At the piercing sound of an alert, Shiller's ears rang.
"Please prepare all players."
Shiller imdiately found himself unable to move; he turned his head to look at Batman beside him, the latter's hand on a shotgun, but frozen in place.
Judging by Batman's reaction speed, if he wasn't being forcibly controlled, he would have fired at least three shots by now.
Everyone instinctively adopted combat stances, yet no one could approach the corpse.
The red 20-sided dice appeared again, and everyone watched intently as it spun.
"Free speech enabled, tactical discussions may be held freely during battle, with ti paused and the number of rounds unchanged."
The electronic voice began to rasp, and snippets flecked with static flashed before everyone's eyes.
"The main task has been triggered."
"The detective will die: a heavy snowfall has rendered this remote little village an isolated dead end, and, unfortunately, there are traces of wanderers here."
The congregation, each with their own purposes, gathered just after a brief mont of peace when the corpse with a bizarre death expression suddenly moved.
No ti was left; everyone knew all too well that any strange occurrence ant the coming of an anomaly and that imdiate action was necessary.
"Subdue the strange corpse within five rounds, reward: Skill Point*1."
"The battle begins, number of rounds: 1."
Shiller imdiately found the strange sensation of being bound had vanished, and then he suddenly beca third-person, watching himself standing in front of the corpse.
It was as though his soul had left his body.
Looking up, he discovered the others were the sa; they were all back in their own clothes, floating translucently behind their bodies, unrestricted in movent, but unable to touch anything, as if rely virtual projections.
As soon as Batman found he could speak, he had no intention of wasting words and said directly, "No one should fire a shot."
"What do you an?" Bruce asked, arms folded.
"This guy's chest has been shot twice," Batman said, "One hit the lungs, the other the heart."
"Were they fatal?"
"It's hard to tell," Batman said. "Theoretically, it should be imdiate death, but this doesn't explain why the corpse is in this state. So we can assu these two bullets that should have been fatal didn't kill him, and firing now would likely be futile."
"I agree," Bruce nodded. "Did you listen to the task description? It said subdue, not kill, aning he might be impossible to kill."
"It's not that he can't be killed," Joker suddenly interjected, looking down at the corpse and saying, "Rather, there's sothing on him I can feel."
Pale Knight turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow but still saying, "If there are bizarre things in this world, then this peculiar corpse in front of us would surely be the best vessel for them. We can destroy the body but not the weirdness within it."
"To know how to subdue him, we must first understand how he ca to be like this," Shiller had to say. He was a person with relatively conservative strategic thinking, believing that any action without clarifying the truth was a very risky move.
"How do you think the corpse got like this, PhD?"
Pri Universe Batman asked, turning to Shiller.
Shiller stepped slowly toward the corpse, circled it, and then shook his head, saying, "Sorry, my abilities have been sealed."
Pri Universe Batman's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You an the Psychoanalysis thod?"
"The thing supporting the Psychoanalysis thod," Shiller looked back at him and said, "You know my analysis thod is different from others. Perhaps now is not the ti."
"My intellect isn't sharp enough either," Batman said. "I can only think of one thing at a ti; thinking of more gets confusing."
"How many Intelligence Points do you have?"
"I added as many points as possible, but it's still only eight."
Shiller nodded in understanding; Batman's profession as a hunter ant that intelligence wasn't likely high in his initial attributes; otherwise, he would have gone to a prestigious university and not have to rely on hunting for a living.
"Skill Points," Greed suddenly said. "The reward for winning the battle is Skill Points, aning we can activate skills, perhaps needing to reacquire our original skills with Skill Points."
Everyone nodded; they thought the sa. This was obviously a high-difficulty original instance, where initial restrictions were only natural.
"The cuts are extrely smooth, almost impossible," Bruce said. "I don't think there's any weapon in this small village that could dismber a body like this. This must be the result of an anomaly."
Shiller glanced at the corpse and then at the window beside it. He seed to understand but still asked, "What do you think should be done to subdue him?"
Batman looked at everyone's positions and said, "I'm behind him now, in front of the door. I can try kicking him out, you cooperate to open the door, and we can kick him into the snow outside."
"You an..."
"I felt it at the door just now; the temperature outside must be around minus 20 degrees Celsius. A human body would quickly be frozen stiff at such temperatures, greatly limiting his movent."
"But if this doesn't count as subduing, won't we have to go out and fight him?" Pale Knight objected, "The clothes we wear are not thick, and without a heat source, we might not last even a few minutes."
"If he doesn't go down for a long ti, I'll try giving him a shot," Pri Universe Batman said. "The shotgun packs a punch; even if it doesn't kill him, it can force him back a few steps, and you can move the bookshelf over to pin him down when he approaches the door."
Then they discussed further, assigned roles, with Pri Universe Batman playing the main combat role, responsible for kicking out the corpse, observing its reaction, and shooting promptly.
Shiller, being closest to the door, would open it at the right mont, allowing the corpse to be kicked out, while the others moved the bookshelf.
"Are we ready?" Transcendent asked.
"The battle begins," Pri Universe Batman said gravely.
In an instant, everyone's consciousness returned to their bodies, and the corpse wobbled to its feet.
Within the span of two or three seconds, everyone had adjusted enough for the Primary Universe Batman to step forward briskly and kick out.
Thump!
As the corpse stood up, its already bisected upper body fell to the left and right respectively, resulting in a mont of stiffness. Batman stood straight and kicked squarely at the body's connecting point.
The cabin was already small, and the corpse had been in the center of the living room, but it wasn't far from the door. With Batman's strength undoubtedly over 15, his kick sent the corpse flying out of the door and crashing heavily into the snow.
The others were not careless and hurriedly cleared a path for the Primary Universe Batman, who quickly walked to the door, raised a shotgun, and aid at the corpse.
The snow outside the door was falling heavily, and when Shiller had checked the snow's depth earlier, he found that aside from the barely visible path outside, the snow was at least up to an adult's thigh.
After the corpse was kicked into the snow, it was like falling into a lake, unable to climb out for quite so ti. At last, as it wobbled to its feet, the Primary Universe Batman tid his shot and "bang" — fired.
The corpse lay down again.
Blood spread out, staining a whole area of snow red. The corpse lay still for a long while, yet they did not hear a victory prompt.
The group looked at one another bewildered, as the weak voice of the Transcendent ca through.
"You kicked him too far away, we can't collect clues now."
"What?" the Primary Universe Batman asked.
"That, have you noticed the na of this main task?" The Transcendent sounded quite conflicted.
"The na?" The Primary Universe Batman finally reacted, repeating the main task's na, "The detective will die?"
"Does that an the detective isn't dead yet?!" Bruce raised his voice and said, "You're telling this thing isn't dead yet?!"
"It seems not really dead." Shiller spoke up, "Do you rember the opening monologue saying he was about to die? That might an he hasn't died."
"So, what now?"
Everyone looked at each other, at their wits' end, as the critical task object had been kicked away at the beginning, preventing clues from being triggered. Where could they even begin to make sense of it?
"Quick, quick, quick, bring him back!" The Primary Universe Batman hurried out the door, followed by Greed and Late-Night Snack, who were dressed more warmly. They went out to retrieve the body.
Once they placed the body back in the center of the living room, Shiller thought he heard sothing. He gestured for everyone to move back and leaned in to listen closely.
"He ca with the heavy snow... He lingers outside the window... He never stops walking... Until, like the God of Death, he descends..."
"Victory in battle, total rounds used: 1, distributing rewards now."
Shiller's vision blurred again, and a dense list of options appeared before his eyes.
"What is this?" Shiller asked.
"Skill." The Transcendent answered, "Look at that number in the top right corner. It proves you now have one skill point. You can invest this skill point into any skill and equip that skill in your skill slot."
Shiller scrolled down the list and saw a vast number of skills, covering all aspects, but even scrolling to the bottom, he did not find the skill he was looking for.
"No psychology?"
"Sorry, that is a professional skill. There's nothing in your character setting that says you know psychology, so you can't select it."
Shiller seed to understand and said, "So, Bruce can select it?"
"Yes, he can."
"How are you going to let him learn psychology?"
"We will directly transfer the theoretical knowledge into his brain."
"And then?"
"Er, skills have levels. Level 1 and second level only need one skill point, Level 3 needs two points. If you only select Level 1, that ans you only have the theoretical knowledge."
"Do you have the Psychoanalysis thod?"
"Yes."
"How are you going to let him learn the highest level of psychoanalysis?" Shiller was persistent.
"Er, can we skip this question?"
"What do you think?"
The Transcendent was silent for a long ti before speaking: "We duplicated your skill."
"What?"
"We duplicated your psychoanalytic thod."
Shiller was stunned, but he persisted, "How are you going to let Bruce understand this thod?"
"We can't make him truly understand it, but we can make him think he understands." The Transcendent explained," I'm the organizer, of course, I have the correct answers. I just need to transfer them into his brain in the form you saw."
"...The form I saw?" Shiller repeated.
He imdiately opened his mouth to Bruce, "Don't choose psychoanalysis!"
But he was muted, and in the frozen state of ti, he couldn't even make lip movents.
When the skill selection ended and he saw Bruce's triumphant smile, Shiller knew for sure that he had definitely chosen it.
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