"Did the chanism stop?" Charles panted, "It seems our plan worked. I never thought we’d cooperate so seamlessly with a group of strangers..."
"It doesn’t seem like a success," Erik, clearly more adept in chanical engineering, replied. He looked down at the support rod below. Despite the lack of visible gaps between the tal rod and the floor and nothing seemingly out of place, Erik relied on the earlier tactile feedback to sense sothing was amiss with the normal clearance process.
In theory, if the balance had been lifted and supported the ceiling, the design should have a latch that clicks into place at a certain height. But Erik felt no such locking vibration. Instead, the pillar just wobbled for a while and then abruptly stopped. This did not seem like the process of a properly functioning chanism but rather like sothing had failed.
Charles had already sprawled on the ground. He flipped over and lay on his back, looking at the steel needles perilously close to his face, saying, "Whatever the case, we’ve passed the level. Good heavens, another minute and I wouldn’t have made it."
"You need to exercise more." Though Erik said this, he too was drenched in sweat and panting heavily. He turned over to lie down and took the precious opportunity to rest.
"What do you think would happen if soone really broke the chanism?" Erik asked.
Charles pondered, then said, "I’ve suspected that there must be staff in this dungeon chamber. Maybe there are several employee passages we can’t see, and so employee of an evil tech company is wandering those passages, debugging equipnt and monitoring us. Now that the chanism is broken, they might be trying to fix it."
"And when it’s fixed, they’ll make us go through it again?" Erik was on the verge of losing his temper. "That’s completely against the rules!"
"It was other players who broke the rules first," Charles shrugged, "though I think this ga never really had rules. They build dungeons, we cause havoc; everyone does their best. When designing chanisms, they should anticipate all possible ways for it to be broken. Otherwise, it’s just bad design on their part."
"Let’s hope they don’t cheat," Erik said, "I haven’t got the strength to go again."
"No, don’t let lie down, Clark," Batman drew a deep breath. "If I lie down now, I might not have the strength to get back up."
"But we’ve already passed, we can rest now."
"Far from it," Batman remained dour. "The recent situation didn’t seem like the normal passage of a level; it might be a chanism soone broke. The level designer might want to repair the chanism and make us go again."
"How can that be fair!" Superman fud. "Their chanism’s quality is flawed, lacking safety precautions, and it gets broken—why should we foot the bill?"
"It depends if this instance has a background story," Batman said, half-kneeling on the ground, his voice firm. "If it’s truly operated by so human experintation company, you can’t expect them to have moral boundaries."
"But isn’t the plot also created by the Dojo Administrator? Would they really design such inhumane scenarios?"
"Not many administrators possess humanity," Batman hit the nail on the head. "I suspect there’s at least two Jokers, three Shillers, maybe even a few others from Arkham Asylum among them."
"I told you picking a high-level instance was self-inflicted pain!" Superman wailed. "What good can these madn design?"
"I must admit, the level design is rather good. The guidance is clear, the objectives are distinct, and there’s a degree of openness, challenging both the player’s ntal and physical strength. Honestly, I’d give it a seven," Batman appraised.
"You’re insane!" Superman blurted out. But then, he relented, feeling remorseful, and said, "Sorry, I didn’t an it that way, but whenever you calmly crack jokes while battered and bruised, it always reminds of that piece of green gum."
"When I’m not in great shape, I need sothing to distract ," Batman remarked, "Let’s speculate about the plot. The mastermind who brought us here likely didn’t do so just for us to break his chanisms."
"I thought about that," Superman interjected, "Do you think, like in Saw, they brought us here to teach us a lesson, or as so form of punishnt?"
"If we each had assigned roles, that would hold true. But the instance hasn’t imposed any such constraints on us. Why do you think I keep calling you by na, Clark?"
"Uh, I thought you were in a good mood," Superman said. "When you’re in a good mood, you call by na instead of just ’Superman’."
"Hmm, perhaps it’s a habit," Batman admitted. "But the main reason is that I wanted to see if there were any identity restrictions in this instance. So far, it seems there aren’t. Nor have we received any information about our respective backgrounds, so the punishnt theory doesn’t stand."
"Clark, if there’s any aspect of that deserves punishnt... then what about you? I can’t imagine what excuse Jigsaw would have to punish soone like you. You love life, you’re willing to help others, smart, competent, kind-hearted, and unpretentious. If soone like you gets captured by Jigsaw, then he truly is a terrorist."
"Oh, Batman, you’re making blush with all these complints," Superman smiled shyly. "But in my eyes, he also has no reason to capture you, Batman. You’ve achieved feats no ordinary person could, nearly saving Gotham. What is there about you to condemn?"
Batman, however, paused for a mont. Slowly, he shifted to support himself with the other leg. Superman noticed sothing was on Batman’s mind and asked, "What’s wrong, Bruce? Is there sothing you can’t share with ?"
"I think there’s so reason to it." Batman glanced at Superman, but quickly looked away. "I have to admit, Clark, I haven’t been completely honest with my friends. I have my suspicions, and I am guarded. If he asks about this, I really have nothing to say."
"Oh." Superman showed a helpless expression, "Look at who your friends are. An alien big guy, a demigod from Mount Olympus, a Green Interstellar Police, a Mars Mind Reader, a Super chanical Hacker, the King of Atlantis... And you, you’re just a volunteer police with a human physique. If you’re not guarded against them at all, that would only prove you’re a fool."
"From my own perspective, I also think it’s necessary. I’m not arrogant enough to think I’m invincible. If one day soone controls to destroy the Earth, then the defensive asures you have taken could save the Earth, and also save . Because if I really were controlled and destroyed the Earth, I’m afraid I couldn’t forgive myself."
Superman turned sideways and said to Batman, "Believe it or not, Batman, everyone in the Justice League knows this – we can live so carefree on Earth, among ordinary people, all thanks to you being the last insurance. Otherwise, given how often Earth is in crisis, I definitely wouldn’t dare live in the Solar System; it’d be too easy to beco a weapon in the hands of those invading Earth."
Batman fell silent, as usual, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, like he was engaging in a silent protest. But Superman evidently likes to pursue an emotional victory relentlessly.
"You don’t want to face this because you always feel like no one can understand you..."
"No." Batman suddenly spoke up, "I just feel that if you all are so understanding, I owe you even more."
Batman wasn’t sure if this was the first ti he talked about being indebted in front of Superman. He didn’t like this topic, but if he didn’t say it, it would again be Superman’s turn to speak.
He thought Superman might say sothing like, "You don’t owe us," but unexpectedly Superman said, "Then let’s owe each other. We feel we owe you, and you feel you owe us; this way, the Justice League will never disband."
Batman seed greatly shocked. He was silent for over ten seconds before he asked, "Who taught you that?"
"Bruce, you still don’t believe that to understand you, I’ve really made every effort, even attempted to understand how the Madn of Gotham get along. You all don’t like loving relationships at all. You owe each other, or you hurt each other, or both. If you’re more accustod to that, then I accept."
"No, no, Clark." When Batman lost so control, his voice beca deeper, "You’re Superman, you’re not a Madman from Gotham."
"But you just prefer to invest more energy in them." Superman pointed out sharply, "I’m willing to mix so morbid elents into our relationship, it doesn’t an I’ll beco evil because of it. I’m just accommodating a friend’s preference. That’s precisely a manifestation of my love."
Batman finally showed a pained expression. He used his hand to prop himself up, slowly turning onto his side. Superman was surprised and hurriedly reached out to support him, saying, "Didn’t you say that if you lie down you might not be able to get up again? Bruce, stay conscious, are you okay?"
"I’m not okay," Batman said, "but it’s probably not because of excessive blood loss, Clark. This chanism broke down at such a bad ti."
"Loki! Loki!" Thor directly hugged his brother. The mont the chanism stopped, Loki collapsed imdiately. Based on Thor’s understanding of Loki, he was definitely exhausted.
In fact, the fact that Loki could hold on until now had already exceeded Thor’s expectations. Knowing that he was injured and very sensitive to pain, which is very draining, Thor thought he wouldn’t hold on for long, but the two of them had at least persisted for over ten minutes, which was already far beyond expectations.
Thor turned Loki over to check his condition. Fortunately, Loki was conscious, just exhausted and unable to move. He laid Loki flat on the ground to let him rest.
"I got it." Loki murmured, "This is also part of the challenge."
"What?"
"When people are... tired and in pain, they are more likely to express their... emotions, and also... harder to control their emotions." Loki spoke laboriously, gasping as he spoke for a long ti. "They beco ntally excited... have a stronger desire to confide..."
Indeed, Thor’s heart was still pounding. That was a side effect of excessive exertion. He felt very clear-headed, even though he was very tired, he didn’t want to sleep at all and wanted to chat more with Loki.
"But is there any harm in this?" Thor asked.
"For us, there’s no harm," Loki said, "because between us, there’s no longer any conflict. Except for the tis you left , or put yourself in danger, or never listened to ..."
"Okay, okay, Loki." Thor wiped his face and said, "If you go on like this, the conflicts in other teams probably won’t be as nurous as ours."
"Alright. Anyway, if their relationship isn’t good enough, or it is good, but there are so deep-seated conflicts, it’s very easy for them to erupt at this ti. Even if not, rely pouring out their hearts, the emotional fluctuations are very taxing. Even a lot of reckless words spoken at such tis may linger in one’s mind, affecting one’s rationality."
"That’s why I say, you really don’t need to work hard to fix it." Greed said, folding his arms and looking at Stark. "On the surface, it’s the chanism that’s broken, and we have to pause the process, but in fact, it’s another test of their emotions. Look, even Batman almost got caught, didn’t he?"
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