Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Shiller regretted it, he really shouldn't have looked.

Before this, Nyarla kept hinting at him to read this novel, and he felt something was off, only thinking at the time that Nyarla had tampered with the book, and a glance would result in a complete loss of mental health value.

At that time, Shiller thought that Nyarla would not resort to such despicable means, just like Constantine said, every time Nyarla toys with the human race, he follows a subtle rule of echo, filled with dark humor.

He rarely, like other Outer Gods, directly crams a load of knowledge into someone's mind, causing their brain to burst. The only one that indiscriminately attacks is the division Night Demon, whose summoning conditions are extremely harsh; not to mention how difficult it is to find a perfect tetrahedron with three-eights facet, how many places in this world can be found that are completely devoid of any light?

This proves that Nyarla is not a physical damage type player, his forte is indeed mental attack.

Great, he succeeded, Shiller thought, he successfully attacked himself with this crap written by Constantine.

Who can tell him! Why is it Bruce again! Why is it the mentor-disciple dynamic again! Why is it this kind of mutual torment play again!

Shiller really wanted to grab Constantine by the collar and ask him if he was sober.

But after careful thought, Constantine certainly didn't know that Arrogant would pull him over halfway, probably thinking that the last to see this novel would still be Bruce and Arrogant, these two people synthesizing this story without any restraint, mainly unveiling a double-edged revelation of dark history.

But sorry, an agent who can fight in Congress and work at the grassroots, really can't endure the bitterness of being Bruce's teacher.

The agent slipped away.

Shiller's expression was dull for a moment, and when his consciousness returned, he lightly lifted his eyelids to survey his surroundings; after all, he was debating game plot with Batman a second ago and the next second, he was in another room, he needed some time to adjust.

Once he looked up, he saw Bruce's blue eyes.

Bruce also saw him, and at that instant, realized, oh no.

Silently, Bruce came out from behind the wheelchair where the Pope sat, seated himself in front of the table, and pretended to casually reach for the book in front of Shiller.

Just as his fingertips touched the cover, another hand also landed on the book.

Arrogant lowered his eyelids, looking at the gold-stamped title on the cover, spoke up: "I was just discussing with someone else about the typical behavior of cultists embedded in bizarre incidents; we think the Pope was deceived by someone, but the deceivers are not necessarily those indescribable entities, or rather, not only them."

"Yes," said Bruce nonchalantly withdrawing his hand, "Blind, foolish men seldom respond to believers' requests, but indeed some do pay attention to the human race, communicating with these entities is not complicated, you only need to recite a spell."

"It seems you've researched this quite a bit," Shiller glanced at the Pope, and as Bruce's gaze shifted, tried to reach for the book again but Shiller quickly picked up the novel.

"I happened to get this novel, but it appears the contents are somehow related to us. Do you know this author named Constantine?"

"No, I don't know him," Bruce had to say.

"It seems like he might have learned about what happened here through some Mysterious Power. The last time I read this novel, his story was only half-written, I think it's time to see what the ending is."

"Maybe it's just his nonsense," Bruce said, "A junkie's ramblings hastily written, not to be taken seriously."

Shiller slightly frowned and said, "Really? I thought you would have a high regard for this novel."

"Uh, my literary appreciation is quite average."

"Well, don't rush." Shiller also walked to the other side of the table, sat down, and opened the book, saying, "Let's see what kind of full stop this crazy author wants to put on our story."

"We're doomed we're doomed we're doomed!!!" Bruce thought to himself, "Nyarla! Nyarla!! This is Arrogant, right?! Didn't you say I could add some scenes?! What do I do now!!"

"If you're willing to pay for the publication of this novel, I naturally provide you the right to modify the plot, but I never told you to fabricate history." Nyarla's tone was almost overflowing with laughter.

"You did it on purpose!" Bruce shouted, "You bastard, why would you bring up Miskatonic University in front of me! You are leading me on!"

"No, no, no, you misunderstood, I mentioned this university to every player I contacted, I had the God of Stories help me build the Massachusetts map, if you drive there now, indeed you can enter this university, this isn't simply coaxing empty talk."

"You..."

Bruce pounded the table in his mind, then said, "How did Arrogant come back?!"

"Could I really stop him?"

"You damn liar!" Bruce took a deep breath and said, "You knew this would happen! And you still laugh!"

Nyarla indeed was very happy, this was the most brilliant strategy he had come up with recently, after a long arrangement and waiting, he could finally reap the rewards.

Shiller had already flipped to the end.

His gaze momentarily paused on a few lines of text.

"Miskatonic University double major in Psychology and Sociology?" he repeated the content, then said, "The fastest graduate to obtain degrees in history?"

Shiller looked up at Bruce.

"Listen to me, I can explain, it wasn't my fault, it was Nyarlathotep who approached me and said..."

"It was he who actively sought me out." A dry and hoarse voice sounded within the room, Shiller followed the source of the voice, and saw a mouth on the Pope's head opening and closing.

"It was Matthew who summoned me. He proposed a deal with me. If I could grant him forbidden knowledge and help him graduate from Miskatonic University using it, he would spread this knowledge through novels, making my name known to more people."

Bruce turned his head and stared at the Pope, saying, "It was clearly you..."

"I have a receipt."

The Pope, already transformed, actually managed to lift his arm and pulled out a piece of paper from nowhere.

Shiller stood up, took the paper and saw, a very formal carbon copy cash receipt. The one in the Pope's hand was a carbon paper version, written on it was "Received $50,000 USD for first printing fees of the novel."

Bruce was shocked, he stood up and shouted at the Pope: "Nyarlathotep, do you still remember you are an Outer God? What's with the receipt??"

"Our signatures are on it," the Pope continued.

Shiller looked down and indeed there were two signatures at the bottom of the receipt, one was Matthew's and the other was Nyarlathotep's.

Just as Bruce was about to say something, Nyarlathotep continued, "I have a receipt for all his sacrifices to me."

After saying this, a pile of parchment dropped from the sky, Shiller casually picked one up and saw, apart from the interpretive text and symbols, there were the names of Nyarlathotep and Matthew.

"The novel I gave you, you must have already delivered it to Old Silterk, right?" the dry voice continued: "He suffered heavy losses from the Church, and won't miss the opportunity to tarnish the Church and unveil the truth; the novel might soon be published."

Bruce opened his mouth and said, "Yes, so what? Isn't that doing a good deed?"

"Is proclaiming your fake degree to the world also considered a good deed?"

"Nya, what's wrong with you? Don't you remember whose side you are on?!" Bruce angrily said: "You are the Outer God I summoned, I am the Believer who summoned you, and he is the Spoiler who's here to ruin our plans! You complaining to him, does that make any sense?!"

"So, you graduated from Miskatonic University using forbidden knowledge given by the Outer God you summoned?" Shiller asked.

"He didn't graduate, if he had, it would not be considered forgery," the Pope interjected: "He only wrote the degree into this novel. Once the novel is published, everyone will know he is a wrongly accused genius, allowing him to smoothly take over the remaining power of the Church."

Shiller frowned and looked at the ending part of the novel.

"...After a confrontation, Matthew finally realized that his teacher Lodoff was not wrongly accused, he had been expelled from the Church for summoning an Evil God.

Matthew felt that the studies he underwent at Miskatonic University were not wasted, he recognized the blasphemous symbols, undeniable evidence, and despite his reluctance to believe, he had to admit that his teacher had become a puppet of the Evil God..."

Shiller pondered briefly then commented, "Not a bad twist."

Previously, almost all content was narrated from Lodoff's perspective, even from Lodoff's point of view, Matthew was constantly studying forbidden knowledge and even found spells to sacrifice to Nyarlathotep, acting very much like a cultist, easily leading readers to assume Matthew is the antagonist.

Switching abruptly to Matthew's perspective in the end, readers can then discover that Matthew had been studying forbidden knowledge simply because he thought his former teacher was wrongly accused and wanted to prove his innocence.

But it wasn't until the two confronted each other at the top of the lighthouse that Matthew found out that Lodoff was not wrongly accused, he was indeed the one who had summoned the Evil God.

And to speak of the specifics, Lodoff, once the finest aide in the Pope's personal guard, was expelled due to a case years ago, and his student Matthew had always believed his teacher was wrongly accused, thus he went to Miskatonic University to look for evidence.

Years later, the mentor and pupil reunited in Faralines, but after confronting each other, Matthew realized that Lodoff was not wrongly accused, he was indeed a cultist.

And he planned to kill the Pope and the Great Prophet here, pinning the blame and identity of a cultist onto Matthew's head.

But after a battle, Matthew defeated Lodoff and successfully left the place, bringing an end to the story of Faralines.

However, therein lies a fatal issue—Matthew is the one who left here alive and published the novel, but is the truth really as written in the novel?

Of course not, Nya even pulled out the receipts, all bearing Matthew's name, proving he is indeed the cultist.

But history is written by the victors, Matthew walked out alive, so the novel's ending is naturally as he dictates.

Thus, the moment Matthew leaves the lighthouse alive, the game immediately reaches a bad ending—the real cultist not only walks out alive but also pins all the former Church's wrongdoings onto another, while he himself could hold power outright, untarnished.

Nya revealing all this serves to let Shiller know, if Matthew isn't killed, the game is lost.

This indeed is an intriguing stratagem, Shiller thought.