Days as a Spiritual Mentor in American Comics

Battleworld, the atmosphere in the conference room was very serious.

This is where game players come when they log off, and after a player exits the game, they first arrive in this hall, where they can choose to watch the remaining content of the game or simply leave.

The vast majority choose to stay; although they can no longer interfere with the content of the game, they can review the gameplay here.

As the end credits animation finished, the entire game was declared over, and the last two survivors also arrived in the conference room.

Normally, only game players should be able to come to this meeting room, but today's game was special, involving too many people. After Bruce and Arrogant exited the game, they saw a group of people sitting around the central roundtable.

And all of them were looking at them with hostility.

Bruce and Arrogant walked to their seats and sat down, aside from the game players such as Primary Universe Batman, the Pale Knight, Joker, Night Owl, and Greed, there were also agents, the Transcendent, Nya in her Brand skin, Constantine, Lucifer, and the God of Stories.

Everyone silently looked at each other for a minute.

"How on earth did things turn out like this?" Transcendent spoke up: "But even though it's become like this, I still have to say, the script I prepared is quite different from the storyline that you guys played out."

"I admit that I am partly responsible," the God of Stories said. "I thought it would be more challenging and interesting to let each person create a story and then I would link them all together. Transcendent adopted my suggestion, which may have partially led to the subsequent chaos."

"It's time to reveal the secrets, my friends!" Greed was the first to stand up, slapping the table hard: "I really don't know what I have done to deserve playing the same game with you bunch of Riddlers! Now! Tell me what stories you've all made up!"

"My story was quite conservative," Arrogant preempted, "I was a clergyman who once worked in the Holy City, then was sent to the local area, and later, for some reasons, I no longer worked for the Church but became an independent investigator."

"Some reasons? What reasons?"

"My personal setting couldn't handle complicated interpersonal relationships," Shiller said, "Simply put, I was defeated in the political struggle and had to return home in retirement."

"That's so boring," Brand commented, "But it does seem like your style."

"I don't understand these kinds of games very well," Arrogant shook his head, "So I spent a lot of time asking about the basic rules. I didn't expect the background story to have such a deep impact, so I just made one up casually, I promise I haven't hidden anything."

Others looked at Transcendent.

Transcendent nodded and said, "Yes, his background story is the most concise among you, basically not involving any special elements."

"But later on, you turned into something completely different," Greed pointed out.

"That's where you're wrong, I actually haven't changed much," Transcendent said, "Even if it followed Lodoff's life trajectory from the novel, it really hasn't deviated too much. There might be some discrepancies in the details, but that's the inevitable result of story integration."

"I can barely accept that," Arrogant said, "I set my reason for coming here as wanting one last fight."

"One last fight for what?"

"To find evidence of my opposing faction's wrongdoings. Even if I can't make it back to the core of power, I want to teach them a lesson."

"That also fits your pettiness very well," Brand evaluated.

"What about the approach? What did you do?"

"In fact, I did nothing; I was the last one to arrive," Arrogant turned to Transcendent and said, "I was going to ask you, why did we arrive in the game at different times?"

"Because you spent different amounts of time with me," Transcendent began to explain, "You all came to me at the same time to start setting up your characters, whoever finished first, went out first."

"But you didn't tell me about this concept of time."

"This was to add a certain randomness to the game," Transcendent explained, "Aside from you, I didn't tell anyone else, because if I let you know, then the suspense later on wouldn't exist."

Arrogant thought for a moment and could understand, but he still asked, "Is this also a new setting for you guys?"

Everyone else nodded, Greed too said, "I've played dice-based games before with more stringent rules, but they were also different, this is the first time I've encountered a game where you could design your own background story."

"So you came out first."

"Because I'm really good at making up stories," Greed shrugged, "The moment he told me the rules, I knew roughly what it was about, so it only took me two or three minutes to set up my character, that's part of my strength."

Others nodded; although it seemed a bit unfair, being able to set up a stronger and more reasonable background story for oneself in a shorter time was indeed part of one's strength, and the advantage gained from it was not considered unfair.

"So you're saying that you made up the simplest story, but took the longest time," Greed looked at Arrogant, not hiding his sarcastic intent, and laughed very cheerfully.

"I've said it, I spent most of my time asking about the rules," Arrogant was not giving in, he said, "Wouldn't you be cautious and ask about the rules when playing this kind of game for the first time?"

Transcendent hesitated to speak.

Arrogant looked at him until Transcendent finally said, "Greed's first time playing this kind of game was also hosted by me, you don't want to know what he did."

Arrogant narrowed his eyes and said, "Let's hear it."

"It was an ordinary, strange case investigation side quest."

"And then?"

"He brought forward the timing of the First World War."

Lucifer remained silent, merely clapping non-stop.

Arrogant wasn't surprised at all, Greed was like that.

"Alright, who's next?" Arrogant looked toward the others.

"Let me do it." the pale knight said: "My backstory should be the second simplest, there's nothing too complicated or outlandish about it."

"I am a lawyer from a big city who graduated from the law school of a prestigious university. Afterwards, I always worked in renowned law firms, and my professional capabilities were quite good, up until I got involved in a case concerning bizarre events."

"At that time, I had no understanding of bizarre events and made a serious error in the case, which led to my reputation taking a huge hit, and I was dismissed by the famous law firm."

"You never mentioned that before." Bruce frowned and said.

"That's reasonable because if I wanted to gain a social advantage upon our first meeting, I naturally would embellish my own status. Besides, I wasn't exaggerating; my career history is all true."

"Alright, continue."

"After I was dismissed by the renowned law firm, no big law firms would hire me, so I could only work at smaller law offices, but the salary there wasn't high, nowhere near enough to pay off my student loans. Therefore, I started taking on some private cases."

"Through these cases, I gradually came to understand some of the knowledge about bizarre events that I previously didn't know, and then I realized that the case that caused me to lose my job was not as simple as it had seemed."

"Are you saying it wasn't your error?"

"I certainly was brash and careless, not rigorous enough, but more so because someone was covering up the truth, they wanted the public to believe the truth was something else."

"Who?"

"The Church."

"At that time did you know the Church actually was..."

"No, I didn't know, it was just a classic conspiracy theory." the pale knight shook his head: "The introduction in the beginning doesn't provide much information, nor do I know what specific powers exist in this world, but the Transcendent told me it's similar to my own universe, and with the presence of monsters in this world, it naturally led me to think of religion."

"That does make sense." Arrogant nodded and said: "We all create an enemy in our own stories, which adds conflict to our backstories and also explains the motivation for coming here."

"Even if I were clergy of the Church, I would set my enemy as another faction within the Church, it just shows how deeply ingrained conspiracy theories are in people's minds."

Despite the widespread education of religion in Europe and America, precisely because of this, many heretical individuals engage in religious conspiracy theories, such as the one about alien spacecraft buried beneath the Vatican.

However, the conspiracy theories of Shiller and the pale knight are not based on these rebellious views. Most people who have received an elite education actually understand history, but history of Catholicism is quite outrageous, if only they were a bit more restrained, they might not have become the classic villains in the minds of most people with historical knowledge.

"Did you not design the details of the case?" Greed asked.

The pale knight shook his head: "Although the Transcendent didn't inform me of any time constraints, instinctively I felt I shouldn't take too long, and designing the details of the case would take far too long, which wouldn't be worth it."

"What was your motive again?" Bruce asked.

"To uncover the truth behind the case from back then." the pale knight said: "After all, that case caused me to fall from grace and left me impoverished. Naturally, I wanted to find the truth, not only to clear my own name but also to improve my living conditions."

"Let me talk about mine." Batman said: "Actually, I didn't set up anything too complicated, I was born into a family of hunters, and during my childhood, I would survive in the wilderness alone with my parents, developing a strong interest in wilderness survival."

"After growing up, I joined the military and even became an instructor in the special forces because of my good experience in jungle survival. However, later on, one of my students died in a bizarre event, and I was held accountable for failing to rescue him in time."

"After retiring from the special forces, I didn't immediately return to my hometown but instead went to visit the family of this student, which is the Detective Doug who appeared at the beginning."

"I knew you would do that." Bruce said: "Establish a deep connection with the only character from the introduction."

"Of course, this brings many advantages." Batman said: "I think we all agree that there's too little information in the introduction, so naturally, we should use it as effectively as possible."

"Did you live with Doug for a while?"

"Yes, I used my abilities to help him solve some problems and we established a good friendship, but ultimately, I still returned to my hometown."

"Why?"

"Doug is a very impressive detective, to be precise, he is one of the first group of people who began to investigate the true nature behind bizarre phenomena."

"Is this the setting you gave him?"

"Yes, I asked the Transcendent if I could add some settings to Doug, and he said that I could."

"Alright, continue with what you were saying."

"When he began to pursue the truth, tracing to its source, he uncovered some information about Faralines."