking back from the beginning, the owner of the diary invited the detective to the village. If the owner of the diary was the hunter played by Batman, and the invited detective was killed by the photographer played by Greed, then it proved that Greed's background story and the main universe Batman's background story were connected yet conflicted.

Now, there were no clues to Greed's background story, but the main universe Batman's background story already had a lead.

It really did have a connection to the medical insurance company.

Greed said he was a rich second-generation heir, and the clothes he wore were indeed designer brands, and his camera was also worth a fortune. Could it be that he set his own parents to be giants of some insurance company?

It was known that the purpose of the hunter played by Batman was not actually to solve the Prowler incident, but to expose Silteke. Thus, his purpose in calling the detective over was not to investigate the anomaly.

Schiller immediately realized that the opening monologue was actually misleading. First, it said a Prowler incident broke out in a village, and then it said a detective came to investigate the Prowler, so people would preconceivedly think this detective was here to investigate the anomaly.

But in fact, the Prowler appearing in this village had an inextricable connection to what Silteke had done to Madeline back then. His coming to investigate the Prowler might not necessarily be to investigate the anomaly; it could also be to investigate Madeline or to investigate Silteke.

In other words, the detective could be a helper brought by the main universe Batman to expose Silteke's conspiracy. No, it was more likely that the detective had already investigated more information outside the village, and this trip was to deliver intelligence to the hunter.

Schiller remembered Jeff once mentioning that the hunter Harold had a detective friend with incredible abilities. This description couldn't help but make one feel this guy wasn't an ordinary detective, so it was very reasonable for him to be involved in such matters.

Then the process of the whole thing could be that after Greed entered the game, he met Dogert, used some methods to learn from his mouth what intelligence he had brought, felt this intelligence was disadvantageous to him, so he killed Dogert first, then thought of ways to unite with the Joker to trap the hunter played by Batman to death.

It seemed Greed knew from the beginning that this was a player-versus-player instance, Schiller thought. He and Pride still lacked experience with this kind of game, which was why they didn't see it at the beginning, giving Greed an opportunity.

But Schiller felt the main universe Batman should have been prepared long ago. His scheme of escaping with a serious injury was likely prepared long ago, and there was even a feeling that he was just waiting for the people in the team to make a move.

Schiller could only say that he was worthy of being Batman.

But there were still many doubts. Schiller thought for a moment and decided to ask from the beginning. He said, "Then what about the second corpse?"

He was referring to the guy who was originally thought to be the owner of the diary, who had lost his limbs and whose stomach was full of fish.

"He wasn't killed by me," Greed said. "When I dragged the corpse into the cabin, I found he had already been hung up."

Greed's emphasis was on the verb "hung up." There was no doubt he was implying that this guy wasn't killed by a monster either, but by a human, because monsters wouldn't look for a hemp rope to hang someone from the rafters.

Schiller had this question when he first saw the corpse, but at that time he didn't know much about the nature of the monsters. What if a monster could really hang someone from the rafters after possessing someone else?

But if it was also human-caused, who could have killed him?

Because he didn't know who this guy was, Schiller scanned the room and didn't speak easily; he waited for someone to provide more clues.

"He ate fish," Owlman, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up.

At this moment, Schiller also reacted.

From the already confirmed background story of the main universe Batman, it could be inferred that Silteke raised those fish to hoard rare goods. To achieve this, he couldn't let too many people know the news. He couldn't possibly take a megaphone and promote in the village that the fish had detoxifying effects.

Then, people who could know about this might be like the hunter played by Batman, hired by Silteke, and able to learn the inside story.

Once such people felt they were affected by the anomaly, they would definitely try to eat the fish in desperation. Even if it wasn't necessarily effective, it wouldn't hurt to take a gamble at this point.

If that guy was hired by Silteke, then the one with the most motive to kill him was the main universe Batman. This would not only weaken Silteke's power in the village but also prevent this guy from reporting the news.

But the biggest problem was that Batman didn't kill people. Even in the game, he didn't kill, and it was even less possible for him to torture him before he died by cutting off his limbs.

Wait, Schiller suddenly thought, Batman indeed didn't kill, but he wouldn't stop others from killing at all times either.

Then the only person present who had a relationship with Silteke was Madeline.