Chapter 3232: Reviewing the Plot — What Actually Happened? (Part 1)

In the Doujie meeting room, the atmosphere was heavy.

This was the place where game players logged off. When a player exited the game, they would first arrive in this hall, where they could choose to observe the game's aftermath or leave directly.

The vast majority chose to stay; although they could no longer interfere with the game's content, they could conduct a review here.

As the end credits finished playing, the game was officially over, and the last two survivors arrived in the meeting room.

Normally, only game players should be able to enter this meeting room, but today's game was quite special, involving too many people. When Bruce and Pride exited the game, they saw a group of people sitting around the central round table.

And all of them were staring at them with ill intent.

Bruce and Pride walked to their seats. Aside from the main universe Batman, Pale Knight, Joker, Owlman, and Greed, there were also the Agent, the Beyonder, the Brand-skinned Nyarlathotep, Constantine, Lucifer, and the God of Stories.

Everyone stared at each other in silence for a minute.

"How exactly did things turn out like this?" the Beyonder asked. "Even if it has already become this way, I still have to say, the script I prepared is vastly different from the plot you all played out."

"I admit I bear part of the responsibility," the God of Stories said. "I thought that having everyone write a story and then having me string them all together would be more challenging and exciting. The Beyonder adopted my suggestion, which may have partially led to the chaotic situation that followed."

"Time for the reveal, friends!" Greed stood up first and slapped the table hard. "I really don't know what sin I committed to have to play the same game with a bunch of riddle-mongers! Now! Tell me what stories you all wrote!"

"My story was very conservative," Pride took the initiative. "I was a member of the clergy who once worked in the Holy City, later sent abroad, and then, due to certain reasons, I stopped working for the Church and became an independent investigator."

"Certain reasons? What reasons?"

"My personal setting was an inability to handle complex interpersonal relationships," Shiler said. "Simply put, I lost in a factional struggle and had to retire to my hometown."

"How boring," Brand commented. "Though it is quite in your style."

"I'm not very familiar with this kind of game," Pride shook his head. "So I spent a lot of time asking about the basic rules. I didn't expect the background story to have such a profound impact, so I just made one up. I guarantee I didn't hide anything."

The others looked at the Beyonder.

The Beyonder nodded and said, "Yes, his background story is the most concise among you all, involving almost no special elements."

"But you ended up changing it into something unrecognizable later." Greed pointed out.

"You're wrong there. Actually, I didn't change much," the Beyonder said. "Even following the trajectory of Lodov's life in the novel, it didn't deviate too much. They all started at the center of power and later left. There might be some discrepancies in the details, but that is the inevitable result of story fusion."

"I can barely accept that," Pride said. "The reason I set for coming here was to make one last gamble."

"Gamble on what?"

"Finding evidence of the crimes of my opposing faction. Even if I couldn't kill my way back to the core of power, I had to give them a taste of their own medicine."

"That is also very consistent with your pettiness," Brand evaluated.

"What about the methods? What did you do?"

"In fact, I did nothing. I was the last one to arrive." Pride turned to the Beyonder and asked, "Why were our arrival times in the game different?"

"Because you spent different amounts of time with me," the Beyonder explained. "You all came to me at the same time to finish your settings; whoever finished first went out first."

"But you didn't tell me about this concept of time."

"That was to add a certain degree of randomness to the game," the Beyonder explained. "Except for you, I didn't tell anyone else. After all, if I had let you know, the suspense later on wouldn't have existed."

Pride thought about it and could understand, but he still asked, "Is this a new setting for you all as well?"

The others nodded. Greed also said, "I've played games that required rolling dice before; the rules were much harsher than this, but they were all different. This is the first time I've encountered a game where you can design your own background story."

"So you were the first one out."

"Because I'm really good at making up stories," Greed shrugged. "The moment he told me how to play, I knew roughly what was going on, so I set up my character in just two or three minutes. This is part of my strength."

The others nodded. Although it seemed a bit unfair, being able to set up a stronger and more reasonable background story in a shorter amount of time was indeed part of one's strength, and the advantage generated by it couldn't be considered unfair.

"So you made up the simplest story but spent the longest time." Greed looked at Pride, making no attempt to hide his mockery, and laughed very cheerfully.

"I said, most of my time was spent asking about the settings," Pride didn't back down at all. "Don't you ask about the rules cautiously the first time you play this kind of game?"

The Beyonder hesitated to speak.

Pride looked at him, and the Beyonder then said, "Greed's first time playing this kind of game was also hosted by me. You wouldn't want to know what he did."

Pride narrowed his eyes. "Tell me."

"It was an ordinary supernatural case investigation module."

"And then?"

"He moved the start of World War I forward."

Lucifer remained silent, merely clapping.

Pride wasn't surprised at all; Greed was just like that.

"Alright, who's next?" Pride looked at the others.

"I'll go," Pale Knight said. "My background story should be the second simplest; there were no very complex or outrageous settings."

"I was a lawyer from a big city, graduated from a prestigious law school, and had been working at a famous law firm ever since. My professional ability had always been good until I was dragged into a case involving supernatural events."

"At that time, I didn't know about supernatural events, and I made a huge mistake on the case, which caused my reputation to plummet, and I was fired by the prestigious law firm."

"You never said that," Bruce frowned.

"It was reasonable, because if I wanted to gain a social advantage in our first meeting, I naturally had to exaggerate my status. Besides, I wasn't exaggerating; my professional resume was all true."

"Fine, go on."

"After being fired by the prestigious law firm, no big firm wanted me, so I could only work for smaller ones. But the salary there wasn't high, not enough to pay off my student loans at all, so I started taking some private cases."

"In these cases, I gradually learned some knowledge about supernatural events that I didn't know before, and then I realized that the case that caused me to lose my job wasn't that simple."

"You mean it wasn't your mistake?"

"I was indeed reckless, impulsive, and not rigorous enough, but it was more because someone covered up the truth. They wanted the public to believe the truth was something else."

"Who?"

"The Church."

"Back then, you already knew the Church was actually..."

"No, I didn't know. It was just a classic conspiracy theory," Pale Knight shook his head. "The introduction didn't give much information, and I didn't know specifically which forces existed in this world. But the Beyonder told me it was similar to my universe, and since this world had monsters, I naturally thought of religion."

"That makes sense," Pride nodded. "We all set up an enemy in our own stories, which can increase the conflict in our background stories and explain our motivation for coming here."

"Even if I were a member of the Church's clergy, I would set my enemy as another faction within the Church. I can only say that conspiracy theories are too deeply rooted in people's hearts."

The others accepted this explanation. Regardless of how common religious education is in the West, precisely because of this, many rebellious people engage in conspiracy theories related to religion, such as the idea that there are alien spaceships buried under the Vatican.

However, Shiler and Pale Knight's conspiracy theories weren't based on these rebellious views. Most people who have received an elite education actually understand history; it's just that the Catholic Church's history has been too outrageous. If they had just been a little more restrained, they wouldn't have become classic villains in the minds of most people who understand history.

"Did you also not design the details of the case?" Greed asked.

Pale Knight shook his head. "Although the Beyonder didn't tell me there was a time limit, I instinctively felt that I couldn't drag it out too long. If I were to design the details of the case, the time spent would be too long, which wouldn't be worth it."

"What was your motivation again?" Bruce asked.

"To find out the truth about the case from back then," Pale Knight said. "After all, I fell in status and became destitute because of this case. Of course, I wanted to find out the truth, not only to clear my name but also to improve my living conditions."

"Let me tell mine," Batman said. "Actually, I didn't make any very complex settings. I was born into a family of hunters and lived alone in the wild with my parents from a young age, cultivating a deep interest in wilderness survival."

"When I grew up, I joined the military and became an instructor for special forces because of my good jungle survival experience. But later, one of my students sacrificed himself in a strange supernatural event. Because I failed to rescue him in time, I was held accountable."

"After retiring from the special forces, I didn't return to my hometown immediately but visited the student's family, which is the detective Doggett who appeared at the beginning."

"I knew you would do that," Bruce said. "Connecting with the only character in the introduction, and preferably a deep connection at that."

"Of course, that brings many benefits," Batman said. "I think we all agree that the information in the introduction was too sparse, so of course, we had to make the most of it."

"You lived with Doggett for a while?"

"Yes, I used my skills to help him solve some problems, and we built a good friendship, but in the end, I still returned to my hometown."

"Why?"

"Doggett is a very capable detective. To be precise, he was one of the first groups of people to start investigating the truth behind supernatural phenomena."

"Is this a setting you gave him?"

"Yes, I asked the Beyonder if I could add some settings to Doggett, and he said yes."

"Fine, go on."

"When he started pursuing the truth and tracing the source, he found out some things about Faraines..."