Chapter 4914

After returning from Gotham Cathedral, Shiler began his exploration of Gotham University. Yes, he didn't take a mission and investigate bit by bit; he went straight for the lair. Calling it "seeking fortune in danger" isn't quite accurate either, since it's hard to say who between him and the boss is the fortune.

Because Gordon makes too much of a fuss over everything, it was ultimately decided he would stay behind to guard the house and protect Charles. Shiler and Ethan set off on the journey to Gotham University. The trip couldn't be called uneventful, but it could be called stumbling along.

As everyone knows, even in an open world, region levels are restricted, and methods like temperature and environment are used to limit players from exploring high-level maps. Why would Brainiac give up this classic setting?

First, after leaving the residential area, it rained nonstop outside. Although this rain doesn't cause any special status effects when it hits you, all monsters caught in the rain get buffed.

Those Stitch Monsters originally had trouble walking. Dig a pit and you could take out most of them. Ethan, with his exquisite marksmanship, used positioning and door-kiting tactics to trap all the monsters inside the house.

But the closer they got to Gotham University, the heavier the rain fell, and the sky darkened, like Gotham's rainy nights of many years ago. The Stitch Monsters here don't play by scientific rules. Their legs whipped around as if flying — not only did they run fast, they could leap high. The Tanks were even more absurd; they literally reached tank speeds on foot and were tougher than tanks.

Most troublesome: near the Gotham University zone, flying vehicles appeared. No one knows how an airship stitched from corpses flies, but it flies. It carries many disgusting ranged monsters that either launch heads or throw modified arm-boomerangs. Being spotted means death.

So how did Shiler and Ethan infiltrate Gotham University? The method is actually simple. Brainiac doesn't restrict abilities. Theoretically, the Grey Mist could be used. But the Grey Mist isn't with Pride right now, so it's unavailable.

However, with the Ring, the World in the Mist can still be entered. And in the World in the Mist, the Black Sun can summon Saint Peter — the original Old 616 Main Universe's Amazing Spider-Man. Spider-Man has Spider-Sense.

Amazing Spider-Man reclaimed his powers from the Spider Totem. He answered Shiler's summons and was remotely controlled via the Black Sun — a brief session of account-sharing boosting. Too bad Brainiac can't police boosting.

With Peter's help, Shiler brought Ethan past the monsters and into Gotham University's interior. But as said, over-level map exploration is never that easy. Every room here is locked.

Keys are on patrolling monsters; the monsters are extremely strong, unbeatable. Lockpicking doesn't require dice rolls, but needs lockpick tools — and purple high-grade ones at that. No one at the current stage can craft those.

Meaning: without doing prerequisite quests, this place simply can't be cleared. Even if the Agent and Deathstroke came and killed every monster, the key drops wouldn't suffice to open all key rooms; you'd still need lockpick tools and other methods.

But Shiler didn't intend to give up. Since he dared infiltrate, he had a clear target. He went straight to Victor's Cryogenics Lab.

That's even worse. The lab has three layers of locks. First, the lab building is locked; the underground lab's main door is locked; the cold storage has another lock. And the lab building has no power — without restoring power, even with keys the doors won't open. Meaning: to enter the lab, you must restore power first.

But then, laziness is sometimes a great motivator. Shiler completely didn't want to do those complex prerequisite quests, so he put a lot of thought into sequence-breaking.

He found a relatively safe spot outside the lab building and had Ethan stand guard. He logged off to find Victor.

Once upon a time, Gotham University's Cryogenics Lab also faced a power crisis. Back then, Cobblepot and a group of kids guarded Nora, still frozen in ice.

Victor naturally learned from that setback. Though Nora is already awake, that crisis left a significant shadow. So after Gotham University relocated to its new site, he let no one interfere and designed an energy circulation system himself to ensure the cryogenics lab would never fully lose power under any circumstance.

Knowing Brainiac, he likely just copied the map directly and then broke certain things. It looks like a power outage, but he may not know Victor installed many emergency facilities, some outside the building, precisely so that if energy is cut, it can be restarted from multiple points.

Shiler found Victor and asked for the emergency device locations. Victor hasn't participated in the game, but can roughly imagine. He thought a moment and said: "I guess Brainiac will use the most classic game method — blow the fuses to cut power, then make you go find fuses."

"But actually, there are higher-permission-spec circuits that can bypass the fuses and restart the entire lab building's power." Victor produced a blueprint — the structural diagram of the whole lab building. If Victor were still Mr. Freeze, this place would be his evil lair. Batman would have to be frozen in an ice block first and chat life philosophy for two hours.

Though there's no Batman here, Victor still meticulously built his base. He pointed at one room: "You can go here, move the bookshelf aside, behind it is a hidden compartment..."

"No," Shiler said, "I can't enter that room. It needs a key."

Victor gave him a surprised look, then understood it was Brainiac's doing. He thought a moment and pointed at the roof: "Then climb up first, then go down. The top-floor storage room should be unlocked..."

"There are monsters on the roof," Shiler said. "Given the current situation, we can't beat the monsters on this side."

Victor frowned again: "You should've brought a freeze gun in... forget it, with your aim you couldn't hit roof monsters anyway. Let me think..."

"Can you enter the sewers under Gotham University?" Victor asked.

"Probably not either," Shiler shook his head. "Never mind that all sewer entrances are locked; there'd definitely be many monsters inside."

"This is getting tricky." Victor studied the blueprint, then suddenly seemed to recall something: "Actually, you don't necessarily have to enter the lab building to reach the cold storage. The cold storage doors are mechanical; they shouldn't need power."

Shiler looked at him thoughtfully. Victor said: "The cold storage has safety passages to prevent trapping people. Besides the main door, there are Door 102 and Door 103. These doors are likely also locked, but Door 103 connects to the passage of Gotham University's underground air-raid shelter. The other exit is in the subway station on Gotham University's west side."

Shiler pondered. Gotham basically has no subway, but that doesn't mean they never tried. If forced to say, there's a line abandoned since last century, but the painstakingly dug tunnel wasn't abandoned — it connects to the air-raid shelter and sewers.

Gotham's underground has a very complete ecosystem; otherwise Killer Croc couldn't live there, and the Court of Owls wouldn't choose it as a base. Gotham University's new site looks unremarkable, but likewise sits atop the underground network.

"I understand," Shiler said. "Originally I wanted to enter the cryogenics lab for a freeze gun; now it looks difficult. Getting some ice from the cold storage works too."

"No freeze gun in the cold storage, but there are cryo-generation devices." Victor took out a paper and said, "These things are fixed, but can actually be detached. I'll teach you how to..."

He stopped mid-sentence, thought, and said: "Actually, forget it. I really don't trust your workmanship..."

"I have a teammate," Shiler said. "Ethan, that combat medic — he helped Iron Man build armor. He should be able to handle this."

"As expected, every detective needs their own combat medic assistant." Victor smiled. "I'll write the operating procedure for you. Memorize it and tell him. Four cryo-generation devices total, plus two ice-fog launchers..."

Victor brought paper, marked where these things are and how to disassemble them. Shiler memorized quickly, returned to the game, and told Ethan.

"One problem," Ethan said. "Even if we bypass the lab building and reach the cold storage directly, the cold storage has doors. How do you plan to open them?"

"Cross that bridge when we get there," Shiler said.

The two circled half of Gotham University and reached the area under the subway station. Unsurprisingly, there are monsters here too. But these monsters can't jump — because the entrance is right behind them.

Fortunately, this is underground. Monsters seem to spawn right here and haven't been rained on outside, so their strength isn't as high as the ones outside.

Shiler thought and said: "Give me the gun. I'll lure them away. You check if the underground passage door can be pried open."

"You sure you can pull it off?" Ethan said. He sized up Shiler, who looked like a pure desk-jockey.

But earlier Shiler led him here stealthily the whole way, and the guy seemed able to predict danger. Thinking it over, maybe it's not impossible. So Ethan handed over the gun.

Shiler stood above the subway entrance and fired a shot. The noise was loud; besides the monsters below, ground-level monsters were also drawn over. That was exactly what Shiler wanted. Monsters aren't more dangerous the more there are; on the contrary, precisely because these monsters are huge with many limbs, when clustered they body-block each other, and the fast ones can't even build up a charge.

After firing, Shiler fell back. Not far away was a bus stop with a parked double-decker bus. They'd noticed it on the way over, but the bus had no fuel and couldn't start — only, being a double-decker, it was tall enough.

Shiler yanked open the door and rushed in. There were monsters inside too. But the double-decker's space is cramped; before the monsters could charge, Shiler took the stairs to the upper deck. He opened the upper-deck window and jumped onto the nearby bus-stop canopy.

The height was sufficient; the pursuing monsters couldn't reach it. The monster on the upper deck also tried to jump through the window. But the moment it launched into mid-air, Shiler fired. The bullet did little damage, but its knockback successfully prevented the monster from landing on the canopy.

Shiler shook his hand and sighed. Fighting really takes effort. He sometimes can't even recall what state of mind he had when he first walked into Gotham's rainy nights.

Wait, it's not that he completely can't recall. Just that Batman's pull on Joker is too strong. Too bad — there's no Batman here.