Chapter 3216: The Haze of Faraines (24)

Schiller and Batman boarded the third level, which was much larger than the two levels below. The key was that the captain's cabin and the captain's private warehouse were also on this level.

Just as they arrived at this level, Batman discovered a series of footprints. This intruder who entered with them should be aiming for this level.

They had just come out of the stairs when they heard movement ahead. Someone was fighting.

Batman and Schiller did the same action at the same time, which was to lower their bodies, lighten their footsteps, and quickly come to the corner of this passage, sticking their heads out to look.

A black man was fighting with a Deep One.

Batman retracted his head, looked at Schiller, and said, "This guy is from the Church, your colleague."

Because Schiller was wearing night-vision goggles, he saw more clearly. This black man was wearing clothes similar to his, and at a glance, he was from the Inquisition. But the patterns on his body weren't as dense as his, so he shouldn't be from the personal guard.

"What do you say?" Batman looked at Schiller and asked.

"I'll find a way," Schiller said. "Hard confrontation isn't a good choice. He clearly has some skills."

Schiller wasn't talking nonsense. He saw clearly with his night-vision goggles that this guy also wore a cross necklace around his neck. The Deep One seemed a bit afraid of that thing, otherwise it wouldn't have been fighting back and forth with a human who was less than 1.8 meters tall.

And the *Bible* in this black man's hand wasn't simple either. The Deep One didn't dare to touch it at all. The other party reached out with the hand holding the *Bible*, and the disgusted expression on that ugly fish face was almost overflowing.

This guy was definitely prepared.

But very unfortunately, at this moment, another Deep One rushed out from behind him, holding a trident in its hand. This time he was attacked from both sides.

Schiller rolled out, first holding the gun barrel with the hand engraved with the Elder Sign until he felt the gun barrel start to heat up slightly, then aimed at the head of the Deep One behind the other party and fired a shot.

Bang!

The bullet hit the other party's head, but it didn't just shoot a hole; it exploded directly, and the Deep One's brain matter splattered the black man's face.

The other party was stunned, but clearly also well-trained, and immediately rolled to one side. Turning his head, he saw the trident dropped on the ground by the dead Deep One.

Seeming to feel that it was a long weapon that should be somewhat useful, he reached out to grab it directly.

Schiller's eyes widened in shock, and he hurriedly shouted, "Don't!!"

"Uh—!!!!"

The moment the black man's hand touched the trident, he immediately let out a scream. The part of his skin that touched the trident began to rot rapidly.

Batman secretly thought it was bad and also rushed out, kicked the tail of the trident, kicked that thing far away, and then kicked the Deep One in front of him in the lower abdomen with a front kick.

His strength was clearly not low either. One kick directly kicked the Deep One into a stagger. Schiller picked up the crowbar with the hand with the Elder Sign and smashed it at the Deep One's head.

Bang! Bang bang!

Three times, passed three strength checks, two successes and one failure, successfully smashing the Deep One to the ground.

The black man seemed still in shock. Schiller turned on the flashlight, not to see him clearly, but to let him see his clothes clearly.

"Which greenhorn are you from? Has the Inquisition started using interns for missions now?!"

The black man was stunned by the scolding. Just as he wanted to open his mouth to refute, he saw Schiller's priest robe embroidered with dense golden patterns. The words that reached his mouth were directly choked back.

"You... are you from the personal guard?"

Schiller seemed not to want to talk nonsense with him, skillfully finished off the two Deep Ones, and tilted his head at Batman. Batman dragged the two corpses into the utility room next to them.

Schiller shook the blood off the crowbar, looked at the black man, and said, "What the Pope wants to do has nothing to do with your master. For the sake of colleagues, I can let you go. You'd better roll as far as you can."

Anger ignited in the black man's eyes. He took a deep breath and said, "It's long past the era when the personal guard was arrogant! The Great Prophet's people will arrive soon, and then you'll be finished!"

Schiller didn't even look at him and walked toward the captain's cabin at the other end of the corridor.

"Wait a minute! You can't go over there!" The black man chased after him, wanting to make a move but a bit afraid. His shoulder was cut, and at this moment, one arm couldn't be lifted.

Schiller walked to the door of the captain's cabin. The door was locked. The form of the lock was very special, in the shape of a small octopus with retracted tentacles. This was simply writing "I am a cultist" in big characters on his face.

Schiller stood in front of the door, turned around, and raised his gun.

The black man immediately raised his hands, but he still frowned and said, "Why are you so stubborn? The Pope doesn't have many days to live. The Great Prophet is the one we should follow. He is the lighthouse of the returner, the bright light pointing the way for us. He will let true happiness descend on this world..."

"If he can't descend in front of me now, then you're dead." Schiller was not distracted by him at all. He said, "You and I came here for the same purpose. I am willing to let you go, which is already merciful enough."

"You can't open that door!" The black man was aggressive. He said, "Only the Great Prophet can move the things inside! Otherwise, you and the Pope will die very miserably!"

Schiller laughed disdainfully and said, "Then you are his guide dog?"

"You!" The black man took a deep breath and said, "Aren't you also here to find things for the Pope?"

Looking at Schiller's pitch-black muzzle, he took a few steps back and said hatefully, "Anyway, only the Great Prophet can open this door. You just guard here. When our people come, they will make you look good."

After speaking, he ran away.

Batman, who came back after dealing with the corpses, looked at his back. Schiller shook his head and said, "He's just a useless pawn, no need to waste time on him."

Batman didn't refute. He just said, "Indeed no need to interrogate him, because I roughly know what's going on."

"Tell me about it."

"This isn't a good place for flirting. Can you open this door?"

Schiller looked down at the lock that was clearly not right and said to the Beyonder, "If I want to open this lock, what check do I need to pass?"

"Cthulhu mythos," the Beyonder answered.

This didn't exceed Schiller's expectations. If *Cthaya, the Water God* first appeared on this ship, then it would be strange if there were no cultists on this ship. It might even be this captain.

"Do you think the probability of me passing the check is high?"

"It's not a probability problem, it's impossible," the Beyonder said. "Even if you pass the check, your Sanity value can't hold up."

"That powerful?"

"Can I say this is actually the venue of the original final BOSS?" The Beyonder finally couldn't help but speak, "The book you are holding is the damn final BOSS I designed!"

"Oh?"

Schiller looked down at the *Book of Cthaya* in his hand. This book had been very quiet since it reached his hands and didn't show any problems, but this was highly likely because it was in his hands.

But if this was the final BOSS, it made sense. If they hadn't jumped levels randomly and killed each other, they would definitely have come to explore this ship. And in order to be fully prepared, they would definitely have to read the book.

Whether from the deck or the bottom level, they would have to experience a series of battles and explorations, finally arriving in front of the captain's cabin door.

They thought the final BOSS would be the captain, but it turned out to be this book that had been providing them with clues. This reversal was quite interesting. The status of *Cthaya, the Water God* was enough to be the final BOSS.

"Then why did you change your mind?" Schiller asked with some curiosity.

"Have you noticed one thing?" The Beyonder's tone was somewhat gnashing his teeth.

"What thing?"

"Was the process of you coming here a bit too smooth?"

"Isn't that because we are cautious and powerful?"

"It's a fart!" The Beyonder roared, "It's because that damn mental patient Bruce drove in the village and used up half of the Deep Ones' oxygen! They all went back to charge! Of course there were no monsters on the road!!"

"Uh..." This was a bit beyond Schiller's expectations, but he thought of the scorched tire tracks he saw on the street, which also looked like something Bruce could do.

"Fewer monsters is fewer monsters, didn't we have fewer people too?" Schiller paused and said, "That shouldn't affect the BOSS fight, right?"

"Doesn't affect a fart!" The Beyonder raised his voice again, "The BOSS was messed up by you, where does the BOSS fight come from?!"

"Gone? How did it go?" Schiller hadn't reacted for a while.

After a long while, he came back to his senses. Oh, it was messed up by Nyarlathotep, right?

He only asked Nyarlathotep for a mental protection at the time, but when a level like Nyarlathotep made a move, let alone a cultist's soul, even if Yibb-Tstll came, it wouldn't work.

It was estimated that when Nyarlathotep established the protection, he crushed the cultist's soul along the way. After all, he also said at the time that he wouldn't let Schiller die so easily.

"Hmm... since there's nothing in the door, this lock doesn't have any necessity to exist, right?" Schiller asked tentatively.

The Beyonder snorted coldly and said, "The BOSS is gone, but the clearance treasure is still inside. Without that book giving you clues, you'll never think of opening this door in your life."

Schiller took a light breath. This was really a bit troublesome.

It was estimated that the process designed by the Beyonder was to let this book guide them to find clues to open this lock, open it, and then give them a backstab, and finally defeat the cultist possessing the book, and then they could take the treasure and leave.

There should also be a cutscene behind, introducing the ending of Old Siltek and so on. Anyway, the plot has progressed to this step, and what ending the important supporting characters will have is basically clear.

Old Siltek was completely deceived by Jeff. If he summoned the disaster, he would definitely die very miserably.

The Church forged Pandora's box, but greed made them open the real Pandora's box. It was estimated that they were also asking for trouble.

The ending would probably freeze at a certain salvage company discovering a new shipwreck, and this book and other things in the captain's cabin would be salvaged together, foreshadowing the beginning of another horror story.

But because these few people, Schiller, didn't follow the usual path, the situation became a bit awkward.

The book had no reaction. It was estimated that it had been gone for a while. Without the clues provided by the evil spirit in the book, this lock wasn't something they could open, so the so-called clearance treasure naturally couldn't be obtained.

Schiller sighed and said, "Must I get the clearance treasure to clear the level?"

"That's not necessarily," the Beyonder said. "The story will undergo new changes according to your different choices. Without a predetermined ending, it is almost infinitely extended, just depending on how far you can go."

Schiller understood. Originally, the Beyonder and the God of Stories should have designed an ending for this story, but they chose "or" in almost every "yes or no" choice, leading to the original ending being completely unusable.

But the God of Stories still had some skills. As long as the players continued to play, he could continue to weave the story.

Although the original final villain had passed away, didn't this lead to a new character?

Schiller decided to meet the Great Prophet Gaide first. ===== CHAPTER 3217 =====

But the God of Stories still has a few tricks up his sleeve; as long as the player keeps playing, he can keep spinning the story.

Although the original final villain has passed away, doesn't this just introduce new characters?

Shiler decided to meet with the Great Prophet Gade first.