Chapter 3211: The Haze of Faraines (19)

"Do you feel any better?" Schiller was bandaging the wound on Batman's head while recounting his conversation with Old Siltek and what they had found in the laboratory.

Batman listened in silence, seemingly deep in thought. Once Schiller finished wrapping the bandage, he spoke: "The key to this matter isn't the secret hidden behind it, but the person who hid that secret."

"You mean Old Siltek?"

"Yes. He is the person with the most knowledge of the secrets we can reach. You said he left Faraines; that isn't a good choice, unless he had a reason he absolutely had to."

"Why do you say that?"

"If he wanted to use his information advantage to negotiate with the Church, he would have to ensure he was the only one alive to walk out of here. Not to mention that we are all still alive, even among ordinary people there are survivors. He left in such a hurry without cleaning this place up—something must have happened."

"What do you intend to do next?"

Batman turned his head to ask him, "Will you cooperate with me?"

Schiller set down what he was holding, walked to the first row of church pews, sat beside Batman, and said, "Tell me your plan first."

"The monsters wandering the village now are solid proof of another disaster's arrival. It's not just Old Siltek who can use information advantage to negotiate with the Church; we can too."

"You want me to contact the Church?" Schiller said softly. "But I'm afraid it's not that simple. Although I am a member of the Church and theoretically could even be part of the Pope's personal guard, the Church is divided into many factions. I suspect some people are in league with Old Siltek."

Schiller sighed, looked out through the window behind the cross, and said, "I suspect there are cultists within the Church. They are inseparable from the arrival of the Deep Ones. Old Siltek might be their ally, or perhaps just their pawn."

"You mean that among the anomalies that appeared around the world before, which might have been manufactured by the Church, some weren't actually made by them, but by cultists."

Schiller nodded and told Batman about the strikingly similar characteristics between the Prowlers and the Outer Gods. Batman fell into thought again.

Clearly, the attributes within the game were a major restriction on him, slowing his thinking speed and preventing multi-threaded processing. But fortunately, Batman's own quality was strong enough that even weakened, he remained a brilliant strategist.

"Do you know where Bruce and the others went?" Batman had just received a notification from the Beyonder, knowing they could now chat freely in an unmanned state, so he simply asked directly.

Schiller shook his head and said, "They were supposed to go look for survivors, but looking at the activity in the village now, the possibility of survivors being alive isn't high. They might have left the village."

"We cannot leave the village," Batman said. "The Deep Ones are a big problem. To lead Old Siltek in terms of intelligence, we must know more."

"It seems you've set your sights on those three ships."

"Exactly."

Although Batman's emotions were not clearly expressed, Schiller could still see that he was quite happy that someone could think the same way he did; it seemed this experience was very novel to him.

But Schiller could also roughly guess why: people who could be in sync with Batman in thought, didn't require him to explain too much, and had a temperament that could get along were truly rare.

"We need to prepare some things," Schiller said according to his own thoughts. "The ships must be very dangerous, filled with things that will damage your Sanity value just by looking at them. My skills can't cool down that fast; we need certain means to counter the dangers that might exist ahead."

"There are many cars on the street; we can stock up on some gasoline," Batman continued naturally. "I know there should be magical power on those ships. Ordinary flames are hard to burn, but as long as it doesn't completely break common sense, some physical and chemical means are useful."

"It will be useful." Schiller wasn't comforting Batman, because the Beyonder had said this wasn't a magic dungeon; there was no Heaven, Hell, or mages. This meant that the so-called magical power was actually the forbidden knowledge in traditional Cthulhu mythos that humans could not touch or understand, not some magical shield.

Those three ships weren't made by magic either; it was more likely they were summoned through some forbidden incantations. There must be many dangerous creatures on the ships that would make one go insane just by looking at them, but there absolutely couldn't be any Pokémon that could breathe fire or water. That wouldn't fit the setting of this world's low-magic power level.

"Let's split up," Schiller volunteered. "You do the physical preparations, and I need to study some things to see if I can add a layer of protection to our minds."

Batman glanced at him. It wasn't an expression of distrust; Schiller interpreted this emotion as a kind of worry, so he said, "The more sufficient your preparations are, the less pressure I'll have. But if I really can't find anything useful, I have a last resort."

The last resort Schiller spoke of was, of course, the *Book of Cthaya*. This book was indeed dangerous, but if there wasn't something restricting it, it would definitely be ten or a hundred times more dangerous than it was now.

Batman agreed with his idea, so he left the church. Schiller believed that he, like himself, already had a plan.

After Batman left, Schiller began to take stock of his resources. The reason he dared to boast in front of Batman was, naturally, that he had something to rely on.

As far as he knew, the book *Cthaya, the Water God* contained the famous Elder Sign.

The investigator's three treasures are a crowbar, an Elder Sign, and a good teammate. Now Schiller had already obtained the crowbar, and Batman could be called a top-tier teammate, so now he was only missing the Elder Sign.

As for the true origin of the Elder Sign, opinions actually vary, but it is nothing more than the restrictions left behind by the Great Old Ones' arch-enemies. It is usually a small pattern drawn on a stone.

This setting first appeared in the book *The Shadow Over Innsmouth*. The book mentioned that the residents of Innsmouth would use small stones engraved with strange patterns to resist the attacks of the Deep Ones, and that was the prototype of the Elder Sign.

Later, other authors expanded on this setting, defining the Elder Sign as something hated by the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods. "When an Old One encounters an Elder Sign, it's like a person encountering feces" also became a classic description of the relationship between the Elder Sign and the Great Old Ones.

This actually shows that for the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, these small patterns might be a bit annoying, but assuming he can endure it, or your connection to him is too deep, he can also kill you while bearing the Elder Sign.

Even so, this can be said to be one of the few means of human resistance in Cthulhu mythos, specifically used to counter Outer Gods like Nyarlathotep who come to annoy you even when you haven't provoked them. For Nyarlathotep, the Elder Sign is also known as "everyone eats feces together."

But Nyarlathotep is clearly very good at eating feces; the Elder Sign is basically useless to him, otherwise there wouldn't be so many victims.

Later, as the setting gradually expanded and enriched, almost every Outer God and Great Old One had their own exclusive symbols. These symbols were not used to counter them, but to contact them, with the same effect as summoning incantations.

It's just that if one wants to use the symbols to summon them, the process is more complex, requiring activities similar to sacrifices, and the correct placement of symbols and other secret texts. This is almost a field that humans cannot study.

Even if Schiller roughly knew what the Elder Sign looked like, these belonged to knowledge outside the game and could not be used directly. He had to first investigate the Elder Sign within the game before he could use this magic treasure.

They were currently in Faraines, not Innsmouth, and there were no locals who knew how to use the Elder Sign. The only thing Schiller could count on now was the *Cthaya, the Water God* in his hand.

There should be an Elder Sign in this book, and its role is to prevent the filth in the book from continuing to spread.

But to investigate the Elder Sign, one must open this book. This posed a great risk to Schiller because this book was filled with insane and filthy forbidden knowledge. Schiller didn't think he could successfully finish reading this book with his willpower.

Then he could only take a gamble and guess which page the Elder Sign was on. To be precise, guess whether it was in the front, the middle, or the back. This book wasn't very thick; as long as he guessed the approximate location, he should be able to find it after looking at two or three pages.

Schiller held the book in his hands and examined it repeatedly. Soon, he discovered that the book cover began to become somewhat damp, but this wasn't because the church air was damp; it was because the human skin wrapping the book cover was sweating.

Although he had anticipated this, Schiller's Sanity value still inevitably had to drop. This time, the way it dropped was slightly gentler; he broke out in a cold sweat, his vision blurred for a moment, and it was over.

"Beyonder, are you there? I've decided to read the book."

"Are you sure?" The Beyonder's voice sounded. He said, "I must remind you, you clearly don't have the ability to read this book, so the dice roll situation will be very grim. If you unfortunately roll a critical failure, your death probability will be 100%."

"I said I decided to read it, but I didn't say I'd read it now." Schiller stood up and said, "Of course I'll make some preparations."

"What do you intend to do?"

"Summon Nyarlathotep."

"What???"

Schiller sighed and said, "Is there any better way in the current situation? Dealing with Nyarlathotep is like asking a tiger for its skin, but dealing with other Outer Gods is even more like walking into a tiger's den."

"The Church won't sit by and watch the situation develop. Once the situation in Faraines is known to them, regardless of whether I am a member of them, they definitely won't want me to leave here alive. To counter the Church's endless means, I must have something to rely on."

"No, you can't do that." The Beyonder said, "In the game, you have no reason to be able to come into contact with the name Nyarlathotep. If you don't know of his existence, you cannot summon him."

"That's why I have to find a way to know of his existence first." Schiller walked toward the outside of the church and said, "During the time Pride came knocking, who was hosting the game?"

Seeing the Beyonder silent, Schiller sneered and said.

"I am asking a tiger for its skin, and you are inviting a wolf into the house."

Schiller arrived outside the church. At this time, those Deep Ones that had been lured away by Bruce earlier had basically returned to their original positions, and they began patrolling the village again.

Schiller circled to the side and back of the church and saw two Deep Ones walking together toward the east side of the street.

Schiller didn't choose to use a gun, because the sound of a gunshot was simply too easy to attract other Deep Ones. He rushed up with lightning speed and struck the back of a Deep One's head with a crowbar.

Strength check 30 > 20, critical success.

Schiller raised his eyebrows in some surprise. He didn't expect to be able to roll a critical success; this was also the best luck he'd had in this game.

With a "bang," the Deep One's skull was smashed directly, and brain matter splattered onto its companion's face, making that monster freeze for a moment.

"Combat begins..."

The sinister voice sounded again.

Schiller, however, didn't make a move on the other Deep One again. Instead, after this voice sounded, he immediately asked in his heart: "Who are you?"

"You finally noticed..." ===== CHAPTER 3212 =====