Chapter 4909

"You wouldn't cheat, would you?" Shiler asked.

"How do you think I'd cheat?" Brainiac was a bit speechless. "I'm throwing cyber dice; I can't manipulate the numbers by pouring metal into them or anything like that."

"Then can't you just modify the program? That's probably even simpler than pouring lead into dice, right?"

"But what would be the point? Helping the Outer Gods defeat you — what benefit would I get? Helping you drive out the Outer Gods — what benefit would I get?" Brainiac paused, then said, "I'm just a robot who can't even see hallucinations. The game between humans and those mysterious existences has no meaning to me. It's only because you all like playing this that I added these elements. After all, if it were just fighting robots, it'd be a bit too cliché."

"True." Shiler nodded. "Can tell you're trying to avoid mechanical elements as much as possible. Though evil robots corrupted by Outer Gods sounds pretty creative too."

"In fact, the Outer Gods don't know how to corrupt artificial intelligence either." Brainiac said. "Code and programs don't exist to them at all. Their form of existence doesn't support them understanding logic. Nyarlathotep's already considered relatively smart, but he still can't understand my existence."

"I see." Shiler said. "Since that's the case, having you establish communication between Outer Gods and humans would be the best, wouldn't it?"

"I don't see the necessity for communication between you." Brainiac said. "If you just want to throw dice with them, I can keep you company throwing dice too."

"Can't explain it to you." Shiler waved his hand. "I've got a mission to do."

The map marked the mission location. It wasn't too far from the Cathedral, only about two miles. But this route still wasn't safe. Shiler saw many shadows lingering in the fog. These obviously didn't count toward the chance of triggering combat; he could only rely on himself to go around them.

Fortunately, the streets and alleys of this old city district were extremely narrow, with many buildings and cover. As long as he saw a monster, he just had to turn a few corners and hide. Their aggro range was very limited; slightly breaking line of sight was enough.

Shiler wound his way to the entrance of Blacktail Back Alley. He flipped through his memory and didn't find anything. Shiler had never been here before; perhaps this was a street Brainiac fabricated.

Standing at the street entrance looking in, it was pitch black inside. Layer upon layer of low houses stretched with no end in sight. A fishing village built on tidal flats, the ground was all raised wooden planks. A thick fishy smell drifted over; Shiler sniffed and found it wasn't just fish smell, more like the smell of rotting seafood.

Shiler walked into the alley. He looked at the first low house; the door was closed. He didn't rashly reach out to touch it, but kicked it with his foot, then shook the terminal in his hand: "I'm throwing dice."

"Determine what?"

"Lockpicking." Shiler said.

A die appeared on the terminal's holographic projection. Brainiac didn't even do a throwing animation; it was just a die spinning there on its own. Finally the number stopped at "6" — good thing. Probably because Shiler already knew lockpicking, the requirement was only "4"; the check succeeded, and the door opened.

Shiler went in and saw a piece of paper on the table. He picked it up and looked; it seemed to be a child's diary, writing about the laughter at night, and pointing out the laughter seemed to come from deep in the alley.

This was obviously a clue, but Shiler cared more about the treasure chest placed next to it. This chest's art style was completely out of place with the whole fishing village; it looked like an extra mission reward Brainiac made.

"How do you open this thing?" Shiler asked.

"With a key or by throwing dice." Brainiac said. "Killing monsters drops keys; using a key opens it directly. Throwing dice only gives one chance; if you fail, the chest is gone."

"Then can I leave it and come back when I have a key?"

"Yes, the chest won't refresh."

Shiler thought for a moment, then said directly in his mind: "Charles, help me mark a location. First door on the left after entering Blacktail Back Alley has a treasure chest; if we get a key we can come back and open it."

"No problem." Charles said. "But no one dropped keys in the first wave of attacks; maybe we can come back later."

Shiler nodded, took the clue, and walked deeper into the alley. Along the way he opened a few more doors, but only succeeded on two; the other few failed, and no more treasure chests were found.

However, Shiler discovered Brainiac had stuffed a lethal amount of searchable items into this game. Every single drawer and cabinet could be opened, with all kinds of things inside. All visible miscellaneous items could be picked up and put in the backpack, brought back to base to dismantle.

Pity there's a weight limit. Shiler only picked some things that looked relatively valuable to take back, mainly some mystical materials that looked usable for magic arrays. There really were quite a lot in this village.

"Will these things refresh?" Shiler asked.

"No, if you take them, other players won't have them." Brainiac said. "But the map is huge; there are thousands of alleys like this; the supplies inside are completely enough."

"Does supply refresh have regionality? Like, are the supplies in this area all similar?"

"There's a certain degree of regionality." Brainiac said. "For example, the old city district won't refresh high-tech materials, but the commercial district and Wayne Tower will. Similarly, that side won't refresh magical reagents."

Shiler showed an enlightened expression, then said: "Charles, help me mark another one. Alleys near Gotham Cathedral will refresh damp fish bones, seabird feathers, flint, bat corpses..."

Shiler listed everything he'd searched up. Charles nodded: "Understood, all recorded and broadcast to the group. Already informed others to mark them on the map."

"Right." Charles said again. "Just now you were focused on the mission so I didn't disturb you. Professor's side sent word; Gotham University's Cryophysics Department seems to be able to get Dense Ice, but he temporarily has no way to open the advanced cold storage. If anyone gets a suitable item, they can go try."

"He's already gone to explore Gotham University?"

"Yes, they might be doing a mission there." Charles paused, then said. "They need to restore the university's power system, currently investigating around the cryogenics lab..."

"Doesn't sound easy."

"Yes, they don't have professionals. Fortunately experts can be found; just need to take photos or draw it and ask."

"Which team has an electrician?" Shiler asked with some curiosity. Although the Robins all knew some of this knowledge, restoring an entire district's power system isn't that simple; it requires very professional knowledge.

"Log off and ask." Charles said. "The game can be left at any time; just remember the faulty parts, log off to find experts for consultation."

Shiler slapped his forehead; he'd forgotten this. This isn't a closed game; you can log off whenever you want.

"Please log off in a safe place." Brainiac said. "After logging off, your character instance will be left in place; once killed, you won't be able to log back in."

Shiler nodded; that's quite reasonable. Otherwise, encountering danger and logging off on the spot — would monsters break out to hit him? That'd be a bit too simple.

Shiler continued exploring Blacktail Back Alley, picking and choosing to take a large pile of items; he soon reached the depths. Although it wasn't night right now, he indeed faintly heard some laughter, but it wasn't Joker's laughter; it sounded like a woman.

The laughter was a bit ethereal, especially eerie in the narrow alley filled with fog. But Shiler wasn't afraid; he stared at that last house with some hesitation. If he made the wrong choice, he'd enter combat directly; he always felt he'd missed some key item.

Shiler thought for a moment, decided not to go in for now. He felt the few rooms he hadn't opened might have something, but his dice luck was truly terrible; many checks under 10 points he couldn't pass. No wonder Brainiac specially warned not to assault the organizer.

"Charles, can you sense brainwaves inside?" Shiler asked.

"There's nothing inside." Charles replied. "It's not that it's shielded; it should be that it hasn't spawned yet. Probably only when you push the door open will that thing appear. Should be to prevent psychics from controlling it in advance."

"That's not very sporting of you." Shiler said. "Wasn't it said abilities aren't restricted?"

"This is for your own good." Brainiac explained. "If all similar monsters spawned directly on the map, that would be a devastating blow to psychics. You simply wouldn't be able to use psychic abilities so smoothly; brainwaves passing through this area would be corrupted; no amount of mental power would be enough."

Shiler understood; if a few lumps of Outer Gods really spawned on the map, psychics' abilities would basically be useless. Someone as strong as Charles would be fine, but slightly weaker psychics would have their brains explode the moment they activated their ability.

"I can help you contact Lilith." Charles said. "She can activate prophecy ability to help you see what happens after you go in..."

"There's such a good thing?" Shiler nodded. "Doesn't cost her much, right?"

"As long as she doesn't prophesy things too far in the future, there's not much cost. I'm asking her now... she says don't go in; there's a zone boss in there. After you go in, the first two dice will all fail, and your scapula will be directly pierced through."

"What does that monster look like?" Shiler asked.

"Even the appearance seen through prophecy has lethality; Lilith didn't dare look more, and I didn't ask."

"That's a bit troublesome then." Shiler sighed lightly.

In an instant, his gaze changed; his gray pupils became scattered. He walked back to those unopened doors.

Brainiac reminded: "Lockpicking chance is only once; cannot try again."

"Roll the dice, determine Strength," Shiler said.

"... You want to ram the door?" Brainiac asked, though with some confusion he still tossed it to him. The initial Strength requirement was 16 points; clearly the requirement for forcing the door violently was very high.

The first roll naturally failed. Shiler slammed into the door once; it didn't open, and instead he bruised his own arm and shoulder blade. But soon Brainiac announced: "Strength attribute increased, comprehensive judgment requirement changed to 12 points."

Bang!

"Strength attribute increased, comprehensive judgment requirement changed to 8 points."

Bang!

"Strength attribute increased... roll successful."

With a bang, the door was smashed open. Shiler walked inside; this house was fairly large, fishing nets hung everywhere inside, many of them bearing sharp barbed hooks. There were also all sorts of fish carcasses on the roof beams. He discovered an unusual fishing net, its sharp barbed hooks gleaming with cold light.

"This is for fighting, right?" Shiler said, "What I'm looking for definitely isn't this thing."