Chapter 3207: The Detective is Dying (21)

Another piece of evidence that made Shiller feel his speculation was correct was that the "Wanderer" had never attacked anyone directly.

If you count the corpses standing up and clawing at the air a couple of times as attacking, then the creature didn't have the ability to kill three people in a row, especially since the gestures made by the corpses weren't very effective, and no one was injured.

Thus, it was worth discussing exactly how the three victims inside the cabin had died.

At that moment, Shiller thought, although it seemed like they saw each other at the same time, did they actually arrive at the same time?

Is it also possible that someone had arrived at the cabin before the others and did something, and then acted like they had just arrived when the others came?

The key was whether their arrival method was really like in the game, where they just appeared out of nowhere, or if it was like in the cutscenes, where the System controlled a person walking into a place.

If it was the latter, then it completely left time for the person who arrived early to prepare, and everything he saw after opening his eyes could be a setup by others.

Too many thoughts wandered through Shiller's mind. He picked out doubtful points in every event he experienced, feeling like there were many dubious aspects in every incident, yet he was unable to grasp any particularly strong evidence.

Shiller turned his head and pondered from the perspective of motivation.

If this was really just a very ordinary small village, then whether the people here were dead or alive probably wouldn't matter to anyone. Some people, when making up their own story backgrounds, would surely add some extraordinary elements to the village to make their motives seem more rational.

For instance, perhaps it had once been a gathering place for Heresy, had experienced some kind of chemical leak event, or certain landmark buildings had mysterious symbols, and so on.

In that case, they could claim their purpose was to investigate these events, and that would make their stories plausible.

And since they didn't know what stories the others had made up, it was possible that all these anomalies piled up on top of one another.

Shiller remembered that the intro cutscene was played first, then they started to select attribute points and compile their stories, which means that the one thing their stories couldn't affect was the information in the intro cutscene, since it had been shown to everyone; it wouldn't be good to contradict that.

The intro gave only a few bits of information: someone was a Detective who had come to this small village to investigate the "Wanderer", and indeed a "Wanderer" had appeared.

This information was pitifully scant, meaning that the story compilers had been left with a vast amount of creative leeway.

How did the "Wanderer" appear? When was its first sighting? What research had the human race conducted on the "Wanderer"? What was the attitude of the villagers towards it?

All these were unknowns and were elements that could be made up; without even thinking hard, Shiller could come up with several ways to integrate this information into his own story background.

Batman and Greed couldn't possibly have failed to think of this.

Therefore, whether in the diary or Madeline's research notes, the introductions might not have been the work of the Transcendent; they were very likely someone else's fabricated settings from the scene.

Including the entire process of disaster unfolding, such as the missing goats, the family that went mad after drinking the goat soup, the invitation for the detective to come here, and so on, might all be parts of someone's backstory.

So, what was the purpose behind all these settings?

Even though Shiller had not properly formulated his own background story, he could guess the attitude of the Transcendent: you could make up whatever you wanted, as long as you could justify it convincingly; the key was being self-consistent.

For many people, this was actually very difficult; since storytelling is, in a sense, lying, and those who aren't good at lying often aren't good at making up stories either—most writers are natural-born liars.

For example, if you make a character incredibly strong but in the story, he can't even kick down a door, this is a clear contradiction between character design and performance. To create a plausible and consistent story, such logical inconsistencies cannot occur.

If Greed did make up a story about Immortal Cultivation, he would need to explain in detail what exactly that was all about.

If there are Cultivators in this world, how could the anomaly run rampant? Why would the human government turn a blind eye? These are the questions he needs to answer. To cover up this lie, he would need to make up more lies, crafting several stories outside of his original one.

In the end, it might escalate to the point where he'd have to invent an entire process of human history evolving. Let's not even consider whether he could make it up or not, as presumably there was a time limit to giving stories to the Transcendent. Even just outlining a rough timeline, the time probably wouldn't suffice, which in turn limits some overly outrageous settings.

And the diaries and Madeline's research notes could be patches someone stitched to embellish their own character design, supplementing who they are and what kind of world this is.

Shiller first assumed that his line of reasoning was correct—then, whose patches could the information in these two notebooks be?

The process of the disaster's outbreak seemed to serve as a complement to the background story, that is, the ordeal faced by this small village, but it appeared somewhat verbose, mixed with too much personal emotion.

For instance, I can convey that the diary's owner loved fishing, was unattractive, and not a crowd-pleaser, but in times of crisis, the villagers thought of him first. He was compassionate yet somewhat pitiable, able to summon a detective, indicating a story from the past.

Shiller sketched a mental picture of a stoic yet warm-hearted, independent, and free man with an extraordinary past as soon as he laid eyes on the diary.

He remembered very clearly that after reading the diary, his first impression was that this guy could be a retired clergyman, who once had his heyday in a big city.

Such character development is undoubtedly captivating. It's the kind of local that would survive at least 20 minutes in a disaster movie; when he dies, he uses his legendary experiences to encourage the Protagonist or to impart some wisdom.

Thus, the diary might seem to narrate a disaster, but in actuality, it was crafted to shape a character.

If Shiller's deduction was right, then definitely, someone was using stock information to gild themselves.

And among all his teammates' identities, only the Hunter played by Batman fit the image of this rugged individual.

Shiller also remembered instantly noticing beast skins obtained from hunting all over the cabin. If the diary owner was just a fisherman, surely those skins couldn't have been purchased from Amazon, could they?

Was the Hunter played by the Primary Universe Batman actually the owner of the diary?

Continuing to ponder, it seemed like the notebook in Madeline's hands, which looked like the result of her research, thoroughly introduced the so-called oddities, seemingly providing a complete setting for the anomalies.

But it also recounted Madeline's family background and the past tragedies they encountered.

Other than Bruce, would anyone really include their own family history in an academic paper?

Shiller thought that if it were him, opening his notebook each day only to be confronted with his own harrowing past, would he still be in the mood for research?

Only an enemy would spread your most horrifying history all around, right?

So, looking at it this way, the part concerning Madeline's history could also likely be an introduction to someone's role, providing a motive for their presence here.

In that past calamity, nearly all of Madeline's family perished, leaving only her and her youngest sister alive.

Had she been the only survivor, it would have been a classic Protagonist's script, but it also mentioned that her youngest sister lived; this clue shouldn't be useless.

Even though the notebook didn't seriously recount the story of Madeline's family, it was reasonable to infer that she and her sister would have been inseparable, with a deep affection for one another.

The elder sister came to this remote village for research, and with heavy snows closing the paths, she likely had been missing for days; naturally, her sister would come looking for her.

Shiller's teammates had no females, but it was very possible that one of them had some connection to this sister, possibly her boyfriend or someone she had hired to find her sister.

Based on Madeline's age, Bruce was the most likely person; although he liked to appear younger, he was indeed the youngest here. The Pale Knight was also a possibility; Shiller didn't know his exact age, but he seemed young enough and had a rather respectable job.

In that case, the motives for 2-3 individuals became more apparent.

In line with the Primary Universe Batman's usual style, he undoubtedly intended to save the village. So he set himself up as a tough local man, an identity most fitting to justifiably rescue the village.

Bruce or the Pale Knight might be here to find Madeline, but it didn't rule out the possibility that they knew of Madeline's certain demise and wished to carry on her legacy and avenge her family.

The remaining identities and motives were still unclear, especially Greed; Shiller was sure he was up to no good and definitely not planning anything benevolent. If he claimed to be a spoiled rich kid, no joke, he might have come here for business or political maneuvering, aiming to eliminate adversaries.

The Painter played by Joker was also elusive; such an identity seemed a bit of a reclusive master, making one wonder why he would come here.

And then there was the Policeman played by Night Owl. Jeff and Night Owl had just confronted each other head-on, clearly not recognizing each other, suggesting that one or both of them must be from elsewhere.

But since Jeff had just remarked that they were the outsiders, it meant that he was local, leading to the conclusion that Night Owl was not a local policeman, at least not the sheriff of this village.

At this thought, Shiller suddenly remembered—if the Hunter played by the Primary Universe Batman was a local, why hadn't Jeff recognized him?

Oh, wait, Shiller put down the bread he was holding, turned his head toward the Primary Universe Batman lying there; he was not lying face up but prone, and his face was towards the wall. Maybe Jeff hadn't failed to recognize him, he simply hadn't seen his face.

Suppose the Hunter played by the Primary Universe Batman indeed intended to be the village's heroic savior, why then was he here half-dead? Was it a natural disaster or man-made calamity?

Shiller looked up involuntarily in the direction of Greed.