Chapter 3212: The Haze of Faraines (20)

Schiller thought to himself, with your style of fishing for three days and drying nets for two, speaking one moment and not the next, how could I not notice?

Actually, from the time he fought those hounds, he had discovered that the combat broadcast was a bit off.

At first, he speculated that maybe there were broadcasts when fighting players, but not when fighting ordinary monsters. But later, he had conflicts with players, and sometimes there were none, while fighting monsters had them again.

Was this combat broadcast a bit too arbitrary?

And ever since Pride brought him here, the Beyonder had been approached by Pride, presumably busy explaining, and hadn't made a sound for a while.

When it spoke again later, the tone had completely changed; the style was entirely different from before, and it was a world of difference, as if afraid others wouldn't be able to tell.

And when Joker wasn't dead yet, being chased by reeds in the underground cave, several of Batman's dice results were bad, leading to the main universe Batman being severely injured. This should have been Joker's handiwork.

But the subsequent dice turned black and gold, and no matter how they were rolled, they were critical failures. It looked like it should also be Joker's skill, but in reality, Joker could only have one skill.

In other words, controlling the dice numbers and making the dice change color and directly rolling a critical failure should be a choice of one or the other; it was impossible to have both.

And this later skill was also too outrageous. Even Greed, who could directly release wind blades, didn't have that much lethality. Cutting a person could only cut them in half, and after a certain distance, it could only leave a shallow mark on the wall. Rather than magic, it was more like a melee auxiliary skill.

The skill strength of others was about the same, but if Joker really had a skill that forced everyone to roll a critical failure, then this balance was too outrageous.

Schiller suspected that the later black and gold dice might indeed have been Joker's doing, otherwise they wouldn't have returned to normal when someone shouted. But he might not have been using a skill; it was possible he had reached a deal with a certain entity.

And this entity was highly likely to be Nyarlathotep.

It wasn't necessarily that the Beyonder had approached him; it was also possible that he had been eyeing the Beyonder for a long time, or to be precise, had been eyeing the Battleworld for a long time.

This thing was a sweet treat. Anyone who could understand its nature wouldn't be uninterested. Which prankster wouldn't like electronic cricket fighting? It was normal for Nyarlathotep to be interested.

Especially since he was also the creditor of Schiller, the major shareholder. Seeing that the debt couldn't be collected, collecting some interest wasn't excessive.

It was estimated that for this very reason, Pride didn't stop him. After all, there might be a use for him in restricting Barbatos later, so giving him some sweetness now didn't matter.

But just thinking about it, one knew how much this cunning Outer God would push his luck. He wouldn't be happy just watching from the sidelines. Since the Beyonder had invited him over, and the game script happened to be related to their group of Outer Gods, how could he resist not entering the fray?

It was estimated that he also used this reason to convince the Beyonder to hand over the game for him to host. After all, the God of Stories didn't like to interfere with stories, and Walter might not understand knowledge in this area. Basically, only Nyarlathotep was professionally suited. Anyway, it was just broadcasting and rolling dice. The Beyonder must have felt that no big trouble could be caused, so he simply handed it to Nyarlathotep.

But who was Nyarlathotep? If there was fun, he wanted to watch it; if there was no fun, he would create fun to watch it. So he deliberately made the new broadcaster's voice completely different from the Beyonder's, just to attract the attention of these players.

Just as the Beyonder said, there were three Batmen, two Jokers, and two Schillers in this game, and not one of them had a bad brain. On average, everyone had eight hundred schemes; they would definitely notice the difference in the broadcaster's voice immediately.

Nyarlathotep dropped a bait, and naturally, someone was willing to take the hook. Joker was the first fish to take the hook.

Joker might have had some understanding of Cthulhu mythos, but not enough. Otherwise, he would have known that anyone who made a deal with Nyarlathotep would not have a good ending.

Of course, that was for those who completed the deal; those who reneged on the debt didn't count.

Although Nyarlathotep mostly played the role of background board in Cthulhu mythos works, and those with slightly more screen time were his avatars, almost all authors had very negative evaluations of him. All deals made with him would end in tragedy.

Just like Joker.

Among the players who had died so far, only Joker died the most miserably. Others were basically killed by a single shot. Joker, on the other hand, was directly electrocuted into a well-done steak.

This certainly had the reason of Bruce's lack of learning, but assuming Joker had already made a deal with Nyarlathotep, then his way of dying wasn't surprising.

Bruce debugging equipment definitely had to pass checks. His so-called slip of the hand might have been failing the dice roll, and judging from the result of the nine thunder tribulations, it was highly likely he rolled a critical failure.

And the content of Joker's deal with Nyarlathotep was related to dice. He had Nyarlathotep create a die that could only roll critical failures, and in the end, he died from a critical failure of the die. Such a black-humored echo was simply Nyarlathotep's signature of the crime.

Schiller didn't know how Nyarlathotep treated Joker, but he felt it shouldn't have been in the tone of a resentful woman like now. Schiller rolled his eyes in his heart; he hadn't just discovered it now, he had only dared to do it now.

If it weren't for exploring those three ships that looked very ominous, Schiller wouldn't have resorted to this. Looking at the situation, anyway, he had to find an Outer God to cooperate with. Finding Nyarlathotep, even if the ending was miserable, at least the strength was high enough. Regardless of whether it was *Cthaya* or *Yibb-Tstll*, they shouldn't be able to beat Nyarlathotep.

Although he complained several times in his heart, Schiller still closed his eyes slowly like someone who had just come into contact with forbidden knowledge and asked in his heart.

"Who are you?"

Actually, at this time, one should answer "My name is XX." This is the normal process for communicating with Outer Gods. After all, there are many ways to contact them, and no one can guarantee that their phone number is correct; one must ensure that the right person is answering the phone.

But Nyarlathotep is clearly not a normal god.

"Given the relationship between us, there's no need to go through those processes. You can just call me Nyarlathotep."

Nyarlathotep used Brand's voice. Schiller broke character instantly. His mind was now filled with images of Schiller and Brand meeting at the club to play cards in the afternoon.

Incidentally, Nyarlathotep was really bad at cards, and he especially couldn't afford to lose. Once he was about to lose, he would secretly confuse the other party, making the opponent play very badly too.

"Change your voice," Schiller said.

"Alright, tell me what you need me to help you do."

Schiller covered his forehead, because this time Nyarlathotep used the hotel manager's voice. You might as well not have changed it.

The other party seemed to have discovered that Schiller was also dissatisfied with this voice. After adjusting for a long time, he finally changed into a smoky voice that very much fit the public stereotype of a Great Demon King.

"Can you ensure I won't be eroded by the forbidden knowledge in this book?" Schiller asked, holding the book in his hand.

"Is that all? I can even let you sail those three ships away."

"Sail to R'lyeh?" Schiller said with great disdain. "Trading with you, the more conditions, the more miserably one dies. I just want this. Can you do it?"

"Actually, you can do it yourself," Nyarlathotep said. "This book sweats because the previous owner used his own skin and soul to turn this book into a living thing."

Schiller's hand pressing on the book cover paused slightly. What did Nyarlathotep mean?

"Your talent is unparalleled. When you fall into hallucinations, you can naturally see the mysteries of this book without having to open it," Nyarlathotep explained, seemingly very patiently.

Schiller understood immediately. He looked down at the *Book of Cthaya* in his hand. This thing possessed human skin and soul, which proved that it could also be psychoanalyzed.

It might sound absurd, but Schiller's hallucinations were even more absurd and unreasonable.

That is to say, now as long as his Sanity value drops to the bottom, without opening this book, he might also be able to use his talent to directly gain insight into the mysteries within the book.

Nyarlathotep was indeed not easy to deal with. Schiller admitted he was tempted.

Trading with Nyarlathotep was not as simple as asking a tiger for its skin. Even if this was just a game, Schiller didn't want to die miserably.

Anatoly could renege on Nyarlathotep's debt, mainly because they were in the DC universe. Nyarlathotep was just an avatar here, equivalent to a diplomatic ambassador, not the emperor of the country. The power he could mobilize was limited.

Although the power he lent to Anatoly was not small, Anatoly clearly understood the principle of not shearing the same sheep. He borrowed a little here and a little there. This bit of power didn't hurt Nyarlathotep's vitality; it was something that didn't matter whether he had it or not.

But now, the game Schiller was in had a Cthulhu mythos background. Although it was fictionalized by the God of Stories, it could be considered Nyarlathotep's old home.

After offending Nyarlathotep in the comic universe, one could still find Lucifer or God; they were the big bosses in the comic universe. But if one offended Nyarlathotep in a Cthulhu-background universe, it was basically equivalent to offending the vice-chairman. Saying goodbye to the beautiful world was only a matter of time.

Even when facing the Great Old Ones, Schiller was extremely cautious, otherwise he wouldn't have been afraid to read that book. Mentioning trading with Nyarlathotep, he was also ten thousand times unwilling.

But now there was a way for him not to trade with Nyarlathotep, yet still understand some of the contents of the book, adding another layer of protection to his subsequent exploration path. Schiller couldn't help but be tempted.

He took a deep breath and weighed the pros and cons between the two in his heart.

Trading with Nyarlathotep meant being prepared to die miserably even if the game was won. Although death was just a way to exit the game, Schiller couldn't be sure who was watching this scene now. If there were a few who would go insane, then who knew how much trouble there would be after exiting the game.

Lowering the Sanity value and looking at it himself might not necessarily lead to seeing anything. What Nyarlathotep said might not be credible, but if he could succeed, combined with Schiller's skill to restore his Sanity value, it could be said there was almost no loss.

It could only be said that if he had any other personality traits, he would definitely have chosen the latter.

But unfortunately, the investigator hated mental instability very much, so after a long silence, he said: "Tell me your conditions first, Nyarlathotep." ===== CHAPTER 3213 =====