Chapter 3233: Reviewing the Plot—What Exactly Is It? (Part 2)

As soon as Batman finished speaking, everyone fell silent for a moment. The Agent asked, "In other words, the setting where the former villagers of Farainess sacrificed to Dagon on the lighthouse was added by you?"

"Yes, but I only set it so that they were performing some religious rituals related to weird events, gaining harvests and paying prices. I didn't specify what exactly, because I didn't know what gods existed in this world."

"Predestination," Pride said. "You set this village up as a place that was inherently different."

"Yes, because I felt that was the only way it made sense." Batman nodded and said, "I knew I definitely wasn't the only player. If everyone had to edit their own backstories, not everyone would set themselves as locals. With so many outsiders gathered here, there needed to be a reason."

"Although you would all definitely set various motivations for yourselves, in this kind of plot leaning toward the weird, predestination and chosen-one theories are more reasonable."

"It's not that you all coincidentally gathered here, but because this place itself is extraordinary, which is why it attracted you here."

"Look at him," the Beyonder said. "Only Batman considered the rationality of the overall plot, while you all just wanted to cause me trouble!"

"Wait." The Agent suddenly realized something. He said, "So Dagon suddenly contacting you wasn't a coincidence, nor was it brought about by psychoanalysis, but your original setting."

Everyone else looked at Batman.

Batman nodded and said, "That's right. Since I wasn't very clear on the god settings of the game world, but didn't want to let go of this part of the resources, my setting for myself was that I helped Doggett track down the truth behind the weird events, and thus came into contact with some weird knowledge."

The Beyonder said, "That's right. Batman didn't specify what this knowledge was, but my setting was that what Doggett tracked down was the content on the shipwreck line."

Everyone looked at the Agent again, because all the clues for the two shipwrecks were basically investigated by the Agent, including Sailor Peak's diary and what happened on Jeff's boat.

"I seem to know some clues too," Bruce suddenly spoke up. When everyone's gaze turned to him, he said, "After I went to Sigeltek, I used the internet to conduct an investigation and found that I couldn't find all the information about the three ghost ships at the pier on the regular internet."

"But I did investigate the theft at the Spanish National Museum of History, and what was lost was precisely the information about these three ships."

"Those three ships were the shipwrecks of the first shipwreck, which was the fleet Sailor Peak was on," the Agent said. "Then it must be that the church concealed the truth of the first shipwreck, and Detective Doggett might have found information related to these three ships."

"And I, through my contact with Doggett, learned about the taboo information related to these three ships." Batman thought for a moment and said, "So Dagon was the culprit behind the first shipwreck? And I could contact Dagon because I came into contact with the information on the ship?"

"That's not impossible," the Agent said. "The culprit behind the first shipwreck and the second shipwreck might not be the same god. After all, the book *Water God Cthulhu* records both the contact method for Dagon and mentions the Cthulhu Knight Ottum, as well as Ibo-Zitel who appeared later."

"It wouldn't be strange for someone who read this book to summon any of them. It's also not necessarily the case that the sailors who caused the two shipwrecks saw the same incantation. It's more likely that one saw Dagon and the other saw Ottum. Although the form of the shipwrecks was similar, the gods that descended were different."

"If I had known the gods of this world were like this, I wouldn't have designed it this way." Batman sighed and shook his head. "I really didn't expect my setting would get me targeted by an evil god."

"That's not an evil god, just a Great Old One," Brand explained. "Although most of them are ignorant and senseless idiots, the game world weakened their abilities and even gave them the ability to communicate. In reality, they aren't that understanding."

Batman raised an eyebrow at Brand and said, "Are you the most understanding one among them?"

"Yes, a liar," Bruce said.

Brand didn't argue with him about this. He just said, "If you inadvertently came into contact with this knowledge while helping Doggett, then it's very likely you would contact them when you got into trouble, because knowledge itself is their form of existence. As long as you recognize this connection, it is unavoidable and lifelong."

"Thank you for reminding me not to deal with you people," Batman said.

"Is there anything else?" Greed turned to look at him and asked.

Batman looked at him and said, "I wasn't greedy, thinking I only needed to get along with the main characters, but I didn't expect..."

"Didn't expect the main character to die as soon as he appeared?" Greed laughed again. "But it's not like you didn't hear the opening introduction. He was already dying. You wouldn't think this was the start of one of those cliché Westerns, where the hero is dying but not dead, and the protagonist appears to save them?"

"Actually, it was supposed to be," the Beyonder said, looking at Greed with resentment. "If you had stood by, Doggett could have lived for a while longer. If any of you had used a healing skill, he might not have had to die."

"You're so old-fashioned," Greed said mercilessly.

"I threw you in front of them so you would save them!" the Beyonder shouted. "You heartless devil! You saw the protagonist group being chased, and not only did you not help, you chased them even more happily than the monsters!"

Greed still laughed and said, "Is it because I asked you for too many abilities that you intentionally wanted to throw me in front of the protagonist group, so I would use my abilities to save them and balance the strength between players? Would I do as you wish?"

"But didn't you use your ability anyway?! Is there a difference between killing and saving???"

"Of course there is. If I hadn't killed Doggett, the plot development would be too cliché, wouldn't it?"

Greed looked at Batman and said, "If we had encountered a living Doggett, he would have immediately recognized you. And because he was an important character who appeared in the opening introduction, the two of you would have had infinite authority. That was your goal, right?"

Batman didn't deny it but nodded. That was indeed his plan at the time: to tie himself to the first important character who appeared in the plot so he could smoothly gain leadership of the team.

But he didn't expect Greed to be much more ruthless than him, preferring to silence the witness rather than lose key clues. After killing the protagonist group, he even used their deaths to guide everyone's thinking and interfere with the players' line of sight.

"This was the beginning of the plot going off the rails," the Beyonder spread his hands and said. "Doggett was very important. He should have survived no matter what, at least until he told you the important clues."

"What important clues did he originally have?" Bruce asked.

"The shipwreck of Jeff's family," the Beyonder replied. "He had been investigating these things and had obtained some clues. He would have guided you to the village to find Jeff's family."

"Batman also dealt with Jeff's family, right? I mean, was this family part of your setting?"

"Yes." Batman nodded and said, "After all, my setting was that of a local, so I had to have some local friends. I thought they would be my helpers."

"Were the lost goats and the crazy people also your setup?"

"Yes, but it was actually just a misunderstanding," Batman said. "In my setting, Jeff's temper was already not very good, and his economic situation was becoming increasingly destitute. When he encountered the lost goats, it was inevitable that he would become more irritable."

"The villagers were very superstitious and felt that the loss of the goats was a very bad sign, so they wanted to drive his whole family out of the village. That way, they would have to come to me, and later they would help me because I had helped them before."

The Agent looked at the Beyonder and said, "But you turned this into reality. Their family's goats went crazy because they ate the feed placed on top of *Water God Cthulhu*."

"Yes, I said it. Originally, this book was supposed to be the final boss. There had to be clues for you to investigate here, and then you could get this book. I embedded these clues into the story of Jeff's family. After all, the goats going missing was indeed very weird."

The Beyonder said quite helplessly, "This is why I said Doggett couldn't die. If he hadn't died, he would have told you the clues he investigated about the shipwreck. You would have followed the clues to the village to find Jeff's house, but Jeff's family had already gone to the lighthouse, so you could have logically searched his house."

"Jeff's cellar isn't hard to find. As long as you can find the cellar, you would discover those empty boxes and also the abnormality of the feed. After moving the boxes, you would have found this book of evil spirits, and this book would have given you the clues for the next stage."

"Wrong," Greed proposed. "If it was just like that, none of us could read this book. Or does this actually require sacrificing a teammate?"

The Beyonder was even more helpless. He said, "It doesn't require sacrificing a player. The one who was supposed to sacrifice herself in this link was Madeline, but you killed her."

Once the Beyonder said this, everyone basically understood. This game couldn't just have a final boss; there should have been several mini-bosses.

And from Madeline's notes and Schiller's analysis, everyone could see that Madeline was actually a naturally cold person, very likely a psychopath.

If she hadn't died, she might have followed the player's team to the village, and then turned against them when they found *Water God Cthulhu*. The players would have needed to have a battle with her and sacrifice her life to crack the secrets of the book.

"Here you would face a key choice," the Beyonder said. "If you chose not to kill Madeline, but just locked her up and handed her over to the police after the event ended, then the only thing you would have to fight in the final captain's cabin would be the souls of the cultists attached to the book."

"What if we killed her at that time?"

"Fight Ottum," the Beyonder said. "Don't be in a hurry. That's not a situation where you must die. Not to mention that it's not the main body that descended. If you chose to sacrifice Madeline, you could have obtained more taboo knowledge from this book. Almost everyone could have shared 5 points of Cthulhu Mythos points. Added to some props scavenged later, dying one or two people would definitely lead to victory. If you were lucky, you might even be able to win without injury."

"Does this have an impact on the final ending?" Batman asked keenly.

"Yes." The Beyonder nodded and said, "It was Madeline who lured the monster to her home in order to study the weird events and obtain taboo knowledge, letting the monster influence her family to kill each other. In a sense, she was indeed committing insurance fraud, not a victim whose insurance didn't pay out."

"If you don't kill Madeline, when the police arrive later and you hand her over to the police, she will go crazy due to mental pollution and directly tell the truth."

Batman immediately understood. He said, "This would make the difficulty of the subsequent Siltek storyline higher, because if the pitiful victim Madeline in the eyes of the public is indeed committing insurance fraud, then old Siltek would easily clear his own name."

"That's right. Not killing Madeline would make your final boss battle difficulty lower, but it would make the difficulty of old Siltek higher."

"Is he also one of the bosses?" Bruce said with some surprise.

"Doesn't he look like one?" the Beyonder said. "A typical conspirator who turned his own wife into a host for a monster, laid out a long-term plan in Farainess, and also covered the sky with one hand in two states. Is this template standard enough?"

Greed seemed to understand a little. He said, "Actually, we can choose which final boss to fight, right?"

"Kill Madeline, and we fight the clone of the Cthulhu Knight. Don't kill Madeline, and we fight old Siltek?"

"Exactly."

"Quite user-friendly."

"You're too kind, you're too kind." ===== CHAPTER 3234 =====